Altered

by Marnee Blake

Blue could have been killed. Fallen from a train, crushed under its wheels, dead. Luke was blaming himself. Even Blue had mumbled about her own stupidity. But Seth knew who was to blame. The whole stunt had been his idea. He’d pressed her to levitate Luke, even though he’d known she was nervous. Hell, both Luke and Blue had been as skittish as cats with ADD. But he’d pushed and cajoled. His plan, it would work, his mind said. It was their best option, his mind said.

  If she’d died, it would have been his fault.

  Pissed, at himself, at their situation, he threw open the door to the Subway. The little bell jingled in protest. The petite older woman behind the counter looked up from the sandwich she was making, her hands up to the elbows in plastic gloves. He smiled in apology and got in line.

  As he waited his turn, he took a deep breath. Not again. He wouldn’t be responsible for another innocent death again.

  An innocent he cared about. Like Bobby.

  He’d been part of the detail in charge of keeping Bobby alive. Bobby was one of only a few civilians who traveled with them in Iraq. He was a photographer, a complete artistic geek. He’d come along to take pictures, part of some propaganda about the state of affairs in the Middle East or some other nonsense. They hadn’t seemed like they’d be friends. Bobby mostly kept to himself. But one night, Bobby offered him a Milky Way from his box from home, and they’d bonded over a love of caramel. Before long, he was keeping the guy company during his cigarette breaks, and they were chatting during long drives. Seth liked his dry wit and the fact that he never missed an opportunity to make fun of himself.

  He learned to not take himself quite so seriously from Bobby.

  When Bobby returned to Afghanistan for a second trip, he’d requested Seth. Old friends, reunited.

  They’d been bullshitting when the first shells hit that day. While Seth hit the deck and returned fire, Bobby had been clicking pictures. Seth wanted to fall back, to get Bobby to safety and out of the way of the fighting. But when he’d made to shove Bobby behind him, the other man resisted. “No. I need these shots, man.”

  While the doubt nagged at him, Seth had backed down. This was what Bobby had come for, these shots. He’d thought they were safe enough.

  He’d been wrong.

  He should have insisted. Protected Bobby when his friend wasn’t as concerned about his safety as he should have been. It had been his job to keep him out of harm’s way.

  He failed.

  All these kids from Glory…the whole lot of them kept looking at him, expecting him to make the right decisions, the hard decisions. He did what he could; he didn’t want to let them down. But he wasn’t perfect.

  If he kept going like this, out in the open, running from Goldstone, sooner or later he’d make a choice that got someone killed.

  Again.

  Blue had no idea how long she’d slept, ten hours or ten minutes, but she felt a hundred times better when she woke. Her mouth felt dry, and her head still ached, but she didn’t have to puke. At least not right now. That was something.

  “Hey, there, sunshine.” Seth lounged at the standard-issue hotel room desk, studying a map. Leaning back from the paperwork, he made studious look pretty hot. He smiled at her. “Why don’t you grab a shower?”

  A shower. Never had such a simple thing sounded so amazing. She searched the room, located the backpack they’d brought with its spare set of clothes. Grabbing them, she hurried into the bathroom. The mirror proved she was a hot mess. Blood on her T-shirt, crazy hair sticking out of her makeshift head wrap. She pulled the bandage off, checking for bleeding. It had stopped, thank God. That probably meant the cut wasn’t too deep. Her head still ached, especially if she moved it too fast, and the lights hurt her eyes, but for the most part, she felt a lot better.

  After the best shower of her life, she changed into a fresh pair of jeans and one of Kitty’s T-shirts with a picture of Hello Kitty on it. A funny one, that Kitty.

  She stepped out of the bathroom minutes later, feeling like a different, cleaner, all around better person. She rubbed her hair with a towel, careful not to reopen her wound.

  Seth looked her over with a smile that warmed her. She flushed and looked away. The atmosphere in their little room felt too intimate, like they were sharing the hotel room instead of being stuck together.

  Now, after some sleep and a shower, she forced herself to be honest.

  She liked him. A lot.

