Kindred

by Adrianne Lemke

  It wasn’t likely. They’d come to that neighborhood specifically looking for me, so they knew I had a connection there. The only thing that made me hope they didn’t know where I was going was that they’d been driving slowly, looking around the entire block before they’d found me. So it was possible they didn’t know who I was there to visit.

  Or that they wanted to see how many witnesses there would be who could describe their car, or possibly give a license plate number to the police. Apparently they decided it was worth the risk.

  Dustin was approaching the house, and I bit back a groan. I really didn’t want to talk. I wanted…no I needed to act. To take aggressive action instead of waiting for people to come to me. It wasn’t the first time I had that thought, but now I would do something about it. Alice and Hannah didn’t seem to realize that by trying to keep me away from this case, they weren’t helping me to stay safe. In order to stay safe, I needed to know exactly what kind of threat I was facing.

  To do that, I’d need to do what I started doing earlier in the day: talk to my contacts on the streets. Figure out whatever I could about what had happened with Mason’s gang after he died, and, if necessary, talk to those people to get any information I could about Kindred. If I was lucky, the threat both Kindred and I posed to them would be enough to make them share their information. If not, I guess I’d have to get creative.

  They didn’t call me the Earthshaker for nothing.

  I would love to wait until the girls figured out what I needed to do, but time was not on my side. So the plan was to tell them straight out that I was leaving, and I’d be in contact with Alice and Dan with anything I could find that would help solve the mystery of Kindred’s identity, or of who else was trying to kill me.

  If I was really lucky, I would find them before they found me. And if I was really, really lucky? Then I wouldn’t have been in this situation to begin with, and the whole thing would have been moot. I guess my luck really wasn’t very good, but it was worth the risk to get the killers off the street. If I could do it before I or someone I loved got hurt, it would be an added bonus.

  There was the familiar clunking of someone walking down the basement stairs, and I opened the door to greet my friend. “Dustin, what brings you here?”

  He eyed me critically, and for the first time I remembered I hadn’t showered since my dirt bath. I must have painted an interesting picture; dusty brown from top to bottom, holding my arm protectively to avoid jostling it, and I’m sure my expression was not pleasant. The mood I was in, I’d gladly use all my powers to crush the remaining elements of Mason’s gang.

  “Oh, nothing,” he answered in a falsely pleasant tone, his blue eyes looking me over sharply. “Just thought I’d drop by.” He dropped the playacting almost immediately. “Are you okay?”

  I snorted. “Define ‘okay’? I’m functional, but Kindred wore me like a suit again today, and I never felt it coming.”

  He nodded thoughtfully, tapping his fingers against his jeans as he stood just inside my door. “You had just used a lot of energy on the wall Hannah told me about. Most likely your mind was just too tired to recognize the threat of Kindred’s mind entering yours.” He chuckled suddenly and I stared at him curiously. He waved his hands dismissively. “It’s nothing. I was just thinking that before I met you, any of this stuff would have seemed like fantasy. Like if anyone believed any of it they’d be locked up or on medication.”

  My lips turned up in wry acknowledgment. “I get that. Even though it was happening to me, for a while when I was a kid I thought it was a daydream my mind made up to help me survive, and escape, my father. That he’d finally just caused something in me to snap, never to get fixed again. I’m not sure yet if I’m relieved at the reality of the situation.”

  “Can’t say I blame you. I’d imagine having the abilities you have would be kind of a mixture of blessing and curse.”

  “You could say that,” I said with a snort. “But I have them, for better or worse. Not much I can do to change it.”

  There was an admittedly wistful tone as I spoke, which I regretted. I wanted him to believe I was okay, that I felt normal. Unfortunately, nothing about me or my situation was normal, so it was probably a lost cause. My friend looked at me thoughtfully, considering what I’d said and my expression. “You’re right. But a question you need to ask yourself is: would you change it if you could? If you had the chance to go through all of what you’ve gone through in your life without your abilities, would you still want them gone?”

  He paused, giving me a glance that said ‘think about it’ and then he turned to leave. “Dustin…” I stopped him before he left the room. “I’m not sure Mason would have been interested in me if I hadn’t shown him what I could do.”

