by Eaton, Pam
He fists his hands in his hair. “Do you know they want you? That they asked me repeatedly if I knew what made you special? They know there’s something different about you.”
He doesn’t know that they sent a ransom offering to exchange him for me, but I’m not going to bring that memory up now. “I know they want me. But aside from Tiberius, Lucy, and you, no one knows. I think Xavier suspects something, but I haven’t told him,” I tell him, trying to calm him down.
“Don’t tell him,” he says, slicing his hand through the air. “The fewer people that know, the better. They want you, Becca, and if they know about this, they’ll never stop hunting you.”
I throw my arms out wide. “Then come and help me.” I launch the words at him. “Help me put a stop to this. Don’t let them hurt other people like they’ve done to you. Don’t let them kidnap any more children and put them in cages. I don’t want any more kids like Eloise having to watch their parents be murdered in front of them. Help me so things like that don’t happen again.”
He puts his hands on his hips and stares at the ground. Moments of painful silence pass, but I wait it out and watch him war with himself.
“Okay,” he says, and I could kiss him. “But first, let’s see if you can even enhance my power.”
I pace back and forth in front of the couch. How do we even test this? And then it hits.
“I’ve got an idea. Wait here,” I say and head off down the hall.
I run to my room and look through my things. I need something that I can place on the bed. The only thing I have, other than clothes, is a bright green scarf that Maria made me. I ball it up and put it on top of my pillow.
I rush back out to the living room. “All right, I put something on my pillow, and I want you to tell me what it is.”
“How do we do this?” he asks, looking at the wall where my room is on the other side.
“You’re going to have to hold my hand,” I tell him, and he looks at it for a moment before grasping it in his. “Now focus like you do when you use your powers. But try to see past the wall.”
He stares ahead, and I try pumping in a little bit of enhancement into him.
After some tense moments, he lets out a low growl. “This isn’t working,” he says, and drops my hand to run his through his hair.
“Let’s try it one more time,” I say.
“Fine,” he says and grabs my hand.
I pump a lot more enhancement into him and he staggers back a step. “Holy…how…? That’s impossible.” The words are whispered in a mix of horror, and yet promise.
He turns to me, his face drained of color. “There’s a green scarf on your pillow.”
* * *
We stand outside of Tiberius’s door waiting for him to answer. Tony fidgets next to me, kicking a stone with his foot. The door opens and the minute Lucy sees Tony, her face clouds with confusion, but it quickly clears into a bright smile. “Hey, guys,” she says, stepping back to let us in.
We walk in and I can hear Luca and Xavier in the kitchen. “They’re all in the kitchen if you want to head in there,” she says, and we follow her.
I walk right in and take a seat at the table. Tony lingers in the doorway, his eyes locked on Luca. This can’t be the first time he’s seen him, can it?
“Have a seat,” Tiberius says, pointing at the extra chair.
He walks over and sits in the chair. “Tony wants to help,” I tell the group, and watch Tiberius’s eyebrows shoot up.
“This is Luca,” I say to Tony.
They eye each other for a minute, until Eloise bursts into the kitchen, breaking up any weird tension. She walks around the table giving hugs, and when she gets to Tony, she throws her arms around him, squeezing him tightly around his middle. He lifts his arms like he doesn’t know what to do.
But just as quickly as she came into the room, she’s running out of it.
“I’ll go see what she’s up to,” Luca says as he stands from the table.
Tony’s eyes follow them out. “Did you know we found both of them in cages?” Lucy asks him.
He turns back to the table. “Becca mentioned it.”
“Eloise still won’t speak. Whatever trauma she endured has made her mute. When they had me, the things they did to me…” her words trail off, and she clears her throat a few times. “As an adult I’ve had a hard time processing it all, but to go through that as a child…I don’t envy her in the least.”
Silence reigns around the table until Tiberius clears his throat. “Do you have a plan?” he asks me.
“I do. I want to go back to France. There’s more there that we’ve missed. Tony can come with me, and Lucy can stay here and hack their camera system.”
“Wait a minute,” Xavier interrupts. “Why don’t we all just go like last time?”
“I think I’ll have an easier time transporting into a small corridor when the church is closed with only one other person, versus if the whole group of us is there.”
“And what if Chelsea’s there?” Xavier asks.
“I don’t think she can block more than one person at a time, and we’re both trained in fighting. Plus, if it’s late enough, we might not even encounter her,” I tell him.
“What if you transport all of us to an outside location, and then transport you and Tony into the church. Things can go south very quickly, and I’ll be able to monitor those with powers coming and going,” Tiberius says, always thinking ahead.
I tilt my head back and forth. “That could work.”
“Either way, I want you all to have comms set up so we can be in constant communication,” Lucy says. “I don’t like that you two have no back-up within the church, but I get it.”
Tiberius lays his palms flat on the table. “We’ve got our plan. Get some good sleep tonight. We’ll leave late tomorrow afternoon.”
Thirteen
“Nervous?” I ask Tony, because for the last ten minutes he’s been acting like he drank ten cups of coffee.
