Spark: One of Us Series

by Faulks, Kim

  I bent and ran my fingers under the surface of her desk and started to search.

  “We’re going to be here all damn day,” he muttered. “We need a better way. Think like her, where would Leah hide a safe?”

  I shook my head. If he wanted to psychoanalyze my Mom, then he would be here forever. But he moved around behind me, opening cupboards.

  “The floor,” he answered and shuffled around the room, opening and then closing the cupboard doors. “What if she called it a safe but it wasn’t really a safe?” Finley muttered, and then lifted his head at footsteps in the hall.

  “Finley!” Pitch called.

  “We’re in here.” I glanced at Finley as he moved along the underside of the desk. “We need to find a safe. I need to…”

  “It’s okay.” Pitch stepped inside, scanning the room and then lifted his head and closed his eyes.

  Power rushed over my skin with a whisper.

  Finley stopped behind me for a second and then continued.

  “If it has more than files inside like heirlooms, watches, I can hear them.” Pitch moved toward the other side of the desk and scanned the print of lakeside at night. He grabbed the metal frame and lifted. “All I need is a sound, doesn’t matter how small.”

  A wall safe was exposed as he lowered his hand. “There’s a watch inside, small, barely working now.”

  I rose from behind the desk and stepped closer. My hand was trembling as I lifted the key.

  “It has a keypad.” Pitch ran his fingers along the metal surface. “You need to enter a sequence as well.”

  I shook my head, glanced at the surface of the key and found nothing.

  “Your date of birth?” Pitch murmured. “Any special occasion.”

  I shook my head and tried to swallow. I had no date of birth, none we’d ever known. Only the date I was saved.

  My heart lunged as I slid the key into the lock. Fingers trembled as I punched in the date they found me all those years ago.

  The safe gave a clunk, and the door popped open.

  Thunder inside my head was all I could hear as I gripped the corner of the door and slowly opened it.

  A stack of notebooks sat on one side. A stack of money and passports on the other, and in front of it all was an envelope. Spark, was scrawled on the front.

  Tears pricked my eyes at the sight of her handwriting.

  “We have to go.” Finley’s soft words pulled me away from the pain.

  I nodded, stepped close, grabbed the envelope, the money, the passports and the notebooks before turning. “I just need to grab a bag. I’ll be one second.”

  They let me leave without a word. Tears slipped down my cheeks as I brushed past Pitch and raced for my room. I dumped the contents of the safe on my bed.

  I shoved the money, the books and my passport inside before turning to my wardrobe. My clothes were a blur. I packed what I could fit, grabbed a pair of boots, my thick, warm jacket, heaved my pack over my shoulder and then made for the door.

  The deep growl of an engine outside called me.

  We’d find Dad. I knew we would.

  We’d find him and we’d save him.

  Just like he saved me.

  Finley

  I gunned the engine of the Hummer and glanced toward the house as the lights to the house flicked off, plunging the building into darkness. She was a blur in the night, rounding the back of the vehicle and climbing into the open door.

  Pebbles kicked up as I punched the accelerator and shot along the drive. “Which way?”

  Pitch was quiet behind me. My palms were sweaty, slipping on the wheel as I braked, the vehicle thundering as it idled. Come on, dude…which fucking way?

  “Your dad’s name…” Pitch murmured.

  “Seth…Seth Williams,” she murmured.

  “They’re talking to him…asking him about a girl,” the dude muttered. “East, they’re east…and driving.”

  I spun the wheel, drove my foot against the accelerator and glanced at the ticking clock on the dashboard. They were a good few hours ahead.

  “If I can pinpoint a location, can you slow them down?”

  I lifted my head to the rear-view mirror, and then glanced to Mavi as he nodded and then smiled. He lifted his hand, black numbers glaring against the lights. “Come to me, baby.”

  His power was a beast, skulking through the space and then lunging out into the open. I gripped the wheel and tried to breathe as fear tightened my gut. The country roads blurred. I focused on the white lines as we sped through the night.

