by JA Huss
For as long as I can remember, Cyan has been stronger than me. I have kicked her out before, but it takes a lot of effort.
Using Thomas didn’t take any effort. It was instantaneous.
“He’s done something to you,” she says, letting go of my arm. “He’s done something to you, Sadie, and whatever it is… it’s not good.”
“Clothes,” I say.
Uzi shakes his head and walks out, slamming the bedroom door behind him.
Cyan walks over to a dresser, pulls out some clothes, and tosses them on the bed. “I guess I have no choice. But I’d just like to go on record that this is a very bad idea. He is what he is, Sadie. So whatever sweet-talk he used on you while he kept you prisoner”—she snarls that word—“it’s not good. And you better think long and hard before you fall for it. Because if you take his side…”
“If I take his side what?” I ask. “You’ll hurt me?”
She makes a face. “I’d never hurt you. You know that.”
I do know that. But I don’t feel like taking it back. So I get dressed instead. These are obviously her clothes because they fit me perfectly. And when I’m ready, dressed in jeans, t-shirt, and the red sneakers she’s partial to, she opens the door and says, “Come with me.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE - SULLIVAN
Help me. I say it over and over, hoping she’ll hear me.
But it’s been weeks. Weeks since they locked me in this prison cell. I am unable to do anything but waste away on the floor, wishing for my final end that will never come.
Thomas is gone for good. I can feel it. He’s never coming back. I’ll be left here to rot. No one is even here in this place with me. No sound at all. Nothing. I’m deep underground. No one will find me. I will—
Footsteps outside the door.
Help. Help me.
The grinding sound of a bolt being slid. Then the creak of a heavy door.
“Thomas?”
Thank God, it’s her. Sadie. I’m too weak to talk, so I do my best to project this to her. Sullivan. I concentrate on my name, trying to let her know I’m still here. That Thomas is gone and it’s still me. The one she likes. I’m the one she likes. Me.
Lights flick on. It blinds me—even though my eyes are shut, it’s too bright.
“What did you do to him?” Sadie asks.
“We needed to disarm him,” a man says.
“We cannot afford to have sympathy for this animal,” a woman snarls. “He is everything we’ve been fighting against.”
“Feed him,” Sadie snaps. “Now. And bring him water.”
“He won’t be able to eat,” the man says. “He’s too weak.”
“Then I’ll feed him, Uzi.”
Silence after that little declaration. For several seconds. Then, “I hope you know what you’re doing,” from the woman.
Footsteps. Two sets.
Sadie kneels down next to me. “Thomas?” she asks in a soft whisper. We’re connected. Linked. That’s what she called it back in the tunnel. So I can feel her even when she’s not here. But it’s so much better when she’s near.
“They’re bringing you food. I’m sorry. I was unconscious. I don’t know how long you’ve been like this but…” Her words fall away.
I have no more fight left in me. She’s here. It feels like a victory. It feels like the right time to fade away and let someone else take over.
But Thomas is still gone.
Where did you go?
The only response I get is darkness.
“Thomas?” It’s Sadie again. I feel a lot different. A lot better. And I’m not filthy, cold, or lying on a concrete floor. “Can you open your eyes?” I’m on a bed. A very soft bed.
God. When was the last time I had the pleasure of experiencing a bed? I don’t even remember. It was always Thomas who got to enjoy beds. Women. Drinking. Eating. I had none of that while I was locked up inside my own head.
I’m glad he’s gone. Fucking ecstatic.
Something pushes against my lips. Plastic. A straw.
“I know you’re waking up, Thomas. Drink from the straw. You need more water.”
I try to open my eyes, but only a thin sliver of reality peeks through before I give up and close them again.
“It’s OK,” Sadie says. “You can rest. But can you hear me?”
Yes, I send her mentally. I can hear you.
“I know you’ve done bad things. And I know I should not think of you as a… friend.”
Friend, huh?
She squeezes my hand. “We’re not at Prodigy. We’re with my sister. I have a sister!” She is excited about this. “I’m not…” She pauses. “I’m not what I feared. I just have a twin.”
