Chapter 20

“Hang on, babe,” Darius said, his voice insistent.

Alex caught the distressed look on his friend’s face and the deep fear in his voice.

“I’ll be there as fast as I can. I love you,” Darius told her before he hung up the phone.

Alex put on his seatbelt, mostly out of habit, while Darius simply ignored his. He was fumbling with the key, trying to get it into the ignition. In his worried, agitated state, the task seemed enormously complicated. Finally, he managed to slide it home, turn it, and the engine purred to life.

“I won’t bother asking, just drop me off,” Alex said, well aware of the fact that Darius wouldn’t tell him anything anyway.

Darius sped away from the club and its parking lot, heading for Ashebrook University. He cursed to himself when traffic got in his way. He had to back up and go a different way after getting gridlocked not far from Exclusive. He hated driving in the main part of the city. The roads there were always a pain in the ass but tonight it seemed worse, like the universe was transpiring against him. To add insult to injury, it felt like he hit every red light on the way to Anna’s dorm.

After about twenty minutes or so of fighting downtown traffic, he finally saw the sign for Ashebrook University that marked the campus’s entrance. This one was built into a gently sloping hill with two elegant, sandstone brick columns and the sign stretched between them. The sign itself was navy blue, with the college’s logo proudly displayed above its name.

Darius drove down a long, curving road that eventually came to the same blind spot where the careless driver had plowed into them.

Alex thought he could still make out bits of wreckage in the grass and trees along the side of the road. A momentary flashback of that horrible scene caused a queasy flutter to roll through his stomach, but he stomped down that feeling and the bit of memory that had resurfaced. Darius, Alex noticed, didn’t even realize the significance of the spot they just drove by and was fairly sure that if Bigfoot popped up in front of him he wouldn’t have noticed that either.

Darius drove into the parking lot in front of Creek and stopped the car in front of the entrance. Alex got out as quickly as he could and shut the door behind him, watching with a disquieting feeling as his friend quickly disappeared.

Darius barely acknowledged Alex getting out of the car. The only thing he could think about was Anna. Was she okay? Was she hurt? What happened to her? Those thoughts hovered in his head and he unconsciously picked up speed. He made it to Hill and parked carelessly in a spot in the back.

He jumped out of the car and raced to Hill’s front doors. He got there in seconds thanks to his new speed and threw the doors wide open, harder than he meant to. The glass shook in its frame and for one horrifying instant he thought it would shatter. It didn’t, thankfully. The glass settled and the door shut without any trouble. He breathed a sigh of relief. He didn’t have time to explain himself to a couple of cops.

He took out his ID and strolled up to the front desk, swiping his card as he went past. He didn’t wait for the light to turn green and ignored the shout of protest coming from a bleary-eyed student. He went up the stairs, taking them two at a time until he reached Anna’s floor. As he raced down to her door, he almost ran head first into Victoria.

“Clarke!” she snapped, eyes squinted with anger. “What do you-”

Darius didn’t wait for her to yell at him. He slipped past her easily and reached Anna’s door a few seconds later. He immediately started banging on it.

“Anna!” he yelled, the sound traveling loudly. He heard Victoria’s feet stomping up behind him, drawing nearer. He could almost feel the sullen heat of her anger behind him like a wave that pressed against his back. He dismissed it, not even caring. The only thing on his mind was seeing Anna.

She needed him.

Finally, the door opened and there she was, still breathtakingly beautiful. Her glossy black hair fell to just below her shoulders, straight down either side of her head. It seemed to glow in the light coming from her ceiling and he could immediately smell her coconut-scented shampoo. She had a red flannel pj set on that still managed to look stunning on her. A dim, almost sad, smile was on her lips as her hand reached out to gently caress the side of his face. Tears welled in her eyes and she kissed him. He kissed her back with abandon, losing himself to her. His hand pressed into her lower back and pulled her closer. After what seemed like forever, Anna pulled away and placed her hands on his chest.

Darius watched her intently. He noticed the swelling to her eye had gone down completely. It was reduced to a sickly, yellow-green bruise now. He forced himself to let it go for the moment, wanting nothing to tarnish the time he was able to spend with her. Being able to get close to her, after weeks of constant rejection and separation, healed a wound inside him bigger than he ever would have guessed.

“We need to talk,” she whispered. She went to the door and quietly told Victoria she was fine and that she could leave.

