He thought he was invulnerable, while I’d been living in fear all these years. We were so different in so many ways. But I needed to focus. “She’s from the Institute?”
“She was. She has a strong Talent, and it was incredibly useful to us.”
Interesting that he didn’t mention his emotional attachment to her. “What does she do?”
“She can disappear in plain sight. She doesn’t even leave a psychic stain.”
I thought back, and realized I’d never even noticed her aura. Pure Teflon. “Wow. Even Ryder can’t follow her?”
“That’s right.”
“What happened in Vegas?”
Eric stopped walking, and sat down at the foot of a tree. “We went there first, after we left. I had a bunch of money saved up—when the Institute feeds you and clothes you, you don’t need much—and I wanted to live large, take my mind off what I’d experienced. I blew a bunch of money on the tables, drinks and cocaine. It wasn’t the Nova-22, but it wasn’t bad either.
“Justine started to ask me what was next, what my plans were. I had no plan. I lived each day as it came.
“That night in the bar I was high as a kite, and she started hassling me about it again. I lost my temper, threw my hands up at her, and suddenly the whole place went up in flames. Because I couldn’t control my temper, my Talent, people died.”
I watched him as his story of horrors and darkness ran out of him, wondering if he’d told anyone else this tale. Hubris had gotten him at last. I wanted to reach out and give him a hug, but he wasn’t done.
“We ran, moved to a different hotel. I got paranoid, closed all the shades and wouldn’t leave the room for days and days. I hid in the bathroom and took more drugs, Valium, Xanax, sleeping pills. I hoped they’d dampen my Talent. Justine started searching for somewhere we could go. She went back and got our stuff from the other hotel room, found out what the police were doing, and she found Miller. I drove halfway across the country to get here, almost without stopping, wired out of my brain on drugs to keep me awake. It was only when I got here that I started to be able to think again.”
I rocked back and forth on my feet, trying to grasp the whole of the story he’d told me, and fill in the details with what Jamie and I had seen.
I had one question: “What are you going to do?”
He put his head down on his knees. “I thought about turning myself in. But I’m worried about killing more people by accident. Right now I think I have to get my Talent back under control. If I can’t…” My brother seemed to shrink, sitting there in the late twilight semi-darkness.
“If you can’t, then what?”
He raised his head. His eyes were blank with fear. “You’d shoot a rabid dog, wouldn’t you?”
When we got back to camp it was full dark. I couldn’t think of how to explain this to Jamie. In a couple of weeks, the stakes of my life had gone from trying to pay the electric bill to working out how to save my brother’s life while avoiding the deaths of any more innocent bystanders.
Miller came over to Eric when we walked in, and put his hand on his shoulder. “Everything okay, son?”
Eric shrugged.
I noted he didn’t flinch away from Miller.
“No better, no worse.”
“Ready for another training session in the morning?”
“Sure.”
“Can I watch?” I asked, curious about what the training involved. I also needed to know how well it was going, if it had any chance of working. If not, we’d need to come up with another plan.
“If your brother doesn’t mind, I’m fine with it.”
“She came to help,” Eric said. “Maybe she can. I’m turning in.” He gave me a half wave, and headed back out the door. Justine followed him, quietly and instantly.
“He didn’t eat any dinner,” Darla said.
“Guess he wasn’t hungry,” Miller replied.
I thought of the way Eric’s skin stretched over his skeletal head, and wondered how many meals he’d missed lately. A diet of booze, uppers and downers didn’t exactly lead to good health.
“I think I’ll turn in as well,” I said. “Thanks for dinner.” Jamie followed behind me as I exited the Quonset hut and headed for our cabin.
Once inside I collapsed on the couch and threw an arm over my eyes.
“Did he tell you what’s been going on?”
I sighed. “Yeah. God, I don’t want to have to think about this.”
The couch sagged as Jamie sat down beside me. “You can tell me another time, or not at all.”
