by Sophie Davis
She couldn’t get the idea of being his test dummy out of her head. She tilted her head back, so she could see the planes of his face. Kev slung an arm over Cressa’s hip and pulled her until their faces were only inches apart.
“Cressa,” he began, his voice cracking. “It wasn’t me. Whatever she did, it wasn’t me.”
He rested his forehead against hers. The pain fled from her body. Kev’s touch was all she needed, nothing more.
“You hated me,” Cressa murmured. “I was a disgraced and discarded Privileged. You used me as a test dummy.”
Tears pricked the back of her eyes. She fought them unsuccessfully. “I was a frog, and you used me as a test dummy.”
Kev brushed away a stray tear. “I could never hate you, Cressa,” he whispered.
The way he said her name sent a thrill down Cressa’s spine. She suddenly became aware of how close Kev was, his body flush against hers. The relief from the pain had been the reason she’d pressed against him, but Cressa no longer had that excuse. Kev traced small circles on her back, touching her skin where her shirt had ridden up. A shudder went through her.
Just when she thought she could bask in the feeling forever, Kev closed the distance between them. His kiss was impossibly soft at first. Only after his lips had brushed hers several times, testing and teasing, did it become more intense. The hand on Cressa’s back pulled her tight against his hard chest.
Those movie star muscles are everything they’re cracked up to be, she thought, fighting a giggle.
Kev pulled back, his eyes twinkling.
“What are you smiling about?” he whispered.
“You,” Cressa answered, pulling him back to her. He laced their fingers together, drawing a slow line of kisses across her cheek.
The rattle of a door opening barely registered with Cressa. She was in a Kev Leon haze. The Kev Leon was kissing her. The rest of the world could wait.
The person cleared their throat.
No, Cressa thought. No, no, no. Not now.
She willed the intruder to go away, hoping they’d simply leave if ignored for long enough. Closing her eyes, she breathed in Kev’s scent. Cressa prayed their bubble of seclusion could last just a little longer, just a few more minutes.
The door closed, the unsubtle hint signed, sealed, and delivered. Cressa peeked over his shoulder and confirmed that the person left.
The heat of Kev’s body moved away slightly, until he was propped up on one arm.
“I could never hate you, Cressa,” he whispered again. His voice was thick, and the sound of her name sent a thrill down Cressa’s spine.
Kev traced small circles on her back, touching the bare skin. She sighed as he closed the distance between their lips again. The kiss was impossibly soft, and more hesitant than she’d expected. The hand on Cressa’s back pulled her tight against his firm chest.
Those muscles, Cressa thought, giggling at the thought.
Kev pulled back, his eyes questioning.
“What are you smiling at?” he whispered, kissing the end of her nose.
“You,” she replied, pulling him back to her.
When his fingers laced through hers, Cressa sighed with satisfaction. Kev brushed gentle kisses along her cheek, sending new chills through her.
When the door opened again, Cressa wasn’t surprised. The intruder was bound to come back at some point. A pointed clearing of the person’s throat made Cressa finally sit up and look.
“We’re ready for you, Cadet Karmine.”
It was Leslie, and just the sight of her filled Cressa with dread. “You too, Leonard,” the 8P added.
Cressa instantly felt better. If Kev was going, she’d be fine.
“Get yourselves together and meet me in the hallway.” With that, Leslie left the room again.
Kev rolled back onto the bed and slid his arm around Cressa again. Cupping her cheek, her gave her a slow, lingering kiss.
“I would much rather stay here,” Kev whispered.
Cressa’s smile was genuine. “Me too,” she replied.
Though she hesitated, Cressa realized there was something she had to ask him, even if she didn’t like the answer. She wasn’t even sure what was real anymore, though her first make-out session had certainly felt real. Their fingers were still threaded together, and Cressa stared at them as she found the courage.
“What do you want from me?” she whispered.
With a single finger, Kev gently lifted her chin until their eyes met. There was no disdain in his eyes, as she’d feared. No intrusive thoughts of disgust, merely warmth radiating from the movie star.
