“This will hurt,” Evan says. Yeah, no shit, Sherlock. He’s holding a syringe with a needle the size of a freaking pencil lead above my arm. He’s taken me down to the fourth floor where all his blood glass slides are, prepped my arm with the world’s coldest cotton ball of alcohol, and prepared a dozen new slides for the addition of my blood.
He isn’t admitting it, but I can tell by the light buzzing of power emanating off him and the way he keeps gnawing on his bottom lip, that he’s psyched out of his mind to test my blood. With all the controversy surrounding my being born into a fifty/fifty chance of turning evil, I guess I can’t blame him.
I know in my heart that I am not evil. I’ve just had a rough time lately and anyone would act the way I acted, were they in the same situations. And now Evan will have scientific proof of my innocence. I’ll take that proof straight back to Central, ending this lockdown and gaining Hero status with one victorious piece of paper. Two birds, one stone. Hello, Hero Maci.
I take a deep breath as Evan ties a rubber tourniquet around my arm and counts to three. The needle plunges into my arm and although it hurts, it doesn’t come close to the pain of cracking your head multiple times on the Grand Canyon. Blood pours into a glass vial. I smile. “That’s not so bad.”
Evan concentrates on his task. “Hurt like hell when I took it from my own arm.”
“That is because you are a wiener.”
He pulls the needle from my arm and instructs me to hold a cotton ball against it as he readies another vial and pulls another syringe from a drawer. This one has a needle the size of a pencil. “Time for a sample of your power,” he says, flourishing what might as well be a turkey baster in front of my face. “Let’s see how long that cocky smile lasts.”
I’m banished to Evan’s bedroom for the next hour. Apparently he gets stage fright analyzing blood samples in front of the person who might be a potential villain. I try playing Xbox, but I only get as far as turning on the machine before I end up lying on the bed, discovering animal-shaped blobs in the ceiling plaster.
When I realize I’ve spent too much time thinking about Evan’s cute smile, I try to focus on something more productive. Like, why does Aurora want to find me? I close my eyes, meditating on the question. But I have nothing. Dad and Max enter my mind but I push them out of it. I cannot deal with those thoughts right now.
It’s two hours later and Evan’s wearing his glasses again. “Do you want the good news or the bad news?”
“I’m sorry, what?” I say, snapping back to reality after mapping out an entire colony of blobs in the ceiling.
“Good news or bad news?”
“Bad,” I reply without hesitation.
He removes his glasses and pinches the bridge of his nose. I like him better with the glasses. “The bad news is, well, you have the evil gene.”
I shake my head. “No, you’re wrong. Go on, what’s the good news?”
“You need to take me seriously.”
I straighten my spine, fold my hands in my lap, and tighten my lips together like a strict librarian. “Is this serious enough for you?”
He suppresses an eye roll with so much difficulty, the act of not rolling his eyes makes the exact same point as if he had. “I’m not wrong. The results were there. Your genes match the villain’s.”
I wave my hand. A lump forms in my throat but I swallow it down. “What is the good news?”
“I’m not exactly sure how to explain this.” He meets my eyes. “Your blood is normal. But your power is …”
I roll my hand, signaling for him to get on with it already. His head tilts to the side. “Your power is doubled.”
“Come again?”
“Two strands of power flow through your veins, working together as one. I think it comes from you being a twin.”
I give him a wary look. “Maybe twice the power explains why I’m incredibly fast and strong.”
“And humble!” He sits next to me on the bed and knocks me with his shoulders. “You make a good point. I don’t know what to decipher from it. Of all the power I’ve tested, none of them has looked like this. You literally have twice the power flowing through you than anyone else.”
“That explains why that nurse was so obsessed with my ability to heal myself,” I say, thinking back to that day at the hospital. A knot forms in my stomach at the memory of my dad. “She wanted to take some of my blood and Dad stormed in and forbid it. He was pretty pissed about it.”
