Wild-born

by Adrian Howell

“Save your compliments,” I replied coldly. “They don’t work without your powers.”

  Ralph snickered once, and we stared at each other. Cindy had said that she didn’t want me to become a killer. I wondered how many people Ralph had killed.

  Remembering that Cindy and Alia were waiting in the garage, I broke the silence, saying as calmly as I could, “I have a question.”

  Ralph shrugged. “I’m not going anywhere, lad.”

  “How did you know my name?”

  “I know a good many things about you, little destroyer. Like I said, you’re something special.”

  I didn’t care about being special. “You lied to me when you said the Angels wanted me dead, didn’t you? That berserker wanted to recruit me into the Angels just like you wanted me in the Guardians.”

  “Smart lad, you are,” said Ralph, smirking.

  “Cindy told me,” I said dryly. “But when you took me, you were in a hurry.”

  “That I was.”

  “Why?”

  “But you already know why, don’t you, lad?” Ralph said in a mocking tone.

  I did know. The berserker was sent to capture me, but when the Angels found out that Ralph was hunting the berserker…

  “There was another Angel,” I said quietly.

  “That’s right.”

  “Where is my sister?”

  Ralph started laughing. “Give it up, lad. You’re not going to find her.”

  “Where is she?!” I bellowed. The flower vase on the dining table shattered.

  Ralph didn’t even flinch. “She’s just another Angel now, and you’re not going to find her.”

  I glared at him, my whole body shaking in fury.

  Ralph stared calmly back. “So, lad, aren’t you going to kill me now?”

  I took a deep meditative breath. “Cindy told me not to.”

  “Ah, but Cindy isn’t a destroyer, is she?”

  “That’s true,” I replied evenly. “A moment ago, you tried to kill me, Ralph. You knew my sister had been taken by an Angel last year, and you let it happen. You stopped me from going after her so you could save yourself and sell me to your Guardians.”

  Ralph remained silent, gazing back at me.

  I continued quietly, “You’re right, Ralph. I am a destroyer. If I let you live, you’ll come after us again. You’ll tell the Guardians about Alia. You’ll tell them that she’s a healer.”

  “That I would. So what are you waiting for?” said Ralph, raising his voice. “Get it over with, lad! Go on, little destroyer!”

  I stretched my right arm toward him, taking a step forward and pointing my index finger at his heart. One focused shot, and I could prevent any of that from happening. I looked at the old man’s face. I saw the dried blood on his neck and shirt, and I thought again of how Cindy had asked me to spare his life. I could still feel Alia’s little hand squeezing mine. I had a strong feeling now that whatever I did, I would end up regretting it.

  “I am a destroyer,” I repeated slowly, “and I may only be thirteen…” I lowered my arm and looked deep into his eyes. “But I know better than to fall for your stupid tricks again, Ralph. And I will never, ever, be a killer like you.”

  I turned on my heel and started to walk back toward the door when I heard Ralph say nastily, “Enjoy your denial while it lasts, little wild-born. You can’t run from your destiny forever.”

  I know I shouldn’t have risen to him, but I don’t particularly regret it either. I spun on the spot and blasted him hard, knocking him backwards, chair and all. Still tied to the chair, Ralph lay on his back, moaning feebly.

  “That’s for Cat!” I spat vehemently. “And for Alia, in advance.”

  I walked to the garage and got into the front of the SUV, slamming the door. Cindy didn’t say anything as she started the engine. She pushed the remote control to open the garage shutter, and out we sped, leaving her house, leaving Ralph’s rusty blue convertible parked on the curb, and off into the unknown.

  Chapter 9: Cindy and the Guardians

  Actually, just unknown to me. Cindy seemed to know where we were headed. I sat next to her, silently looking out of the window. Packed between bags of clothes, Alia sat in the back, hugging her unicorn and staring emptily off into space. Cindy kept her eyes on the road. Nobody spoke. I let the silence build until I couldn’t stand it any longer.

  “I didn’t kill him, Cindy,” I said stiffly.

  Cindy just nodded slightly.

