that killing her was not on my mind. My instincts had told me to give myself over to her, and it appeared that drive had been echoed in her as well.
When enough time had passed, I assumed then that you wanted what I wanted. The secret wish of my heart. To have a sister once again. If this was not your desire, then I am sorry, Lily. I assure you that it was never my intention to draw you away from your course or to eradicate your essence to assert my own will. If you doubt this, you have the ability to read my heart as well as I can read yours.
When her thoughts quieted, I closed my eyes and felt for her warm presence inside my mind. At first I was only aware of a heartbeat, and I wasn’t sure if that was merely the beat of my own corporeal heart or if there was a part of her that still existed on another plane. Stretching beyond the physical, I went deeper and Tia bared her soul to me. I wasn’t sure how long we were inwardly communicating, but when I opened my eyes, I had the answer I was searching for.
“Tia is a part of me now, Dr. Hassan. You don’t need to worry about us. We’ll work well together. The only exception being her craving for raw meat. That’s going to have to change. A rare steak or some sushi every so often is all you’re going to get.”
Oscar looked at me for a long time and then nodded. “I hope for your sake you’re right, Lily.”
Reaching over, I took his fingers and squeezed. “We’ll be okay. I promise.”
He gave me a worried nod and then said, “Well, I suppose the first thing we need to do is show you your weapons.”
As I followed him over to his dusty bag, which he’d left in the shadow of a large boulder, I said, “We will miss our claws.”
He seemed uncomfortable by my use of the plural, but he recovered quickly, coughed, and said, “About that. You have claws.”
I could feel the sudden thrill in Tia. “Wait. Do you mean we have a weapon that looks like claws?”
“No. You’ll have to draw on the power of the sphinx to make them appear.”
“How do we do that?” Tia asked through me, but then apologized and took a mental backseat again.
He replied, “Normally, I’d say you have to channel the huntress, but since she’s there…”
“I should just let her take over?”
“That would be my guess.”
When I nodded and figuratively turned over the keys to Tia, it was a strange feeling. I became smaller somehow. It was as if I was seeing things from a distance. It wasn’t a frightening thing. In fact, I felt protected, as if I’d been shrouded in a warm blanket and I could just sit back and let someone else take the reins for a change.
In a sort of fog, I half listened to Oscar instructing Tia on how to channel her power, and when she called upon it, an electric burst of energy surged through my body. I was suddenly very alert but my own senses were numb. With fascination I watched my hands change.
There wasn’t any pain, only a fiery sort of warmth that burned, but not in a bad way. The bones lengthened, a liquid heat tingling toward each of my fingertips, until an extra knuckle formed. Power rushed down my arms and silver light emerged from the tips and flowed out from each digit until finally solidifying into steel claws. I twitched my fingers and lifted them in fascination.
Holy Egyptian Heaven, I thought. I’m Wolverine!
Tia didn’t understand my reference, but the exhilaration she experienced was indescribable. She felt invincible, more like her true self. She waved the claws in the air before testing them out by scratching a large boulder. A chunk of stone carved completely off the rock. Oh boy. We’d better be careful with those, I warned her.
“They are perfect,” she murmured aloud, causing Dr. Hassan to wince yet again.
Uh, how do we get back to normal? I asked, not as comfortable with my new set of claws as Tia was. Tia voiced my concern to Dr. Hassan.
“You retract them,” he said. “Reabsorb the power into your core.”
Before I could even ponder what to do, the claws had disappeared and I was staring at my own pale hands once more.
Easy, Tia said to me with a smirk that I could tell