  “That may be, but I still want you to put some serious thought into it. You might discover a little bit about yourself, if you think hard enough.”

  My gaze dropped to the floor and I fidgeted a little. “Dustin, I want to thank you for what you’re doing. I really appreciate the help,”

  The smile that had begun to form on his face dropped, “I’m sensing a ‘but’ coming,” he said.

  “You are perceptive,” I said wryly. “I don’t want to do these little sessions anymore. I will think about what you’ve said, but I think it’s more important for me to know all this stuff. I don’t need everyone else in my life to know everything about myself that I’ve managed to figure out. Isn’t it enough that I know my reasons for being how I am?”

  He nodded. “Self-awareness is important. I hope you know that you can still come to me if you ever want to talk.”

  “Thanks, man. And thank you for not pushing the therapy thing. Now, what do I tell Hannah? She’s the one who’s been pushing me to do this.”

  Dustin pursed his lips, apparently unsure how to respond. “She’s not wrong. It really does help a lot of people to talk through their problems. But it is your decision, and we can’t take that away from you. I’m sure if you tell her, she won’t push you. I’ve gotta go, I need to get to work. I just wanted to stop in quick to see how you were doing.”

  “Thanks for coming. See ya later.” I stayed in my room as Dustin left, and I hoped I was doing the right thing. We’d discovered that the blackouts had been caused not by PTSD, but by Kindred, so the impending reason for the therapy was gone.

  I began packing some clothes into my old duffel bag, wincing every time I jostled my shoulder. If I felt that I had time to wait for it to heal, I would, but based on how I’d gotten injured to begin with I didn’t figure I could afford the down time. The hard part was going to be telling Hannah and Alice I was leaving. Telling Sam would be easier. He almost never questioned me when I felt the need to do something, and he always respected my decisions. Whether he completely agreed or not, I wasn’t sure. Once my bag was packed I just sat on the edge of the bed staring at the wall.

  When it came down to it, I really didn’t want to leave. I felt safer here than I’d felt anywhere else in my life, and didn’t relish the idea of searching for the people who wanted me dead. The last time I’d done this hadn’t turned out well for me at all, hence my hesitation.

  “You’re leaving again, aren’t you.” Hannah said it as a statement, not a question as she stood in my doorway. She’d come down as I finished packing.

  “I have to,” I insisted, still staring blankly ahead of me. “I don’t want to, but I think it may be the best way for me to draw out the people who are after me without putting you and the others at risk.” I suddenly grew angry at the thought she could have been hurt. “They could have killed you! You were right next to me, the shots would have killed you, and I couldn’t take that. You can’t change my mind about leaving. I won’t stay here and have you in the line of fire.”

  She nodded, looking sad and resigned. “I know I can’t.” Her lips quirked wryly. “You are a stubborn man, Jason. I couldn’t change your mind about anything, once you’ve set yourself on a goal. Just promise
me you’ll be careful. And keep in touch…at least with Alice and Dan.”

  “I will. I have my phone in the bag, and the bag stays with me at all times while I’m on the street.” I snorted. “Nothing like going back to my roots.” I felt a little vulnerable as I said wistfully, “I’ve started feeling like this is home. Hannah, I will be back. I have no desire to be back on the street for any amount of time. It’s not a safe existence, especially with people knowing I work with Alice.”

  “This is your home,” she said, resting her hand on my shoulder gently. “And it isn’t going anywhere. Come back safely.” She leaned in and softly kissed me. Hannah left the room, leaving me to reach up and touch where her lips had brushed mine. That had been unexpected, but not unwelcome. And it definitely gave me another reason to get back home quickly.

  FIFTY-TWO

  Hannah

  The kiss had been just as unexpected for me as it apparently was to Jason, but the look of surprise and wonder on his face made my spontaneous action worth it. He’d had precious little good happen to him, and if anyone needed a little gentleness, it was him. If I could help him heal in any way, I would, and I hoped he wouldn’t now decide to back away, or push me away with the thought he didn’t deserve the happiness.

  I would be perfectly happy to push until he thought otherwise. He needed to leave. Intellectually I knew that, but emotionally I was flashing back to his disappearance last fall, and panicking a little. Alice was still at work, but my first reaction was still to call her and confide my feelings to my sister, as I’d been doing for most of my life. As it was, I figured she was busy trying to do her job, and find Mason’s people before someone succeeded in their murder attempts.

