by W. J. May
“What are you doing?” he groaned. “Stop.”
But Rae didn’t stop. In fact, she didn’t think she could even if she wanted to. The second he tried to gather himself together, she slapped him again.
“Come on! Enough!” he shouted, pushing away from her and shakily propping himself up against the wall. His arm came up half-heartedly as a shield in between them, but he was so depleted it only stayed there a few seconds before it dropped back down to his side.
“Tell me this isn’t what I think it is.”
His eyes opened tentatively and focused on the empty syringe she was holding in her hand.
If it was possible, his skin paled to an even scarier shade of white. His lips parted as he tried hopelessly to come up with something to say, but his usual quick retorts and denials fell short in the wake of utter exhaustion.
“Call a doctor,” he finally pleaded, pressing his hands against his eyes and praying she would just forget the whole thing. “Call Alicia…”
“No.” Rae’s voice was shaking as much as Devon’s hands. But not with any kind of sickness. With a burning, all-consuming rage. “I’m guessing she wouldn’t be able to do anything anyway. I’m guessing that’s the reason you sent her away the last time. For speaking in her mind!”
She had always wondered why Alicia left so suddenly. Always wondered at the look that she and Devon had shared. Always wondered why, when Rae had first gotten there, he shrank away from her very touch. Now she knew.
It was because with every touch, he was absorbing another tatù.
And it was killing him.
In the silence that followed, they slowly met each other’s eyes.
For a second, it looked like he was going to try to deny it. In his weakened state, Rae could practically see the rush of excuses parading through his mind. But one look at her face told him everything he needed to know. The jig was up.
“I took the vial of serum you found on Jennifer the day she was killed.”
Rae said nothing. She knew it was the serum. She just wanted to hear him say it. Her chest rose and fell with quick, furious breaths, but she held her tongue. If only for the time being.
“When Kraigan took off that morning in Scotland, I saw a perfect opportunity and blamed it on him. But it wasn’t him. It was me.”
Rae balled her hands into fists. Half to prevent herself from reaching out and stroking the dark bruises painted beneath Devon’s eyes. Half to prevent herself from lighting him on fire.
“I called up the professor from Oxford, the one we met in San Francisco. Got him to help me start taking it in small doses—studying the effects. At first, we thought it might be working, that I might be getting used to it. But then…” His voice trailed off as he wrapped his arms painfully around his chest. “He refused to keep helping me. Said he refused to watch.”
“Refused to watch what?” Rae finally spoke, her soft voice simmering with an unbridled anger the likes of which she had never known. “Refused to watch you slowly kill yourself?”
Devon clenched his jaw. “It was working, Rae.”
“It was KILLING you!”
Turns out the quiet voice hadn’t lasted so long after all. She hurled the syringe down on the kitchen tile with all her might—shattering it into a million pieces.
“Do you have any more of it?” she demanded, unable to control her temper. His eyes flickered up in confusion. “Did you and the mad scientist make any more?”
“No,” he said softly, gazing at the broken pieces with a hollow sort of look in his eyes. “That was it.”
“I don’t believe you!”
And she didn’t. There was no longer any trust here. No reasonable expectation of certainty or given assumptions. For months—he had lied to her! And for what?!
His eyes turned to her for a split second, searching her face for any sort of compromise, before he cleared his expression with a simple shrug. “Not my problem.”
“Not your problem?!”
A sudden feeling of weightlessness came over her, and Rae realized she had actually begun floating off the floor in rage. She switched quickly out of levitation and settled back on the tiles.
“Devon, what the hell are you—”
“You expect me to apologize?!” he demanded, rallying as best he could. He might not have the strength to raise his voice as loud as hers, but he made up for it with his eyes.
“IT WAS KILLING YOU!” she screamed again.
“NO!” He banged his fist down on the tile, oblivious to the fact that it was covered in shards of broken glass. “It was giving me the ONLY chance I had!”
“To do what?!” Rae refused to believe that the man she had given her heart to could be either so greedy or so stupid. “To become a superhero? Hate to break it to you, Devon, but you already have powers, and—”
“I HAVE ONE!”
A sudden stream of blood poured from his nose and he broke off, panting, as he leaned his body back against the wall. Rae wanted to say something, but she couldn’t. She wanted to do something, but she couldn’t. She just watched with wide, horrified eyes as the love of her life fell to pieces right in front of her.
“One power,” he panted, cradling his bloody face, “against a man who has a thousand. One chance in a thousand to save the woman I love.” He shook his head as desperate tears slid down his face, mixing in with the blood. “Rae, how am I supposed to stand next to you in this fight, just being what I am? I needed to be more! I needed to be more so I could protect you!”
Rae was trembling now just as much as him, hands braced against the tiles. “I am not letting you jump off any more cliffs for me!”
“Open your eyes, Rae!” he shouted. “We’re already there!”
With that—he broke off coughing, half slumping forward as he reached out for a table leg to steady himself. Rae caught his hand instead, holding him upright as she conjured a damp cloth and began gently wiping the blood from his face.
…and that’s why I love him.
