Empowered Academy 1985 Read online

  I had to make a decision fast, though, as the boulder didn’t fully conceal Ramsey and me. Even though they were running for their lives as Mr. Novak, Caitlin, and Chad mopped the floor with their accomplices back by the boats, they would definitely see us before they reached the boulder we were ducking behind.

  “Time to smash,” Ramsey said out of nowhere and, leaving me no time to react, leaped out from behind our ambush spot and charged toward the smuggler on the left.

  “Ramsey, no!” I cried, but it was too late.

  The two smugglers were completely caught off guard, but the one on the right was quick. Stopping on his heels, he raised his shotgun up and fired one off from the hip. He didn’t hit Ramsey, but the buckshot ricocheted off the boulder just as I stepped out of cover to help Ramsey.

  Fortunately, Ramsey was fast; he collided into the smuggler on the left before he even had time to raise his weapon, while the one who had already fired tried desperately to track Ramsey’s charging form. When Ramsey smashed into the man, he must have loaded all of his density into his shoulders, because he smacked into him like a wrecking ball swinging at full force.

  I didn’t know if the smuggler on the right would wait until he had a clean shot to fire at Ramsey again, and I wasn’t going to wait to find out—my dad would disown me if I got one of my classmates killed on my first mission. It seemed like a good situation for either one of the three powers I had absorbed in the boat, so I decided to go with the simplest. Ramsey had caused such a ruckus that the smuggler who was still standing was totally focused on Ramsey, which made it easy for me to line up a textbook dropkick right into his ribs. I leaped into the air and just as I shot my feet out, I increased the density in my feet and calves as much as I could.

  The end result was spectacular: my combat boots shot into the man’s ribs like two heavy pistons, and his entire body crumpled against the weight and force of my super-dense dropkick. His shotgun went flying into the sand as he let out a strained grunt.

  I wanted to take advantage of the unconscious stupor he was sure to be in and tie him up quickly, but I noticed something concerning happening between Ramsey and the other smuggler that made me stop; Ramsey had been successful in tackling his man to the ground, but he was presently straddling him and raining blows down onto his helpless victim. Each blow looked to be loaded with extreme density, and if he kept going like that, I was sure he’d soon kill the man. Mr. Novak said himself that our main priority was bringing the perps in alive. I had to do something.

  Ramsey was about twice my size, so there was no way I’d physically step in to stop him, but luckily, I didn’t have to. Just as he rose his fist up for another strike, I glared at him, locking him in place with Caitlin’s power. He looked bizarre frozen like that, with one bloodied fist triumphantly up in the air.

  “W—what the hell!” he managed to get out through clenched teeth.

  That answered one of the questions I had had about Caitlin’s power—whether or not targets could still talk while frozen.

  “Stand down, Ramsey!” I commanded, almost shocked at the dominant tone of my own voice. Ironically enough, I was pretty sure it was the influence of Ramsey’s power itself that was making me so assertive.

  “Let go!” Ramsey growled again. I could feel him struggling against me. He was so strong that he actually started to move—jerkily, as though he was one of the Architect’s malfunctioning test robots—so I refocused and channeled all of my energy into keeping him in place.

  “Mr. Novak said to take them in alive, not kill them,” I said. Sweat had started to dampen my temples from exertion.

  “L—look out!” Ramsey growled in a choked voice.

  I had been so focused on keeping Ramsey immobilized that I had nearly forgotten about the other smuggler that I had drop kicked. When Ramsey warned me, I turned my attention in the smuggler’s direction just in time to see him raising the shotgun toward me. I used Caitlin’s power to freeze him right before he was about to fire, and a split second later, Ramsey plowed into him.

  I was exhausted from having used my powers so much—and in such strenuous situations—but it seemed as though both threats were neutralized. The one that had just tried to shoot me had been finally KO’d by Ramsey’s tackle, and if we were lucky, the other one he had pummeled with his ultra-dense fists had only been knocked unconscious, not beaten to death.

