Joss the Seven

by J. Philip Horne

  “Someone’s at the door,” I said. “I can get it.”

  Dad flared his eyes and shook his head. He had trouble waking up from naps. “Where’s Jen, uh, Mom?”

  “She and Janey took off after you fell asleep. I think they’re shopping.”

  “Safe bet,” Dad said as he stood and stretched. The doorbell rang a second time. “I’ll get it.”

  He headed toward the entryway. I flopped back onto the couch and picked up my book. I heard him open the door. Hushed voices followed. Probably some fundraiser for a high school group getting a jump on start of school.

  The voices got louder. Those were grown men arguing, not children. I couldn’t quite make out the words. I stood and set the book on the table, and quietly stepped toward the entryway.

  “… and we have nothing to talk about,” Dad said. His voice had an edge to it.

  “Mr. Morgan, the situation is very serious.” A gruff male voice. Serious. Unhurried. Confident. “We know what you think of the Guild, but circumstances demand we find the rogue Seven.”

  My heart lurched up into my throat and I stumbled backwards. A rushing sound filled my ears. Heat prickled my scalp. The voices continued, but the words stumbled by unrecognized.

  What was going on? How could the Guild be looking for a rogue Seven? How could they think I was rogue? The noise from the entryway rose, and I heard footsteps approaching the family room. Approaching me. I blended and ghosted.

  Two men stepped into the room, Dad right behind them. His eyes, tightened in anger, darted around the room. Surprise registered on his face when he didn’t see me. Then a faint smile lifted the corners of his mouth.

  The two men glanced around, stepped over to the couch, and sat down, one on either end. Dad sat on the edge of his recliner and stared at the men from beneath lowered eyebrows. I stayed by the wall and tried to breathe with a slow, quiet rhythm.

  They wore dark suits and were about the same height—a little shorter than Dad. The one on the left had blond hair and a scar that ran from his temple down to his chin. The other one had dark hair and dark eyes. Neither looked any happier than Dad.

  “Let’s first dispense with the talk of fairy tales so we can get down to business,” the blond-haired man said. He turned to face the dark-haired man. “Luc?”

  The dark-haired man gave a quick nod, and then stuck his hand into the coffee table. His hand passed through the table and was visible under it. Dad gasped and lurched out of his chair, which covered my own hiss of indrawn breath. Luc was a ghost! A Seven!

  “So you see, we’re not discussing fairy tales,” Blondie said. “Now, the thefts that have taken place would require not only Luc’s talent, but one more, which he doesn’t have— the talent of invisibility.”

  Dad lurched forward, still staring at Luc’s hand ghosting in the coffee table. He got down on his knees and knocked on the table, then crouched to look at Luc’s hand sticking out the bottom. Luc waved. Dad sat back on his heels, his eyes wide with shock.

  Blondie continued as Luc pulled his hand out of the wood. “Luc’s talent, when found in the same person as the talent of invisibility, is often called the Thief. I imagine you can see why, yes?”

  Dad looked from Luc to Blondie, his eyes wide, but didn’t answer. He looked pale. I’d gotten my own breathing back under control. My mind churned through what I had just heard. Luc wasn’t a Thief. He couldn’t blend. What other talent did he have?

  And who were these people? It couldn’t be the Guild. I worked for the Guild. Mara had said the Mockers had turned some Sevens. Was this the Mocker we were targeting? Maybe he’d come looking for whoever was harassing him. It had to be. A Mocker, in our home, and my dad talking to him, not knowing the danger.

  “Now,” Blondie said, “the house known for producing the most Thieves is house Sharif. So we have evidence of a Thief here in our own little city, and we have a family with children hidden from the Guild and untested, a family known for producing Thieves. Thus, here we are.”

  They were on to me. The Mocker must be closing in. I looked to my dad.

  At the mention of children, Dad stood. Color returned to his face, and his eyes narrowed. “Get out.”

  Luc stood as Blondie rose to his feet and pointed a finger at Dad. “Do either of your children have the butterfly birthmark? We’re going to find out. Understand?”

  Dad balled his fists. “I’m not discussing my children with you. This conversation is over. Get out. Now.”

