Hidden Darkness

by May, W. J.

  The smile froze on her face as she tried to sort out how she felt about this. Of course, he was drunk, that had to be taken into account. But it wasn’t like alcohol put ideas like that into your head. It tended to unlock them and get people talking about them freely. Either way, there was a very good chance that he wouldn’t remember a thing about it the next day.

  But she would. In fact, she didn’t think she could ever forget.

  Marriage. Devon had said he wanted to marry her.

  At this point, what did that even mean?

  “What’re you thinking about?” he murmured, bringing her wrist up to his lips and kissing it.

  She smiled. “You. And me. Us.”

  “Us, huh?” He grinned. “Anything in particular?”

  “You know; the works.” She stared at him steadily for a moment before looking quickly away. Nope, she couldn’t do this now. It was one huge emotional milestone too many. “So I got us some clothes in town today. I shopped when you three were devoting yourselves to a new life of South American alcoholism.”

  He laughed. “If my short-term memory can recall, you got on that train pretty quick yourself.”

  “It’s not the same thing,” she scoffed teasingly. “My liver is constantly healing and regenerating itself. I’m not doing any long-term damage. Besides, it’s not like it can—”

  …kill me.

  She froze in place, unable to say another word. Her very blood seemed to cool in her veins, and, despite the fact that she was lying next to Devon in bed, she suddenly felt very much alone.

  The next second, Devon’s hand came up and cupped her cheek. “Rae, we’re going to figure this out. I swear it. We just need to figure out where Cromfield—”

  There was a sudden banging on their door, and they pulled apart. Unable to withstand the pressure, the flimsy wood sprang open, leaving Julian silhouetted in its wake.

  He stared at them, his eyes bright. “I know where Cromfield’s going next!”

  Chapter 5

  They left sometime in the middle of the night. Way before the sun came up. Before the old receptionist even had a chance to wonder whatever became of those four crazy English kids. The clothes Rae had bought for sticking around in South America got tossed in the trash as they climbed aboard a flight to Budapest—Molly still cursing the ‘gods of whiskey’ and occasionally vomiting in the airplane bathroom.

  If Julian had been having trouble seeing the future before, he’d more than made up for it now. There was an intensity about him that Rae had never seen, an assertive force that had him pushing them all forward. The second they got out in public, the sunglasses went back on as he started examining Cromfield’s every minute decision and how it would lead them to the next person on the list.

  They developed a kind of strategy, where Rae and Devon would take Julian by the arms, leading him as though he was blind, because he was in a trance so often now. It worried Rae, but she was scared to voice her concerns. She’d tried to use Julian’s tatù while the others were resting, with no success. She was months behind his ability, if not years. He’d used his daily since he’d turned sixteen. She tried his, maybe, a handful of times over the past few years. It didn’t matter at the moment; he was using it to find Cromfield, and they had to find a way to keep moving, regardless.

  After Budapest came Sydney, after Sydney they travelled to Spain. In each country, it seemed as though they arrived just in the nick of time. Julian would see that Cromfield was on his way, but they would always find the hybrids first. The small step ahead of Cromfield gave them enough time to warn the hybrids of the danger and convince them to go into hiding.

  Luckily enough, none of the hybrids or their parents seemed to question the danger for even an instant. Most had been pre-conditioned by the laws of the tatù world, that when Rae told them there was trouble on the way they didn’t hesitate before packing their bags. She wondered if there were schools like Guilder in each country, or if undercover agencies like the Privy Council existed elsewhere. She never got the chance to ask. These weren’t social gatherings, and they didn’t have time to dig for information. She just hoped word wouldn’t get back to the Privy Council and they would come hopping back after them. She wanted to stop Cromfield and find Jennifer and change the world. It just couldn’t be done in a day.

  She hated knocking on people’s doors to tell them they were in grave danger. She often watched them go with a mixed feeling of relief and a strange kind of detached sadness.

