“Shhhh.” I poke him as his heavy boots clang against metal. Of course, he doesn’t feel a thing.
Once we’re gathered upstairs, Kyle performs a quick check of the offices before declaring we’re alone. “There’s a shotgun and a box of shells in one of the offices.”
“Excellent.” Matt ducks inside the office and grabs the gun and ammunition.
Paige sits on a box, her wings sending a cool breeze over my skin. Addison sits on the floor. Erica tightens the strings on her bow and sorts her quiver of arrows. Kyle opens one of the boxes to find it full of chocolate, which he hands out to everyone. Joe and Hal slip down to the concrete floor. Matt touches my shoulder and indicates a quieter area around a stack of boxes.
Around the corner, the light reduces and I let my eyes adjust.
“I could use a moment,” Matt says, perching on a box. “I really hope those soldiers don’t come back. Not sure how much death I can take in one day.”
I slip down next to him. “Did you run into anyone in the woods?”
He tilts his head. “One. I’m still having nightmares.”
I push away the image of a deadly hellhound. “I don’t think I’ll ever stop.”
“I never really thought about how I would feel.” He runs a hand through his hair, pulling at the roots. “I just wanted to leave the city. Get out from under President Bear. I mean, I knew there’d be death and blood, I’m not stupid, but I didn’t realize it would haunt my dreams the way it does. I barely sleep more than an hour at a go anymore.”
“Nighttime is the worst when you’re alone with your thoughts and you can’t get out of your head.”
“Exactly.”
“Come find me when you feel like that. I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night.”
Matt presses his lips against my hand. “Ditto.”
I hold out my hand to him. “We have each other. And it’s not just us, but also the whole population of the cave. We’re not alone.”
A flicker of movement catches my eye. Too late, I notice the footprints in the dust. A whirling blur hurtles toward me. As I leap to my feet, I catch sight of naked skin and reptilian eyes. A heavy pain slams into my shoulder. I buckle to one knee and sweep my other leg toward the attacker. But he’s strong. Focused.
Matt calls for help as I swivel on my hands and regain my footing. The shape comes at me again. A series of front punches, roundhouse kicks and a back thrust kick which I barely manage to block. Whoever it is has some serious technique. Adrenaline courses through me.
I dodge the next attack, and the assailant sails into a box before springing up almost immediately.
As I prepare for another attack, Matt asks, “What do I do?” I risk a glance at him. He stands next to a stack of boxes, shuffling his weight from one foot to the other.
“Just stay there.”
I sense the others behind me. The small scratching sound of Erica nocking an arrow.
The assailant stands a few feet away, sizing me up with his reptilian eyes. Wearing only underwear, intricate animated tattoos snake around every inch of olive skin, defining his toned muscles.
Sensing him about to pounce, I attack first, dashing forward with a snap punch, then a low sweep that makes him stumble. Before he can catch his footing, I press forward with a series of knee strikes and punches. He trips over a box and falls backward.
Joe and Hal rush forward and grab the attacker’s arms, pinning them behind his back.
“Watch his legs,” I warn.
Matt turns to me, his blue eyes wide. “What the hell was that?”
“What was what?” I ask, resting my hands on my thighs.
He steps close but doesn’t touch me. “What you just did.”
“What are you talking about? You’ve seen me fight before.”
Matt shakes his head. “Not like that.”
“Yeah, Silver, it was like you’d taken a speed nanite,” Kyle pipes up. “You were as fast as me.”
The others stare at me, all nodding.
“That’s impossible,” I say, a smirk ready on my lips.
Joe pushes the attacker onto a box and chains him to a radiator with a couple of cable ties. “I always wondered how you took out that hellhound. Not even I could manage that, but if you had speed…”
My thoughts spin. “But I’ve never taken a nanite.”
Erica’s wings turn a deep forest green. “Your parents are genetic scientists. They didn’t have to give you a nanite.”
“My parents would never—”
Matt tilts his head. With his hands on his hips, he narrows his gaze at me. “They helped a lot of people in vitro. And corrected mistakes from the earlier nanites.”
