by Carly Marino
Drake’s expression wilted. “I’m deeply sorry, for everything.”
I slackened, my heart sluggish. Wynter was gone. I held back my tears and the angry words I wanted to spit at him. I refused to share my emotions.
His gaze met mine. “I’d hoped you weren’t the one Larc was looking for, but Cole’s reaction was unmistakable. I threatened to alert his father after we met you but he must’ve erased my memory because for some reason I never did. I was quite ill that week. I realized he’d drained me after I saw how charged he was.”
Now I understood why Cole had avoided my gaze that night at Nora and Drake’s. He’d erased Drake’s memory. Drake had threatened to expose me, and Cole had went against his family to save me.
Drake chuckled, coughing afterward. “Honestly, I was relieved he erased me. I fancied you, Thea. Your emotions are amazing.” His fingers massaged his shoulder. “I tried to show you my memories. I’d hoped you’d make it to your aunt in time and get out of here. Unfortunately, I must not’ve given you the clearest ones because you came back.”
Drake had shown me his memories. Anger and confusion tightened my chest. If he liked me, he should’ve been honest. I would have still had Karen. “If you didn’t want this to happen, you should’ve told me from the start.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. You exposed yourself to Kayla on the beach. If you had let her drain Matt, you wouldn’t be here.” He shook his head. “After Larc found out, I took quite a beating for not telling him about you sooner.”
I didn’t understand Drake’s motives. None of this made sense. “Why would you do this to your family?”
He smoothed the fleece blanket covering my legs, and I flinched at his touch. “They’re not my family. After we had moved, my parents were never around. They traveled back to the UK more than they took care of us. Noralee spent more time with Cole than me. I had no one.” He inhaled a hoarse-sounding breath. “Emotions transferred to me much easier than her, or any Fector, really. Most Fectors can only skim the surface of the emotion. Love, for example, goes much deeper than simply fancying someone. There’s lust, angst of loss, infatuation, jealousy… What other Fectors don’t realize is manipulating one can sometimes exasperate another. It’s a slippery slope.”
He rubbed a hand over his smooth head. “Every emotion bombarded me at once and I struggled to hold my mask, until Larc came into my life. He taught me to harness and control my ability. He saved me from madness. I might not agree with his methods, but his motives are commendable.”
“Killing innocent people to use your powers in the sunlight does not sound admirable to me.”
Drake pinched the bridge of his broad nose. “You have no idea what it’s like—feeling exhausted all day long, praying you’ll make it to sunset. But that’s not the only reason I’m helping Larc. I owe him.”
“Right. He’s your father figure. Well, guess what? I grew up without a dad too, and I’m not following a sick and twisted man who probably treated you like crap. You have a choice, Drake. You’re making the wrong one.”
His dry lips curved down. “He’s not a bad guy, Thea. She made him that way.” His gaze flicked toward the curtain, and I tilted my head at him.
“Who—who’s over there?”
He tucked a strand of hair from my cheek, and I jerked away from him. “Where’s the formula? Larc won’t stop until he gets it. I can try to talk him into letting you go if you just tell me where it is. Let me help you.”
“I’m confused, I thought—”
The door opened, and a rush of cool air chilled my bones. Larc stepped inside with Jonathan—the Resparé from Metro. “How’s she doing?”
“As expected.”
“Did she tell you?”
“Not, yet.” Drake stood, his hands curling into fists. “There has to be another way. Give me more time. Draining her won’t do any good. Rayna doesn’t have enough energy to search her. We need to drain a few more of our kind. Allow Rayna to charge off us to strengthen her. Larc, you know this could kill her if we don’t.”
I wiggled. Resparés charged off Inflexaens in order for this Rayna person to charge. They were killing their own kind to sustain someone else. But why?
Larc shook his head then nodded. I stared at him, puzzled. His lashes fluttered as his eyes darted behind closed lids. Is he talking to someone? Mnemosyne spoke to me telepathically, but she was also an Ancient. She had said a few Ancients turned to the Resparés. Could he be speaking to one now?
His electric-blue irises connected with mine, prickling my nape.
