The Link 2 - The Hunted

Chapter 30 - Teegan

The hanger slipped from my fingers as I brought it off my shoulder and my heart nearly stopped as my new dress floated to the ground. I bent quickly to pick it up. Something streaked over my head, and I heard Zane's air forcible leave his lungs. Red warmth splattered on my skin and all over the clear plastic on my dress. Zane fell, Caleb tackled me, and through the link, I felt Mom scream.

"Zane!" I yelled, crawling over my dress trying to get to him. He was on his back, blood pouring from the left side of his chest. Caleb pulled me back to the car, then grabbed Zane's arm and dragged him across the asphalt. There was so much pain and fear in Zane's link.

"Stay low, near the car," Caleb demanded. His desire to keep me safe was foremost in his mind. I crawled to Zane and put my hand over the hole in his chest, trying to stop the blood. Zane was trying to speak, but nothing but gasps were coming out. Something broke in my mind as tears filled my eyes. I found Zane's music in the ether of my thoughts and followed the link. I screamed again as I took the pain from him. Caleb grabbed me, and I heard him groan as the pain left me and traveled to him.

Caleb put his hand over mine, with the other he pulled out his phone.

"Help!" I yelled to the parking lot, hoping someone would see what was going one. Caleb somehow dialed 911 with one hand, the other now coated with my brother's blood. Zane's eyes closed and I felt his mind fading. Something awful filled my mind. Anger, like had never known, uncontrolled and vicious flew like daggers outward. Caleb recoiled inside at the emotion, his hand trembling as he held his phone.

Parts of me went wide, searching blindly in ever widening circles like a rabid dog searching with hatred in its heart. Caleb was yelling into the phone words I barely understood. Across the street, high on a roof, I found a mind that filled me with sickening malice. I seized the mind in a death grip. I stood, my bloody hand leaving Zane. Caleb was screaming for me to get down. It mattered not, the threat was no longer in control.

It was strange, seeing myself through a rifle scope as my anger grew. With a mere thought, I severed the shooter's link to his hands. I relished the man's fear as his weakness became apparent. My link to Caleb and my family faded as I directed everything I had into the man's brain. I broke his mind's connections one at a time, enjoying his shame as he lost control of his bladder and bowels. My brother was worth a thousand of him. I found names, his and another, then dug deeper. His experiences sickened me. I heard him scream as I washed the memories from his mind. It wasn't enough, not enough pain for what he had done.

"Stop!" Caleb yelled. I looked down at my brother, Caleb's hand hopelessly trying to keep the life in him. I dropped to my knees, and Caleb flooded me with love. My body heaved as the anger was pushed aside. Another man was running over, followed by a slower woman. I could feel Caleb's panic at feeling useless as Zane's life leaked away. Blood was slowly rising from Zane's lips. I opened my mind and silently screamed. Knowledge answered, and Caleb listened.

"Help me turn him on his side," Caleb demanded of the older man that had come to our aid. "His lung is filling with blood. We need to use gravity, so the other doesn't fill." They rolled him to his side as the woman, probably the man's wife approached me slowly. She didn't have the confidence of her husband.

"Tear off that plastic," Caleb told the man as he pointed at his tux. Caleb was busy removing Zane's shirt as my eyes began to lose focus. I reached out for Zane in my mind and found only a trickle of what he once was. He was dying, and I knew it was because of me. I forced myself into him, calming his body, trying to slow everything down as Caleb began covering the gunshot wound with plastic.

"Daniel," the woman said, pointing at me, "her eyes are bleeding." Zane was fading, so I gave him the rest of me. Everything went black.