by Jus Accardo
With Kale distracted, Dad shoved him aside. Climbing to his feet, he said, “There’s only one way this is going to end.”
I readied myself to surge forward, but Mom beat me to it. She flew at my dad, knocking him to the ground as the suits at the other end rushed us.
“Move!” I screamed and pulled her off him. She’d gotten in several well-placed blows and didn’t look like she’d be stopping anytime soon, but we needed to bail. I hauled Kale to his feet and the three of us bolted to the other end of the hall.
“There’s a staircase leading to the first floor beyond that door,” Mom cried. “I saw it when we came in.”
We burst through the door and, sure enough, there were the stairs. Flying down, two and three steps at a time, we were back in the main room, bodies grinding and music pounding. Unaware. All of them. Through the crowd, I could see more suits gathering by the entrance.
I was about to ask Mom if she’d seen another exit, but someone snatched my arm.
Alex.
“What the hell are you still doing here?”
I pulled away. I hadn’t forgotten what he’d done. “There are suits everywhere,” I yelled over the music. “Dad’s upstairs and he’s got a gun.”
To the right, across the room, we could see several Denazen men shoving people aside as they stomped down the main stairs. I turned to my right, where a sheepherder danced suggestively with a scantily clad cat-woman. “I need this,” I hissed, ripping the thick wooden walking stick from his hands. Whirling, I jammed it through the latch to stop the door from opening.
The men on the other side of the room were halfway down the stairs now, and they’d seen us. At the bottom, partygoers began to scatter when one pulled a gun.
“It’s real!” someone screamed.
And chaos erupted.
“We have to find Fin and get the hell out of here!” I called over the bedlam. Turning to Alex, I asked, “Any ideas?”
For a moment he hesitated, but then gave in. “The bar in the corner by the front door. The chick is a Denazen employee. Fin is with her.”
“You knew where Fin was the entire time?” I seethed. Did Alex know about Supremacy? “Did you know what Fin was? What I was?”
No answer.
Mom stepped up, eyes locked on the bar. “Is she a Six?”
Alex didn’t answer, but I could see him glaring at Kale out of the corner of his eye. I slapped him across the back of the head. “Pay attention. Is she a Six?”
“No,” he snapped as someone on the upper level screamed.
Another rush of people flew by and then I smelled it. Smoke. “Is something burning?”
Kale pointed to the bar by the door, where Fin was fighting off three Denazen men—with fire. “He’s an element thrower. He’s going to light the whole place up if he’s not careful.”
Mom didn’t waste any time. She shoved through the crowd and took the furthest suit by surprise, grabbing a handful of his hair and landing a sweeping kick to the back of his knees. When he landed on the floor, she brought her boot down into his gut.
Holy shit. My mom was a badass!
I picked up an empty bottle of Bacardi from the bar and crept forward. As I was about to smash it against the head of the suit closest to me, he turned, narrowly missing my attack. He shoved me backward and I lost my footing, toppling over just in time to see the third suit overcome Fin and wrestle him to the ground.
“Mom,” I yelled as I dodged a badly aimed kick. “Get Fin!”
She whirled around, opponent forgotten, but it was too late. The suit had Fin pinned on the bar, a needle plunged deep into the skin of his neck.
“No!” Mom wailed, hair swaying back and forth as she shook her head. Her focus on Fin, she backed up too far, tripping over the guy she’d grounded. He grabbed for her, but she didn’t fight.
Fin’s struggles were starting to fade. His eyes, once a fierce and fiery hazel, glazed over. The Sixes on level nine. Kale’s blood. They’d dosed him.
The suit nodded to the one I’d missed with the bottle. He launched himself at me, swinging a brutal kick at my side. I saw it coming and rolled away. Growling, he rounded for another assault, but again I skirted out of his reach, finally on my feet again.
“Stop playing and tranq her already,” the one by the bar snapped.
Familiar green eyes gleamed with indignation as he said, “Who are you going to call this time? There’s no security to save you.”
