Luke rolled his eyes. "You know. Him. The I-like-to-stare-at-the-moon-and-am-so-sexy-with-my-green-eyes-and-silver-hair him."
She sat by the fire and stoked it with a stick. "He has a name."
Luke sat by her. "I know. Just, don't you think you should take it a little slower?"
"How slow? It's not like we just met."
"Well, it kind of is. You've only known each other for a few days. How much do you really know about him?"
"I know enough. Okay?"
"Not okay. What's enough? Do you know where he was born, or where he grew up? Do you know anything about his life until now?"
"Oh, sorry, Mom. I didn't realize I had to ace a test on a boy before I could date him."
"You don't. I just thought we agreed there's a lot we don't know about his past. What if—"
Lucy spun on him with her stick, anger ablaze in her eyes. "What if what? He did something horrible? What about my past? What about how from the age of six Rent-A-Kid trained me to spy on people and kill them if I had to? What about the assignments where I helped the corrupt avoid jail and screw each other over? What about how I helped an organization that rents out kids to the highest bidder, then uses them as baby factories?"
The fire next to them flared up, as if in response to her rage. How dare her brother hold anyone else's past in judgment over them?
Whatever Luke had been about to say, he wisely changed gears. His voice softened and he put his hand on her shoulder. "We didn't know those things at the time. It's not our fault."
That argument failed to impress her. "We should have known. Maybe instead of sitting around, spending all of our assignment money, we should have noticed who we were helping. We should have asked more questions about why we were helping them, too."
"We did ask, Luce. We asked, and we escaped and we helped free the others. It took a while, sure, but they drugged us so we'd believe their bullshit answers."
Blah blah blah. She crossed her arms and pulled away from his touch. "Another reason. Another excuse. I'm tired of them, and I'm just plain tired, so goodnight." She stood and walked to her tent, then paused. "And regarding Hunter, I don't have to explain myself to you. You're not responsible for me."
Luke's voice trailed after her. "Then who is? The teachers back at Rent-A-Kid? Our parents? Wait a second, we never knew our parents, except for that one conversation with our now-dead mother. Yeah, that relationship lasted long. So tell me. Who's been watching your back all these years?"
Lucy ignored him and kept walking, but her heart ached. He wasn't wrong, but he wasn't right either.
"Fine. Whatever," Luke said. "I'm tired of looking after you, anyways." The wind carried his final words to Lucy. "I'm tired of seeing you get hurt."
Like the story of the princess and the pea, Lucy couldn't get comfortable on her bed of leaves. She tossed and turned and tried to fight the sadness that plagued her. Why did Luke have to ruin such a perfect night?
She'd finally found a guy who understood her in a way no one else had, someone who made her feel strong and beautiful and alive, someone whose kisses set her body on fire. And her brother had to stick his damn nose in and suck all the joy from her experience. Her twin was only looking out for her, and yes, he'd always had her back, but she'd grown up and could make her own decisions. She didn't need his approval to date a guy. Granted, she didn't know a lot about Hunter, but that was the point of dating, right? To get to know someone better? Besides, her instincts were rarely wrong about people, and her para-power confirmed that he hadn't lied to her. Hunter was the kind of guy Lucy wanted to be with—strong, smart, sexy, caring and committed to his work.
Her mind drifted back to the kiss, to the feel of his lips and his arms wrapped around her. She couldn't wait to see him again tomorrow. Hopefully Luke would go back to normal. They'd had such fun today, and she didn't want to lose him to his brooding, mopey double. Why couldn't he just trust her and give Hunter a chance?
A soft pulsing filled her body with warmth. She reached into her pocket and took out the sphere. It glowed with a comforting light and immediately calmed her—until her argument with Mr. K popped into her mind. Did he remember what she did to him? If so, why hadn't he said something?
Damnit, I have to talk to him. She hated this guilt and unease.
With the sphere secure inside, she strapped the pack to her shoulders and made her way to Mr. K's mini Garden of Eden.
Mr. K smiled as she approached, but his branches slumped and wilted. He looked tired. "Lucy, I'm glad you came over. Sorry about earlier. I shouldn't have given Hunter such a hard time."