  Energy raced across my skin, raising the hairs on my arms as she whispered, “What’s a storm without lightning.”

  I tried to breathe…Jesus, she was powerful…even tired and wrung dry she took my breath away.

  Mavi stiffened on the seat beside me. A moan slipped free before Pitch trapped the sound in the back of his throat. Blue eyes flared with her power, and sparks danced in my eyes. I tried to suck in a breath and the thick band around my chest tightened.

  “Can’t think,” Pitch whimpered. “Spark, I can’t hear them when you’re…”

  Her desperation dulled for a second and cold night air rushed in, filling my lungs.

  “The safe,” the guys words were a gasp of air. I lifted my head as Pitch glanced at the seat beside her. “Did it have what you needed.”

  She didn’t answer, not at first as the sparkling lights of Lakeside swept around us as we entered the city.

  “Have you ever heard of Fail Safe?” Her words were nothing more than a whisper.

  I caught the movement from the corner of my eye as she lifted her pack from the floor and sat it on her lap. I searched my memory, and had nothing. “Fail safe as in…”

  “They were after a girl, Fail Safe.”

  I shook my head. “All I’ve ever known is you.”

  “Me too,” Pitch answered.

  “And me.” Mavi glanced toward me. “She must be pretty important to them though, enough to kill for.”

  She pulled out a notebook from her bag, and then another. “What do you remember from that place, the one from our childhood?”

  I flinched, clenched my jaw as I sped through a red light and kept on pushing. Darkness was in my sights. The sooner we left the city streets behind the better.

  “I remember pain,” Pitch answered. “That’s all I remember, pain and terror.”

  “Purple hair,” she whispered as she stared at the notebook. “She was my friend, tried to help me, but there were others…I met one of them tonight, Force, he called her.”

  “He?” Pitch shifted on the seat. “The one who took your dad?”

  “Yes.” Her voice was so small.

  I reached forward, leaned across Mavi, punched the button for the glove compartment and grabbed the small torch I stowed inside. “I’ve tried to forget about that place my entire life.” I lifted my hand through the gaps between the seat and handed the torch to her. “Nothing good came from it, not for me.”

  Cold steel left the middle of my palm. There was a click, before light filled the back seat. “Chris Bishop,” she murmured. “Doctor Chris Bishop. I think he was some kind of doctor there.”

  I shook my head, trying to piece it all together. “What have you got back there?”

  She flicked through pages. I could barely hear her as she murmured, “His notebooks, everything he did…and why.”

  My mind raced, trying to catch up. The Senator’s face filled my mind. “How the Hell did your Mom get them?”

  “I think he sent them to her for safe keeping…maybe leverage. They were friends, before she met my dad. I think she even loved him at one stage. Jesus,” she murmured. “It’s all here, who they are…what they did.”

  She grabbed another notebook and flicked through page after page. “There are names, dates...numbers. Our numbers.”

  The pounding in my head ratcheted higher.

  “Eves and Adams, that’s what they called us. Eves and Adams. Doctor Bishop created
a program. It’s what they wanted him for, to brainwash us into being under their control.”

  “Goddamn bastards. We were just kids.” Hate spilled between my lips as I left the sparkling lights of Lakeside behind. “What the fuck do they want us for anyway?”

  “I don’t know. It doesn’t say. But it has names…” She went quiet, real quiet.

  The torchlight bounced around before she slammed the notebooks closed with a slap and switched off the torch, throwing us into darkness.

  “What is it?” Pitch murmured. “Spark, what is it?”

  I glanced into the rear-view mirror and then glanced over my shoulder. “What? Tell us…”

  “I remember him…Gready, they c-called him,” she whispered. Pain carved through her words.

  I glanced at the road and then back as an oncoming car swept past. Tears glistened against her cheeks. I wanted to pull the car over and take her in my goddamn arms.

  The seatbelt snapped open behind me, and Pitch slid across the seat. “Use that sadness…use the hate. But you don’t have to fight alone anymore. Do you hear me? You have us.”

