Fighting for Infinity Read Online Free Page B

neither one of them answering me, Dedrick opened his eyes and stumbled backward. He looked disoriented, but then he focused on Rina. “Well done. That was nothing like I imagined it to be but still quite a rush.”
    She had let go of me. How she had touched me—my soul—was still a mystery. Keeping her focus on the floor, Rina chewed on her thumb and turned away from us.
    “Cuddling, hmm?” Dedrick said. “I never pegged you for the cuddling type.”
    Cuddling? What was he talking about? I backed as far away from him as I could.
    “And Louise,” Dedrick continued. “I didn’t realize she could see a soul’s aura even while astral traveling. Then again—” He picked something out of his teeth with his fingernail. “I didn’t know Nathaniel would be able to sense me either.”
    He had seen Nathan and Louise?
    Rina stood in the corner. I watched her for a few seconds before it all clicked together. She had put one hand on each of us. Dedrick had miraculously shut up for a while, and even though she hadn’t uttered a word so far, Rina seemed to be doing something while touching me.
    I gasped. Dedrick had astral traveled. He stomped over to me, cornering me against the glass cabinet. I wanted to get away from him, but my only escape would be through him, and the thought of my soul passing through Dedrick’s body made me feel as if my stomach heaved.
    “Quickly.” Dedrick waved his hand for Rina to come back to us. “Again, but this time to someone who won’t be able to sense or see me.”
    She hesitated at first, but Dedrick harshly clapped his hands, and she rushed over.
    “No!” I begged. “Don’t help him.”
    She kept her head down like a timid, abused animal. Dedrick grabbed her arm but fixed his attention on me.
    “Gregory,” he sneered. “You know him well enough now, don’t you? Your lost kindrily member, Harmony’s big strong soul mate, the man who stabbed your brother to death right in front of you. I’m sure you can picture him with precise clarity.”
    His words sent flashes of memories rushing through my mind. The night Dedrick and Gregory attacked my family and me. When I saw Harmony’s old photo of Gregory and realized who he was. The night I walked into the Luna house and saw him restrained on the couch. The loving gleam in his eyes whenever he looked at Harmony.
    Rina pressed her hand against me again. Dedrick’s eyelids fluttered shut.
    I gaped at Rina. “You’re using my power to help him astral travel.”
    She slightly nodded as if answering me.
    “Stop it!” I had finally learned to use my own ability, and now some strange little girl was stealing it so Dedrick could spy on my kindrily. I swung at her with my free arm then tried kicking her, but she didn’t move. Her hand remained locked on my arm like some kind of supernatural glue keeping me stuck in place. “I swear, if you help him and he hurts any of my kindrily, I will destroy you.”
    Her eyes flew open, and she stared at me so intensely I felt her eerie darkness seep into my soul. Her lips slightly puckered. She made no other movement or sound but coldly and silently, she told me to shhh .
    “Like hell, I’ll shhh.”
    She was no longer a scared little girl. She radiated confidence but had the same vehement air as Dedrick. She didn’t have the snakelike eyes that were an indicator of Dedrick’s mind control, but she obviously had power and let Dedrick use it on demand.
    I assessed the room again: no doors, no windows, no rugs on the dirt floor, thick solid stone walls, a flimsy mattress on the floor with one dirty blanket spread across it, and a tattered plastic curtain that hung from the ceiling in the corner. Was it concealing a makeshift bathroom? Did the girl live here in an awful room that felt like the underground ruins of a forgotten basement?
    My attention snapped back to Rina, catching onto the fact she had shushed me seconds ago. That meant she heard me—even though I was only in spirit form.