Three doors occupied the small hall, two to the right and one to the left, all leading to rooms she’d never frequented.
She stepped. His signal grew stronger. She stepped again, reaching for him with the wisps of her mind.
The last door on the right.
Pain flared, resonating within his being, his every fiber, and filled her as well. Fear terrorized his mind. Darkness swirled.
“Rein!” she yelled.
His name?
The sound rang in Rein’s ears, but the pain overshadowed it. By the time the fire subsided, he wasn’t sure if he’d ever heard his name at all.
“Rein!”
Ellyssa?
Panic twisted his stomach. She couldn’t come in here.
His eyes snapped open to blackness, thick and mucky like an oil slick. He drew in a breath to warn her, to tell her to run, but when his lips parted, all he could manage was a desperate whimper. He swallowed and tried again. His voice refused to cooperate.
Ellyssa.
He hoped she could read him.
Don’t come in here.
It was the best he could do.
Trap!
Rein’s voice echoed in Ellyssa’s mind. His thoughts were disoriented, his fear and pain immense.
She glanced over her shoulder. No pounding footsteps. No minds to read.
She turned the knob and pushed the door open. Light spilled across the floor in an arc.
The room stood empty, except for a few old wooden chairs and a rickety metal desk that was missing a leg. On the far wall, a chalk board hung under an old round clock, its hands frozen long ago.
Rein?
For a moment, Ellyssa thought she’d made a mistake. That the confusion in his thoughts had misled her. She hesitated, about to turn around and check the adjoining room, but a shadowy movement in the far corner caught her eye.
“Rein,” she breathed. She took a tentative step inside.
Rein’s head bobbed at the sound of her voice, like he was trying to raise it. Instead, it lolled to the side and came to rest on his shoulder.
The sight of him brought relief…and fear…and anger. What had they done to him?
Forgetting caution, Ellyssa ran to him and dropped to her knees. She placed her hands on the sides of his face. “Rein, it is okay. I am going to get you out of here.”
His lips parted and one corner rose as if he was trying to smile. His face was bruised and dried blood caked the sides of his head and matted his hair. His jade eyes shone with relief, with happiness…with love. The shine flashed, then was gone. The green hid behind darkened clouds of pain.
Face twisting, Rein’s teeth gritted together. “Trap.” His voice barely rose above a whisper.
“We have to go.”
She wrapped her arm around his waist and pulled him to his feet. As soon as his legs locked under him, bright light swept the room. Ellyssa’s pupils contracted painfully.
“Ellyssa, my daughter,” her father said in German, “I have waited long for your return.”
Ellyssa should’ve felt surprise since she’d felt no other presence, but she didn’t. She turned and blinked several times in rapid succession. Three silhouettes wavered in the corner behind the door. She squinted, trying to focus. Details emerged from the blond hair to the porcelain-like faces.
Her father had aged. His skin was not as smooth as before; worry lines etched his forehead, and his hair looked more grey. He smiled, as he had throughout her childhood. The smile that never reached his eyes.
Next to Dr. Hirch, standing with their hands behind their backs like good little soldiers, were Aalexis and Xaver. Both as she remembered, beautiful and expressionless and deadly, just like her.
Ellyssa helped Rein back to the ground. He looked up at her, his eyes apologetic. The black and purple marring his face shadowed his cheeks, making his injuries look much worse under the light than she’d first thought. Fury enveloped her.
“I will get you out of here,” she mouthed. Ellyssa brushed her lips quickly against his before she straightened. Squaring her shoulders, she faced her creator.
Dr. Hirch’s eyes rounded at her display of affection.
“Der Vater,” Ellyssa stated, her voice as deadpan as her face.
The blue of his eyes sparked with anger. “I am glad you have returned.”
“Not by choice.”
“Yes, I know. Your adventure has clouded your judgment. Something we will have to remedy.”
“I am fine as I am now.”
Dr. Hirch strolled closer, the hated smile plastered onto his face. “You disappoint me. You showed the most promise of them all. Your gift is exceptional. Of all my creations, none could read minds. To be able to seek people out before opening a door. To know how many were present. Truly a worthwhile addition.”
