The Cure

by Teyla Branton

  “Come on, kids,” I said to Kathy and Spencer. “Help me walk. Let’s get out of here.” My body was healing, but I was still having trouble seeing. I hoped Ritter could find Mari because I wasn’t confident in my ability to drive us safely to Stella’s, and Oliver wasn’t going to be much help.

  Ava carried Stella, while Jace staggered under Oliver’s weight. Pain filled my steps, but after the first few minutes, my ankle became completely numb. In the lobby, we passed Marco, George, and Charles, our three remaining mortal employees, who were busy moving the unconscious Unbounded out to Dimitri’s truck. “At least two got away,” Marco told Ava as he went to help Jace carry Oliver. Marco was short and stocky with olive skin and dark hair and rolling eyes that missed nothing. He and Gaven had been best friends.

  Ava nodded. “I know. They’ll alert others or whoever they have on the police payroll. We’ll have to torch the place. I’ll get what we need from the rooms. You guys grab the electronics and weapons. We don’t have much time.”

  Part of the training for each Renegade was to keep vital documents and important items in one place in case abandoning the safe house became necessary. Copies were kept in a bank safe deposit box for much of it, including stacks of fake IDs and irreplaceable keepsakes. We’d moved before, but this was the first time I’d experienced a complete abandonment. I thought of the new pair of jeans in my closet that fit like a comfortable glove and had taken a week of horrendous shopping to find, and the black outfit Stella had especially made for me with numerous pockets for hidden weapons. I called it my catwoman suit. I wondered if there would be time to retrieve them. Silly and human of me. It could all be replaced. Though we couldn’t begin to compete with the Emporium for funds, individual Renegades had amassed large amounts of money, and Ava had allotted me a monthly share of her funds by right of my Change. There had been no strings attached, but I felt indebted to her, and now that I was finished with watching Mari, I hoped to earn my own way.

  If people stopped trying to kill me long enough.

  As we loaded the kids, Stella, Oliver, and the dog into our brown van, I belatedly remembered Keene. Where was he? I’d asked Ava if everyone was okay, and I’d meant him as well, but I hadn’t seen him around and it was possible she hadn’t included him in her count. Breath catching in my throat, I turned to Ava. “Cort’s brother. Is he—?” I couldn’t finish.

  “He’s helping Ritter search for Mari.”

  I let out a sigh of relief that I told myself was only because I felt responsible for bringing him here. I still had to tell Ava what he’d said about why we’d been attacked tonight and about Justine going to Mexico.

  “Later.” Ava touched my cheek. Until that moment, I hadn’t realized that not only had I dropped my mental shield, but I was projecting my thoughts. “I’ll be there as soon I can.” Love came through both her touch and thoughts, in complete contrast with the gruesome blood covering her clothing.

  “Okay, but we have to go to Mexico.”

  She nodded. “I figured as much.”

  I took the keys and started around to the driver’s side, stopping as Ritter strode from the darkness carrying Mari in his arms. Her blouse was splattered with blood. I took two steps toward him, but the pain in my ribs at the sudden movement made me stop again.

  “What’s wrong with her?” I asked. Mari’s eyes were open, but they were unfocused and staring.

  “Found her in the trailer. She was holding one of the Hunter’s hands.”

  “Her husband,” I guessed. “How did she get in there? Or even know where he was?”

  “I don’t know, but she may need a doctor.” Ritter’s voice was gruff, but there was an underlying softness that reminded me that he’d experienced something much worse with his own family.

  I put my face close to Mari’s. “I’m sorry, Mari. So sorry. But it’s going to be okay. You’re safe. I’m going to help you.”

  No response.

  “Let’s get her into the van,” Ava said.

  Leaving them to put Mari in with the others, I hobbled around to the driver’s door and yanked it open. Painfully, I climbed onto the seat. In an hour, I’d feel a hundred times better, but for now, I’d been distinctly reminded that I wasn’t actually immortal. Reaching over to pull the door shut, it rammed into something solid.

