by Kelly Oram
I didn’t wait for an answer before grabbing his hand and dragging him toward the door. The doctor who’d recognized me ran frantically to block my exit from the room. “Miss! Miss! Wait! Do you know who you are?”
I glared at him. “Sorry. This examination is over.”
“Miss Baker, please. You have complete doctor-patient confidentiality. We won’t tell anyone.”
“No, you won’t,” Major Wilks’s deep, powerful voice boomed. He and the other ACEs had barged into the examination room, guns drawn, ready to act.
I snorted. “Not that I’m thrilled the secret’s out, but what are you guys going to do, waste the country’s best neurological doctors to keep my secret safe?”
Major Wilks was not amused. After giving me a look that I rolled my eyes at, he addressed all the stunned doctors. “The Angel’s identity is classified and considered a matter of national security. If it’s leaked, we will figure out who leaked it and we will treat it as an act of treason met with the severest punishment.”
Treason? “Aw, Major, I had no idea you cared so much.”
“Miss Baker.”
I’d never heard a man sound more exasperated. “Sorry. I can’t help it. Sarcasm is my go-to defense mechanism when I’m nervous. That’s followed closely by violence, so really you should be grateful I’m cracking jokes instead of blowing things up, because I am seriously freaked out right now.”
Dr. Rajeet stepped forward, gazing at me with total awe. “Miss Baker, you have nothing to fear from us. Please, there’s no need to leave. We have so many questions. We could learn so much about the human brain and what it’s truly capable of from you.”
Bye-bye, sarcasm. Hello, rage. “I won’t be your science experiment! That’s how I ended up in this mess in the first place. I just want my memories. Can you or can you not get them back for me?”
The group of doctors exchanged glances before each giving me defeated gazes.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I’d known this would be the answer. I knew coming today that these tests weren’t about retrieving my memories. It still hurt. “I’m done.”
“But Miss Baker—”
“No. I can’t do this anymore. If there’s no chance at all in recovering my memories, then there’s no point in my being here.”
“Jamie,” Ryan started.
“No. I’ve done what I came here to do.”
If Donovan’s partner was going to be drawn out, then he was already in this room. My leaving because of my memories and refusing to be tested on just for the fun of it would only work in my favor. I met the major’s eyes. He seemed to share my thoughts. “All right, Angel.” He sent one last glance to Dr. Rajeet. “You’re absolutely positive there is nothing that can be done?”
With a small nod, Dr. Rajeet sighed. “I’m sorry.”
“Okay, then.” He nodded to the ACEs to all leave the room. “Let’s let Miss Baker get changed, and then we’ll take her back to the hotel and discuss her plans for the future.”
. . . . .
Once in the bathroom where I was able to change back into my clothes, my nerves settled a little. It was quiet in there, and calm. I was alone for the first time in what felt like days. I found myself wishing I had several more layers to put on, because I’d slid on my dress and sandals much too quickly.
My body ached and my head was pounding all of a sudden. I wasn’t ready to go back out there. Wasn’t ready to face reality, deal with questions and media, make plans for the future, or worry about Donovan. So many people were waiting for me now. After months of seclusion, I simply couldn’t take it.
I needed to get out of here. I needed to get as far away from this place as possible. I needed to leave without anyone seeing me. I needed to escape.
A knock on the door startled me from my thoughts. “Jamie? You okay in there? It’s been fifteen minutes.”
Fifteen minutes? How in the world had I been in here for fifteen minutes? Gathering my focus—which took an insane amount of effort—I made sure I was presentable and stepped out of the restroom. Ryan waited for me with a worried look on his face. My parents were behind him.
“Everything all right?” Ryan asked.
Again, I had to collect my focus. I felt as if my brain were completely fogged over. Freaking radioactive isotopes and gamma rays. “I’m fine, I just…”
My voice trailed off. I wasn’t fine. I needed to leave. Now. Escape.
“Jamie?”
“It’s nothing…I…” I couldn’t breathe. I was starting to sweat. “I have to go.”
