“This isn’t our right. We’re not monsters. We can still help Larissa. Show her she’s wrong, teach her how to—”
Before I could finish my sentence, Mari whirled. Reaching out, she grasped Lucas’ hand, and the world shuddered around me. Everything that had been in motion before Mari’s freeze blinked forward for half a second, then my surroundings were still once more.
“The fuck?” Lucas blinked.
“He won’t kill her.” Mari pointed in my direction, fresh tears falling from her eyes. “She killed my Peter and he won’t shoot her!”
Lucas pressed his lips together, gaze stuck on his clone dead beneath Mari’s hands. He stepped toward me.
“Now, Lucas...” I held up my right hand, pulling the pistol behind me with my left.
He took another step in my direction. The hardened gaze he fixed on me turned my stomach to ice. I backed away from him.
“Lucas, listen to me. This isn’t our place, isn’t our decision to make.”
“She killed Peter.” His voice was quiet, menacing.
My heart shook my chest. “We don’t kill people.”
He lunged forward without a sound, grabbing my right arm and twisting it behind my back so fast, I was only able to comprehend what was happening as a sharp pain shot through my body. “Lucas, please!”
“This is my decision, Duncan.” I grimaced as he tore the pistol from my grasp.
“Hurry!” Mari shouted from the ground. “I’m weakening!”
Lucas’ eyes widened and he turned from me, facing Larissa. He had taken only three steps in her direction when the world suddenly unfroze.
“The fuck?” Aaron cried, not out of confusion but irritation.
“Lucas!” I roared. I surged forward, but he was too fast. He lifted the gun at Larissa and fired. The shot echoed and bounced around us.
Mari’s vengeful cry of triumph was the next thing I was able to hear. Larissa was lying on her side in the dirt, blood seeping from a shoulder wound. “You fucker…” she spluttered. Instead of rising to her feet, she reached out in Lucas’ direction. Almost instantly, shards of ice appeared out of thin air and buffeted him. Dropping the pistol, Lucas threw his arms up to protect his face. Mari dropped low, shielding Peter’s dead body, but the projectiles cut and tore at Lucas. A ragged cry tore from his throat, and he stumbled backward.
“Duncan!” Aaron’s voice rose above the chaos. A glance behind Lucas showed me the mindreader, face a mask of terror, backed against the van. His eyes were wide as Lucas fell back, blood splattering this way and that as the ice continued to cut him.
“Get in the car, dammit!” I screamed at Aaron. I stumbled over to the dropped pistol and snatched it up, not wasting time to confirm he did what I had said. Turning, I closed the distance between Larissa and me in five quick, long strides. Less than a yard away, I brought the gun up, only to be shaken by a sudden blast of wind.
“This has been fun, guys, but now you’re just pissing me off.” Larissa’s head twitched violently, and a loud roar sounded above me. I looked up in time to see multiple funnel clouds quickly making their way down on us.
I aimed the gun and fired.
Larissa’s body snapped back, and her hands flew to her throat.
The tornadoes raged as she lost her hold on them. I threw myself to the ground and covered my head with my hands. Debris buffeted me, and I yelled. I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die. I failed them. The only family I’ve known. The wind screamed in my ears, and I felt my body lift a few inches off the ground, then all fell silent.
I looked up, terrified of what I would see. The tornadoes had dissipated. The ice shards finally dropped away from Lucas, leaving him bleeding and groaning, but otherwise alive.
I stared at Larissa, who was trying to speak. Blood spurted from between her fingers, jumping out of her neck and landing in bright splatters on the dirt by her feet.
Ignoring Mari’s exhausted laughter, I stumbled forward, watching Larissa tumble first to her knees, then onto her side. Eyes already glassing over, her life still pouring from the wound I had made in her throat, she died.
A scream of horror and anguish tore from me. Dropping the pistol, I lowered myself next to her body and buried my face in my hands. Tears threatened my eyes, and I let out a growl.
“Duncan.” Mari’s voice was soft, quiet. She sat next to me, staring at Larissa’s slack face. “Thank you.”