“No, it’s okay.” I filled him in, glossing over some of the details.
“Hmm.” He sounded thoughtful rather than horrified.
“What?”
“I don’t think he told you much we didn’t already know, or couldn’t have worked out. And you know, I find that I still have a whole bunch of unanswered questions.”
I turned to look at him. He watched me intently. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“How did they get away without being followed in the first place?”
“I assume they used Justine’s Talent.”
“And what, drugged Eric unconscious like she did to us?”
“That would make sense.”
“Who was that guy with Justine at the hotel? Why did their motel mysteriously catch on fire while we were searching it? Why did she have an apartment down there?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I mean, maybe she has friends there, and borrowed the apartment?” I didn’t understand why he focused on those details. We’d found Eric, and now we had bigger problems.
“That makes some sense.” He nodded. “What about the fire?”
“I bet Justine did it to cover their tracks.”
Jamie snorted. “Yeah, okay. An arsonist on the run covers his tracks by starting more fires.”
“That’s not fair. We don’t know why it burned.”
“Occam’s Razor, darlin’. The simplest explanation is most likely the truth. He set that fire and didn’t want to tell you. You need to ask him about this stuff.”
“Eric is in a bad place right now. I don’t want to put too much pressure on him.”
“I don’t know, Cat, I don’t know about this at all. This whole place gives me the heebie jeebies. It feels like a trap, and I don’t trust Miss Justine one little bit. She reminds me of a lot of girls I met running short con.”
The image of Jamie with a lot of girls like Justine perversely annoyed me. Girls with too much makeup, short skirts, low-cut shirts, tramp stamps. I snapped, “And you don’t trust Eric or me either?”
“I trust you, but I think you’re making a mistake.”
“Oh, you trust me but I’m stupid, is that what you’re saying?”
Jamie shoved his hand through his hair, let out his breath. “Of course not. I think you trust Eric because he’s your brother, and you trust Justine by extension. I’m just saying that trust might be misplaced.”
“I’ve trusted you so far. Is my judgment wrong there too?” I’d had enough. Why couldn’t he focus on what was important here?
“Of course not. Don’t be silly.”
Silly, huh? I lashed out. “But you’re not exactly in this for the long haul, are you?”
He forced air out through his teeth. “I’m not sure how that’s relevant now, but I think I’ve been pretty clear.”
“I’m not clear. Maybe you should explain it to me.” I crossed my arms, waiting.
He turned to face me, his long, languid body rolling. I hated myself for noticing when I wanted to be angry with him.
“Look, Cat, I came into this as part of my job. I came to find Eric, help him, maybe recruit him to the Order. We’ve become friends, and I’m glad. I really like you.”
The words smarted. I didn’t know why it pissed me off so much. “What about when this is over? Let’s say we resolve this thing with Eric. He gets his powers under control, turns himself in. What then?”
> “Then I go on to the next job. And I assume you go back to chasing that white picket fence and peaceful life you say you’ve always wanted. If you’ve changed your mind about that, you could always come live at the Order. We’d get to hang out more that way. Seattle is a long way from DC.”
There it was. For all the touching, dancing, kisses, heated looks and occasional nakedness, I was just a friend that he wanted to hang out with. Damn it.
“You said you weren’t much for settling down.”
“That’s right. I’ve got no plans in that direction.” His eyes were flat, dark. “I don’t think I ever said I did.”
“You didn’t.” I got up and walked over to the window. Of course, I couldn’t see a thing, except the thin moon high above the woods. The dirt on the glass hid the stars. I would not cry. There wasn’t even any point in yelling at him anymore.
Quietly, he said, “What’s the plan, Cat? How do we get you, me and Eric out of here sane and in one piece?”
My mind came back from the dark place to which I had drifted. Focus on the job. Forget about stupid feelings. “I’m going to watch his training in the morning. I want to see if it has any chance of working.”
“There are people at the Order who might be able to help him better than Miller can.”
