“No,” I snapped, turning to Mom. “Where is he? Where is Alex?”
“They’re doing everything they can.”
…
“Hey,” someone said from the doorway.
I rolled my eyes. Jade. “Don’t you knock?”
She snorted and closed the door behind her. “You wouldn’t have answered. Would you?”
“Of course not. Maybe that should be a hint?”
She settled in the chair by my desk, picked up my favorite bottle of nail polish—Passion Purple—and started painting her nails. After a moment, she asked, “Where’s Kale?”
“Hoping his lack of memory gives you another chance to play kissy face?”
“Please,” she said, waving the bottle in my direction. “It was obvious before all this went down that the boy has no taste. He picked you.”
I sighed. “Was there something you actually wanted, or did you just come in here to piss me off?”
She flipped her hair but avoided my gaze. “Just wanted to see how you were holding up.”
Jade and I hadn’t become friends over the past few months—I doubted that would ever happen—but our relationship had warmed to cordial. Most of the time. In the beginning, right after Kale went back, she’d bring me coffee in the middle of the night, sometimes just sitting with me in silence until dawn. We never spoke about it and I’d never thanked her, but really, I think she liked it that way.
“It’s getting better. He’s starting to remember. Little by little, I think.”
“What about you? How are you feeling?”
It was funny. I didn’t feel the need to sugarcoat things with Jade. Maybe because I’d convinced myself she really didn’t care. “The decline is starting to show. Nothing major yet, but it’s there.”
“I met the scientist guy. Wentz. He’s…different.”
I looked up. “Different?”
“He introduced himself—then immediately after assured me he loved animals.”
“Um, okay.”
She finished painting her right hand and moved on to the left. “Yeah. The brilliant ones are always a little weird.”
It was Jade’s way of telling me not to worry, that we’d find a cure. While I wasn’t sure I believed it at this point, I appreciated the gesture. “Don’t you have something else to do? Other people’s guys to chase? Small children to scare?”
She screwed the cap onto the polish and held her hand up in admiration. Without a word, she went to the door and pulled it open. “I can see it in his eyes, you know. Whenever he looks at you.”
“What?”
“He might not remember everything, but his heart does.”
And she was gone.
…
I’d asked Kale to stop for a moment so I could get it together. A part of me demanded I make him turn back. A little voice telling me this was the very definition of insanity. I’d infiltrated Denazen once disguised as Dad’s head interviewer, Mercy. I’d been lucky and managed to get myself—and Kale—out alive. This time I wasn’t so sure. I was going in as myself. And aside from being one of their Supremacy science projects, I’d done more than my fair share to piss Dad off. I had no doubt he was looking for a little payback.
When Kale and I left the cabin, Alex still hadn’t woken up. Without Ben’s ability, there was no way to know the true extent of the damage until he did. Ginger assured me his vitals were strong and other than a few bumps and bruises, he was fine. Physically, at least.
Sure. Fine—except half his brain might very well have been sucked out.
“I’ll get you out of there—with the vial. I swear,” Kale said.
“I believe you.” But would I be in one piece when he did?
“I know this is hard, especially with everything that just happened.”
I was in love with Kale. That would never change. But I loved Alex, too. It was a different kind of love—it always had been, even if I hadn’t realized it at the time—but he was important to me. Still, there were things that needed to be done. Life didn’t stop. My future wasn’t the only one hanging in the balance. Brandt and the others counted on me. I wouldn’t let them down. “It’s fine. We can do this.” I turned to him. “We will do this.”
“You’re incredibly brave.”
If I was so brave, then why was I so close to telling him to turn the car around?
“I’m going to need you to trust me. Completely. You understand I need to make this look real, correct? That means treating Roz—”
“Kiernan,” I said between clenched teeth. I knew exactly what he was talking about, and of all the horrors that waited for me inside Denazen, that was the one I might have the most trouble swallowing. Kiernan and him. Together.