Greedy? Stupid? Had she really considered those things? That Devon would do something like this—try to gather the world’s powers—for any kind of self-glory? Of course he was doing it for her. Of course he was doing it to beat back the man who was trying to do her harm. Of course he hadn’t even considered the personal cost before throwing his body in between her and danger.
Shooting up with lethal chemicals, hurling his body between her and a hundred gunmen, throwing himself off a cliff.
To Devon, it was all the same thing.
It was all loving her.
“I saw Cromfield yesterday afternoon. In the park, right outside here.”
He caught his breath and pulled back in alarm, eyes automatically checking her over for any signs of damage. “Why didn’t you—” he broke off coughing, “why didn’t you tell me?!”
“It all happened really fast,” she said quietly, still dabbing at his face. When she was finished, she picked up his hand and began gently pulling out little slivers of glass. “All he wanted to do was talk. He stuck me with some of Angel’s blood to make sure that’s all that would happen.”
Devon’s whole face crumbled. “Rae…shit! I’m so sorry. I should have been there. You should never have been there alone.”
“He told me he wouldn’t kill anyone I cared about,” she continued abruptly. “He said that he wouldn’t touch a hair on their head—as long as I went with him and no one stood in our way.”
Devon stopped breathing, staring at her like his life depended on it. When he finally spoke, his voice was no more than a whisper. “What did you say?”
Rae set his hand down, and stared intently up into his eyes. “I told him no.”
Granted, she hadn’t been able to say so out loud. But there were no delusions between them that she had any intention of going along with his plan. Not now. Not ever.
Devon’s shoulders fell as he visibly exhaled. “You did? I mean—of course you did.”
Rae shook her head. “Th
ere’s no ‘of course’ about it. Do you want to know what I would have said if I was you? Yes.”
“That’s not—”
“It is true, Devon. That’s exactly what would have happened. You would have said yes; you would have said or done anything you could just to keep me alive.” She shook her head, staring deep into his eyes. “Here I was, handed a literal ‘Devon-walks-away-free’ card, and I threw it back in his face. Now why do you think I did that? Do you think it’s because I love you less than you love me?”
He bit his lip and stayed silent, caught in the inescapable implications of her words.
“Don’t you get it? This is real.” She gestured between them. “You and me. That’s real. So you can’t be so quick to get yourself killed. You can’t go throwing yourself in front of buses, or sampling Molly’s cooking, or messing around with chemicals you don’t understand. You need to keep yourself alive—so I can be with you. That’s all I want. That’s the only thing that will make me happy.”
When he still didn’t say anything, she poked at his knee with a tentative smile.
“You want to make me happy, don’t you?”
His tortured face softened into a tender smile. “You have no idea how much I want that.”
“I don’t want you to be my bodyguard, Devon. I want you to be my boyfriend.” A sudden blush rose up in her cheeks, and she dropped her eyes to the ground. “And on that point, I’m afraid I’ll require nothing less than perfection.”
A chorus of soft laughter lightened the heavy mood.
Without another word, she took him delicately by the wrists and helped him up to his feet. He was still a bit unsteady, but after a moment he was able to stand there on his own. She bent down to pick up their phones, both of which had fallen out during their standoff, but before she could he reached out and took her gently by the hands.
“What is it?” she asked curiously, glancing between him and the mess on the floor. She’d have to conjure a broom and get this glass swept away before someone—
“Rae…”
Her head snapped up as her heart skipped a nervous beat in her chest. There was something very strange in his voice. Something she had never quite heard there before.
As she was trying to figure it out, he stared into her searching eyes—looking more than a little nervous himself. For a second it looked like he was about to back out entirely. Then he swallowed hard and squeezed her hands with a little smile.
“I didn’t forget your birthday, Rae.”
She blinked. That was not at all what she’d been expecting him to say.
“Oh, well,” she tried to recover herself, “it doesn’t really matter anyway.”
“No, it does matter.” He pulled in a shaky breath. “Carter never asked me to—”
A shrill ring shattered the air between them. In perfect unison, they lowered their eyes to where Rae’s phone was rattling away on the ground. A moment later, Devon’s phone joined it.
She shook her head with a grin, before glancing back up. “Saved by the bell, huh?”
Devon looked like he’d been punched in the gut. “…Yeah.”
Without another thought, Rae reached down and answered, tossing Devon his at the same time. It was Gabriel.
“Hey, you need to get back here,” he said with no further preamble. “Keene called and the whole lot of us is headed back to Guilder. Apparently, they’ve reached some sort of decision.”
Rae glanced over at Devon as Julian’s voice leaked through his phone. Judging by Devon’s expression, he was getting the exact same message as her.
“We’ll meet you at the school,” she said quickly. “We’re in the city—so we’ll get there in about an hour.”
“Hurry.”
Without another word, Gabriel hung up. Rae was still mulling this over when Julian asked some sort of question, and Devon glanced up at her with a curious grin.
‘Did you borrow Jules’ car?’ he mouthed silently.
Rae’s face paled at the exact moment she heard the tow-truck pulling away from the house.
