by Sarah Biglow
“And if she can’t copy my power, then we’ve got another leg up.”
Spencer gave an exaggerated cough to draw our attention. “I’ve done what I could. I think it worked, but it felt like he was resisting me. Like someone else had been in his head already.”
Like Lena had controlled him. “Thank you for trying,” I said before Tina could start complaining.
“We should meet up in the morning and fill everyone in,” he said.
“Why wait?” Tina replied.
“Because it’s late and I’m tired. I’m pretty sure the world isn’t going to end overnight,” Spencer replied, his statement punctuated by a yawn.
“Fine,” she huffed.
Spencer gave me a weak smile, as if to say ‘she’s your problem now’ and left the house. I didn’t like the idea of leaving Tina alone in case her mother returned home and Spencer’s mind control failed. But I also knew we weren’t nearly ready for a sleepover. There was also a part of me that doubted Tina would wait until morning if left to her own devices.
“I guess I’ll see you in the morning,” she said.
“You aren’t getting rid of me that easy,” I said and poked my head into the kitchen. Officer Boudreau sat at the table staring off into space. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t exactly trust you not to go rushing off headfirst into danger. So, I’m going to keep you company.”
“You’re staying the night?” I caught the hopeful timbre of her voice.
“Not like that. Just give me some pillows and blankets. I’ll camp out on the couch.”
“Oh no. Not a chance. She comes back and sees you asleep on the couch, she’ll know something’s up. It’s safer for you to just crash in my room.”
I wasn’t going to win this argument, so I let her lead me back to her room and watched as she pulled extra pillows and blankets out of her closet before she tossed them at me.
“I mean, we could always share the bed,” she said, laying back against the mattress.
“And give your mother even more ammunition, no thanks. I don’t think I can handle her fury at me betraying her and possibly deflowering her daughter.”
“God, did you just flash back to the 1950s or some shit?”
“Very funny.” I settled on the floor. “This will be fine for me. And don’t you dare think of sneaking out. I’m a very light sleeper.”
She mimed crossing her heart. “I promise.”
As we lay there in silence, I couldn’t help wonder what tomorrow held. We’d been trained, but not to fight others like us. And maybe that was the point. She knew we didn’t know how to combat powers and there wasn’t time to learn either. We’d have to wing it and that meant a greater risk of losing.
Chapter Seventeen
Tina
Keeping my word to Reese about staying put for the night wasn’t as hard as I’d thought. I didn’t sleep at all, but I managed not to go stir crazy, either. After listening intently for any sign that my mother was returning home—she didn’t—I turned my attention to watching Reese sleep. He looked so peaceful and cute resting on my floor. Just as dawn broke, I leaned over and brushed a few stray locks of blond hair off his forehead. He sighed and rolled toward me, his eyes opening.
“Guess you really are a light sleeper,” I said in a hushed tone.
“Told you.” He propped himself up on one elbow—or he would have if that elbow had actually been making contact with the floor instead of empty air—and gave me a dopey morning grin. “I’m honestly surprised you didn’t try to sneak out last night.”
“Yeah, well, I figured I didn’t need your lecture.” I rolled up to a seated position. “She didn’t come home last night.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. I didn’t really sleep much.”
“Not the words I was hoping to hear on the eve of battle,” he replied.
“Right because ‘I slept like a baby’ is so much better,” I retorted.
“When do you think we should head out?” I noted how he didn’t say Clayton’s name. I didn’t blame him. I’d done a pretty thorough sweep of my room after meeting my father to ensure my mother hadn’t somehow bugged me. It was still smart to be cautious.
“I say we go now.”
“What about your uncle?”
“Well we aren’t bringing him with us. We just have to hope Spencer’s mojo worked and sticks long enough for us to come up with a plan.”