“That may be true, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to convince him of that. Let’s see what happens.”
“Okay. Mind if I tag along?”
“If Eric doesn’t mind, then it’s fine by me.” I turned back to him. “I’m going to go to bed.”
“Sure.” He put his hands on his knees, made to rise.
“Can you sleep out here?”
It probably made me a bad person, but I felt a surge of satisfaction when he looked disappointed. “If that’s what you want.”
“Good night, Jamie.”
Chapter Nineteen
Miller apparently believed that “morning” began before sunup. The banging on the cabin door got me out of bed, and ten minutes later I was shivering outside in the dark.
“Do you want to join in?”
When they’d asked last night I’d nodded, and now I found myself running through the woods, trying to keep up with Eric, stumbling over tree roots in the half dark, crashing into trees, skinning my elbow on one of them. Jamie ran behind me, surprisingly quiet in his boots. I was the only baby elephant on this trip.
As the sun lit the sky with a pink glow, we reached a clearing where Miller commanded us to do push-ups. I liked to run, ran most days, although generally on pavement, but push-ups were out of my usual routine. All this living on the road hadn’t exactly helped my fitness levels, either. After what felt like about a thousand push-ups, I collapsed on my face in the leaves. I couldn’t even summon the energy to roll over. My arms were made of rubber.
“Nine? Is that all you can do?”
“Urgh,” I mumbled into the dirt, and finally managed to push over onto my back. Miller’s face was surprisingly close.
“How do you expect to control your mind if you can’t even control your body?”
God, he reminded me of Dad. I stared up at him, panting. “I’m…just…tagging…along.”
“You should take this seriously.”
“I thought you needed less control,” Jamie said, out the side of his mouth, as he did push-up after push-up. I’d never seen him work out, or do any exercise at all. I didn’t know how he was doing it, but that taut body had to come from somewhere. Right then, I hated him for it.
Anger fueled me to roll back over and do more push-ups. I kept going until the world started to gray around the edges, and someone tapped me on the shoulder.
“You can stop now.” It was Jamie, not even out of breath. Bastard. “We’re on to the next part.”
Eric had already taken up a pose, cross-legged, with his eyes closed. Assuming the position next to him, I kept my eyes open. Jamie completed our little exercise class. Justine apparently wasn’t joining us today. Why wasn’t I surprised? She wouldn’t be able to run through the woods with the towering high heels that seemed permanently glued to her feet.
Miller walked back and forth in front of us, like a scruffy caricature of a parade ground sergeant. “All right. Today, we’re going to continue what we worked on yesterday. Are you ready, Eric?”
Eric nodded, and didn’t open his eyes.
Darla and Tiffany appeared out of the woods on an ATV, with bales of straw on the back. They unloaded them and made a small pile. On top of the pile, they posed a scarecrow. I wondered if they’d stolen him from a nearby cornfield. His wide smile was a little too jolly for my liking.
“All right, Eric. Please set the hay bales on fire.”
I held my breath. Eric let his out, slowly, through his nose. His aura shrank in, intensified. At first, nothing seemed to happen, and then a curl of black smoke appeared at the base of the hay pile.
Eric opened his mouth and gasped. I turned to look at him and he was gray, his lips almost blue, and sweat dripped off his chin.
The hay bales exploded with a whoompf, and the scarecrow caught too, his gay woolen locks smoldering, his smile undaunted.
“Now,” Miller said, “that’s more than we wanted. I want you to put out the fire, Eric.”
Eric’s breath came in short harsh pants, his hands rolled into fists.
I snuck a glance at Jamie. He could have been at a ball game, his limbs loose, his posture totally relaxed.
The fire began to eat at the grass. Darla took a step back.
Eric continued to pant.
“Eric,” Miller said calmly, “put the fire out now.”
My brother sucked in a huge breath. The flames doubled in height, and the seat of the ATV began to burn. It was parked a good distance from the hay bales. I didn’t understand how the fire had spread that far.