  It didn’t hurt that he had one of the hottest bodies she’d ever seen. God, when she’d awakened after her little fainting spell on the train, he’d been half naked in front of her, and now all she could think about was the sight of his muscled chest.

  Plus, he’d used his own shirt to bandage her. Did it get hotter than that?

  She didn’t think she imagined that he seemed to be into her, too.

  But what did that mean for them? It’s not like they had anything in common besides the situation they were in. Thinking too much about this stuff was stupid. A bad idea.

  So why did his approval of her, fresh out of the shower, mean so much? And why had she hurried through what had been the most amazing shower she’d had in years to come out here and be with him?

  “I brought you a gift.”

  She tried to be casual when her entire body tingled. “Oh, yeah? You shouldn’t have.”

  She flopped down on the bed and immediately regretted the decision. She put her hand to her throbbing head.

  “You’ll like this.” He tossed her a bag with a Subway logo on it. “Veggie Delite. You’re welcome.” Then he threw something that landed next to her. A couple of travel packs of Advil. “And this.”

  He handed over a soda.

  She gazed at it as if he’d offered her flowers, taking it slowly from his hand. She ripped open one of the packets of pills and popped the contents in her mouth, and she took a long drag. Coke never tasted so good. “I take back all the bad things I said about you.”

  “Good to know.”

  “Seriously,” she said, motioning to the sandwich. “Thank you.”

  He nodded.

  She pulled the sub out of the bag and unwrapped it. Oh, man, he even got olives on it. She loved olives. “What’s with the map?”

  “Phones with batteries in them are traceable. So, I’m going old school.” He patted the map in front of him. “Trying to find the best way to get to San Antonio from here.”

  She took a huge bite and finished chewing before she answered. “What’s in San Antonio?”

  “My friend. Nick. He’s waiting for me.”

  The last word—“me”—lingered in the air. She paused, the sandwich on its way to her mouth.

  Did he mean only him? Or all of them? Had he decided to leave them now? After they’d come all this way together?

  Forcing herself to take another bite of her sandwich, she chewed as she processed that. If she thought about it, she supposed she expected they would split up. Eventually. She hadn’t expected it to be this soon.

  But now, faced with his leaving, it bugged her more than she’d expected.

  Just because Seth helped her get out of Glory, that didn’t mean he wanted to stay with her.

  Them. Stay with them.

  Determined to remain casual, she blotted her mouth with a napkin before she asked, “What’s he waiting for?”

  “I’m supposed to show in North Carolina in two days. For Special Ops training. Nick and I were going to ride together.”

  She gave up on the sandwich, laying it on her lap and rubbing her hands together to dust the crumbs off. “You can’t expect to go there now, can you?” Yeah, he’d had special training. “Had” being the operative word. That was two days ago, before he could outrun her Cavalier. Everything had changed since then. “It’s not safe. You must see that.”

  “To Special Ops training? No. I don’t expect to go there now.” He grimaced, glancing at his hands. As if the thought of missing it pained him. “But I do want to go to North Carolina. To the army.” He l
ooked up. “I think you should come. All of you.”

  Their eyes held as she processed that.

  He didn’t want to leave them. Irrational joy exploded in her chest, followed by immediate confusion. “You want us to go to an army base? And tell them what happened to us?”

  He nodded. Then he waited, as if he knew she had more to say.

  “You can’t be serious.” The words exploded out of her. He was going to turn himself over to the military?

  “I knew you would say that.”

  “How’d you know I’d say that?”

  His eyes narrowed. “So you don’t think I’m stupid for wanting to tell the army?”

  “Oh, I do. But I don’t know how you knew that.” She folded her arms over her chest.

  He exhaled. “Listen, we can’t do this by ourselves. I think it’s smart to get them involved.”

  “How do you know they aren’t already involved? How do you know they didn’t have something to do with this?” Blue knew she sounded paranoid, but she didn’t trust the government. If it hadn’t been for the government—the IRS, in particular—her father might still be alive. An audit led them to suspect money laundering in her father’s landscaping business. When her father confronted his partner, the other man confessed, but her father could never prove him guilty. After the partner skipped town, and it became clear that her dad would lose everything and go to prison, her father shot himself in the head.