Reese kicked off the blankets and levitated himself to his feet. I smirked at the obvious show of ability. He wanted me to know that he had control of his power and could be an asset in the coming fight. Like I didn’t already know that. I hurriedly grabbed a change of clothes and darted into the bathroom to make myself presentable. One couldn’t go to war in pajamas.
Clayton pulled the front door to the cabin open before I could lay a hand on it. He looked as if he hadn’t slept either, dark circles rimmed his eyes and thin veins of worry lines creased his forehead.
“Your friends are all here. You better come in,” he said and ushered us inside.
“Safe to say he knows what’s going on,” Reese whispered in my ear as we followed my father to the common area. Declan and Henry leaned side by side against the mantle. Spencer and Marisol shared the couch, their hands clasped tight. I noted Felipe and Taylor were also present. As fighting forces went, it wasn’t much of an arsenal.
“How much did they tell you?” I asked, eying Clayton.
“That your mother has been experimenting on herself, giving her the ability to mimic powers,” he answered.
“We’re going to stop her,” I said, no hint of uncertainty in my voice.
“I can appreciate that you want to protect the people you care about, but she has been studying you all for a long time. She knows how your abilities work and likely what weaknesses you possess,” he replied.
“She hasn’t studied mine,” I quipped.
“Of course, she has. Perhaps you most of all,” his tone softened as he approached me. “She kept you close, closer than any of the others. She knows how to push your buttons. She knows how to play on your emotions. She no doubt recognizes that your gifts are mostly untapped and unrefined.”
“What are you saying?” I snapped.
“He’s saying that you’re a ticking time bomb and she knows it. She’s counting on you losing your shit at the wrong moment and taking us all down with you,” Henry answered.
“Well if that’s what she thinks, she’s got another thing coming. I can control it. I’ve been practicing.”
“A few lessons over the course of a week isn’t the same as whatever she’s been doing for the last year,” Spencer added. “We still don’t know if she loses access to an ability when she changes up her method of attack or if she can call them up whenever she wants.”
I gestured to Taylor and Felipe. “I’m guessing she hasn’t met you two.”
They both shook their heads. “Not that we are aware of,” Felipe answered.
“Good. She needs some sort of contact with you to copy your power if what my Uncle Nick says is right. We just keep you out of her reach and we’ve got a couple of secret weapons. Besides, she can’t fight what she can’t see. And who knows, maybe tricking her into thinking she’s failed will give us an edge.”
“It’s worth a shot, but you aren’t going alone,’ Clayton announced.
“You aren’t going at all,” Henry argued, arms crossed over his chest.
“H is right, it’s too risky,” Felipe added.
Clayton held up his hands for quiet. “I appreciate your protectiveness gentlemen, but it is high time that Helena and I had a meeting of the minds.”
“As much as I’m ready to get some payback for almost being turned into human barbeque, how do we even know where she’ll be?” Declan asked from beside Henry.
It was a valid point. I doubted any of us wanted to go up against her at the Kirkpatrick Industries headquarters, her home base. She knew all of it like the back
of her hand. Besides, we didn’t have anything like that. Sure, the high school basement computer lab was our little haven, but it didn’t lend itself to waging war.
“I suspect I can draw her out,” Clayton offered up.
Before anyone could argue, a high-pitched keening sound erupted around us. I pressed my hands to my ears but it did little the drown out the wail. “What the hell is that?” I shouted, unsure if anyone could hear my question over the noise.
“Does anyone else smell smoke?” Spencer yelled.
“Everyone out! That way,” Clayton boomed, gesturing down a hallway that I knew led to bedrooms.
As I followed Spencer, I reached back to feel for Reese’s hand. His fingers slid into mine and I held on tight feeling like the floorboards beneath us shifted. I glanced down and immediately regretted it. The floor was in fact shifting as we moved. Boards peeled up at our heels one by one, hovering above our heads before shooting forward. Reese flung his hand out in front of him, deflecting the flying pieces of wood before they could collide with anyone.
“Where are we going?” I coughed, smoke thickening in the air.