  “One of them has the birthmark,” the man said, nodding. “Interesting. Do you really view us as the bad guys?”

  Yes! I screamed in my mind.

  Dad didn’t answer. He just stood his ground.

  “I see.” Blondie stepped toward the entryway with Luc following. “We’ll give you a few days to process it, but we’ll be talking to you again. Soon. We will get to the bottom of this.”

  With that, the two men strode out. I heard the front door open and close. Dad stood still and closed his eyes, breathing deeply. In that momentary pause, it hit me. I couldn’t just reappear in the room with him. Dad’s eyes snapped open and he strode toward the front door. I ghosted through the wall into the entryway ahead of him and hurried up the stairs as quietly as possible.

  Halfway up the steps, I heard the deadbolt snap into place, so I released the blend and started back down. As the entryway came into view at the bottom, Dad saw me just before he went back into the family room. He stopped and turned toward me, frowning. He looked at me, looked at the family room, and back at me.

  I breezed by him into the family room and flopped back onto the couch. “Hey. That sounded sort of intense.”

  “You listened in?” Dad asked as he sat back down on his recliner.

  “Well, I… Yeah. What’s with the Guild and all that?”

  “Until today, I would have said it was a myth.”

  I had to play this carefully. I’d wanted to have this conversation with him ever since I met Mara, but now it was all messed up, because it hadn’t really been the Guild. It had been a Mocker. I was sure of it. Pretty sure.

  “And after today?” I asked.

  “Even worse. It means… it means I have to rethink some really tough stuff.”

  “Worse than a myth? I don’t understand. Can you start from the beginning?”

  He pushed the leg rest of the recliner down and sat up facing me. “I’m not sure I can. Joss, there’s this family secret that your mother and I decided to keep from you kids. But now…”

  I sat up as well. “Dad, what’s going on?”

  He held up a hand. “Wait. Just give me a sec. There’s this story. A family story. I don’t want to go into the details. But the story claimed that your great-great-grandmother was… well, I always assumed it was, uh, just a crazy family story. But now, now I don’t know.”

  “What did the story say?”

  “That your great-great-grandmother was killed. Mauled to death. Fighting werewolves.”

  My mind lurched to a stop. “Werewolves?”

  “Well, yeah,” Dad said, and shrugged. “I know it sounds crazy. It is crazy.”

  But why not? In a world with Sevens, why couldn’t there be monsters, too? It would make so much sense. It would be a real use for a Seven. Moving with blinding speed. Hitting with hardened fists. Dodging, blending, ghosting. My great-great-grandmother had been a Seven, and she'd fought monsters. It had to be true.

  “Did she, uh, have a butterfly birthmark?” I asked.

  “You heard them ask about that?” I nodded, and Dad grimaced. “Yeah. Yeah, she did. Or so my grandfather told me. It was his mother. She died when he was a kid, and Grandfather went to the grave swearing she was some kind of hero. I just thought he was nuts.”

  “A birthmark like mine?”

  He looked at his feet and nodded.

  “So my great-great-grandmother fighting, uh, werewolves. What happened? Why do you believe it now? And what’s the Guild?”

  He looked up at me
and rubbed his temples. “I’m not saying I believe it now. I’m not sure what I believe. The, uh, Guild is supposedly this ancient association of people with powers. Special powers that run in families.”

  “And something changed. What happened?”

  “I just saw a man stick his hand through the coffee table like it was thin air. Passing through things is one of the, uh, special powers, supposedly.”

  I felt this rush, this overwhelming need, to show him I could do it, too. But I was scared. What if it freaked him out? What if he was scared of me? Would he let me keep training? And what about the guys who were just here, these fake Guild-members? Would I have to explain everything to him if he found out I was a Seven? I decided to let it play out.

  “That’s pretty crazy sounding, Dad. I’m not saying you’re crazy, it just… What will you do?”

  “I saw it. His hand passed through wood like it wasn’t there.” He sat still for a moment, his eyes distant, and then shook his head. “What am I talking about? Joss, I’m sorry. I’m running my mouth.”

  “I’m glad you’re talking,” I said.

