The Cure

by Teyla Branton

  “So they sent you.” Not a hint of emotion escaped the mental shields he’d erected. I should have anticipated as much, since he’d been raised all his life to protect his thoughts. But a part of me was disappointed. I shrugged. “Guess they thought since you didn’t kill me before, maybe you wouldn’t again.”

  A smile broke through his reserve. “I’m glad you came. It’s good to see you.”

  I was rather surprised at the warmth I felt for him myself. Perhaps because I’d spent the past two months angry at Ritter and romanticizing my time with Keene. There was probably a syndrome named after it.

  “I ordered something,” I said, allowing my hands to slip into my lap. “Are you hungry?”

  He shook his head. “There isn’t time. Look, I might as well just get down to it. The Triad is planning something, and I need help stopping it.”

  “You mean your father?” I arched one brow, aware that the way I said it was a challenge.

  His mouth tightened. “My father’s the genius behind Emporium success, but while he may be a lot of things, he’s not a monster. You know as well as I do that it’s the other two pulling the strings.”

  He meant Delia Vesey and Stefan Carrington. Stefan was ruthless and amoral, but it was the ancient Delia I feared most. She was able to control people with her strong sensing ability, to bend them to her will. I’d barely escaped her grasp with my mind intact.

  “What are they planning?” As I spoke, I caught a glimpse of Jace at a table behind Keene, and the knot I hadn’t been aware of in my stomach relaxed marginally.

  “Who’s there?” Keene asked.

  “No one. I’m sure you watched me arrive.”

  “They wouldn’t have sent you alone, and you were looking at something behind me just now. You relaxed.” He turned to briefly study the diners, as though searching for something out of place.

  His perception was uncanny. I guess living in a world of people who considered themselves gods encouraged you to learn a few tricks to carry your weight. “What makes you think I take orders?” I asked. “I heard you called and I wanted to see you, so here I am.”

  His turn to raise his brows. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Of course.” My smile was genuine. “I never got to thank you for what you did for Chris and Stella.”

  “You’re welcome.” He pulled off the knit cap, briefly revealing the ugly scar that ran the length of his right cheek near the jawline before his brown hair settled down to cover it. He was still arresting, despite the obvious weight loss. “I guess it was too much to hope you’d want a repeat of what happened in that elevator.”

  I held back my smile. “What, when you looked at me like I was a freak?”

  “That was only after you tried to get into my mind.”

  “You were the one who’d kidnapped me, remember?”

  He waved a hand. “Details, details.”

  The waitress arrived with my food, and I was grateful for the interruption. “Would you like anything, sir?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Just coffee. Thanks.”

  “Right away.” The woman took several quick steps to a nearby alcove and returned almost immediately with a steaming cup of coffee.

  “So what’s going on?” I asked when she’d disappeared.

  He glanced once more over his shoulder in my brother’s direction, though I’d been trying hard not to look that way. Thankfully, Jace had moved and was no longer in plain sight.

  Keene’s eyes riveted on my chicken, which was swimming in some kind of unappetizing red sauce. “First you should know that I’ve been working with the Hunters.”

  “What?” My hands curled into fists, and the knot was back in my stomach, every bit as large.

  “I’ve been able to keep tabs on what’s going on in the Emporium that way. You know they infiltrate the Hunters. I told you that before.”

  “Yes, but isn’t that kind of dangerous? Aren’t they looking for you?”

  He barked a laugh that sounded bitter. “You’d think. But apparently, I’m not important enough to worry too much about. I guess they figure in forty or fifty years it won’t matter. I’ll be dead.”

  I dropped my gaze. His bitterness toward his family was more than I could fix with a few words. When I looked up again, he’d grabbed my fork, pulled my plate closer, and was shoveling food down his throat.

  Better him than me.

  “Sorry,” he mumbled after a few gulps. “It was a long flight.”

  “Be my guest. I wasn’t hungry anyway. Now are you going to tell me what’s going on?”

