by May, W. J.
“The left?”
He nodded. “But it doesn’t matter. What matters is I couldn’t feel you looking. You weren’t inside my head. But, I… Rae, I can feel him watching me. I know he is. I don’t know how it’s possible, but I know he is.” They were quiet for a second before he looked up suddenly. “You felt it, too, didn’t you? When you were in my thoughts?”
Rae nodded slowly, almost relieved to finally get her unsettling time in Julian’s visions out in the open. “I think I did. I’m pretty sure I felt it, too. When he looked up at the airport in Dallas… Jules, I felt like he was looking right at me.”
Julian’s face tightened as he looked out at the darkened city. “I knew it! That’s exactly what I thought, too. And then when he looked at me…”
Rae’s jaw dropped open as all at once it clicked. “That’s when you had that fit at the airport!”
“It was like he was trying to force his way into my head.” Julian’s eyes dropped down to the ground. “Pry it open, or something. I’ve never felt anything like it before in my life. I thought it might kill me.”
They were quiet again for a long time, just sitting on the curb, soaking in the implications of what was going on. Then, instead of the usual compassionate reaction that might have followed his admission, Rae’s eyes shot up and she smacked him in the chest. Hard.
“Shit! What the hell, Kerrigan?!”
“How could you not have told me? Or Devon? Or Molly? Or literally anyone in the freaking world, Julian? How could you have kept something like that to yourself?”
His eyes dropped and his voice grew very small. “You would’ve stopped me. You wouldn’t have let me keep going if you knew how bad it was.”
“You’re damn right!”
“But I have to keep going,” he said softly. “There are people’s lives at stake—”
“No. You have no right to be so brave with yourself. We are not going to do this if it’s going to put you in danger.”
He sighed, squeezing her hand despite her hard tone. “We’re all in danger, Rae. And the longer this psycho is on the loose with the Privy Council not doing a thing about it, the more people are going to get hurt.”
“Hey—look at me.” She grabbed his face and turned it towards her. “You are not going to be one of those people, do you understand me?”
There was a moment’s pause before he flashed her a sad grin and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
She studied him for a second, testing his sincerity, before nodding herself. “Good.” She linked their arms together again, bouncing back and forth to keep warm. “Now, let’s get inside. I’m freezing!”
He chuckled, leading them back to the motel. “Can’t you just conjure a space heater or something?”
She fixed a smile on her face, but tuned out of the conversation, replaying his words over and over again in her mind.
‘I’ve never felt anything like it before in my life. I thought it might kill me.’
She shuddered and gripped his arm tighter in her own.
Not if she had anything to say about it.
* * *
They got to San Francisco at around six o’clock the next evening. It was the perfect time to get there, because people were just coming home from work, and, according to Julian’s memories of Cromfield’s files, this guy, Benjamin Mills, was supposed to be some kind of computer wizard. They pulled up just as he was walking back into his apartment tower. Lanky, horn-rimmed glasses, clutching a bag of groceries in his hand, he couldn’t be missed.
Molly smiled to herself as she climbed out of the car. “Oh…I’ve got this one.”
Rae waved her off with a grin as the boys glanced at each other with twin scowls.
“That’ll never work,” Julian scoffed.
Devon nodded self-righteously. “I don’t know what sort of stereotype you girls are working from, but guys are not universally easy. It’s not like he’s going to invite her in, just like…” His voice trailed off as Molly waved excitedly from the curb, arm in arm with Benjamin.
“I’m sorry,” Rae smirked as she pushed open her door, “you were saying?”
Benjamin Mills didn’t just live on the top floor of the apartment complex—he owned the top floor of the apartment complex. Rae glanced around the lush penthouse with a stifled sigh, wishing very much that she could get back to London to a penthouse of her own.
“So…you guys all have ink, like Miss Skye?” he asked eagerly.
