Morgan took in a breath and closed her eyes once more, attempting to ignore the nagging feeling in her stomach. It didn’t matter, in the end, she told herself. Dylan was her father, no matter what genetics might have to say about it. It didn’t matter if Orrick was partly responsible for her existence.
I still have to kill him.
Morgan’s eyes shot open again. An involuntary jerk of her hand elicited a murmur from Lucas, whose fingers twitched in hers. She attempted to calm the pounding of her heart, but a sharp shock of adrenaline coursed through her. Lucas shifted again, his eyelids fluttering. At once, he sat up straight, completely awake.
Morgan looked at him apologetically. “Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
Lucas shushed her. “Pull over!”
The driver, a broad-shouldered man with a military buzz cut, kept driving as if Lucas hadn’t spoken. Greg turned around in the passenger seat, looking only mildly alarmed. “Lucas, we’re less than an hour from the cabin. Can you hold it?”
“Greg, I don’t have to take a piss! You need to tell that guy to pull over. Now.”
Greg started to say something, his voice taking on the soothing tone one assumes when a child wakes from a nightmare, but Morgan didn’t process his words. Instead, she was overwhelmed by the emotions coursing through Lucas: a swirling cocktail containing harsh notes of panic and terror. She glanced at their still-connected hands and squeezed his fingers, letting him know he had her support, even though she wasn’t entirely clear what she was supporting.
Lucas broke off in the middle of the explanation he was giving Greg and joined his energy with Morgan’s. Though he gave her no indication of what he planned to do, Morgan trusted him enough to allow him unfettered access to her abilities. Seconds later, the van began to slow, the engine emitting coughs and sputters. The driver attempted to steer toward the road’s shoulder while Greg glared at Lucas.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Greg demanded.
The van sputtered to a stop and Morgan felt Lucas release his hold on her abilities. As he opened his mouth to respond to Greg, the van gave an almighty lurch, and Morgan was afraid that it was starting to move again since she and Lucas weren’t forcing it to quit. It took a moment for her to realize that they weren’t jerking in a forward direction: their motion was a back and forth rocking that intensified with each passing second.
“It’s an earthquake!” She reached for the door handle, but Lucas leaned over and placed his hand on hers.
“Stay inside.” His mouth was close to her ear. His hand remained atop hers even after she released the handle.
Outside the car window, Morgan could see the treetops shaking against the starry backdrop of the sky. The tree trunks in front of them, bathed in the van’s headlights, twisted sinisterly. Morgan allowed herself to sink back into Lucas: somehow he alone seemed solid and unmoving.
A sharp, cracking sound came from their right. Morgan’s head snapped toward the noise, but it was too dark to identify an exact origin point.
“Trees are falling,” said the driver. “I don’t like just sitting here. Any one of these trees could fall, and too many of them could fall on us. We need to—”
“No.” Greg’s voice was firm. “This is the safest we can be right now. Earthquakes always stop eventually.”
“Natural earthquakes,” murmured the driver.
Morgan’s pulse quickened. The idea she hadn’t allowed in her mind suddenly appeared, fully formed, as if it had just been waiting for her to ask. “Lucas… The Veneret…”
“Shh.” Lucas shifted, causing Morgan to press closer to him.
Then, as if Lucas had commanded it, the ground beneath them stopped moving. Besides the trees still swaying as if in a breeze, there was no evidence of what had just occurred.
The van’s engine came back to life, and the driver lost no time in pulling back onto the road. Gravel from the shoulder kicked into the air as he pressed on the accelerator, and the tires squealed as they struggled to gain purchase with the pavement.
“Slow down,” Greg said.
“No way. We’re not safe out here.”
“Less safe with you driving like a maniac,” Lucas noted.
Greg glanced back at him, his stop-being-a-smart-ass-Lucas face already in place. “Speaking of safe, I’d prefer if you were wearing your seatbelt, Lucas.”
As Lucas dutifully shifted, Morgan was surprised to find she was still cradled against his chest. She sat up straight, feeling colder where his body had been pressed against hers.