The guy from the mall. The one we’d called security on. Someone didn’t look happy to see me. He advanced a few steps, backing me up until I hit the wall with no place to go. Hands shot out, gripping my shoulders and hauling me forward. Bringing my knee up, I nailed him right between the legs. With a muffled umpf, he released my shoulders and staggered back, clutching himself.
Satisfied, I turned and started for the bar where Fin and Mom were. I got halfway there when someone tackled me. The air left my lungs with a whoosh as something wedged into the middle of my back. A knee.
“If you cooperate with them, Denazen isn’t such a bad place for your kind.” My attacker grabbed both my arms and yanked them back.
My kind? Next he would tell me I’d get my own suite with an ocean view and all the mint chocolate chip ice cream I could eat.
Um, no.
When I felt him lean forward, presumably to bind my arms, I threw my head back, catching him off guard. A resounding crack filled my ears as a sharp pain throbbed across my skull. He loosened his grip enough for me to push myself off the ground. But no sooner was I on my feet than someone else grabbed me from behind. This grip held tighter, though. More solid. This grip wasn’t going anywhere.
Dad stepped forward as the man behind me moved away. “I’m disappointed, Deznee. I’m always disappointed in you, but I thought this might have been different. We’re not as bad as you think. We really are doing a lot of good in the world. You could have lived a normal life.”
I kicked him. Childish? I know. Useless? Pretty much. But it made me feel a little better inside and that’s all that counted.
“Well, if you’re done, we need to proceed.” Dad gave me a dismissive wave and turned to Mom. Kale was nowhere in sight.
Mom watched him, eyes pleading. “I’ll go back without a fuss, I promise. I won’t make any further trouble. Let her go.”
Dad folded his arms and tapped his chin. He looked like he might be considering her request, but I knew better. The man had no conscience and no soul. “As much as I’d like to grant your wish, Sueshanna, I don’t think it would be wise in the long run. You don’t know our little girl very well. She’s a troublemaker.” He raised his gun, placing it against her forehead. “Exactly like her mother.”
Dad clicked the safety and ground the gun further into Mom’s temple. He turned to the nearest suit and said, “Take Fin and Deznee outside.”
“Drop the gun, Cross.”
31
We all turned to see Ginger standing inside the doorway… with about six others. Dax and Sira—the woman from the hotel—as well as a cluster of others I didn’t know. How they’d entered the building without any of us seeing them blew my mind—until I caught the eye of the younger bouncer from the party. He saw me looking at him and winked.
Ginger stepped away from the crowd, eyes locked with Dad’s. “Now,” she demanded. The command in her voice was comforting and also a little bit scary.
Dad complied and lowered the gun with a sly smile on his face. “Fin, would you mind?”
Face still blank, Fin stepped forward, arms ablaze and poised to fire.
“Barge,” Ginger called. A tall, thin boy no more than fifteen years old literally hopped out from behind Dax. He smiled at me, eyes glittering with mischief, and opened his mouth wide.
For a moment, nothing happened. Then
I felt it. The temperture in the room seemed to drop. In awe, I watched as the flames, previously devouring everything, swirled together in one large mass of smoke and fire and rushed at us. No, not at us. At Barge. The guy’s mouth still open, the flames danced and swirled above his head for several seconds before, with a single breath, they were sucked into his mouth. Once they were gone, Barge closed his mouth, a wide smile on his face. He stepped back and burped, a small tuft of smoke escaping thorough his sealed lips.
There were several seconds where no one moved.
Then chaos.
Dad snapped something to Fin and yanked him behind the bar. The few remaining bottles of alcohol scattered and crashed to the ground, echoing through the room in the last seconds of silence.
With the smoke now clear, Dad’s monkey-suited morons surged forward, and Ginger’s group dove to meet them. Denazen versus Six.
One could argue that Sixes against a few guys with guns was a joke, and that would have been right—if Dad hadn’t thought to bring reinforcements.
A figure appeared in the doorway and Sira screamed, “Move!”