“No, just peachy,” he says, and I raise a brow at his sarcasm. “Of course I’m nervous. The last mission we did, didn’t turn out so great.” He doesn’t meet my eyes, but I chalk it up to anxiety.
“Well, Sariah isn’t here, and now you can see through walls. I think this is going to go a lot smoother.”
“We’ll see,” he mutters. “Why aren’t you more nervous?”
“She thrives on this,” Lucy says, coming up from behind. She hands each of us a small earpiece. “Put these in. Becca, can I borrow you for a moment?” she asks.
I follow her into the kitchen. She stops by the door and motions me farther into the room. I open my mouth to question her, but she motions for me to walk over to the table. She shuts the door and reaches into her front pocket.
“I have something I want you to wear, but I don’t want anyone to know about it,” she tells me, and then she puts her hand out and on her palm is a small piece of—skin?
“What…” My head tilts to the side as I study what’s in her hand.
“It’s a tracking device,” she tells me.
Whoa.
“Do you really think I’ll need that?” I ask her, still staring at the small dot on her hand.
“You can never be too careful, especially when you’re going to be near someone who could nullify your powers.”
“Good point,” I say, because I wasn’t even thinking about that.
“I want to attach it under your arm so it’s someplace no one would consider looking, and it’ll blend in,” she says, and motions for my shirt. “Lift that up a bit so I can put it on.”
I pull up the side of my shirt. Her fingers press the small tracking device into my skin. “This should stick like a Band-Aid,” she says, applying pressure. “And I tried to match it as closely to your skin color as possible.”
She holds it down. “Okay, I just have to hold this for a minute to stick it to your skin well.”
We stand side by side. “How’s everything going with
Tony?” she asks me.
I blow a breath. “You reading my mind?” I ask.
“Doesn’t take a mind reader to see something is even more tense than normal with him,” she tells me, dropping her hand and checking the patch.
I promised to give him time, but I can’t do that.
I lower my voice. “He’s not good.”
She raises her brows, waiting. I look back over my shoulder, but I don’t think they’re too close. I shuffle closer to her. “He’s hurting himself.”
Her shoulders droop and a sadness fills her.
“I don’t know how to help him,” I say.
She grabs my hand. “Just be his friend, but he needs help, Becca. Help that’s way more than you can give. I’ll talk with Tiberius and see what we can do. He’s not the first here who’s self-harmed, and sadly, if we don’t stop all of this, he won’t be the last.”
My stomach still twists in knots, but a little hope wiggles in there. They’ll know what to do.
She squeezes my hand and then drops it to step back. “Your tracker is all set.”
“Is this like GPS?” I ask as I fix my shirt.
“Yes. I should be able to track you anywhere in the world with this. It gets a little spotty underground, but it’ll still be sending a signal.”
“Is everyone getting one?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “Tiberius always wears one, but I only have one other for now. So we’ll keep this between us.”
“Got it,” I tell her, and we both leave the kitchen.
“All set?” Tiberius asks as we walk into the living room.
Xavier nods, and Tony is still super jittery. “We’re just doing some more scouting. It’ll be easy,” I tell him.
He turns towards me, and I don’t understand the look that passes over his face, but it’s gone too fast for me to completely read it. “Both times I’ve transported with you I’ve nearly died,” he says with a choked laugh.
“She’s much better at it now,” Tiberius says, trying to be reassuring.
I walk closer to Tony. “It’ll be fine,” I say to him in a soft voice.
He nods, but I’m not sure he’s convinced.
“Let’s get this show on the road,” Xavier says.
“Grab on to a hand,” I tell them. “We’ll drop off you two, and then Tony and I will head inside the church.”
Tiberius and Xavier hook onto one arm, and Tony grabs my other a lot tighter than I expected. I look up at him, and his eyes are wide and darting around the room. “Close your eyes,” I tell him.
Our stares connect, and after a beat he closes his eyes. I blink and we’re across the world.
* * *
“Not too bad, right?” I whisper to Tony as we appear in the darkened church.
I didn’t give him the chance to recover after we dropped Xavier and Tiberius off at the park we transported to the first time.
“Heart’s still beating,” he says softly back. “But give me a second.” He leans against the wall.
The first time he transported with me he almost died, and the second time he was completely unconscious. Tiberius is so used to it, it doesn’t even faze him anymore. But Tony will get used to it sooner or later.
“Don’t take too long, this place is super creepy,” I tell him.
For how beautiful this church was during the day, it’s eerie at night. The stonework, pews, and stone statues cast strange-shaped shadows across the room. What light there is, is distorted from the ancient glass windows. Shapes form in the darkened alcove. I know they’re just shadows, but I can’t completely suppress the shiver of fear that’s creeping up my spine.
“Ready to look through some walls?” I ask him, because I want to get going.
“Yeah,” he says, but his voice sounds sad. I shake it off; we can deal with whatever is bugging him later.
We walk down the hallway that Xavier saw Chelsea leaving from earlier. It ends with four doors. I hold out my hand and he places his in mine. I pump a large amount of my enhancing power into him, causing him to shudder.
He clears his throat. “That’s a closet,” he says pointing towards the first door. “Office, office…this one is a stairwell.” He points at the door closest to me.
