Curses, Fates & Soul Mates

by et al Kristie Cook

  “I’ll fight. Me and Georgia. We can fight them together.”

  “No. They’re too big. Too dangerous.”

  I tugged at my hair. “Who sent that text? How—”

  “I sent it.” Jess hustled around the corner. “Follow me.”

  Scott stepped in front of me. Yeah, like he could protect me from anything. I was the one with powers. Regardless, I cowered behind him. At that moment, I realized how tired I was of running. Hiding. Not knowing.

  “Who are you?” Scott’s voice boomed.

  “I’m Jess. The Coats are in the school right now.”

  “He’s the one who cracked Mom’s DVD thing,” I squeaked out.

  Georgia crashed through the door with Zach close behind. Clapping echoed through the gymnasium.

  Graduation ceremonies must be done.

  “Jess?” Zach looked from me to Jess, then back to me.

  “Would you tell your girlfriend and her brother to come with me already? I’m sticking my neck out here, man.”

  I jumped in front of Scott. “Georgia, get up here.”

  She fell in beside me as we led Scott and Zach to the scrawny tattoo-boy.

  “I told you not to come. I told you—”

  “Shut up, twin. I’m with you, no matter what.”

  “Twin?” Zach asked.

  “Jess. Where are we going?”

  “My office, of course.” His shaggy hair flopped as he all but sprinted down the hall.

  “What the hell is going on here?” Scott asked. “I just left Jasmine in the gym and now we’re running with a complete stranger?”

  “Jess is my cousin. He’s a computer genius. Hooked into everything. But what’s he got to do with you guys?”

  That’s when the baseball bat of realization cracked me over the head.

  “Jess watched the disc.” I skidded to a stop. I held my arms out blocking anyone going past me. Anger boiled, but my hands went ice-cold.

  Jess’s jaw clenched.

  I whirled around and glared at Zach. “I trusted you, Zach! You said I could trust him.”

  “What? I—”

  “Yes I watched it. Saving your ass right now. You can yell at me later.”

  I turned to Scott. I didn’t trust anyone but him and Georgia at that moment. “Your call, big bro. I have no clue, but I’m getting sick of this crap.”

  Scott eyed Jess for a long two breaths. “Go with him.”

  “Thank you very much.” Jess waved his tattooed arm and turned to hustle down the hall.

  Well, at least I’d graduated. Now we just had to make it out of the school without any extra dart holes in our necks.

  Jess jammed the key into the door handle and cranked it open. I was about to enter the little office when someone whizzed by me.

  It was Zach.

  “Jess. What the hell, man? You watched it?” He pushed the scrawny kid further into the room.

  Jess shoved Zach, then stepped toward him. “You want to pound me now or hear what I have to say?”

  Zach’s fists clenched.

  I tossed a snowball at Jess’s chest. “Cool it.”

  They both stopped, attention squarely on me.

  I shrugged. “Thought that’d get your attention.”

  Georgia pointed her hand at the little glob of snow on the floor. It melted into a puddle of water then evaporated to steam.

  “Kelvin,” Zach said and faced Georgia. “Blaze.”

  “There. Now you know. So, can we wade through the testosterone and figure something out?” I said.

  “We’re safe in here for now, and I have to show you what I found.” Jess pushed Zach once more, then made his way to his computer. “Oh, and can someone lock the door, because a shit load of trouble just landed in town, and it’s headed straight for Amanda Hillman.”

  CHAPTER 28

  “The coding on that disc was so sophisticated, I had to take a peek.” Jess glanced at Zach. “And with my little cousin involved, I figured I owed it to him to see what he got messed up in.”

  “Damn it, Jess.” Zach’s face turned fire-red. “We trusted you.”

  “You can be pissed at me later, if you’re still alive.” He glared at me. “Thanks a lot for dragging us into your effed up world.”

  I wiggled out of my blue graduation robe, and tossed it on the floor. Georgia’s pooled next to it.

  Zach shoved his hands into his pockets, then glanced at me. Yeah, I saw the hurt in his eyes. I’d dumped him, hadn’t told him about Georgia, and totally accused him of betraying me to Jess. I mouthed the words, “I’m sorry” but his expression didn’t soften.