Victoria shot Darius a nasty look but walked off.

“I want to tell you the truth. About everything. You were right, you deserve that much. I tried to lie to myself and say you don’t, but that would be wrong. I told myself it was to protect you, but that’s just another excuse in a series of them. Sit down.”

She gestured to the chair pushed into her desk and he pulled it out and sat in it. He waited patiently, almost eagerly. He might have already known part of what she was getting ready to tell him, but now he was going to find out the biggest thing he wanted to know.

The why.

“You can...” he started, but she put a single finger across his lips.

He stopped talking.

“I have to just get it out, Darius,” she explained. Her empty eyes started to fill with sadness. “If I don’t, I might not be able to finish, okay?’

“Go ahead then.” Darius nodded. “I’ll just listen.”

“I’ve never really talked about my family with you. Mostly because I was ashamed,” she began, standing in front of him like she was addressing an assembled crowd. Her eyes started to slip, getting hazy as she recalled memories that she would rather forget. “My mom died of cancer when I was only four. I was an only child. My dad…my dad had to raise me on his own. It was…hard for him at times. Eventually, he let it become too much altogether. When I was thirteen he lost his job. He started getting into drugs shortly after that. Pot mostly. I ignored it, even though at the time I knew better. I pretended he was the same man I had known and loved my entire life, but he might as well have been gone already. Soon, whatever high he got off pot wasn’t enough anymore. He started turning to harder stuff like cocaine. I caught him doing lines in the bathroom one day and he told me it was just to get him through the day. I knew he was lying, I saw it in his eyes as soon as he spoke the words.”

Her voice grew thick and tears sprang to her eyes.

Darius couldn’t possibly imagine what she was going through but he wished he would never have to witness the downfall of one of his parents. The sight must’ve torn her up pretty bad. He got up to try and comfort her but she just pushed him back down again, firmly.

“Richard Williams was my dad’s dealer. I don’t know if you’ve heard of him but he’s a very dangerous man.” Darius said nothing on the subject. “Him and my dad grew up together. They were next door neighbors. He was the one who hooked my dad on that poisonous shit to begin with.”

She paused, her eyes still locked on the past. A deep shudder ran through her and Darius had to resist the urge to go to her and fold her into a hug. He knew she would only push him down again, possibly growing angry with him as well. He decided the best course of action was to wait things out and see where that took him.

“I went back home about a month ago to check up on him. Make sure he was okay and paying his rent. All the stuff good little daughters do for their druggie dads.” Her voice was bitter and filled with resentment. “But Richard Williams was there instead.”

She balked at her next words, like she couldn’t get the words to move past her throat.

“I wanted to tell him no, Darius! You have to believe that.” The words came out in a quick, almost indecipherable jumble. She was crying freely now. Her eyes and nose were red. Tears streamed down her cheeks. They pooled along her jaw and then dropped to the carpet. She knelt down in front of him and all he could do was hold her. “He said he was there to kill my dad because he owed him a lot of money.”

Darius had to literally bite his tongue to keep the rage inside him at bay but it was only mildly successful. Richard Williams would, inevitably, surface to his mind and the rage would flare up again, white hot. He thought Anna confessing everything to him would have made him feel better, but all it did was serve as a reminder of why he was going to do what he planned to do. Rob Marks. Rob him so he could get at Williams. He forced himself to stop thinking about all that and returned his attention to Anna, wanting to hear the rest of her story.

“What did he make you do?” he asked her. But he knew. He knew exactly what that cold, disgusting asshole was making her do. His voice was quiet and rough, his own eyes now burning with tears as he realized how that monster had used an innocent girl’s father as leverage.

“He said I could save him. All I had to do was work for him and I could pay off my dad’s debt.” She was still crying, her words thick but understandable.

Darius’s emotions were all over the place and so potent that they were starting to manifest as a dull, physical ache near his heart. He was confused at first. He almost didn’t know what the sensation was. It had been a long time since he felt any actual pain. He might be able to get crushed by a speeding car and pop back up like nothing happened but that protection clearly didn’t extend to emotional pain.

“I became his whore, Darius. I still am and I always will be. He won’t let me go, not ever. He’s told me I’m valuable to him. Men like young, pretty girls. If I try to run, he’ll kill my dad and then he’ll come for me. The man is a monster.”

