Chapter 6

I thought that I would be able to sneak in unnoticed, but my luck isn't good enough for that. As soon as I had taken the first step up the stairs, a light flicked on in the living room, illuminating my entire family waiting for me with angry expressions. It was exactly like a movie scene where a teenager snuck out and their parents bust them as they sneak back in. Except, in this circumstance, I was a teeanger who had stayed out too late, saved another teenager from getting raped while also exposing my powers, and had tried to hide it all. Things were not looking up for me.

"Where were you?" Dad spoke first, "Do you know how worried we were?"

I let out a groan, turning and entering the same room as them. No point in running away from it now.

"I was out, and I'm sorry about not calling. I should've told you guys where I was. But would you guys really have reacted any differently if I had?" I said, giving them a sheepish smile.

Jax was literally steaming. Like, his skin was probably at almost 150°F already. He's always been a bit of a hothead when it came to my safety.

"Blaire, I need an explanation now. Before I burn the house down," he stated calmly, clearly only just keeping his powers in check.

When Jax is having trouble controlling his powers, you know it's serious. That's why I immediately let my body sag in defeat.

"I saved a girl tonight," I muttered, barely above a whisper.

I was not looking forward to the chewing out I would get for exposing myself. But they couldn't be too mad, right? I saved a girl from that douche! That had to count from something...right?

"I'm sorry, what was that? You have to speak up, Blair," My mom said.

I could see in her face that she had heard me, but she was just looking for clarification. Or that she didn't want to believe me, and she wanted to make sure that I was really THAT stupid. Either was highly probable.

"I said, I saved a girl tonight!" I snapped. Might as well be confident in my words if the result is going to be the same.

My dad took a deep breath in, before letting it out very slowly. I could see that his phone in his hand was crushing under his strength. Usually, he could keep a handle on his powers since they aren't really connected to his emotions. Apparently, I was wrong in assuming that.

"How could you be this STUPID!? We've been over this so many times!" Jax screamed, finally letting it out.

I stared at him in open-mouth shock. Before he could see how much it affected me, though, I steeled my body over, expression cold as ice, "So much for twin reliability."

And I stormed upstairs, not even caring that I was leaving icy footprints in my wake. Let them see how angry I was, and not the hurt. How could they be so cavalier about a human being's life? I SAVED Claire, and they were punishing me for it. Nope. Not to this girl.

As soon as my door was closed and locked, I went straight to the window. I could not be in that house that night. The tension was too high, and I had too much steam to blow off.

And where did I always go to blow off steam? That's right, the forest. So that's where I went.

Just as I was heading in that direction, a thought struck me. Do I really want to run off alone?

What I needed in that moment was someone to sit and listen to my stress rant. I had really needed it for a long time, but I had held it back because there was nobody to talk to that wasn't involved in my stress. There still wasn't, but at least the person that came to mind wasn't a part of my family. That's a difference from all the other options.

I couldn't believe it, but I needed to find Kai.

"Oh, crap! You finally gave in! Yes! Go get him, girl!"

I rolled my eyes at my other half. She was never going to give it up, so I just sighed and started in the direction of town. I knew that Kai lived in the nicer, richer part of town, but that's it.

Once I got there, I let my senses take over. In other words, I let Khione out, but only partially. Even if I was mad at them, I agreed with my family members that I had caused enough trouble for one night.

Everyone lets off a different heat signature, if only with a minute difference, and luckily for me, if I focus I can find those different signatures. I wasn't going to repeat it, but I recognized Kai's immediately. It's not like I did it on purpose, it just came to me on instinct.

"You sure are stubborn..."

"You're in my head, remember? I can hear you!" I snarked back.

"Oh, I know!"

Once again, I found myself rolling my eyes in exasperation with Khione. We may be on good terms now, but she's still a pain in my head sometimes. Not my butt, my head. Her constant rambling gives me headaches!