Twin. Well, that makes sense, I guess.
“Our friends, Uzi and Iziah, they’re here too. We all escaped together a couple years ago. Well,” she says, sighing. “Uzi and my sister Cyan did. Iziah and I were caught. Uzi and Iziah got us out of the tunnel. They came to save me. And I’m sorry for how they treated you. You don’t deserve that. But you’re getting better now. I’ve only fed you a few times and believe me, you look a hundred times better.” She squeezes my arm and I realize I have no shirt on. “Your muscles are even back. I don’t understand how we heal like we do. Cyan says she has the mesh and nanites too. So do Uzi and Iziah. I guess we were in the same test group. My memory is coming back.”
“All of it?” I croak out. It’s barely a whisper.
She squeezes my hand, then whispers, “Sullivan. I know that’s you.”
I manage a smile.
“I’d know you anywhere.” Her whisper is so soft, I barely hear it. Which means she’s worried about the others overhearing. She wants this to be a secret between us. “There’s still a lot I don’t remember. Like… why was I with you?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I croak again.
She chuckles under her breath, trying to be quiet. “I know you’re someone good. At least to me. But I was gassed or something. It took some more of my memory away.”
“Fuck,” I say. “I forgot, sorry.”
“I got the earlier stuff back. I remember my sister. And Iziah and Uzi. But I have a big gap. The years Prodigy had me since the escape. I don’t remember anything.”
“Just give it some time,” I manage to spit out. But shit, it feels like a very long string of words right now.
“Can you open your eyes?” she asks. “I need to see them. I need to see those eyes so I know you’re going to be OK.”
I try again, this time managing to bring them to half-mast. “Hey,” I manage.
“Hey, yourself.” She smiles. Then she inhales deeply and lets it out. Relief. “I was so worried. When I finally woke up and realized they didn’t feed you…”
I try to shrug, but I’m not sure I pull it off. “No biggie,” I say. My voice is hoarse but at least my mouth no longer feels like it’s stuffed with cotton. “You can make it up to me later.” I wink. Or… what I think passes as a wink right now. It’s more of a two-eyed blink.
But it gets results. Because she smiles and maybe… yes, I think I see a blush.
“Do you know,” I say, thinking I must be delirious for even going here, “I haven’t flirted with a girl since I was twelve.”
“Twelve?” She laughs. Then she looks over her shoulder, afraid someone might be watching her reaction. “Kind of a late bloomer, huh?”
I laugh this time. Or cough. She helps me sit up so I can do it properly, patting me on the back. “Sorry if I got you in trouble with your people.”
“I’m not in trouble. They don’t control me. We’re equal partners.”
“Thanks,” I say.
“For what?”
“For using your… street cred, I guess. For getting me out of that fucking prison cell.”
“I’m not done with you yet, Sullivan Brooks. Not even close. Whatever’s going on, we’re just getting started. So I’ve got your back if you’ve got mine.”
This makes me l
ook at her for several silent seconds. “Do you need me at your back?”
She shrugs, still very nervous about being overheard. “I don’t know yet. But I’d like someone who didn’t grow up with me on the team, if you know what I mean? An objective opinion, if you will. But I have to warn you, Sullivan. They see you as evil incarnate. The Alphas are the most feared project to ever come out of Prodigy school. I’m second-guessing myself a little too. But whatever you are, whoever you are… it’s not what they think. So I’m gonna give us a chance.”
Us. I like the way she just phrased that.
“We could be a great team, remember? Oh, that was Thomas. But it still applies to you and me, right?”
I nod, looking at her face. She’s not pale anymore. Her skin is a soft light brown. Like she comes from a part of the world that has a blue-green ocean and a white-sand beach. I can practically picture her on that beach. Yellow bikini. Her hair all streaked with gold and red from the sun. Laughing. I have no idea what she looks like completely happy. I’d like to see her happy.
“But don’t fuck me over. Please. If you’re here to fuck me over, put me out of my misery first. Do it without me knowing.”