“What do you need from me?” Darius asked instantly, brushing tears from his eyes. “I’ll do anything to help you, Anna.”

“No,” she replied, adamantly. “You can’t get involved. He’ll kill you too. I told you this because I can’t keep it inside anymore. It was killing me to hurt you like that. I needed to be close to you again. He may have taken a lot from me, but I couldn’t let him take you too.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” he assured her.

She smiled and it seemed to light up her face like the old days. Then she hugged him, burying her head into his chest and he just sat there, holding her. A moment later, she lifted her head so he could see her eyes. There was so much pain in them. Worlds of it. She shouldn’t have been subjected to the things she’d been put through. It didn’t seem fair to him. He hated the man that did it to her with a strength he never felt before. It buzzed inside him like a snake made of fire, roiling and hissing. It was a living thing, beating in time to his own racing heart.

It demanded retribution…

...and that was what he planned to give it.

He was going to make sure Richard Williams never hurt Anna again.

He looked at her intently, brushing an errant tear away from her cheek. Her eyes fluttered closed for a minute, as if taking the time to fully enjoy his touch. He slid off the chair, kneeling in front of her so they were roughly the same height. He looked into her eyes.

“You should’ve told me what was going on,” he said, with no malice or scorn in his voice. He just stated it as a fact.

“I was ashamed,” she whispered, eyes downcast. “I didn’t want you to hate me for what I did.”

“I could never hate you,” he replied, gently.

She saw he was being completely honest and more tears flowed from her eyes. She hugged him again, deep and loving. Then she pulled away, suddenly scared.

“You have to let this go, Darius.” She grabbed the sides of his face to emphasize her point. She was scared, her eyes huge and filled with worry. “If you try to go up against him, he’ll kill you and I’m not sure how I’ll survive if I lose you.”

Darius’s impulsive side snuck up on him and a broad smile lit his face despite the seriousness of the conversation. Anna saw it and frowned.

“Why are you smiling like that?” she asked, distressed.

“Because,” he said, getting up and looking around her room. He quickly found what he was looking for and went back over to her. “You don’t have to worry about losing me anytime soon. Trust me on that.”

He showed her the object he found. It was a small box cutter. Its blade was razor thin and incredibly sharp. He wasn’t entirely sure why she needed a box cutter, and the fact that it had been in her room the whole time she had been sinking into her depression scared him a lot. He shoved his worry away and focused on the task at hand.

He made a show of displaying the box cutter to her, like a game show host showing off the latest series of prizes. She eyed him, the distressed, slightly angry, look on her face switched to confusion.

“Watch this,” he told her with a sly smile.

Anna let out a startled yelp as Darius suddenly drew the paper thin blade across the palm of his left hand. She jumped to her feet, trying to stop him but it was already too late.

“Are you crazy?” she yelled, slapping the box cutter out of his nerveless hand. She grabbed his wrist and yanked him around her room, searching for something. She found it in a pile of clothes stowed underneath the deserted bed across from her own. She pulled the item out. It was a plain, white bath towel.

“Darius! Why did you do that?”

Anna was shaking him now but Darius couldn’t answer her. He just stared at the palm of his left hand in open shock, wondering vaguely what was going on. A line of bright, searing pain (REAL PAIN) flared to life from his hand. It felt like it was on fire!

The cut was deep, but it wasn’t deep enough to require stitches. That was a small consolation for him at the moment. Fear was running through his veins, turning the blood inside frigid and cold. He shivered for a moment, trying to make sense of the pain he felt while Anna started wrapping his hand with the towel, creating fresh bursts of discomfort.

He drew in a hissing breath.

“I hope it does hurt,” she scolded and sounded justified to do so. “What did you think was going to happen?”

“I-I’m sorry,” he replied, still shaken by the cut to his hand.

For a terrifying instant, he thought Dr. Tiberius’s drug had an expiration date. His stomach sank to his feet. He was starting to panic and wondered if he used all the power up and now he was back to being normal.

Average.

It was such a powerful thought he could almost imagine his body getting weaker by the second. It wasn’t until Anna tried to lightly punch his shoulder that he realized the power wasn’t gone at all. Instead of her hitting him, his power took hold and he effortlessly dodged her punch as her fist came at him in slowmo.

Anna stared in shock.