“Everything,” Kev replied softly.
Chapter Fifteen
Erik
It wasn’t exactly the bonding time I’d envisioned, but at least Tals and I were alone while we searched the McDonough’s home office. The former TOXIC director had been cautious with the privacy of his work, verging on paranoid. Most of the physical files we found were written in code, and everything else was electronically encrypted. My crypto skills were okay but not nearly good enough to get through the endless layers of protection.
“I think we need Kenly,” I said after a while. I was trying to decrypt a folder labeled with a string of numbers that Tals swore was the former Director’s TOXIC identification number. We figured it was important because of that, but the task was beyond my capabilities.
“She’s not exactly available,” Talia replied. “James hasn’t even gotten her to eat yet, Kenly just keeps going right back to sleep.”
“She’ll be okay, she just needs to rest and recharge,” I assured Talia. Gesturing to the screen behind me, I looked up into my girlfriend’s dejected gaze. “I’m sorry, Tals. This is just far too advanced for my skill level.”
My girlfriend didn’t answer right away. The look in her eye and glance to the door of the room told me what she was considering without having to read the thought.
“Do you really think that’s a good idea?” I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.
She ran a hand over her curls. “No, not really. But I’m a little desperate here. The Clearwood kids might be our only option.”
“Right now,” I replied carefully. “Alpha and Epsilon are the only option right now. Kenly will be up and moving soon, though. Or, Penny could probably have this entire computer decrypted in like an hour.”
Worried she might explode at the thought of waiting a few more hours, I studied Talia. After my slip earlier, my girlfriend was careful to temper her emotions. To her credit, she even took a minute to consider the suggestion.
Finally, Talia shook her head. “Alpha and Epsilon are here and capable. I’m willing to take a chance on them.”
Did I think she was being reckless? Yes. But it was a facet of her personality I shared and happened to love about her.
Still, the idea of working with so many unknown factors made me uneasy. After Alpha swore Epsilon would be the better choice for the job, I stood at the door and never took my eyes off the boy. His shaved head only inches from the screen, Epsilon’s fingers flew over the keyboard. As views popped up and disappeared in succession, I realized he was trying to decrypt the entire drive instead of just the file I’d been working on.
Unable to sit still, Tals wandered to Gretchen’s office. While I stood watch over Epsilon, I dialed Frederick and Henri repeatedly to no avail. From Mac’s personal super secure communicator, I tapped into UNITED’s network—my crypto skills weren’t totally lacking—and accessed the casualty list from the Isle attack. Though it was morbid as hell, I’d never been so relieved not to find something. With their names still missing from the list, I held hope that our best friends were somewhere, alive and safe.
Minutes stretched into hours with no tangible progress on the decryption and no word from Penny. Eventually, my father knocked on the bedroom door to let us know dinner was ready. Tals protested taking a break, but I insisted she needed sustenance. It wasn’t until Alex appeared behind my father in th
e open doorway that my girlfriend relented.
Donavon’s son ran straight into Talia’s waiting arms.
“I’ve missed you so much,” she murmured into his ear, rubbing a hand over his blond hair. Alex hugged her fiercely, his little fists grabbing handfuls of Talia’s dark curls.
My heart felt heavy as I watched them. We will never have that. We will never have a child that she loves like she loves Donavon’s kid.
Before Alex, I hadn’t seriously considered whether I wanted children. Our lives weren’t conducive to kids. But seeing Tals with Alex…. He filled a hollow space inside of her that she wasn’t aware of before the little boy came along.
Alex darted from Tals to me. Wrapping his arms around my leg, the boy pressed his small body against me like an adorable leech.
Just like that, my irrational jealousy of a toddler vanished. I grabbed Alex under the arms and scooped him up. He smelled sweet, like my father had plied him with candy in the pod to keep him calm. Alex rested his head on my shoulder and threw his arms around my neck. Squeezing him to me with one arm, I held out the other hand to Talia. She stood and hugged us both.
