The shield and the Fire

"The task was to prove Aurora and I share a bond, dhampirs believed to have… It can easily explain this as well," I relaxed, giving some freedom to my fire, so it started immediately moving in Raphael's direction. As soon as he saw it he stepped away from Aurora, closer to Rick and the other guys, while the fire itself moved to Aurora, surrounded her in a circle, and disappeared. I commanded, "Try to attack her. Physically."

Raphael bowed his head and ran in her direction, moving his hand up in an attempt to attack her neck, however, the fire burned just in front of her, making a big wall separating them from each other. Raphael stopped, but Aurora haven't even moved. She was looking amused, observing the wall of fire right in front of her. The most interesting was the fact, that the fire haven't even touched her.

"You two are… truly unique. She can protect you from mental attacks, and you can protect her from physical ones…" Raphael said, stepping back and seeing the fire slowly disappearing.

"So, what are we going to train?" Rick asked, looking still amused.

"I think I can give you the answer," Aurora said after the fire disappeared, "Markus wants me to study how can I control the shield. And, probably the best way is to attack him, so I'll be forced to study it faster if I don't want him to suffer…"

I smirked. She's as smart as I thought.

"You know, it reminds me of some things…" Aurora said, and all of us understood what she was talking about, "And again, no one asking do I want this or not?"

"You're against studying how to control your shield?" I asked, looking at her and smirking. I know she's not, but protesting is kind of a girl's reaction to some sort of thing. She sighed and moved her hand as if asking us to start.

"Wait, wait," Rick said, attracting our attention, "I can't get the point. Aurora's shield is already able to reach you, so what is the point?"

"It can reach me when we hold hands or stand close to each other, as in the case with Raphael. I'm going to move away from Aurora, making her shield follow me. If she can study hot to control it, she can share it, not only with me…" I explained and pointed to the three guys standing not far away from Rick, "Aurora, those guys have some unique abilities, as we do. The guy with brown hair is Mike, and he has an electrokinetic gift, so he can control the electricity. The guy with black hair is Orion, he has emotional implantation ability, so-called "pushing", so he can implant any memory, thought, or emotion into your mind, and literary he can force you to do anything he wants. And the third one with black hair and bloody eyes is Henry. His gift is hypnosis. They all will attack me one by one, and you will try to share your shield at distance to protect me. When you can't hold it anymore, tell, we'll stop. Am I clear?"

"It's so unusual to hear your voice for so long," she nodded, and took a deep breath, "I'm ready."

~Aurora~

It was hard as hell to force that invisible protective power to move away from me and to reach Markus, standing at least ten steps away from me. But, it was way harder to force that elastic thing to recoil from my body. First, I needed to feel it, so it would be easier for me to control it, but it was easier to say than to do. At once, I remembered how easily Markus could control his fire, so he probably can feel it in his every cell. It made me concentrate on the invisible mental shield covering my body from head to toes, so in a few minutes of torturing myself, I finally felt it. It was so light that I bet it doesn't even have its own weight.

When I opened my eyes and looked around, I found Markus was standing near the wall, his hand in his pockets. His pose was relaxed, but I felt something was wrong, so I moved my eyes in the opposite direction, and quickly understood what was wrong. He was under hypnosis, and it was kind of his weakness due to his fire being unable to protect him from non-physical powers. I moved my eyes back to Markus and concentrated on him, imagining my invisible shield growing bigger and slowly moving in his direction. At first, it seemed to work, but as soon as it moved out of my body, it came back.

"Damn," I said loudly, then squeezed my hand in the fist, forcing that power to move in Markus's direction and to protect him. I imagined my shield growing bigger and easily reaching Markus, cowering all his handsome body from head to toes, protecting him from hypnosis.

