Infinite Bond Read online

  “Lax….” My head throbbed as I wiped my sweaty palms on my pants. “I, ah, wasn’t feeling well at work. I left early and forgot to get my pay. Can I give what Mom owes your boss tomorrow?”

  Lax laughed. The others quickly joined in when he shot them a look.

  Tension tightened my shoulders as I drooped them more, trying to make myself invisible but knowing it wouldn’t work.

  My stomach clenched and my head pulsated.

  Slowly, I rubbed at my temples.

  “Aw, look, guys. Poor little Micah has a headache.”

  More laughter rang out.

  My stomach warmed in anger. I was sick of this. Sick of going from one messed-up situation to another. Sick of being weak. Sick of all the self-loathing, and the “I wishes,” and the “I should haves.”

  “Hey, I’m talking to you.” My shoulder got shoved. I stumbled back, lifting my gaze to Lax. “You go back to work and get me the goddamn money.” He looked down at his hand. “Why the fuck you wet?”

  I knew I’d been sweating from the pain, but I hadn’t realized how much.

  “Jesus.” He wiped his hand on his jeans. “Just go back and get the money.”

  “No.” My tone was soft but snappish. It even surprised me. If my head wasn’t crying out for aspirin, I would have patted myself on the back.

  Lax crossed his arms over his chest. “No?”

  Nodding, I rubbed at my forehead.

  “You’re not listening again,” Lax yelled, and I flinched, snapping my gaze up to his livid red face.

  “Lax, please. I’m not well.”

  He leaned in and snarled in my face, “I don’t give a fuck.”

  My head rocked back from the force of his punch that followed. Blood sprayed from my nose. Covering it, I stepped back.

  “Go back to work and get your money. Last fucking time I tell you, else I’m sending the boys into your trailer.”

  They would take everything.

  Pain stabbed at my temples and stomach. I took another step back.

  Lax’s jaw clenched. “Right, guys, teach him a fucking lesson, and I want his keys.”

  “No,” I cried out, moving back further. The trailer was all I had. “No!” I yelled, throwing my hands out in front of me.

  His people suddenly flew back from where they’d been standing and landed on their asses; groans filled the area.

  Lax wasn’t the only one with wide eyes. Slowly, he looked at me. “What did you do?”

  “N-nothing.”

  He started for me. I backed up over and over and didn’t stop until a new voice, a voice I knew, said, “Stop right there.”

  Ivan and Tanika moved out from within the trees. Lax looked to them and back at me before he ran at me.

  “Stop.” I threw my hand out to the side, and Lax shot the same way my hand moved.

  Dumbfounded, I looked down at my hand as I heard Lax drop to the ground with his own groan. It was then I noticed the pain in my head and stomach had vanished.

  “You’re all right,” Tanika said from right in front of me. I saw her shoes first, then lifted my gaze to hers. She smiled softly. “Hey, it’ll be fine now.”

  “Did… did I do that?”

  She patted my shoulder and nodded. “Yep. Bit of a late bloomer, but that was all you.”

  “What? How…. I….” I shook my head and looked over to Ivan, who helped Lax to his feet. I called out quickly, “He’s armed. He’s always armed.”

  Tanika curled her arm around my shoulders and steered me toward the trailer park. “Don’t worry about him. Ivan will have it covered.”

  It was fine to say don’t worry, but fear still formed a pit in my gut.

  I looked over my shoulder to see Ivan leading Lax over to his guys. Surprise shot through me when Lax moved willingly. He didn’t put up a fight, didn’t say anything, just walked beside Ivan like I hadn’t just thrown him across the ground.

  But I had.

  Somehow, I’d moved him. I just didn’t know how.

  Facing forward and with my heart in my throat, I stared down at my hands again. I swallowed thickly.

  Excitement and fear churned inside me.

  Glancing at Tanika, I wondered why she wasn’t freaked out. “Did you see what happened?”

  “I did.” She stopped at my trailer.

  Wait, how did she know where I lived?

  When she looked my way, she laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not a stalker. Open up, and I’ll give you some answers while you pack.”