“Apparently, I am flawed.”
He shook his head. “Not flawed. Confused, is all. Nothing that cannot be fixed. As you are aware, your brothers’ and sister’s gifts have evolved, as I am sure yours has. Xaver simply pulled his shield around us, blocking our thoughts from you.”
Although shocked at the news, Ellyssa’s expression showed nothing. “I see.”
“It is time for you to return home.”
“I think not.”
Displeasure narrowed his lids into thin slits. For a moment, she thought he was going to lose control. Although they were infrequent, bursts of emotion sometimes plagued the doctor, like when he’d slapped her when she was a child. After a moment of indiscretion, he pulled himself together.
“After all I have done for you. I created you, made you a superior being,” he said calmly.
“You made me into an unfeeling killing machine. Amonster.” Ellyssa looked at her sister and brother. “He never told any of us his true plans. The extermination of humanity. Not just impurities, but all humans.” Her eyes moved to her brother. “Then the extermination of us—his so-called children. To be replaced with soldiers far superior even to us.”
She faced her father. “There is no room for us in your perfect world.” Despite Ellyssa’s outward demeanor, her voice seethed with loathing.
“Enough,” her father said, calmly. “You will come with us now.”
“I do not think so.”
“Xaver is not the only one who has honed his talent.” He indicated Aalexis with a nod. “Aalexis.”
Aalexis stepped forward. “Der Vater.”
“Would you care to demonstrate?
“Of course.”
Aalexis’ smooth forehead bunched and, an instant later, Rein squealed. He fell to his side and writhed on the ground.
Ellyssa’s feet remained anchored to the ground as she watched him, his face contorted in misery, and his arms wrapped around his midsection.
Scared for Rein, angry at her helplessness, Ellyssa bolted toward her little sister with every intention of ripping her apart. Aalexis was no match for her. But before she reached her, she slammed into Xaver’s barrier. She placed her hands on the invisible surface and pushed.
Rein screamed again, a tormenting cry. She couldn’t bear to watch him suffer. Ellyssa turned away. “How?” she asked her father.
“One’s body and brain are nothing more than matter. Just a little manipulation of the thermal nociceptors,” replied the doctor.
Rein whimpered, and her heart tore from her chest. All Ellyssa wanted was to run to his side and ease his pain. She couldn’t. She had to keep her emotions in check; she had to stay focused.
Straightening her back, she faced her father. “Stop it,” she said coolly.
The doctor nodded toward Aalexis, and her sister’s forehead smoothed. Rein stopped writhing, but soft sobs shook his shoulders. He stayed curled in a tight ball, hugging himself.
Ellyssa stared at her creator. The hatred he had always allowed flowered into a seething revulsion toward him. The strength of the sensation became a separate entity, taking its own shape within her.
She had to get Rein out, even
if that meant she couldn’t go with him. It almost seemed justifiable—the creature being destroyed with the creator in a fiery hell. “Let him go, and I will stay.”
“How touching, but I am afraid that is impossible. You know as well as I do the dangers Renegades pose. Tainting the genetic pool. Devastating.”
“If you let him go, I will inform you where the camps are,” she said, her voice monotone. Her revealing the location of the Renegades was inconsequential, since none of them would be going anywhere.
Dr. Hirch’s grin widened. “Are you lying? How interesting. I hope I can erase the damage they have done to you.” Rubbing his hands together, he faced the door. “Besides, I do not need you. I had another source.”
Micah appeared, dragging Leland behind him. Her older brother gave Ellyssa an impassive glance before dropping the Renegades’ inside man at Dr. Hirch’s feet. Leland’s skull thudded against the linoleum, then rolled to the side, his dead eyes looking up at Ellyssa. Bits of bone showed through his smashed eye socket.
“Did you really think I would just let Leland leave, knowing all he knew?” he gloated. “Apparently, he did.” He shook his head, as if disappointed in his former assistant. “It is almost a shame. He was one of the best at his job. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be trusted. Not by me, nor by the Renegades. His devotion was not as strong as that of the others. Maybe due to the fact that he had seen firsthand what Aalexis is capable of.”