Rae raised her eyebrows and looked at her friend; the friend who was clearly enjoying all the attention. Miss Skye? “Uh—yeah, we do. But it’s not having a tatù that’s the problem,” she said, knowing this is where she came in. She lifted the back of her shirt, “It’s having two.”
Benjamin’s jaw dropped open as he knelt down on the floor to get a closer look at the design. His fingers reached out automatically to trace it, and Devon caught him by the hand. “Okay, buddy—that’s close enough.”
“I’m sorry,” Benjamin said quickly, scrambling to his feet. “It’s just—I’ve never seen another hybrid before. It’s incredible! And you work for this Privy Council?”
“Yeah, we all do,” Rae answered. “Except…this mission isn’t really sanctioned.”
“You see, Benny, the PC aren’t the only ones interested in hybrids,” Molly continued. “There’s a man coming. A very bad man who means you harm. We came here to warn you.”
Without a second’s pause, the four friends launched into the ‘Cromfield Dissertation,’ just as they always did. They watched the telltale progression of signs across Benjamin’s face. The curiosity, astonishment, realization, and finally—fear.
Only…Benjamin didn’t quite get to that last one.
“Well, I wish him the best of luck,” he laughed when they were all done. “Let me tell you something; if this Cromfield guy can get through my multi-million-dollar security system, then he can take what he wants.”
Rae blinked. This was usually the part where the hybrids ran. “I don’t think you understand exactly what we’re telling you,” she said slowly. “This guy isn’t going to be impressed with a bunch of fancy gadgets and an expensive locked door. These are tatùs we’re talking about. It’s basically magic. He’s somehow outfoxed hundreds of hybrids over the last few centuries, so, if you want to stand a chance, you’re going to have to—”
“But that’s what’s so great about it,” Benjamin extended his arm and rolled up his sleeve, “my tatù is a bunch of fancy gadgets.”
The ink on his arm was of a single lightbulb, so bright it seemed to illuminate the rest of his skin. But Rae sensed there was a bit more to it than met the eye.
“It’s a fusion, right?” he gushed. “Intuition and technology. Paired together,” he gestured to the hundreds of prototypes and half-finished machines littering his luxury suite. “Well, needless to say, it got me this penthouse.”
Rae sniffed self-importantly. She wouldn’t call him more than a Class Two.
Devon, always the patient one, the one to convince everyone what needed to be done and why, said, “And that’s really great for you. But this guy Cromfield doesn’t care. He wants to study you, experiment with your gift. He’s been doing it for hundreds of years, and, trust me, we’ve seen the pictures; No one makes it out alive.”
Benjamin was completely unfazed. “Do you see these cameras?” He pointed to several tiny lights blinking all over the apartment. “This is a state-of-the-art security system. I designed it myself. All the feed can hook up to any computer, tablet, or cellular device anywhere in the world. That means that if anyone were to come in here uninvited, I’d get an email, a text, a call. I’d basically get a bunch of carrier pigeons knocking on my window, telling me it wasn’t safe.” He laughed loudly at his own joke, then quieted down quickly when he saw the four stoic faces staring back at him. “So, really,” he muttered in a far demurer tone, “thank you for your concern, but I’ll be just fine.”
“Benny,” Molly tried again, “you
’re not hearing what we’re—”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he cut her off suddenly. Apparently, the possibility of a threat against his person had managed to cool even the startling passion he’d developed for Miss Skye.
“Look,” Devon tried to ease the sudden tension, “we really can’t, in good conscience, leave you here alone. It’s not a matter of if; it’s a matter of when. And with your tatù, as technologically brilliant as it might be, you’re not going to have anything to fight him off.”
“It’s Devon, isn’t it?” Benjamin sneered.
Devon nodded.
“I’m not trying to tell you how to do your job, so please don’t lecture me on the security of this penthouse, when I designed it myself. Now, I promise you, if anything happens to me, I’ll program the device to give you a call right away. But until then, I want you to get the hell off my property.”
Rae’s eyebrows shot into her hair. “You’re really throwing us—”
“Out. Now. Before I call security.”