  Was this what her life would have been? If her mother hadn’t been brainwashed, would they have eventually had to move somewhere different to keep their secret? Or keep moving around place to place. Just to keep her secret? Would they have assumed different names, different identities? One day, the same as any other, would people like Rae and Devon have come knocking to tell her to run? Would her father have hunted her down?

  Another thought nearly knocked the breath out of her. Had Cromfield done the same to her father? Had he changed Simon Kerrigan into the monster he became? What if he had been just like her, cursed with a hybrid tatù, only to have it tainted by the evil? What had happened to him?

  Julian had them rushing off to the next country before she even had a chance to voice her thoughts; not that she would have said them out loud. Everyone believed her father to be a terrible monster, almost as bad as Cromfield. She was beginning to question it, and hoped she’d have the chance to talk to her mother once they stopped Cromfield. If he was even stoppable. Once they caught up to him, what would they do? The guy could live forever. Killing him wasn’t an option.

  She focused on the task at hand, happy for the distraction from her own inner turmoil. The more countries they visited, the more names they checked off their list. Only one thing remained a constant: Rae Kerrigan was never meant to have a normal life.

  “Come on, Julian, just take it easy,” Rae murmured to her buddy. She and Devon were discreetly propping him up in an airport food court, after he had suddenly slipped into a trance standing in line to get a slice of pizza.

  Molly had run off to get coffee, so Rae used Maria’s telepathy to send her a mental message to bring a stack of napkins.

  Rae stared at Julian’s comatose body. It looked like this vision was even more intense than the usual.

  “I can’t watch him do this anymore.” Devon ground his teeth together as he lowered his friend gently into a chair. Julian’s head slumped forward, and Devon’s face tightened in pain. “It’s hurting him! I think this is gonna kill him eventually.” His voice broke with emotion and tiredness.

  “I know,” Rae said quietly. “I don’t want him doing it anymore either.” She stroked back a lock of Julian’s long dark hair, tucking it into his ponytail. “But you heard what he said: now that his tatù’s working again, he’s staying the course. He wants to see this through.”

  Devon sighed. “Of course he wants to. I just don’t know if we should let him.”

  Rae laughed. She couldn’t help it. “Do you realize how stubborn he is? How stubborn you are?”

  Devon raised a single eyebrow. “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle?”

  “I’m not stubborn!” She grinned when she realized how she sounded. She glanced at Julian. “What’re we going to do with him?” Rae teased lightly, happy to have a moment of comic relief. “Medically-induced coma? How do you stop something that’s going on inside his head?”

  At that moment the future “released” him, and Julian came back to the present with a gasp. A curious family paused from walking, and watched with concern as Julian slumped forward onto the table, bleeding profusely from the nose.

  Devon waved them away, and, fortunately, Molly came back at that very moment with the napkins.

  “Aw, sweetie,” she murmured, mopping up his face, “you’re always such a mess now. And to think, I used to think you were so handsome…”

  Julian laughed weakly at her teasing, not realizing that beneath the joke lay real concern. The same concer
n was mirrored in Devon and Rae’s eyes.

  The laughter of a moment ago disappeared. Rae’s chest felt heavy with worry. He was overdoing it. This was becoming too dangerous. You could only delve into someone else’s future so far before there was no coming back to your own time. She opened her mouth, ready to suggest they contact the Privy Council, and then closed it. What if they pushed him harder than he was already pushing himself?

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” he panted, gratefully taking the coffee Molly pressed into his hands and gulping down the top inch. If it was burning hot, he didn’t notice.

  “Hey, future boy,” Devon said quietly. “Did you see where we’re supposed to go next?”

  After racing back to the airport from a mission in Mali, Julian’s visions had suddenly cut short, and they were stuck in a holding pattern. According to him, it was as if the trail just suddenly went blank. As if Cromfield was no longer living, or at least, no longer thinking. They had been sitting at the airport for the last day and a half, which was why this sudden vision in the food court had caught everyone so off-guard.