  “No, your mother and I decided together to discuss certain things, and to not discuss other things. I can’t just wave that all away. I know you probably have a lot of questions, but I need to talk to your mother first. We’ll need to decide together how we handle all this.”

  “Yeah, of course, Dad.”

  After that, Dad shut down, and when Mom and Janey got home, Mom and Dad holed up in their bedroom for a couple hours. I heard raised voices now and then, but resisted the temptation to spy on them. It would have been so easy. Just ghost and blend. The Thief.

  Had my great-great-grandmother been a Thief? It didn’t seem like the best talents for fighting by themselves, but armed with the right weapon, one that could be held up against your body when blending, it would probably work.

  More importantly, who were those men? Had it been the Mocker we were hunting getting close to me? Did he already have a Seven? Or was I totally wrong? Were they from the Guild, and people in the Guild didn’t talk to each other? Whatever the case, someone was after me, and they knew where I lived.

  Chapter 14

  MISSION TO MARS (STREET)

  “MARA, THE MOCKER or the Guild or someone was at my house!”

  Mara sat cross-legged in the center of the personal training room. The words had burst from my mouth the moment the door had closed behind me. She wore a T-shirt that said FORTUNE FAVORS THE BOLD… MOUSE TRAPS DON’T. Her eyes had snapped open at my words, but she didn’t speak. Instead, she motioned for me to sit across from her. I plopped down on the mat.

  “Tell me,” Mara said. “All of it.”

  I told her. She sat without moving, her hands resting lightly on her knees as I spoke. When I finished, she nodded.

  “They’re fishing.” Mara stuck a leg out straight and grabbed her foot with both hands in a stretch that made me wince. “I mean, obviously they’re getting closer, but they haven’t pinned down the butterfly birthmark to your family, even if they acted like they had. They were bluffing. They’re trying to shake out the Seven.”

  “Who?” I asked. “Who is shaking out the Seven? Am I the Seven? I thought we were the Guild. I’m a little freaked out. Give me something to work with.”

  She switched to the other leg and did the same stretch. It looked no less painful on that side. “The Mocker we’ve been tagging.”

  “Oh, good,” I said. “You know, for a second there I thought some ancient organization I was supposed to be part of was actually hunting me. Glad to hear it’s just some master criminal-underworld evil guy.”

  She sat back up and gave me a crooked smile.

  “I’m serious, Mara!” I was too agitated to sit. I hopped to my feet and started pacing. “How did they know about my family? Are we in danger? I mean, I know you told me a Mocker was gunning for me and all, but now he knows where I live. He was in my house.”

  Her smile faded. “No, I doubt you’re in any immediate danger. Or, not a lot more than before. First off, it was probably not the Mocker. Just henchmen. And yeah, he’s getting closer, but so are we. And it’s not like he wants to harm you. Most likely, he’s going to approach it more slowly to recruit you. But I’ll look into it, though, okay? For now, let’s just keep it between the two of us.”

  I cocked my head to the side. “Versus between you, me, and…?”

  “Jordan.”

  I stopped pacing. “You don’t want Jordan to know?”

  “I don’t. He can be intense. I’d hate for him to overreact. It might tip off your parents.”

  “Weren’t my parents tipped off when a Mocker came by our house?”

  She waved off my concern. “They were reminded of the Guild. They learned nothing of your actual training. Here, sit back down. Let’s talk your next mission. It’s the best way to stop him. We’re getting closer to having what we need.”

  I hated this. So many secrets. Secrets from my parents, my sister, my friends. And now Jordan. Not just secrets, but layers of secrets.

  It hit me then. All these secrets were like a web, and Mara was the spider. It all came back to her. My knowledge of the Guild, the Mockers, being a Seven, Jordan, everything. I needed time to think about it. Could I really trust her? What did I know? What had I seen?

  For now, I needed to play along. Buy time to figure it out. I sat down.

  “The next job’s on a high security floor of a building,” Mara said. “Same as the other jobs, but you’ve got to hold both the ghost and the blend the whole time once you get to the sixth floor to avoid security. Grab a hard drive, then get out.”

  “Wait, “ I said. “Ghost the whole time to avoid security? Not just blend?”

