“I’ve already been searched,” she said.
The guard didn’t respond as he patted her down. She looked at him in disgust as he touched her all over. Once the guard left, she sat and waited a couple of more minutes. Finally, the door opened again. This time, it was Jeremiah that walked through.
Evelyn stiffened slightly at the sight of the man. He wore the clothes that covered him from the top of the neck, down. He still wore his hat, but his sunglasses were absent. When a guard shut the door behind him, he just stood there for a moment and smiled.
“It has been a long time, Evelyn,” he said. He took a step forward and sat in the chair a few feet in front of her. His jaw clenched several times as he looked her up and down. “You’ve aged.”
“That’s what happens, I guess,” she said.
“You’ve aged well,” he said.
“I suppose prisoners are keeping your skin healthy,” she said. “Still got a taste for human flesh?” She shook her head. “Of course you do. That’s why you’re still alive.”
“You know you’ve lost, right?” he said to her.
“You’ve thought this before,” she answered back.
“Yes, but this time you don’t have a Starborn that can teleport you out of here,” he said. “I have to admit, I never expected that to happen. You made me look like a fool. But I knew I would see you again someday. I have to admit though, I didn’t expect something this elaborate.”
Evelyn just stared at him.
“This revolution,” he said. “The Starborns. It was all you. Because of you, I am dealing with uprisings from Sudyka to Se
“Killing me won’t stop the Resistance,” she said.
“I suppose you’re referring to your prodigy, Mora?” he asked.
Again, Evelyn didn’t reply to him.
Jeremiah held up a finger. “The moment Krindle talked to me about Mora and Aaron wanting to call themselves the Starborn, I knew that you had something to do with it because Starborn wasn’t a common name among people with special abilities. I was the one who came up with that term.” He shook his head. “When I kissed your hand, you saw everything, didn’t you? You saw the beginning up until that moment. You had seen what I had become; you knew my plans, my intentions. You even knew about the Starborn. Tell me, why did you keep the name? Why didn’t you change it to something else?”
Evelyn shook her head and shrugged. “I believe you came up with the name when you were once a human being and not the monster you are now. It was a name of power, maybe even of hope. I think the concept once fascinated you and you truly had dreams of helping the world.”
“That all sounds nice, but it isn’t true.”
“It is,” she said. “You’ve forgotten. I’ve seen your entire life. I know what used to drive you. When you were young, you wanted fame and recognition. As you got older, you knew you could get that if you truly discovered something great. But it was something that would have to change the world. Change how humanity lived. Your vaccine backfired. Your quest to find immortality became about you and your sickness instead of helping the world.”
“Stop talking,” Jeremiah said.
“You did change the world, I’ve got to give you that,” she said. “Of course, you changed it by killing billions of people…”
“Quiet!” Jeremiah yelled. His face started to turn red. “The only reason you’re alive right now is because you’re bluffing about having a healer.”
“Bluffing? I’m not bluffing.”
“Then where is this person?”
“He’s in Screven,” she answered.
Jeremiah’s eyes went wide.
“But you will never find him unless I tell you where he is,” she said.
Of course, she didn’t know where he was exactly, but she knew she had to buy some time. Perhaps even buy the others’ release.
“Mora has him, doesn’t she?”
“Perhaps.”
“She is a powerful Starborn, but she won’t be able to carry on your revolution,” he said.
Evelyn looked down at the floor. I knew she had to be thinking about the fact that I had been infected. And I knew there was no way she was going to tell Jeremiah this.
“Mora has more drive than I ever did,” Evelyn said. “You took everything away from her. Then in your sick, twisted way, you were able to make her come begging for your help. That is, until I showed her the truth. She has seen everything you’ve done. She knows all about you. More importantly, she knows that you were the one who sent the greyskins to her village six years ago. She knows that you are responsible. She’s angrier than I am, and her anger is fresher. Not to mention she is much more powerful than any Starborn I’ve seen. If she comes face to face with you again, you won’t stand a chance.”