  “Yeah, he’s heading to—” Suddenly, Julian’s voice cut off and he gripped his head in pain. His eyes screwed up, and he opened his mouth in a silent cry before biting his lip very hard to keep from making a sound.

  “Jules!” Rea knelt in front of his chair in alarm. “What’s happening? What can I do?”

  “My head,” he gasped. “It’s like someone’s ripping open my head!”

  Devon looked around, pale with fright. “That’s it. I’m taking you to a hospital.”

  Rae grabbed his hand as Julian doubled over onto the table, moaning. “What good would that do? A non-tatù doctor will have no idea what to do with him.”

  “But his pain is real—”

  “Exactly,” Molly interrupted. “And at a hospital, they would prescribe morphine.” She looked at Rae expectantly, and, after a moment of confused silence, she cocked her head towards Julian. “Give him morphine, Rae. Use Ethan’s ink.”

  Of course! Good old Dollar Bill… Focusing very hard on the freshman’s ability, Rae held her hand beneath the table and conjured a syringe. Inside, a clear liquid bubbled into existence before cooling at the speed of light.

  It was here that she paused, looking at Julian uncertainly. “I’ve…I’ve never given anyone a shot before. I don’t know—”

  “I’ll do it.” Devon took the syringe, and, in one fluid movement, plunged it deep into his friend’s leg. Julian visibly relaxed as the drug entered his system, and a second later he was calm.

  “How’re you doing, buddy?” Rae asked breathlessly, watching his every move, terrified she’d made too much in the syringe. They had no idea what they were doing. What if she killed him with an O.D.? Sheesh! Rash and idiotic. That’s what she was turning into. “How’s your head? You okay?”

  “Rae?” He stared at her for a moment, slightly unfocused, before his face brightened with a huge smile. “Rae.” His lips formed a perfect “O” as he repeated her name. “Rae’s a beautiful name!”

  She and Devon exchanged a quick look before turning to Molly, who raised her hands innocently and avoided their gaze. “And…it can also make you a little loopy.”

  “A little loopy?” Devon hissed as Julian started absent-mindedly stroking his jacket.

  “What were we supposed to do?” Molly countered. “Did you want him to be in pain? They gave that stuff to my Aunt Pam after her knee surgery, and it worked great.”

  Rae frowned in concern as Julian began licking the outside of his coffee cup. “How great?”

  “Well, she did claim to see flying cats for the next few hours—”

  “Molly?!” Rae cried as Devon hissed, “A few hours?”

  “We need to go to Texas.”

  Wait… what?

  Everyone turned to Julian at once as he made this declaration. After a moment, he realized all eyes were on him, and he looked behind himself in concern. “Is somebody coming?” he whispered loudly. “Should we run?”

  “No, no, everything’s fine,” Devon assured him, fighting back the urge to laugh. Rae was resisting the same urge. “Why should we go to Texas, Jules? Is that where Cromfield is going?”

  “They have great barbeque.”

  Devon flashed Rae a pained look. “Kerrigan?”

  “I’ve got this.” With a calming smile, she took Julian’s hands in her own. “Hey, Jules, I want you to think about Texas, okay? Can you think about it for me?” She slipped into Carter’s gift, and a moment later, she was barreling down the complex corridors of Julian’s mind. She raced past flashes of people and places: Guilder and the graduation, her and their other friends, a beautiful white-haired girl who was leaning in to kiss him. Then on, faster and faster. Her hands tightened around his, and she found herself bracing slightly against the sudden change in tone. There was a pull, a mental pressure pushing her down. She fought to get above it, and when she saw an image of what looked to be the old American South, she latched on.

  There was Cromfield, alright. Getting off a plane in Dallas and glancing down at a scribbled address written on the side of the map. As Rae—through Julian’s eyes—leaned forward to get a better look, Cromfield looked up suddenly and stared straight at her.