  Ritter. He stood there looking terrible and fierce, his mind closed to me. His face was streaked with blood, though his lips were remarkably untouched. The cut over his left eye was healing and the bleeding had stopped, but there was a new cut on his jaw that gaped. He looked me over as I did him, his black eyes probing. Apparently satisfied, he reached for my hand, and at his touch, my flesh burned.

  He must have seen something in my eyes because for a brief second, I caught a glimpse of the maelstrom of emotions in his mind. Mine, his thoughts said.

  Before I could refute his claim on me, he was closed again. Or had it been my thought, not his? I needed a shrink when a man covered in blood was so attractive to me that I wanted to melt into him.

  “Double back three times to make sure you’re not followed,” he said. “Go straight to Stella’s. Don’t stop anywhere. Leave the keys in the van. We’ll dispose of it as soon as we get there. I’ve checked for tracking devices and changed the plates, but once you’re at Stella’s, turn on the alarms and keep your gun loaded.”

  “You’re wasting breath,” I spat. “I’ve been training for months, even if you haven’t been here to teach me.”

  “Good. Don’t go anywhere.”

  The stupid idiot. “I’ll take care of them. Just clean up here.” Actually, I had no idea how I’d get them into Stella’s apartment. I couldn’t exactly ask Bronson’s nurse for help. The woman had worked for Stella in Kansas, and had moved here with them when it was clear Bronson needed around-the-clock care, but Stella had always been careful not to overlap her separate lives.

  I tugged on the door, but Ritter didn’t move. “So do you promise not to go anywhere?” The demand had left his voice, and I caught a hint of the man inside who’d once needed someone.

  I swallowed hard and muttered, “Yes.” I’d promise with the same level of commitment he’d given me when he made his promise two months ago.

  He nodded and stepped back, leaving me with a disappointment I couldn’t place. Now who was the idiot?

  I put the van into gear and stepped on the gas. Before I’d left the parking lot, Ava and Ritter had already disappeared. Without warning, a man rose up in my headlights, and I slammed on the brakes with my good left foot to avoid hitting him. What now?

  “Who is it?” Kathy sounded close to breaking.

  I glanced at the seat next to me where the kids huddled together. “A friend. Cort’s brother. You remember him, don’t you? He helped us escape the Emporium.”

  “Not really.”

  I unrolled the window, one hand on the gun in my lap. “Where’ve you been?” I asked Keene.

  “I ran into another Unbounded.” He rubbed his jaw and winced. “Where are you going?”

  “Can’t tell you.”

  “Fair enough. Look, I’ve been thinking about sticking around a bit. See if Cort needs my help in Mexico.”

  I shrugged. “You’ll have to talk to Ava.”

  “Yeah, but first I’m talking to you.”

  “I’m fine with it.” Provided she could verify that he wasn’t still working for the Emporium. Too much had happened today to allow me to trust him without question. Justine had used far more elaborate schemes to earn my trust.

  He grinned and slapped the side of the van as I revved the engine and drove away.

  BY THE TIME I’D MADE sure I wasn’t being followed and had arrived at the gated community where Stella lived, I felt substantially better. I no longer had trouble focusing, and the pain in my chest had lessened. I still couldn’t feel my ankle, but that was probably a good thing. Oliver had also recovered somewhat, though Stella hadn’t regained consciousness and Mari was still staring, unseeing.<
br />
  All the buildings looked almost exactly alike, with six apartments, two to each floor, and outside stairs and balconies. Stella’s apartment was located on the top.

  “I can walk. I think,” Oliver said.

  “Okay, this is what we’re going to do,” I told the kids. “Spencer, you need to guide Mari. I think I can get her to walk. Kathy, you help Oliver, and I’ll carry Stella. Let’s see if we can do it in one trip. I don’t want to leave anyone here.”

  “We can do it,” Kathy said. She had regained a little color in her cheeks, and even Spencer had released his hold on his sister.

  “Let’s go.”

  “Wait,” Kathy said. “Grandma Ava gave us blankets. She said we should wrap it around them to hide the . . . the blood.”