“Roz,” he insisted, shaking his head. “There can’t be any slipups. She’s Roz to me. Always has been.”
Even though I wanted to argue, he had a point.
“Dez, before we go in, I need to tell you something.”
I turned toward the window and squeezed both eyes closed for a second. My chest felt tight. I had a pretty good idea about where this was going, and if it were possible, I would have jumped from the car and run as far—and as fast—as my legs would carry me. I knew the conversation was coming, but I didn’t want to do it now. Not here. Not after everything that had just happened. “Please. Don’t—”
“I need you to understand how it was. They made me believe I loved her. I didn’t feel it—I never felt it—but I was lost. Floating. I needed something to anchor me.”
“So you slept with her,” I finished for him. He wasn’t going to come out and say it, and I’d never been a bush beater.
“Once. But it’s not like you think. When I woke up I was angry—furious—and I didn’t know why. I couldn’t remember anything. That rage was all I had. I clung to it and it started to tear me apart. She was there with me and I felt like I was drowning. We started to argue, and…”
“So the fact that you had angry sex with my sister is supposed to make me feel better about it?”
“No—”
“Why are you even telling me? And seriously, doing it now? Not the smartest thing you’ve ever done.” I’d suspected after I’d seen him kiss Kiernan at the party. Her comment to me before Kale came in—he’s a screamer—made sense now, and even though the whole thing felt like a bomb had gone off inside my chest, could I really blame Kale? Logic told me no.
My heart said yes.
“The last thing I want is to hurt you. I’m telling you,” he said slowly, and with the smallest hint of anger, “because I have to make it appear like nothing’s changed. We’re going to appear…close, and I don’t want you to think—”
“That you like it?”
He growled. “Do you always do that? Cut me off when I’m trying to talk?”
I shrugged.
“I don’t want you to think it means anything.” He grabbed my chin and forced me to look at him. “That it ever meant anything. I didn’t know myself then, and I may not be fully aware at the moment, but my memories are starting to return. I know what I want. And what I don’t.”
“So you’re apologizing in case you have to do it again?”
His face grew pale. “Of course not. I—I know it doesn’t make sense considering all that’s happened, but I would never—”
“Never what?”
It were almost as though he was in physical pain. He rubbed his face, then balled both fists tightly and slammed his head back against the rest. “Step out,” he blurted finally. “Now that I’m with you again, I would never step out on you.”
“We should go,” I whispered as the tears came. He didn’t understand what he’d just said but I did. “Before I chicken out.”
He nodded and started the engine. The ride was fast, which was probably a good thing. The more time I had to think about this, the more monumentally stupid our plan sounded. Kale called someone—I didn’t know who—and told him or her we’d arrive at the back door shortly.
“Wait. They ordered me terminated. How did you explain bringing me in alive?”
He hesitated. “When I called earlier, I told them I was sure you’d break under pressure and reveal the location of the Underground. Marshal seemed pleased…”
I tried not to let his words alarm me. Break under pressure. Yeah. That sent waves of happy rolling through my system.
Just before we pulled into a large parking lot, he said, “You’re supposed to be unconscious. Is there any chance you can mimic a bruise? To make it look like I hit you?”
I leaned over and closed my eyes. “This conversation is bordering on surreal. Just FYI.” I concentrated on the memory of the bruise he’d given Alex when they’d fought in September. Across the right side of his face. “How’s that?” I asked without opening my eyes.
A warm, feathery-light touch trailed down the left side of my face, and Kale sighed. “Disturbingly perfect.” The car listed to the left, then stopped. “Remember. You’re unconscious.”
A moment later, I heard the door open. “She’s still out.”
“You hit her?” an annoyingly familiar voice breathed as Kale’s door closed. They were faint, but his footsteps could be heard as he walked around the car, then a second later I felt the chilly air hit my skin as my door opened.
A pair of strong arms caught me before I tumbled from the seat, then slid beneath my legs and neck and hefted up. “She wasn’t going to come willingly.”