I take her hand, ball it up into a fist, and bump it to mine. “Wondertwins?”
She laughs. “Yeah, sure. But that’s a stupid name. We’ll have to come up with something way cooler.”
I appreciate her for a few moments. Enjoy her. Then whisper, “I’d really like to kiss you right now. And not just because you showed up when it mattered.”
She holds her breath, then glances over her shoulder.
“But I’ll wait,” I say softly. “Just don’t make me wait too long.”
She blushes. Which almost makes up for the predicament I find myself in. “I need to get downstairs,” she says. “Cyan is not happy with me for insisting they get you out of that cell. None of them are. You can rest. Or take a shower. I put clothes in your bathroom. Or come downstairs for dinner, if you feel like it.”
“Sure,” I say, letting go of her hand. “I’m up for all of that.”
I watch her walk away filled with… longing.
A strange feeling, I realize. I’ve never had that before. Not even when I was desperate to be the one in control instead of Thomas. This is something new.
I like it.
Where did you go?
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO - SADIE
When I get downstairs Cyan is banging pots and pans around as she goes through the motions of dinner with Iziah. “Where’s Uzi?” I ask.
“Out,” Cyan snaps. “I hope you and your new lover enjoy the dark side.” She slams a pan down on the stove burner, making the grates jump. “Because we won’t be joining you there.”
“Don’t be dramatic, Cyan,” Iziah says. He smiles at me when I look at him, his eyes warm and happy. “She’s been through a lot and she went through it with this asshole. So…” He shrugs. “Cut her a break.”
“Cut her a break?” Cyan says, sending him a sidelong glance that would make most people tremble. She might not be a level ten mentalist like Thomas, but she’s got her talents. And she knows how to use them. Always has. Even when we were children Cyan was the one coming up with plots and plans. Cyan was the one who kept us safe. Cyan was the one with the idea to break out of Prodigy. “I don’t cut breaks for Alphas.”
“Would you just give him a chance?” I say.
“No,” Cyan snaps back. “I won’t. He’s the one who killed them, Sadie. How the fuck do you just forget that?”
“I didn’t forget that,” I say, defensive. Well, I did. But that memory is back now. Not so for most of the memories with Thomas and Sullivan. There are still a lot of gaps there. It’s so strange. It’s like I traded one set of memories for another. “I’m very aware of who and what he is.”
“And you want to coddle him. Take care of him like a stupid nursemaid? I don’t even know you right now.”
“Well, I don’t know you either,” I mutter under my breath. But she’s too busy banging shit around in the kitchen to hear me. I glance at Iziah, who didn’t miss it. And he just sends me a sympathetic shake of his head and mouths, It’s OK. Which is code for, Drop it.
Iziah turns away and starts grabbing some food out of the fridge.
“Thomas is coming down for dinner,” I say. “So make enough.”
Cyan slams a large metal spoon down on the counter. “Are you fucking kidding me?” She turns to Iziah. “You’re OK with this?”
“Cyan,” he says. Iziah has always been the calmest of all four of us.
“Don’t Cyan me.” She points her spoon at me from across the room. “Are you dating him now? Is Uzi aware that Alpha Thomas is taking his place?”
“What place?” I ask. “Uzi and I are just friends.”
“Friends?” She looks over at Iziah, shooting him a do-you-believe-her-bullshit look.
“Cyan,” Iziah says again. “Knock it off. She’s been gone for two years. She doesn’t even know him.”
“Apparently, she doesn’t know me either.”
Well, I guess she heard my muttered response to her saying the exact same thing.
“Two years didn’t stop us from getting back together,” Cyan shoots back. And the look on Iziah’s face is the only thing she needs to see. “What?” she asks. “What’s that look for? You’re having second thoughts about starting over?”
Iziah is just about at the end of his rope now. I don’t know what happened to him when he got left behind at Prodigy. Just like I don’t know what happened to me. I’m just going to assume it’s bad.
“I never said that. I’m just saying… leave her the fuck alone.”