“Thank you?” I snarled, whipping around to face her. “You’re thanking me? For killing someone?” My voice carried through the slowly fading afternoon light. “How could you?”
Mari’s eyes were wide, and her lower lip trembled. Nothing masked the anger in her eyes, though. She scooted away from me, scoffed, and blinked out of existence.
Three
We all gawked at the spot Mari had occupied moments before.
“Shit.” Lucas ran a hand through his hair, which he kept short, saying he hated being confused with Peter.
Now he won’t have to worry...I shoved the awful thought away, swallowing the heavy lump in my throat. “Language.” I stood slowly, ignoring the gun on the ground and the wash of déjà vu that hit me and anyone else who’s ever been frozen by Mari’s gift. “She can’t have gotten far.” I stepped up to Aaron, who was hopping out of the car. “Can you hear Mari?”
He tilted his head and his eyes relaxed, focusing somewhere over my shoulder. “Trees…” he muttered in a quiet voice.
I looked around us, gaze settling on a long line of tired-looking trees a good distance away. “Come on. Help me with Peter.”
Lucas stepped forward at once, hand raised. He knelt next to his clone, his brother, his twin, and rested a hand on Peter’s forearm. His touch was gentle, hesitant, almost as if he was afraid of the contact. A shudder ripped through Lucas’ back. I knelt next to him and put my arm around his shoulders.
“Lucas, I—” My own words were cut short as I let out a sob. Still embracing him, I squeezed my eyes shut and tilted my head down. Tears splattered onto the dirt beneath us. “We have to move him. We have to take him with us.” My voice caught. Vision blurry, I looked up as Aaron lowered himself to my right.
“We have to bury him.” Lucas sniffed loudly and shook his head as if to clear it.
“We will.” I squeezed his shoulder, then nodded at Aaron. Although Lucas could have done so on his own with ease, the three of us carried Peter’s body to the back of the van, covering him with two of the three blankets we had brought. We stood in silence for a long time, simply looking at the mound, then I shuffled my feet and spoke. “All right. Let’s go find Mari.”
“She hasn’t moved.” Aaron informed me. “She’s...she’s thinking about Peter. About how she felt when Larissa died. How alone she’s going to be. How—”
“That’s enough.” I nodded, staring at the tree line in the distance.
“Sorry. It gets overwhelming for me, too. Not being able to drown anyone’s thoughts out.”
“I know.” I clapped him on the back. “We’ll keep working on it when we get home.”
“God, I hope that’s soon.” Lucas walked past me and hopped into the van on the passenger side. “Plus, we still have to pick up Naomi,” he called.
Unable to smile at the thought of Colorado and my soft, warm bed, I trudged forward and climbed into the driver’s seat. Once Aaron was seated, I started the engine and drove toward the trees.
“She hears us,” Aaron said as we neared our destination.
“Not like this van’s quiet,” I joked. Parking, we all exited the vehicle. Maybe I should go in alone first?
“Go on.” Aaron nodded. “We’ll be right here.”
I smiled at him, threw a mock salute, then stepped into the trees.
Mari sat a few yards in, her back to me, rocking back and forth, humming a nameless but familiar tune. Frowning, I took quiet steps forward until I came around in front of her. A strangled sound escaped my throat, and I fell to my knees before her. Grabbing her hands, I pr
ied them off her arms, which she had been clawing bloody.
“Sweetheart. Oh, Mari. Mari, no. Please stop.” I gathered her into my arms and held her, feeling grief shake her entire body. “I know. I know.” I murmured into her hair, stroking it with one hand, holding her with the other. “I’m here.”
“He’s gone.” Her voice was muffled by my shirt. She screamed then, and dug her nails into my arms. “He’s gone!”
Wincing at the pain, I clutched her tighter. “I know.” Tears welled in my eyes again, falling down my cheeks, wetting my beard.
“We were gonna get married. I loved him so much, and now he’s gone.” Her tears wet my shirt, but I didn’t let her go. “What if we were going to have kids? Did he want kids? Can we even have kids? I don’t know. He’s gone.”