  Despite my exhaustion, however, I felt exhilarated. It hadn’t been a clean bust by any means, but I’d successfully used my powers against real criminals—something I’d wanted to do since my dad first told me about EMPs.

  Ramsey, however, wasn’t too pleased. He got up and strode over to me. His dark-gray uniform was scuffed with sand and there was still blood on his hands. I could see the frustration in his eyes, and while normally I’d find it intimidating, now I only found it curiously stimulating—invoking my powers to their fullest always incited this sense of excitement in me that bordered on arousal.

  “What gives, preppy?” Ramsey asked, getting right up in my face. He was more than a head taller than me, and when he came up to me I smelled his sweaty musk, a somewhat sweet and woody aroma that heightened my already growing arousal.

  “‘What gives’ is that you were breaking protocol,” I fired back. “There was no need to keep pummeling that man. We’re supposed to take them in alive.”

  “These guys are scumbags, you spaz,” Ramsey said, gesturing with one hand to the two unconscious smugglers on the beach. “They deserve everything they got, and then some.”

  “They are scumbags, and that’s why we can’t stoop to their level! Why does it always come back to the same argument with you?” I said, furrowing my brow in frustration.

  “Because you can’t seem to get it through your head how dangerous the real world is,” Ramsey growled back, his face no more than two inches from mine. “But I guess that’s too much to ask from the spoiled daughter of a—”

  I cut him off with a crisp slap across his handsome face, and he was lucky that I didn’t use his own power to make the slap much more painful. He was stunned, and justifiably so—even I had no idea that I was going to slap him; I just reacted, fueled by my emotions.

  “Don’t you dare bring up my family,” I hissed. “And what do you know about the real world? You’re just some hunk who cruises by on his good looks and thinks his whole life is just one big challenge to see how much—”

  Before I could finish my sentence, Ramsey leaned forward and planted his lips onto mine. My first reaction was outrage; I tensed up and tried to back away, but he had already moved his hand to the back of my head, pressing me closer into his powerful kiss. I squirmed in his grasp, but as he invaded my senses with his touch, his lips, the stubble on his chin brushing against my face, I realized that I wanted his kiss. Somewhere along the way, during all the bickering and all the arguing, I had begun to covet Ramsey, and now, with my emotions already at their peak from the danger we’d just experienced, I could no longer deny the fire blazing inside me.

  Emboldened by this realization, I clawed at Ramsey’s sweater and pulled him into me as hard as I could, standing up on my tiptoes so I could taste more of him. I was greedy. I felt Ramsey’s arousal pressing, stiff and board-like, against my stomach, and I wanted more. I wrapped a leg around his and arched up into his possessive embrace as his hands searched the curves of my body. I channeled all of my anger and frustration into our kiss while at the same time our powers coiled and entwined together through the meeting point of our lips, and I could feel myself absorbing massive amounts of his power which only served to empower and turn me on even more.

  “You guys there?” Caitlin’s voice rang out from down the beach.

  Ramsey and I broke off our kiss as soon as we heard Caitlin’s call. If Ramsey was like me, he too had completely forgotten about Mr. Novak and the other students and even the fact that we were here on an important mission. My head was swirling with confusion, arousal, anger, desire—so many different feeling
s at once—but I knew I had to pull myself together. Finally separated, Ramsey and I glared at each other, my lips still tingling with the memory of his kiss, my cheeks mourning the absence of his fine stubble that had just been stroking them. I couldn’t help but break eye contact for a moment to look down at the impression in his pants where his demanding erection stood out, and I felt my legs go weak as I realized that I was the one who caused that.

  It was too dark to see down the beach, but I could hear the others getting closer, so I forced myself to step away from Ramsey. I pulled a zip tie out of my belt pouch and went to bind the wrists of the unconscious smuggler closest to me. Ramsey did the same with the man he had first tackled.

  A few seconds later, Mr. Novak and Caitlin arrived. Mr. Novak commended us on executing the plan correctly, but none of them had any idea about what just transpired between me and Ramsey.

  The whole rest of the night, as Mr. Novak called in the bust and we boarded our boat back to the Academy, I couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss.

