Endeca (The Escapism Series) Read Online Free Page A

and announced, “Good day, I’m Mr. Nordstrom and I’ll be filling in...for the next while,” he looked over in my direction and flashed a sideways grin. I averted my eyes as though I were staring at an eclipse. Psychology one-oh-one with Orion? Sweet Jesus, the irony was just too much to handle.
    He started the lecture succinctly diving in where we left off. Words poured out of his mouth, but all I heard were his subliminal advances.
    “ Xenia, can you hear me ?” Orion whispered, in my mind.
    My eyes widened, and I shook my head. Marbles splayed all at once. I looked around at an unaffected Marla and Calliope. I looked down and feigned note taking.
    “ I know you hear me ,” he persisted. What I saw next were a series of flashes of us doing ungodly things.
    “ Stop it! ” I shouted, putting my hands over my face. Once I lowered them, I realized I had cried aloud.  The entire lecture hall stared at me. Orion’s deadpan face leered in my direction. Before I knew it, I dashed out of the room, mortified.
    I jogged down the hall, quickly turning the corner where I bumped into Landon, knocking over his books.
    “Oh! So sorry, Landon… Hi . I’ve been meaning to bump into you…not literally of course.”
    “As long as you didn’t swipe any of my memories, I’m good,” he kidded, picking up his books. What if I did? I grimaced at my unknown power.
    “You know, like the-” he gestured to his phone, awkwardly simulating the colliding motion. “Never mind, it was stupid. Is there a bounty on you? Why so rushed?”
    “I-I’m just late for something,” I lied. With a glimpse of Orion in my periphery, I quickly picked up pace once again. “Talk later? Call me.”
    “W-wait, you dropped your… phone ,” he shouted after me. “So much for calling.”
    Just as I thought I had ditched Orion, he appeared before me around the south exit of the building.
    “Why are you running?” he asked, composure intact.
    “Why are you following?”
    “Because you dropped your phone—here,” he devilishly grinned, handing it back. “I swiped it from that human—it was too easy. I didn’t expect for you to react that way.”
    “What were you thinking? I’d raise a hand and ask you to stop undressing me with your mind?  I’d look like a total basket case!”
    “As long as you withhold the goods,” he grazed my cheek with his finger, “from Endeca that is, I’ll have to bombard your mind with images alike. With an open portal anything goes. We can even hear each other’s unconscious desires if permitted.”
    “They’re unconscious desires for a reason.  Forbidden, and somewhere in my twisted psyche, you’ve wheeled your way in, but that’s all it is, and ever will be.”
    Orion was visibly infuriated by my response. His darkened eyes looked deeper into mine, searching for an in. I shut them, and pushed him away.
    “The immorta of Endeca are pissed and you better think of something fast or they’ll be after you, one by one; you’ll wish for my version of torture after you’ve met them all,” he warned, discolored by my shut down. “You’re not the only one inconvenienced here, you know. Do you have any idea how many fragments are displaced and how much overtime we’ve been putting through these days?”
    “I’m aware but while I’m on campus, I’m your average girl who’s all about her academia and less about shuttling fragments. Nyxta let me go, why can’t you?”
    “I’ve known Nyxta for centuries and she isn’t in your favor, Xenia. She is up to something and where your safety is concerned, I’d highly reconsider uniting Endeca.”
    Calliope and Marla were in eyesight.
    “I-I should go. My friends are waiting.”
    “If you cared about your friends, you’d—”
    Rage boiled from within me and this unknown power allowed me to shove him against the wall, breaking his train of thought. “Don’t… ever …mention my friends again, Orion,” I violently said.
    “Did you just rough me up?