  My head jerked back in shock. “Pack?”

  “Well, yeah. There’s a place where you can learn how to use your powers.”

  “Powers?” I whispered.

  “Yep. I don’t know if you’ll have more, but it looks like you have telekinesis.”

  As I tripped up the steps, all I could think was that I didn’t want to face-plant. I put my hands out to stop my fall but found myself flying backward into Tanika. She grunted before I was suddenly weightless again and my butt hit the ground.

  Tanika stood beside the door, grinning.

  I glanced to my doorway and back to her. “How… you were behind me.”

  She knelt beside me and placed her hand on my shoulder. “There’s a lot you need to learn, young grasshopper.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Micah

  * * *

  Once seated at my very small table with Tanika opposite me, I stared at her and tried to get her words to sink in.

  “Do you need me to tell you again?”

  Nodding, I pressed my hands to my stomach. There wasn’t any pain, but it wouldn’t quit flipping around.

  Tanika clapped, causing me to jump. She winced. “Sorry.” She laced her fingers together and cracked her knuckles. “Okay. The supernatural world is real. There are shifters, vampires, witches, warlocks, and other different types of people with powers. The humans know nothing about us because we live in harmony among them all. Besides, like the humans have their own governments, FBI, cops, and armies, we’re the same and have our own that oversee everyone and everything with rules and restrictions.” She tapped her chin with a finger. “Hmm, what else was there? Right… there’s a college close that will help teach you how to manage your powers. It’s a good idea to go so nothing happens where you could accidentally use telekinesis in front of humans and get in trouble for it from the Interspecies Law Enforcement.” Her nose scrunched up as she thought about more to load me with, but I worried my head was about to explode.

  There were shifters… vampires… witches…. Was Iron Man real?

  A yip escaped me when my door opened suddenly. My pulse only slowed a little when I saw it was Ivan stepping in.

  “How’s things going?” He stopped by my fridge and leaned his shoulder into it. The trailer and fridge groaned under his weight a little.

  Tanika studied me, and since I didn’t say anything, she shrugged. “I think he’s freaking out.”

  Ivan snorted. “Understandable since he didn’t grow up knowing.”

  “You did?” I blurted, gaping at him.

  “Yeah, Micah. I was born a vampire. Flora is a witch and my bonded.”

  My brows dipped. “Bonded?”

  Tanika shook her head. “We’ll explain about that later. What we really need to do is get you to Tovenaar.”

  Information was my forte, and Google had always been a friend when I was bored and wanted to know things. Which was how my brain quickly supplied that tovenaar was Dutch for magician. Ironic.

  Snorting to myself, I shook my head. “What about Lax? I can’t just leave. He saw me do what I did.” Something I still couldn’t believe.

  Ivan waved. “It’s been taken care of.”

  Pushing my hair from my eyes, I gripped the strands and stared at Ivan. “You killed them?” I whispered.

  Ivan and Tanika started laughing. Tanika smacked my arm and shook her head. “God, that…. No, Ivan didn’t kill him. Vampires have mind mojo. Lax and the others will be off somewhere getting high or something.”

  Ivan nodded.

  “But… his boss could send him back to look for me.”

  “I’ve erased you from their minds. I know their boss. He’s another vampire. I’ll talk to him about your mom’s debts being her own, not yours. You live here alone, right? Is there anyone… ah, special you need to talk to before disappearing for a while?”

  Lax’s mob boss was a vampire? A shudder raked over me while my mind spun from the fact that vampires were real.

  “Wait, do I seriously need to leave?” The thought of vampires was replaced with anxiety as it ate my insides. This was my trailer. Mine. I couldn’t just walk away from it and expect it to still be here when I got back. There were squatters who frequented the trailer parks at night looking for a dry place to sleep, and if they noticed someone wasn’t taking care of this place, they’d move in.

  Tanika nodded, her hand resting on my arm on the table. “It’s for the best. You need to learn about your powers, have control over them.”

  “But I have work and my trailer.”

  “Ivan will take care of the trailer. He’ll keep it safe. Good news: you’ll still have your job. Right, Ivan?”