His apology made her feel even worse. "You were both upset. It's understandable."
"Just because it's understandable doesn't make it right."
She nodded. "You're right, it doesn't. Look, Mr. K, I'm sorry about last night. About... what I did to you."
Mr. K looked into her for several long seconds before he spoke again. "You did what you felt you needed to. I understand."
Lucy's lips twitched into a wry grin. "Just because you understand, doesn't make it right. I lost control and compelled you to lie. That's not me."
His branches shook as he chuckled. "Let me tell you a story, Lucy. Take a seat. This is a long one."
The boulder next to Mr. K had become her customary seat while visiting with him. An indent fit her perfectly as she sank into her spot to listen.
As he spoke, Mr. K's branches swayed in response to his mood. "The day after they took me from Rent-A-Kid, I woke up strapped to a bed, needles and wires jabbing out of my body, tape over my mouth. This man came in, dressed up in white with a blue mask, like a doctor, and introduced himself as Bill. Then he injected me with a serum."
Lucy shuddered, remembering her own injections at the hands of Rent-A-Kid—injections to keep her complacent and happy, injections to prime her for pregnancy.
"It hurt," Mr. K continued. "It hurt like acid being pumped through my veins, and they didn't give me any pain medication—that would've messed up their tests. After Bill finished, he gave me a pat on the head, said 'Good job' like I was his dog, and left. It took hours, but the pain eventually went away. Next day, Bill came in and gave me another injection. I groaned, pulled, twisted—tried anything to get out of those straps, to ask what I'd done. Why me? Bill gave me another pat on the head, another 'Good job,' and left. He did this for days, always the same routine. 'Hello, Mr. Krevner. Good job, Mr. Krevner.' And all the while I kept thinking, 'Do you realize that you're hurting another human being? Do you even care?' As time went on, the pain built. First, I occupied myself with thinking up escape plans, but nothing worked, so I stopped. As far as I could tell, Bill's tests showed no results, and I began to think that I was going to spend the rest of my life locked in that room. Then, one night, I thought of something else."
Lucy could see where this was headed, but she remained still, feeling Mr. K's pain. His branches whipped back and forth in agitation as the story continued.
"Bill came in and began his daily routine. And all the while I imagined myself ripping off my straps, jumping out of the bed, and beating his face bloody. Then I would escape. It didn't calm me down when the pain seared my body, but breaking out of those straps, punching Bill's face in—that helped. Day after day passed without change, until finally I started to feel the serum pulsing through my veins. A gray tint spread through them, and my muscles bulged against the straps, burning my arms and chest. Whatever Bill had given me, it was working. So that night, I showed him the results of his experiments.
"He came in, 'Hello, Mr. Krevner,' lifted the needle as he walked over to the bed, and leaned down for the injection. My hand shot out and clasped his throat. I'd torn the straps off my arm with my new-found strength. I leaned up, and the rest of the straps broke away. That's how strong they'd made me. With a flick of the wrist, Bill tumbled into a corner. I headed for the door, but something hit me on the back, and I spun around without thinking, swinging my arm. My hand hit Bi
ll, who had come at me with a chair, across the face, and he flew back. His head hit the bed with a crack, and he collapsed on the ground, silent.
"I'd broken his skull. Before that moment, I'd never even so much as gotten into a fight at grade school. I knew guards would show up any minute, so I ran out of the room. Shouts and footsteps followed me and corridors spun like a maze. Finally, I found a window, the ocean spread out below, as a squad of guards rounded a corner. With nowhere else to run, I jumped.
"With my new strength, I swam for hours—swam until I reached this island, though I didn't know it was an island at the time. I thought I'd reached the mainland, so I walked inland. Over the days, my skin hardened. My fingers grew longer and my hair grew thicker. I didn't know what Bill had done to me, but I'd worked with paranormals before. Had he turned me into one? Why? I'd pissed off Rent-A-Kid, and thought they'd been punishing me with the serum, but they'd actually been experimenting, trying to create something new—something else. I saw my reflection in the water one day and never looked again. At one point, I had to cross a river, so I walked in, and the current swept me away. Something was different. I floated to the top, felt lighter in the water, but couldn't get out before the waves threw me down a waterfall. Eventually, I drifted to shore—here—and managed to drag myself onto a patch of grass and fall asleep. When I woke up, I couldn't move."