The smell of melting foam rubber brought tears to my eyes. I remembered the gas tanks on those things were usually pretty close to the seat. Jamie was beside me, pulling me to my feet.
“Get further back,” he said.
“Eric. Put the fire out now,” Miller said as calmly as before.
My brother still panted, still clutched his fists in midair as though wrestling invisible demons.
I closed my eyes, unable to watch, and wished I could help, wished I wasn’t goddamned useless. Jamie’s arm went around my shoulder.
The hiss of fire extinguishers marked an end to the exercise. When I opened my eyes, Tiffany was inspecting the ATV with disgust.
“Didja have to burn my bike all up?” she demanded. “Dad, why do you have to teach him? It’s not working.”
Miller was calm, peaceful, as he put one hand on Eric’s shoulder like a benediction. Eric bowed his head.
“It’s not over yet, son,” he said. “Let’s go eat breakfast, and then we’ll try again.”
After slurping down a bowl of what I think was intended to be oatmeal but tasted more like gruel—again—I headed outside to wait for the others. I sat on a rock and stared up at the sky.
“He’s been doing better than that,” Jamie’s voice said behind me. “I asked Miller. Today was the worst day since he first got here.”
“You think I put him off his game?”
“I’m sure an audience wasn’t good for his concentration.”
I felt sunken, my hope gone. “If he can’t control himself with an audience, what chance has he got?”
Jamie walked into my line of sight, hands in his pockets, still relaxed. I didn’t know how he did it. Did anything get to him? “He can build up to that. I think you shouldn’t go along for the next session. Let him regain his confidence.”
“Okay.” I leaned back on the rock. “I hope he gets better at it, and soon. I don’t think we have a lot of time.”
“Why is that?”
I shivered. “I don’t know. Just a feeling. All this work to find him and now there’s nothing I can do to help.”
“I’m sorry.” Jamie’s eyes were dark, his pu
pils open.
“What for?”
“About last night. You had a rough day, and I didn’t help.”
He was apologizing for upsetting me, not apologizing for what he’d said or how he felt. I couldn’t control how he felt, only my reaction to it. I had run out of rage at him for the time being, my fears for Eric overwhelming everything else. “Okay. I needed to realize where we stood.”
“Cat…” Jamie said, reaching out a hand toward me. “I’m here for you.”
I moved farther back, away from his touch. “I thought the whole point of that conversation was that you weren’t.”
His hand stopped, still outstretched between us. “I can never be the man you want. I’m not cut out for the quiet life. But I am your friend. We’ve been through a lot together.”
I had to process what that meant, and I wouldn’t be able to do that right now. I just didn’t have the emotional bandwidth. He’d gotten me here to Eric, comforted me after my nightmares, bought me clean underwear, held me when I needed it. Slowly, I nodded. “All right. I need a friend.” He’d been one to me so far. I didn’t know what the future held.
I took his hand and used it to pull myself up. “I know you think it’s a bad idea, but I want to go to the training session. I can’t sit by and wait. I’m his sister. He’ll get used to me being there, won’t he?”
“Sure. We’ll go. Whatever you want.”
A little later, I wished I’d never had this brilliant idea. The second training session went worse, not better. After we spent half an hour putting out spot fires from the tree that exploded, I reflected that perhaps a forest was not the right place to be training a pyrokinetic Talent.
Eric helped put out the fire, white-faced and tight-lipped, and then headed out into the forest “for a walk”. I went back to the cabin and lay down on the bed. Staring out the window, I tried to see a path forward that didn’t end badly. I felt numb, empty and useless as always.
“Knock, knock,” Jamie said, in the doorway.
“Hi.”
“Do you want to talk?”
“I don’t know, Jamie.”
“Justine says they’ll go out again later this afternoon.”
Talent to Burn (Hidden Talent #1) Page 14