For a second, with one arm around my girlfriend and the other around Alex, I felt something unfamiliar. I was surprised that I even recognized what it was: peace.
In that moment, I could truly imagine a life where children weren’t trained as assassins. A life where parents didn’t experiment on their sons and daughters, where Talented and norms coexisted not because of a treaty but because people didn’t inherently fear what they didn’t understand.
Even as I basked in it, I knew the moment couldn’t last. That wasn’t our lives. We were fated for something else.
A subtle vibration made the ground move ever so slightly beneath me. Tals’ body went rigid as she felt the shift in air. Epsilon immediately sat up straight, eyes bulging like an insect. He dropped into a trance-like state. Alex squirmed and then began tracing a pattern on my neck with his small finger. James was behind my father in the doorway in an instant. We had company.
“How many?” I sent Talia.
Though she met my gaze, her eyes were unfocused.
“Two fighter hovers,” Epsilon mumbled. His head rolled in an awkward circle.
Alpha burst into the office. Kenly, looking unsteady on her feet, Emma, and one very tense teleporter were on her heels.
“Phi!” Alpha shouted her brother’s name at Epsilon.
“What’s happening?” Emma asked no one particular, putting on a brave face.
“We’re under attack,” Talia said bluntly. “There are two fighter hovers. Five, maybe six Talents in each craft.” Her gaze found Kip. “You need to take Alex. Now.”
“Yeah. Okay. Where?” he stammered Kip rolled his shoulders as though warming up for a swim.
Talia turned back to me, her shoulders shrugging helplessly. Where did we send Alex? Where would he be safe? A neon-purple spark of hope flashed in her eyes.
“Mac’s office!” she shouted. “In the admin building. It has a saferoom. Behind the bookcases.” Kip darted toward us, arms reaching for Alex.
“I need a visual,” Kip demanded, sparing a mournful look at Emma. “Show me.”
The Director’s office formed inside Talia’s mind, but she’d never been inside the saferoom. Kip placed a hand on Alex’s back. The little boy clung tighter to me.
“You need to go with Kip now,” Talia murmured as she placed a kiss on Alex’s head. “I will be there as soon as I can. Okay?”
“We need you safe, buddy,” I told him, giving his little body a comforting squeeze.
My father was suddenly beside us. “You’re going to be fine, kiddo.”
Braver than any child his age should ever have to be, Alex finally let me hand him over to Kip.
“How do I get into the saferoom, Talia?” Kip asked, sweat forming on his brow.
My girlfriend swore. “It’s a blood lock. You’ll need…,” she trailed off, a grim realization settling in.
Talia rolled up her left sleeve and a thin red line appeared on her forearm without the aid of a knife. She grabbed Kip’s free hand and dragged it along the smear of crimson. “Mine should work, it’s worked on all the others. Go.”
“I’ll come back,” Kip promised.
“No,” I said with only a minor dose of compulsion. “Stay with Alex until we come for you.”
Kip and Alex winked out of existence.
“What’s happening, guys?” James demanded. “What should we do?”
“I can try to block you guys again,” Emma offered. Her voice shook, but she was determined.
“They already know we’re here,” Talia said, shaking her head.
“The twins are coming,” Epsilon announced suddenly. When I looked over, he appeared more present than before.
With a deep breath, I let my training take over.
“We have the numbers on our side. Unless I’m mistaken, we also have more power between us.” I locked eyes with Talia. “We fight. We win. Then, we get the hell out of here before their next team arrives.”
My confidence wasn’t false bravado. The odds were in our favor. We’d fought our way out of worse situations. Eyeing the assembled troops, I tried to formulate a plan. Alpha’s expression made my blood turn cold.
“What?” I demanded.
Talia answered for him, her voice small. “Waves. They’re coming in waves.”
“Is it more of the Privileged?” James asked. His gaze ping-ponged around the room, trying unsuccessfully to figure out all the mental communication.
“No,” I said slowly. I looked to Tals for confirmation.