“He’s right, though,” Greg said, speaking again to the driver. “It’s not safe to be going this fast. What if we hit a deer or something?”
The driver snorted. “It’s not the deer I’m worried about. How do you know the Veneret don’t have agents descending on our position right now? I aim to put as much distance between me and that quake as possible.”
Morgan couldn’t help siding with the man. Still, how could the Veneret know that they’d be out tonight?
The driver seemed to be contemplating this same question: he mumbled something under his breath that sounded remarkably like Kellen.
Greg groaned. “Again with this. We’ve had this discussion. Several times. Having him with us is a calculated risk—”
“You may wanna brush up on your math skills, Greg.”
“We have the situation under control.”
“Famous last words.”
“For what it’s worth,” Morgan said quietly, “I’m with Greg.”
The driver snorted. “You really think that Kellen kid’s on the level?”
Lucas, who had buckled himself in to the center seat instead of the one on the far right, stiffened and looked at Morgan. The expression he wore was guarded, and something about it made Morgan feel almost uncomfortable. It was Corbin who had routinely reacted to the mention of Kellen; Lucas had never seemed bothered by him before.
“No, I don’t think that,” she said after a beat. “It’s just… I think the measures the Watchers are taking are thorough enough to keep Kellen from being a danger. I mean, they’ve got him on drugs to keep him from using his abilities. He rooms with Wen so he’s not getting into trouble while the rest of us are sleeping. He’s never alone—not in that cabin. I just… I don’t see how he could be behind this.”
“You trust him,” Lucas said, so quiet that Morgan was sure she was the only one who had heard him.
Morgan’s mouth twitched. She wanted to say no, of course she didn’t trust him, but the words wouldn’t come. She didn’t not trust him, but she knew she didn’t—couldn’t—trust him, either. She took in a deep breath and released it slowly. Resting her head on Lucas’s shoulder and closing her eyes, she murmured, “Wake me when we get home.”
Chapter Sixteen
When Morgan awoke the next morning, the room seemed brighter than usual. She glanced across the room to Joss’s bed to find it empty. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she glanced at the alarm clock on her nightstand. The green numbers told her it was just after one o’clock. She rubbed her eyes again and looked a second time to confirm. Flashes of the previous night tumbled through her mind’s eye and the late wake up time made sense. When she, Greg, and Lucas had made it back to the cabin, it had been nearly six.
After a big yawn and stretch, Morgan climbed from her bed, got dressed, and made a quick stop in the bathroom. When she emerged into the hall, she could hear voices coming from the living room.
“You don’t know all the things I’ve done.” Kellen’s voice was a low murmur, so low that Morgan wasn’t entirely sure she’d heard him correctly.
“Doesn’t matter.” Lia’s voice was gentler than usual. “So long as you want to turn away from all the bad stuff. And I think you do—otherwise you wouldn’t be here. You’d still be there.”
Morgan emerged from the hallway to see Kellen, shirtless, draped over a couch across the room from where Lia sat, legs curled under her, a thick book on her lap.
&nb
sp; “You really believe someone like me can change?” Kellen asked.
“Depends. Do you believe it?”
Morgan paused at the mouth of the hallway, feeling like she was intruding on something she shouldn’t overhear. Seconds ticked by and when neither Lia nor Kellen spoke again, she continued on her journey into the kitchen.
As she moved through the room, the atmosphere changed. Kellen rolled off his couch and followed. “So, Morgan,” he began conversationally. “Late night?”
“Actually, it’s midday,” Lia called from her couch.
“Actually, no one’s talking to you,” Kellen shot back. Then, turning his attention back to Morgan, he hitched his thumb in Lia’s direction. “She’s crazy about me,” he said in conspiratorial tones. “Look how jealous she gets when my attention is on another.”
Lia snorted.
Morgan opened a cupboard and surveyed her cereal options. “Sounds like a personal problem,” she said to Kellen, not bothering to glance in his direction.