Evan stares at my chest, though not in an awkward way. “It has to be a twin thing. I’d bet all twins have that, we just don’t have any other twins to test. On one hand, you definitely have the evil genetic codes. But on the other hand your power is doubled. It has both good and evil in it.”
“So I can utilize the good side.”
“You can also utilize the evil side.”
I give him a sardonic glare. “I am not—”
“Evil, I know.” He shakes stray hair out of his eyes. “The truth is in your power. You can choose to be good every day of your life, but the evil is still there. Central won’t want to hear that. And they never will because I destroyed the lab results.”
He pulls the hair tie out of his ponytail, letting his hair go back into non-research mode. He slips the hair tie back on his wrist.
“I’m still going home,” I say.
“You need to stay until we have a plan.”
I wish I could stay. I wish I could C’est la vie to the rest of the world and spend my remaining days on this island with Evan, while everyone else went on without us. The world can apocalypse itself for all I care, as long as I’m with Evan when it happens. But I can’t do that to my family and friends. The world needs saving and I’m the only one who can do it.
But an eternity with Evan sure sounds wonderful.
Evan’s thigh is my pillow. I’m vaguely aware that lying in his lap on the couch is normally considered romantic. Only vaguely. The gentle tapping of his thumbs on the game controller lulls me into a dream-like state. Sleep overtakes me and I welcome it. It’s been a long day.
Ugh. That damned alarm not only ruins my day, it ruins my dreams as well. Desperately, I try to hold on to the last tendrils of the dream I was having, the peaceful serene landscape before me, but my subconscious ruins it by inviting the memories of the lockdown alarm into my mind. I squeeze my eyes, tossing and turning, trying to get my dream back—no, I don’t want to wake up. Please don’t make me wake up. Stop thinking of that stupid alarm!
“Maci!” My eyes fling open at the sound of Evan’s voice. My head is thick, dizzy from sitting up so quickly. Evan grabs my shoulder. Hard.
“Ow,” I groan, slapping at his hand. “Get off me. I’m awake, god, why do I still hear that alarm?”
“You’re not dreaming.” Weight presses on my shoulder as he uses me to stand. “It’s happening again,” he says. I grab a glass of water from the coffee table since my mouth is so dry I can’t talk.
The next sound sends a chill down my spine. “Are we on the air?” It’s a simple question but it makes my chest collapse as if the weight of the world just fell on me. “Ah, yes. We are on the air. Hello, citizens of King City.” I’d know her voice anywhere. But I raise my eyes to the MOD screen anyway.
Aurora’s face smiles in the center of the screen. “I wish I could say it saddens me to appear before you like this,” she says in a way that could only be described as making love to the camera. “But I have to admit, I love a good show. You were given twenty-four hours to surrender, Maci Might.” She tilts her head and gives a tisk-tisk look to the camera. “And you disobeyed!” A wave of laughter fills the air. She dabs at her eyes with a silk scarf and regains composure after another giggle. Her face turns to stone. “So now you will pay.”
She takes a step back and the camera moves with her as she turns around and walks down a dark hallway. I don’t recognize any of it. Her heels click on the marble floors as she continues to talk, sounding sickeningly pleased with herse
lf. “My apprentice has been murdered. Don’t you agree that we should bring his murderer to justice? It is, after all, the fair thing to do.”
“Why would she do this?” Water splashes on my toes and I realize too late that I’ve smashed my glass between my fingers. Dark red blood drips from my palm until the wound stitches itself back together. “What does she want with me?”
Evan tugs at his eyebrow while biting the thumbnail on his other hand. His eyes never leave the MOD screen. Aurora’s heels click across the floor as she steps closer to the camera. “Citizens of King City, you have three—no … two hours to turn in Maci Might, or your president will die.”
With these words I abandon staring at Evan and turn to the screen. My dad slumps against a concrete wall, retriever hooks stabbed into his wrists, neck, and ankles, dried blood caked on his forehead and around his neck. Bile rises in my throat as I notice a magnetic stake sticking out of his stomach. Aurora touches his face. He flops his head to the side to avoid her touch.