  “Yep. Tanika goes to the same college, and you know she works only night shifts with me. You’ll still have a job if your classes aren’t too much. If they are, I’ll keep a job for you when you get a handle on things. Micah, Flora and I’ll have your back. This is a shock to all of us, kid. It wasn’t until you started to feel sick, and with the incident at work, we knew a change was coming for you. We’re going to help where we can. You’ve got enough to stress about with only now learning of our world. Don’t worry about things back here. Take care of yourself and learn about your power, kid. It’s a good one.”
>
  It was?

  Wait… I had a power? Ivan was a vampire, and I was supposed to go to a magic school to learn control of my new trick?

  Did I knock myself out and was now living in my mind?

  Quickly, I pinched myself, then hissed when it hurt.

  “It’s all real, sorry.” Tanika nodded.

  “How did this happen? My mom doesn’t…. She’s never shown any powers.”

  Ivan shifted on his feet. “Could come from your dad’s side. You know him?”

  Shaking my head, I scrubbed a hand over my face. “No. She never spoke of him. If I tried to ask about him, she’d get angry and….” I brushed my hair away as it fell in my eyes while I stopped those thoughts from surfacing. “She’d just get angry. I don’t have a name or any type of information about him.”

  Ivan’s jaw clenched. “I’ll go to her and find out what I can. Let you know.”

  My head jerked back in confusion. “Find out?”

  Ivan tapped his temple. “Got powers to read, alter, and erase things in humans’ minds.”

  “Right, um, vampire.”

  It was too hard to believe. Never would I have guessed my happy yet intimidating boss would be a blood-sucking vampire.

  “Are you sure—” I jumped back in the seat and gawked as Ivan snarled and flashed his fangs before the iris part of his eyes bled red.

  Tanika patted my arm. “He won’t hurt anyone other than someone who harms the people he cares about.” Ivan straightened. His fangs disappeared, his eyes changed back, and he nodded at Tanika. “Like humans, there are ones in our community who hold evil intent. Which is why we have our own special forces to uphold the law against those who act with malice.”

  “Okay. I…. It’s all a lot.” I bit my bottom lip before I sucked it into my mouth and nibbled on it.

  I had a power.

  Ivan was a vampire, and Tanika—

  “What about you? What, ah, I guess it’s not polite to ask what a person can do or if they shift into an animal or drink blood?”

  Ivan snorted and Tanika cackled. She shook her head. “Just be careful who you ask. Do you remember when I was behind you after you tripped, but then you fell through me because I didn’t realize that your slim, short body could be heavy?” I nodded. “I phased through you.”

  My gaze dropped to the table. “Phased, meaning the ability to pass through physical matter? Also known as intangibility?”

  “Exactly.”

  Lifting my eyes, I stared at Tanika. “You could always do this?”

  “Yes.” She smiled. “My mom has the ability. Dad is a spellcaster. Others call them mages. He can call up any spell and cast it without actually knowing it beforehand.”

  Wow.

  Seriously, it felt like my mind had just opened another door, floating with new questions and possibilities of “others” in the world.

  Now, I was one, and they wanted me to go back to school to learn to master telekinesis.

  School and I were never friends.

  Swallowing thickly, I glanced at my hands and then the glass on the table. I held one out to it, but the glass didn’t move. “Are you sure I have this power?”

  “Like I said, both Tanika and I could feel a change in you tonight. It’s why we followed you home. Those salt and pepper shakers didn’t fly off and hit that guy on their own. You did that, Micah.”

  “You also threw those assholes out there.” Tanika thumbed outside. “If you’re doubting having the power, don’t. We’ve seen it and now can feel the power inside you. It’s like a lock has been broken, and your power has come through.”

  Staring at the glass again, I moved my hand to the side, but it didn’t shift the glass or water in it.

  “It’s not in your hands, kid. It’s in your mind.”

  “My mind? And I have to go to school to learn to use it properly?”