I try to back away, but I’m pinned between the railing and their damning stares. “Yes, but…”
Then something my father said in the woods comes back to me. About when the modifications started to take a turn for the worse. That he and my mother knew an unadjusted would never survive. But that didn’t mean they’d tampered with my DNA. Did it?
No. They wouldn’t.
“I’m not… one of you.” The railing at my back digs deeper, but I push against it, looking for a place to escape to.
Panic flashes through my limbs. My breath catches in my throat. I can’t go down this route. I’m not an alt.
After Diana died, I promised myself I’d never take a nanite. And it’s not like I haven’t been tempted. I can see how much easier it is for the altereds. I would have been a black belt two years ago if I’d taken strength or speed.
But I promised, and that means something to me.
Diana died because of a nanite, and if I… it wouldn’t be fair. No. That’s not what’s happening here. In time, the others will see it’s just me, Silver, an unadjusted.
I swallow hard and push the thoughts aside, focusing on the person who’s just attacked me. “I think it’s more important we find out who this is.”
His reptilian eyes blink, just once. A forked tongue escapes his wet lips. “I thought you were the army.” He points a finger at Joe.
Joe looks down at his camouflage trousers. “Easy mistake to make. But no. We’re not army.”
The boy’s shoulders slump. “Then who?”
I edge closer. The boy gasps, his narrow pupils widening to almost human. “You’re Silver Melody.”
Matt tenses.
“How do you know who I am?” I snap.
The boy presses back against the wall. “Everyone knows who you are. The reward—”
Joe lunges forward and pushes his arm into the boy’s windpipe. “Are we going to be able to let you leave this warehouse?”
The boy nods vehemently. “Not going to turn you in.”
“How do I know I can trust you?” I ask.
The boy coughs and Joe eases up a little. His tattoos swirl and snake around his body. “Because there’s no place for me out there anymore. I’ve been hiding in here for a week.”
Matt offers the boy a sip of water from a canteen. “Out with it, then. Who are you and where did you come from?”
Recognition kicks in. “You’re Jacob Shea,” I say.
He nods.
“Jacob who?” Erica flutters closer and inspects the prisoner.
Kyle pumps a fist into the air. “Hell yes you are! Dude, I knew I recognized you. What happened? Last year you got wiped out of the World Championships. Had your legs swept out before you could teleport—”
“Thanks for the reminder,” Jacob says bitterly.
Kyle’s smile drops. “Sorry, bro. That was some hardcore action. Dude, I have a hologram of you on my wall.” He holds out a hand for a knuckle punch. “Well, my old wall.”
After a couple of seconds, Jacob obliges. “Thanks for the support.”
“So what happened?” I ask. “You dropped out of the circuit after that competition?”
“My dojo master disowned me. When he lost money on a bet, he kicked me out of the apartment he was renting to me and my mom.
We left, then Mom and I got separated when all the shit hit the fan.”
“Where’s your mom now?” Matt asks.
The reptilian eyes narrow, the pupils turning to yellow slits. “I don’t know.”
“Unadjusted or…”
“Unadjusted,” Jacob says.
“She’s probably in a compound,” I say.
Jacob looks at me, his tongue sweeping between his lips. “Are you all adjusteds?”
“No!” I cross my arms.
Then I look at us all. Two bulks, a fairy, a girl with green bird wings, a speedster. A seven-foot girl with flaming hair who looks like an altered, though her freakish height is just a blip of nature. Matt. And me. What am I, exactly?
Erica bursts out laughing. “We’re all altereds.”
I look at the group, and they all stare at me like I’m some sort of animal in a cage at a traveling carnival.
“I am not an altered,” I snap. “Where the hell would I have gotten speed from anyway?”
Kyle taps my shoulder. “Maybe it was me? Before you ran, I touched your shoulder and you got that cramp.”