“Nah.” Kellen hoisted himself up onto the counter top. “My only problem is curiosity.” He leaned over so that he was laying on his side, his head propped up in one of his hands. “See, I’m like a cat that way: curiosity just kills me.”
“I’ll send flowers to the funeral,” Morgan said, pulling down a box of generic honey-nut O’s. As she opened another cupboard for a bowl, she caught a glimpse of Kellen out of the corner of her eye. “Would you get off the counter? Nobody wants to prepare food where your sweaty armpit hair has been.”
He didn’t move. “Based on what I’ve seen this morning, I’m thinking it was you, Man Teach, and Boy Wonder out on some sort of super-tippy-top-secret mission last night. Am I right?”
Morgan poured milk over her cereal and headed to the table. “Yep. Our meeting with the aliens went well, by the way. They’re almost finished building the death ray.” She glanced in his direction and rolled her eyes.
“Hm. So not a super-secret mission, then.” Kellen sat up and propelled himself off the counter with his arms. “If not that, then…” He laughed, snapping his fingers. “I know! To pull you out of the funk you’ve been in since Christmas, Man Teach orchestrated some bow-chicka-wow-wow time for you and Boy Wonder.” He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Am I right? Come on. You know you don’t need to go to such lengths for a little fun. All you have to do is come knock on my door and say, ‘Kellen—’”
He stopped short, wiping a splatter of milk and cereal O’s from his face and chest. Morgan put her spoon back in her bowl and continued eating.
Kellen shot her an affronted look before making his way back to the living room, this time positioning himself beside Lia. “So, what’re you reading now? Habba… Hubba…?”
“Habakkuk.” Lia sighed, glancing over her shoulder toward Morgan. “I thought it was your turn with him.”
“Sorry,” Morgan said after swallowing a bit of cereal. “Maybe try to pawn him off on Joss?”
Lia laughed. “How do you think he ended up here to begin with?” There was a scuffling sound on the couch. “Look, I can’t stop you from sitting here, but keep your body parts to yourself.”
Morgan pressed her lips together to keep from smiling.
Greg emerged from the hallway that led to his bedroom, his hair damp like he’d just taken a shower. “Kellen, do you need to be confined to your quarters?” he said by way of salutation.
Kellen harrumphed and Morgan could hear a shifting from the couch. This time, she did smile.
Greg turned his attention to Morgan and beckoned for her to follow him. After dropping her empty bowl in the sink, she jogged to catch up with Greg as he crossed to the other hallway and approached Lucas’s room. He rapped sharply twice on the door and waited for a response.
“Just a sec,” Lucas’s voice answered. There was a shuffling within for a few seconds before the door cracked open. When he saw Greg and Morgan on the other side, he offered a smile and opened the door wider.
Without waiting for an invitation, Greg pressed past him and entered the room. Locking eyes with Morgan, Lucas shrugged and swept his arm wide: a tacit invitation for her to follow Greg. He closed the door once she entered and went to his bed to sit. Greg cleared a pile of clothes off the room’s only chair and sat in it. Morgan glanced around and, unsure where she should sit, shifted awkwardly on her legs, considering taking a seat on the floor. Before she committed to this, Lucas patted the mattress beside him. With a smile, she crossed the room to join him.
As soon as she was seated, Greg leaned forward, elbows on knees, his posture inviting them to lean in as well. “I’ve got some information about last night. First—most important—I think it’s best if you guys didn’t tell the others about, well, about any part of last night.”
Lucas nodded. “Kinda guessed that.”
“I’m sorry if it puts you in an awkward position—especially you, Morgan, since I know you and Jocelyn have been getting closer again and what happened last night might be something you want to tell her about—”
Morgan shook her head. “To be honest, it’s actually a relief. I mean, if you gave me the go ahead to tell her… I just… I don’t know what I’d say.”
Greg nodded, his eyes lingering on her face for a moment before he averted his gaze. “If anyone asks, you can even blame me. Tell them I’ve ordered you not to talk about it—whatever you’ve got to do. They can come see me if they want.”