  “Yep.” Tanika nodded. “Once there, you’ll register in the supernatural community. Your name will go in a registry, and the information will be sent to the government. Whenever someone who isn’t in the know about our world suddenly manifests powers or is turned, the government needs to know. It’s like being born and having a birth certificate. This will be your certificate when you join Tovenaar.”

  A rock formed again in my stomach.

  “And if I don’t get registered or go to the college?”

  Tanika looked to Ivan. He gave me a sad smile. “If anyone from law enforcement finds you and senses your power, they’ll question you to make sure you are registered. Anyone who isn’t is taken before the government and questioned. There’s also a chance your mind will be read. If they find out Tanika and I knew about you and didn’t come forth with the information of someone new, we’d get fined tens of thousands of dollars. If your powers get out of control and you hurt people because of it, it would be worse for you and also us. Sorry, kid.”

  No way would I want to be harmed or Tanika and Ivan to lose money because of me or worse. I knew I wanted to learn about this power. It was only the thought of school that had me twisted inside.

  Turning to Tanika, I said, “And you’ll be at the school?”

  “I will be. I still have things I need to learn about my power, but I’m also doing a degree there for botany. Plants and trees have always interested me.”

  My heart skipped a beat as hope flooded me. “There are other things you can learn?”

  “Heck yes, there’s so much. Even the human courses are provided because our kind still need a job in the human world if you can’t get something on our side.”

  “I…I…. What do they have?”

  She smiled softly. “How about I help you pack, and you come and find out yourself?”

  Glancing at Ivan, I caught his smile and nod before I looked back to Tanika. Straightening my shoulders, I nodded. “Okay.”

  Standing, I shifted around the table and went to move past Ivan, until he clasped me on the shoulder. “Welcome to our world, Micah. I’ll leave you in Tanika’s hands, but if there’s anything you need or have questions for me, please call. You have my number. I promise to keep an eye on things here while you board at school until you find your feet. If you want to stay longer in the dorms there, I’ll still watch over your place. No matter how long.”

  A sudden urge to hug him overcame me. He’d been in my life for two years. The thought of not seeing him and Flora for a while saddened me. Even though I’d been quiet and kept to myself around them, they’d been a part of my life when I was starting to stand on my own and helped support me without even realizing it.

  Quickly, I wrapped my arms around Ivan and hugged him tightly before I stepped back. I made sure my hair covered my eyes as my face lit with affection.

  “Thank you… for everything.”

  His hand landed on my shoulder. “Aw, kid, it’s been a pleasure. Even if you don’t want to come back to this area, make sure to pop in and see us.”

  “I will.” I nodded.

  “Good.” His hand dropped away, and he went to the door as he called to Tanika, who was already in my room. “Tanika, see you at next shift.”

  “You got it.”

  When Ivan had gone, I went into my room and saw that Tanika had already found my big duffel bag and was loading it with my underwear. My face heated.

  Quickly, I went over there and grabbed some boxers from her hand. “I’ll do those.”

  She snorted. “I’m not the type to swoon over someone by touching their underwear.”

  Licking my dry lips, I didn’t comment because I was uncomfortable with the conversation. I willed my face to stop burning since it easily showed my inexperience around women and my underwear.

  “Micah.” Tanika’s tone was light.

  “Hmm?” I kept packing, turning my back on her to grab my winter clothes. I didn’t have many things and knew there would be room left in the duffle bag.

  “Have you ever been with anyone?”

  “Tanika,” I rushed to say, a harshness to the word.

  “It’s okay. That’s answer enough. Do you like guys or girls?”

  An embarrassed, slightly panicked noise dropped from my lips.

  “We’re friends, right?” She must have caught my nod. “I’m gay. I like women.”

  Why did we have to speak about this?

  When I didn’t say anything and continued packing while she now sat on my bed, she said, “Earlier, Ivan mentioned Flora being his bonded.” I nodded and flicked my hair out of my eyes, pausing packing. “Well, bonded sort of means that there’s someone, or a few someones, out there in the world who…. Shit, how do I explain this? I mean, it might happen with humans, but the divorce rate is too high for it to show they’ve found their bonded.”