Five minutes later, they were standing out on the street. They stared at each other blankly, at a complete loss as to what to do, until a passing cab sprayed them all awake with a giant puddle.
“Gross…” Molly muttered, shaking off her hands.
“I can’t believe this!” Rae exclaimed. “He’s really going to just…hope for the best?”
“Will Cromfield come here next?” Devon asked Julian. “Is this guy about to die, or what?”
Rae shot Julian a look, but said nothing as he tried to scan the immediate future. She hadn’t yet had an opportunity to talk to the others about what was happening, but at this second, it didn’t seem to much matter. According to Julian, he’d been effectively shut out of Cromfield’s head since he landed in Dallas.
His eyes glassed over momentarily before he shook his head. “It’s all blank; I can’t see. Maybe if we tried—”
All at once, he fell to his knees with an excruciating cry. The passing pedestrians gave him a wide berth as his hands came up to his temples, ready to tear them apart.
“Julian!” Rae dropped down beside him, already conjuring the morphine in her hand. “Get out of there!”
Devon shot her a strange look, but, before he could say anything, Julian opened his eyes with a gasp. His face was shocking white, and another steady stream of blood was dripping down his chin.
“What is it?” Devon asked gravely. “Is Benjamin about to die?”
In the blink of an eye, Julian leapt to his feet, still trying to catch his breath, but ready to go.
“No…but someone else is!”
Chapter 8
“Julian! Slow down!”
Even using their tatùs, Rae and Devon could barely keep up with him as he raced through the airport to the front desk. Molly, whose legs were half the size of everyone else’s and had no supernatural support, lagged behind, Except for her voice. That carried loud and clear throughout the airport.
“You don’t understand—we have to hurry!” he cried, pushing people out of his way as he cut shamelessly in line to the front. “We need to get there now; this guy’s going to be killed!” he hissed only loud enough for someone with a particular fennec fox tatù would catch. Rae had slipped into Devon’s ability the moment Julian took off.
Rae and Deon crashed in behind him, in a breathless heap as he hopped up on the counter and summoned the attention of a middle-aged booking attendant. Julian was lucky he was so good-looking—anyone else would probably have been asked to leave. Except probably Devon. Sexy, good-looking, and a lovely accent seemed to be a winner most times these days.
The attendant just smoothed down her skirt and sauntered over, giving him a seductive smile. “Can I help you, sweetie?”
“Yes!” He ran his hands manically back through his hair, completely oblivious to her intentions. “I need four tickets to Japan, to leave as soon as possible.”
Rae turned to Devon in alarm and mouthed, Japan?
The attendant’s smile cooled a bit as she began typing. “Tokyo, Osaka, or Fukuoka?”
For the first time since Julian had had the vision, his pace slowed as he faltered. “Oh…uh…”
Sensing the problem, Devon stepped forward and distracted the woman with a throwaway question while Julian looked down at the floor, covering his eyes with his hand. A second later, his head snapped back up with a triumphant shine.
Devon shot the attendant a sexy smile. “So they have you do that every time you check a bag—”
“Osaka!” Julian declared proudly, slamming his hand down on the counter and making everyone jump. “Four tickets to Osaka, please.”
Molly caught up to them, only to be immediately whisked away in the opposite direction toward the boarding gates.
The second the four of them were through security—invisibly jumping over the barriers just like before—Devon crossed his arms over his chest and turned to Julian with a pointed stare. “Okay…what the hell is going on here? First you collapse, then you…” he fixed Rae with the same piercing eyes, “…seem to know something about it I don’t, and now we’re going to Japan?”
“There’s a man there. A businessman. Mid-forties. Suit and briefcase. His name’s Akihiro Nakano. And at eleven-forty, the morning of the twenty-eighth, he’s going to die,” Julian said all of this in a strange robotic monotone as the others stared at each other in alarm.
