I watched in fascination and horror as fat, ugly tears began to stream down her face.
“I’m sick of it!” she screeched, getting cagier and cagier by the second. “I’m just as much a part of this movement as anyone—in fact, I am its future. It’s time we try following my vision.”
Ah, hell. Time to bail. I flicked my gaze to the door, calculated my escape route, and—
My knees gave out.
“Oh, no.” Gail rounded on me, reining her crazy in long enough to slip on a calm veneer. “You can’t leave yet. What did you learn from Vladimir?”
I strained against her mental hold, but it was no use. Her abilities had strengthened greatly since our last encounter. I was stuck. “He’s bored, the food’s terrible, and he wants a Furby.”
The back of her hand connected with my face, and I winced. If I’d had control over my body, even partially, I would’ve been able to avoid that. “Try again.”
“He passed on a great goulash recipe.”
Slap!
“I don’t think you understand who you’re dealing with, cousin. I have absolutely no use for you at this point.”
“You’ll have to forgive me. The fact that you paralyzed me from the neck down to extract information led me to believe otherwise.”
She started to slap me again, but paused mid-motion. Her lips pursed like she’d just held back an outburst. “No.”
I waited.
“You want this.” Gail shook her head. “You’ll go in your own cell without a keypad.”
Like hell I wanted it. From Rachel maybe, but definitely not this weirdo. I had to regain control of my arm, at least. Just enough to touch my earpiece. To let them hear her, to convey a message, something…
I just had to short out her emotions like Rena did.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” I chided Gail with a smirk. “Granny Faye wouldn’t approve.”
“Granny Faye isn’t here, is she?” she shot back. “So, we’re going to find you suitable accommodations, I’m going to tend to my grandfather’s arrangements, and then you’re going to cooperate with us.”
Us? I tried to shrug, but my shoulders wouldn’t work. “Seems a little late to tend to him now.”
Gail sneered and made for the door, her invisible puppet strings forcing me to follow. “Nice try.”
Shit.
We trekked along in silence. At least, she did. I kept banging the side of my head against the top of my shoulder, trying to hit the button. “Mayday, mayday…”
I didn’t know what else to say. It wasn’t as if we’d covered emergency code in our breakfast briefing.
“What’s going on? You’re late.”
I answered Wallace with my emotions, gathering all the panic I could muster, knowing he’d feel it.
Gail turned the corner and caught my eye. “What are you doing?”
“Get out of here!” I warned him—seconds before she ripped my earpiece off and smashed it under her heel.
“I don’t think so.”
~
There was one area I’d missed on the ERA tour—their dungeon.
Okay, so the whole headquarters was a dungeon, but this was the historic wing. Apparently, Faye had been using this as a base of operations for years, even before Frizzhead was born. That was how I ended up in a steel-encased cell with no electronics to speak of. The room smelled like rusted metal and stale, chilled air.
Move, move, move…
This was the longest I’d ever sat still in my life. I wanted to tear off down the hallway, any hallway, and release this energy—this frantic, ridiculous energy. Damn it!
Gail had been gone for hours, and no other living soul had passed through since then. Be a good boy, she’d taunted, I’ll be watching. Whatever that meant. I hadn’t spotted any surveillance equipment from my execution-style kneeling position. Unless…
I’ll be watching.
That bitch was using my throbbing eye as a live stream! Great. By now, Wallace and Rena should have made it back to the tunnels undetected. I hoped to hell they weren’t organizing a search party. The last thing we needed was all of us possessed and locked up. Plus, with them free, they could get a jump on the crazies and make it to the island. I was a tough guy. I could handle whatever shit Frizzhead could throw at me.
Probably.
Damn.
Most people would go to their happy place about now, imagining the feel of their bedspread, the taste of their favorite food growing up. They’d convince themselves they could smell Christmas morning, that they could feel their loved ones around them, but it’d only be a temporary delusion.
