Wanting to go out and find answers, on the other hand, was something I could see him doing. Maybe he was at the station with Alice. The thought was reassuring, and I picked up the phone right away to call. What I found out wasn’t reassuring. He had been there earlier, but neither Dan nor Alice was there. If they were gone, so was he.
Fine. If he was with them in the field I’d let them have some time and check with them later. There was one final take-home test I needed to do anyway. Maybe I could use the unexpected silence to do well on the last test of the year. Then I could yell at Jason to my heart’s content for scaring me.
I set to work and relaxed when, about twenty minutes later, I heard the door open and slam shut as someone entered.
“Hannah! I’m sorry. I meant to be back before you got here.” Jason sounded so apologetic that I had a hard time staying angry.
“Where were you? I was worried.” I said.
He looked to the ground, the corner of his lip quirking upward in a quick grimace. “I needed to go out. The house was too quiet and stuffy. I just needed some air, so after I went to talk to Dan, I took a walk in the park. Don’t worry,”—his soft brown eyes met mine earnestly— “I was careful. No one was going to sneak up on me. And I was only out for a little while.”
He kept making excuses. I was beginning to believe the old adage, ‘methinks he doth protest too much,’ was appropriate in his case. What was he hiding? Or had he really just needed to get out of the house? And was it really up to me whether he went out?
I sighed. “It's okay, Jason. You don’t need to make excuses. You are an adult, and I can’t make you tell me what you’re up to all the time. I just hope you realize that even with your abilities you could be vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. Keep that in mind the next time you go out.”
I could tell I’d struck a nerve when his eyes narrowed in anger and he began gesturing with both hands, getting in my face as he replied, “I’m at risk? What about you? Just being acquainted with me would be enough to make Kindred or Mason’s goons come after you! I am not the only one at risk here, and I think that’s a fact everyone is conveniently forgetting! You can’t make me sit idly by and watch as you or someone else I care about is used against me! Keep that in mind when you leave the house!”
My eyes widened and I sat in shock as he stormed out of the room and rushed down to his room. I expected the door to slam, but it clicked behind him quietly. We’d been babying him. He was right. Any given moment Kindred could show up to make good on his threat to take me to get to Jason. It was a fact that we’d been ignoring. One we couldn’t continue to ignore.
But we’d have to deal with it a little later. It was time for me to go to Dan’s to pick up Sam. “Jason!” I called down the steps. I waited for his reply before I continued. “It’s time to get Sam. You wanna come? We can pick up something for supper on the way back.”
He didn’t answer, but I heard his door open and smiled slightly when he appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ll come. Is Dan going to be there?”
“I think just June. Alice is still at work, so I’d imagine Dan is too. Although there aren’t any big well-known cases right now. They might be doing more research about Mason and Kindred to see if they can figure out who he really is.”
He didn’t reply, but came up the stairs silently to slip on his shoes and join me at the door. “Shall we?” He gestured to the door, holding it open as I walked through. His bad mood from just a few minutes earlier was almost completely hidden. It couldn’t be gone, there hadn’t been enough time for that, but that he was trying to hide it meant he wasn’t as angry as he had been.
And perhaps he hadn’t been as angry as he sounded. It was possible his concern for those of us who weren’t being careful came out as anger instead of fear.
“Hannah, are we going?” he asked. I’d been sitting in the driver’s seat zoned out for a couple minutes.
“Yeah, we’re going. Any suggestions for food?”
Shrugging, he replied, “Let’s wait ‘til we have Sam. He’ll probably know what he wants, and we can decide from there.”
I agreed and finally started driving. Jason spent most of the drive fidgeting, looking behind us and to the side mirrors. Obviously not comfortable with riding in a car, he continued the actions until we reached Dan’s. As soon as we parked, he got out and knelt to touch the dirt on the yard. I assumed it was to see if he could tell if we were followed, or simply to check on who was around the neighborhood. He still worried about the kids’ safety, even though they now lived away from him and with a cop.
Of course, we lived with a cop too. It hadn’t stopped Jason’s father from trying to abduct him, or Mason’s people from approaching. It didn’t help to live with a police officer when, one: Jason’s father hadn’t known it until he had a knife to my sister’s throat, and two: when the criminals just didn’t care.
“Everything okay?” I asked when he didn’t rise as quickly as normal.
“Yeah,” he rose with a nod. “Just checking my range a little. It’s increasing.”
I looked at him curiously, “Why do you think that is?”
“Probably because I exercise it regularly. It’s getting stronger,” he said it like it was obvious, and I realized it probably was.
“I’ve seen you completely wiped out and hurting after using your powers. Don’t you think you should at some point get some kind of check up to make sure it’s not damaging you in any way to use it?”
The look he directed at me was hard to decipher. It was some kind of mix between bewilderment, fear, and anger. But I could have misread it. “Do you have a doctor in mind? You know, one who knows about my abilities, and won’t try to use my case to make money or to gain recognition? 'Cause I don’t know any.”
He sighed and directed his now saddened gaze to the ground. “I know you care, Hannah.” The wonder he still showed at the knowledge that I cared, saddened me. “But I need to deal with my abilities the way I feel is best. No one else can tell me anything, because no one else knows anything about them.”
