The Cure

by Teyla Branton

  “Look, I can give you a job,” I said. “Your girlfriend might change her mind about calling it quits if you find work, but drinking isn’t going to get you there.”

  “I rob you, and you wanna hire me?” His voice was harsh, guttural.

  “Well, we could use a handyman. I know that might not be your regular job, but you can fix things, right?” Hiring the bum likely meant no immediate personal connections to worry about—except the girlfriend who wasn’t in the picture right now and the mother who lived far away in Dallas. We’d have to vet him to make sure he wasn’t a true felon, of course, but having the courage to hold up two women while you were drunk wasn’t necessarily a drawback in our business, especially when I could tell he didn’t really want to hurt us.

  A sound escaped his throat, signaling that he was close to breaking. Not good. I sent a wave of soothing emotions, but he shook his head as if trying to toss off an invisible net. Nausea curled my stomach, a direct result of my mental exertion. I definitely needed to refine my technique. At least my efforts had offered a distraction. I pulled from Mari’s grasp and sprinted forward, diving at his gun and twisting it from his hand. Muttering a curse, he turned and ran.

  I thought about giving chase, but Ava was waiting for me. “If you change your mind,” I called after him, “we might be here a few more days!” With Mari and Stella’s great-nephew hopefully onboard, we’d be able to leave Portland soon—preferably for a warmer climate.

  I felt bad watching him run away. The man’s grandfather had given his life for a cause he believed in, and I would have liked to give him the opportunity to fight for an equally important cause. Plus his handyman skills were more than attractive, since we hadn’t yet found anyone suitably isolated to employ in that role on a permanent basis. That he could handle a gun was an added benefit. The others might have eventually thanked me; one thing I’d learned about Unbounded was that they loved their comfort.

  He’s probably a terrible repairman. The thought made me feel better. Good genes sometimes skipped generations.

  I turned back to Mari. “Where were we?”

  She shook her head, glancing in the direction the man had already disappeared. “Weren’t you scared?”

  “He wasn’t going to shoot.” Except by accident; he was drunk enough for that.

  “How’d you know about his mom and his grandfather?”

  “It’s my gift. Every Unbounded has one. Very similar to talents that mortals have, though rather more unusual.”

  “You read minds?” She sounded horrified.

  I shook my head. “Not exactly. Mostly I see scenes and sense feelings. I can pick up thoughts from some people, though.” Ava and I could hold entire conversations without voicing a word. I could also tell an Unbounded from a mortal by simply looking at them—and detect the life force of everyone in a room, even if I couldn’t see their physical body. There had only been one exception, that of another sensing Unbounded. “But don’t worry. Most Unbounded can block me, and even mortals can if they’re taught how.”

  “How?”

  “Basically, you envision holding your thoughts in a tight ball, while pushing outward with white noise or blank thoughts. Or even a black wall. Whatever feels best. You’ll know it’s working when you hear a kind of rushing in your ears. After a bit of practice, you eventually won’t need to tighten hard enough to hear the noise.” It was something she’d need to learn fast because right now her emotions radiated from her like tangible jabs. Easy for someone like me to pick up and easier still for a sensing Unbounded from the Emporium to manipulate.

  Mari looked like she was going to be sick. I put an arm around her, hurried her to the house, and punched in the code that would open the door and disconnect the alarm long enough for us to go inside. I could smell the roast our cook was making for a dinner most of us would eat but not really need or crave. I could no longer even remember what it was like to be hungry. My body never let me reach that point. Sometimes I actually missed the feeling.

  We were met in a spacious foyer by a joyful bark and the click-clack of toenails on the worn wooden surface as Max, our loyal and quite useless mascot, came bounding down the stairs at the sound of the door. He was a beautiful mix of Collie and Chow, and though I didn’t consider myself a dog person, I tolerated him because once he’d nearly died to save me. You couldn’t fault dedication like that.

  My ten-year-old nephew Spencer hurtled down the stairs in Max’s wake. He had blond hair and a bunch of freckles that had recently surfaced on his baby face, making him look rather spotted.