“I don’t understand,” Kiernan said. I could almost see her expression. Eyebrows forming a deep V, lips curled into a disbelieving sneer. “I saw you at the airport. You helped them get that Supremacy kid.”
We were moving, Kale barely jostling me as the cold wind bit at my skin. “Of course I helped them.” His tone was condescending and angry. I couldn’t help it. It gave me warm fuzzies to hear him talk to her like that. “How else were they going to think I believed what they said?”
“I told Daddy. I told him there was no way you’d turn on me. What we have is far too strong.” I could hear the smile in her voice. Apparently Kale’s tone didn’t faze her.
What they have is too strong? If he didn’t get me inside and away from the sound of her voice, there was a chance I’d give myself away by reaching out to choke her.
Kale’s arms tightened around me as the chilly air warmed and something metal-sounding clicked behind us. We’d entered the building. There was no turning back now. “Nothing on this earth could make me forget about the girl I love, Roz. Nothing.”
26
I was losing track of time. Kale had left me what seemed like hours ago—I didn’t know where, because I hadn’t dared open my eyes—and no one had been by since. In reality, it had probably only been about ten or fifteen minutes, but it felt much longer. Slowly, I cracked one eye, and then the other.
The room was barely bigger than a walk-in closet, with one door and no windows. I’d never been claustrophobic, but spending too much time in there might change that. There was a tiny bulb hanging from a wire in the middle of the ceiling—very Sopranos—and a single white folding chair in the corner with suspicious-looking dark stains on the backrest that trailed all the way down the right leg. They’d long since dried, but I had a pretty good idea what they were and could imagine all too well the ways they might have gotten there.
I climbed to my feet and scanned the ceiling, inch by inch, then did the same with the walls and floor. No sign of a camera.
Next I tried the door, which was, of course, locked. I crossed the small space and slid down the wall directly across from it. How long would it take for Kale to get in, get the vial, and get me out? It might have been pure delusion—or maybe the Supremacy crazies setting in—but I kept my fingers crossed that they left me alone until then.
Some time passed. I thought about Lu—another senseless tragedy of this whole mess—and all the others we hadn’t reached in time. Ashley. Conny. Innocent victims of something they probably never even understood. Denazen’s reach was far, but the things Penny Mills said before she was killed terrified me. How many more lives would be destroyed before we could take them out—if we could take them out? Each day that passed, they seemed to gain more of an upper hand. I was starting to wonder if killing the beast would be impossible.
The idea that this was all hopeless was too depressing and I needed to stay focused. I recited the lyrics of several Powerman 5000 songs, then counted to one thousand—twice. I was halfway through the third time when the doorknob rattled, announcing that I had a visitor. When the door opened, I was only slightly surprised to see Kiernan, and not Dad, step through.
“Well, well, well,” she said, closing the door behind her with a snap. “Look what my hottie dragged in.”
“Oh, please. The only way you could get a guy like Kale is to wipe his brain clean. Kinda sinking low, even for you. Don’tcha think?”
“You told me he was an awesome kisser. Holy crap—you weren’t kidding!” She pulled the folding chair from the corner and sank down with a superior smile that begged to be wiped away. It took every ounce of self-control I had—and then some—but I stayed in my corner on the other side of the room.
“Is there a point to this? I mean, you’re not here to just gloat, right?” I let out a little gasp and covered my mouth. “Or…are you? Dad doesn’t trust you to do anything important, right? That’s why he sent Kale with Aubrey to off Thom Morris. Maybe he was afraid you’d screw it up.”
She shook her head, grin never wavering, but I could see the tightening set of her shoulders. I’d hit a nerve. “You can’t bait me, bitch. I’m in way too good a mood. I’ve got my guy home safe and sound, and I get to be the one to find out where the Underground is currently holed up.” She held her hand out to examine her nails. Bright purple with lavender tips. Very Kiernan. “I know you’re not just going to tell me, so, yanno, I’m really looking forward to this.”
