The Destroyer

By Zoe Books

Angel always thought that she was merely a human working through the hard hand that she had been dealt until a man, Orion, showed up days before school finished and unlocked unimaginable powers inside her.

Will the love thet she finds in Orion be enough to survive apocalyptic prophecies or will the world be destroyed because two people held too much power inside of them?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zoe Books
• Release date: Feb 13, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311893222

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

It was the last week of school. I was eighteen years old and mostly like all the other kids. I had a few secrets that I didn’t tell anyone but that wasn’t something that today was about. It was Wednesday morning and I was rushing around my room. I had volunteered to help with decoration of the end of year dance. It wasn’t something that I was particularly interested in but I had a knack for decoration so I had put my hand up when they asked for someone to help.

I stuffed the decorations into a huge bag. I had drawn all over a balloon and created a sample centre piece. The dance was still another three weeks away and so I was designing everything.

I ran a brush through my long black hair and tied it up messily on the top of my head. I rushed outside and jumped into my old car. She was small and coming into fifteen years old but she got me to school so I wasn’t complaining.

Fifteen minutes later I was running into my first class. We still had to follow our time table if we wanted to get our QCE but we had different teachers than normal and mostly just worked on whatever we wanted to. I didn’t have anything better to do so I slaved for the teachers.

I made my way over to Christy. She was the only person who would talk to me. They didn’t know that I kept a secret but people had noticed that I was different. I didn’t care what they thought but I was glad that Christy talked to me. We have only really been talking for the past few weeks so we weren’t super close.

Jazz, over here, she called. My name was Jasmine but she called me Jazz. I squeezed past two boys before pulling to a stop in front of her. Show me the master pieces.

I smiled. I loved that she had faith in me. Wait a sec. You’re so pushy, I teased.

She nodded in agreement but continued to wave me to go faster. I laughed and pulled out the balloon and centre piece. I had found some ribbons that worked together to tie the balloons to the base which was simply some foam wrapped in cellophane which I had also drawn on.

This is amazing. I love these designs. You draw right? So you did this? I nodded. She continued to gush until we were ushered into class. We had different classes so I worked my way through more centre pieces. I loved working with my hands but I always felt like I was missing a sense. I felt like I could do more.

I shrugged it off like I always do. I was crazy. I knew this but it didn’t stop the craziness.

The bell rang and I made my way to the lunch room. I turned when I felt someone watching me but I couldn’t find anyone so I shrugged while muttering to myself. No one was watching me. I was getting this feeling more and more often over the past week but I couldn’t figure it out. Either someone wanted to figure out the loner or maybe someone wanted to ask me to the dance. Either option would result in the person being shit out of luck.

I ate at a table on my own. I was eating more than I used to. I ate two burgers and a yogurt. They weren’t the best food but it was something to eat and I didn’t have to pay for it. Anything that involved school, my foster parents paid for. I have been switched around foster family to foster family since I was five years old and my parents died. I flinched at the memory but I couldn’t stop remembering. I had watched as they died. I don’t know why I could remember, since I was so young, but I did. I remembered everything.

I pushed the thought away and remembered all the families I had been put with. I have been with a lot. I didn’t count them and I didn’t remember some of them. I didn’t bother counting after I got past ten. I knew some foster kids who were anal about counting them but I didn’t care. I was never with any one family for longer than three months. This family has had me the longest but only because they know they can kick me out when I turn eighteen but still get assistance for taking a foster child. They don’t know that I know but I learned to read those motives when I was young.

I had a tough childhood but there was nothing I could do about it. I shook my head and made myself go back to class. There was no reason why I should sit in the lunch room alone when I could sit in class alone while actually helping someone.

I worked hard on all my little projects. I went back and forth from the printer for my teachers but I didn’t mind. People called me a teacher’s pet but I didn’t care. They were the only people who treated me normally.

I was walking to the office to collect another print off when I felt my neck prickle again. I ignored it at first since I was becoming used to the feeling of being watched.

I turned before I could help myself. I saw a man about my age staring at me. He wore a large leather jacket that hugged his muscular frame with jeans that showed his toned legs. He was huge. I looked up into his angular face before meeting his eyes. I felt myself being pulled into his black eyes. Sweat began to pool on my lip and run down my back. I felt myself begin to shake while pain stole up my fingers and legs. I couldn’t look away from those dark eyes. I was frozen while the pain continued to engulf me. I felt like I was on fire.

I squeezed my eyes closed and felt the connection snap. I dropped to the ground. I knew without seeing that the man had left. The feeling I got when I was at lunch had disappeared but the pain hadn’t. I pulled my arms and legs in tight and screamed. It felt like I was being torn apart. I shook and screamed.