Larc blew out a breath. “She said there isn’t time. She can feel them making their way through the tunnels.”
Them? If I could stall a little longer, I’d give Cole and Logan time to get here. Cole had my powers. Combined with his, we had a chance.
We’d survive.
Drake clasped his hands behind his back, and his gaze drifted to the tile floor.
Larc ambled to the off-white curtain, and each of his footsteps tensed my shoulders.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I asked, exasperated. “Why do you need the formula? Is charging really that terrible?”
He fingered the edge of the curtain but didn’t draw it open. “Ah, I see you’ve spoken with Mnemosyne. How is she faring these days?”
I glared.
Larc cupped his brows. “I need the formula for the same reason your parents did.” The metal hooks scraped the pole as he drew the curtain to the side.
I scooted to see better, stretching my legs in the restraints.
A woman lay in the bed next to mine. She didn’t move, her hazed-over eyes staring vacantly at the ceiling. Larc unhooked the various wires, needles, and tubes attached to her. The steady beeping flatlined to one high-pitched sound. He flicked the button on the machine, silencing the noise.
Larc rolled the blanket with such care. Then he scooped the woman into his arms and cradled her like a porcelain doll. She was so frail. Her skin hung from her scrawny arms, and she breathed in wheezes from her shriveled lips. The bones in her chest and neck protruded.
Larc swiveled to my bedside. “My younger sister, Rayna, was born a Roamer like you. Our parents refused to accept her fate. We used our essence to sustain her as an infant, but the the more she grew, the more she needed. She’d have killed us. We began capturing humans. Rayna drained them in a single draw, but their essence lasted a day max. Then we moved on to other Inflexaens, and the Resparés were born.”
I swallowed. “I thought Resparés were around since you came to this planet?”
“There were anti-peace groups but never organized ones.” He glanced toward the doorway. “Jonathan, can you fetch this young lady some water? She’ll need it.”
Jonathan nodded and then vacated the room. I craned my neck to peek outside but the sliding glass door had closed too quickly. As Drake maneuvered to the opposite side of my bed, I observed his baggy and wrinkled clothing. His neck had thinned and his cheekbones were more prominent.
This woman was charging off of him. Had she charged off Cole too? She’d weakened them almost to death.
Larc laid his sister beside me. The sickening scent of rot seeped from her pores, burning my nose. Her wiry hair brushed against my face, and my stomach turned. Is this what would have happened to me?
“It is.”
I snapped my gaze to Larc. He’d answered me without touching my skin. How had he read my mind?
“She and I can communicate telepathically. Perk of draining numerous Cors.” He cocked his eyebrows. “She wanted me to tell you that your body would’ve eaten itself from the inside out.”
Goosebumps shivered on my arms. “How did she live this long? Mnemosyne’s an Ancient and she couldn’t keep me alive.”
“Enough talk.”
Drake looked between Larc and me. “Larc, I don’t think—”
“Rayna is the future of our people. I’ve spent my life keeping her safe. We are so close. I won’t let yours or Cole’s
silly infatuation with this girl get in the way. Understood?”
Drake lowered his head and placed a hand on my forearm. “It’ll be okay.”
Rayna’s gnarled and cracked fingers clutched my skin and a current sucked me out to a sea of her memories. I rocked in the middle of a wide-open space, stars glistening around me. In the distance, bright, colorful balls of lights swirled. Waves of nothingness crashed over me. I gasped and thrashed, struggling to breathe.
I plummeted. My stomach flipped, and my thumping heart gagged my throat until I landed on solid ground with a thud. Pain shot up my legs. I yelped, my voice echoing. My body rose and hovered in mid-air, a crushing sensation on my chest. I clamped my eyes shut until the pressure ceased.
Something pried my eyelids open.
Light zapped, flickered, in lines as images fit together into a picture-perfect screen before me.
Two children sat on a round flower-print area rug. The girl hunched over with a sad tired expression. Her grayish dark hair knotted down her back, and she had no fat on her bones. Her clothing hung from her limbs and each bump of her spine poked underneath the fabric.
