Page 31 of Bitten By Desire

If it was about me, then I should be able to listen, right? I squinted at the back of my father’s head as he became more and more agitated.

“I wouldn’t experiment on my own child. If you’re looking for an excuse to pressure me, you don’t need one. Everything is riding on this. Yes, it’ll be ready to test soon. Just give me a little more time, please. You want this to go right, I know you do.”

What was he testing? I wrinkled my nose and tried to remember what I’d seen at his lab when he took me to work with him last weekend.

“Go inside and question him,” commanded a loud voice.

I threw my hands over my ears and searched around for the source. A giant of a man made of stone stood in my living room. He wore a black and gold uniform and glowered down at me with black holes for eyes. I tried to run, but he caught me with one enormous hand and tossed me back against dad’s door, which gave way, sending me onto my hands and knees on the carpet.

But Daddy didn’t notice. He just kept talking on the phone and facing the other way.

“Ask him who he’s working for,” the giant said.

Instead of fear, a wave of anger engulfed me. He wanted me to hurt my daddy somehow. I knew it. I glared up at him, defiantly.

“Leave me alone,” I told him as my body buzzed with the words. My voice sounded funny—like it was even louder than his. Bigger than the giant.

He turned without another word and disappeared into thin air.

I stood and brushed myself off as the world around me changed. Sparkling stars and streaks of rainbow lights danced around me as my body stretched and grew. I stood as my adult self once again, suspended amidst a literal universe of possibility.

“Welcome.” The voice was at once familiar and out of place. But I recognized the long hair and wide eyes of the woman materializing before me. The only time I’d seen her in person, she’d been half opaque. But now she stood as clearly as I did, her golden-brown waves pouring over the deep copper skin that shone where her blue chiton did not cover. Her pupils were unnaturally large, but around them, a halo of emerald green shone like jewels.

“Pythia?”

A wide smile revealed dimples in her cheeks as she reached out her arms for me. I hugged her tight, feeling a touch less lost.

“Don’t use up your energy,” I said, throat thick with emotion. “I can’t lose you even for a little bit.”

“No worries, Charlotte. This time, you’ve come to me.” She held me at arm’s length to look me over. “I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about the weapon. You needed to come here, to see the truth for yourself.”

Betrayal twisted deep in my gut, but I breathed through it. I couldn’t always depend on someone else warning me. I had to think things through on my own. If she offered help, I’d gladly take it, but if I angered her by arguing, would she ever help me again?

“What truth was so important?” I asked instead.

Around us, portals opened, each framed in a different, brilliant color that pulsed so intensely I couldn’t make out what was on the other side.

“Dimensional doorways,” Pythia stated in answer to the unspoken question. “In the blue and purple, you will find truths.”

“What happened to the general?” I asked, suppressing a shiver at the memory of his fathomless eyes and granite skin.

“You used mind bending. He will leave you alone to explore. He doesn’t know he’s given you a gift. The machine you wear in your birth dimension amplifies the part of your mind where your psychic abilities are located. For others, it’s too overwhelming and confusing. For you, it just takes getting used to if no one is forcing experiences on you as the general attempted. Poor fool.”

It was impossible to feel sorry for the man that put me in this situation, even if he claimed he regretted it. It obviously wasn’t enough regret to stop him. “What is he?”

Pythia tilted her head, making her hair spill over her shoulder like a waterfall. “Take the blue door if you want to know.”

I pressed my lips together lest I start arguing. Instead, I steadied myself and asked, “Who are you?”

“I told you. I’m your guide.”

That explained nothing, so I tried something more concrete. “Why are you dressed like you’re from ancient Greece?”

“I’m Pythia.”

Anger flared but then it was like a bucket of ice water poured over my head as understanding dawned. “You’re The Pythia? As in, the Oracle at Delphi?”

She nodded and I wanted to sit down, but there was nowhere to do so while floating in the cosmos. “Why are you my guide?”

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