“I know, honey. I know.” I rocked her back and forth, just like I used to when we had first arrived in Colorado, after the incident at Lab 14. Remembering the nightmares that had plagued her for so many months back then, I pulled her closer. I couldn’t think of any comforting words, kept muttering, “I know,” feeling like a fool.
Eventually, Mari’s crying subsided, and she pulled away from me. Her eyes were red and puffy. The scratches on her arms still bled, but not terribly, and she seemed to not notice them. Her blonde hair was mussed, and her hands were dirty. She sniffled for a few moments, then her gaze met mine. “I’m so sorry, Duncan.”
“Don’t be.”
“I was awful. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I—”
“Mari, shh. It’s okay. It’s over now.”
She put her face in her hands for a moment, and I sat quietly next to her until she looked at me again. “Where are the guys?”
“By the van, right past the trees.”
“Is...Is Peter…?”
“He’s in the van.”
Mari swallowed, her eyes glazing over. Shock’s setting in. We need to get her out of here, get her home. I stood, gently pulling her with me. We picked our way out of the small cluster of trees, arriving by the van to find Lucas on my phone and Aaron leaning against the vehicle with his arms crossed, a distant look in his eyes. No doubt listening to the other side of the convo. Not like he can help it, though.
Aaron straightened when he saw us emerge. Jerking his chin in Lucas’ direction, he said, “It’s Naomi. Our call was past due.”
I sighed. Lucas caught my eye with a wave and stepped toward me. I held up a finger and glanced at Aaron. Make sure she doesn’t hurt herself further. He nodded and put his arm around Mari, leading her to the front passenger seat of the van.
When I held out my hand, Lucas handed the cell over to me. “Naomi?”
“Duncan. Oh, God.”
“I know.” Why can’t I stop saying that?
“Why didn’t you take me with you?”
“Naomi, please—”
“You never take me with you!”
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “But we can’t risk you getting hurt. Your powers are too important to us, to our future, our survival.”
“My powers are shit, Duncan.”
“Please. Don’t. I’ve told you before, more than once, without offensive powers, we need you to stay safe.”
“Aaron reads minds. How is that offensive?”
I sighed. “I need him to get in the heads of the enemy. You know this. I am not having this conversation with you again, Naomi.”
“You don’t have powers.”
Pausing, I rubbed my forehead with a hand. “Seriously?”
“What do we do if something happens to you, huh?” Naomi’s voice was getting higher. “We’d have to fend for ourselves, will have to eventually.”
Her words stung. “I’ll always be here. I’ll always protect you all.”
Silence.
An obnoxious vibration tickled my ear. Pulling the phone away, I glanced at the number, and my stomach did a flip. It can’t be…
“I’m sorry, Duncan,” Naomi was saying. “I’m just upset...Peter was like a brother to me.”
“Naomi, this is urgent, I have to go right now.”
“But—”
“Please. We’re on our way to you, but something’s happening right now. We’ll call you back as soon as possible. Just stay put and wait to hear from us.”
I hung up before she could respond and instantly answered the intruding line. “Bruce? God, Bruce, is that you?”
There was a pause on the other end, then I heard my old friend’s voice. “It’s me.”
“Jesus, Bruce, it’s good to hear your voice.” I was grinning despite the horrors of the last few hours, but suddenly frowned. We agreed he’d only call if there was trouble. If Jaxon discovered his powers again. I cleared my throat. “Although, something tells me—”
“You were right.” Bruce’s words cut me deep, shooting a chill into the pit of my stomach.
I drew in a breath, and my mind flew to the slaughter at Lab 14. I swallowed. “We have to help him. He could seriously injure someone, even himself.”
“I know, I know.” Silence, then, “Give me your word neither will be hurt.”
I frowned. “I told you years ago—”
“I know you did, but do it again,” Bruce snapped.