  Chapter 12

  Emily

  After that night, I got back to my dorm room and crashed immediately. Over the next few days, Ramsey and I avoided each other like the plague, and I didn’t even tell Lizzy about our kiss. Ramsey and I had one or two classes together and each time we interacted, we ended up arguing just as we had before, almost as though the kiss had never even happened—as though it had been a dream.

  But I couldn’t forget. I replayed that night back over and over in my head—the powerful way Ramsey had taken me in his arms; how safe it felt being pressed against his bulky torso; the overwhelming sensation of our powers mingling. It had been almost cathartic to vent all of my frustration toward him in that one kiss while at the same time letting my lust take control of me. In short, the kiss had left me feeling addicted, and I didn’t understand why neither of us brought it up afterward.

  Of course, mixed in with all of those feelings of excitement and lust were feelings of guilt. I knew that empowered women often had more than one lover, but I couldn’t help but feel like I had betrayed Edgar. He and I had begun to see more of each other ever since our encounter on the roof, and though we hadn’t sealed the deal yet, we would often spend lots of time together in one of our rooms, talking, making out, strengthening our bond. The more intimate he and I became, the more I felt my power grow, and I finally started to understand why senior EMPs and teachers always told us that romantic relationships were key to unlocking an EMP’s full potential. I wanted badly to go all the way with Edgar, but it felt wrong with things still unresolved the way they were between me and Ramsey.

  After a few days, however, I knew I couldn’t keep going on like this. The uncertainty between me and Ramsey and not knowing what I should say to Edgar was killing me, so I went to Lizzy for help.

  Lizzy was more than happy to hear all about my guy troubles. Throughout the entire time we’d been friends, I was always the one listening to her complain about some guy. Now it was her turn to be the listener, and she was actually quite good at it.

  “It’s normal,” she said to me. We were in my room studying together on my bed when I finally brought it all up to her. “Everything you’re feeling, I mean. Relationships can be... weird sometimes. That’s why the best thing to do is just tell them.”

  “Tell them?” I asked, scrunching my face up as I tried to understand her.

  “Yeah. Just talk to both of them about it. Get it all out in the open. If Ramsey really is meant for you, then you have to bring it up eventually. And if Edgar is serious about the two of you, then he’s going to have to accept Ramsey as well.”

  I let myself digest what she said for a moment. “It sounds easy, but isn’t that a lot to ask of Edgar?” I asked.

  “That’s what I thought about Blink at first too,” she said. “He can be very possessive, but he knows that’s just how things are at the Academy, and he loves me enough to accept it.”

  I couldn’t help but giggle. “He ‘loves’ you?”

  Lizzy nodded proudly. “Yep. He told me. Both him and Wesley, actually.”

  None of Lizzy’s high school boyfriends had ever told her they loved her. Knowing that Lizzy and her Academy boyfriends had said the Big L Word made me realize that we really were grown up now. At the same time, I wondered how amazing it was to have somebody tell you they loved you. I certainly had never had that experience; not only had I never had a boyfriend until recently (if Edgar counted as a boyfriend, which it seemed like he did), but my dad had never even told me he loved me. The whole idea of parents telling their children they loved them seemed weird to me, in fact. It was just not a part of my reality.

  “That’s amazing, Liz.”

  “It is,” she said with a grin. “And I’m sure you’ll find the same thing. To be honest, I never expected Ramsey to be your type, but nobody can deny their feelings, and you two certainly have some very strong feelings for one another.”

  “We have feelings, for sure, but I can never tell if I feel like strangling him or ripping his clothes off.”

  “That’s why you have to talk to him about it,” Lizzy said. “Just be open and speak with your heart. I promise you it will work out one way or another.”

  Before either of us could say another word, there was a knock on my door, which freaked both of us out. It was around seven in the evening, I wasn’t expecting guests, and in fact this was the first time anybody had ever knocked on my door at the Academy.

  Lizzy and I shared a weird look before I said, “Coming!” and went to open the door.