“Yeah, but…” Kyle had never made direct contact with me before that. Claus has always been careful not to pit us against one another, what with Kyle’s speed advantage, and I’d complained every day. How would I learn to beat an altered if I couldn’t spar with one? I shake my head. “I’ve been in contact with other altereds before and nothing’s happened.” I look at Joe.
“I helped dress your wounds, but that was when you were unconscious,” he says, frowning.
“Why don’t we try a little experiment?” Erica reaches out to touch me.
I recoil. “Not you!”
Erica laughs. “It’s not so bad having a pair of wings, you know.”
I hang my head, a flush of shame heating my cheeks. “I’m sorry, it’s not that. I just… It’s too much.”
It’s not who I am. It’s not who I want to be.
Matt doesn’t say anything, just looks at me with the most pitying expression that snatches the breath right out of me.
Paige approaches. “I’ll do it.” She holds out her hand.
Burying my trembling hands in my chest, I try to breathe. I focus on a regular rhythm, like Claus taught me. The panic still tickles my limbs, but I don’t think it will ever go away until I get this over with. Until I prove them all wrong. I killed the hellhound because I trained. I fought this new boy, Jacob, because I trained. Soon, they’ll see that.
Matt whispers in my ear. “It’s worth a try, Silver. I’m right here. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
I roll my eyes. “Let’s get this over with. A big, fat nothing.”
I step close to Paige and grab her outstretched hand. The pain hits immediately in waves. Hunching over, I wrap my hands around the railing and grit my teeth. Someone gasps.
Breathing heavily, I lift my head, easing my grip from the railing.
Everyone stares.
Joe’s jaw drops. Matt reaches for my hand. A wide grin splits Kyle’s face in half. Hal stumbles backwards until his back presses against the office window. I glance at Paige, looking for reassurance. She smiles, an uncertain twitch at the corner of her lips. Erica gives me a condescending eyebrow, her wings a smug shade of aqua blue.
“Well, I’ll be…” Addison mutters.
Above my head, two brilliant blue wings hover. They move when I roll my shoulders, rising magnificently, feathers ruffling as they undulate up and down. A shorter wingspan than Paige’s, but impressive all the same.
But they can’t be mine. I’m not an altered. I don’t amass abilities at the merest of touches. That’s impossible.
I don’t want this.
“I am not an altered!” I try to stamp my foot on the ground, but I’m no longer standing as my wings lift me into the air. Panicking, I cycle my legs, trying to find a sense of balance. My stomach drops and my wings beat faster.
I reach the ceiling and grab for the light fixture. The wings try to pull me higher, but I hold on to the flimsy cable.
“Let go, Silver!” Matt calls, his hands cupped around his mouth.
“I’ll fall!”
He leans over the railing. “You have wings. You’re not going to fall.”
I’m squeezing the light fixture so hard I’m in danger of shattering it. “I don’t know how to use them.”
Erica laughs. “And yet you’re on the ceiling.”
I glance down at my friends again and am accosted by a severe dizzy spell. They seem so far away. If I fall… I squeeze my eyes closed and try to ignore the hammering of my heart and the corresponding beating of my wings.
“Deep breaths,” Matt says. “Focus.”
I will the breath into my aching lungs. Gradually, my heart rate settles, as do my wings.
“Good,” Matt says. “Now, try flying down here.”
I shake my head.
“I’ll help you,” Paige says, her green wings gliding close to my blue ones. “Take my hand.”
With her eyes locked on mine, I count to ten. Her expression never changes. Her long dark hair shifts around her face. She keeps a reassuring smile on her lips, and her eyes plead with me to trust her.
“You can do it,” she says.
Before I can think about it anymore or how many bones I might break if my new wings refuse to work, I reach for her hand. There is no pain this time. I reach for her other hand, and suddenly I’m pulling her down, my wings doing nothing at all.
“Concentrate.” Her wings beat furiously. “Feel where your wings are.”
There’s a twitch at my shoulder blades and a great whoosh as my wings comply with my wishes.
A small smile splits through my anxiety.
“That’s it,” Paige says. “Now we go down.”