Her voice is ice. “Any last words?”
The camera zooms in on Dad’s face. From where I’m standing, his bloodshot eyes appear to be looking right into mine. With a pained gasp of air, Dad says, “Do not turn yourself in, Maci.” The sound of his voice makes me shiver. Aurora whacks him, hard against the cheek, but Dad doesn’t flinch. He stares straight into the camera. “Stay wherever you are. Stay safe.”
“You want to die?” Aurora seethes, her lips very close to his ear. “Tell her to show herself or I will murder every member of Central.”
I reach into the air, wishing I could touch him, wishing I could be there to yank that stake out of him. “Remember what I told you,” he says cryptically, clenching his jaw for the next blow Aurora delivers to his face. “Do not come here. I know you aren’t a murderer. We do not negotiate with villains.” He blinks back tears before the screen goes black. I want to scream.
First me, then Crimson, then Dad. So much for Heroes never crying. Remember what I told you, he had said. The last time I spoke with Dad was in the medical ward when he warned me to go straight home and I begged him for the opportunity to help. I relive those last few moments with my Dad, the tired look in his eyes and the way he smelled like coffee. Coffee and justice, I used to say. He wanted me to go home and stay there and I had asked for a signal instead. That’s me—never giving up on the idea that I can help. I take another look at the screen as my heart seizes in my chest. He wasn’t blinking back tears just now.
He was blinking. Three times.
“I’m going.” I slap Evan’s hand out of my way. Turning on my heel, I look directly at the bridge of his nose. I may be strong enough to do this, but I’m not strong enough to lie into his eyes. “I do not want to hear a word you have to say. I’m going and you won’t stop me.”
He must know what’s best for him because he steps out of the way as I blow past him toward the other side of the room. “The KAPOW is down and we’re two thousand miles away from Central,” he mutters. “How are you going to get there?”
I grab my Hero suit. “I’ll run.”
He closes the space between us, stepping between me and the elevator. “I know I can’t stop you,” he says, sliding one hand behind my neck and the other around my waist. Warmth floods my body as he pulls me to him while that stupid one-dimple smile driving me crazy. I lean into his kiss. Goosebumps trail down my arm as he slides his hand down my body, kissing me with an intensity I’ve only ever imagined.
Evan presses me to the wall next to the elevator door. My arms wrap around his shoulders even though I’m still holding on to my Hero suit. I grip the fabric in my hand as my other hand flows through Evan’s hair, pulling him closer to me.
Our mouths part long enough for us to catch our breath. When I kiss him again, I run my tongue across his smiling lips. I wish we could stay like this forever. Evan leans to the side and the elevator door slides open. We must have bumped into it by mistake.
Evan reaches up and takes my hands, pulling them gently away from his shoulders.
“What are you—?” I ask, just as my Hero suit rips from my hands.
“You’ll thank me later,” Evan says as he ducks into the elevator with my suit clutched behind his back. The door snaps shut before I can dive in after him, leaving me glaring at him as his body lowers out of sight.
I jab at the elevator button until it finally rises back up to the top floor and lets me in. I’m pretty sure he’s not going to burn my suit or anything in an attempt to stop me from leaving, but I wish the elevator wasn’t so damned slow so I could find out for sure.
Evan’s on the third floor. The moment the glass elevator door opens, I sprint out and almost slam into him as he backs against a table. He holds out my Hero suit by the shoulders, wielding it like peace offering. “It’s like Pepper knew what I was going to do. He had your suit all ready for it.”
“Ready for what?” I snap, yanking my suit out of his hands.
Evan flicks the center of my suit with his middle finger. A metallic ding hums through the black fabric. “I can’t stop you from going. But I can make you better prepared.” He rubs his hands together. “I just wish I had some juice formulated for your DNA, and then I wouldn’t have to worry as much.”
“The breastplate,” I say, pressing my palm against the new addition to my suit. “Pepper told me about this.”