My heart picked up its pace. “Bruce, you have my absolute word that I will not harm your children. I just want to help them and prevent Jaxon from hurting anyone. Listen.” I shifted the phone to my other ear and hunched over, leaning against the van’s side. “The Synths are all grown now, the ones with me here. I’ve been helping them train ever since we disappeared. However, there was an accident, and…” I fought to keep my voice steady and free of emotion, but it betrayed me. “Well, Peter was killed.” I closed my eyes, but continued. “We’re in South America right now. Long story. We’ll head there as soon as we bury Peter, but it won’t be as soon as I could hope. South America isn’t known for fast highways. On top of that, the Synths don’t have passports. Mari had to freeze the border patrol to get us in, but she was injured, and I can’t guarantee we’ll be so lucky on the way back.” I had begun to ramble, to speak faster than normal. The screen of my cell was hot pressed against my ear. “It could take us a couple of weeks to get to you. But we can help them. Train them, Bruce. I’ll send the Synths to collect Jaxon. You know he needs our help to stay under the radar as he discovers more about his—”
Interrupting me once more, Bruce said, “All right.” There was a sigh. “All right. Send them.”
I swallowed. “You’ll be coming with, right? There’s so much you need to know, Bruce.”
The line went dead.
I pulled my phone away from my ear and stared at it, willing Bruce to still be there. The bright screen slowly faded, then went black. I considered calling him back but didn’t want to risk it in case Jaxon or Shawn were nearby.
Jaxon and Shawn.
Jaxon. Oh, fuck.
The memory of the slaughter of Lab 14 burned fierce in the forefront of my mind.
Oh, fuck. We need to get back. Now.
I hurried around to the other side of the van and nearly collided with Aaron. “Holy shit!” I held up my hands and took a step back.
He grinned at me. “Language.”
“You’re hilarious. We need to move.”
“Jaxon’s powers are back. Yeah, I know.”
I stared at him for a moment, then sighed. “Seriously, we need to figure out a way for you to not be in everyone’s heads.”
Shrugging, Aaron jerked a thumb over his shoulder, and we walked to the front of the van. “Someday. Unless Jaxon kills us all when we try to take him with us.” He reached up to touch his scar, but stopped and glanced at me. “Didn’t go so well with Larissa.”
Sadness flowed through my chest, bringing a lump to my throat. I put a hand on the driver’s door handle, then paused, wondering if Mari would be all right.
Aaron looked uncomfortable. “That’s a silly question, Duncan.”
I nodded slowly. Instead of looking at h
im, I stared at the handle I gripped. What are we going to do? Where can we possibly bury Peter? And how can I get everyone on board with trying to help the one person who shattered our lives and nearly killed us all?
“We’re stronger than you think.” Aaron smiled, although his eyes remained sad. “We need to bury Peter at home. We have to stock up on supplies anyway. But believe me, Duncan, you won’t even have to try to convince us to help you. You saved our lives. You raised us, helped us learn our powers. We’d follow you anywhere.”
Pride and joy warmed me despite the tragedy we’d just witnessed. I pulled Aaron into a tight hug, both of us clapping the other on the back.
“Now,” Aaron said. “Let’s go talk to and possibly subdue a psychotic telekinetic man who could kill us faster than we can blink.”
Four
“I can’t keep doing this.” Mari snapped from the back of the van.
“We’re almost through Texas.” I glanced at her in the rearview mirror, my eyes heavy with exhaustion. “I’m driving as fast as I can. We’re making good time, but we can’t afford to catch the eye of the law.”
“You’re making me freeze time on my dead fiancé. After receiving a head wound five days ago. I’m tired, Duncan. I can’t cry anymore, and I’m tired. We’re going to need my powers at full strength when we get to wherever we have to go, so how can you expect—”
“This is a necessary thing, Mari,” I snapped. Instantly regretting my harshness, I softened my voice. “We can’t just let him sit back there, sweetie. You know why.”
She didn’t answer.
“Duncan.” Aaron’s voice was light and casual. “Do you need me to take over?”
Blinking, I felt the weariness settle over me like a blanket. “Yeah. Yeah, I think that would be smart.”
Gravel crunched beneath the van’s tires as I pulled into a quaint motel. Trees surrounded the flat, one-story building. Light from the neon sign flashing “Hartford Inn” illuminated the parking lot as I pulled to one side, throwing the vehicle into park and leaning back against the seat.
“You okay?” Aaron’s hand gripped my shoulder.
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