Jeremiah said nothing to this. He only looked down at the floor.
“Yes,” she continued. “You know it’s true. She haunts you. The some time.moment you saw what she could do, that’s all you’ve thought about. She’s nearly unlimited. No shackles can hold her. No bullets can hit her. You can kill me, do whatever you want with the others. As long as Mora is out there as your enemy, she will always be in the back of your mind. You will always have to look over your shoulder.”
He looked up at her as she continued.
“You were a fool to make her your enemy,” she said, leaning forward. “You were too greedy. You wanted to use her to recruit more Starborns to your cause. You’d hoped she would find a healer, and she did! But she turned against you, because I showed her the truth.” She sat back in her chair and looked away. “Even if you are able to find the healer to take away your infection, Mora will still be out there, plotting your death. You will never sleep soundly. Then one day, she will come up on you when you least expect it. And she will kill you.”
“What do you want for the healer?” Jeremiah asked.
Evelyn sighed. “Let us go. Aaron, Danny, Heather, and Allison. Let us all go and you can have the healer.”
“I’m not letting you and the others go because you will simply try to kill me another way,” he said. “Think of something else.”
“That’s the deal,” Evelyn said. “Let us go, you get your healer. Of course I’m going to try and think of a different way to kill you. But that’s just how it has to be.”
He stared at her. It was uncomfortable, but Evelyn didn’t lose her composure. He dug into his pocket and pulled out a radio, his eyes never falling from hers. He brought the radio up to his mouth.
“Commander,” he said.
“Yes sir.”
“Release the greyskins into the city.”
“Affirmative.”
Jeremiah placed the radio back in his pocket. “The greyskins will now terrorize my city, and in the morning, once a few hundred people are dead, I will blame Mora and the Starborns for it.” He shrugged. “If you and Mora are going to make a mortal enemy of me, you will have to face the world too. You forget, that most of the people are on my side.”
“Most of the people know you aren’t fair. Most of the people will soon realize what you’ve done. You can’t win, Jeremiah.”
“Well, if I can’t win, then I’m not letting anyone else win either.”
He stood from his chair and walked to the door. Before walking out, he looked back at Evelyn. “Come up with a more realistic price for your healer and we will talk in the morning.”
“What more can I bargain with?”
“I’m sure you will think of something,” he said. As he was walking out the door, he turned to say one more thing. “To let all of you go, I’m going to want more than a healer. I want Mora, too. I want her dead.”
He shut the door and walked away, leaving Evelyn tied up with no place to go.
I shifted my thoughts back to Connor who was still sitting on his bed. The moment he felt me watching, he looked up.
“Jeremiah is releasing the greyskins on
the city,” I said.
Connor looked stunned. “Be carefu
l.”
“I will.”
I opened my eyes to see a blank wall in front of me. Jeffrey and Christopher were still in the other room. I didn’t know what it was, but I started feeling dizzy. As I stood from the ground, I had to hold myself against the wall just to keep my footing. The virus was spreading through me more rapidly now. I supposed that using my gifts to watch others didn’t help me keep my strength.
I staggered forward, probably looking more and more. I sup like a greyskin, until I finally reached the room where Jeffrey and Christopher sat. Christopher now held his head up, and stood when he saw me coming forward. Jeffrey followed him and they walked to me.
“Mora, are you okay?” Christopher asked.
I shook my head. I wasn’t okay. I was losing all of my strength. I could feel snot start to drip down my nose. My eyes were starting to goop around the edges. My stomach felt like it was going to hurl, but I didn’t have anything in me.
“Jeremiah is releasing greyskins on the city,” I managed to say. It hurt to hold my eyes open. I nodded my head toward Christopher. “Evelyn has offered you up in exchange for the lives of the others.”