Evan nods. “You’ve got the real deal here. This breastplate is a poly-titanium blend imported from Romania. It was purified three thousand times. Pepper knew about them but he wasn’t allowed to use them. I can’t believe he equipped your suit for it. We got lucky, because no one wants to see my sewing skills.”
“What does it do?” I ask, peeking through the neck hole in the suit. The inside is fitted with a seamless pocket that looks as if it sealed around the breastplate the moment Evan had inserted it.
Evan’s fingers touch my sternum. Tingles of power pulse from his fingertips into my chest, filling me with warmth from my toes to my face. “Your chest is the most important part of your body,” he says. “It’s the nerve center of your power. Nothing will get through this breastplate. With this near your heart, there is no magnet strong enough to kill you.”
“You’re the best,” I say with a smile. “Now I can go.”
His lips press into a thin line but he doesn’t say anything. If only he could bottle that kind of self-restraint as one of his inventions. I’d buy a boatload of it. “Well?” I wag my suit at him. “Are you just going to stand there? Turn around.”
He turns toward the wall with an annoyed sigh and I exchange his borrowed clothes for my Hero suit. The second time wearing it feels just as amazing as the first. I only hope the outcome is different. I tug the hair tie out of my ponytail and let my hair flow around my shoulders, trying not to react too much to the black waves falling on my shoulders. My hair is a part of me, whether it’s the right color or not.
While I was getting dressed, Evan kept busy with something in the corner of the room. When he returns, he’s wearing a grin the size of Texas. My eyes narrow.
“Why are you staring at me like that?” I ask cautiously.
He shrugs and glances at his fingernails. “Oh come on,” I say, stepping closer to him. “You’re not fooling me with that stupid nonchalant look. What are you hiding?”
“You look hot,” he says, “That’s all.”
My heart flutters. “Somehow I don’t think that’s all.”
Evan holds his palm out, pressing his hand against my chest. “It’s not.” He holds up his other hand, twisting an empty syringe in the air. Oh shit, he knows I’m about to fight Aurora and yet he’s about to Juice me?
A cracking sound reverberates off my chest as the smallest vibration prickles at my skin underneath the breastplate. I stand firm, completely unaffected by the jolt of Evan’s juice, aimed point blank at my power source.
Pepper was right. I’m invincible.
“How far away will these rings work?” I ask, pu
lling my glove over the ring on my finger. We’re on the first floor of Research, standing awkwardly in the lobby next to the door.
“They’ll work anywhere.” Evan turns around, hands shoved in his pockets, glasses needing a slight shove back up his nose. “Be careful, Maci.”
“Will you wear yours?” I ask.
“Way ahead of you.” He holds up his hand, the silver ring shining on his ring finger. “So what’s the plan?”
“Well,” I pull on my other glove. “I’m going to find my impersonator and de-mask him. In public. That will clear my name. Then I’ll beat him up for good measure.” I bend my left foot backwards, grabbing it behind me with my hand to stretch out my hamstrings. “Then I’m going to find my dad and pull all that magnetic shit out of him.”
Evan’s arms fold across his chest as he watches me with a weird sort of fascination. I stand tall and rub my hands over my body, checking to ensure that I’m fully suited and ready for battle. “And then,” I say the words with deliberate slowness, “I’m going to find Aurora.”
He lifts an eyebrow.
I lift both of mine. “And I’m going to kill her.”
“Heroes don’t kill,” Evan says.
I shrug. “Well, you know—I’ll make her wish she was dead.
Evan doesn’t follow me off the island. The steady tap of my boots on the concrete floor of the KAPOW tunnel lulls me into such a rhythm that I kind of quit caring about Evan. Or at least I try to quit caring. But although the emotion on his face was only there for a microsecond before he regained his composure, I still saw it. So it still counts.
Fear.
Not the fear I feel in running, quite literally, into my enemy’s arms but the fear of me. It’s the look I’ve seen countless times on the faces of my peers, and their parents and random Super kids who see me for the first time.
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