  Right. If any of the neighbors saw us before we got inside they might call the police. Even then the nurse could still call them, but hopefully the large paycheck Stella gave her would guarantee at least temporary silence. I put my Sig in my coat pocket and prayed I wouldn’t have to drop Stella to get access to it.

  Everything went well until we reached the stairs where Mari balked. Kathy had to leave Oliver to help Spencer lift Mari up the first flight, and Oliver almost tumbled back down. Thankfully, he caught the railing at the last moment and Spencer pulled him to safety. Max docilely followed along behind us, for once not even barking.

  Although Stella’s door looked like all the others in the community, I knew it had been built to withstand a lot more than an ordinary steel door. The inside walls had been reinforced as well, the decorating over the top so expert that no one would ever know. For all her nerdy computer skills, Stella was also a master at design. In addition to this apartment, she also owned the one next door. That apartment was for emergencies, the outside entrance nailed shut so it was accessible only from inside the first apartment through a hidden panel at the back of a closet. I’d put the children there now.

  Kathy opened the door, which was good because the code changed weekly, and I couldn’t remember what it was now, though Stella had sent it to my phone like always. She never took chances with Bronson. He might be dying, but her greatest hope was that he would live to see their child born.

  We were all inside and Kathy was resetting the alarm when Bronson’s nurse hurried into the room, pulling on her robe. Martha Cox was a short, broad lady with gray hair, large hands, and a no-nonsense attitude that amused Bronson on his good days. Or used to when he’d had good days. She also possessed the kindest blue eyes in the history of eyes.

  Now those eyes riveted on Stella. “What happened? Is the baby okay?”

  The two questions I couldn’t answer. “I don’t know about the baby, and Stella will have to explain later. Right now we need to get her into bed.”

  “She might need a doctor.”

  “I have one coming.” I’d called on the way, and it would take Wade an hour to get here from the university lab where he was probably pulling one of his all-nighters.

  Martha directed me to the guest bedroom where together we removed Stella’s dress, patched up the wounds we could see, cleaned off most of the blood, and tucked her inside warm blankets. Already her wounds were healing, but Stella didn’t wake.

  “Poor thing,” Martha said, smoothing Stella’s forehead.

  “She’s going to be okay. It’s the baby I’m worried about.” I might not know exactly what the baby meant to Stella—no one did except maybe Ava, who’d lost every bit as much—but I knew enough. The loss would devastate her.

  Losing the baby now will save her the pain of watching her child grow old and die later. I pushed the thought away. We couldn’t start thinking that way because there was always a chance our children would carry the gene. Unbounded children meant carrying on the battle against the Emporium, especially when we’d lost so many of our experienced Unbounded recently. There were fewer than a hundred Renegades now, and from the intel we could gather, Emporium Unbounded outnumbered us at least four to one.

  “You stay with her,” I told Martha. “I’ll settle the others.”

  “I don’t know where we’re going to put them. There’s a couch bed, and the little ones can go down in my room.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  She nodded. “I’ll have to peek in on Bronson, but besides that I’ll sleep in this chair in case she needs anything.” She pointed to the off-white easy chair near the dresser that looked more comfortable than any chair had a right to look. Stella’s decorating magic once again.

  “Ava will be here soon. She can take over for you then.”

  Back in the sitting room, the kids sprawled on the floor with Max, Oliver lay on the leather sofa wrapped in his blanket, and Mari sat on the edge of a love seat, still staring straight ahead.

  “Come on,” I told the kids.

  “Oliver’s asleep,” Kathy said. “He sounds funny.”

  Actually, his breathing was a lot better than back at the palace. Maybe he wouldn’t need the doctor after all. “Let him sleep. Let’s get you to bed.”

  “Where are we going to sleep?” Kathy asked. “Stella only has three rooms.”

  “Actually, there’s another one. It’s secret.” I forced a smile. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  “I want my daddy.” Spencer looked up at me, his eyes full of tears.

  “He’s coming,” I told him. “But we’ll wait in the secret room for him. No one knows it’s there so we’ll be super safe.”

