A Portrait of Pain

by Jane Washington

  It was a call, from Tariq’s number.

  “Should I—” I started to ask, mindful of what Miro had said about calls being traced.

  “Answer it,” Silas instructed. “If he’s calling, there’s a good reason for it.”

  I hit the button to answer the call and then turned it to speaker. “Tariq?”

  “You have to come back,” he said immediately. His voice was almost mournful, but there was steel in the words he spoke. “We tried everything, Seph, but it didn’t work. We’re trying to fight too many people. He’s killed six people already—all students at the college …”

  He trailed off as my fingers turned numb and the phone cluttered from my grip to the table.

  “Seph?” His tone softened, the undertone of sadness becoming something more. Something desperate.

  I fought past the bile clogging up my throat, fumbling to pick up the phone again. There was more. I could tell.

  “What could be worse than that?” I asked, my voice small.

  “He has Poison.”

  “Shit!” I tossed the phone back to the table, crouching over and hiding my face in my hands. The sobs that shook me were violent and sudden, shocking me into succumbing to them completely.

  I felt an arm around me, pulling me into a hard chest. Silas.

  “They were all supposed to be safe!” I screamed now, driving my fist into the carpet.

  The arm around me turned constricting as Silas pulled my hands into my lap and held them there. “Grab the phone,” he muttered to somebody.

  “Tariq—” Miro started to talk, but Tariq cut across him.

  “I’m so sorry.” His voice trembled. “I did the best I could.”

  Ice shot through my veins at the undercurrent of failure that travelled through the phone line. I reined in my grief and fury, raising my head. I met Miro’s eyes.

  “You did more than anyone else,” he spoke into the phone, saying the words that I needed him to say. “You called us. You’re saving Poison’s life right now.”

  If we make it there on time.

  “He’s holding her at the college somewhere. They had to lock down the students after the first body was found, but more just kept turning up. They won’t let anyone leave because of some kind of safety code. All the students who live on campus are being held in the common rooms of each dormitory floor with the staff. All the other students have gone home.”

  “Where’s Clarin?” I croaked out.

  Tariq must not have heard me, because Miro had to repeat my question.

  “Clarin’s with me,” Tariq answered. “He got out before they locked down. He had a text from Poison telling him that she got out, too, and that he should meet her at home. He tried to call her as soon as he got the text, but her phone was already off.”

  I closed my eyes, shaking my head. Poison must have sent the message to get Clarin to safety before he could get himself captured trying to protect her.

  “Danny is going to kill her.” I spoke to the floor. Almost to myself. “He’s communicating with me through dead bodies, but I haven’t been paying attention. He needed to increase the stakes.”

  “Where are you?” Miro asked, pacing around the room. I could hear the rustling of clothing. He was packing as he spoke.

  “At Le Chateau. We can’t leave. The humans are here, looking for Seph. They have the whole place surrounded and there’s a guy with a gun in his hands standing inside every damn room. There’s one outside waiting for me right now. I told him I had to use the bathroom—which is kind of lucky because I hid this phone in the air vent above the shower.”

  “Of course he did,” Noah muttered, from somewhere on the other side of the room. “Kid is a better damn spy than half of our agents.”

  Silas pulled me to my feet, holding me while I willed my legs to stop shaking. Miro tossed him a pair of jeans and he knelt in front of me, encouraging me to step into them. I reacted on instinct, allowing him to dress me—though it felt wrong to have him tugging pants up my legs. He pulled the zip up, popped the button through the hole, and then he was pulling Noah’s oversized shirt off.

  I stood there in shock as someone tossed him the second bra from my backpack. I jumped as he fit it against my chest. Even in the darkness, I could recognise the spark in his eye as his gaze caressed my uncovered skin, but it was tempered with concentration, shaded over with that wildness that I welcomed into my heart like a warm hug from an old friend. If Silas was about to let his alter ego out to play, I wasn’t going to stop him. I was going to toss gasoline on that fire and blow it in Danny’s direction.