  Not that it mattered. I was out of his life as of right now, anyway. Once Scott, Georgia and I got out of this school, we were gone.

  Forever.

  “I’m not sure what your mom was into, Amanda, but it was pretty big way back.” Jess clacked away at his keyboard. “As you can imagine, with the security that disc was packing, I found very little online and in my hacking circles. But what I did find, isn’t good.”

  “Well, duh. I kind of figured that out after a few tranq darts to my throat and Coats grabbing me a couple years ago.”

  Zach flinched.

  Scott hovered behind Jess.

  “It’s like the movies. Seriously. Nanotechnology. Genetic testing. Who knows, maybe looking to create the perfect soldier?” He shook his head. “It’s pretty unoriginal as far as movies go, but real life, now that’s insane.”

  “So, Mom wasn’t an accident of an experiment? This was on purpose?” I asked.

  “By Zatech.”

  “Dad was a scientist there,” Scott said.

  Jess looked up. “Searching for the most ‘green’ form of energy, right?”

  Scott nodded.

  “Well, it’s defunct now. And oh, it had a genetics wing, but it was black bag.” Jess straightened in his chair. “Check it out.”

  The screen flashed a picture of my dad. The article heading read, “Zatech employee tells all.”

  “Dad squealed?” Scott asked.

  “He turned the company in. Probably trying to save Mom. Put an end to the chase, maybe,” I thought out loud. “Remember Mom saying that they could have maybe exposed The Center by telling everyone about her powers? Dad might have been trying to do that when he went public.”

  “The article didn’t give too much detail, but it all happened back in 1991. Look at this one.” He clicked a different window. “It’s dated 1988. That’s as far back as I could find. There’s another one from late 1991. Never published, but I hacked through Zatech’s firewalls and found it.” A few clicks later he pointed to the screen and said, “They were doing experiments under the guise of intradermal allergy testing. On the nanobyte level they were injecting extremophilic organisms into their patients. They—”

  I put up my hand. “Wait. For those of us with a less than genius IQ…”

  “To give you an idea of what they mean by Nano, think of it this way. A sheet of paper is about one hundred thousand nanometers thick. Or this one when I was looking things up compared it to earth. If the diameter of a marble was one nanometer, then the diameter of the earth would be about one meter.”

  “And…” I waved him to continue.

  “If they’re taking organisms, DNA and bringing them down to nanobytes, they can inject them into bodies, Amanda. Injecting bacteria, organisms that can withstand extreme conditions, produce strength…any number of things.”

  My legs felt weak.

  “And been doing it since the eighties?” Scott asked.

  “Probably. But your Mom, she was in the nineties, around ninety-one or so, right?”

  Scott nodded. “And from what that video says, she’s more than they expected. More valuable than her weight in gold.”

  “Why’d they kill her then?”

  “My theory? If she wouldn’t work with them, she was a threat. They needed her gone.” Jess nailed me with a stare. “Or, maybe they thought you’d be stronger?”r />
  “Son of a bitch,” Scott said. “With Mom dead, no one to protect her, easy pickings.”

  “You fooled them.” Jess shook his head. “Not quite sure how, but you did. Until now, anyway.”

  “When was that video of my mom made?” I asked.

  “I couldn’t find a date and time stamp. The technology was so good I’d think it was made yesterday, to tell you the truth. But, these tech-scientist types are pretty advanced, so who knows?” Jess pointed to a computer bag in the corner. “Zach, grab that. Get my laptop. We need to make Mandy, Scott, and Georgia disappear and get the hell out of here.”

  Scott leaned forward and said, “But the legal trouble didn’t shut Zatech down, did it? Cuz they were after mom and dad forever. We were constantly moving. I’d always wondered why they freaked about me going away to college.”

  “Yeah. A lot of good running and moving did them. They were murdered by those bastards.” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  Jess dug into his bag. “I read the obits. Officials said the cause of their deaths was murder-suicide. But with all the gag orders and stuff, finding information is tough.”

  “Yeah, they labeled it murder-suicide.” Tears stabbed at my eyes. I felt the temperature drop, but I couldn’t stop it.