I nodded in acknowledgement, but added, “They don’t know about your abilities, but they do know about the human brain and the body. They’d be able to tell you if there’s any damage to either.”
He stared at the ground as if it could answer all his questions, but he didn’t respond, so I sighed and said, “Fine. Let’s get Sam and some food and go home. But promise me one thing…” he glanced up at me, “…promise me that you’ll think about getting checked if you start having pain or fatigue with the use of your gift,” or curse, I added silently.
With a sigh, he nodded and I let out a quick breath, a little more relieved, even with his hesitant agreement. I was just relaxed enough to turn to the house and enter, when Jason suddenly grabbed me and rushed me through the door. “Wha—“
“No time, get inside, NOW!” He shoved me through the entryway and spun to get back outside. The last thing I saw as the heavy wooden door slammed shut was Jason kneeling and the ground rising around him.
FORTY-SEVEN
Kindred
My introspective mood made it difficult to fall asleep, and after I managed to, the dreams of my past continued. More flashes, the boy with bandages around his wrists, and a man, angry and mean. The flicker of fear in the boy’s eyes as the man sat by him.
The woman again, blood-covered. The sense of loss. Then back to the woman: happy and smiling, sharing joy one second, then feeling a sudden emptiness and anger, knowing she was gone.
When I finally woke, I was surprised to find tears flowing freely down my cheeks. Who was she? The boy, even more familiar now… I felt my eyes widen in shock. It was the Tracker! Was this a true memory or was I overlaying his face on a different child? Had I known the Tracker in my previous life? Before Mason destroyed me, and nearly him? Or had I, by taking over his mind on so many occasions, opened myself to his memories?
It was hard to say. And I had a job to do. It was time to p
ut my questions away and concentrate on the task at hand. My… employer. He probably held the final payment, so I may not even have to sacrifice the price of the job for the death of the man.
When I was done with that, it was time to check the Tracker again. It had been a couple days since our last confrontation, and I could feel the strange pull that drew me to him so often. Did it have to do with my dreams, and what had happened before? Or were we connected in a different way?
No. It was time to stop thinking. Just get on with the job.
I found the man right where I expected him to be. He was at his apartment, preparing for work. I let myself in and sat at the kitchen table, directly across from him. And then I pulled back my power and allowed him to see me. Or, more correctly, to see the version of me he’d met before. A Russian man in his late thirties. It seemed right for a contract killer, and I had a couple other clichéd options to choose from as well. With this persona I claimed ties to the Russian mob; with others the Yakuza, Italian mob, even al-Qaeda.
Any large criminal organization I could think of, I’d created some sort of connection to. The beauty of all my personas? The fact that I could still use my normal speaking voice. I just made people hear the accents that were expected from each one.
The man across from me took a few moments to notice me, but when he did he jumped to his feet, spilling his coffee and yelling. “What are you doing here? How did you get in?”
Until he calmed down, I stayed where I was. Sipping the coffee I’d helped myself to, and staring at him quietly. Once he’d gotten over the shock, he sat, still shaking with left over adrenaline, and asked, “Is it done?”
It wasn’t, of course, but if he didn’t know that then I could still get paid. I nodded silently.
“And you have the proof?” he continued, taking a sip of what remained of his coffee.
I allowed myself a tight smile. The proof was simple. All I had to do was show him a blank piece of paper and make him see his wife’s skull cracked against the steering wheel of her car. Once I’d done so, he left the room. “Wait here.” An easy request, but it was one he never knew I didn’t follow.
He continued to see me sitting at the table, but I followed him to his bedroom. He had a small safe, a cheap fireproof one, sitting on the floor of his closet behind most of his clothes. The key, he removed from a shoebox on one of the upper shelves. When he opened the safe, I saw that he had much more cash in it than what he was paying me. My smile grew. Looks like I was getting a bonus today.
He put away the key and went back into the kitchen where my image sat. I tapped him on the shoulder and he spun, mouth gaping as he looked between the two of me. “There are two? Twins?” I shook my head and pointed at the image, which I allowed to flicker and then fade away.
“Only one,” I said. “And your wife is a lovely, innocent woman. I would not presume to kill her. You, on the other hand…” He backed away as I stalked toward him, holding my favorite black matte mercenary knife. A predatory grin spread over my face. “You are getting what you deserve.”
FORTY-EIGHT
Jason
Once I knew Hannah was safe behind the thick wooden door, I spun to face the new threat. A car had pulled into the neighborhood only moments before, the men inside scanning the streets, searching for someone or something. I saw them take notice of Hannah and me, and one of them pointed to us.
I could have thought it was nothing, but once Hannah started for the door I noticed the sun glint off what looked like a gun barrel, so I shoved her through the door, hoping to be fast enough to protect her and anyone else on the ground floor of the house. I dropped to my knees as soon as I spun around and pulled as much earth up around me as I could. It groaned in protest, rumbling and complaining with every chunk of rock and speck of dirt I added to it. I heard the first shots and panicked yells when my wall was only about waist high, and I dropped to my stomach, heart pounding and panting in fear.
