I Am Titanium (Pax Black Book 1) by John Patrick Kennedy Page A

to keep the energy from escaping. Calm. She had to stay calm.
    “Shut up,” she said. She’d meant to be nicer.
    “He killed Dr. Black!”
    And the guy pushed her.
    That was it.
    Scarlett swung one hand through the air. A hazy ball of sparks and heat flew out of her hand and slammed into the man, knocking him into the wall. He bounced off and crashed into one of the chairs.
    Her teeth chattered. Oh, no. She wanted to apologize, but just now it would be a bad idea. “Just shut your mouth and stay the fuck away. Give him some time. He just needs some time.”
    She should have known it wasn’t going to work. To them she was just a… a kid. They weren’t going to listen to her. Why should they? They were doctors .
    But she couldn’t let them interrupt Pax. Not now.
    Unfortunately, in pushing the doctor away from her, she’d made herself a target, and now everyone was glaring at her. Couldn’t they see they’d forced her to attack?
    She held her hands out in front of her. They were shimmering with heat.
    A couple of big nurses moved to the sides of the room, trying to sneak up behind her. The rest of the staff, five of them, formed a group in front of her. They were going to rush her all at once.
    What she really wanted to do was curl up in a ball and cry. She should just let them try to crash through that supercharged force field and see what happened.
    It’d probably kill them.
    If she lashed out at them, she’d probably kill them.
    If only… if only they would just stop… and listen….
    She lowered her arms. The two big nurses grabbed her by the arms…
    They pulled away, shouting and staring at their hands. Blisters were coming up on the thick skin of their palms. She’d burned them.
    Of course she’d burned them. The tiles under her feet were melting. The ceiling panels above her were turning dark gray. The air was shimmering around her. Couldn’t they see ? No. They were too sure of what they already knew to see anything else.
    On the bed, Julie’s ruined, splintered chest arched upward and fell back again. Pax held his hands over her. His face was intense with concentration.
    He was keeping her alive somehow.
    And in horrible pain. Behind the force field, Julie’s face looked gray. But her muscles were so tight her neck looked like it was being pulled upward on cords. Her mouth stretched so wide it looked like her jaw was going to dislocate. Her open eyes gaped without seeing anything but horror.
    Let her go. But even if she screamed it, Pax wouldn’t hear her.
    The only thing she knew was she couldn’t let him get distracted. Not now.
    Damn it. Where were those astral fucks when you needed them?
    One of the doctors retreated back into the corner and took out her cell phone. Someone with some sense . Too bad Scarlett wasn’t ready to let anyone else know what was going on. Scarlett pointed at the cell phone with one finger—her hand wasn’t just shimmering with heat now, it was on fire— and the phone crackled and exploded in the woman’s hands and then started melting onto the floor. The battery pack burned next to her nursing shoes. The woman stared at her bleeding hand for a few seconds and then screamed.
    Scarlett realized it was useless: The staff in the hallway had probably already called the cops. Or the fucking National Guard. And why not? The room looked like a war zone.
    Mostly she felt horrified at herself. This had all spiraled out of control. She was supposed to be saving Pax, not unleashing World War III.
    But another part of her didn’t care. It felt the fire burning on her hands—felt the fire, but not any pain—and was crazy to try it out. To find out what might happen if she… if she stepped into the power that was hers now.
    She glanced over at Pax again, afraid he’d somehow heard that last thought. He couldn’t think badly of her. He just couldn’t.
    But he was still working on Julie, gesturing at her while she twitched on the bed. His dead, yet still suffering, mom.