Next to her, the blond boy with electric-blue eyes wheeled a toy truck around a road he’d made from blocks. Neither child spoke or looked at each other.
An older man and woman entered the room, dragging a brunette boy between them. He kicked and screamed. The parents forced him to the ground, tears trailing his round face. Rayna’s head slowly, so very slowly, rotated toward the little boy. She didn’t flinch with an ounce of care for this terrified boy. Instead, an eerie smile crawled the sides of her purplish-white lips. She seized his arm, and he aged within seconds. Then his squirming body exploded into dust.
Frozen wide in horror, my eyelids trembled but refused to close. My eyeballs stung with a mixture of dryness and water welling beneath my lower lid. I just wanted to shut my eyes, erase this terrifying sight from my memory.
But Rayna didn’t free me. She forced me to continue watching.
Yellow light swirled within young Rayna’s eyes. Her face plumped and glowed a pinkish hue, and freckles popped across her nose and cheekbones. She hopped to her feet and spun, her yellow skirt swishing around her knees.
Rayna paused. Her head tilted from side to side, devilish mischief upon her face.
She dove at her parents.
Larc cried, his toy car flying from his tiny hands. He reached out to his mom and dad as Rayna absorbed them to nothingness. Giggling, she threw her arms up as ash swirled her, dusting her hair like snowflakes.
Her gaze slanted to her sobbing brother, unamused. She grabbed his face and drained him until he collapsed onto the rug. His chest still rose and fell, little by little, but he was alive.
Wind ruffled my hair as Rayna’s memory advanced in time.
She held a small blue blanket swaddled around a newborn child. A tiny hand stretched to touch her nose, and although her eyes peered down with indifference, she allowed the child to grip her finger. The baby’s chubby arms shank to its bones. Luster and youth returned to her hair and face, and a smile grew upon her mouth.
Rayna held the baby tighter to her chest and snatched his sleeping mother’s hand. The woman shriveled. From root to end, her wavy locks of brown hair turned white. She aged and the machine beside her bed flatlined.
Light surrounded Rayna’s body, the last trace of decay disintegrating with her exhalation.
Larc entered. His beaming smile hardened, and he ran to his wife’s bedside. Tears poured down his cheeks. Sobs and coughs belted from his throat. “Why? Why would you do this?”
Rayna touched her brother’s shoulder. “She’d have kept him from me.” She turned from Larc and admired the skeletal baby. “This child will give me life.”
Once again, the scenes fast forwarded and Cole grew. He spent most of his early years unconscious as Rayna drained him over and over.
I hated, was disgusted by, what she had done to him. If I could rip myself from this nightmare and dig her heart from her chest, I would have.
A jolt to my rip cage, yanking me forward. Waves of vibrant shades of emerald, royal-blue, and canary-yellow dripped from every angle. The tension on my eyelids released, and I clenched and unclenched them to clear the blur from my sight. My stomach flipped, the colors splashed together, and I entered my dream.
Time slowed.
Rayna lifted an eight-year-old Cole and dropped him in the closet. She placed a finger to her lips before sliding the door closed.
Larc burst into the room. “Don’t take Cole,” he yelled, desperate and afraid. “Please. Leave him alone. Stop charging off of him. We can find another way.”
She studied her brother, yellow light in her eyes. She didn’t say a word, but her face spoke a million. She had no empathy toward her brother or the child hiding in the closet. I’d had it all wrong.
All these years, I thought the man had murdered the woman but Larc didn’t want to kill Cole. He’d wanted to save him. Rayna controlled him. He never used to be evil. She made him this way.
Larc tossed Rayna to the ground. He lunged and choked her. “Run, Cole!”
But the white-paneled doors didn’t budge. Life drained from Rayna’s face. She screamed, bit his arm, and crawled toward Cole. Larc reached for her but she kicked him and scrambled. She slid the closet door open and grabbed Cole’s ankle.
He shrieked, squirmed, and writhed until he collapsed to the carpet. My heart crumbled for him, the sight sending icy chills through me. How could they hurt him?
Rayna wheezed. Her eyes squinted at Cole’s lifeless body. She smiled, lazily, satiated, and everything went black.