Devon opened his mouth, but failed to speak many times before he finally managed, “You got all that from one vision? Not just where Cromfield was going, but what he was actually going to—”
“This vision wasn’t like any of the others.” Julian’s face still had that adrenaline-fueled sheen to it, and his eyes seemed to be having trouble focusing on just one thing. “It was crystal clear. I could see every detail, hear every sound. I could smell the noodles in the restaurant down the street.” He pushed Devon into a chair in the patio section of a terminal bar and grill as the girls settled themselves beside them. “Cromfield walks up to him outside a coffee shop and shoots him right in the stomach. No questions asked. I saw a newspaper lying on one of the tables and got the date. It’s going to happen, Devon. And we need to get there before it does.”
Devon nodded slowly, watching his friend with steady, albeit worried, eyes. “Okay…then we’ll get there before Cromfield does.” He glanced around to make sure no one was listening except the four of them. Satisfied, he leaned his head toward Julian and Rae. “But enough of this crap! I want you to tell me right now what’s going on with your visions! And if you say ‘nothing’ or blow me off, I swear on everything good, Jules—I’ll kick your ass.” He pressed his finger up against Rae’s mouth, as she was about to speak. “I’ll whup yours, too, if I have to, sweetheart.”
Julian’s dark eyes flashed to Rae for help, and she leaned diplomatically away from Devon’s finger. “We think that…Cromfield has somehow been made aware of Julian’s presence in his mind.”
Devon and Molly blinked in unison. “What?!”
“When I used Carter’s gift to find out about Texas, and relived Julian’s vision for myself, there was a moment when I was positive Cromfield looked me. Right at me, not just in my general direction. I mean, him—I mean…you know what I mean.”
Molly shook her head in quick confusion. “I thought that was impossible.”
“It is impossible. It’s like looking into the future when we aren’t even there,” Devon said slowly, his eyes flicking to Julian. “Jules, are you sure?”
Julian’s cheeks paled, but he nodded firmly. “I have no clue how, or why, it’s even possible, but I’m sure. It isn’t the first time I’d gotten that impression, but it was definitely the strongest.” He inhaled sharply, his next words coming out fast, as if he didn’t want to admit to it, “And immediately after, he turned it around on me. It was like he was trying to break his way into my head.” A sharp breath hissed from Julian. “And I couldn’t stop him. He was too strong.” Rae could see his hands shaking,
whether from fear or frustration, or maybe both, she wasn’t sure.
Devon sank down a couple inches in his chair before running his fingers up through his hair with a sigh.
Rae took his other hand under the table and squeezed. “What is it, Dev?”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I can’t believe I’m saying this right now, but do you know who I wish was here?”
A sinking feeling hung heavy in Rae’s gut. “Who?” she whispered.
“Carter.”
The three friends glanced at each other quickly before looking away. At some point during the last few weeks, each one of them had felt the same way. How nice it would be to have an adult in this crazy situation with them; have an adult shouldering some of the responsibility and coming up with a plan. They’d never realized how much it meant to have someone looking out for them and calling the shots, until that person was out of the picture. Carter was their go-to. Of all the teachers and instructors and parent figures, he was the one who’d had the most faith in him. There was a reason he was the president of the Privy Council and the headmaster of Guilder.
“I know,” Rae said softly. “I do, too.”
“He would know what to say,” Devon muttered. “He would know if there was some kind of precedent for this…” He huffed in frustration. “Carter would know what to do.”
“Well it sounds like whether there’s a precedent or not, it’s definitely happening. Cromfield knows we’re on to him,” Molly said glumly. “And it kind of makes sense. Remember how I have this awesome kind of connection with Noah because we share the same tatù? And how I just knew that Mr. Padron had it, too?” She stared at Julian with a hint of pity in her eyes. “I mean, Jules, Cromfield had an entire room of the exact same pictures you’d been drawing for months…”
“I know,” Julian shivered, “that’s when I wondered about it for the first time. I never said anything, but I should have.” He sighed, frustrated and at his wit’s end.