  He blinked. “Not even the Emporium?”

  “Nope.” I picked him up and he clung to my neck so tightly I felt choked and my ribs screamed in protest. No matter. “You were so brave and helpful tonight,” I added.

  “Like a real Renegade?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  He seemed satisfied with that, so I took them down the hall to the linen closet, showing them the panel that unlatched and revealed the entry to the adjoining apartment. Just in case, I sent out my thoughts, but I could sense no one there. No emotions or life forces. Even so, I kept one hand near my gun until I checked out the rooms, one by one.

  “It really is secret,” Spencer said, the tenseness seeping from his little body.

  The apartment was slightly smaller than the other, with only two bedrooms and bathroom, but Stella had cleaned it recently and the aroma of flowers wafted up from the plug-in air freshener. Two queen-sized mattresses sitting directly on the floor in each room made up the entirety of the furniture. That’s all I needed. Within minutes, I had the kids nestled together in one of the beds under a couple blankets I swiped from Stella’s linen closet.

  Spencer dropped off almost immediately, his arms around Max, but Kathy stared at the ceiling. “Gaven always used to play cards with me,” she whispered. “I’m going to miss him.”

  “We all will.”

  She nodded and snuggled up to her brother, shutting her eyes. I lay down next to her, cradling her body with my own. “It’s going to be okay, Kathy.”

  Her hand found mine. “I know.”

  I felt like a liar because I didn’t really know anything. Anything except that I wasn’t going to let my brother put these children in danger again.

  Where else would they be safe? I couldn’t think of anywhere unless it was completely unconnected to any Unbounded. Could I give them up if it came to that?

  What choice was there really?

  Leaving the kids sleeping, I double-checked the bars on the shuttered windows before going back to the other apartment. The doctor would be arriving any minute, and I’d have to go down to the gate to let him in. Out in the living room, Oliver was still on the couch, his breathing raspy but steady. Mari had slumped onto one arm of the chair and her eyes were closed. She didn’t move when I called her name. The blood splattered on her peach blouse had dried nearly black. I’d find her something new to wear in the morning.

  Gun in hand, I punched in the codes to the alarm, setting it again behind me. Hopping into the van, I drove to the gate and waited. Fina
lly, a battered blue car of indeterminate make drove up, and I watched Wade Crampton, his rotund figure still clad in a white smock, squeeze from the car. He glanced behind him worriedly as I jumped from the van and opened the gate.

  “Expecting someone?”

  “No.” He hesitated, swallowing hard as his eyes wandered over my jeans and coat. Belatedly, I realized that like the other Unbounded, copious amounts of blood stained my clothing. “Well, maybe,” he said finally. “Look, I know you said you need a doctor to look at your friend, but I only agreed to come because I need to talk to you.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. I wanted to ask him if he was being followed, but why would I even suspect such a thing? I’d made sure there was no connection between us, and every time he’d taken samples from my father, it had been at his lab. No way could the Emporium have connected anything he did with the Renegades.

  “We’ll talk later,” I said. “Right now I need you to look at my friend. She’s about three months along and she’s had some severe trauma tonight. I want to know if there’s anything we can do for the baby.”

  He ran a hand through his sparse brown hair. “Why don’t you take her to the emergency?”

  “I can’t. That’s all.”

  He shook his head. “I’ll look at her—not that I know anything about obstetrics—but after this, I’m out.”

  “Out? What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about the fact that my government grant has been threatened because of the work I was doing for you. And the dean of the university has told me if I lose the grant, then I lose my job.”

  “How would they even know you were doing anything for me? I thought we agreed you’d keep it a secret and work on it only after hours.” My hand clenched the Sig in my coat pocket.

  He took a step back. “Well, it was an article I wrote for a journal. It was just hypothesizing about the possibility of doing away with immune-suppression drugs, citing that fourth experiment with your father that induced nausea. I mean, it did work somewhat, despite that side effect, and it was only a matter of time before someone else made the connection and I—”