  “I did blast him, but I didn’t kill him.”

  Cindy finally looked at me and smiled kindly, saying, “I was hoping that’s what happened.”

  “Did you hear what we talked about?” I asked.

  “I heard you talking, but I couldn’t make it out,” replied Cindy. “I just heard the chair fall over.”

  I looked at her. “You honestly thought I killed him.”

  “I hoped you didn’t.”

  “But Cindy, you realize that as soon as Ralph is found, he’s going to tell the Guardians about Alia?”

  “I know that, Adrian,” Cindy answered calmly.

  I shook my head in frustration. “She’ll be hunted forever. You said so yourself!”

  “And I’m sorry that’s what’s going to happen.”

  “But Cindy–”

  Cindy looked at me sharply. “Adrian?!”

  “For the last time, I didn’t kill him!” I shouted. A long crack appeared on the dashboard.

  “Okay, okay, I believe you,” Cindy said hastily. “Lower your voice. You’re scaring Alia.”

  “Are we hidden?” I asked in an annoyed tone, trying to calm myself.

  “Of course. And we’re together. And we’re alive. And you’re not a killer. We have lots to be grateful for, Adrian.”

  Cindy pulled into a drive-thru, buying us some burgers and fries for the road ahead. I thought I wasn’t hungry until I took a bite. The last time we had eaten was lunch just before arriving at the frozen pond. Even Alia ate half a burger, which seemed to calm her just a little. Cindy ate while she drove, her prejudice against fast food notwithstanding.

  “I’m really sorry, Cindy,” I said, gingerly running my fingertips along the broken dashboard.

  “It’s okay,” Cindy said softly. “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you.”

  “I guess I still need to learn control, huh?”

  Cindy smiled. “You’re getting there.”

  “Cindy, I know you couldn’t sense the God-slayers because they’re normal people, but why couldn’t you sense Ralph back at the pond?” I asked. “He’s no good at hiding, is he?”

  “Someone gave him hiding protection,” replied Cindy. “Probably because Ralph was hunting the Slayers and knew he might end up near whoever they were hunting, which was us.”

  “How did the Slayers find us, though?”

  “No idea,” Cindy said simply.

  I had a feeling that Cindy did at least have an idea, but I didn’t press the matter. There was something much more important on my mind.

  “Ralph told me about my sister,” I said as calmly as I could.

  “What did he say?” asked Cindy.

  “He said an Angel took her.”

  Cindy closed her eyes for a brief moment, sighing softly before saying, “I was beginning to think that’s what happened to her as well.”

  I stared at her. “Cindy! You never said anything to me!”

  “Well, I wasn’t sure enough. It was just a hunch, and I didn’t want to get you worked up.”

  “Worked up?!”

  Cindy sighed again. “If an Angel did take your sister, Adrian, there was nothing you could do about it then, and there’s not much you can do now. She’ll have been converted.”

  I almost didn’t want to hear what “converted” meant. But there was another question to ask as well. “The Angels tried to capture me, but they didn’t care about my family. Why would they take Cat at all?”

  “I have a theory, that’s all,” said Cindy.

  With c
onsiderable effort, I forced myself to stop glaring, and Cindy explained, “The Angels sent a berserker after you, right? He was supposed to get you to kill your family and then bring you in. But then Ralph was sent after him. Ralph is strong, Adrian. I know you beat him, but–”

  “We beat him,” I corrected, remembering that I would have suffocated to death had Cindy not drained Ralph during the fight.

  “We beat him,” Cindy repeated quietly. “But Ralph is one of the Guardians’ best. He was, as you saw, more than a match for the berserker. When the Angels found out that Ralph was after their berserker, they sent another psionic, or maybe even a whole team.”

  Cindy paused for a moment as if she wasn’t sure she should tell me the rest of her theory. I said a little harshly, “Go on.”

  “Whoever they sent would have had to be powerful enough to take on Ralph. Ralph decided to keep you from falling into their hands by running away. Ralph doesn’t usually run, Adrian, but that time, he did.”