My thoughts, naturally, were consumed by Rachel. She had become my home—my happy place. With her on my mind, I could stand the endless waiting…
Or so I thought for the next four hours.
Then I reverted back to my old ways of planning elaborate deaths for my enemies. Being held captive is fucking unnerving. No one tells you that in the movies, at least, not when it’s the hero in peril. They’re too busy being all tough and brooding, fighting to escape with an American flag draped over their shoulders. Shit. No wonder Rena gave me murder-eyes for the first month of our siblinghood.
“What a good boy,” a familiar, yet unexpected voice cooed, “you haven’t moved from that spot, have you?”
I looked up to find Gail’s mom, Elise, eyeing me with that stupid clinical expression of hers—half textbook interest and half sadistic voyeurism.
“Did you pay to get into this exhibit?”
“There was no one in the ticket booth,” she answered with an eerily calm smile. “I guess you’re not worth the price of admission.”
“Keep this up and you’ll be my favorite cousin.” I grinned back.
Elise unlocked the door and stepped inside, careful to keep her distance despite my invisible restraints. The bars reset with a loud click behind her. “Oh, I don’t think that will turn out to be the case.”
What’s this whackjob’s major gift again? Manipulating things on a cellular level? That’s not an immediate threat. Do I know her minor gift, or did it get buried under all the other random information I’ve taken in over the past few months?
She produced a pair of gloves from her pocket and took her time snapping them on. Then, with careful movements, she bent to unroll a fabric case of tools—the same case we’d seen in the gallery yesterday.
“Really?” I asked, straining to tilt my neck back. “Didn’t I tell you guys tortured information isn’t reliable?”
She lifted a thin blade and, with a flash, caught me in its reflection. “Call me old-fashioned.”
“How about just old?”
A thoughtful pause followed. “Don’t you ever tire of your defense mechanisms, Nicholas?”
“Nope.”
I could keep a calm exterior. Whatever injuries she inflicted would heal—probably within minutes. It was just a matter of managing my reactions to the pain. Or the threat of pain. Damn, this family was screwed up.
Elise strode around me, but didn’t bend down to meet my gaze. Instead, she grasped the side of my head and lifted her knife. “I wonder. If I were to cut out your eyeball, would it regenerate, or would the wound simply heal around the absent orb?”
“One way to find out.” I looked up now, distracting myself by focusing on the features she shared with her daughter. Same shrewd eyes, same pinched nose. The only difference was hers had aged and were caked in makeup.
She spun the tool around, revealing what appeared to be a small melon baller. “As you wish.”
Holy shit.
“Wait,” I interjected, jerking my head back. “I, uh…”
Elise laughed. The bitch laughed!
“Do you honestly think I’m going to remove your eye while Gail is using it?” she asked, stroking my cheek with patronizing affection. “Please. I’m going to use you as a guinea pig until you fulfill your promise and share what Vladimir told you.”
“Can I get something to eat first?” I
was stalling, and we both knew it. “Fast metabolism. You understand.”
“I’ll tell you what,” she said, turning to select something else from her kit, “let me get you all set for Gail to release her hold. After that, you can do whatever you want.”
Fishy. “Sure.”
Elise produced a roll of what looked like kite string. Humming to herself like a psycho, she used some kind of weird, super-sealing putty to fix it to a steel bar. Then, with concentrated ease, she wrapped it around my neck three times before securing it across the cell. Back and forth she worked, like a spider spinning her web.
I jerked my head to the side and winced—not kite string, piano wire. Red hot lines slashed my throat and the side of my neck where I’d twisted, seeping with a fire that sparked upon contact with the air. I bit my lip.
“Just a precaution.” She smiled and kept working. “You understand.”
“Of course,” I goaded, “it’s not like you have any physical abilities. Plus, I’m a man. I’ve got the whole bigger and stronger thing going on. If I were you, I’d cheat, too.”
The corner of her mouth ticked. “Nice try, Nicholas.”