  We were huddled in this crappy little office, rehashing Mom and Dad’s lives, and the Coats were here. My mother’s bloody wrists flashed before my eyes. Dad’s eyes propped open, fixed gaze at the ceiling.

  “My dad loved my mom. He tried to protect her. They did not kill themselves.”

  My statement drew another wide-eyed look from Zach. Jess stopped moving, eyes fixed on me.

  “Whoa. Mandy. Calm down,” Scott said.

  I clenched my fists and pressed them against my closed eyes. Sucking in hiccupped breaths, I tried to settle down. A temper-tantrum wouldn’t help anything right now.

  “She’s doing that, isn’t she?” Jess asked. “That’s unbelievable.”

  “Mandy,” Georgia whispered.

  Two steaming arms wrapped themselves around me, and I broke. I sobbed. My knees weakened. She guided me to the floor, holding me tight.

  “I can’t take this anymore. They’re here, Georgia. Probably know about you. Now Zach and Jess are involved, too. I’m going to lose it.”

  “No. No you’re not. It’s you and me remember? Kelvin and Blaze. If they’re here to take us, we’ll fight them. We’re strong. You’re strong.”

  I was not strong. It was a lie. A front. I didn’t want any of this. I heard the guys mumbling in the background. Jess pointed to the computer screen.

  “Jess. How’d you know we called them ‘Coats’ and who are they? Where are they?” I spewed the awful questions out like sour milk.

  “Two new faces popped into town this week. Thought it was a bit early for graduation people to start flooding in. I checked into it. Since I saw that video, I’ve been watching things.” Jess pointed to the screen. “The first Coat is this guy, here.”

  Georgia, Scott, and I stood up and hovered around Jess.

  A picture of a short, stocky, geeky-looking guy filled the screen. Buzz-cut hair, deep set eyes, and a big scar on his chin. His neck was thicker than my thighs. “Oh, shit.” I slapped my hands over my mouth. “The guy from the pizza place.”

  “Meet Andrey Sidorov. He rented a room at a hotel on the south end of town. I saw him in the general store yesterday while I was on break, grabbing lunch. I researched him last night and saw his hotel records. He checked in beginning of the week. License plate is a rental.”

  “Coats,” I whispered.

  “Not necessarily, people rent cars and drive to town for graduation,” Scott said.

  “Not people with absolutely no record to be found. Even if you never get busted for anything small like a parking ticket, you’re online. Somewhere. I had to dig deep, Zach, deeper than I ever have to find just this information. And I don’t have much more than a name and some tidbits.”

  “Shit,” Zach whispered.

  The doorknob rattled. I seriously almost peed my pants.

  I imagined Mr. Thick Neck on the other side of the barrier, eyes bulging in anticipation of drugging and dragging us off to some facility to be dissected.

  “Get behind us,” I whispered to Scott.

  A thud against the door sent it rattling against the frame. I visualized Andrey’s broad shoulder colliding with the tempered wood. If thick-neck-guy came in here and tried anything, I would freeze off the part of his body he most cherished.

  I glanced at my hands, nails were flickering and my fingers were iced over and ready. I’d pelt him with ice bullets like my mom said in the video.

  Behind me Scott whispered, “Jess. Who’s the other guy? You said you saw two new people.”

  Jess stood beside his desk. “The other one is—”

  The door crashed open, and Jasmine’s slight frame darkened the broken doorway.

  “—your girlfriend.”

  CHAPTER 29

  I showed Jasmine my palm, ready to fire anything that’d come out. Billows of white plumed with each breath she exhaled.

  How dare she toy with my brother.

  She raised her hands in the air. “No. No. No. I’m here to help.”

  “Yeah right.” An ice ball formed, and I whipped it straight for her face. She gripped the ball mid-air, then cocked her head and crushed it.

  “Holy shit,” Scott said.

  I sprayed ice and sleet, hoping to encase her so we could get out, but she disappeared in a blur. Fingers clamped around my wrist. She stood beside me.

  I yanked my hand but couldn’t get from her grip. She was as strong as me, maybe stronger.

