Summus Proelium

Apparently, it wasn’t exactly easy to find out where a retired security agent slash bodyguard to the rich and powerful like Robert Parson lived. He didn’t have an address listed online, a Facebook profile, or anything like that. Probably because being in that line of work tended to introduce you to a lot of people who would do very bad things with that kind of information.

Still, Eits promised he could get me something soon. It would just take awhile. So, for the moment, I was stuck on that front. Just like I was stuck on most fronts. Aside from getting the details about that guard guy’s son (his name was Matthew Orens, while his son was Josh) so I could make up a storybook for him.

Other than that, I still had to find out what was up with Paige, but had no idea of how to get information out of her when she hated my civilian self and wanted to protect my Touched self. I had no idea how to sneak into that mall base without getting caught so I could find out more about my family that way. And Tomas’s dad was still holed up in meetings in their house, making snooping around there totally impossible.

So, that was my situation as of two days (now Friday of the first week in April) after my first time at Seraph HQ. Basically, I was in a holding pattern for the moment on everything. Which was kind of okay in some ways, because I had a shit load of homework to do. And I had to do it, or Mom and Dad would wonder what was keeping me so busy that I couldn’t keep up with my classes. Which I really didn’t want them to do. They had to keep thinking that my life was completely normal, boring, safe, and all that.

To that end, I was sitting in the library during lunch hour, poring over some notes while filling in a worksheet for math. I was so focused on the problems on the page in front of me (and the much more personal problems filling up an entire vault in the back of my head) that I didn’t notice the other problem make her way into the library until she was right up at the edge of the table.

“Aww, look at this,” Paige announced to a couple of the random cronies who liked to follow her around looking for scraps, “a little boy wandered into school and got lost.” She adopted a tone like she was talking to a child then, leaning in with wide, expressive eyes. “Hiya, little buddy. Are you sure you shouldn’t be with the rest of the seventh grade in the other school? This…” She made an exaggerated encompassing motion with her finger. “… is the big people library.”

I counted to three before responding, but it didn’t help. Maybe I should’ve counted longer. Or not engaged at all. Instead, I plastered a fake smile to my face and turned to look at the taller girl. “Wow! Library! That’s a big word, Paige!” My voice dropped, turning dark. “Can you spell it?”

The glare that she shot right back at me was almost chilling. “Sure,” the girl all-but snarled. “Library. It starts with L. As in…” She reached out to poke me firmly in the forehead. “Loser.”

Okay, I definitely should have left it alone there. I should’ve gotten up and walked away. That was the right thing to do, the mature thing to do. I, however, did not do the right, mature thing. It was just… too much. Everything I’d taken in lately, everything I’d found out and was putting up with, the stress of having no idea what to do next about any of it, was just… it was too much.

So, I did what I really shouldn’t have. I took a swing at her. Lunging up from the chair and turning, I lashed out with a wild punch. Paige, taken completely by surprise, took the punch on her cheek and reeled with a yelp. She tripped over her own feet and fell backward, her hand reflexively grabbing for something and catching my extended arm to pull me down as well. She hit the floor on her back a second before I landed on top of her, still surprised not only by that little fall, but also by the fact that I’d swung at her at all. I hadn’t meant to do that.

Before I could recover (and while Paige herself still looked totally shocked by the whole situation), two different people grabbed me by the shoulders and arms to pull me off of the other girl. One was Mandy, one of Paige’s devoted lackeys/’friends.’ The other was just some slightly older guy, a senior who had been studying a couple tables over before all this started.

“What in the hell is going on over here?” The demanding voice came from one of the senior year teachers, a pot-bellied man with short blond hair wearing a dark suit with red suspenders visible through the open jacket. He was already walking (more like stalking) our way, looking between Paige and me as her other friend helped the girl up. “Just what do you kids think you’re doing?”

Still breathing hard, I felt a rush of embarrassment and horror wash over me. What the hell was I doing? How did I let this happen? Why would I–damn it! My only solace was that at least I hadn’t been stupid enough to use any powers in my anger, but still. Taking a swing at Paige, actually hitting her? How was that going to help anything? What the hell was wrong with me?

Before I could actually find my voice, Paige actually spoke. “Nothing,” she said flatly, drawing surprised looks not only from me, but from the teacher and both lackeys too. One of the other girls opened her mouth to say something, only to get quickly elbowed by the one next to her.

The teacher raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me, Miss Banners? Are you really trying to tell me that you and Miss Evans here weren’t just brawling across the floor of the library a moment ago?”

Somehow, I restrained the urge to reflexively agree with the man about how baffling that claim was. The senior student, who had still been holding my arm up to that point, released me and stepped out of the way, shrugging helplessly at the teacher as though he was just as confused.