  Heat flared through my chest at his words. I gripped the wheel and stared down at the asphalt.

  “He’s never going to hurt you, not while the three of us are here. We’ll get your dad back, and then we’ll help you get through whatever comes.”

  I should be pissed, never in my twenty-three fucking years did I let someone speak for me. I didn’t know the dude…didn’t like the dude. But she wiped her eyes and she lifted her head. “Why? Why come for me? Why help me at all?”

  “Do you set your alarm to wake you in the morning?” he asked. “Or to eat? Or even go to sleep. Do you set your alarm to remind you to breathe?”

  “No.”

  He leaned back against the seat. “You just know, right? Like something inside you is programmed that way, to know…to unconsciously know. That’s how I feel about you. I don’t understand it. I don’t need to understand it, and I’m betting it’s the same with them.”

  I glanced at the rear-view mirror, remembering the girl in my dreams, the one who called lightning from the sky.

  I knew her, knew her like I knew myself.

  She crawled under my skin and through my veins.

  She struck so deep inside me, I could barely fucking breathe.

  I gripped the wheel, fighting the urge to run the back of my finger down her cheek and capture her tears. My heart was pounding. I glanced at Mavi and caught the torture in his gaze. I didn’t need to hear the words. The brother had it all over his face.

  Pitch slid back across the seat and reached for his belt. One click of his seatbelt and I relaxed my hold on the steering wheel. Goddamn selfish. That’s what you are. Just like your Momma, stupid fucking whore.

  I flinched at Dad’s words and swallowed. Stay the fuck away. The warning rebounded inside my head. Just stay away.

  I needed no more fucking ghosts. Not this night. “They still heading east?”

  The words were raw and husky. I swallowed and focused on the road.

  “Yeah, they’re quiet. But I got a bead on them now. They were talking about a compound, and a girl, Oleander.”

  “Oleander?” Spark murmured. “Is that what they said?”

  “Yeah, definitely, Oleander. She’s on the run.” Pitch answered.

  “Can we pull over?” she murmured. “Just for a second. I need to think…”

  The lights of a gas station glowed in the distance. I glanced into the rear-view mirror and nodded. “We’ll stop there, refuel and grab what we need.”

  Notebooks were yanked from her pack, before a wad of cash was shoved between the seats. “Use this. Get what we need. I just need a second.”

  I hit the indicator, crossed into the gas station and pulled up alongside the gas pump.

  Mavi yanked open the door, and the rest of us spilled out. I grabbed the cash as Pitch made for the bower. The others were gone, Spark striding toward the rest room. Mavi strode toward the automatic doors of the shop.

  It was just the two of us.

  “I don’t know you.” I took a step toward the dude. “I don’t like you. I sure as fuck don’t trust you, but right now we need you. One wrong step and I’ll come down so fucking hard on you, you won’t know which way is up.”

  The dude just lifted his head and stared into my eyes. “I get it. I do. You trust me about as much as I trust you. So just so we’re clear here…” He glanced in the direction where she’d disappeared. “She’s not yours, she’s not Mavi’s and she’s not mine. Men have used her, her entire life. If you think I’m gonna stand by and watch that happen again, you got another thing coming.”

  Use her? The words tasted like ash in the back of my throat. I winced with the taste and stared at him. Cool blue eyes stared back. The dude didn’t flinch when he looked at me. I wasn’t used to that…

  The pump clicked off. He grabbed the nozzle, tapped it twice and then hooked it back to the side of the pump. “I’m not here to compete with you. I’m not here to take from you. I just want to make sure she’s safe. Nothing more.”

  “If you think that, then you’re naive,” I growled.

  I was the master of lies and illusion. But at least I knew what I was. My pulse sped as she stepped out of the rest room, lifted her gaze to find us from across the gas station and then made for the shop.

  “You’re in love with her as much as we are.” I glanced back to him, finding a flare of panic in his gaze. “You couldn’t walk away from her even if you tried.”