"Good job, Aurora…" I heard Markus's voice and came back to reality, seeing him looking at me instead of Henry, who was hypnotizing him. Then, Markus took his hands out of his pockets and stepped away from me for more than twenty steps. I counted each of his steps from the beginning, to understand the limits of my shield. It should have some limits. Markus stood straight and looked at the black-haired guy with bloody eyes, who was already staring at Markus. Both of them froze and started staring into each other's minds, while I was concentrating again. Unbelievably, this time my shield moved from me to Markus even faster, than the first time and reached him in a few seconds, even if he was standing at a bigger distance. I saw Markus relaxed, and the guy who can push any memory or emotion into his mind, straining himself to break my shield.

"Enough" Markus commanded and everyone relaxed. I sighed, stepped away, and pressed my back to the wall. It was so hard to control that shield, but I'm able to do it due to my progression. I'm able to protect Markus's mind from others, and this is the biggest achievement I ever had. Maybe, if we study our bond more and find out how our abilities are working together, we can… What? We still haven't talked about what should we do with that police case and with me being the police officer?

"Aurora" I heard a familiar velvet voice near me, so I almost jumped on my place. I tilt my head up and see Markus standing right in front of me, his cold fingers at my chin, his left hand at my waist. I looked around to see everyone still in the room and looking at us. Likewise, I blushed and looked back at Markus.

"I'm sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. I'm fine, we can continue…" I said, looking into his black onyx eyes and drowning. Actually, I had never seen such deep black eyes before, and this color could be easily compared to a black stone called onyx. His hair was as white as snow and his eyes were as dark as night, and that was making a good contrast and creating an unforgettable impression inside my head.

"You're wondering somewhere else," I heard Markus's words near my ear, and blushed harder, "somewhere deep in my eyes…"

I felt my heart going on a race and beating faster, revealing my feeling to him. I cleared my throat.

"I'm fine."

"Good," Markus smirked at me, but as soon as he turned around, his smirk vanished so fast that no one even had time to catch it. He coughs to attract attention, "The last one for today will be Mike. Electrokinetic abilities."

The last word he said was for me to remember what that guy was able of doing and what should I do. Electrokinetics allowed him to control electricity in every cell of his body, so he can push it to other's bodies by touch. I should cover Markus's body with my shield, so he will not be affected by the electricity. I sighed and searched for Markus. He was far away from me, on the other side of the room, and Mike was already coming closer to him. I tried to push my shield in Markus's direction, but it stopped halfway and returned to me.

{Damn, too far. Is it the limit?} I thought and tried again. It stopped in the middle of the room again and returned to me. {Damn.}

Suddenly, I saw Markus grimacing and his body convulsing in pain from electricity coming up and down his body.

{Sh*t. I should reach out now!}

I started moving slowly in his direction, making the distance between us a bit smaller, so it would be easier for my shield to reach Markus and stop those tortures. However, it was easier to say than to do. It took a lot of concentration and inner power to keep that invisible force moving out from my body to Markus's direction, while I was moving as well, but the motivation was at its best. What could be better motivation than to make your loved one feel free from torture?

Suddenly, I felt a strong push from the inside and my shield moved to Markus faster than ever and reached him in a few seconds. I felt an immediate reaction from him: his body straightened up, his muscles relaxed, and his lips twitched into a smirk.

"Enough," he said and everything vanished in a second, as well as half of my strength, so I felt terribly tired all over my body. I made a few steps back and pressed my back against the cold wall, breathing deeply. I felt steps coming in my direction, but I was too tired to open my eyes. The scent that was coming closer to me accompanying those steps was telling me it was Markus. He put his hand at my waist, the second one at my back, and lift me, pressing me towards his body. I put my head on his shoulder, relaxing.

"That's enough for today. Everyone's free…" he said to everyone in the room, and I heard a lot of steps going to the door and then following along the corridor to the elevator. Markus pressed me tightly but hasn't moved even for an inch, making me open my eyes and look at him. He was looking at me as if waiting, "You did great and deserve some treat for your hard work…"