I stepped past Ryan and he grabbed my hand. “Babe, what’s the matter?”
“Nothing.” What was going on? Ryan’s hand gripping mine felt so good, so right. But when I looked at him, all I felt was panic and the need to run.
I was going to explode if I didn’t get out of here right now. Pulling my hand out of Ryan’s, I hurried for the exit. But not just any exit—the staff exit, out the back. I needed to get out of here without being seen.
“Jamie?”
“Sweetheart?”
“Miss Baker?”
I ignored everyone.
“Jamie!”
People scrambled to catch up with me. My instinct was to use my superspeed and run away to a place no one would ever find me. At first I did. In the blink of an eye, I burst out of the exit in the back of the hospital. But once I felt the sun on my face, I stopped and tried to calm my breathing. This just didn’t make sense. Why would I run from Ryan? From my parents and the life I’d been so desperate to discover?
“Miss Baker?”
The soft, gentle voice startled me so badly that I whirled around and nearly roasted the man standing just to the side of the exit, but the moment I saw him, my intense panic stilled. Something about him put me at ease. It was strange, but undeniable.
He was a slender man who looked like he had some Asian heritage in him. Naturally, I was wary—I hate doctors and strangers, and this man was both—but something told me I should trust him. He was familiar. He wanted to help me.
Again, this was insane. Why would I feel safe with a strange doctor, who could easily be the man we’d come here to find—Donovan’s partner—and need to run from the people helping me, the people who’d been earning my trust.
“Hello, Miss Baker.”
“Who are you?”
He didn’t answer my question. Instead, he frowned and reached out a hand toward me. “Are you feeling all right? You look unwell.”
“I—” I didn’t want to talk to this man, but he was right. I did feel unwell. “I don’t know what’s wrong. My head…everything seems so…strange…”
I stumbled, suddenly dizzy, and my new friend caught me before I fell.
My new friend? That wasn’t right. Was it?
I looked at the man and he smiled. His smile was nice. He was nice. I could trust him.
“Miss Baker, I’m Dr. Chen. Would you like to come with me? I can take you someplace safe and we can figure out what has you feeling so disoriented.”
I shook my head. Go with him? I didn’t want to go with him. That wasn’t right. But I did want to go with him at the same time. “I don’t know. This doesn’t make any sense.”
My emotions were all over the place. I started to lose control of my power, and when the energy rose up inside me it cleared some of the confusion in my head. The energy filled with comfort. This was familiar. This I knew. I had powers. Great powers. I wasn’t helpless. I didn’t need anyone’s help if I didn’t want it. Maybe this man was a friend and maybe not, but I had time to figure that out.
I stepped away from the doctor and let my energy flow enough that my eyes lit up. “Keep your distance. Something’s not right, and I don’t know you. I can’t trust you.”
Dr. Chen’s face flashed with surprise, as if he genuinely hadn’t expected me to refuse. He held up his hands. “Easy, Miss Baker. I’m not here to harm you. I just want to help. Come with me.”
My eyes nar
rowed. There was still the inexplicable urge to go with him and to trust him, but I was slowly coming to my senses. “Go with you where?”
He didn’t answer that question. “I can help you get your memories back. I can restore the damage done to your brain.”
Everything stopped—the urges in my head warring against my common sense, my internal attempts to figure out what was happening, my anxiety, my power—everything. I froze completely, focused solely on his claim. “How? Everyone in that hospital said it was impossible.”
He stepped closer, his smile softening. “For them, it is. But I can do it.”
That sounded too good to be true. And in my limited experience, if it seemed too good to be true, it probably was. Still, I couldn’t squelch the hope flaring in me. “How?”
“I work with a brilliant man who has pushed past normal human limitations with both medicine and technology.”
“Donovan?”
Dr. Chen nodded once. “Yes, Dr. James Donovan. His methods are revolutionary. He has developed a serum that has extraordinary regenerative capabilities. I’ve seen it do miraculous things. It could reverse the damage done to your brain.”