“I’ll be sure to let Kellen know.” Morgan cast a sidelong glance at Lucas, gratified by his snort of laughter.
A shadow flickered across Greg’s face. “Speaking of our good friend…” He sighed. “The epicenter of the quake last night was right around where Kellen originally turned himself in to the Watchers. Now, that could mean a couple things. It could actually give credit to his story about defecting. Maybe the Veneret tracked down his last known location and thought that they could scare us by causing an earthquake there—just in case we were somewhere around there.”
“Or maybe they knew exactly where Kellen surrendered to the Watchers because the Veneret are the ones that sent him,” Lucas said darkly.
Greg nodded solemnly. “But either way, this shows us that the Veneret are changing tacks because they’re getting increasingly desperate. Clearly the stuff they’re doing back home isn’t drawing us out, so they’re trying to come after us directly.” He shook his head. “I’m actually surprised it’s taken them this long to come after us.”
A silence stretched out before them for what felt to Morgan like minutes. Finally, Lucas spoke the question she was dying to have answered.
“So, when do we make our move?”
Morgan leaned even closer to Greg, anxious to hear his response. Greg’s face clouded and he took in a deep breath and released it slowly.
“You’re not gonna like my answer,” he said finally.
Morgan and Lucas exchanged glances. “You mean… there’s no plan?” Morgan ventured tentatively.
“It’s just… It’s not time—”
“Who’s making that determination?” Lucas asked, an edge to his voice that Morgan had never heard before. A thrill coursed through her body, taking her by surprise.
“There are so many variables to consider,” Greg was saying. “We still have informants on the inside of Orrick’s operation, so we have a decent idea what’s going on with him. So far, there’s no indication that the Veneret know where we are, so, for the moment, we’re still safe.”
“For the moment,” Lucas muttered.
“Yes, for the moment,” Greg repeated, his voice measured. “We don’t plan to stay here forever, but, realistically, the longer we can stay here, continue training, the better our chances are when it’s time to move.” He sighed. “Lucas, I thought you of all people would want everyone to be sure before we go up against Orrick.”
Morgan glanced from Lucas to Greg. Why Lucas of all people? Shouldn’t she, as the One, be the most concerned? Before she could ask for clarificati
on, Lucas was talking again.
“Yeah, I know. I just… I think getting out of here last night just reminded me how stir crazy I really am.”
Greg smiled. “You and me both.”
“So… last night—the quake. It was definitely the Veneret?” Morgan asked.
Greg nodded. “Watcher spies verified it this morning.”
“So, did the Veneret know where we were last night?”
“No, it’s doubtful. The epicenter was miles from where we were. If we’d been here last night, we wouldn’t’ve felt anything. Ellie and Wen were surprised when I told them what happened.”
“But we weren’t here last night,” Morgan said. “We were out—we were somewhere that we could feel it.”
“They’re guessing,” Greg said firmly. “There was a decent amount of damage to some houses right around the epicenter. Maybe they thought if they could catch us off guard, they could compromise our hideout and force us to move. I really don’t know for sure. But I do know that it didn’t work. We’re safe.”
Morgan nodded, but something still didn’t sit well with her. Then Lucas placed a hand on her knee and squeezed, causing the unease to lessen. She glanced at him and smiled. When she turned her attention back to Greg, she was caught off guard by the way he was studying the two of them. She felt slightly self-conscious under his gaze. He seemed to realize this and averted his eyes, standing.
“If there’s no more questions, I think I’ll go get something to eat.” Without waiting for a response from either of them, Greg strode across the room and let himself out.
Morgan watched him go and then turned back to Lucas. “What d’you think that was all about?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you notice the way he was looking at us?”
Lucas shifted, his hand moving from her knee. “I guess I didn’t. Why?”
“I dunno. It was just…” She laughed. “It’s nothing, I guess.” She stood, suddenly feeling awkward. “I should go. I feel kind of slothful; it’s midday and I’ve barely done anything. I’ll… I’ll see you later.”
The Naturals Trilogy Page 55