  “Trust me. I’m not a Coat. I run from them, too.” She glanced at Scott. “We have to go. Andrey’s here, and that’s never a good thing.”

  I pounded her cheek with all my strength. The shock of it loosened her vise-like grip. I sprayed her with ice and yelled, “Run.”

  Jess, Zach, and Scott darted past me.

  “Come on,” Georgia screamed. I backed to the broken door, keeping the stream steady.

  “My car,” Scott yelled.

  Once a block of ice a foot thick surrounded Jasmine, I sprinted to the rest of the gang. We burst out the side doors and found ourselves in the long shadow of the back of the school, facing the football field.

  “Ah, wrong side,” Georgia shouted.

  “Follow me,” Zach said. “My car is right up front.”

  “No. Georgia, Scott, and I need to go. You’re not safe with us.”

  “I’m with you, Mandy.”

  I glanced at Scott. He nodded.

  Following Zach, we sprinted around the side of the school. Jess dashed the opposite direction, yelling that his car was behind the football field. I think I heard him cursing my mom’s disc.

  We came up on the side of the building and slowed to a crawl, but my pulse didn’t.

  Zach peeked around the corner to the parking lot. “There are still quite a few people milling around. I’ll go get the car and pick you up.”

  “Be careful.” My voice sounded so feeble. I couldn’t believe his willingness to help despite my lies.

  He nodded, then hurried around the corner. Scott tugged my arm, urging me the direction we’d come from.

  “Scott, what are we going to do? We have no time.”

  Crunching grass behind us drew my attention. Andrey stormed toward us. Georgia screamed. Heat exploded through my chest, and a chill ran up my spine, over my shoulder and to my hand. Ice flowed from my fingertips and shot out at him. An object plunked off my frozen hand, knocking my stream to the side. But I’d frozen Andrey’s legs good.

  “Darts,” Scott yelled and yanked me forward.

  Another one hit the brick building a foot above my head. I ducked and pushed Georgia onward. “Hurry.”

  A car engine revved. Twigs and rocks crunched.

  Zach’s Red Jeep Cherokee navigated the sidewalk curb onto the lawn. “G
et in,” he said through the open driver’s side window.

  “Go. Go. Go.” I hopped in the front seat, and Scott and Georgia took the back.

  Zach gunned it, and the Jeep lurched forward, gravel crackling beneath the weight of the vehicle. I bounced up and nearly hit my head on the ceiling as we went over some bumps. “Where are we going?”

  “It’s a short-cut to your house through old man Conroy’s land. Remember? We were there on Sunday,” Zach said.

  How could I forget? That was where I pretty much fell for Zach. It’d be nice to be there now, cuddled up with him on the soft bed of flowers instead of working our way through the rough terrain, chased by a thick-necked creep.

  “Clear behind us,” Scott yelled. “Let’s get to the house. I’ve got a bag packed with supplies.”

  I stole a glance at Zach.

  His jaw clenched, and his knuckles blanched as he gripped the jostling steering wheel. Despite my breaking up with him, and the danger I’d put him in, he was here, helping us escape. No thought to his well-being. Only mine.

  I wanted to stay here with him. I didn’t want to leave. I’d initially hated Trifle for its smallness, but now I loved it because of him. Because of Georgia.

  Something clicked in my mind.

  I turned to my brother and said, “Scott. We’re going to stay and fight.”

  Utter and complete silence met my declaration. Scott just clung to the door handle, staring at me with wide eyes. But, aside from twigs snapping against Zach’s Jeep, shredding the fine paint job, I heard nothing.

  I turned around and flopped back into my seat. Hands fisted against my thighs, I flew through our options. Fighting was one of them. I had Georgia with me now. She and I could—

  “I’ll fight with you,” Zach said. “I don’t want you to leave.”

  I would have started bawling had it not been for the fleshy blur I saw whiz by our car. “Heads up,” I screamed. “She thawed out.”

  Jasmine appeared in front of our car. We were going to hit her, head on.

  Zach slammed the breaks, which propelled me forward. In the fury of hopping into the car and zooming away, I hadn’t put my seatbelt on. The windshield came hard and fast. I raised my hands, froze the glass, and shot through it like a cannon.