  He finished securing the undergarment only a second before someone stepped up behind me. It took me a moment to realise that it was Cabe. Silas pulled my arms up, and Cabe drew a shirt down over them. By the time my boots thumped down beside my feet, I had worked out of my trance, and I brushed the hands aside, moving to sit on the bed so that I could tie up my own shoes. The curtains had been drawn back at some stage, illuminating the room in a dull glow of light from the road outside the motel. Miro was asking for the location of almost every Klovoda member that I knew about. By the time he hung up the call, the steel was back in my brother’s voice.

  I walked over to Miro, planting a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Bossman.”

  He grabbed my chin, forcing me to my toes, his lips brushing mine. He pulled back quickly, looking at the others. “We need to get to the school. Some of our best agents were out on assignment, so they haven’t been rounded up yet. They can help.” He pointed his phone at Silas. “You call Hunt—” he paused, his eyes flicking to me, before he amended his statement. “You call Dariush and Simin—they just got back from Iran. I’ll call Hunter.”

  He looped one of the packs over his shoulder and pushed open the door, striding outside with his phone to his ear. Cabe caught my hand, pulling me out after him. I reached for my backpack, but it was already slung over Noah’s arm. I had no idea who Dariush and Simin were, but it didn’t seem to matter because when Silas dialled them, he didn’t get an answer. Miro, however, did. His conversation with Hunter was quick and to-the-point. Within a few seconds, she seemed to have agreed to come and pick us up.

  “Let’s start walking,” Cabe said, even as he tugged me toward the road. “Her car is stupidly loud, if anything’s going to wake the manager up, it’s that.”

  The others agreed and we made our way back toward the highway. The rain had died off, leaving the road wet and the horizon grey with oncoming dawn. It was almost ten minutes later when headlights appeared in the distance. Two trucks had passed us, but they clearly weren’t Hunter. My hand tightened in Cabe’s, but he only squeezed back reassuringly. I had no reason to be nervous about seeing Hunter, but I also had no real reason to trust her.

  I was done trusting people. Especially now.

  She pulled over in front of us, dimming her headlights, and we all hurried toward the car.

  “Get in!” she ordered, leaning over the passenger seat to throw open the passenger door. She was looking at Silas, but he wrenched Cabe away from me and shoved him in the direction of the passenger seat instead, steering me toward the back.

  Hunter craned her head around, trying to make out my face. I saw the moment she recognised me. Her eyebrows shot up and she blinked once, twice, before pulling her mask back on.

  “Buckle up!” she announced, tossing Cabe a grin. “Let’s go kick some human ass.”

  I was feeling cramped in the back of the car, squished into Silas’s lap with Noah and Miro piled in beside us. This was too many people for a car with such a small back seat, but at least Hunter wasn’t smiling at Silas, because my nerves were too frayed for that. With any luck, I would have ended up sparking her fancy car into a firebomb.

  Still, I couldn’t seem to keep my mouth shut. “We’re not kicking any human ass.”

  “We aren’t?” she asked the rear-view mirror. This time, her eyes were on Miro.

  “You’re driving us to the college,” he told
her, his voice a softly-spoken command. Polite, but unbending.

  “I’ve seen the news,” Hunter announced as the car accelerated faster. “I recognised her, of course. Bit hard to forget, that one.”

  “I’m right here.” My voice sounded bland, but inside I was fuming.

  “You’re everywhere.” She smirked. “You’re even at the college right now, murdering people left and right. Quite a skill.”

  “Shouldn’t you sound upset about that?” I asked, as Silas squeezed my wrist. It felt like a warning.

  “I should.” She nodded. “But not all Zevs are the sane, responsible type, are they, Si?”

  “Thanks for picking us up,” I blurted, before the conversation could descend into a catty turf-war—either by her fault, or my own.

  I had more important things to worry about, and I was secure in my relationships. I didn’t particularly care what Hunter’s issues were, because Silas wasn’t harbouring any secret, unexplored feelings for her. He had closed that door, and I was only now beginning to accept that without question. I didn’t need to have fiery red hair and curves for days to capture his attention.

