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I tried to laugh as I attempted to pull at the quills out of Ben. “We’ll be back to normal soon enough.”
“He’s breathing,” Lincoln said in relief. “His pulse is thready, though.”
“Come on, Ben,” I muttered quietly. “Please hang in there.”
The lights chose to come back on at that moment. It momentarily caused me to lose my concentration, and I felt the man that I had jumped begin to try to fight me once more. It was physically draining to be inhabited in him and use my other gifts.
Now that he couldn’t use his gifts against us and help was on the way, I decided I needed to be back in my body once more. This was just too weird for me to continue as this man. It was even more disconcerting to see myself walk through the door with the rest of my group. I went to try and jump back, and it literally felt like I crashed into a steel wall.
The body I was currently inhabiting collapsed over Ben.
“Rub the ring,” Lincoln said softly in my head. “You haven’t lost yourself.”
I watched the real me rub the ring, and suddenly I was looking at the man. Again, evil proved to have many faces. Even beautiful ones. The man I had just been inhabiting was ruggedly handsome. He looked like he would be more comfortable in a country western bar, line dancing in his flannel shirt, jeans, and boots.
It was slightly disturbing to see these newcomers from my own perspective. The glowing girl, hippy man, snake tongue, porcupine boy, and the others in their group were in different positions. I shook my head as if to clear my thoughts and tried to find my bearings once more.
I looked over at Lincoln and smiled. “Thank you.” I looked back at the rest of the group. “Can someone release our friends from the hall?”
“From the-” one of the guys started before his eyes widened. “Oh, there. No problem.”
I rushed back over to Ben. “Move,” I told the guy that I had inhabited. “Go join your friends.”
He mechanically stood up and joined his friends.
“They're made of metal,” Carrie said, startling me. “I should be able to remove them with little issue, but some of them are deeply embedded.”
I hadn’t noticed her following so closely behind me.
“Julie,” Carrie called. “I’m gonna need ya.”
“For what?” I asked willing the panic to go away.
I couldn’t lose my bandmate. One day when we got our life back, I was going to pursue that path again, and I needed him by my side once more.
“She’s a healer,” Carrie stated. “Relax. He’s in good hands.”
“Noah’s on his way,” I insisted.
In my experience, only one other person was close to Noah’s talent, and I didn’t trust anyone else, especially not with my friend.
“It’s okay, Blake,” Kirk reassured me. “Julie will take care of him.”
I felt gentle hands pull me back. “It’s okay,” Jaxson murmured. “He’s going to be okay.”
I looked back at him and saw the same anxiety in his eyes. I almost forgot that they had known each other since they were eight. They played football together since they were eleven. He needed me just as much as I needed him in that moment.
?
I felt a tremendous relief at having all my guys by my side once more, including Noah. I was more confident with them by my side. Slowly but surely, we were getting rid of the insurgents, but we were still on edge. We had no clue where Horatio went with his group and Lincoln’s twins’ siblings. It seemed like every time a group came close to them another wormhole was opened and they were off our grid once more. We concluded that they were in search of something, but what, we didn’t know.
“We need to just find him,” Jaxson stated. “Everyone else can continue to get the stragglers. We need to end this now.”
“He’s near the computer labs,” Lincoln suddenly spoke. “I tried to jump him, but he’s too strong.”
“He’s after the halos,” Jace surmised grimly. “They also had other prototypes in there.”
“That’s three floors down. He’s going to see us and become more desperate,” Troy frowned.