Teachers came running out of the office and crowded around me. They were asking me questions but I couldn’t answer.

Slowly the pain receded but I continued to shake. I was sure that man had completely rearranged my insides. I cracked my eyes and immediately slammed them closed again. My eyes burned from the bright light. I put a hand over my eyes and cracked them again. I watched as I focused on absolutely everything around me. I saw the dust in the air and the woman hanging her clothes on the line across the street on the other side of the school.

My ears buzzed with all the sounds I heard. I could hear each distinct persons breathing pitch. I heard a fly buzzing near an ear. I heard the change in timber of each person’s voice. I could hear and see absolutely everything.

I felt suffocated with the smell of roses. I looked around and spotted them near the front entrance to the main office. I could smell the distinct differences between each deodorant that every person used. I knew that my stinky math teacher didn’t wear any.

I focused on pulling all my sensors back into my body. They had to have been released so they could be stuffed back inside me, right? I slowed my breathing and focused on one voice at a time.

Jasmine? Jazzy, talk to me okay?

It was Christy. I looked at her and focussed on only her face. I ignored everything else that was around me but her voice. I pulled my hands from my ears. I hadn’t realised I had covered them but it didn’t help much. I put my hands into Christy’s and let her pull me up.

Jazzy? I heard the fear in her voice and was surprised that she cared enough to be scared for me.

Yeah. I flinched at the loudness of my own voice. It was different to everyone else’s. It was smoother. More melodic. I never noticed that before. I’m okay. I think I just need to sit down for a minute.

What happened? I flinched again at the loudness. She lowered her voice, what hurts? Why are you flinching?

I tried frantically to think of something that would make sense. I couldn’t tell them that I had looked at some guy and then felt like my insides had gone on fire and expanded. I felt so much fuller now. As if everything inside me now took up more space.

Migraine, I whispered. That was all I could come up with. I sucked at lying. Especially when put on the spot.

Let me take you home okay? she was talking softly and with so much worry that I couldn’t do anything but nod.

She has come home with me a few times while working on this dance thing. It was how we met.

CHAPTER 2

I slept the moment my head hit the pillow. I woke up a few times at Christy’s urging. She made me eat and drink before I fell asleep again. I was just so tired.

I dreamed about all the things I could see, hear and smell now. I think my body was showing me how to handle the new improvements. I liked that I could only hear Christy. I knew my parents weren’t home because I couldn’t hear anything besides Christy and a mouse walking through the kitchen cupboard down stairs.

I wasn’t even surprised by what I could see and hear and smell. As I slept it became normal. It felt like the thing that I was missing. Somehow I always knew that I needed to have stronger senses.

I woke up soaked in sweat. I was so hot. I found a note on the bedside table.

Jazz,

Sorry I had to leave you. I have gone home because my parents won’t let me stay out unless they have met your foster parents. I am really sorry to leave you. Give me a call as soon as you wake up. I need to know you are OK.

Christy XXXX

0400 157 943

I gave her a call telling her that I was fine. I was going in to school today. I got ready as quickly as possible. Which was not very quickly. I had to learn to walk without someone helping me. My depth perception was completely different now. I had to focus my eyes on the floor and not everything that was inside the carpet.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I poured the milk into the coco pops. It was an amazing sound listening to the swish of milk but then the coco pops start crackling and popping as they expanded.

I laughed. It was really cool. I ate while marvelling at how amazing coco pops really tasted. I could pick out each of the components. I could smell the trees and the fragrances that my foster mum cleaned with. It was smothering but amazing at the same time.

I drove to school while holding my breath against the car fumes. I needed a new car or a bike. I couldn’t drive around with the acute smell of fuel in my nose. I sneezed while walking into the class room.

I stopped dead when my ears drums nearly exploded from the noise. I haven’t ever noticed how loud a classroom of adolescence could be. I hurriedly dug into my bag for my headphones. I turned the music on as loud as I could handle. I could still hear everything else but at least I could focus on one thing.

I focused on my hands and the music in my ears so that I didn’t feel smothered. I got more work done than usual. I could draw more accurately than before. I smiled at the master piece I ended up with.

The bell rang and I felt tears come to my eyes. That hurt like a bitch. I was really starting to hate this new talent I had. When I see that guy again I am going to give him a piece of my mind. I wanted him to fix it.

I moved through the crowd with my head down. I grabbed a huge lunch and quickly made my way outside. I plopped down onto the grass a good few hundred metres away and gave a sigh of relief when my head stopped pounding.

I was halfway through my second sandwich when I felt my neck tingle in awareness. I only got that feeling when ‘he’ was here. I knew exactly where he was standing and for some reason I didn’t think that was weird.