The doctor stared at the dead man for a moment before returning his attention to Ellyssa. “Your Renegade friends here in Chicago are all dead.”
Ellyssa carefully hid her horror. Had Leland betrayed Woody, too?
“Soon in Missouri, too,” Ellyssa’s creator finished.
Ellyssa studied him, trying to read his actions, but to no avail. The doctor was a great liar. He’d been dishonest with them all for years and years. With her gift rendered useless because of Xaver, she had no way of telling what was the truth and what was a lie.
Her father moved away from Xaver and stepped closer to Rein, who remained a crumpled in a ball. The doctor gazed at him, confidence rolling off him. She raised her hand and pushed, but nothing blocked her. Xaver’s shield was down.
Her father was opening them all up to her, apparently not seeing her as a threat with Aalexis, Micah, and Xaver at his side. Or maybe he assumed she’d not use her gift on him.
He had thought wrong.
While the doctor busied himself with his prideful thoughts, Ellyssa slipped into his mind. The action almost felt wrong, after the years of training she’d endured. She expected him to know, as if he could feel her crawl around inside his head. She plucked from him the information she sought.
The explosives remained a secret—Leland had been honorable in that aspect. But troops moved toward her newfound family in Missouri.
Ellyssa’s heart fell, but she remained stoic. Rein still had a chance. She opened herself up to all of them, plucking thoughts from their robotic minds. Just down the hall, she noticed a surprise for her father approaching.
Dr. Hirch held his hand out toward Ellyssa. “Now, if you will come with me, we can put this unpleasantness behind us.”
A smile played across Ellyssa’s face. “I think the unpleasantness is just about to begin, der Vater.”
A loud shot ricocheted through the room and Micah crumpled to the floor, his azure eyes glazed in death. Detective Angela Petersen edged around the door jamb, a P229 in her hands. That type of gun was assigned only to Gestapo, but the detective seemed to be very astute when it came to acquiring illegal firearms. She had a duffle bag full of them hidden away in her closet.
“Too bad you didn’t create one with the gift of precognition, isn’t it, Dr. Hirch?” Detective Petersen said as she stepped over Micah. She skirted along the wall, the barrel pointed at the doctor. She made a slight waving gesture at the doctor with her weapon. “Join your children.”
Dr. Hirch stared at his head of security, his mouth slack. Stunned shock shut down any logical thought processes on the doctor’s behalf. It took him a few seconds to regain his composure and his thoughts to settle into coherent images. He had to get back within the safety of Xaver’s shield before he unleashed Aalexis on the detective. With Detective Petersen’s firearm pointed at him, the sudden pain might cause her finger to twitch and his life to end.
Without giving his fallen son a second glance, he stepped closer to Xaver and Aalexis. “Xaver,” he said. The doctor’s thoughts were cut off from Ellyssa as Xaver’s shield rose in place.
Safely inside Xaver’s bubble, Dr. Hirch said, “You realize you will not make it out alive.” He had his hand held out in a silent command as he spoke.
“You give me too little credit,” she sneered, jabbing her gun into the air. “You and your precious ‘superior’ children. All of you think I’m so inferior. But it was I who found where your daughter ran to. It was I who uncovered an operation that’d been going on for decades.”
The detective glanced down at Micah. “I bet you never imagined, Doctor, how fragile your children are. They succumb to bullets, just like everyone else,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “You too, Ellyssa. Join your family.”
Ellyssa shook her head and stepped between Detective Petersen and Rein.
“Fine. You can be first. Ever since that day in the park, I’ve imagined this moment. Watching the life seeping from your ‘superior’ flesh.”
The detective took aim at Ellyssa as her father gave the signal. Xaver’s shield lowered. It seemed Aalexis gift couldn’t work within the protective safeguard. Thoughts rushed toward Ellyssa, but the one she was concerned with was the command to squeeze the trigger given by the detective’s brain. Ellyssa ducked. The air displacement lifted her hair as the bullet whizzed by. Her ears rang with the crack of the gunfire.