  “Right…” I said slowly, not yet exactly sure what Cindy was getting at.

  “Well, that left the Angels in a fix, didn’t it? They didn’t want to return empty-handed. They might have accidentally come across your sister, who would have looked out of place running through the streets in the middle of the night. Or perhaps they were searching your house when your sister came back on her own. Either way, they got to her.”

  “But they didn’t kill her.” I tried to say it matter-of-factly, though I’m sure Cindy caught the hopefulness in my tone.

  “No one found her body, so probably not,” agreed Cindy.

  “Which then brings us back to ‘conversion,’” I said, trying hard to keep my voice steady.

  “Adrian, this isn’t going to be easy for you to hear.”

  “I’m getting used to hearing things I don’t like, Cindy. Just tell me. Please.”

  Cindy took a deep breath. “Conversion is done by a master controller. It’s not like Ralph’s control. It doesn’t wear off quickly. The convert becomes a loyal slave to the master controller. The convert desires nothing more than to serve the master’s cause, blindly without question. And if it’s done at a young age, it’s usually permanent.”

  Cindy looked at me to see how I was taking this. Honestly, I don’t remember exactly how I felt when I first heard her words. Confused, lost, betrayed, frustrated, angry… It all just blended together and weighted me down to my seat. Cat had been enslaved by the Angels. It just didn’t seem real. And it didn’t make any sense. Cat was only ten years old, and she wasn’t even psionic.

  “What could they possibly want with her?” I asked.

  “Do you remember how I told you that a psionic bloodline can become dormant when it gets too thin?”

  I nodded.

  “No one knows exactly how it works, but through the right combination of parents, a dormant bloodline can suddenly become active and start producing psionics again. That’s how you became a wild-born, Adrian. And when a bloodline is reactivated, it’s fairly common for the siblings of wild-born psionics to also develop psionic powers.”

  “You mean Cat’s like us?”

  “There’s no guarantee, but it’s very possible. Your telekinetic power is so strong that I would imagine that both of your parents had dormant psionic blood in them. That would increase the chances of your sister becoming psionic by quite a bit. But like I told you before, most people don’t gain their powers until they’re adults. There’s no way to tell whether your sister will really become psionic until she actually does.”

  I shook my head, asking, “You mean the Angels took her because she might become psionic in the future?”

  “The Angels have many slaves, Adrian, and not all of them are psionic. I think the Angels figured they could convert your sister now, and if, later, she did display any powers, she’d already be loyal to them.”

  I was having trouble breathing. I pictured Cat living in some dark and filthy room, cooking and cleaning for a monster like the berserker who had killed our parents. I could see her smiling at the monster, like Alia had at Ralph back in Cindy’s living room.

  “Stop the car!” I shouted.

  Cindy hit the brakes, and I jumped out, stumbling to the edge of the road and vomiting onto the grass next to the pavement. My legs gave out, and I slumped down on the concrete, unable to move.

  I felt Cindy’s hand gently rubbing my back. She crouched next to me and put an arm around my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Adrian,” she said. “I’m so sorry.”

  I couldn’t say anything. Cindy sat with me, for how long I don’t know. She held me with both arms around me, as if to keep me from being swallowed whole by my pain.

  “Addy, are you alright?” Alia’s tender voice cleared my head just a little. I saw her squatting on my other side, peering into my eyes. She placed her hands on my left arm, and I tried to give her a smile.

  “Adrian, come on,” Cindy said softly. “It’s cold out here.”

  She slowly stood me back up and led me to the car, putting me in the back seat with Alia. Alia kept her hands around my arm, and we sat there in silence as Cindy started driving again.

  The initial shock of what I had heard was beginning to wear off. I wiped my mouth to get rid of the awful taste, and gave Alia a quick hug to reassure her that I was okay. Then I looked at Cindy’s eyes through the rearview mirror.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about my sister when we first met, Cindy?” I asked accusingly. “You knew all along that Cat might be psionic.”

  “I’m sorry, Adrian. I probably should have told you. But I didn’t want to worry you, and I didn’t know for sure that the Angels had taken her.”