I sucked in a breath. Desire and desperation washed over me.
“Come with me. Meet Donovan. Hear his proposal, and we will heal you, Miss Baker. You will remember again. You have my word.”
The urge to go with him rose up in me again, as if he had some sort of physical compulsion over me. It wasn’t as strong as before, but it was harder to resist now that he was offering me exactly what I wanted. I knew there would be strings attached, dangerous strings. But Donovan had created superthugs. He’d given people powers similar to mine. That should have been impossible. It was impossible for the rest of the world. If he could accomplish that, then what’s to say he couldn’t do the impossible where I was concerned?
“Would you like to come with me, Miss Baker?” Dr. Chen asked again. “Would you like to be safe and have your memories back?”
My heart started pounding. I did want that. Those words…there was something about them. They were compelling. I wanted nothing more in the world than to be safe and have my memories back.
I took a step toward him. His face lit up with pleasure and he gave me a gentle, friendly smile. There was nothing dangerous about this man. He was my friend. I could trust him.
He held out his hand and I started to slip my fingers into his grip, but stopped again. “Wait.” There was still something unsettling about all of this. “Everyone knows how badly I want my memories back. What’s to say you aren’t lying to me? You could just be telling me what I want to hear so that I’ll come with you. I know Donovan wants my power. How do I know there’s really a miracle cure waiting for me if I come with you? For all my abilities, I’m not a human lie detector, Doctor. How can I trust you?”
The man’s smile turned sympathetic. “I understand your hesitancy. You have, no doubt, been fed many lies about Donovan from your military friends, but it is them you cannot trust. They fear Donovan’s progress and want to keep such powerful discoveries as his to themselves.”
I frowned. That didn’t seem right, and yet it did. I’d felt so panicked in the hospital, and it had been Major Wilks and his team of ACEs that I’d been afraid of. In fact, just thinking of them now made my pulse spike. I didn’t want to be under their control. But I didn’t want to be under Donovan’s control, either.
At my reluctance, Dr. Chen pulled a small glass vial from his pocket that was filled with a light-pink liquid. “I can offer you proof. This is a small dose of the serum we would use to heal your brain. It won’t be enough to repair all the damage, but if you take it, it will be able to do enough that you will see what it is capable of.”
He held out the vial of liquid to me in an open palm. “Take it, completely free of any obligation, as a token of good faith from me. Then, once you see the effects of the serum for yourself, call this number if you’d like to make a deal with us.”
He pulled a business card from the breast pocket of his lab coat and held it out to me, along with the vial of serum.
Was there a downside to this? What could it hurt to just try it? If he wasn’t going to make me come with him right now…
After a moment’s thought, I took both the card and the miracle cure sample. I examined the tube closely and inhaled deeply. It smelled bitter and had the faintest hint of…blood. I looked sharply at him. “What’s in this?”
He gave me a rueful smile. “That’s a secret I cannot divulge, I’m afraid.”
I didn’t like that answer, but if it was such a special formula, I could understand the secrecy, I guess. “How do I take it?”
“It must be injected into the bloodstream. I can do that for you right here and now if you’d like, or you can wait and do it yourself, or have someone you trust do it.”
That last option sounded like a good plan. Though, I doubted anyone I trusted would let me pump a mysterious foreign substance given to me by James Donovan’s partner into my body. And I wasn’t sure at the moment if there even was anyone I trusted. No, it had to be him. I needed my memories. My memories held the answers I needed. They would tell me whom I could trust.
I handed the serum back to him with a curt nod. “Okay. Do it.”
It was as Dr. Chen pushed the serum into my arm and I felt the cold sting run up my vein that the ACEs walked around the corner of the building. Ryan called out to me, surprise and relief thick in his voice, while the others slowly approached me, guns drawn. “Back away from the girl,” Major Wilks shouted.
Though their rifles were pointed at Dr. Chen, my heart still jumped in my chest and I gasped. Something about the sight of the soldiers had me stepping closer to Dr. Chen instead of backing away. The need to flee was back.