Paige, meanwhile, simply gave a short nod. “It’s no big deal. We weren’t fighting. Cassidy over there just jumped up too fast, we collided, and fell down.” She gave me a very brief look before turning back to the man, her voice careless and disinterested. “Her head hit my face. It was a dumb accident.” Eyes shifting back toward me to squint a bit, she added pointedly, “Wasn’t it?”

I honestly had no idea why she was doing this. It was her big chance to actually get me in trouble. She hadn’t hit me first or anything. I had totally and completely started the actual physical fight. Hell, Paige hadn’t actually hit me at all. And she had three witnesses (two of whom were her friends, but I was pretty sure she didn’t even know the older boy) to back that up. Yet, despite all that, she was claiming this wasn’t a fight at all. Why would she do that? Why? What was her angle?

Realizing everyone was looking at me, I belatedly gave a short nod. Confused as I was (and while part of me thought this might be a trap of some kind), there was no way I was going to argue right now. My voice was tight. “Yeah,” I managed to get out. “It was just an accident.”

From the way he looked between us, I was almost positive that the teacher didn’t actually buy that. For a moment, it seemed like he was trying to decide if this was worth pursuing when both of us were claiming it wasn’t a fight. In the end, he must’ve decided against it, because the man just gave a short nod. “Fine. It was just an accident then. But…” He looked at me, squinting. “Let’s see if we can try to avoid any more of these accidents for awhile, shall we, Miss Evans?”

Meeting his gaze, I swallowed slightly before nodding. I definitely agreed with that. As angry and frustrated as Paige tended to make me, I couldn’t just go around attacking her. Even if she totally deserved that punch and maybe a few–no, Cassidy, stop it right now. Shutting down that line of thought, I made myself answer as politely as possible, “Yes, sir. I’ll be more careful.”

Accepting that after watching me for a long moment, the teacher replied, “See that you do. Because if something like this comes up again, I promise you that the other faculty will know where it started. And we won’t let it go again.” With that warning, the man turned to walk out of the library, grabbing his briefcase satchel off the table where he’d dropped it on his way over.

Once he was gone, the older student who had helped pick me up looked at me. “Uh, you…” He paused, trying to decide how much he should say before eventually settling on, “You good?”

I nodded, not trusting my voice, and the boy turned toward Paige. “For the record, I don’t know what your game is, but you totally had that punch coming. I think–” Stopping himself, the boy finally shook his head. “Whatever, I’m not getting into the drama. Just stop being a bitch.”

He left then as well, walking out of the room. Halfway out, however, the boy stopped and frowned before looking back at me. “Hey, you coming?” He asked me. Clearly, he’d thought twice about leaving me alone in the library with Paige and her friends after what just happened.

Honestly, he had a point. There was no way I was going to get anywhere with Paige right now. Not after I’d just hit her and she had a couple hangers-on standing around. She might’ve not wanted to escalate things to the school authorities for some reason (maybe just to keep herself out of the spotlight), but I was under no delusion that that would suddenly make us friends. In fact, I was pretty sure she was already planning out how to get her own form of revenge.

So, I gave a short nod, grabbed my books from the table, and started out. On the way, I glanced back to Paige and her friends. All three were staring after me. The other two were glaring, their looks making it clear that they at least wanted to pay me back. Paige, on the other hand, looked different. Her expression was basically unreadable. She didn’t seem angry, more… curious?

Whatever, maybe that just meant she was quietly plotting. Either way, I didn’t want to be in that room, so I followed the boy out to the hall, trying not to think about what would come next with Paige. The whole way, I was silently berating myself for losing my cool and taking that swing.

“Hey,” the boy who was walking with me started as soon as we were out, “seriously, you okay? That chick really did have it coming for that shit in there, but uhh…” He paused, glancing at the now-closed doors of the library where Paige and her friends were. “I’d watch your back from now on. She and her minions don’t really strike me as people who just let stuff like that go.”

As he spoke, I took another look at him. He was on the handsome side of things, though not quite as jaw-droppingly gorgeous as Tomas. Much taller than me, of course, but that wasn’t saying much. My best guess was that he was maybe an inch over six feet, with long brown hair that he wore in a ponytail. The school uniform (black pants, black blazer, and blue shirt) he was wearing had been personalized with a dark pink tie instead of the normal white one. People earned the right to wear different-colored ties (though the actual color still had to be approved by a faculty member) through various school services. It was a reward sort of thing. I wasn’t sure why he’d chosen to go with pink.

“Uhh, yeah, probably not.” There was no need to get into the whole history between Paige and me (even the public version), so I just shrugged. “I’ll keep my eyes open.” Starting to turn, I stopped, looking back with an awkward, “Thanks for, you know, jumping in back there.”