Lucy's eyes filled with tears as she looked at Mr. K's body, how it had become the tree, how his skin was now bark. How he'd never be human again.
"My feet had dug into the earth. My toes had turned to roots. I struggled for hours, but the soil only gripped me harder. That night, I imagined escaping, but could only think of Bill.
"I'd killed him."
The whipping of branches slowed to a soft sway as Mr. K's voice lowered. "You could argue that I didn't mean to, that it'd been an accident, or even that it'd been self-defense. You could say it wasn't me. But deep down inside, I wanted to kill that man. I wanted to squeeze the life out of his eyes. You could say whatever you like, but that was me. Still is.
"Hell, I can change. I hope so, anyway. But honestly, if I were to see Bill again, I wouldn't just kill him. I'd hold him down with my roots, drive a sharp stick in him every night, and say, 'Hello, Bill. Good job, Bill'—and I'd enjoy it."
Lucy shivered at the cold, hard rage in Mr. K's voice, made so much worse by the fact that she identified with it. Those bastards had tortured him beyond imagining, and instead of helping him, she'd used her powers against him too. What kind of person did that make her?
She walked up to him and hesitated. Finally, she put a hand on Mr. K's trunk, touching him for the first time. Then she leaned in closer and hugged him.
Branches wrapped around her as he did his best to hug her back. "You can change, Lucy, but never pretend you're not yourself. When you pretend, your actions will always be for someone else's benefit, and change will never come."
Chapter 95 – Sam
I sit in the backseat of a car, strapped in tight, and play with my Transformer. It's me, but it's not. The body I wear belongs to the Seeker. Steele sits at the steering wheel, hands clenched tight as he drives.
The boy I embody clutches his—my—blankie close, tears in my eyes. "Daddy, where are we going?"
"To our new home, Son."
"Isn't Mommy coming?" Sadness fills me.
"No."
"Why not? She didn't do anything, Daddy. Is this about the broken vase? I'm the one who did that, not Mommy. Don't blame her."
"No, it's not that. Your mother betrayed me. Betrayed us both."
"How?" I'm confused.
"She had another child, another son." I feel Steele's rage.
"I don't understand, Daddy."
"She had another baby with another man. She loved them more than us."
Stunned, my eyes leak, I—the young Seeker—cry and cry, inconsolable.
"Don't worry, Son. I swear one day I'll get her back."
***
I woke with a start, again unnerved by the Seeker's memories. Steele had been talking about the Seeker's mother... and Drake's mother. He said he'd get her back. Did he find her and kill her? The Seeker had told us that his father killed his mother for betraying him.
And now he wanted Ana. Would he kill her too, after he'd gotten what he wanted? Both Drake and the Seeker had grown up without their mother. Of course, I had too, but then I didn't have a mother at all, only a test tube. That thought made me sick to my stomach, as if I were missing a vital cord to humanity.
Now a mother myself, and I had to protect my baby.
My anger once again flared at having to wait to start the mental interrogations of the mansion's residents, but I had no choice. I tried to sleep, but the green glow of the clock kept me awake.
Finally, morning arrived, and I could begin. Bernard had offered to call everyone into the gym, so I could scan them all at once, but that wouldn't have worked for me. A large group of people in close proximity produced a lot of white noise. Better to hunt them down one by one, when they were less likely to be on guard, which would help me to access what I needed.
Besides, I already knew who was guilty: Mary. I clutched the list of names that Bernard had given me, and went off in search of the bitch who'd made my life hell since that first day of kindergarten, when she dipped my pigtails in green paint and ruined my new dress. She'd denied any involvement last night, but I hadn't scanned her. Now was my chance to prove that she'd taken my daughter, and to find out why and where.