  “You’re home!” Spencer bounded into my arms as Max pushed into my legs, begging to be touched. “Can we go now?”

  Go see his grandparents, he meant. I’d promised to take him and Kathy tonight. My mother and father—or the man I’d thought was my father—used to live with us here, but I’d convinced them they’d be more comfortable in their own place. What I really meant was safer. I’d hoped the kids would go stay with them, but my brother Chris wouldn’t leave the Renegades and he wanted his kids with him. I didn’t blame him for that, though I hoped his thirst for revenge didn’t affect his children. Truth was, I wanted to save up every precious moment with them. They were eighth generation—which meant next to no chance of being Unbounded. I’d bury first Chris and then the kids before I’d age another two years.

  But there was Jace. I had to remember that.

  “We can’t go see them right now, but maybe in a bit.” I grabbed Max to prevent him from attacking Mari with wet kisses. He loved pretty much everyone, except people trying to kill me. “Where’s Ava?” Although the door had been locked, I didn’t like the idea of Spencer being alone. Obviously our hideout wasn’t in the best neighborhood.

  “In chambers.” He rolled his eyes. “There’s an emergency. They wouldn’t let me in.”

  “Stella’s here?”

  “Yeah, and the new guy. Kathy’s listening from the bathroom upstairs.” His guilty expression told me that’s where he’d been as well before Max alerted him to my arrival. His brow furrowed and his blue eyes became troubled. “Everyone’s really freaking out. The Emporium did something again—in Mexico, I think. Cort and Dimitri left for there before I even got out of bed, and Dad’s down at the airport getting Ava’s plane ready in case she needs him to fly her there.” He paused before adding. “Hey, did you know Ritter’s coming back? Ava called him this morning. He was supposed to be here already, but he hasn’t shown up yet.”

  I hadn’t even thought about how Ritter had gotten to me so quickly. He must have been on his way here, and when I’d pushed the alert button, he’d have been notified just like everyone else in range. I wondered if Ava had ordered him to help me, or if he’d taken the responsibility on his own.

  Maybe it didn’t make a difference.

  I LOOKED AT MARI, TEMPTED to leave her with Spencer, but until I handed her off to Stella, she was really my business. Besides, unwatched she’d probably run off to find Trevor. Better that I keep an eye on her. She’d have a good long time to get over him—if she didn’t get herself killed first.

  “Hold Max,” I told Spencer. He obliged, the dog straining at the collar and dragging the child’s thin frame a few feet.

  Taking Mari’s arm, I led her past the front desk to the large back room we dubbed chambers. It held nothing more than a huge oblong table with enough chairs to spare, and today with Cort, Dimitri, and apparently most of our mortal security employees missing, only a third were full. Ava and my brother Jace looked up as we entered. Stella didn’t. She had her neural headset on, her face directed toward a set of three flat screens on the desk, one of her brown eyes peering through an eyepiece connected to the headset.

  As a technopath, Stella could interface directly with multiple computers at once, efficiently organizing, directing, and interpreting data through electrical impulses and eye movements. With the programs she created, she could monitor not only most of the communications in the world, but also whe
n the next sale at the local grocery would begin. She was that good. When I thought about the amount of information available in the world, I was astounded that she or her programs could find anything useful to us, much less help us prevent the Emporium from whatever machinations they were planning.

  Next to her sat Oliver, our other new Unbounded, Mari’s fourth cousin. He also wore a blinking headset and was staring at the same monitors, but the frustration and disgust on his face told me he wasn’t having success. Oliver was a few inches above average height, lean with impressive muscles, though nowhere near Ritter’s broad-shouldered bulk. His brown face was a mixture of African American, Asian, and white, with the African American dominating his coloring and the tight curls in his short-cropped hair. He was decidedly attractive, but his self-centered personality annoyed me.

  Jace popped up from his seat and took two strides in my direction. “How’d it go?” Eagerness laced his voice and danced in his blue eyes. My brother was twenty-eight, younger than me by three years, though we’d Changed within months of each other. The Change usually happens between the thirty-first and thirty-third birthdays, though sometimes it came as early as twenty-eight and as late as thirty-four. It can occur a few years earlier or later, but there were only a few documented cases.

