“No, I’m totally not joking, I was worried you were going to light up, so that’s why I yelled, to distract you.” Ollie raises his hand like he might reach out to me. “Can we try it again?” There’s a glint in his eyes that shows off how excited he is.
I look around the room. “Like right now?” I’m torn between not believing him and worrying we’ll set the room on fire.
“Yeah, come on.” He pushes away from the table and comes around to meet me. I’m still seated when his hand circles my arm and pulls me to stand. Ollie’s eyes roam over me from head to toe, before he grabs the loose fabric of the long sleeve shirt I’m wearing. “Can you take this off?” My eyes go wide, and my mouth drops open in surprise.
Ollie ducks when Ares reaches out and swats the back of his head. “Geez, you don’t have to get naked. I just want to see your skin, at school I could only see your hand. We need to know if it was only on your hand because that’s close to where I was touching, or if it was all over but I couldn’t see it because it was under your clothes.” He lowers his head, looking a little sheepish. “While I would love to remove your shirt, that is totally not what I meant.”
I push up the sleeves of my shirt, exposing my arms up to the elbows. “Let’s just see what happens first.” Ollie nods and biting his lip, he steps closer.
First, I feel the slight brush of his fingers as he traces them from my hand then up my arm. Nothing happens. I do feel the warmth of his touch, but I don’t have the same heated desire to grab on to the feeling. He steps even closer. “What were you thinking this morning? Was it different then?” Ollie asks in barely a whisper.
I nod, swallowing hard, what if something does happen? I’m afraid. “Okay good, try to think about what you were this morning, try to recreate that feeling.” It’s Dante’s soothing voice from behind me. I know he’s close, but he’s not touching me.
“But what if something bad happens, what if I explode or something?” I can’t help but express my fears, I’m scared all this is true. Not as afraid as I am that it’s not, but still nervous enough that my fingers are shaking.
“Nothing bad will happen, even if you did explode Ares would stop it.”
“Damn it Oliver, ignore him Cara. You aren’t going to explode.” Looking over my shoulder I find Ares, he’s standing just a few feet away, near enough that should something go wrong he’s close. I don’t really want to think about all the powers he possesses that would make it possible for him to stop me from exploding if it were to happen. But I’m happy they are confident enough to think he could.
Ares nods his head to me, so I turn back to face Ollie. I close my eyes and think about the way his hand glides up and down my arm in a gentle caress, the heat trailing along with his touch and warming me from the inside. Just like in class this morning, I think about how much I like the heat, how I want to feel it all over me, how I want to feel that warmth inside me.
“Holy shit,” Milo mutters before he gets shushed.
Opening my eyes slowly I look down at Ollie’s hand, which is no longer moving on my arm, but his eyes are glued to my skin. Sparks of light are popping off my arm like tiny little sparklers under my skin. I can’t feel anything but the warmth. Reaching up with my other hand I hover my finger over my arm. That arm is covered in dancing light too, when they get close together they arc to each other like a visible static charge.
“Whoa…” Ollie jerks once, he eyes leaping up to mine. “Can you control the arc?” His voice is soft with wonder. I shake my head, I have no idea.
“Is it all over?” I run my eyes down my legs, but I don’t have any visible skin, so I reach for the hem of my shirt and lift. My skin is pale, but otherwise unremarkable. I let the shirt fall, a little disappointed.
Ares moves in closer, his dark eyes trained on my arms. “What are you feeling?”