Christopher just stood and stared at me, seemingly unable to comprehend what I was saying. The two of them led me to the table and I sat down hard. This virus was about to get the best of me.
“In order for Jeremiah to let the others go, he wants both me and you to go,” I said. “He will kill us.”
I could tell Christopher was thinking about it.
I reached out a hand and grabbed his arm. “We’re not going to give up,” I said. I looked to Jeffrey. “We’ve got to get into the Center and blow it up. That’s the only way we’re going to end this.”
“What about the others inside?” he asked.
I sat for a moment, trying to think. It was hard to think. It hurt to think. Finally, I had the answer. “All of us are willing to die for the cause. If we can’t get everyone out, we blow it up anyway. If giving myself up would be enough to stop Jeremiah, I would do it in a second, but I know it will do no good.”
I didn’t hear anything that was said after this. For a moment, I could see that their lips were mouthing something. When my head fell to the table I could see that they were saying my name, but I was out. Exhaustion and sickness took over me.
The last thought I had before slipping into unconsciousness was that I hoped someone would be mindful enough to shoot me in the head before I woke up as a greyskin.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Evelyn sat on the front porch of her shack, peeling an apple. She had gotten an early start that morning in the garden. She had pulled carrots, picked cabbages and tomatoes, and shucked corn all before the day began to warm. This was the part of her life that she had always enjoyed. When she wasn’t holding meetings with Jeffrey or her group of Starborn followers here in Salem, she was simply a gardener. She had wished more than once that Mark could have been there with her to share the work. She wondered what they would have been like after so many years together. She sighed deeply as she peeled away at the apple.
She would never forget him. She hadn’t even known him that long in the grand scheme of things, but he was the only man she had ever loved. There hadn’t been another since. There never would be. Mark was the one, and Jeremiah had stolen him away.
But the plans for resistance were going well. For the past six years she had been trying to gather a team of Starborns together to train. She had found three in Salem. Aaron had been the first. When he had been forced to kill his own parents with his Starborn gift, Evelyn knew he would be a perfect candidate to help lead the fight against Jereon hadmiah. Though now, she was worried about him. He had gone looking for a satellite dish that was supposed to help Salem when the revolt started, but he hadn’t returned yet. It wasn’t looking good.
Evelyn had later discovered Heather and Danny too. She had great hopes for all of them, but they lacked the leadership characteristics that Evelyn had desired to see. There had to be someone to lead them when she was gone. That person had not come along yet.
Aaron might have been the closest thing to a leader that she would ever get, but he was so independent, and he rarely asked for help. Heather was too hot-headed for anyone to actually look up to her. And Danny was powerful, but he was too much of a follower.
Evelyn purposefully kept them all in the dark about who Jeremiah really was. She had started by showing them that the way he ran things was unfair to people. Giving up most of the food to him just to have protection wasn’t right. She didn’t tell them that Jeremiah actually was the one that made the attacks happen. They had been too young and wouldn’t have been able to keep their mouths shut. As they got older, she had told herself that she would sprinkle in more details, but she rarely did.
By now, they knew that Jeremiah had been responsible for the greyskins, but she never delved deeper than that. This was in part because she felt the details were so personal. Everything she had to tell them brought her mind back to her personal encounters with Jeremiah and she didn’t want them to hate him simply because of her grief. She wanted them to be against him because they saw him as a tyrant. But if a leader ever did emerge, that person would have to know everything.
Evelyn smiled as a cool breeze blew by her, whipping her shirt in the wind. She didn’t want to think about the Resistance. She didn’t want to think about gaining a new leader. She simply wanted to enjoy the weather and eat her apple.
Motion in the distance caught her attention, and she lowered her eyebrows when she saw that it was a girl coming out of Connor’s shack. Evelyn shook her head, not wanting to know what may have happened. She didn’t expect the girl to come across the street either. Evelyn noticed that she had a slight limp as she crossed the dirt. The girl walked all the way to Evelyn’s shack and stood about five feet away. Evelyn was curious because she didn’t remember seeing this girl before. What made her even more curious was that the girl wasn’t wearing the standard wristband that all of the colonists of Salem were supposed to wear. But Evelyn wasn’t going to be rude. She looked up to the girl and smiled.