  He swallowed. “The Hunters have started tracking known descendants of Renegade Unbounded.”

  Great. But at least it was verification that what happened today with Mari wasn’t an isolated incident. Two days ago I would have kissed him for the information, and even now it was useful, but maybe I didn’t have to let him know that. “Tell me something I haven’t already figured out the hard way. I suppose the Emporium is behind this new little development?”

  “Yes, though only by suggestion. The Hunters’ files on Unbounded lineage are guarded very closely by those at the top of the Hunter hierarchy, presumably to protect their members who may be descended from Unbounded. The Emporium operatives don’t have access—I’ve been trying to peek at them for years.”

  I relaxed slightly. That was good news for us. If the Emporium had gained access to those records, any descendant linked to us would soon be dead or prisoners to their breeding program.

  “Unfortunately for the Emporium,” Keene added, “the idea backfired. Apparently, the Hunters have records that involve them as well. Not surprising when you think about it. I mean, Hunters formed in the first place because they were upset at being abandoned by the Emporium when they failed to Change. It’s only natural they would have kept track of everyone they knew before their abandonment, as well as their own descendants. Regardless, there have been half a dozen attacks on Emporium descendants in the past few months, each occurring shortly after the victim’s Change.”

  I couldn’t find it in me to be unhappy about that. “I thought most mortal descendants of the Emporium were failed genetic experiments whose likelihood of having Unbounded offspring is virtually nil. So how did keeping track of the Emporium’s mortal descendants lead to finding their Unbounded?” The experiments were a double-edged sword, causing more Unbounded in the first generation, but eliminating the possibility of the active gene occurring in the failed lines.

  “The genetic experiments didn’t used to be so intensive, and in the old days not everyone participated. Even now there are still unplanned pregnancies. Several of my mortal siblings have Unbounded children and grandchildren.”

  Something in his voice made me look at him more closely. Was he hoping his children would be Unbounded? Or the opposite?

  “So there are Changes still happening in some of those initial family lines,” he continued, “just as many as you’d see without interference. The Emporium has lost at least four new Unbounded to the Hunters.”

  Again, I didn’t understand why he wanted me to care. On one level, I might mourn the loss of a life, but if it meant fewer mortals would be abused or one Renegade wasn’t sliced apart, I was all for it. What was bad for the Emporium was good for just about everyone else in the world. “Poor babies.”

  He looked at me sharply. “You’re different now.”

  So are you, I wanted to retort, but he’d always been dark and bitter, so it wasn’t really true. “A lot has happened in the past two months.”

  “Right,” he conceded.

  I watched him take a couple more bites. “We’ve had our own run-in with the Hunters under similar conditions.”

  He swallowed. “Any casualties?”

  “Not this time.” Unless you counted a woman’s broken heart. “In the future we’ll keep a closer watch on potential Unbounded.” At least the Hunters waited until Unbounded actually Changed. Unlike the Emporium. I was glad we didn’t have
anyone coming of age right away, but then again, Ava didn’t tell me everything.

  “That’s not the only reason I came,” Keene stopped chewing long enough to say. “There’s something more the Triad is working on, and I didn’t dare talk about it even over the supposedly secure channels. There’s going to be an assassination.” He leaned forward, the edges of his overcoat hanging perilously near the plate. “They’re gunning for Greggory Bellers.”

  “Who’s that?” The name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it.

  “A senator from Arizona. Very respected and active in the field of medicine—plus his sister is the deputy commissioner over medical products at the FDA. Bellers is one of the good guys who’s trying to do the right thing, red tape be damned. He’s been a thorn in the Emporium’s side for many years.”

  “I like him already.”

  Keene rolled his eyes. “I knew you would. Anyway, he’s been responsible for bringing lifesaving research from overseas to the FDA for testing and trial. He’s saved a lot of lives, and his connection to the FDA makes him a formidable opponent to whoever the Emporium has inside the organization.”

  Now he was making sense. “So he’s costing the Emporium money.”