We came up on a brightly-lit, three story house. It wasn't HUGE, but it was clear Kai's family had some money. There was a black, metal fence surrounding the property, but that isn't any trouble for someone for me. Soon enough, I was standing outside of what I assumed was his bedroom window. His heat signature was coming from inside there, but that's all I knew. I had created small pieces of ice to knock on the window. Just as I was prepping to create another ice pebble, a head popped out of what used to be the window. Kai had pushed the window open and now he was standing there holding his forehead from where I had just thrown a cube of ice at his face.

Not how I had planned it, but it worked.

"Brooklyn? What are you doing here? It's like, eleven!" he whisper-shouted, poking his head out again to stare at me in wonder.

"I wanted to hang out," I answered as nonchalantly as possible.

Kai looked skeptical, but nodded nonetheless. He turned around and went rummaging through his dresser for a shirt.

And that's when I realized that he had been shirtless the entire time and my cheeks blushed bright read. I hoped that it was invisible in the darkness, though. He had only been wearing a pair of pajama pants, and I had just talked normally to him like it was an average Tuesday! Looks like my perceptiveness had dulled since moving to this town.

"I'm ready," Kai came back wearing a simple, navy v-neck and his pajama pants. I was about to comment on the pants, but decided not to.

He was right when he said it was late, and if the guy wanted to wear pajama pants around town, who was I to stop him?

"Great. Now jump out the window," I told him, urging him to hurry up.

I didn't know if his parents were light sleepers or not, and I was not going to get caught using my powers for the SECOND time that night.

He looked at me like I was crazy for a moment before his expression morphed into one of shock, "You aren't serious, right? I'll die!"

I huffed and said, "No, you won't! I'll catch you with my powers!"

Honestly, I hate interacting with newbies to this world. They were always assuming science was the same here. News flash! I can shoot ice out of my hands!

Kai still looked apprehensive, but he carefully climbed onto the windowsill, but he didn't take the actual step out of the window. I resisted the urge to groan in annoyance because I knew that would just make the situation worse.

Instead, I gently calmed his nerves, "It's going to be fine. I know what I'm doing, promise. You trust me, right?"

I wasn't expecting him to actually answer. We barely knew each other, and he had nearly been killed by my 'evil' side. What had I done to earn his trust?

"Yeah..." he muttered, and before I could display my shock, he took a leap off the windowsill.

On instinct, I reached my powers out to gently catch him on a block of ice covered in snow for padding. I did not need him complaining about any bruised ribs when I was supposed to be the one letting my inner turmoil loose on him later.

Not that he knew that yet...

❅❅❅

"So what do you wanna do?" Kai finally asked after we had been walking for ten minutes.

"I've said it before, and I'll say it again, that boy had no patience whatsoever!"

I internally agreed with Khine wholeheartedly. I had gotten better at not allowing myself to be baited by my other personality. It could only lead to questions, and questions lead to interrogations.

"I figured we could go somewhere private to talk. What I want to talk about needs to be spoken about at a secure location, if you know what I mean," I said.

His eyes lit up in realization, and I saw in them that he was hoping for it to be something like this. It wasn't a surprise. Kai had been like an excited groupie ever since he found out our secret, and me willingly speaking to him about it without being forced to was certainly unexpected.

"Great! I know a place, unless you want to go to the woods again?" he started to head off, but turned around in question.

"No, let's try somewhere new. I haven't been able to sightsee much anyway," I responded, catching up to him.

In truth, I didn't want to be anywhere that my parents or Jax would look for me. The whole point of sneaking out is to be away from my family, and going somewhere predictable was not on my agenda for the night. What WAS was finally trying to open up to Kai. Or at least, he can think that. I was just searching for someone who was properly scared of me enough to not interrupt as I rant.

When we reached our destination, I found that Kai had brought us to an abandoned boxcar. It was on an old stretch of tracks that looked equally as abandoned as the car. There was so much graffiti on the caravan, that I could not even see the original color, not that it would be anything but rust based off of the assumed age.