  I left him with that bone to choke on and stepped through the gaps in the fuel pump. There was a second before he followed. The wind picked up as I stepped through the automatic doors, and even from here I could smell his fear on it.

  We were just as terrified as each other…and as she turned toward me and forced that sad, broken smile I knew it was nothing compared to the desire we had for her.

  Pitch

  Mom! Mom…no…no…no…no…

  Her voice was so loud…like screams inside my head. I turned, staring at her outline as we sped through the night.

  There was a fragility about her, and it was hard to understand how someone so powerful could feel like glass.

  But she trembled. She sat there on the seat not a foot from me and trembled.

  “Are you okay?”

  She lifted her head and I was carved in two by her neon blue eyes. She rode the lightning—even sitting here in this hulking mass of metal, she gripped the current and wielded it like a sword.

  She forced a smile…one that padded her cheeks.

  Words filled me, strange words...She’s a good woman. She’s a quiet happy woman. But there’s a side to her that no one sees…a side that is terrifying. A side that leaves nothing behind—nothing but scorch marks in the earth.

  The hum of power so loud it rattles your bones. Ozone so thick it’s choking…like a rag down your throat.

  I’m helpless around her…lost…untethered…unearthed, and I want to breathe her in…all the way in…until I’m just a neon white flicker in the sky.

  And yet I felt deep in the marrow of my bones the words were true.

  “Pitch?” she murmured.

  I flinched, tearing myself from the image inside my head. “Yeah, sorry…what were you saying?”

  “Can you hear them? Can you hear my dad?”

  I turned myself inwards, skirting the bitter scent of charred ground inside my mind and reached out, past the mess of human’s who called me—like they’d always called me.

  I was haunted by them, but in this moment I needed to be, for her I’d delve into their words—for her I’d swim in their desperation and their greed.

  My wife? What did you do to her? I narrowed in on the sound and stared out into the darkness.

  The Senator isn’t our problem, another male answered. Not anymore.

  “I can hear him,” I answered.

  That fucking bitch has escaped. No, she’s with them n
ow…Oleander…that’s right. Head her off, kill the guys if you have to, but take her alive. Do you understand me? Take her alive.

  “Oleander,” I whispered.

  And with the name came a flare of energy so powerful it sent a shock wave along my skin. A man’s face filled mine, same age as me. He turned his head, and a white light shone from his eye. They’re coming, he murmured. I can’t stop them anymore.

  “What did you say?” Spark murmured.

  I clenched my eyes closed, feeling the rush of his power. “They’re in trouble. Gready’s men…”

  “Who?” Her fingers slid over the back of my hand. “Who’s in trouble?”

  Tires squealed inside my head, screams followed, desperate and urgent…They’ll take you. They’ll take you from me, and this time I won’t ever get you back. “They’ll take her.” The words slipped from my lips. “They’ll take her and this time he won’t get her back.”

  “Who the Hell is he talking about?” Finley snarled from the driver’s seat.

  All I could see was the blacktop stretched out in front of us, and all I could feel was them. Their fight. Their desperation. They were just like us, running, hunting…protecting.

  Through the bright glare of his eye she came to me, cold, savage…filled with rage. Purple hair glinted in the light of his gaze as she filled me. My hands shook. Her rage and destruction scraped the inside of my skull. “Purple hair. They’re coming for Purple hair.”

  There was a sharp catch of breath. Spark’s voice was low and urgent. “What did you say?”

  I turned to look at Spark. Her eyes blazed blue and that feeling of belonging consumed me. She shoved the notebooks aside and grabbed my arm. “What did you say about Purple hair?”

  I knew now, knew how they were all connected. I could hear the hum in their veins…hear their screams in my head. “They’re coming for her, same as they came for you. They’ll take her, and he’ll never see her again.”

  “Who is he?” Urgent words slipped from her lips. She glanced at the others and then turned back to me

  “His name is Sixth, and he’s with two more, just like us. They’re running…searching for someone.”