He drops my hand. “Let’s check it out,” I say, heading for the fourth door.
I try the knob and it doesn’t budge. “It’s locked, let’s just head back,” Tony says.
“Hello, best locksmith ever,” I say, and I grab his hand before he can protest and I transport us to the other side.
He stumbles into me as we appear on the other side of the door. “Warn me next time, will ya?”
“Sorry,” I tell him, not really meaning it.
“Does your power help with seeing in the dark?” I ask, hoping it can because it’s complete darkness in here. I guess I could transport us down the stairs, but what if someone’s at the bottom?
“Kinda? I think my eyes just adjust faster and I can see the details in the shadows. There’s a stairwell a few feet in front of you, and I think that’s a railing on the right-hand side.”
I put my hand out until I feel the cold stone wall against my hand. I start to shuffle a little forward, then Tony lets out a sigh. “Here,” he says, and leads me to the railing.
“Huh,” he says, squeezing my hand.
“What?” I ask, trying to scan the darkness.
“Guess you can help me see in the dark better.”
I let out a soft chuckle. “Well that’s handy.”
“Yeah,” he says, and places my hand on top of the railing. “Here ya go.”
“Thanks,” I whisper back to him. “Let me know if you spot something,” I tell him.
As we make our way slowly down the stairs the air around us drops in temperature. A cool breeze gusts by us up the stairs. I wonder if that’s a bad omen. There is that supposed curse attached to Nostradamus’s tomb. I shake the thought off. We’re here to do good things, to help people. I have no plans to steal someone’s bones. Something scuttles across my hand and I squash the urge to freak out.
I’m pretty sure we’ve gone down three floors when a faint light illuminates the stairs. I stop us a few steps down and lean close to Tony. “Let’s have you check to see if anyone is down there,” I whisper.
He steps down onto the same stair as me. I hold my hand out and he grabs onto it.
“What do you see?” I ask, getting impatient, but I’m wondering if this is part of the catacombs. And if it is, I don’t know how long I’ll last down here.
“Lots of medical equipment, jars, tons and tons of jars,” he says the word jars like it makes no sense to him why they’re there. “But no people.”
I give his hand a squeeze. “Let’s go check it out, then.”
We creep down the stairs, trying to make our footsteps light just in case someone suddenly decides to round a corner. Once we get to the bottom, the soft light has increased tenfold, and it’s coming from a bulb dangling overhead.
“Double check that there’s no one on the other side. Otherwise I’ll transport us in.”
He gives me the all-clear and we transport onto the other side of the door, and into a large spacious cavern. The walls and ceiling are made of a rough gray stone. It’s not like the smooth sand-colored stone of the building, but more roughly carved. Metal tables hug the walls, each covered in different equipment, and one whole table covered in metal jars.
We walk closer to the table with jars, because each has a plaque with a small inscription. As we get closer, I start seeing names and dates. “Does that say 200 AD to 250 AD?” I ask.
Tony’s gaze takes in all of the jars. “Yeah, like on a tomb. I’m pretty sure these are people’s remains, like ashes, maybe bones.”
We break off, each looking at different jars. “No way. No freaking way,” I say, holding up one of the containers.
“What?” Tony asks.
“This says Joan of Arc,” I tell him, turning the jar so he can see.
/> He picks up the jar in front of him. “This says King Arthur.”
“I thought he wasn’t real?” I ask.
“Uh, we have superpowers,” he points out.
“Good point.”
We keep going through the jars, naming famous people from history. “They’ve got Nostradamus down here as well. Good luck with that,” I say.
He gives me a questioning look, so I tell him about the supposed curse I read from the paper earlier. He slowly puts the jar back down.
“What do you think they’re doing with all of these?” I ask, and I’m pretty sure that says Cleopatra. Huh.
“If there are bones, then there is DNA.”
I turn away from the jar and look over at him. “No way. You don’t think they’re experimenting with these people’s DNA, do you?”
His hand sweeps out, pointing at all the containers. “These were all extraordinary people.”
I look at Cleopatra’s name again. “Yeah, but like us?”
“Maybe. They thought Nostradamus could see the future. King Arthur pulled a magic sword out of a stone, Cleopatra was revered as a god, Joan of Arc had visions too. It’s really not that far-fetched to think that they had powers.”
“Next you’re going to tell me Merlin was real too.”
He waves off my words, ignoring my comment. To most people, what we do is fantastical, and it was at first to me, but now it’s commonplace in my life.
He points at the jar with Nostradamus’s bones. “Could you imagine if you could see the future?” he asks.
I wish I could have foreseen my grandparents’ deaths. I could have stopped Gregory from getting on that plane. Tony wouldn’t be a shell of his former self. I might know who’s behind all of this experimentation. But I might have driven myself insane, because what if I couldn’t get to my grandparents in time? What if I couldn’t have saved Gregory? My guilt already crushes me on some days; what would it be like if I failed in stopping something I knew was going to happen?
“We really need Xavier here,” I tell him. “He might be able to tell us who’s behind all of this. There’s too much here, like this feels like it could be a main place.”