She worked faster now, incorporating detonators and freshly cut chunks of C4—taking full advantage of ERA’s blast resistant red sector. The wire encircled my neck, chest, and arms before she moved south.
“Is there a word for cousin incest?”
“It’s not incest,” she fired back, head bent down. “I’m securing you, so we can attend to others.”
“What others?”
Her lips pursed.
“Look, I’m obviously going to get sliced up or go boom the second I move. It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone.”
“It won’t be on our hands. You have the option to stay there like a good boy.”
“I don’t know about that,” I said, eyeing her as she wrapped the wire around my thigh, making sure to cross the femoral artery. Twice. “Seems like your hands have been pretty busy.”
She started to retort, but must’ve thought better of it. That so-called superior intellect of hers was going to cancel out my attempts to frazzle her. My heart surged at the thought of it. I could seriously die here. Die. Me.
Alone.
Flashes of the life that could’ve been assaulted my vision. Rach and me in a kitchen of our own—her making pancakes and me reading comics to Frank Bacon. A lazy Saturday. Sex in the living room. Her white picket fence.
Panic torched my eyes.
Wallace and Sis bringing over their future munchkins for the holidays. Grandma telling stories. Laughing and taking photos and shit. Family stuff…
Fuck! I had to get out of here. These brainy bitches knew I wouldn’t sit here indefinitely. That’s why they were booby-trapping my cell. They didn’t have the lady-balls to do me in themselves. Well, tough shit. If I’m going out, I’m taking you with me.
My gaze swept up every wire in sight, seeking out charges. If I timed it right, used my speed to thrust my body full force toward one of the corners, I might be able to avoid some of the blast. If the damn cell doors weren’t locked, I could probably escape it all together. I’d read about their use of fiber-reinforced polymer composites in the Underground’s specs. The other sectors would withstand damage if red went kaboom. Would I?
Sure, my wounds heal fast, but that doesn’t make me immortal. If my system is overcome all at once, I have a feeling I won’t be coming back—not in the flesh, at least. I’ll haunt the hell out of this place, though. Then I’ll go make pottery with Rachel…
“Have you made peace with your maker?” Elise asked me, checking the last of her wires. “I may be dedicated to my cause, but I’m not heartless.”
You could be.
“I’ve got an in with Him,” I informed her. “Been takin’ care of one of his angels for a few months.”
She rolled her eyes, and I imagined what it’d be like to wrap my hands around her neck—to wrap this wire around her neck. Elise and I were not family. As far as I was concerned, any blood we shared was best left on the floor in puddles.
Her phone rang, and she held up a finger to quiet me. I wasn’t even talking.
Back to business as usual, she confirmed my bound state to whoever was on the other end of the call. Gail, probably. She nodded like an idiot for an unseeing audience. “Go ahead.”
A zap tingled in my fingers and darted up my arms. It spread across my shoulders and sped down my chest. The muscles in my legs tightened. Finally, I felt the throbbing in my eye wane. Sovereignty, at last. With my invisible parasite gone, I could at least make a move. My choices were my own again.
“Gail wants to know where you’d like your ashes scattered,” Elise said, cupping her hand over the receiver. “Don’t look so upset. I thought it was a considerate question.”
“In her coffee.”
She sneered at my disrespect and finished her conversation in a hushed voice, glancing in my direction every few seconds. I took the opportunity to select the optimal wire and scope out the dirty concrete corner opposite of it. No real obstacles, but not much in the way of distance. From this range, I’d probably still end up scraped off the ceiling.
Damn.
Elise hung up and pocketed her phone, taking great care to pack up her supplies. “You understand this isn’t personal, right? You merely stand an insurmountable threat to our future. In another life, we might have all made excellent use of our familial ties.”
“Did you say goodbye to your daughter?” I asked, swallowing hard.
“What?”
“Goodbye. Did you tell Gail goodbye after your conversation?”
She turned to me, curious. “I think so. Why do you—”
“Good.”