  If the IRS hadn’t pushed so hard, or if they’d listened to his explanations, investigated the partner further…something, well, maybe her father would be alive today. Maybe her mom wouldn’t have gone off the deep end. Maybe Blue would have grown up like a regular kid.

  No, no government involvement. As far as she could tell, going somewhere to hide was their best option. Away from the public eye. After a while, they could slip away, out of the country. Canada or Mexico. Something.

  “I don’t know they aren’t involved. But if we keep going like this, someone’s going to really get hurt. Or taken.” He pressed his palm into the desk and stood, pacing beside the bed. “You guys. You aren’t prepared for this, to be on the run. You must know that. Everyone keeps looking at me, but I don’t know what I’m doing. My fool plan on the train almost got you killed.” He stopped, his hands on his hips. “Can’t you see that? I almost got you killed. Someone’s going to die, and it’s going to be my fault.”

  She might have shot back at him except she saw real fear in his eyes. Her mouth snapped shut. He was genuinely afraid. For her.

  That sucked the wind out of her, like a deflating balloon. She revisited their entire time together. If anything, Seth had kept them alive. All of this, everything he was saying, it was all wrong. He’d twisted everything. He wouldn’t be responsible for their deaths. He was the only reason they’d made it this far.

  Some of her anger faded. But before she could come up with a response, a new argument, a knock sounded. Seth stalked over and looked through the peephole before opening the door.

  The others trooped in. Luke sprawled across the bed, Kitty sat on the edge, and Jack slumped next to the door. Like he had something better to do.

  She took a deep breath and folded her arms over her chest. “Seth wants to go to San Antonio, to meet up with a military friend. Then he wants us to turn ourselves over to the army.”

  From the other side of the room, Seth let out an exasperated sigh. “Come on, Blue. It isn’t like that.”

  “You want to go to the army?” Luke asked, lifting onto his elbows. “Huh. I’d expected the newspaper.”

  “The newspapers?” What were these people thinking? Now wasn’t the time to talk to anyone. Now was the time to run away. “We can’t go to the newspaper, either. The military is bad enough. We’re scary. We can do things that other people, normal people”—she stressed the word “normal”—“can’t do. You think the general population is going to be happy knowing we’re out there somewhere, on the loose?” She shook her head. “If you do, you all give people a lot more credit than I do. What we need to do is find somewhere to hide.”

  “I know.” Luke glanced away, obviously not willing to argue with her.

  “I’m going to Mexico. With or without any of you.” Jack shrugged. “I don’t give a shit what Seth does.”

  “What do you mean, you’re going to Mexico?” That was news to her. She’d thought they would talk about this.

  “I’m going to get him there.” Luke shifted to sit. “I want to go, too. We’re leaving in the morning.” His shoulders hunched a little, his shirt dwarfing his slight frame, and he looked away again. “It’s as good a place as any to hide.”

  What was happening here? She looked back and forth between them. Luke still wouldn’t make eye contact, and Jack looked belligerent, as always. Had they planned to abandon them the whole time, too? “When did you guys decide this?”

  “Over dinner.”

  “When did you plan to tell me?” They’d sat over crappy fast food and decided to split up? The least they could have done was let her in on their plans. They’d all grown up together. It wasn’t like they were great friends, but they were in this together. Weren’t they?

  “You were sleeping.” Jack rolled his eyes. “You can come, too.”

  “To Mexico?” Why Mexico?

  “There are a lot of beaches in Mexico. With half-naked girls,” Kitty explained, clutching the edge of the bed, staring at the ceiling.

  Half-naked girls? Blue wrinkled her nose. That was definitely Jack. Right up his alley. But Luke? She thought more of him.

  “You said it yourself, Blue. Go far away and disappear. Before someone finds us.” Jack pushed away from the wall. “Come, or don’t come. I don’t really care. It’s not like there’s anything keeping us together. We all got shit on by circumstance. We’re not like a family or anything. Our families are dead. And frankly, the faster I leave anything that reminds me of Glory behind, the better.”

