Chapter 1
Oh boy, I've been watching you like a hawk in the sky, oh my, and you are my prey. The sounds of Aaliyah ran through my head. I REALLY liked that song. However, a song couldn't be stuck in my head for long with Tobias calling down my position every few minutes and Cassie thinking to me a chapter of our history homework. Let me explain myself. Cassie and I have been testing the limits of our powers. Today we were seeing how far our thought speech could reach when we were not in a morph. Cassie sat in the park, while I walked into the woods bordering it.
We'd been talking to each other until she thought to me that she could no longer hear my replies. Apparently, her thought speech radius surpassed mine. Tobias, who had agreed to help us, told me that it was about a half a mile from where we started. So Cassie, being who she is, had decided we might as well get some homework done in this time and took out the history homework. This was a good idea because I could easily tell when the reading stopped. However, it was so dry that I found my mind drifting as I fought my way through the dead branches in the cool weather.
Presently the history chapter was lost from my brain. It wasn't a sudden cut off as I had anticipated, but rather it grew fainter, as if it were just anyone talking to me as I walked away. I called up to Tobias to let him know that this was the end of Cassie's thought speech. He thought back,
(Her radius is about three-fourths of a mile. I'll go get her.) I thanked him and turned around. Cassie met me about 10 minutes later, in her new cardinal morph. She demorphed and seemed a little agitated. Tobias alighted on her arm for a moment. I thought I noticed her shiver a little.
(Congratulations, you passed Mercy's thought speech range.) She gave a small smile, but I think the cold was starting to get to her. Sensing her mood he flapped off her arm and came to mine. When he touched I felt a little shiver, but I had been out in the cold for so long that I thought nothing of it. (Someone is a little edgy today) he told me. I gave a small nod so that Cassie wouldn't notice. It was true; then again she had just done a 'not-so-good' job on a math test today, so perhaps that was adding to her mood. (Don't you have to be somewhere?) Tobias asked me letting Cassie hear it as well. I glanced at my watch. "Ohmigosh, you're right. Ugh! Why can't I be punctual for once?"
"For what?" Cassie asked. I gave her a wide grin.
"I'm going to Mama Mia with Steve in an hour."
"The Australian guy?" I nodded. Cassie gave me a knowing look. Through the bond I could feel Tobias chuckle.
(What about Devon?)
(Now, don't you start. For your information, we were never together in the first place, just friends.) I scowled at him, but it wasn't sincere. All the same he lifted from my arm and flew from tree to tree as we made our slow progress back to the park. I was about to say something else to him when a branch snagged Cassie's hair. She let out a yelp and her agitation became all the more evident.
"You okay?" I asked her.
"Yes, I'm fine!" she snapped. In the setting sun it seemed for a moment that her eyes were red, but that couldn't be, so I let it slip out of my mind. I knew Cassie did not enjoy sitting in the cold for so long. We probably wouldn't have gone if Ax hadn't asked us to. For some reason it was important to him we test our powers and work on expanding them. Cassie was getting sick of it all, as was I, except she showed it more. Another limb of a tree I passed slipped by me and whacked Cassie in the face. Her eyes were red again, but the last of the sun's light had slipped below the horizon. Cassie was breathing hard and finally let out a cry of fury.
Several things happened at once then. Cassie's eyes were GLOWING red! Suddenly, a red light shot out of her eyes and seemed to be stopped when it hit a tree. Cassie sunk slowly to her knees, while I just stood there in shock.