“Norms,” she answered. “I mean, I think. I don’t feel anything from Talents yet.”
“Me neither,” Alpha agreed.
“How many in total?” I asked Tals. “Do you know?”
“Three more fighters behind the first two.” Closing her eyes, she pinched the bridge of her nose. “The ground vehicles…I can’t be sure. They’re still some distance away. Norm minds don’t have a strong enough pull for me from this far out.”
“How long do we have?” I asked.
“The first fighters will be here in…maybe three minutes.”
“Do we have time to get to that saferoom?” Emma asked hopefully.
Did we have time? No. But the group in that house wasn’t the type to hide, even now that the pendulum of luck had swung the other direction.
“I can help you, Talia,” Alpha said. He seemed to be answering something my girlfriend hadn’t shared with the rest of us.
Tals’ mind was open, and her most recent thought was in the forefront.
“Are you sure?” I asked her.
“Two minutes,” Epsilon announced.
“Son,” my father interjected. “If you have a plan, now would be the time.”
Talia fled the room in a blur of flying curls, Alpha directly behind her.
“Find the weapons stash, McDonough must have one here,” I told Dad. My gaze landed on Emma. “Can you shoot?” She nodded jerkily. “Good. Go with my dad. Everyone else with me.”
When I reached the front door, my girlfriend and the Clearwood girl stood on the lawn. Their hands were clasped tightly.
“One minute,” Epsilon said behind me. His voice was way too calm for the legion of Talent-haters headed our way.
“You don’t have to do this,” I sent Talia.
Her violet gaze, full of sadness but devoid of regret, found mine.
“Us or them, right? Even one of your lives is worth all of theirs,” she told me.
Two fighters appeared over the tree line to the west. The energy Talia summoned sent a shockwave through the house. Fighting to stay upright, I stumbled onto the lawn from the reverberations. Alpha joined Talia’s efforts. The air crackled from their combined energy. When I inhaled, pure power filled my lungs. The sensation spread through my body until I felt drunk on it.
“Talia?” Kenly’s whispered word was in both my ea
rs and my head. It was in the air and on the wind, carried by the energy my girlfriend and Alpha were drawing from the universe.
Overhead, a barrage of projectiles careered toward the house ahead of the fighters. Scattering mid-air, not even one came close to its mark. It was impossible to say who brought them down. It could’ve been me. Or Kenly. Or Epsilon. Or Alpha. Or Talia.
One of the fighters banked sharply to the right, as though yanked by an invisible hand. The second craft plummeted an instant later, spinning against the starry backdrop like an out-of-control top. Both burst into flames upon impact with the ground.
“Holy shit!” James yelled. A fire ball erupted in woods between the McDonough’s house and the school’s main campus.
The rumble of engines was faintly audible in the distance; the next wave of attackers wasn’t far behind.
“Survivors,” Epsilon said. He pointed to the wreckage of one the fighters, his pale hand ghostly in the moonlight.
“Talia, Epsilon, with me,” I shouted. “Alpha, Kenly, James—check the other crash site!”
My feet were already carrying me into the woods. Three people dressed in camouflage ran full-speed in our direction.
The trio of attackers fired on us. Talia deflected the bullets with an unnecessary wave of her hand. I released a wave of telekinetic energy. All three flew high into the air before crashing back to the earth. One man struggled to his feet just as we reached him. He raised a strange-looking pistol. I didn’t give him a chance to fire it. One good punch to the gut, and the man was on his knees.
“Who the hell are you?” I screamed in his face. “What do you want?”
An explosion from farther in the woods made the ground shake.
The man kneeling before me spit blood and possibly a tooth.
“Your kind aren’t welcome here anymore,” he said with a sneer. “Once your precious interim-President is ousted, hunting freaks like you will be legal in America.”
Disgust radiated from his entire body.
“You’re a bounty hunter?” I demanded. “Here?”
The man sneered. “Bounty hunters just feed the problem. I don’t want you freaks as slaves or pets any more than I want you as neighbors. I don’t want you breeding and making—”