She must have recognized the woman, because as Ginger’s people scattered, the newcomer smiled and, with a slight twist of her slim hips, liquefied. Now an angry, swirling mass of water, she sliced through the room, straight at Sira.
I was about to rush forward to help her, but someone grabbed me from behind. I wrenched my right arm free and snapped it back into the gut of the suit. Surprised, he released me. I whirled on him—he was leaning forward to grab me again—and snagged a handful of his hair. A girl move? Totally. But he sure as hell wasn’t expecting it. I yanked down, bringing my knee up at the same time. It connected with the side of his head in a very satisfying thwack.
Dad’s voice rang out over the din. “Don’t let him bleed on you.”
It was that moment I heard the clatter of another struggle. Craning my neck, I saw Alex, bloody knife in hand, circling a fallen Kale. He lumbered to his feet, unsteady.
I didn’t think—I ran. Swinging blind as I cut through the chaos, my fist connected with something soft. There was an anguished scream. A yelp. I didn’t look back.
Something hot rushed past me. A fireball. It clipped Kale in the shoulder, sending him back to the ground. Behind me, Fin stood on the bar, face as blank as the Sixes I’d seen back in the Denazen cages. Dad was beside him. Fin’s hands glowed a fierce red, smoke rising in waves from his arms. He fired another, this time missing Kale by a fairly wide margin. The flame sailed over his head and hit the bar clear across the room, bottles shattering and flames erupting.
Sira’s gift was a mystery, but I hoped she could hold her own. I needed to get to Kale. I caught sight of Mom out of the corner of my eye—just as she mimicked into a man wearing one of Denazen’s trademarked blue suits. I could technically do the same, but the change would take what little strength I had left out of me. I’d be useless.
I was halfway to Kale when something hit me. A chair. Someone had thrown a chair at me. What the hell was this, WWE? Air expelling from my lungs in a single whoosh, I crashed into the wall. While nothing screamed broken, there was the distinct snapping and cracking of limbs as I stumbled upright.
A few feet to my left, Barge went down. Fin was Dad’s best weapon at the moment. In order to use Fin, they needed to bench Barge. He collapsed in a heap, a tranq dart protruding from the side of his neck. The suit who’d shot him aimed at me and fired, but I managed to duck out of the way. The dart embedded itself in the wall a few inches from my head.
Cursing, the man advanced. Mall guy again. “You’re starting to piss me off, kid.”
“Then my life is complete,” I said, stepping closer to the wall. Fingers splayed against the brick, I looked for anything I could use as a weapon. Scattered bits of glass and wood. Nothing useful. I might as well throw my sneaker at him.
My sneaker!
I couldn’t help it. A grin spread across my lips as I reached down and yanked off my shoe. This was one pair of Vans that would be lost to a good cause. Someone needed to knock some sense into this jackass. Pressing my right hand into the brick wall behind me, I clutched my sneaker with the left. The rubbery sole of the shoe hardened, tiny, sharpened bumps popping up along the surface. The pain was minimal. A quick, sharp jabbing in my temple and a dull ache in my neck. The weight increased, and instead of a shoe, I now had a handy, dandy brick.
Perfect for throwing.
My aim wasn’t perfect, but I hit him. He went down like, well, a ton of bricks.
My attention went back to Kale. He was climbing to his feet again, shrugging off the remains of his singed jacket. I was relieved to see the blood on the knife came from a superficial slice on his left forearm. Alex faked a lunge forward as Kale jumped back in anticipation. Alex laughed and looked at the ceiling. The large light fixture above him began to shimmy and shake. Kale dove out of the way as the thing came crashing to the ground, sending bits of glass and metal bouncing across the floor.
Beyond them, Water Girl had backed Sira into a corner. Kale looked like he was holding his own with Alex. They circled each other, Alex making an occasional swipe with the knife and Kale expertly dodging him without steady concentration. They seemed okay so I darted across the floor to help her.
I got to Sira as Water Girl liquefied again. She reached for Sira, pulling the older woman in and engulfing her in a swirling tomb of churning water.