By the time Ellyssa righted herself, the detective was writhing on the floor as Rein had before. Detective Petersen screamed and screamed.
Within all the activity, red lights started to flash, and a bell rang loudly throughout the corridors. Fire alarms. Woody’s signal to Ellyssa that also served to save uninvolved workers. The countdown had begun.
Everything happened at once. The screams stopped, but the detective remained on the floor. Dr. Hirch appeared confused and unsure, human emotions shining through his usually-calm façade. Her sister glared at the detective, her forehead smooth. Xaver stood to the side, watching the doctor as if awaiting orders. The red lights continued to flash, and the piercing alarm reverberated through Ellyssa’s bones.
Reacting, Ellyssa grabbed the forgotten P229. She spun around and squeezed the trigger. The sound was lost within the racket, but a red teardrop spread down the white of her father’s lab coat. He looked down, then gazed at Ellyssa in surprise before he toppled to the ground.
A shrieking “NO” soared over the alarm; the next thing Ellyssa knew, heat exploded in her stomach, consuming her. Her jaw locked and she fell to the floor, completely incapacitated. Bringing her knees to her chin, she rolled to her side.
The intense agony, the loud whooping alarm, and through it all, Ellyssa heard Rein.
I love you.
She focused on him. Her memories drifted to his smile, his touch, his warm embrace. All of her concentration centered on him, and his mind.
Through Rein’s eyes, she saw herself wrapped up like a ball, her face pinched. His hand reached for her. Slowly, everything except Rein faded as Ellyssa’s mental barricade slid into place. The pain subsided, and her muscles unclenched. The aftereffects of the assault, though, still warmed her insides, like embers that were just starting to cool.
Shielded from her sister’s gift, Ellyssa rose to her feet just as the last fire alarms faded away.
Flashing red tinted Aalexis’ porcelain face as she bunched her forehead tighter.
Unaffected, Ellyssa advanced on her. “It is no use,” she said. “Your gift can not affect me anymore.”
Aalexis’ eyes narrowed as her ment
al focus shifted. Ellyssa saw what she had planned. Chairs scratched across the floor as an invisible force pushed them.
Ellyssa jumped out of the way before two of the chairs crashed into the wall behind the spot where she’d just stood. The desk lurched forward, and its legs screeched as they were dragged across the linoleum. Ellyssa sidestepped the assault and bolted toward her sister, knocking Aalexis into the wall. Air gushed from Aalexis’ lungs and, for the first time ever, surprise crossed her sister’s face before her pale lids closed.
Ellyssa spun around, intent on grabbing Rein and escaping. Before she knew what was happening, she was on the ground, pressure crushing her chest, large fingers stretched around her neck.
Xaver looked down at her, lips pulled into a snarl.
Ellyssa tried to break his hold with a swipe of her arm, but his fingers dug into her flesh, squeezing off her air. Clutching his hand, she tried to pry his fingers loose. He squeezed harder while smacking her head against the ground.
Thump, thump, thump rang through her skull as stars spun before her eyes.
The flashing red light, so bright against the white walls, hurt Rein’s eyes. Warmth still flowed inside him, but the fire was extinguished. His face hurt, as did every inch of his body.
He glanced around.
There were still people in the room. The clashing and thumping of furniture. Struggling. Someone was wheezing, gasping. Foreign, guttural words were being said.
A blurry, shadowy figure undulated strangely next to the door. The body was distorted and bent in a way no human could bend. Limbs whipped around under the red flashing. He blinked, and the blur of the edges came together into two distinct people. The one on top, he recognized as the boy who’d been with the witch and the madman. He held down a blond girl. She kicked frantically, trying to dislodge him.
Like pieces of a puzzle, everything clicked.
Ellyssa.
Never taking his eyes off the struggle, he rolled over to his hands and knees. His muscles quaked under the strain and threatened to hurl him back to the ground. He crawled to a chair, and used it for support while he staggered to his feet. Bile rose in his throat. He worked it back down.
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