Evelyn Earth Part 20

I could feel his presence crackling in the air around me. There was so much of him that for a moment I almost faltered. He had sent out his energy all over the bridge and I traced its intentions with my own. I was like an animal circling a larger predator trying to gauge its strength, its next move. I cautiously let my darkness brush up against the tendrils that were creeping up the underbelly of the bridge and the force of the contact hit me like a sledge hammer.

I was prepared for the huge surge of power this time—it was an echo of what happened to me on the roof of my building. I was like a copper conductor I let it wash over me and sink deep into the earth, bringing it up again, slowly, to supplement my own darkness.

We were connected now. It was an uncanny feeling of shared physical strength and a partial mental merging. I knew instantly that he was destroying the bridge for the same purpose that I had destroyed my building. I also knew that he had come here to find me.

My eyes locked onto movement on the bridge and I could see him as he moved to the edge of the railing. The barrier crumbled under his touch and he jumped up onto the edge of the bridge with the agility of a cat. His silhouette was framed by the setting sun and even though he stood in the shadow of the huge orb I could see him as if he were bathed in the clearest light.

He had thick black hair that fell to the nape of his neck and skin the colour of dusk. His eyes burned with the deep inky darkness of my own and I knew that he had seen inside my mind as well.

We were very different, but almost identical. It was a paradox that threatened to make my head ache. His mouth moved into a sly smile and I could sense that he was more experienced than I was, but as I pushed deeper inside his mind his smile vanished. With a triumphant glare I concealed from him the depth of my connection with the Earth Mother. I felt him trying to penetrate my mental barrier, but I was tapped directly into Her strength there was no way he could break through.

I expected him to be angry, to feel rage or fear, but his smile returned, it was a smile filled with pleasure and an expectancy that I couldn’t understand. He jumped down from the railing and I lost sight of him. Our connection was still intact though and I could feel that he was about to descend from the bridge—he was bringing it down. Owen and Fins flashed into my mind and I instantly regrated it. He had seen them too.

I felt fear for them, for their safety, but it was an irrational thing built of human emotions. He zoned in on that fear and shone a beacon of light onto it. People were neither black nor white, but grey and blue and bright yellow. The Mother had taken the purely white ones, but left behind the rest. If Owen and Fins were not truly black—harmful to Her then I should not be afraid. We were the destroyers of our Mother’s enemies, not her unruly wanderers. He wouldn’t hurt them as long as they didn’t threaten him or the Earth.

I stood there with my bare feet entrenched in the ground and a frown on my face. How could he make things so look so simple? I had been struggling with these thoughts for so long and all it had taken was a stranger’s mental impression to lift the fog from my eyes.

I felt him send his four friends down the access ladders. They were important to him just as my friends had become important to me. Owen would see them and think that he had accomplished what he had set out to do, to warn the people on the bridge. They would descend to safety together while he destroyed the bridge.

I searched the edges of the railings wanting to catch another glimpse of him. He must have sensed my need because he jumped back up into full view. He wasn’t as tall as Owen, but where Owen looked strong in a muscular way he looked dangerous in a way that I couldn’t describe. He sent out a thought to me, I could tell he was trying to formulate it into words. His eye brows creased in concentration but we both realised that this connection was not about words. I opened myself up to his intentions just like I had tried to do in the beginning and felt them stream through to me.

He had sent out the majority of his darkness to blanket the bridge, but he needed an extra push to disintegrate it completely. As the thought entered my mind I felt my fingertips tingle with anticipation. I looked down and saw that they had begun to turn black. I urged it on until I felt the now familiar surge of power build in the back of my stomach. I didn’t give him a warning, it was impossible for our powers to hurt each other; they were one and the same.

I exploded letting out the thick mass of broiling raw power that was pent up inside me. I felt like I could unleash everything inside me as long as I was connected to Her. I could tell that he was riding on top of my power high until my almost liquid looking mass ignited his misty blanket of energy. Then we were both plunged into the heady concoction of our destruction.

The whole bridge was enveloped in our dark force. I could see him rising up above it, and we both watched as the miracle that was our power imploded the bridge. The tall silver towers crumbled inwards without a sound. The groaning and creaking that had just filled the air was replaced with a serene silence. The rest of the bridge was consumed bit by tiny bit as sections of pillars turned into dull grey crumbs that were swallowed up by our ebony cloud. We were high on our own abilities. We sent out everything we could to destroy this thing that was made unnaturally by the hands of man and we revelled in its futility.

Just as the last particles of the bridge were being obliterated I felt his power wane. He had spent it all on our great endeavour. Unlike me he was suspended over water, something that dampened our powers. I was momentarily amazed at the fact that he had been able to do so much while being at such a disadvantage.

 Our gazes locked except this time there was no darkness in his and startlingly green eyes looked back at me. He looked down at the water below him and a tinge of fear emanated from his mind. As quickly as I could I redirected my power from the last remnants of the bridge towards him, encasing him in a swathe of darkness. As soon as he felt my power around him his eyes closed and our connection was cut.

I panicked. All my power was rushing back into me as there was nothing left to destroy. I struggled to keep it under control as I still needed it to keep him afloat. If I couldn’t hold onto him he would plummet into the water and drown. I tried desperately to calm myself down, I had all the power I could want, but it was too much and it was overwhelming me. I was losing my grip. I stretched out my hands and grabbed at the swathe of darkness with my fingers even though it was completely out of my reach. I used my body to simulate what my mind wanted to do. I held onto the mass of energy long enough to lower him into the water, using the strength in my arms just as much as the strength of my mind.

I dropped to my knees with my arms still outstretched and shaking from the exertion. I was so full of power that I felt blind. I pulled at the ball of energy trying to keep it intact—not letting it break apart and rush back into me. He was almost at the shoreline when I lost all control. It dropped away from my fingers and rushed back into my gut with a sickening slam.

“No!” I groaned. I half crawled half ran to the edge of the water disconnecting with the Earth in the process. My head was pounding and I could barely stand but I jumped into the water anyway. He was sinking just below the surface. I dove under and grabbed onto his shirt pulling him up with me. I don’t know how I managed to pull him onto the shore, but I did. Leaning over his body I pushed down onto his chest. I never did learn how to perform CPR. I put my ear over his mouth and listened for a breath, even the smallest inhalation, but I couldn’t hear anything. I moaned in desperation. This was the one person in this whole world who was like me, who understood who and what I was, he couldn’t die now!

I opened his mouth and leaned in to breathe into him, but before I could exhale his lips locked over mine and I felt his fingers thread through the back of my wet hair. He tasted like salt and caramel all rolled into one delicious flavour. I wanted to pull away, but my mouth accepted his without hesitation.

We pulled apart at the same time and the sly smile returned to his lips.

“Mmm that was a welcome way to wake up” he said in a deep English accent.