  I just needed demons and a death wish.

  Unbidden, a laugh rose to my lips, and I slapped a hand over my mouth. Noah must have heard something because he turned his head, his brows pulling up in question. I shook my head, still holding my hand over my mouth. I couldn’t believe I was now laughing at my own private jokes. The stress was getting to me.

  “Er … no problem.” Hunter clearly didn’t know what to do with my gratitude. “So do you guys know who’s killing people or what? I’m guessing it’s the same person who’s trying to out us to the damn human press.”

  “Sorry, Hunter,” Miro said. He didn’t expand. Just sorry, Hunter.

  “Right,” she muttered. “Classified, I guess, but I’m going to need more information if you expect me to walk into that nightmare college tonight.”

  “We don’t,” Silas answered. “Nobody enters the college but us—nobody can even know that you brought us here. We need you to disappear again. You’re one of the only agents on the outside right now.”

  “Right.” She drummed her nails against the steering wheel, pushing the car even faster. She seemed to be getting irritated.

  I closed my eyes, settling back against Silas. I wasn’t relaxing—though it probably looked like it. I was attempting to concentrate. I had probably an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Far less time than I thought I would have to prepare myself, and definitely not enough time to master the power of the Dead Man. I didn’t even understand where to start. I tried forcing a vision to come to me, but only scattered memories flitted through my mind.

  Eva’s waterlogged face.

  The dirt smudged against Aiden’s pale cheeks.

  Death, and more death.

  When the car rolled to a stop at the base of the mountain road twisting up to the college, Silas tapped my thigh. I opened my eyes, turning to the window, my eyes travelling up the incline.

  “You’re going to have to trek up,” Hunter informed us. “You know the school is on lock-down, right? There’s a wall of government assholes surrounding that place, ten feet in every direction. We have agents up there too, undercover in their agency, but they won’t be much use to you right now.”

  “We know,” Miro told her, pushing his door open.

  Noah got out after him and I opened Silas’s door, my feet feeling shaky against the ground. Hunter didn’t move from her seat, but she called Silas to her window as the rest of us gathered together. Miro dug around in his pack, pulling out a handgun and a harness before tossing the pack through the window of Hunter’s car. He shrugged off his jacket and strapped the harness over his shirt, attaching the gun before covering it all up again. I didn’t know what to do to prepare, so I just shifted from one foot to another, trying to overhear what Hunter was saying to Silas. She was keeping her voice deliberately low and he wasn’t saying anything in response.

  “Don’t wait,” he eventually grunted out, making his way over to us.

  I trudged into the trees behind him, the others following behind. It would have been close to six in the morning, but all the rain had finally damaged my Star Wars watch beyond repair, so I couldn’t confirm anything. We climbed silently, and I listened for the loud sound of Hunter’s engine, but it never reached me.

  “Why did you ask her not to wait?” I questioned Silas, swiping a small sapling out of my way. “How are we going to get back if she isn’t there?”

  “I wasn’t talking about her waiting with the car.” He didn’t slow his walk, and my breath started to grow short. “She told me that she wasn’t going to be second choice to a high-school girl. Wanted to know if I’d be done with you, because she wasn’t going to wait around for much longer.”

  “That’s kind of harsh,” I muttered, ignoring that part where Hunter still seemed to think that her and Silas were together in some way, and the fact that I wasn’t in high school anymore. “I mean you were missing last year because Weston kidnapped and tortured you. The whole waiting part was definitely harder for you than it was for her.”

  He chuckled darkly. “She didn’t even know. That’s how we’ve been for years. When I disappear, she doesn’t ask questions. Even if I turn up at her house in the middle of the night with a bullet wound, she still won’t ask questions.”

  “Sounds …” Unhealthy. “Like she loves you.”

  “She doesn’t know what love is.” His tone was final. “I used to like that about her.”

  Unhealthy. So damn unhealthy.