Reese didn’t reply. Of course, he doesn’t know. Instead, he gave me a telekinetic shove onward. I staggered into the wall ahead of me, trying to keep my gaze focused on the next person ahead of me. I heard a whining and a snap and turned to see the roof beams consumed by flame, sending ash raining down where Reese stood. He kept the beams aloft, but it was definitely taking its toll as sweat glistened on his face.
“Go!” he yelled.
“Not without you,” I called back and went to join him. I could feel the magnetic pulse of the electronics in the basement below, but they were still too far to do anything useful. At least, that’s what I had assumed. Until I spotted little bits of metal slithering up through the holes in the floor. I flexed my fingers, urging them to move faster and they obeyed.
“We don’t need shrapnel. We need a shield,” Reese bellowed.
You can do this.
I tugged at the metal, twisting it, smoothing it into a sheet in front of us. It gave us just enough cover to hold back the barrage of legit bullets that came suddenly ripping through the room. Each one collided with a ‘ping’. Beside me, Reese grunted and the beams above our heads shook ash down on our heads.
“We need to move,” he huffed.
He wasn’t wrong. With as solid a shove as I could muster, I sent the shield rocketing back the way we’d come, hoping it would knock out whoever had decided to use us for target practice. I barreled deeper into the compound, unsure of our destination until I felt a massive hand out of nowhere grab and yank me hard to the right.
I staggered and coughed the smoke out of my lungs as I realized Declan had snagged me, pulling me outside. Reese came tumbling after me and it was only then in the hazy orange light of sunrise that I noticed the blood staining his shoulder. He’d been hit.
“Fuck,” I said and pressed a hand to his arm.
He winced, but pushed my hand away. “I’ll be fine,” he said.
It was then that I realized Taylor’s invisibility field was up and running as I spotted Uncle Nick burst through the burning compound, gun drawn. He looked around in confusion.
“I was sure they came this way,” he called to someone behind him.
“I guess my mind control didn’t work so well,” Spencer wheezed, wiping grit from his glasses.
Uncle Nick’s head whipped around, but he faced the opposite direction from where Spencer stood. I’d assumed Taylor’s power created essentially a soundproof barrier in addition to hiding whatever was inside her sphere of influence. I’d been wrong.
My mother emerged from behind Uncle Nick and looked around the space. “Oh, they’re still here. I can feel them. Their fear is palpable.”
“None of them can turn invisible,” Uncle Nick quipped.
“None of ours can. But that’s not all you have, is it, Clayton?” she called.
I watched as he started forward. I wasn’t ready to let him face off against my mother. Maybe it was my proximity to Felipe, but I couldn’t shake the image of losing Clayton. I flung my arm out in Clayton’s direction and he staggered back a step or two. He looked at me and mouthed ‘I’m sorry.’
I stood rooted to the spot while the compound burned behind my parents. Uncle Nick shuffled off to one side as Clayton emerged from the invisibility field.
“Hello, Lena,” he said. “It’s been a long time.”
“So, this is where you’ve been hiding? Clever. I’ll give you that.”
“You may have kept me out of our daughter’s life, but I wasn’t going to leave her wholly abandoned. Besides, you forget, I was there at the beginning. I knew what we’d discovered. I knew what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands.”
“Ah yes, and you believe mine are the wrong ones,” she replied, waving her hands for effect.
“Giving them to the government to use as weapons is not the right thing to do,” Clayton replied calmly.
“That was your problem, Clayton. You always thought your own altruistic aims were more important. Were better.” She made a sweeping gesture and flames erupted behind Clayton, forcing our small group to back pedal.
Unfortunately, some of the flame leapt onto Taylor’s shirt. She let out a squeal before Declan could put it out. It was enough of a distraction that her barrier failed, revealing the rest of us.
“So, you’re Monica’s little cousin. A pity you didn’t follow in the family business.”