Halfway down the hall, it occurred to me that I had no idea where Mary was staying. She'd arrived during the delivery, and I hadn't seen her since that day she came to my room and held Ana.
Norm darted around the corner, and I flagged him down. "Hey!"
He stopped, shuffled his feet and avoided eye contact. "Hey, Sam, you doing the mind scanning now?"
"Yeah, starting with Mary. Do you know where I can find her?"
"Um, not really. She keeps to herself mostly. Pretty quiet, these days."
"That's a change. Okay, thanks. Where are you heading?"
He perked up. "The new gym. They finally finished it, and it's awesome. It's indoors and attached to the mansion. I'm playing basketball with some of the guys."
"That's cool."
My thoughts stuck on what he'd said about Mary. Back at Rent-A-Kid, she'd roamed the halls looking for prey, and cementing her place as Queen Bee. One time, I'd sat in her seat in the cafeteria by mistake, and she showed up with her posse and bullied me out of it. I didn't do a great job standing up for myself back then, so I'd fled like a scared mouse.
What change had caused Mary to go into hiding, rather than re-establish herself as Her Royal Bitchiness?
Norm cleared his throat nervously. "Um, so, can I go now?"
"Oh, yeah, sure. Have fun and good luck."
He hurried off, flying instead of walking, and I continued down the hall to the cafeteria. Darren sat alone in the corner, which wasn't unusual. He spent most of his time alone, especially since Kyle died. Well, since Mr. Black had shot him for dueling with another student.
I hadn't seen his death myself, but I couldn't imagine the horror of watching my best friend get shot in the head. I'd been so self-absorbed lately, that I'd never even asked him about it, but that would have to wait for another time. I avoided Darren, and instead headed toward Robyn, who was still eating.
Robyn looked up from her plate as I sat beside her. Her mind buzzed with the same nervous energy as her boyfriend Norm. "Hey, Sam, have you eaten?"
"Yes, Susie brought me something before I could even escape my room. She rightly assumed I would skip breakfast if given a chance. Hey, do you know where Mary's room is? I need to talk to her about Ana."
Robyn sighed and looked relieved. "Yeah, I helped her settle in when she first got back, though I wouldn't go out of my way to help her again."
"Why not?"
"She borrowed a blanket for that first night and still hasn't return
ed it."
"Sounds like her. Why not just go get it back."
Robyn shrugged. "I don't know. I just don't want to make a big deal out of it, you know?"
I nodded, totally understanding. I used to feel the same way, willing to do anything to avoid confrontation with Mary, scared of what she would do in retaliation. But her bullying had to stop. "Clearly it's bothering you. You should tell her you need it back."
"Yeah, maybe later." Which meant never.
Well, I couldn't push her if she wasn't ready.
Robyn finished eating, still looking nervous and tapping her foot excessively.
I was about to ask her what she was so scared about when a rush of hateful thoughts hijacked my mind. I ran into the hallway, with other students on my heels, and found the former school jock, Curtis, pounding Greg in the face. Curtis and his friends laughed and made jokes, calling Greg "fag" and "homo" and other vile names.
Intent on stopping it, I stepped forward, but Gary pushed past me, yelling like a wild banshee.
Before he even got close enough to hit the guy, Gary used his control over metal to swing open the lockers and bash Curtis in the face. Then he pounced and started punching and hitting Curtis relentlessly. "Don't you ever touch him again. Ever!" he screamed, bloodying Curtis's nose.
The scene brought back another image: Drake had beaten a man to a bloody pulp with his bare hands. The fact that he'd been capable of so much violence had scared the crap out of me for a long time, and I couldn't let Gary become that.
"Gary, that's enough." Other hands, Greg's hands, broke through and helped me pull the guys apart. Curtis lay on the ground, groaning. I had half a mind to kick him in the groin myself, but enough was enough. "Someone get Susie."
Gary brushed me aside and focused on Greg. "Are you okay?"
He gently examined the cut over Greg's eye, but Greg pulled his hands away. "I'm fine. It's just a scratch."
Susie charged down the hall and sent a wave of calm across the students. "What happened here?"
The Forbidden Trilogy Page 56