  One was my ex-boyfriend, Tom Carver.

  “Well?” Jace pressed, one hand flipping back his white blond hair, now a tad too long. “Gaven called to say it was Hunters and to ask Ava what to do with them. Was there a fight?”

  Poor Jace. He was young, full of testosterone, newly Unbounded, and already a better fighter than any of us except Ritter, yet no one dared let him off his chain quite yet. I loved my brother with a full-hearted devotion, but I was glad Ava hadn’t sent him as my backup. Although he probably would have dispatched the Hunters with ease, he’d never been proven in a fight and it was hard to know exactly how he’d react. Even during his time in the army, he’d never encountered live combat, and if I’d been facing Emporium Unbounded, his eagerness and lack of experience might have endangered us both. Losing him to the Emporium wasn’t a risk I ever wanted to take, especially when I still hadn’t discovered the identity of his birth father. I had my suspicions, of course, rooted in the Emporium itself. Every time he smiled at me like he was doing now, it brought another face to mind—the face of a man who would have snuffed either of us out without a second thought.

  I smiled at Jace. “Yes, there was a fight, but a bitty one. Hardly worth the effort.”

  “What?” Mari said next to me where she stood searching the new faces. “It was horrible! There were two guys, and they tried to . . . and then Erin starting punching and kicking . . .” Her voice trailed off.

  Jace’s eyes went past me to Mari. “Rats, I missed all the fun!”

  His grin seemed to put Mari off-balance and she stared at the ground in silence.

  “Mari,” I said, “this is my brother, Jace Radkey. And that’s Ava O’Hare. She’s what we call the boss.”

  “Or mother,” Jace added.

  Ava was standing now. “Welcome, Mari. It’s good to meet you.”

  Mari seemed helpless to answer, but everyone pretended she had.

  “And you know Stella,” I continued, “but she’s rather busy right now. She’s processing too much information at the moment to notice us, but she’ll come around in a minute. Next to her is your cousin, Oliver Parkin.”

  As I spoke, Oliver tossed down his headset with a grunt of disgust. So, not a technopath. Whatever his ability finally turned out to be, I hoped it was something useful. He certainly hadn’t shown much skill during our training sessions since Stella had brought him in. His confession about his Change to his girlfriend hadn’t helped matters, and she’d gone screaming from his apartment, threatening to call the police. Ava and I’d been forced to masquerade as policewomen to get into her apartment so we could drug her and remove the memory from her unconscious mind.

  “Hey, cuz,” Oliver said. “Glad you’re here.”

  Mari gave a nearly imperceptible smile. A good sign, I hoped.

  I looked at Ava, my thoughts turning to Mexico. “Was it the compound?”

  Located in the Mexican rainforest, the compound was where we kept Emporium prisoners, trying to rehabilitate them, if possible, or making them stand trial for their atrocities. Neither the location nor the process was ideal, but we Renegades were forced to do whatever it took to ensure the safety of the mortal population were trying to protect.

  Ava’s gray eyes, so like my own, stared back at me somberly. “Not the compound. They hit the research facility. Two days ago, actually. We only got word this morning.”

  Ice dripped into my veins. No wonder Stella was absorbed by her computers and monitors, in so deep that she couldn’t break away—not even to say hello to her great-niece. She’d pinned all her hopes on the research facility. I glanced at her again and noticed that under the headpiece, her olive skin was more pale than usual, and there was an enhanced tightness around her mouth.

  I shifted my gaze back at Ava. “How bad is it?”

  Ava shook her head, and her golden hair swung slightly at the longest tips near her chin. She had smooth, clear, wrinkle-free skin, high cheekbones, and a nose that spread a tiny bit more than necessary. Ava was the epitome of a beautiful, successful leader. Though she appeared only a few years older than me, she’d already lived three hundred years. “We don’t know yet. We haven’t been able to contact them since the initial distress call. But Cort and Dimitri will land soon and should be able to discover more even before they drive out to the facility. If the worst has happened, Dimitri hopes to salvage what he can.”

