Soul Slam, Soul Warriors Book 1

Chapter Four A

Fog seeped through the park and floated over the bike path in front presenting us with another obstacle to get around. Like I didn't have enough challenges already.

"What does this insane society think I can do?" I spit the words between tense lips. Great. More people following me—the  society, the cops, and Xander. Plus, the weird guys on the loading dock.

"Aren't you listening? By hosting King Tut's soul, you control the sun."

Control the sun? Control. The. Sun. Was he crazy?

Whether I believed Xander or not, I had to take the Society threat seriously. A harsh laugh burst out of my mouth. "So, you're telling me I'm Mother-freaking Nature?"

"Not exactly." He raised his hand toward me and then yanked it back. His face reddened. "Remember when you brushed past me in the museum and I fell? Your touch singed me, causing burning pain and dehydration."

"Impossible." I'd barely touched him. And I certainly didn't singe. I wasn't that hot.

"The powers are stolen from the sun."

"Maybe these Society people brainwashed you." I reached out to touch his hand. "You think you felt pain." Of course that doesn't explain the guy at the loading dock.

Xander jerked back. "I'll show you another way." He glanced around and then walked toward a muddy puddle on the path. "Come here."

I sauntered over acting like I didn't care, curious but disbelieving. "What."

"Put your finger in the puddle." He squatted down and I got another look at his tight thigh muscles.

Heat flared from my neck to my face. Sparks of awareness danced through my midsection. "We really need to find you pants."

Again, his frustrated face reddened. He tugged at the edge of the tunic.  "Just do it."

The puddle didn't look deep. Greenish moss or mold stained the edges. "Gur-ross."

"You want proof? This is it." In the bright moonlight, his expression seemed totally open and honest.

But how could they be honest about hosting an old pharaoh and having the powers of the sun? Unless he was a lunatic and didn't realize the truth.

I huffed out a breath and crouched down next to the puddle. There goes my shiny manicure. I held up my hand, twisted my wrist, and gave him a princess-parade wave. Then I stuck out a finger, my middle finger, flipped it upside down and stuck it in the puddle.

Warmth spread from my face down my neck to my shoulder. Growing hotter, my arm heated all the way to my hand and then the tips of my fingernails. A strange sucking sensation pulled at my finger, like drinking out of a straw.

The water level in the puddle dropped. Slowly at first, and then faster.

The water was gone.

The proof was in front of me. Or wasn't in front of me because I made the water disappear.

Disappear.

I fell back on my tush onto the hard asphalt bike path, my eyes as wide as the now-non-existent puddle. The warmth inside me died and froze over like ice on a pond.

"Like magic." I sounded awe-struck.

"Like science—sun evaporates water." Xander's logical tone stood polar opposite to what he'd demonstrated.

This wasn't logical at all.

"So I'm the sun?" Still dazed, I slumped farther down onto the pavement, probably dirtying my one pair of decent jeans.