“No worries,” he replied. “You’re uh, Cassidy Evans, right?” His chin inclined. “I’m Owen Kright.”

“Yup, that’s me,” I confirmed. It wasn’t surprising that he knew who I was. It wasn’t like my family was exactly private. “Wait, Owen Kright, didn’t you used to drive that awesome seventy-eight Firebird? I used to wait for you to pull in just so I could see it. What happened? I haven’t seen it in the lot lately.”

With a grimace, the boy replied, “Dad. Gotta get the grades back up or the car’s not the only thing I’ll be missing. That’s why I was in the library to begin with.”

It was my turn to grimace. “Sorry we interrupted you then. Trust me, the last thing I want is to be responsible for keeping a hot thing like that off the streets.”

His mouth opened, then shut as he coughed before shaking his head. “Don’t worry, like I said, it wasn’t your fault. But ahh, I do have to run if I’m gonna grab food before class starts. Mr. Tanners lets us bring food into class, but I kinda need to have the food to begin with.”

“Oh, right, yeah.” Giving a quick nod, I waved him off. “Say no more. Flee for your food.”

He started to, before slowing to look over his shoulder. “Hey, since you’re into that kind of thing, if I get my car back, maybe you can take it for a spin once you get your license. Let me know!”

Waving blankly at him, I frowned thoughtfully to myself for a moment before shaking it off. The hallway was pretty busy, so I stepped into the passing line of people and headed for my own locker.

With any luck, I could get through the rest of the day without any more confrontations with Paige.

******

Luck was with me. Sort of. Enough that I didn’t have another run-in with Paige for the rest of the day (I saw her, but we ignored each other), but not enough that I actually got answers to any of the many problems I still had to deal with. Apparently ‘not making things even worse’ was going to have to be good enough.

After being brought home by Jefferson, I thanked him and stepped out of the car in front of the house. Hearing a sound from behind me, I turned just in time to see Dad coming out of the front door, accompanied by another man. This guy basically seemed to embody ‘distinguished handsome’. He looked like George Clooney in his prime. He and my father were deep in conversation until they both saw me, then immediately stopped talking.

“Ah, Eric, this is my daughter, Cassidy.” Dad gestured to me, then to the man. “Cassidy, this is Eric Abbot, a business associate.”

“I’m surprised we haven’t met before,” Mr. Abbot announced, extending a hand to me. “Your father and I have been doing business for a long time.”

Right, so which supervillain was he? That was the first thought that popped into my head, even as I accepted the man’s offered hand. Belatedly, I found my voice. “You must be friends then.”

“Oh, I’d like to think so,” he replied, giving my hand a firm shake before releasing it. “Good enough friends that I know you’ll be getting your license soon. Your father says you’re bouncing off the walls about it.”

With a soft chuckle, Dad spoke up. “Normally, anyway. I think the kid’s trying to play it cool lately to convince me she’s mature.” He pointed at me then. “But I’m onto you. I see all. Remember, I know when you’ve been bad or good.”

“That’s Santa,” I pointed out mildly.

“Yeah?” My father gave me a look. “And if you think that proves me wrong, have I got some interesting news for you, Sparky.”

After another minute of back and forth (that actually made me even more sad as it went on for how much it made me think of the great times I’d had with my dad), the two of them excused themselves to head out. The last thing I heard between the two was Dad telling Mr. Abbot that he and ‘Melissa’ (his wife?) would have to come over for dinner some time. Then they got in the car with Jefferson and drove off.

Shaking my head and muttering under my breath, I had just turned back to head into the house once more when my phone buzzed. Belatedly, I realized it was my extra phone, the one I used for Touched stuff. With a brief look around to make sure I was clear, I checked the text. It was from a number I didn’t recognize, reading, ‘Wtf did you do?’ Even as I stared at that in confusion, a second message came in from the same number. ‘It’s Pack. Call.’

What did I do? What did I do? Confused, I hesitated before turning away from the house. I trotted off the grounds, leaving through the gate with a wave to the guard there and an explanation that I was going for a walk.

Only when I was safely away from home did I hit the button to dial the number Pack was calling from. And only while it was ringing did I think to quickly turn on the voice changer program. It came to life just as the phone was answered. “Paintball?”

“Pack?” I replied after giving a quick look around the empty street. “What’s going on? Are you o–”

“What the fuck did you say to Eits? What was he doing for you?” came the quick interruption.

“Uhh, wait, what do you–”

That was as far as I got before Pack pushed on. “Look, I’ll give you an address. You better get your ass down here. And you better be ready to explain what the hell is going on.

“Because whatever Eits was doing for you, some motherfuckers just beat the shit out of him because of it. Paintball, it’s… you… fuck, you just better get here soon.

“He’s in really bad shape.”