Inside, there were a couple lanterns and blankets sitting on the floor. In the corner, there was what looked like a small pile of pillows, as well. There were some old wooden boxes sitting around the edges, but their structural integrity was to be determined. It looked like someone had put some work into cleaning the space up a bit, but it was still covered in a thin layer of dust.

As Jax was turning on the lanterns, I asked, "What is this place?"

He turned around and gave me a small smile, "It's my safe space. I come here when I want to be alone. I thought it would work as a little hideout for you."

I snorted, "And what makes you think I'm hiding?"

His eyes gave me a once over, making me AND Khione want to punch his lights out, but before we could he spoke again, "Well, you came to me ALONE in the middle of the night because you wanted to 'hang out.' Now I don't think I assumed wrong when I thought that you didn't like me, so why would you choose me of all people to spend time with? Because I was the only one left!"

"Pretty boy's not as stupid as he looks."

I so wanted to still punch him, but all of what he said was right.

"And plus, you look like you just got out of a fight," Kai added on.

I hadn't realized before, but I did. There were dirt scuffs on my jacket and jeans, and my makeup was a little smudged. Well, that's new, I thought. Usually, my makeup just went back to normal after a fight because it appears supernaturally on my face when I combine with Khione. You learn something new everyday, though!

"I hadn't realized," I muttered, plopping down on the blanket.

Kai soon followed me.

"So what did you want to talk about?" he asked.

"How did you know I wanted to talk?" I evaded.

As soon as I was asked, I froze up! The whole point of being there was to let out my frustrations on him, and now I couldn't even get a proper word out.

"Because you may not think so, but you're easy to read once you get to know you," he answered, looking up at me with that STUPID smoldering gaze.

It made me squirm in discomfort, and that's when he turned his attention back to the invisible lint on his clothes.

"So...?" he prompted.

I sighed, "I saved a girl tonight."

That seemed like an easy start.

"And that's bad, why?" he was a little too pushy for my liking, but I answered nonetheless.

"Because I exposed us. I didn't even wear my mask! But it felt SO GOOD to help that girl! The guy was going to do something awful to her, I knew it! So I stepped in and stopped the idiot. And when I got home, my family was all waiting for me. They were pissed, like, REALLY pissed! And then when Jax wasn't on my side, I blew up. I stormed into my room, locked the door, and left through the window. That's when I went to you." I finally let it out.

It felt like I had had a weight lifted off my shoulders. When it was finally out of my head, I could really analyze it better, and I saw that what I did had made me happy. I had not been truly happy since we had moved, and then my family ruined it for me. They had no right to be mad at me for doing something with my training.

I let out a large sigh, letting my head fall back on one of the pillows.

"Sounds like you saved someone. I don't know why they would be mad at you," Kai said, falling down next to me.

A smile worked its way onto my face as I turned to look at him, and I found that he had done the same. The moment started to feel a lot more heavy...

"Do you wanna know a secret?" I whispered.

Even though nobody was there to hear, it felt like there was something prohibiting me from raising my voice any louder.

"Sure," Kai answered, and I realized that he had moved an inch closer to me.

We were only five inches away from each other now.

"My real name is Blair Mikeals," I said.

He looked a little shocked, but not too much. The moment must have kept his shock at bay.

"It suits you," he whispered.

I let a small smile grace my lips, and his eyes flicked down to see them before flicking back up to my eyes.

"Just kiss already! The suspense is killing me!"

For once, I was truly able to block out Khione's voice. My entire mind was focused on the boy next to me.

My eyes flicked down to his lips before we slowly started to lean in as one. When we were barely a centimeter apart, and I could feel his breath tickle my chin, a commanding voice broke through our bubble, "Brooklyn Maxwell! Put your hands up and step out of the cart! Now!"

We snapped away from each other, sitting up in an instant. Kai looked really confused, but I couldn't allow any thought on that. I was in a defensive stance, holding my position in front of Kai. Without realizing it, I had just become close enough to him for me to naturally protect him. Nice.