  “Well, yeah, though it hasn’t been enough for them to worry about—at least not until now. The Emporium has enough overseas personnel that they’re beginning to control drug development in Europe every bit as much as they do here. But Bellars is personally connected with promising research in Mexico where they aren’t as active, research that will apparently revolutionize autoimmune diseases.”

  “Nanotechnology,” I said, half under my breath.

  “How did you know?” He permitted himself a tiny, slightly crooked grin. “Well, I guess everything’s about nanotech these days, isn’t it?”

  I shook my head. “I knew I’d heard his name before.” I waited a few seconds before adding. “We fund a research facility in Mexico. This morning we got word of some kind of attack. We haven’t been able to get through to anyone there since. That’s where your brother’s headed now. He’s probably already landed, or will soon.”

  Keene’s brow furrowed. “It can’t be coincidence.”

  “No. Not when I’m pretty sure this Bellers is our stateside contact with the FDA.” That would teach me to be more involved in what the others were working on.

  “Then he’s more important than I suspected.” Keene set down his fork, though his green eyes lingered hungrily on the food. From his pocket he drew out a plain white envelope and tossed it onto the table. “Look who the senator has for a new aide—as of two weeks ago.” His tone told me I wasn’t going to like it.

  I pulled out two photographs. The first was a face I recognized all too well, evoking a lump of regret and anger so large I couldn’t swallow: Tom Carver.

  Tom, my ex-almost-fiancé had been a stockbroker before my Change, and he’d had to follow politics to read trends, but the Tom I knew wouldn’t enjoy being the go-to boy for anyone, even an important senator. His feelings of inferiority already ran too deep, though I guess abandonment did that to a child. Whatever his profession, he wasn’t a murderer, or at least he hadn’t been before his Unbounded mother had gotten him involved with the Emporium. He looked good—better than when I’d known him. His brown hair had more highlights, he looked more fit, and his stance signaled self-assurance. He appeared ready to rule the world—and would if his newly returned mother had her way.

  Keene was pretending to scan the restaurant, looking everywhere but at me. When I didn’t speak, he risked a glance. “It gets worse,” he said quietly.

  I bit the inside of my lip and looked at the next picture. Tom at an airport, kissing the cheek of a gorgeous brunette wearing a short, red mini skirt and a tight tank top that accentuated her bust line. She was obviously wearing one of her favorite push-up bras—probably padded. Being Unbounded didn’t necessarily mean well-endowed. Her tall heels made her only a few inches shorter than Tom, but she seemed dainty and fragile all the same. Even from the side, Tom looked happy.

  I’d known that wherever Tom was, Justine wouldn’t be far behind. Did he still believe she was the loyal sister who’d come to rescue him when he’d aged out of foster care seventeen years ago? Maybe she’d finally confessed the truth about being his mother. Whatever their real relationship, she probably controlled him as absolutely as before.

  Wherever Justine was, death and destruction were never far behind, however masked it would be in the pheromones that aided in her seductions. Last I’d known, she’d been sleeping with Stefan Carrington in her attempt to influence the Triad, but it hadn’t gotten her far.

  I took a slow breath before saying, “When was this taken?”

  “Three days ago. I did some research, and she was on her way to Mexico. I thought it odd for her to be leaving at the time, since I was investigating a possible threat to the senator, but now it makes sense.”

  I stood. “I’d better pass this along to Ava. Is there a place I can reach you in case we have questions?”

  “Tell Cort to post on that group we use and I’ll set up a time to talk. It’s as anonymous as anything.”

  “Okay. Thanks for the information.”

  He leaned back, peering up at me. “Thank you for the food.”

  He’d finished only half of it. I forced a smile, “Maybe next time we’ll have a whole dinner.”

  A grin spread across his face. “There’s going to be a next time? I’d like that—a lot. But maybe then you’ll introduce me to your brother instead of having him spy on us.”

