Cardinal Tower (Trinity Central Book #1)

Chapter 13

James dismissed me after he got a blood sample, and according to Shona, I had nothing to do for the rest of the day. Everything was quiet and calm, so much so that it was a bit unnerving in my admittedly eventful life. Shona dropped by to leave me a tray of food, similar to the tray left my first day as a prisoner, that I left sitting by the sink. I didn't have the energy to think much less to eat, I was sure that just the sight of food would make me nauseous.

I locked myself in the bedroom for hours just staring at the ceiling, thinking about what would be happening on the streets right now. Thinking about the marketplace and the shopkeepers watching over all of their produce knowing full well that it was the sole reason they'd survive. About the children whining about wanting just one more slice of bread, and their parents who haven't slept in days pleading with them to give it up.

About Devon. About what he must be doing at this very second. The day's still young, he could be headed to the factory to make a few cantos since he can't rely on my thievery anymore. I imagine him by a machine, separating fake strawberries into containers, easing them along the conveyor belt to be shipped into the market. Or, he could be pitting the genetically modified peaches and slicing them into wedges to fit into non-perishable cans. I wonder if he's thinking about me too.

I decided to keep myself occupied by reading a couple old newspapers on the table in the living room. I pick up the first one in the stack, and take a seat in the loveseat facing the glass panel separating me from the only world I knew. The sky is as cloudy as ever, not even a patch of blue shining through. I should've expected as much.

Time passes, and the sun sets. I must've dozed off while reading an article about a successful development of a type four phenomenon in an Asian province. A large tsunami that washed away some traces of radiation creating a patch of land that was almost fertile. I remember reading that paper when it was first issued last year.

A pounding on the door wakes me up, light barely scraping past the horizon. My room was dark in the morning "glow" and I could tell that its still much too early to be answering my door. Nonetheless, I get up and pressed it open to reveal James banging loud enough to wake up everyone in the building. His eyes light up when he sees me and he starts to say something, but grabs my arm and drags me away from my door instead. He walks at a disturbingly slow pace despite the hurry he seems to be in, and because of his height, I have to bend down uncomfortably so that he still has a hold of my wrist.

"I think I have a theory" he starts, pressing through each door. They open relatively slowly making light of the supposed urgency of the situation, and test his, and my, patience. "You've had these powers since you touched that black liquid on the knife correct?" he doesn't give me a chance to respond, "I think that that liquid was blood, and whoever's blood it was, has powers of creating and manipulating fire." We reach his lab. He punches in the code so quickly my eyes aren't able to keep up.

He pushes me in while hurrying over to a drawer opposite the patient's table, his lab coat flapping behind his feet with every step. After rummaging a bit, James pulls a small vial of yellow liquid and turns around, absolutely giddy. "I think that when you touched their blood, you absorbed their ability, because that's your ability. I think you have the power to absorb the power of whoever's blood you come in contact with. It would explain why your body systems are now split.

"To control someone's unique ability, your body needs to be able to recognize the ability as your own, they become part of you. But I want to test this to be sure." The golden color glistens in the light, the blood being almost translucent. I could see that little specs of honey are flecked throughout the vial making its contents more mesmerizing than before.

"That's blood?" I ask, staring at the amber cast of the bottle.

"I don't think you really can judge him now can you?" I look at my cut and chuckle to myself. Nope, guess not.