Darius realized the drug hadn’t been used up at all. His powers were still there, he’d just happened to stumble on another, potentially more lethal, weakness. Apparently, something could get through their indestructible skin. Things with blades. Razors for sure. Possibly knives and other things of that nature.

“How did you do that?” she asked him. “You weren’t even paying attention to me.”

He didn’t answer her at first. His body just flooded with relief that made his knees a bit shaky. Then he realized she asked a question. His face was open and honest.

“Something happened to me. And to Alex,” he answered.

“What do you mean?”

Darius hesitated for a moment.

“Ok. You can’t tell anyone what I’m about to tell you, you got it?” he insisted. His voice was deadly serious because he was worried about her safety. He didn’t want whoever funded Dr. Tiberius’s super-soldier program, which he strongly believed was the government, to find out that Anna knew about it. He had a feeling they would come after her.

“Not a soul,” he reiterated.

“Ok. I uh...won’t tell anyone,” she said, sincere.

“Ok. Well, first off, I want to say that it was all Alex’s fault. What happened to us was his idea,” he began.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked.

“Alex and I signed up for a...uh…,” he started, rubbing the back of his neck with embarrassment. “Experimental drug test. But it wasn’t an ordinary drug test. It wasn’t trying to cure anything, or stop acne, or any of that other bullshit.”

Anna looked at him, her face impassive. Then her eyes narrowed in anger.

“You guys did what?” she yelled. “Why would you do that?”

Darius smiled. He couldn’t help it. After so many weeks with her barely showing any emotion at all, it was refreshing to see it again even if that emotion was anger at him doing something stupid.

“Well, Alex was broke. He couldn’t afford the tuition anymore because his mom lost her job. Then he found this flyer. It must’ve been in his mailbox or something. It talked about a pretty big payout just to test this new drug. You know how Alex can get, always looking for shortcuts and taking the easy way out of his problems. I told him I didn’t want anything to do with it, but he signed me up anyway behind my back. I guess they needed two test subjects to show the results weren’t a fluke or something. I know it was stupid, but it was Alex. He needed my help.”

“What did it do to you?” she asked.

More and more of her old self came back as their conversation went on and Darius couldn’t help but love it. It was starting to feel deceptively like old times.

“Well, that’s actually the cool part. It gave us these powers.”

“Powers?” she asked, incredulous. “Are you serious? Actual powers? What kinds of powers?”

“We found out we couldn’t be hurt, at least physically. Like, we’re indestructible.” He glanced down at his towel-wrapped hand and smiled slightly. “At least that’s what we originally thought. I guess there’s something that can hurt us after all. Razors. Maybe knives. I don’t know.”

“How did you find out you guys couldn’t be hurt?” she asked.

“We may or may not have been run over by a car.” He tried for a smile but Anna just gaped in shock.

“Seriously?” she asked.

He nodded his head, smiling somewhat.

“It knocked me into the parking lot and then into someone’s Jetta. Alex got hit dead on though and the car rolled over him,” he explained, almost casually. “Then we both got up and walked away from the crash without a scratch. The girl driving the car wasn’t so lucky. She was cut pretty bad across her leg but we helped her. Then we called an ambulance and they took her to a hospital.”

“Are you being serious?” she asked him. She wondered if he was playing some kind of joke on her, but the seriousness in his eyes made her think otherwise. “Of course you are. I can see it in your eyes. But, actual legitimate superpowers? That’s a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?”

“I know, but it’s all true,” he replied. “Why would I make that up?”

“I don’t know, to mess with me,” she said.

“You wouldn’t even talk to me, Anna. You really think I’d blow this chance on some stupid prank?”

“No,” she answered. “Can you do anything else?”

“Yeah,” he told her.

Her eyes were rapt as she focused on him. He enjoyed her attention. More than that, he realized he craved it. After so long without it, he realized how much in love with her he really was. He knew, without a shadow of a doubt, he would do absolutely anything for her. That terrified him a little but it also sent waves of enthusiasm through him. It was like he’d been dying of thirst these last few months and now here she was with a cup of ice cold water. He wanted to stay with her forever.

“We’re pretty strong now. After the crash, Alex ripped the door completely off the car to get to the girl. He even sent it flying away so fast and hard that it got stuck in a tree. We also have super quick reflexes.”

“Ah. So that’s how you got out of me hitting you. That wasn’t fair, by the way.” She smiled a little and it even managed to reach her eyes.