  Yes, that was what she proposed. Run, hide. Get away. Yet she didn’t want to go to Mexico. Not if Seth didn’t come, too.

  Almost against her will, she turned to Seth, who glowered at Jack, his jaw clenched. Having him pissed at Jack, too, made her feel better somehow.

  She didn’t want to leave him, she realized. She wanted to stay with Seth. So, even as her instincts screamed to run and hide, to follow the others to Mexico, she refused to leave him behind.

  “I’m not going with them, either,” Kitty said into the awkward silence.

  “You aren’t?” Luke piped in. He sat forward, studying Kitty as if her mutiny surprised him. Which wasn’t unrealistic. Kitty was no rebel.

  “No.” Kitty shifted, finally meeting Blue’s eyes. “I’m going with Seth, if he’ll have me. I want to know what happened to us. And I want to figure out how to make it stop. If the army can do that, then that’s where I need to go.” She came to stand next to Blue and addressed the boys. “Maybe you guys think this is cool, super jumping and running really fast. Moving things with your mind. But I hear everything everyone is thinking, and it’s awful. I couldn’t go and lie on the beach with bikini-clad women and pretend there isn’t anything wrong.” She glanced pointedly at Jack. “There is no escape for me.”

  “Besides,” she continued. “After the nosebleed, I’m afraid.”

  “What nosebleed?” Blue asked.

  “I think you’re blowing that way out of proportion.”

  “Shut up, Jack.” Seth hadn’t involved himself until now, but he sounded as if he meant business. “What nosebleed, Kitty?”

  Kitty turned to him. “I tried to use my power…but in reverse, I guess. I wasn’t trying to hear anyone…”

  “You were trying to shut someone out.”

  “Yes.”

  No one looked at Jack. It didn’t take a genius to figure out whom she was trying to shut out.

  “Well, it worked, but then Luke noticed my nose bleeding. And I ended up with a bad headache.”

  Dread filled Blu
e’s stomach. A bad headache? Nosebleed? “When I stopped you guys in the tree. My nose bled then.” She looked down. “And…on the train. I was trying to keep Luke still. The wind caught him, and I thought I’d lose him over the side. It took so much concentration. And then my head…it exploded.”

  “Wait.” Seth grabbed her wrist, turning her toward him. Not rough, only insistent. “Is that why you got hurt?”

  He looked so intense, she backpedaled. “Not exactly. I must have dropped Luke, and then he dropped me. I rolled, couldn’t get my grip. It’s all a bit of a blur.”

  He snorted. “I bet.”

  She hurried on. “The important thing is that it seemed to be when I was trying to use my power. When I was trying really hard, when what I wanted to do was harder than what I’d ever done before. Like I pulled a muscle.”

  “So you think that’s what caused her nosebleed?” Seth motioned to Kitty before turning to Blue. “And what made you pass out?”

  “I didn’t pass out from that,” she pointed out. It was true. She’d passed out later. “I got a headache.” She wasn’t good at soothing him, but she hated how upset he looked.

  “Fine. A headache. You think you got a headache from that?”

  Jack scowled. “I haven’t had problems. Neither have Luke or Seth. Maybe it’s because you’re chicks.” He smiled, goading.

  Misogynist. Though she couldn’t exactly rule it out. So she answered sweetly, “You’re so charming, Jack.”

  “That’s wrong, actually,” Seth added, staring at the floor. “My nose was bleeding after the helicopter. I thought I got it after falling that far. Maybe not.”

  “I don’t know if using my power caused the nosebleed, but what’s to say it didn’t?” Kitty’s hands fisted at her sides. “How do we know it isn’t going to get worse? They put something in our water. It killed everyone else, and we drank it. What if it’s only a matter of time before it kills us, too?” She waited a beat to let that sink in. “I’m going with Seth. We have to find out what’s happening to us.”

  They all stared at each other. Jack remained silent and belligerent, but Luke looked uncomfortable. Blue didn’t know how long the standoff would have continued. But Seth scrambled to the door and killed the lights, effectively ending their conversation.