I had to hold in Khione and my powers. I was going to try to de-escalate things before my last resort.

Giving Kai a look that said to stay down, I slowly put my hands up. I was glad to find that ice wasn't formed around them.

"I'm coming out, okay?" I slowly took the step to the edge of the opening.

A bright light was shining in my eyes, so I couldn't tell how many people were there, but my instincts told me it was more than one. The light seemed to be coming from car lights, so that meant that they had driven here and I hadn't noticed. I was careless and let my emotions cloud my senses.

That would not happen again.

I didn't know if these were real officers, or just some of Moore's goons. That is, if he found us. That thought made me pale. No matter how beaten he was when we left him, what he did to us was still haunting my nightmares.

I carefully jumped down, making sure that I showed my hands at all times. My parents had told me how to act around law enforcement, and I was sticking to those lessons.

As soon as my boots touched the gravel, heavily armed men ran and pulled my hands behind my back, cuffing them in something that definitely wasn't the usual handcuffs. That was the first clue that these weren't your average police officers. The second was that almost all of them were in black, protective gear from head to toe, with guns that looked far more lethal than they should.

There was one man and one woman in normal clothes, if you can call it that. They were in dress clothes, with a dress shirt and blouse and dress pants and jeans. They both had vests on that had large, white letters on the front, spelling out F-B-I.

"Oh...we're in deep trouble."

"No, shit, Sherlock," I snapped back in my head.

And then I spoke on the outside, "What are you doing? I haven't done anything!"

I made my voice whiny, as to make me sound more like a teenager and less like somebody with enough training and power to take them all down with ease.

The man walked up to me, "Blair Mikeals, you're under arrest for the assault of Zachary Smith."

Once the guy was close enough I could really see his features. He had black hair with a few grey strands sticking out here and there, and a deep tan that showed he lived near the sun. My eyes widened in recognition when I saw his eyes. Blue. Just like the blue that I had been staring at not five minutes ago. The only difference was height and the occasional smile line. This man was Kai's father.

My conclusion was only further cemented when Kai came rushing out and put himself between the agent and me, "Dad?! What are you doing?"

The man's eyes widened when he realized that his son was standing in front of him, protecting an apparent criminal.

"Kai? What are you doing here?!" he exclaimed, taking a couple steps back in shock.

I would be shocked too if I had just found my son hanging out with someone I was arresting.

Speaking of that, "What did you say I'm being arrested for again?"

I really hoped that I had heard him wrong earlier, and that I was NOT being accused of assaulting that horrible man, if that's who they were talking about.

My voice seems to snap Kai's dad out of his reverie and he said, "You assaulted a man earlier tonight. We are bringing you in for questioning."

I almost doubled over in laughter, but I was able to reign it in before it could leak out.

Just as I was about to make a retort, Kai spoke again, "You're kidding right, Dad? Brooklyn hasn't done ANYTHING!"

He seemed really mad. I hadn't ever seen him this full of an emotion other than excitement or shock. Now he clearly had some daddy issues if he could instantly snap into an accusing voice.

"We'll be the judge of that, thank you very much. Now if you could please move out of the way, I have to escort Ms. Maxwell to interrogation," he answered, "We'll talk about what you were doing here later, son."

I knew that voice all too much. Kai was going to get into a yelling match at home later, and it was all my fault. Well, it seemed like there were some prior issues going on as well, but my actions had added to it.

"Kai," I whispered, pulling away from the guard holding my arms, "It's okay. Tell my family what happened. They'll know what to do."

He didn't look like he wanted to listen to me, but he took a deep breath anyway and stepped away from us. The guard shoved me in the direction of a black SUV. With one last look at Kai, hoping to convey silent instructions, I was shoved into the back seat. The windows were tinted, and there was a metal guard in between the front and back seats, so I could only feel that we had started to drive away. As I was driven to a mysterious location, my thoughts drifted to the possibility of what could've happened five minutes before.

I had almost kissed Kai!