  “Weird thing to like about her.” I couldn’t seem to shut up.

  Cabe laughed behind me. “Were you expecting something functional, little ghost? Something based off a mutual love of ass-kicking and a respect for guns?”

  I rolled my eyes—not that any of them could see it. “I thought he liked her because she was the female version of him. All exotic and mysterious and sexy.”

  “He isn’t any of those things,” Miro commented blandly.

  Cabe laughed again. “Neither is she.”

  “Alright!” I tossed my hands up, and amusement shone through the bond, reaching me from all directions. “I give up on this conversation.”

  We fell into silence again, the brief moment of normalcy fizzling out as we climbed toward our destination. None of us had slept, and the sudden glare of the rising sun was stinging my eyes. My legs were also aching, and my stomach felt hollow—but I wasn’t even close to exhausted. It felt more like my body was trying to be exhausted, but my power wasn’t allowing it. Adrenaline still bubbled inside me, willing me to dive into action, itching a path up my trembling legs.

  It took us almost an hour to trek up to the college, but it would have been impossible to take the road. We could glimpse road blocks at several intervals through the trees, and Hunter had been right about the perimeter of the school-grounds. Uniformed people were grouped about the gardens and parking lots, with a plethora of emergency vehicles. It reminded me of the orchestrated terrorist threat from a few months ago. Except this wasn’t one of Weston’s manipulation games. This was real. This was fatal.

  “How do we get in?” I whispered, ducking behind one of the trees and peering out to the nearest group of people.

  “We need a distraction,” Miro told me, “but we can’t split up. Try blowing up one of their cars.”

  “What?” I stared at him.

  “Good plan,” Silas muttered, taking me by the shoulders and marching me forward a few more feet. He pulled me down behind a hedge, crouching behind me. The leaves had started to die away, leaving the twisting bark skeleton bare enough to peer through. I was glad that we were all wearing dark colours. “That one.” His voice brushed over my ear, his arm appearing over my shoulder and pointing through the hedge toward an ordinary-looking sedan. It wasn’t a police car, but that didn’t necessarily mean that it didn’t belong to someone important. At least there weren’t any people near i
t.

  “What if I hurt someone?” I hissed quietly.

  “Remember what we told you.” He pulled his arm back, looping it across my chest and pulling me back against him, his hand gripping my opposite shoulder. “The stronger your bond, the stronger your power.”

  “That doesn’t help me at all.”

  He nipped at my ear, drawing a shiver down my spine. “Strength isn’t about big, dangerous explosions, angel. Strength is about control.”

  I nodded, fixing my eyes on the car. You can do this, I told myself, reaching for the valcrick. It sprang to my fingertips immediately, eager to do my bidding. Possibly a little too eager, because a few sparks sizzled against the closest twig to my hand, fissuring down the bark in a tiny blaze before winking out.

  “Concentrate,” Silas directed me. “Don’t think about what could go wrong. If you do … it’ll probably happen.”

  I sucked in a breath, glancing down at my hand again. The sparks were starting to prickle up my arm, fizzling excitedly. It felt harmless, but I knew it wasn’t. These happy, bright little things wanted to destroy—and the valcrick somehow knew that I was going to use it for destruction, because it wasn’t fighting me or causing me any pain.

  I flicked my fingers in the direction of the car and watched as it seemed to fly apart in all directions, lurching up from the ground and smashing back down again almost the same way a body would, if it had been electrocuted. The metal shuddered, splintering off as the dancing sparks caught flame, roaring a sudden wall of fire into the sky.

  “Holy shit,” Silas breathed.

  “Let’s go,” Noah hissed, already at my side, grabbing my hand.

  We ran a short distance back toward the road as all of the people rushed toward the exploding car, and then bolted from the cover of the trees to the entrance of the college. Cabe reached the doors first, but collided with them when they wouldn’t open.

  “Does anyone know how to pick loc—” I started to ask, before Miro pulled the gun out of his jacket and fired two, neatly arranged shots through the lock.