Cyan looks hurt. She opens her mouth, then closes it and turns her back to him, busy with dinner again.
When Iziah looks over at me, I mouth, Thank you.
He doesn’t respond.
I don’t know why he took my side against Cyan. They’ve been a thing for as long as I can remember. Even as kids, they were always a team. Same with me and Uzi, but I never let him get any farther than that. Cyan always wanted more from Iziah. I always figured he was in love with her. But this… this is not the Iziah I remember.
And the tension in the air is almost thick enough to see.
“Hey,” Uzi says, walking in the front door, slamming it behind him. He takes off his jacket, throws it on a chair as he passes by, then comes right up to me and slips an arm around my waist.
I smile. But… he sends chills up my spine. Just not the way he’s supposed to.
I remember Uzi. I have lots of memories of Uzi. But there’s something about him I can’t seem to shake these days.
“What’s wrong?” he says, feeling my apprehension. Probably reading my mind.
“Cyan’s pissed off,” Iziah says from across the room. He’s looking straight at me when I glance over at him. Like he said that to cover up the fact his brother makes me uncomfortable.
Something’s wrong here. Something is off. Ever since I felt well enough to come downstairs and join them, I’ve felt it. Uzi and Cyan have been on the outside for two years without us. Things have changed. And I know Iziah feels it too.
I wish I could talk to him in private, but we never seem to find ourselves alone together. If Cyan isn’t with us, then Uzi is. In fact, now that I think about it, I haven’t had one real conversation with Iziah since I woke up.
“When isn’t she?” Uzi laughs. He looks down at me. “Right?” His smile is the same. His eyes, still the same. His face is just as handsome as I remember.
But he’s not the same.
Maybe it’s you, Sadie. Ever think of that?
Yes, I have thought of that. I’ve thought about nothing but that since I woke up.
I have changed.
“Right.” I laugh, trying to lighten the mood. “And look, Cyan, I get it. We all know who Thomas is.” Well, they don’t, not really. They have no idea about Sullivan. And I’m not going to tell them. I decided this immediately, as s
oon as Cyan started asking me questions about him. “But he’s not the same guy as he was when all that shit went down. And none of us were there. You should just let him tell his side.”
“What side?”
All four of us turn our heads to the stairs to see Thomas—Sullivan—staring at us from the bottom step.
Cyan turns back to slamming things. Uzi’s body stiffens next to mine. Iziah says, “Your side,” with a long sigh that says he’s tired of this fight and he’s ready to move on.
“OK,” Sullivan says, walking into the living area. He eyes Cyan with caution, then Uzi, and finally decides that Iziah is the only one worth talking to.
I have to agree with his assessment right now. Even though I feel like a traitor for doing so.
“But you’re gonna have to help me out here,” Sullivan says. “I came in on the middle of the conversation.”
“How about an explanation for why the fuck you felt the need to kill all those kids at school fifteen years ago?” This is from Uzi.
“Not to mention the teachers,” Cyan says. My mouth drops in shock. Teachers?
Sullivan laughs while I’m doing that. “Teachers?” And I might love him in this moment for being on the same wavelength as me. For making me feel—not crazy.
Then he lets out a guffaw. “Are you serious? I have no clue what your school was like,” he says, again, deciding to focus on Iziah. “But mine wasn’t filled with teachers. They were all certifiable mad scientists who used my body like a lab rat. They used my brother like a lab rat. And my baby sister. They used my friends. So if you think I’m going to apologize for what I did, think again.”
“That doesn’t give you right to blow people up. Kids,” Uzi replies. He tugs me closer to him and I suck in a breath. This is not turning out right. I don’t want him touching me. And it’s not because Sullivan just made some kind of offer upstairs. It’s just… I don’t want him touching me.
“You Alphas think you’re in charge. You think you’re so powerful. Well,” he says, gripping the skin of my waist so hard I let out a gasp, “you have no idea what Sadie and I can do together. Or Cyan and Iziah. And if you think you’re going to put us down like rabid dogs, just like you did those other kids, you’re in for a big surprise.”
