D E L P H I N I U M

We were out in the hallway for much longer than I'd anticipated. Nothing that was said in the conference room was audible, though I wasn't sure I wanted to hear what they were deciding.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Finn asked, eyeing the closed door.

"I don't know if you forgot or if you're just stupid, but you know I have superhuman senses, right?" Arlo asked. "Shut up so I can hear them better."

Everyone was quiet as Arlo stared into space, listening to the conversation. After what seemed like too long, Jaxon questioned him, "Hear anything interesting?"

Arlo seemed to snap out of a stupor, "What? Yeah, they were talking about doing what's morally right, or something like that. Needless to say, I lost interest."

Riley sighed, "Of course."

Gigi said quietly from where she was standing in the corner, "They didn't believe it. They didn't believe that Imperium is back."

I didn't say anything, though I knew their return was personal for her, as well. Her mother's death had been at their hands.

"Delphinium, was what they said true? Has the Romanian government really taken control over the fortress?"

I paused. "I don't know. Imperium is clearly back, but how would the council get the information that the Romanians were taking control of the operation?"

"Someone fed them bad information," Jaxon declared. "We need to find out who it was and why they did it."

The words had just exited his mouth as the door to the conference room opened, revealing Hunt's assistant again. "They've reached a decision," he informed us and gestured for us to enter the room again.

All the heads in the room turned to watch us as we walked back in. I didn't sit down, impatient to hear what they'd decided.

"Your accounts of what happened in Romania have been heard," the woman with the sleek blonde hair said, folding her hands on the table before her. "We've come to a conclusion."

"Adiago Hundsen will be our priority," a short man in the corner told us. "He's openly attacked government officials several times, not to mention his countless other crimes. The FBI will be searching day and night for him."

"What about Imperium?" I asked, fearing that their answer was going to be what I'd expected.

The woman who'd spoken kindly to me earlier got up out of her seat and put a gentle hand on my shoulder. "Delphinium, Imperium is gone. You killed them all. The Club is after you, not your old enslavers."

In a mixture of anger and panic, I wrenched my arm from her grip. "You're wrong! They're back, I saw it with my own eyes!"

The glasses and various pens on the table rattled as I struggled with the grip on my telekinesis. The counsel members seated closest to me leaned away, unsure of what I would do.

"Delphinium, you have a track record of being paranoid after your escape from Imperium. Even after you were released to go back home, there were four counts of battery and assault filed against you that our offices had to clear up. You have a habit of being a bit too quick to assume someone is out to get you."

One.

I stood in the crowded train that my grandmother had sent me on, the bodies of the other passengers jostling against mine with any small movement. My heart hammered. I didn't like to be so close to these people I didn't know.

Sudden movement caught the corner of my eye. A woman next to me pulled a small black object out of her purse. A gun? A bomb?

Not a single thought other than the desire for survival crossed my mind when I knocked the bag from her hands and kicked her against the wall of the train car. The fear in her eyes was too familiar to me.

Her purse's contents laid about the floor, splayed under the shocked passengers' feet.

There wasn't a gun in sight.

Two.

As I was walking home from school one day, I was keeping a look out for any signs of attack. Not a single car driving by or pedestrian went unchecked. I couldn't afford to make a mistake; it might cost me my life.

I heard a deep voice grunt my name out from behind me. Too close. He was less than two feet away.

I pictured a knife swinging toward my turned back. I saw a gun aimed at the back of my head. I saw an enemy behind me.

In one fluid movement, I spun around to face my enemy and drove my fist into his face. There was a snap as his nose broke under my knuckles.

As he grasped his bleeding nose and bruising face, I'd realized that he was just a normal person who recognized me from my famous family. A fan of my last name and what came with it.

Three.

It was one of those rare times that my grandmother was without her usual entourage of people. We walked together in the darkness of night. I grew increasingly uneasy as we walked, not liking to be outside this late without carrying a weapon.

We were returning from one of the weekly therapy sessions that the ONNT had forced me to go to after I'd escaped. It was part of the deal I'd made with them: I would keep my power and past a secret and begin to lead a normal, crime-free life and in return, they would clear me of all the criminal charges I'd garnered as Orion's personal killer. The sessions did nothing for me except make me realize how little I fit into the normal world after what I'd been made a part of.

Earlier, my grandmother had been griping about how her driver had had to park the car so far away to drop us off. Now, as we walked together through the empty parking lot where we were going to be picked up, I secretly agreed with her.

As we walked together, still maintaining a cold space between the two of us, I saw two dark figures standing underneath a yellow streetlight. My brows lowered into a frown when I realized that we would have to walk right past them.

My eyes remained glued to the two people illuminated in the pale light. Their conversation stopped once we got close. Who were they? Why were they here so late?

I could see their eyes glittering in the light as they watched me. In my mind, I saw two dark eyes in a mask, heard the impossibly deep voice, saw his calm composure before he had me beaten into submission by faceless soldiers.

One of the two people took a step towards us. That was all it took. My fingers curled into fists.

There was a horrible screeching sound as the metal off a nearby parked car was ripped off and sent hurtling towards the people. It hit them and wrapped around their bodies as if it was paper. They screamed and struggled as their metal prisons tightened around their fragile bodies.

Four.

The school library was quiet other than the occasional whisper or clicking as a book was placed back on a metal shelf.

I was sitting at a table, doing the work that I'd missed since I'd transferred to the school after the deal with the ONNT. I was very aware of how vulnerable my back felt, facing the open space of the massive, student-filled room.

As I stared down at the papers before me, I attempted to focus on the work and ignore the sense of impending attack I had.

A hand was placed on my shoulder. I jumped, surprised. By reflex, I swung my hand out and buried my blue pen in the persons leg. I realized what I'd done when I looked up and saw the kindly face of the school librarian crumpled up in pain.

My heart sank. I was too paranoid.

"I have a habit of assuming people are out to get me because they usually are," I replied flatly, struggling to keep my power under control as my anger flared.

"Not this time." The woman shook her head sadly and several members of the counsel watched me with a mixture of pity and fear in their expressions. "Not the people you think."

"No!" I screamed and the building rumbled. The counsel members gripped the table as my power shook the walls and floor. "Your ignorance is going to get us killed! You'll believe that they're back only once they've won. We've already waited too long. We can't wait any more!"

"We need evidence, Delphinium. We need more to stand on than the word of a PTSD patient who has been known to lie, and-"

I cut her off by lunging forward. I wasn't even sure what I was going to do, but I needed to do anything I could to convince them that I was right. The building rumbled and shook with the might of my power.

Kane grabbed my arm and wrenched me back like I weighed nothing. "Let it go, Delphinium," he muttered to me in that serious calm of his as he held me back. "We'll talk about it later."

The doors banged open as ONNT soldiers flooded into the room. I knew they were here because of my outburst.

"You'll be sorry, mark my words," I said, realizing how crazy I was sounding to them. "You'll regret not listening to me when you had the chance." The soldiers pushed us out the door and escorted us to the cars that were waiting to pick us up outside.

I didn't care. I didn't care that the soldiers' hands were too tight on my shoulders. I didn't care that they were forcing me to walk.

They thought that I was nothing more than paranoid. They thought that I was seeing things. They saw me as a damaged tool that they could utilize.

They didn't believe me.