I turned and saw him staring at me. I got caught in his eyes again and felt my body tingle. It didn’t hurt like last time but it felt like he could reach inside me if he wanted too.

The longer he stared the more tingling I got.

Why does she glow like that? How does she know where I am?

I blinked. Did I just hear his thoughts? She shouldn’t be able to sense me. She is human so why did I affect her so much? I thought she was going through the Change but looking at her now doesn’t do anything.

I am definitely hearing his thoughts. How weird. I didn’t have a clue about what he was thinking but I could hear him. He had a low but sensual voice. I liked his voice.

I shook my head. I realised that I couldn’t hear or smell anything. I could see more still but that didn’t overwhelm me as much. I was learning how to control it. I blinked again and then stared.

He was gone.

How did he do that? I looked around but knew I hadn’t made a mistake since all the smells and sounds came back and my neck didn’t tingle.

I hunched in on myself again trying to be smaller so I wasn’t so overwhelmed. It didn’t work.

***

I sat on the back patio and thought about everything that had happened to me. I hurt everywhere, all the time. I had already had a hard life so why did I deserve to be in pain every moment of my life. My ears ached from the constant onslaught of sound and my nose felt like I was constantly on the verge of sneezing.

I was suddenly furious. I felt the air crackle around me. I glared at the grass and wished for it to hurt as much as I did.

The grass burst into a huge orange flame. It danced and hissed. I felt the heat from where I sat four metres away.

I jumped up in horror. Had I done that? It flattened out quickly as if it was just as horrified as I was. My anger was gone and in its place was confusion.

I looked at the ground and didn’t even see a mark. Everything was gone. It was as if nothing had happened.

Was I hallucinating? I didn’t understand. I hated not understanding anything. I hated that I didn’t know who I was anymore. I wanted answers.

I went to bed wishing the guy who watched me would just show up and give me some answers. Everything had changed after I saw him and so everything had to have come from him. He had disappeared for goodness sakes. He knew something. I just had to get him talking.

CHAPTER 3

I woke up to the smell of lemons. I didn’t have any lemons at home since my foster dad was allergic to them. I could smell that there wasn’t a single speck of dust in the room. I looked around the room and saw that it was spacious. I was lying in a queen sized bed with a black blanket. Clothes were thrown in the corner. It looked like an expensive room.

I climbed out of bed wearing my short PJ shorts and shirt. At least something hadn’t changed. I went to the floor to ceiling length window and looked down to the front yard. It was green and well cared for. I could tell that I was on the second floor of some grand house.

I listened and heard a shower running close by. Maybe next door? I expanded my hearing and listened for other movement in the house. It was huge, I could tell that. I could hear a maid singing to herself while she wiped down a table. I could hear oil sizzling in what I assumed was the kitchen. I smelled and picked up the faint scent of eggs, bacon, butter, cheese and oil.

My stomach growled with the thought of eating that. I looked around the room. I noticed a door to the side of the room just as it opened. Yup, the shower was running right next door. Because it is an adjoining bathroom. Shit.

I flicked my hands and felt a burst of energy leave my body. I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t know who was there but I didn’t care. I was in a strange place and I was scared.

I heard a, what the fuck? followed by a huge crash.

I knew that voice. I rushed into the open door and found ‘him’ sitting on the floor clutching his side where a bruise was already forming. I had ‘thrown’ him against the hand basin.

I’m so sorry. I pressed my hands to his side before I knew what I was doing. I felt coolness run from my stomach through my arms and fingers before going into the guy. He groaned as the colour disappeared.

I stumbled back while staring at my hands.

I tripped on some clothes and fell onto my ass. I’m sorry. I don’t know what is wrong with me.

What do you think you’re doing here? Never mind that. How did you get here? He had stood up and was looming over me wearing only a pair of worn jeans. He had zipped up but hadn’t buttoned the top. I glanced at his face again and felt all my senses dim.

I grabbed a hold of his leg. Everything stopped. I could see normally. I couldn’t hear and I couldn’t smell crazy strong anymore. I sighed in relief.

I looked up at him and saw that he wore a confused expression while looking around. What the fuck? he mumbled again.

He looked down at me. His brows were low over his dark eyes in confusion while his perfect lips pinched. He lowered down to the floor with me and pulled my hand from his leg.

I heard a dog barking in the distance and covered my ears.

How do you do that? How did you make me see like that? he demanded in a no nonsense voice.

I glared at him. I felt my stomach tighten like it had with the fire but I didn’t care. I stood up and glared harder. "I didn’t have any of this shit until I saw you. I couldn’t see or hear or smell like I do now. I certainly couldn’t throw a guy across the room or heal him before I saw you, so I