Oh shit… Two cars in two days… I don’t know who’s going to strangle me first.
With a look of supreme innocence, she shook her head, eyes flicking out the blinds to where Julian’s Jaguar was vanishing slowly down the street. A second later, Devon hung up.
“So… back off to Guilder then?”
She pulled in a deep breath, watching the taillights disappear. “Yeah. Hopefully it’s for some good news this time.” As they headed outside, she glanced suddenly over at him. “Hey—what was that you were trying to tell me? Before the call?”
His breathing hitched for a second, before he said, “Oh…nothing. It can wait.” With a casual smile, he tossed her his keys. “Think it’s probably best if you drive us there.”
She eyed his ashen skin before glancing wistfully down the road. “You’d be surprised.”
Without another word, they piled into the car. Ready to head once more into the breach.
“Dev?”
“Yeah?”
“…how much does a Jaguar cost?”
* * *
The drive from London to Guilder was a bit faster than the one from the Abbey to Guilder, so Rae and Devon got there was a little time to spare. It was an abruptly odd moment. Rae couldn’t remember how many times the two of them had breezed through these gates into the parking lot. Now, not only was she uncertain as to whether or not they’d be shot upon entering, but the gate itself had been ripped right out of the ground.
Devon parked on the side of the driveway and the two of them sat silently in the front seat, gazing incredulously at the thick, uprooted stone.
“How could he have possibly done that?” Devon asked quietly.
Rae shook her head—trying to imagine a tatù that would do it. “I don’t know.”
A couple minutes later, they heard the sound of tires and looked back to see a black line of cars proceeding slowly up the gravel path. Fodder nodded at them from the front seat as he passed, and the two of them fell into line behind the others.
After they’d finally parked and people began spilling from the cars, Rae spotted Luke and Molly from across the lot. While everyone else was rigid with attention, marching down to the Oratory with a shared look of concern, the two of them were in their own little world.
Luke was beaming like a miniature sun while Molly was resting her head lightly against his shoulder, the two of them strolling hand-in-hand down the shaded path. As they walked in front of Rae, the little redhead shot her a secret wink.
Rae bit down on her own lip to keep from grinning like a fool, trying to keep her mind focused on the task at hand instead. Molly would tell the rest of the world when she was ready. By the looks of it, Luke couldn’t have been more thrilled with the news, so for now everyone else could wait. They had a peace plan to negotiate first. And a whole mess of people to save.
Louis Keene came out to meet them the second they rounded the corner. Rae couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or not. He was flanked by a pair of men, and the guy already looked like he could handle himself. But Carter held out his hand with a warm smile, a smile that Keene reciprocated in full before gesturing him and Fodder inside.
“And Miss Kerrigan,” he added suddenly, causing Rae to startle in surprise. “You and your friends have been more instrumental than anyone else in facilitating this change. Won’t you all join us, please?”
She and Devon shared a quick look before glancing at the rest of the gang. They looked as hesitant as she was. What if there were more gunmen waiting just on the other side of the Oratory doors? But, again, Carter cleared his throat pointedly and they filed in obediently., down through the large training room, then through the underground halls that lead them to the PC training center and into a large room.
As they settled around the familiar oval table—in a room that Rae had been in a hundred times for debriefings—she cast a tentative glance at Fodder. Sure enough, he was stari
ng around the room with a touch of surprise, probably as struck by the uncanny similarities between here and the war room at the Abbey as she had been her first time there. Her lips curved up in a little smile as she settled back in her chair to listen to what she hoped would be the new world order.
“First of all—I want to apologize for how things were handled last night,” Keene began diplomatically. “The sight of Mallins’ body…it sent people into a panic. But an execution on the lawn by firing squad?” He shook his head. “Miss Kerrigan, you have my sincerest apologies. I assure you, the men in question have been dealt with accordingly.”
Rae nodded quickly as Devon stiffened automatically by her side. “Uh…thank you, sir.”
Keene flashed a smile. “With that being said, I’d like to go right ahead and tell you what we’ve learned. To start—Cromfield didn’t kill Mallins. The president killed himself.”
There was a sudden burst of conversation around the table, but Rae leaned back in her chair in silent shock.
He killed himself. That means…Cromfield didn’t get the tatù. So, there might still be a chance—
“Rae?”
Rae glanced up to see Carter as well as the rest of the table looking at her expectantly. Her skin flushed as she looked towards her future stepfather, sensing she had missed a question.
“I’m sorry—what was that?”
Carter’s face softened. “Acting-President Keene was just expressing his confusion over Mr. Mallins’ suicide. We all know Cromfield is collecting powers, but Mallins was only telekinetic. A useful gift to be sure, but hardly a rare one. Do you have any idea why he would take his own life?”
He stared intently into her eyes, and for a moment the entire room paused.
Rae stared back, at a temporary loss for words.
Carter was leaving it up to her to expose Mallins or not, as she saw fit. It was fair, she supposed. She had been wronged the most, so the decision was up to her. But still…it was a grave responsibility.
“Actually—” she began, but something made her pause.