Skidding to a stop in front of them, I yanked off my other shoe, grabbed the top half of a broken Bacardi bottle and concentrated. The pain was almost a joke now, and after a few seconds, I had two matching, broken bottles. I hurled them, one after the other, at Fin’s head. “Hey Smokey, over here!”
Without so much as a second’s hesitation, Fin launched a barrage of fireballs at my head with perfect precision. I dove out of the way in time—for the most part—and the flames hit the real target. Water Girl.
An agonized, gurgling scream, and she resolidified, stumbling away from Sira. This was all the edge the older woman needed. Taking a deep breath, she exhaled. It was like a tornado had ripped through the building. Everything in her path—Water Girl, and two of the Denazen suits—flew backward, crashing against the far wall. Each slid to the ground, motionless.
Something hit me, knocking me sideways. “Down!” An older boy—one of the Sixes who’d come with Ginger. We crashed to the ground as a rush of heat soared over our heads.
“Thanks.” I coughed. Above our heads, only a thin trail of smoke lingered.
He helped me off the ground, smiling. “No worries. This is fun, aye?” He had a thick Australian accent, brilliant smile, and deep brown eyes that screamed troublemaker. “I’m Panda.”
“Dez,” I said, ducking to the side as more darts sailed by.
Panda frowned. “Not nice to fire that thing at a lady, mate!” He turned and started across the room. With each step, his skin seemed to shimmer. His body widened in bulk and shortened in length. Skin paling, his sandy blond hair darkened until it was black. One final shimmer, and Panda was, well, a panda. With a snarl, he leapt at the Denazen man as he fired off another shot. They went down, and I had to look away. The man’s screams and the ripping flesh was bad enough. So didn’t need a visual.
Back to Alex and Kale. They were further away now. Still circling each other like caged animals. Alex was getting annoyed. Each time he’d make a swipe, Kale skirted effortlessly out of reach. Like a child playing keep away.
I rushed forward. Over a fallen Denazen suit. Around Barge’s sleeping form. An entire room of carnage in between us. “Alex, stop this!” I called, tripping over a fallen chair.
Kale turned toward the sound of my voice, and Alex, being the sneaky, dirty fighter he’d always been, used the distraction to his advantage.
On my feet again, I ran. The distance seemed impossible. Al
l the noise was gone, leaving an empty, sucking vacuum of silence. All I heard was the pounding of my bare feet as they hit the floor frustratingly slow. Something tugged at the shoulder of my shirt. A Denazen suit as I passed. Spinning, I twisted out of his grip and kept going. Almost there.
Alex lunged forward, burying the knife deep in Kale’s stomach.
Something exploded behind my right knee. The smell of burning denim and flesh filled the air, but the pain barely registered. All I saw was Kale. All I felt was cold.
Still watching me, Kale crumpled to the floor. Alex stepped away, pale and looking sick. The knife had fallen to the floor at his feet. Something inside cracked. Barreling past Alex, I slid across the last few feet on my knees.
“Get up,” I screamed, shaking his shoulders. The stain spreading across his black shirt was only slightly darker than the shirt itself, but undeniably there. No matter how many ways my brain tried to tell me differently.
Kale’s eyes opened, but they were unfocused. Dim. He looked up, but I could tell he didn’t see me. “My blood…”
I looked down at my hands, coated in red. Like his touch, Kale’s blood seemed to have no effect on me. His hand found mine, and he pulled it over his chest—over his heart and right above the wound. The thumping under my palm was too fast. Erratic.
“Do you see?” he whispered. “What you do? It shouldn’t do that anymore.” His grip on my fingers went slack as his eyes closed.
32
Kale’s name a whisper on my lips, strong arms pulled me back and dragged me away. Dad. So the coward had finally come out of hiding?
On the other side of the room, the bar was completely engulfed in flame, and the fire had begun creeping through the rest of the room. The tables along the edge were starting to catch, as well as the overturned chairs scattered about the floor. One of the fallen Denazen suits was lying close to the edge. As I watched, the corner of his jacket caught fire. None of his co-workers moved to help him.