“Yep. We’re also pretty fast. About like what a cheetah can run. I think that’s mostly because of the strength. I don’t know if we’d be that fast without it.”

“This is the weirdest thing. I don’t know if I believe all of it,” she told him, honestly. What she heard sounded like it came from someone’s science-fiction novel. She wanted to believe but it was hard considering she’d never heard of anything like it being possible in the real world.

Darius turned suddenly apologetic.

“I’m sorry for this. But don’t be scared. Ok?”

With that, he took off for her window so fast she could barely keep track of him. He pulled it up, which a normal person would not have been able to do because it was bolted shut, and stopped there for a second. Anna tried to run to him, but before she could, he launched himself out of her fourth story window. She saw him plummet through the night air like a stone. She caught sight of his body, his clothing fluttering as he fell. She cried out in fear, but he abruptly flipped in mid-air and landed on the sidewalk below in a pretty cool-looking superhero pose. There was only a mild sound of impact and that was it.

Darius looked up at her, a very wide smile spreading across his face. She could see little cracks in the sidewalk where he landed, but she was pretty sure most people would think they’d always been there.

“Come down, we’ll talk out here,” he said, thinking of vengeful, annoying RAs. “If Victoria catches me again, she’ll make my life a living hell.”

“All right, I’ll be right down.” She hurriedly threw on a sweater and wrapped it around herself. Then she rushed out her door and headed to the stairs. Before she got there, she realized she forgot her student ID. She turned around and went back for it. She grabbed it off her desk and then ran out of her room, a giddy excitement coursing through her. Something she hadn’t felt in so long that it made her sad all over again to remember her pain. She rushed down the stairs. When she got to the bottom, she quickly sped through the lobby, and then pushed through the front doors into the crisp pre-winter night. She found Darius waiting for her at a bench to the left and went to him.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” she admonished.

“I had to do something to make you believe me,” he retorted, smiling at her widely.

She felt a burst of love for him and a tear slipped down one eye. He reached out with a finger and gently wiped it off her cheek.

“You looked like you wanted to call in the men with the white coats. Maybe set me up for a vacation in a padded, rubber cell?”

“Come on.” She held up her hands and shrugged. “If our positions were switched, wouldn’t you think I was crazy?”

“Probably,” he conceded, smiling a bit. “But now you know I’m telling you the truth.”

“Kind of hard not to believe you when you get up from a four-story drop.” Her smile widened a bit. She placed her hand over his and squeezed. He looked at her and saw that her expression changed. It was fearful and grave now. “I’ve seen you do some pretty amazing things tonight. And that scares me.”

“Why?” Darius asked, confused. “With the kind of power I have, I can stop Williams. He won’t hurt you anymore.”

“That’s why I’m scared,” she replied. Her voice was filled with despair. “I’m scared you’ll do something stupid. You have to let this go. I…I’ve made my choice and that’s all there is to it.”

“I won’t let that bastard keep hurting you,” Darius replied, his voice filled with pain. He stopped talking for a second. He warred inwardly with himself, trying to decide if he wanted to tell her the whole truth or not. In the end, he went for it because he wanted to get everything out in the open. “I’ve been keeping an eye on you. I watched you get into Williams’s car one night. I sat outside your dorm, trying to see if I could find out who was beating on you. I ended up following you to that old bank building. I saw what happened after that, Anna. I saw it! And I will be damned if I ever let you go back to that. Ever!”

She sat next to him in silence, processing what he said.

“I wish you wouldn’t have done that.” She never wanted Darius to find out the truth but knowing that he had seen it for himself hurt her. It made her feel so ashamed she couldn’t even look him in the eyes. She bowed her head and stared intently at the ground. “I never wanted you to see that.”

“I’m sorry I followed you,” he told her, and she could see he meant it. “I didn’t think I had any other choice. You weren’t talking to me and when I saw that bruise, I don't...I lost it. I had to know who was hurting you. You can’t blame me for wanting to protect you.”

She started crying again, and Darius let her. She muttered “Sorry,” over and over again. He leaned into her, pulling her face to where they could look at each other. He kissed her deeply, not stopping until her cries died out. Then he just held her.

“I’m going to protect you,” he whispered, his voice steady and confident. “Don’t worry anymore.”

But she was worried.

For him and what he might do.

For what he might become.