“Beautiful day isn’t it?” She said.
“Sure is,” the girl said.
Evelyn didn’t figure the girl to be any more than twenty, maybe even a teenager. She was pretty. A little too skinny, which wasn’t uncommon for colonists and villagers in the area, but pretty. She could see why Connor might have taken an interest in the girl. Except that the girl just stood in front of her awkwardly.
“Are you alright, sweetheart?” Evelyn asked.
Before the girl could answer, they turned their heads at the sound of a Screven SUV driving by. Evelyn hated how close they drove to her shack. She mouthed a few curses at them as they passed.
“Screven guards,” Evelyn mumbled, shaking her head. “Are you lost, sweetheart?”
“Of course not,” the girl answered. “Why?”
The girl was lying. “You look lost.”
“Just hungry. Wondered what’s good today.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow at her and squints her eyes. Poor thing doesn’t know I’m not a vegetable stand. gry. WoShe stood, and the girl took a step back.
“You’re not part of the colony are you?” Evelyn asked.
“What makes you say that?” she asked.
Evelyn held up her arm to show the girl the standard black wristband they were all forced to wear. “You’d be wearing one of these if you were one of us.” The girl took another step back. Evelyn set the apple down and waved her in with her hands. “Come on. I think I can rustle up some porridge for you.”
The girl wasn’t too reluctant to follow her inside. Evelyn walked over to the kitchen area of her shack and pulled out what she needed. “My name is Evelyn.”
“Mora,” the girl said.
Evelyn didn’t know anyone named Mora, but for some reason it sounded very familiar. As Evelyn put together the porridge, the girl talked about what had happened to her the day before. She told Evelyn a
bout how she was from a village called Springhill and how it had been the target of many greyskin attacks. She had left to find Screven and Jeremiah in hopes that she could get protection. But she had run out of gas. She had been attacked and injured, but Connor had saved her.
Evelyn had been to Springhill six years before. It had been a terrible night for her. Evelyn placed the bowl of porridge in front of her, genuinely interested in what she had to say, though she didn’t really feel like trying to convince someone else that Jeremiah wasn’t all he seemed. Evelyn grabbed some healing ointment from her cabinet to give to Mora.
Mora thanked her and they began to talk about the Screven guards and how Jeremiah asked a lot of the colonies. Mora proposed that Salem could just tell Jeremiah that they didn’t want to be a colony anymore. Evelyn almost laughed at this, but kept her composure. This girl didn’t know anything.
Then the conversation moved to population growth.
“What happens if you grow by accident?” Mora asked.
“You mean by birth?”
Mora nodded.
“It’s happened before,” Evelyn said. She thought about a time just two years before. Salem had gone over the population limit. Newborns were taken away, probably killed. “It’s not pretty. Jeremiah doesn’t allow colonies to grow because then they would need more of the resources that he wants allotted to Screven. It isn’t fair, but it’s life. They keep those awful creatures away.” Evelyn hated talking like this. She neglected to tell Mora that not only do the guards keep them away, they also bring them here. It would be too overwhelming to tell Mora the complete truth.
“That’s all I want for Springhill,” Mora said.
Evelyn decided to play devil’s advocate. “Well, if Springhill has anything to offer Jeremiah, then no doubt he will protect you. I wish all the best to you in that.” But if Jeremiah was attacking Springhill, that meant he wanted it. He used every situation to his advantage. If Mora were ever granted a meeting with the leader of Screven, he would probably even tell her that he wouldn’t protect them until she could come up with something he wanted from them. But there was no use in discouraging the girl. This wasn’t Evelyn’s fight.
The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) Page 59