  “It’s the Emporium. It has to be.”

  Ava inclined her head, her eyes meeting mine impassively. “Most likely.”

  For Stella’s sake, I hoped it was a false alarm, or that our physicians and lab personnel had escaped with their research. The life of Stella’s husband depended on it. Bronson was mortal and at seventy much older than she was physically, but it was an autoimmune disease, not age, that was killing him. Stella had once been more at peace with his impending death, but her recent pregnancy had caused her to cling with hope to groundbreaking medical advances involving nanoparticles. Last week the information coming from the Mexican lab had indicated that curing him was a real possibility. We’d been expecting one of the doctors to arrive with the new formula.

  Dimitri had originally arranged for several doctors in the U.S. to work on the problem of Bronson’s illness, but one by one, the doctors’ grants had been withdrawn and their jobs threatened. The Emporium, who invested deeply in health care, wasn’t interested in cures, only in continued treatment. More suffering made money, not cures. They’d successfully blocked cures for cancers, muscular dystrophy, and paralysis due to spinal problems. Renegade Unbounded who were gifted in healing like Dimitri kept organizing research facilities, but the Emporium was just as good at ferreting them out and bribing government officials to impose prohibitive sanctions and restrictions—or threatening grants. With their genetic experiments and forced breeding, Emporium Unbounded agents were everywhere now, from the FDA to the senate. The facility in Mexico was one of the few unhindered research labs left to us—the only one with the promise of obliterating autoimmune diseases. Dimitri spent a couple weeks every month working there alongside his research scientists, and Cort double-checked all their data.

  Stella removed her headset and stood gracefully, the multicolored greens of her dress briefly flowing before settling over her full breasts, narrow hips, and the slightly mounded belly where her child grew. Delicately boned, she had the same confident bearing as all Unbounded, but while most Unbounded were simply arresting, Stella was beautiful. Every feature on her face was absolutely perfect, from her wide brown eyes to her sculptured eyebrows and flawless golden skin. These were complemented by thick, shoulder-length dark hair and a heart-shaped face. Born of an Italian father and Japanese mother, her Asian heritage was prominent a
nd exotic. I’d grown accustomed to her utter perfection, the effect not dimmed by the knowledge of the nanites she, as a technopath, used to achieve such results. Given another option, why live forever with plainness? Though I’d once felt a world of inadequacies around Stella, over the past months she’d become the sister I’d never had, and I no longer let her perfection intimidate me.

  Mari caught her breath. “Stella! It really is you! I can’t believe it!”

  Stella smiled and hurried around the table to enfold Mari in her arms. “Oh, darling girl. I’m so sorry about the Hunters. I would have brought you in last week, but I wanted to give you more time to adjust.”

  “You look exactly the same as when I was a child.” Mari hesitated before adding in a rush, “Then it’s all true, isn’t it?” The last words were garbled by sobs.

  I looked away. So much emotion blasting the airwaves was an assault on my senses.

  Jace caught my eyes and grinned. “You’re bleeding.”

  “Was.” My stomach felt fine now. In another hour, I wouldn’t even have a scar. I looked down at Ava, who was sitting again in her chair, her body emanating coiled energy. “So, are we going to Mexico?” With Cort already there, Chris would have to fly the rest of us, and while worrying about Jace was hard enough, having my mortal brother in the midst of yet another crisis was not good for my peace of mind. I still blamed myself for his wife’s death.

  Ava’s brow creased. “It depends on what Dimitri and Cort find there.” She glanced at Stella. “There’s no chatter about it anywhere, so I really can’t plan anything right now. The lab’s not exactly a secret, so it might be an Emporium ruse to flush us out. They don’t like that we came out on top during our last struggle. I do wish Ritter had been here to go with them just in case.”

  “You could have sent me,” Jace said. “Cort says I’m probably faster than Ritter now.”

  Somehow I doubted it, though I admired my brother’s enthusiasm and I couldn’t wait to see him spar with Ritter. Someone needed to remind him that being Unbounded didn’t mean complete immortality—and that he still had a long way to go in training.