  I laughed. I should have known he’d figure it out. “I don’t know. Jace has a bone to pick with you. The last time you two met, he ended up almost dying.”

  “That wasn’t my fault.”

  “Well, he might feel he has something to prove, especially after missing all the excitement earlier this evening.”

  “Excitement?” Keene’s brow furrowed.

  What would it hurt to tell him? “Run-in with Hunters. They’d been tracking one of our potentials, just like you said. But they were easy enough to deal with—this time.”

  Keene stood up so abruptly that his chair tipped backwards, clanking loudly on the travertine floor. In two steps he was by my side, one hand gripping my arm. “This evening?”

  “Yes. Why does that matter?”

  “Because the Emporium is monitoring the Hunters closely.”

  Before he’d finished the sentence, Jace materialized behind Keene, his rapid movement more astonishing to our neighboring diners than the fallen chair and Keene’s urgency.

  Keene stiffened but didn’t turn around. “If the Hunters called it in before they went for the pickup, the Emporium will know and come to make sure it’s not one of ours—theirs.” The slip of words made me wonder just how separated he really was from the Emporium.

  Jace met my eyes. “He means they could have followed you from the park.”

  My gut wrenched at the idea. I’d been careful on the return trip to the palace, but if they’d planned it beforehand, they might have used a tracking device on my Jeep—on all the vehicles at the park—and though the disrupters we had in place at the palace would prevent any transmitting from that location, they could have followed the Jeep far enough to make the point moot.

  “The children,” I said.

  Though Chris’s children were eighth generation and not likely to carry the active Unbounded gene, their sensing lineage made them targets for the Emporium breeding experiments. Emporium agents might try to keep Spencer and Kathy alive during an attack, but the children were small and untrained and could be easily hurt in a direct confrontation. As new Unbounded, Mari and Oliver would also need protection, placing Ava, Stella, and Ritter at a severe disadvantage if they had to defend the palace.

  “They should be okay. The palace has alarms, and our people have weapons,” Jace said, though the worry emanating from him screamed the opposite.

  “Let’s go.” Keene tossed a fe
w bills onto the table as I reached for my phone. “There’s no time to waste. I’ll help if I can.” Pulling on his knit cap, he strode toward the door, with Jace and me close behind.

  I dialed Ava, but she didn’t pick up. Hurry. I pushed myself to run faster, the outside cold piercing my lungs with icy needles.

  We were halfway down the street before I began to question Keene’s intentions. What if he had returned to the Emporium and this whole scenario was a setup? If we took him to the palace, we could be leading the Emporium Unbounded straight to the heart of our operation.

  As if coming to the same conclusion, Jace choked out, “Our phones didn’t signal an emergency.”

  “Maybe they don’t know yet. No one’s answering.” I wanted to believe Keene, but before I did, he’d have to drop the barrier on his mind so I could make sure.

  We rounded the corner, ignoring the stares of a couple we passed. Two more steps and the phone in my hand let out three sharp beeps and began vibrating. Jace’s did the same.

  The emergency signal. We were too late. Keene had been right.

  I put in my password—the real one, not the one that would erase the information on the phone—and pulled up our GPS app that would locate any of our Renegades within range. No one registered on the map, which meant all our people in Portland were at the palace where the disrupters were still in place.

  All our people, including Ritter. His combat ability would even the odds considerably, but my worry cranked up a notch. We hadn’t even talked. He hadn’t explained where he’d been and why he’d left me.

  We were about to cross a small intersecting street when the emotion hit. Tingling. An almost imperceptible change in the air. Excitement. Hate.

  Just as quickly, the sensation vanished.

  But I knew someone was out there. I could feel the life force high on a roof where no life force would normally be.

  “Cover!” I barked, throwing myself against the nearest building, my eyes scanning the darkness. I unholstered my trusty Sig.

  Jace dived into the shadows next to me, and Keene, with only a second’s hesitation did the same. “Don’t tell me,” Keene said, drawing his own weapon, “you came here in the same vehicle you used at that park.”