Ryan took a step forward. “Jamie, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know.” I cut Dr. Chen a severe glance over my shoulder. “What did you do to me?”
“You’re all right, Miss Baker,” he said calmly. “Everything’s going to be okay. Come with me. Let’s leave right now, and I’ll make sure you stay safe.”
“Why do I feel this way? Something’s wrong with my head.”
“That’s just the serum,” Dr. Chen assured me. “That foggy feeling means it’s working.”
My adrenaline spiked again. It was working. I was going to have some memories back. I would settle for even one small glimpse of my past to confirm that I’d actually experienced the things Ryan had talked about. Not that I didn’t believe him, but a deep-rooted part of me needed that validation. I felt as if I’d never be complete without it.
“You can trust me, Miss Baker. We need to go see James Donovan. You do trust me, don’t you?”
At the mention of Donovan, the ACEs all stiffened. The tension kicked my anxiety up another notch. I nodded again, but the action was hesitant. I felt like I should answer yes, only I wasn’t sure that was the right answer. Just in case, I stood up straight, lifting my chin defiantly. “Stay behind me. They won’t hurt me.”
Ryan frowned. “Jamie, why are you protecting him?”
I blinked. I was protecting him. Why was I protecting the man I’d come here to capture? Chen was in league with the man responsible for my memory loss, but my brain was telling me to keep him safe. It didn’t make any sense.
When I didn’t answer right away, Ryan held out his hand to me. “Babe? Please? You’re starting to worry me.”
Looking at his hand stretched in my direction, my heart longed for me to go to him. I was so confused. My head and my heart were pulling me in half. I took a step toward him, and Dr. Chen grabbed me. “No, Miss Baker. Get me out of here, or you will never get more serum. You’ll never get all of your memories back.”
I froze.
“Angel, he’s manipulating you,” Major Wilks said. “He can’t give you your memories back.”
“I can,” Chen promised. “I’ve already begun the process. You will see soon enough. But I can’t help y
ou anymore if these men capture me. You must leave with me now.”
I was being pulled in so many directions that I got upset. What made sense logically was to trust Major Wilks. The only person I wanted to trust was Ryan. But I was desperate for my memories, and my head was shouting at me to go with Dr. Chen. To believe him, and to protect him.
I released my frustration in the form of a roaring scream. And okay, maybe I stomped my foot, but hey, possibly a drama queen, remember? “Enough!”
My energy rose to the surface of my skin, clearing my head a little as it had before. I grabbed Dr. Chen’s hand, making him gasp when I pushed energy into his body. “Go. Just run. As fast as you can. They won’t be able to catch you.”
“Jamie, no!”
All of the ACEs echoed Ryan’s protest. Major Wilks even added a few curses and threats. I didn’t care. The only thing that mattered was getting Dr. Chen to safety. As much of a pull as he had over me, though, I wasn’t affected enough to leave with him. That was asking too much of my nonexistent trust.
Dr. Chen’s eyes widened when he realized I’d given him power. He didn’t hesitate to take advantage of my gift. “Call me when you’re ready, Miss Baker,” he said, and disappeared.
Amidst all the angry questions, Tyson muttered, “I hope the superspeed makes the jerk puke.”
The joke was enough to snap me from my daze. My overwhelming need to protect and trust Dr. Chen faded when he left. But with him gone, I only had the soldiers to focus on, and my anxiety spiked all over again. The safety Dr. Chen had made me feel was gone, too. I felt alone now. When Ryan ran toward me, I panicked. “Don’t come near me!”
Ryan stumbled to a stop a few feet in front of me when he saw my hands thrust forward and my glowing eyes. “Jamie, what is it? What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know.” His worry confused me. “Just get away. All of you!”
None of the soldiers moved. They were trusting Ryan to handle me. It was a smart plan because he was the only one at this point that I could even consider listening to. The rest of them were nothing more than enemies holding weapons. People who wanted to capture me and control me. I couldn’t trust them. I needed to escape.