  “You still should have told me.”

  “I know, Adrian. I’m sorry.”

  I wished that she wouldn’t apologize so easily. I so wanted to be mad at her right now. I knew that Cindy had only been trying to shelter me from a painful truth, but she had no right to keep this hidden from me for so long.

  Ralph had known about my sister too. That was why he had asked me where she was. He had wanted to take us both. As much as I hated Ralph for his deceptions, at least he had wanted Cat alive from the start. The Angels hadn’t cared in the least whether my sister lived or died back when their berserker was using his power on me. And that was the kind of company Cat was in now.

  “Is there no way to get her back?” I asked.

  “Conversion is powerful psionics, Adrian,” Cindy replied carefully. “If your sister had been a grown-up, her conversion could have lasted anywhere from a few years to a few decades. But as a child…”

  “It’s permanent,” I said disgustedly. “I heard you the first time.”

  “I’m really sorry, Adrian.”

  “There’s got to be a way,” I insisted, gripping Cat’s pendant. “There just has to!”

  Cindy remained silent, but through the rearview mirror, I saw in her eyes that she was holding something back. “There is a way, isn’t there?” I asked. “Are you going to keep this from me too?”

  Cindy gazed back at me for a moment. Then she sighed once and said, “There is one way, and only one way, to completely break psionic conversion, Adrian.”

  “How?”

  “The master controller must die. Then, depending on the strength of the conversion, the effects can fade in anywhere from a few weeks to a few months.”

  So there was a way. I had told Ralph that I would never become a killer, but I might bend that vow just once for Cat’s psionic master.

  “Where are these Angels?” I asked.

  “The Angels, like the Guardians, are scattered around the country in small clusters. They don’t all live together.”

  “And which one–”

  “Adrian, I don’t know. I honestly don’t. Even if I knew, I wouldn’t tell you. Not until I can be sure you’re not going to go off on some foolish suicide mission.”

  “You once said that you’d help me look for her!” I accused, remembering the night Cindy ha
d come home with the police report. It was easier to be angry with her than to remember my own decision to stay safely hidden in her house. I knew now that it wouldn’t have made any difference had I gone back to my hometown three weeks after Cat had been taken, but even so, I hated myself for choosing the easy way out.

  Cindy kept her eyes on the road as she said, “It’s different now, Adrian.”

  “You said you’d help me,” I repeated.

  “That was when we didn’t know what had happened.”

  I muttered savagely, “Maybe I should have joined the Guardians with Ralph after all.”

  “You can’t mean that, Adrian.”

  “Then how am I supposed to rescue Cat?”

  “I don’t know,” said Cindy. “But you’re not going to be any use to her dead. You should be grateful you know she’s still alive.”

  “Yeah, we sure have lots to be grateful for!” I shot back sarcastically.

  Alia gave my arm a little tug, and I lowered my voice, saying, “Cindy, we don’t even know if she’s still alive, do we? Not for sure, anyway.”

  “Well, probably still alive,” said Cindy. “I’m an optimist, remember?”

  I closed my eyes and pictured Cat’s face the last time we had talked. I thought back to how worried she was that I was going to be locked up in some hospital, never to come home. Now, she was the one who was locked up. Not in chains, perhaps, but in her heart. In a way, that was even worse.

  But, yes, she was still alive. I had just said to Cindy that there was no way to know for sure, but nevertheless, I was sure. It was the only way I could picture it. And that was the very best I could ask for: just that Cat was alive, somewhere. It’s never easy to learn a horrible truth. It doesn’t get easier with time or practice. But knowing something horrible is better than not knowing. At least when you know it, you also know where you stand.

  “Adrian?” said Cindy.

  I reopened my eyes and found that Cindy was looking anxiously at me through the rearview mirror.

  “I’m okay,” I said quietly. “Thanks for telling me.”

  I gave her a faint smile, and, though I couldn’t see her mouth in the mirror, her eyes smiled back.

  “So, Adrian, now I have a question,” said Cindy.