From behind Taylor, Henry’s hands grew bright blue as flame rippled over his skin. He cupped it into his palms before lobbing it at my mother. She deflected it without even lifting a finger. Her expression read ‘bored’ as she telekinetically grabbed Clayton by the throat. The fact his face turned beet red almost instantly told me she was depriving him of oxygen.
Reese moved to put himself between Uncle Nick and me. I wasn’t convinced Uncle Nick had known he’d been shooting at me. Spencer had said he thought someone else had been controlling him. If Spencer had discovered that trick, I had no doubt she had, too. It was obviously a skill she likely delighted in using on other people. I pushed Reese aside.
“Uncle Nick, it’s me. It’s Tina. You don’t want to hurt me.”
His gun wavered in his hands, but he didn’t lower it. “You’re on the wrong side of this, kid,” he said.
“I don’t think I am. She’s using you. Like she uses everyone else around her. She made you break the law. You never wanted to do that. I know you didn’t. Just put the gun down. Don’t let her control your life any more than she already has. She’s not worth it.”
Uncle Nick blinked and the confusion lifted. He lowered his gun and turned to look at my parents. He took a startled step back at the sight of my father. “Lena, what are you doing?”
“Putting an end to a problem that should have been dealt with a long time ago.”
Clayton’s eyes began to bulge as his brain starved for oxygen. No way in hell I’m letting you take him from me. “Get your hands off my father!” I howled and charged forward. I didn’t realize what I’d done until I was already on the move. The electromagnetic field around me burst with energy. I pulled it around me like armor, letting it protect me. From deep within the collapsing structure of Clayton’s compound, I felt every piece of metal obeying my silent call. Bullets and spent shell casings zoomed into the air, some of them burning red hot and molten from the flames.
I didn’t care if they burned me. I wasn’t going to let this woman take my father away from me again. I watched as the pieces came together, building an elongated coil of malleable metal. It was putty and I wound it around my mother’s wrists, twisting tight until I could see blood. Clayton went flying backward, slamming hard into a tree.
“I am done letting you control me and hurting my friends and the people I care about,” I growled, watching the metal dig deeper into her flesh.
“You have no one but me, Christina,” she spat back.
“That’s where you’re wrong. You tried to isolate me, keep me away from people who would understand me and accept me … I found them anyway.” I advanced on her. “I am a better person, because of them. Better in spite of what you tried to mold me into.”
I caught sight of a large metal desk flying through the wreckage of the compound behind us and ducked just in time to avoid it slamming into me. My mother wasn’t so lucky. She crumpled to the ground in a heap, unmoving. All of the energy that had been coursing through me vanished and I collapsed on the ground, chest heaving. It was over. It had to be.
Chapter Eighteen
Reese
My first instinct was to rush to Tina’s side and make sure she was okay. Still I also couldn’t shake the feeling that things weren’t over. Sure, Lena had taken a beating from all the metal Tina had summoned and it looked like she’d lost a lot of blood. If she in fact had Declan’s ability of super strength and rapid healing, we were in for a long fight.
“Everyone else okay?” I called, taking a moment to check on the others in the group.
Aside from Taylor, everyone else seemed mostly okay, if a bit shell-shocked while covered in soot and ash.
“This is not over,” Marisol said softly, clinging tightly to Spencer’s arm.
Declan cracked his knuckles beside them. “Bring it.”
I got no reply from Clayton and that worried me. He’d struck the tree hard. I cast a wary glance at Officer Boudreau. He stood motionless, eying Lena, weapon ready at his side. For the moment, he wasn’t a threat. I skidded to my knees in the grass beside Clayton and felt for a pulse. It was faint, but still present. I started to heave a sigh of relief when I noticed the splintered bone poking out through his pantleg.
“Declan, come here, I need you,” I called.
“Whoah, that’s uh not good,” he commented as he appeared over my bum shoulder.
“Do you think you can get it back in place or at the very least inside his body?”