Still holding hands, I slow the beating of my wings until we both step over the handrail and stand among our friends once again.
“I’d say that price on your head just got a little higher,” Erica says. There’s no sarcasm in her voice. Instead I detect a hint of fear.
I ignore her and bite down on my trembling lower lip. “I don’t know what this means.”
“It means you have abilities,” Matt says, grabbing my shoulders and forcing my eyes to stay on his. “That’s all.”
“That’s all?” I goggle at him. “I don’t want abilities. I will not be taking on any more.” I cross my arms over my chest.
How can something like this happen? I blink away the disbelief. Denial blooms, but denying the obvious won’t help. Just like dwelling on the past, which never got me anywhere.
Without warning, Erica jumps off the box she’s been sitting on and grabs my hand. A new pain ripples along twin tracks next to my spine. The blue wings disappear and the cream wings of a cabbage white butterfly appear in their place. They flutter with a chitinous rustle and feel much lighter than the previous wings. And they’re half the size of Erica’s.
The amazement at my new wings and what’s happening to me is dwarfed by a furious anger. What right does she have to inflict her ability on me? I open my mouth to hurl a few abusive words at her, but Joe gets there first.
“Erica, you shouldn’t have just grabbed her like that.” Joe glares at her. “Didn’t you hear her? She doesn’t want any more abilities.” He steps toward me, offering a hand.
I step back. “I don’t want to be a bulk.”
Joe stops. “Sorry, I wasn’t trying to…” He backs up.
“No offense,” I add.
Joe holds my gaze, his face unreadable, then he turns away. Shit.
“Don’t dismiss other abilities so quickly.” Hal nudges closer, keeping his hands clear. “You could be useful.”
“Useful?” The hurt balls in my chest.
Hal grimaces. “Don’t take that the wrong way.”
Tears prick my eyes. “How am I supposed to take it?”
Before he can respond, I turn my back, ignoring Paige’s and Matt’s sympathetic looks, th
en run down the stairs. Which is harder than it seems as my wings keep fluttering and lifting me into the air. I scramble down a long aisle and around a corner, not caring whether other stowaways might be in the vicinity. Footsteps thud after me.
At the far corner of the warehouse, where I can sit in mostly darkness and pretend wings aren’t protruding from my back, I hunch into a corner and weep. I don’t even try to bite the tears back down.
Diana. I promised her I’d never take a nanite, but now it’s been forced on me.
In such a short time, I’ve become everything I despised. An altered. The worst kind. How can my parents have done this to me? I clench my fists and roar, my yell echoing off the concrete walls.
Matt comes around the corner and slides down the wall next to me. Without talking, I reach for him and bury my face in his chest. Moving around a crumpled wing, he rubs my back, shushing me. The familiar shape of his body curls around me.
“My parents did something to me,” I say, wiping the tears from my cheeks.
“It looks that way.” Matt absently plays with the ends of my hair. “There’s a modification I’ve heard about, but it’s not accessible by a nanite pill. It has to be done in vitro.”
I lift my head. “What was it?”
“DNA harnessed from a chameleon. They’re able to take on any background they pass through.”
“You think I have a modification similar to that?”
“Seems like it.”
I shudder. “I’m never going to be able to touch anyone ever again.”
“Not true. You’re touching me.” He hugs me tight, proving his point. “And you can now come in contact with Paige and Erica.”
But not Joe. I’ll never be able to come in contact with Joe.
I sag against him. “I can’t believe she gave me her stupid fairy wings.”
“They’re not that stupid.” He runs a finger over the fluttering membrane. A tickling sensation makes me shiver. “They’re actually quite beautiful.”
Half-heartedly, I punch his arm. He grabs my fist in his palm and kisses my knuckles. “They are.”
“Does this mean I have to join Anabelle’s mean girl crew?”
Matt gives a half-grin. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“If you’d have told me a week ago that I’d have fairy wings and…” I drop my head into my hands. “Oh, man.”
The Unadjusteds Page 11