  “Yeah, they’re probably going to have IR cameras and laser sensors along with the regular cameras. Ghosting will suppress your heat signature.”

  “So I give off a ‘heat signature’ when blending? That makes about as much sense as being able to make noise when I’m ghosting. Speaking of which, how does that work? How can I make noise while ghosting?”

  Mara shook her head. “No idea. But is that really the part of ghosting that seems odd? Not the part where you walk through walls?”

  “Whatever. So how do I grab something while ghosting?”

  “You don’t. You’ll have to assess the situation and pick how and when to stop ghosting so you can make the grab.”

  I thought back over the the missions I’d done already. Could I have held a ghost the whole time as well as blending? I didn’t think I could’ve done it two weeks ago, but figured I might be able to pull it off now. It would be close.

  “When?” I asked. “Wait. Let me guess. Tomorrow night.”

  She shook her head. “Hope you’re well rested. You go in tonight. Normal time.”

  “You guys are pushing hard. It’s not easy to ghost and blend for that long. I could use a couple more weeks to build up my strength.”

  “You can’t have it both ways,” Mara said. “We can’t wait for you to get stronger and take down the Mocker faster. It’s one or the other. And Jordan got some intel, said we had to move fast. Like I said, a high security floor. It’s in a building over on Mars Street.”

  I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. My stomach felt fine. Sure, I felt a bit of tightness, but that was it. Maybe I was getting used to it. Besides, compared to having evil henchmen in your home, this was nothing.

  I opened my eyes. Mara was studying my face. I nodded. “I’ll be ready.”

  After Battlehoop, Janey and I peeled off from the others near Deion’s house and headed for home. On Appleton, a fancy looking black car pulled up even with us, driving very slowly. The windows were tinted super dark. It was creepy. I felt exposed on my bike.

  “Joss,” Janey hissed. “I saw that car back by the Taco Bell.”

  She was right. It’d been in the parking lot near the corner. Like someone had parked there, watching for us.

  “Pull over
,” I said, and came to a stop. “I don’t like this.”

  She stopped beside me. So did the car. Not good.

  “Joss?” Janey’s voice had a slight tremor to it.

  I slowly got off my bike and laid it down. I wanted to have both feet on the ground. Janey followed my lead. “Get behind me,” I said. I figured anyone trying to nab us was in for a surprise when I went all Seven on them.

  Janey stepped close beside me, but elbowed me in the ribs when I tried to push her behind me. I glared at her. She glared back. “I’m not hiding behind you.”

  The passenger and driver doors opened, and two men stepped out of the car. It was Blondie and his Seven sidekick, Luc. Janey glanced at me, the whites of her eyes showing. I put a hand on her shoulder as the Mocker stepped around the front of the car to stand by Luc, about ten feet away.

  "Is it Joss?" he asked. "And Janey?"

  I had trouble hearing him over my heart thundering in my chest. I leaned over to Janey and whispered in her ear. "They were at our house. Dad threw them out. Thought they were bad or something. We need to escape. Be ready."

  Janey gave me a quick nod, her eyes narrowing. "Leave us alone." Her voice was steady. Very impressive.

  The Mocker smiled. “Circumstances don't really allow for that. Now, we need to know if either of you has the butterfly birthmark."

  Janey's eyes flared wide again, and she glanced at me. It was enough.

  "So, you’ve got the birthmark, Joss,” Blondie said. He leaned forward with his hands on his knees so his eyes were down closer to our height. “We're going to need to..."

  That was as far as he got. Janey took three quick steps forward and leapt. Had I mentioned Janey was freaky fast, and that she’d thrived at Battlehoop? She jumped right at Blondie and lashed her foot up and out like a cracking whip.

  Her foot met his nose. It was like she’d popped a water balloon. Blood sprayed from his face as his head snapped back. He stumbled backwards and fell across the hood of the car.

  I stared in stunned silence as Janey landed on her other foot and pivoted to face Luc. He was more shocked than I was, which was a good thing. It gave me time to get moving. Janey had gotten in a great surprise attack, but I didn’t think she was up to fighting a Seven. I rushed forward and used my bruiser talent to harden my foot and leg as I kicked him with everything I had. In the crotch.