With the first shots came more, and I poured all of my energy into the wall, which grew faster and faster, now towering over ten feet tall and about three feet thick. My head pounded with the sudden exertion and pressure of using so much power so quickly, but I could feel the car accelerating and I sent a portion of the wall down toward them. I hoped to bury the car in rubble, but it was moving too quickly. My strength gave out at that moment, and the wall collapsed down. I was barely able to keep myself from getting buried. I threw my arms up to cover my head as the tons of dirt and rock crashed back down to the ground.
Only then did I hear the yells coming from inside the house and some of the houses nearby. A short chuckle escaped. It figured. My abilities were supposed to be a secret, but I used them in broad daylight in front of multiple witnesses. Would they realize what they’d seen?
“Jason! Are you okay? What happened?”
Hannah and June were both outside, but the immediate threat had ended. They spoke almost in unison, rushing to help me as I struggled to sit up. “I’m all right,” I gasped. “They missed.”
“Who missed? What just happened?” Hannah asked, looking around nervously.
I shrugged, regretting it when a bolt of pain lanced from my shoulder down my arm. I hissed at the pain before answering the question through clenched teeth, “I dunno. Probably the men we were just warned about. There were three of them in a car. They apparently planned a drive-by shooting. And I guess they didn’t miss after all…”
My right arm grabbed at the left, trying to find the source of the burning pain that had just begun. Despite my best effort, I was covered in dirt from head to toe, making it difficult to locate the cause of my pain. “Jason, let’s get inside. You need to get cleaned up. Then we can see where you’re hurt.”
“Hannah, we need to wait for the police.” June’s voice showed very little shock or fear. “And you, young man,” she leaned in close. “If you can spare the energy, you should probably fix this mess. People won’t really believe it happened if it gets cleaned up right away.”
My eyes widened and I flinched back from her. Dan told her. He knew my secret, and he shared it with his wife, who I barely knew. “I don’t know if I can,” I whispered through a clenched jaw. “But I will try.”
I dug my right hand into the dirt, holding my left arm close to my body to avoid movement, and sent my power into the earth to fix the mess I’d made of Dan and June’s yard. “Good boy,” she said gently, patting my right shoulder gently as I poured energy I couldn’t afford to lose into the earth. I gasped in agony while the ground evened out, and the huge pile of dirt that I dropped onto the road slowly crept back to fill in the hole created by pulling up such a massive amount of earth. My eyes closed, and I completed the job by feel instead of relying on my vision. As I worked, I felt June’s footsteps heading into the house quickly.
By the time I was done, the soft spots had become solid enough to walk on without sinking, but I wasn’t sure what to do about the grass and flowers that were pulled up.
“Sorry, can’t do anymore,” I gasped quietly, grasping my injured arm once again. It was throbbing painfully and my vision had begun to blacken around the edges.
“It’s all right, Jason. Just lean back.” It was Hannah’s voice and she gently guided my weary body so I was lying with my head on her lap. “Help will be here soon. I called Alice and Dan. Are you okay? Sorry, stupid question,” Hannah was babbling, but her worry cut through my fatigue.
“Tired. And my arm hurts.”
“I can’t tell if it’s bleeding anywhere. There’s too much dirt.”
June suddenly reappeared. “Here are some clean washcloths. Let’s get at least his arm cleaned up a bit.”
I didn’t realize what they were going to do until there was a sudden searing pain shooting through my arm. I yelled in agony. “STOP! Please,” I gasped. “Give me a minute to breathe.”
“Sorry,” Hannah’s voice wobbled and I opened my eyes to look into her now tear-filled ones. “You with us, Jase?” she asked, try
ing to smile bravely.
“Yeah, I’m with you.” I closed my eyes again and concentrated on the dirt covering my torso. With more energy than it would normally take, I was able to make the worst of the dirt slide off me, revealing not a bullet wound but a painful bruise covering my shoulder from the shoulder blade up around to the front of the now swollen joint.
“Looks like it might be dislocated,” June said, her cool fingers running along my overly warm skin. “There could be muscle damage too,” she was speaking quietly, as if to herself. “Jason…”—she put her hand on my face gently, aiming my gaze at her—“Do you know how this happened?”
“Not really. But I couldn’t control when my wall crashed down. Maybe I got hit by something,” I took several deep breaths to steady myself.
“Did the neighbors see?” I asked quietly.
June smiled wryly. “Kinda hard to miss, kiddo. But don’t worry about that right now. They’re mostly concerned with the drive-by shooting that just happened. You kept us safe with that wall of yours. The kids and I were sitting in the living room when it happened.”
The living room was right in front of the house on the main floor. Without the wall the bullets would have crashed through the window right where they were sitting. “Then I’m glad I did it.” I sat up with a start, gasping once again as I moved my abused shoulder. “Sam! Where’s Sam?”
“Shhh.” Hannah gently pulled me back down. “He’s fine. Waiting in the house until everything settles down.”
I heard a car pull up along the curb and Alice and Dan’s footsteps approached, slow and hesitant. They were probably assessing the damage and figuring out what had happened. Alice’s steps sped up when she got closer to us. “Jason! Hannah, what happened?”
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