In the darkness, I heard Rayna’s strained voice, “There’s a block on her memory. I can’t find Mnemosyne.”
Although I was trapped in darkness, we were in the present.
“Push harder,” Larc’s deep tone echoed.
She growled, her grip tightened on me, and a memory knocked me to a hard surface. I ached and tried to get up, but my own past rushed into my mind. No, not mine … Lyra’s.
I tear through the house, breathless, terrified. “Cole! Cole!”
He doesn’t answer.
My heartbeat fires inside my chest, and wicked, short breaths choke me. “Cole,” I cry.
His father approaches, carrying a woman in his arms. His eyes turn downward, and his face sags. Tears trickle from the corners of his electric-blue eyes. He pauses, and without looking at me, he says, “He’s gone, Lyra. I tried, but he’s gone.”
I sprint to the room down the hall, not believing a word his father said. Cole would never leave me. Something terrible had happened to him.
Clothing, pillows, and blankets scatter the floor, and a suitcase lay upside down in the corner. “Cole?”
He coughs. His hand rests outside the crack in the closet.
“Cole,” I scream, not recognizing my voice, and whip the door open.
His gaze drifts to mine. “Lyra?”
“You’re gonna be okay.” He’s my best friend. My only friend. Tears drip from my cheeks to the collar of my green dress. “I can’t lose you.” I hug him. My brown hair splashes over my shoulders, and I kiss his cheek.
A sonic boom rings in my ears. Blinding light expands from us, illuminating the room, shaking the walls. The windows explode outside, and clothing flies from hangers. The dresser crashes to the ground, and I hold Cole tighter, shielding him from the debris. Crackles and zips scream overhead like soaring rockets.
Fireworks explode above us into colorful starbursts. The room fills with blue and yellow twinkling lights, merging together to create a laser show of green. Sparkles shower us like a curtain.
Spirals of glowing white smoke cut through the veil of light, weaving and dancing in wispy snakes. The beam swirls around us several times before disappearing into our skin. Inside me, something tugs at my heart like a hug so tight, so comforting.
Cole’s chest contracts, and our hearts beat in unison. I know. I can
hear them. Feel them.
“Lyra.” Cole’s eyes widen. “You’re my Yuenfan.”
I embrace him. The action brings peace to my soul. “I thought you were dead.”
He smiles. “You saved my life.”
“Lyra!”
I while my body toward the door.
My father stands, panic-stricken. “Where have you been? I told you never to come here. We need to go, now. I didn’t realize what they were. We have to leave now.”
“Daddy, I can’t. He’s my—”
“Lyra Janica Pearl, now!”
I pout, cross my arms over my chest, and rise. “Can I say good bye?”
My father turns his back and grumbles.
I peer at the frown on Cole’s face, and the water glossing his blue-green eyes.
“We’ll see each other again,” I say.
He opens the drawer next to the bed, digs around inside, and dangles two crystals on strings. “We’ll both have one. So we never forget.”
I curl my fingers around the crystal to memorize every angle and curve.
“Lyra, now,” my father yells.
I glance at Cole before running to my father. “See you soon.”
“I hope so.”
Faces, landmarks—the Empire State Building, the Eiffel Tower, the Sphinx—and my mother’s freckled face flashed before me. I flailed in my mind, plummeting into another time. My heart swelled with an overwhelming feeling of joy. Brightness faded in a circular halo and silhouettes became clear.
Cole swipes his hand through his wavy hair. He’s grown a lot in five years, and I’ve prayed for this moment since my father stole me from him.
Cole cups my face. His touch brings so much joy to my heart. “I can’t believe it’s you. Even like this, you’re still just as beautiful.”
I rotate my wrist to show him the silver jewelry box. The white star glistens in the light. “My dad gave me this,” I say. “I want you to have it, but you have to promise to keep it safe, always.”
“Of course.” His hand folds over mine still holding the jewelry box, and he leans in and kisses me. I’m lightheaded. The softness of his lips whisks me to a place where I don’t have to hurt him. A place we can live together in peace. I want to stay here forever, but I can’t.