  At least, stared straight past her. Because he couldn’t be actually seeing Julian, could he? He couldn’t know that Julian was watching. Devon said that was impossible…

  A pair of strong hands ripped hers away from Julian’s, and she opened her eyes to see Devon pulling her away in concern. Julian opened his eyes at the same time, still loopy from the drugs, but before he slipped away into narcotics bliss, she could have sworn she saw a glimmer of fear.

  “Sweetie, you’re bleeding.”

  She glanced up at Devon before reaching for her nose. Sure enough, blood. “It’s nothing,” she said quickly, not quite understanding what had just happened, but knowing, deep down, it wasn’t good.

  “Here.” Molly handed her a napkin and watched as she dabbed at her face. “So Cromfield’s in Texas? Is that what Julian saw?”

  “Yeah,” Rae panted, still trying to catch her breath. “He’s going to Texas.”

  As for the other part, she wasn’t sure what exactly Julian saw…

  * * *

  “Why do they call it the Lone Star State?” Molly asked curiously as they pulled away from the airport rent-a-car in style.

  The only car available on such short notice had been a black-tinted Escalade which Devon had rented without a thought. A little flashy, perhaps, but Rae had to admit, under the blinding Texan sun, the windows were a welcome relief.

  “Because no one wants to live here,” Julian muttered, slapping on the air conditioning. The morphine had worn off somewhere over the Atlantic, and to say he was grumpy would be understating it by a couple thousand miles.

  He hadn’t talked to Rae about what had happened, what she had seen. To be honest, she wasn’t sure if he even remembered it happening, but somehow, she thought he did. There was something a little too deliberate in the way he was avoiding her eyes.

  “So it’s Wichita Falls, Texas?” Devan asked, programming it into the navigator.

  Julian nodded. “Yep. A little rodeo town.” He flashed his first, albeit rather sarcastic, smile since landing. “Should be fun.”

  “It will be fun.” Molly nudged him, determined to lighten the mood. “I might have to buy us some hats. Like cowboy hats, and boots. Leather chaps for Devon. Oh! I couldn’t get wranglers. I heard they’re very fashionable in Texas.” She babbled on and then started complaining when her phone died and she couldn’t search the Internet anymore.

  About two hours later, they rolled into town. The sun had just started to set over the trees, and Rae was about to ask where they should start looking first, when she realized that almost every car in the tiny city was parked in front of what looked to be the most ‘happening’ bar in Texas.

  “What do you think?” Molly asked as the car ro
lled to a stop. Julian rolled down his window and the four friends peered out at the noisy club. “Should we give it a try?”

  “Couldn’t hurt.” Devon parked and got out of the car.

  “It’s better than searching the barns,” Julian agreed and stretched. “Plus I could use a drink. Or two.”

  Molly and Rae giggled at his caustic teasing, but Rae hung back a step and caught his arm as the four of them headed inside. They needed to talk, even if it was just for a second, even if it was the last thing either of them wanted. She had to know what the hell was going on.

  “What’s up?” He looked down at her in surprise.

  She hesitated, a little thrown off her game by his open nonchalance. He’d been high as a kite on morphine when she’d gone inside his mind. Maybe he really didn’t remember.

  Then his arm stiffened nervously and her eyes narrowed in triumph.

  Oh, hell yes, he did remember! “Listen, Jules, we need to talk—”

  “Guys! You coming?” Devon called from the door.

  Julian tugged his arm away and headed swiftly up the steps. “Yup.”

  Rae stood behind, seething in the darkness. Oh, that little—

  “Rae?” Devon cocked his head curiously.

  “Yeah! I’m coming!”

  Despite the huge crowd roaring in the bar, which on the inside looked like an abandoned sort of factory, it was surprisingly easy to hear. This wasn’t just because Rae was using Devon’s fennec fox tatù; it was because the place was separated into clearly delineated sections. There was the restaurant area, the bar area, the pool and darts area, and what sounded like some sort of gladiatorial rink at the end. Rae avoided this one with a shudder and turned to her friends.