I drew a deep breath, gathered my memories close to me, and whispered my own farewells. This was it. My big moment. I could take one for the team and put us one step closer to stopping ERA.
Tears stung my eyes, and I laughed. To think it would all end like this, so desolate and hasty. I always pictured myself taking a bullet for Rach or saving a kid from a volcano. Prime time. Real meaning. Was this the best I could do? I looked at the wire again.
Maybe.
I guess it’s now or never. My throat scratched as I swallowed again, dry and constricted. Peace out, world. It’s been real.
One.
Two—
CHAPTER 9
« RENA »
“Here’s what we know.” Wallace uncapped his marker and started scribbling on the back of a sign. “Cole discovered there’s a supernatural alliance somewhere north of us, presumably with members from all three races, and that information got him detained.”
Henry rubbed his chin. “By whom?”
“It could’ve been Vladimir, but I doubt it. He doesn’t know the layout down there. His resources are limited. It had to be someone from ERA.”
“Someone fast,” Gabby remarked, warily eyeing Aiden in the corner.
“Or someone who caught him off guard,” I added.
She nodded.
Wallace and I had sped back to home base to try and regroup after Cole’s cryptic warning. As soon as all nine of us had gathered—Gabby, Aiden, Rachel, Wanda, Corynn, Henry, Jaya, Wallace, and me—we went straight into crisis mode. We needed to nail down a plan before any of us could go back for our missing member.
Naturally, Rachel had fallen silent.
“As you’re all aware,” Wallace went on, his triceps tightening as he tried to sketch a layout, “Cole helped us map out white, Rena took care of gold, and we’ve been all over blue. That leaves the red zone at the south end of the complex.”
Corynn winced. “The danger zone.”
“So we’ve been told. That’s why we need to figure out who all is going and how they’re going to retrieve him—ASAP.”
Rachel cleared her throat and looked up. “I’ll go.”
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Rach,” Wallace started, giving her pity eyes.
“With all due respect, Wallace, I wasn’t asking.”
He blinked.
“It’s Cole,” she emphasized in a firm, yet nearly inaudible voice. “I have to go.”
Henry gestured to the sign and then to Wallace “Then who’s heading up north? I hate to tell you, kid, but you’re the de facto leader around here. It should probably be you.”
Wallace’s ears turned red as he struggled to guard his expression. “While I appreciate your confidence, that meeting will have to wait a day. Someone has to watch Rachel’s back if she’s going in after Cole.”
“I’ll do it,” I cut in, bracing myself for his reaction.
He shot me a look.
I gave him one back.
The Nexus crackled like lightning between us.
He ran a hand back through his hair and leaned against the wall, frowning “Now I’m really not liking this idea.”
I sat up a little straighter. “Last time I checked, I could use your abilities from afar.”
“But—”
“And my own,” I went on, not giving him a chance to argue. “Hell, maybe something will click, and I’ll be able to overpower whoever’s holding him.”
His frown deepened. “Or maybe they’ll use that opportunity to take you, too.”
“What if you girls brought Larry along?” Wanda asked from the corner, comforting Frank Bacon over the absence of his daddy. “He could be the muscle.”
“Tits?” Wallace cocked an eyebrow. “He doesn’t know anything about this.”
“But Cole wants him to,” Rachel insisted. “He may as well find out now, so he can be of use.”
Saint Rachel is using people now? Cole’s really rubbing off on her…
“That could work,” Henry added. “I’d step in, but Corynn and I are on their hit list.”
“Yeah,” Gabby chimed in. “I’d go kick some ass, too, but I’m busy creating life over here.”
“No sweat, guys.” I clapped my hands and got up, avoiding Wallace’s frustrated gaze. “Rach, Larry, and I will go save Cole, while Wallace starts investigating the faction up north. When he finds something, he’ll let me know, and I’ll go up to meet him after I’m done. Bada-bing, bada-boom, right?”
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