  I almost jumped out of my skin when I saw who it was on the other side: Ramsey. He looked unlike his usual cocky self; he seemed somewhat exhausted and uncertain.

  “Ramsey, h—hi,” I said, unsure of why he had come here.

  Lizzy was quick; she had already gotten up and was squeezing her way past Ramsey out the door. “Hi, Ramsey,” she said. “I was just leaving.”

  Once she was out into the hallway, she turned around and raised her eyebrows meaningfully toward Ramsey, as if telling me to invite him inside, and then scurried away down the hall.

  Ramsey seemed a little shaken that Lizzy had been there when he knocked—perhaps he had expected me to be alone?

  “Sup,” he finally said when Lizzy was out of sight. He ran a hand through his wavy hair in a gesture that almost looked nervous.

  “Um, do you want to come in?” I asked.

  Without answering, Ramsey walked past me into my room. I shut the door behind him.

  The air in my room felt pregnant with Ramsey’s presence, as though he was changing the molecular structure of my dorm’s walls and furniture just by being here. Originally, Lizzy had been the only person who came to my room, and recently Edgar had started to come too; now, Ramsey was officially the third person to enter my room, and it felt like each person left their mark on the room somehow.

  Ramsey went and sat down on the reading chair next to the fireplace, his massive frame making the chair’s legs groan underneath his weight. I immediately felt out of place in my own room, but I couldn’t just stand there by the door, so I sat on the edge of my bed near the reading chair Ramsey was in. I had already changed into my pajamas—cotton short shorts and a big t-shirt without a bra underneath—because I didn’t think I’d be leaving my room again tonight, nor was I expecting any random visitors. As I sat there, I saw Ramsey’s gaze wandering up my bare thighs, which caused my thoughts to flash back to that night on the beach when we kissed. I started to feel hot and flustered and annoyed; why did he have so much power over me? How could he make me feel so out of control with just the way he looked at me?

  He let out a big sigh and finally tore his eyes away from my legs and hips. “We need to talk,” he said.

  “We do?”

  Ramsey looked back at me, this time in my eyes. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”

  “What?” I cried, jumping back reflexively as though his words had been shot out of a cannon. “Wh
at are you talking about?” My brain had just about short-circuited, and though it was a stupid question—since I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about Ramsey either—it was all I could stammer out in the moment.

  “Ever since that night,” he said, rising to his feet as he spoke, seemingly unable to sit still. “And it’s been driving me crazy.” He was pacing around near the fireplace now.

  I watched him walk around my room, and for the first time since I met Ramsey, I felt sympathy for him; sympathy because he looked exactly how I felt—confused, conflicted, frustrated, impassioned. A walking contradiction. I suddenly remembered what Lizzy had just told me: Speak with your heart.

  “Me too,” I said quietly. It felt like the bravest thing I had ever done.

  Ramsey stopped in his tracks. “What?”

  “Me too,” I said, louder this time. “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you either. I don’t know why, but I just keep thinking about that kiss. I thought I hated you, but then I keep wondering why that kiss felt so good, asking myself what would have happened if the others hadn’t come by...”

  “It felt good?” Ramsey asked. He had stopped pacing and was looking straight at me now.

  “Yes,” I said. My nipples were stiff against my loose shirt, and I wondered if he was staring at them now. I wondered if I was making him excited like I had on the beach that night.

  “Then why have we been avoiding each other?” he asked, taking a step toward me, closing the distance between us.

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I don’t understand these feelings.”

  “Maybe you don’t have to understand,” he said quickly. “You said yourself it felt good. Do you want to feel good again?”

  Ramsey was standing over me now and I didn’t have to wonder anymore if my legs and breasts were turning him on; I could see it in his pants. He looked even harder than he had been that night on Gardner’s Island. I could only see the outline of it through his pants, but it looked thick, just like Ramsey’s muscular forearms. I knew what he was doing. I knew what he wanted, and a part of me wanted it too. The part of me deep in my core, near where I felt my power lay; the part of me that was inflamed and that threatened to set the rest of my body ablaze.