“Oh,” I said in mock fear. “Is that supposed to, I dunno, scare me or something?”
She leaned forward, face serious. “I resent you.”
I rolled my eyes. “For what, exactly?” My jaw clamped shut just in time. I’d been about to call her on her misplaced anger over our respective childhoods, but then she’d know Kale spilled and his cover would be blown. Instead, I focused on the things I knew. The things she’d personally let slip. “This can’t all be out of some misplaced sense of loyalty to Dad!”
“This is because someone like you doesn’t deserve to breathe,” she spat, voice full of venom. “You had everything and you threw it away.”
“Everything? Check your facts, sister. I had crap.”
“You had a home and a father who loved you. You had friends. Food. Clothing. All you ever did was try to push him away. To make him angry. I would have given anything to be in your place. I had nothing!”
The hate in her voice made me cringe, and my heart broke just a little. “I don’t know what happened to you before we met, Kiernan, but I promise you my life was not the stuff of Disney fairy tales. He didn’t love me. Never did.”
“You’re a liar. An ungrateful, hateful liar,” she said with a menacing step forward. “Where did the Underground go after the hotel burned down?”
Arguing with her over Dad was pointless. She was convinced I’d lived the perfect life and was somehow betraying him. If she was ever going to see his true colors, it had to be in her own time. “Seriously? You really think I’m gonna tell you?”
The smile on her face grew wider, and from her back pocket, she pulled out a small black thing. At first it looked like a garage door opener. But as she got closer I realized it was a Taser. Tossing it into the air and catching it again, she winked at me.
“Yep. I really do.”
…
We’d been at it for a while now, and although I couldn’t see it, I was pretty sure she’d given me a black eye. I hadn’t gone down without a fight, though. Her bottom lip was swollen, and she favored her right arm. I’d bent the left one back o
n her last try. Something had popped and she’d let out a horrible wail right before jamming the Taser against my hip.
She’d retreated to her side of the room and me to mine. “I can go at this all day. Can you?”
I shrugged and forced a smile without answering. The truth was, I didn’t know how much longer I could do this. I was sure there were no cameras in the room. There was a point where I’d almost completely overpowered her, nearly wrenching the Taser from her fingers. If there’d been a camera, surely someone would have come running.
Kale was out there somewhere, risking his neck to get me the vial. While I hadn’t really expected us to be in and out in ten minutes, I was starting to worry. When Kiernan came at me again, I had a plan. I didn’t know how good it was or if it’d even work with how weak I was, but it was worth a try.
“I’m gonna ask one more time. Where’s the Underground?”
Instead of replying, I busied myself by skimming the dirt from under my fingernails, whistling the theme from Tree Busters—a local brush removal service. When I looked up, she’d stopped about a foot away.
“No? Then maybe I’ll go get Kale.” She waggled her brow and flashed a wicked grin. With each step closer, it grew bigger. “I’m sure he’d love to help, since, you know, you’re the reason he almost died and all.”
She waved the Taser like a Fourth of July sparkler, but she was cocky and too careless. Lightning fast, I sprang to my feet, grabbing her wrist and twisting it around so the tip of the device angled at her instead of me. She tried to squirm away but there wasn’t enough time. My other hand covered hers and I jammed her finger down over the button.
Kiernan yelped and crumpled to the floor, surprised. She’d always been too cocky for her own good. Thank God some things never changed. I regained my balance and turned the dial one click higher, then hit her again. She twitched, eyes rolling back then closing, her breath evening out to tell me I hadn’t—unfortunately—killed her.
Grounding her was the easy part of my plan. What came next would either make or break the whole thing. Falling to my knees, I grabbed her hand and took a deep breath. At first nothing happened and I panicked. Frustrated, I concentrated harder, picturing my own face as it was when I looked in the mirror this morning. It wasn’t a big surprise. When we’d gone to the airport for Ben, I’d done two major mimics in a short span. Granted, I’d gotten some rest, but apparently that hadn’t been enough.