  It was an unfortunate time to be done with school for the summer. Now I didn’t have classes as a distraction from what was happening with Jason. I did however have a job for the summer. It was only part-time, but at least it was something. I would be working as a receptionist at a physical therapy office. Jason had a couple sessions there several months earlier, and I applied with the desire to help people where I could. I still wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with my life, so I figured I’d try a couple different kinds of jobs and see what I liked. At least while I was at work I could potentially forget Jason’s situation for a little while.

  The stress of having the guy I liked in harm’s way so often was getting to me, and I could really use some separation from the anxiety I felt. If Jason’s plan to find and stop the men after him worked, it would go a long way toward making me feel better. Kindred was a threat I could almost not even comprehend. It was similar to how I felt about Jason’s powers. How could such powers exist? They seemed so unreal that it was hard to get a handle on what Kindred could do to Jason despite his power. Both scared me. I knew Jason would never hurt me, but the power he had was immense, and he didn’t always have such a great handle on it.

  The pain he was in last fall had fallen into the same incomprehensible pattern. I had trouble dealing with random accidental cuts and bruises, and he had so much worse done to him in the most painful manner Mason could think of, and he was almost stoic about the pain, at least in front of me. I remember thinking at the time that I’d have been complaining, crying, and moaning in extreme discomfort. No one would have been able to think I was handling it well.

  For Jason it was like he had experience in hiding his pain from people, which I suspected he did. Although he hadn’t told me much about his father it made me hate the man all the more. Jason had the right to complain even now about lingering aches from his injuries, and he never brought up anything about pain.

  However, he was starting to open up to me emotionally, as evidenced by his admission that he wanted to stay here at his new home than return to the streets. I began to tear up, but he didn’t need to see me fall apart, so I swallowed hard to stop the welling of emotion and impulsively leaned in to kiss him.

  Despite being unable to understand his amazing power, I was beginning to lose myself to him. Other stuff just seemed unimportant next to whatever he was going through. I was falling in love. And the worst part was I could lose him at any time.

  “Hannah, I’m leaving now.” Jason came up the stairs carrying his old beat up duffel bag he probably had since he was first on the streets as a young teen.

  “Did you tell Alice already?”

  He cringed slightly. “No. I was hoping…”

  “You want me to tell her. After the fact.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “That is not okay. You either need to stop by the precinct and tell her, or call her from here. Do either one, but do not leave me with telling her.”

  He hung his head slightly, a small smile on his face. “All right. Fair enough. I’ll go over there before I get started and talk to Alice and Dan.”

  Once again I found myself fighting back tears. “You be careful, Jason. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”

  A wry smile formed on his face as he met my eyes briefly. “Yeah, me either. But even more, I don’t want anything happening to you or anyone else. If I can do something to prevent that, anything is worth it.”

  “No,” I said with a decisive shake of my head. “Not anything. Do not sacrifice yourself Jason McCoy. That’s an order.”

  He flinched at the use of his last name, but he hadn’t picked a new one yet, so it was the only one I could use. “I won’t. I’m after them to prevent harm coming to anyone, including myself.” He shifted uncomfortably, adjusting his bag so it rested over his good shoulder instead of holding it in his hand, and then he approached me to give me a one armed hug around the shoulders. His injured arm he still held motionless against his stomach to avoid moving the painful joint.

  “I’ll be back soon. If I don’t find anything within a couple days, I’ll come back. Eventually something will happen and we’ll figure out who is after me and they will be stopped. These are normal humans who don’t know about all of my abilities. They don’t know I can track them once I’ve felt their footsteps.”

  I looked at him, confused. “Are you sure? I thought Mason knew all about you.”

  He shook his head, confident of his opinion. “He only knew and cared about the destructive portion of my ability. In all likelihood, even if he had known about my tracking capability, he wouldn’t have cared. He wanted the raw power like I unleashed in the warehouse when he first met me.”

  That was an interesting way to put it. He hadn’t ‘met’ him he’d kidnapped him. Not quite the same thing. But I understood it was the introduction between the two. “I suppose that would fit his character. But I would think he would want to know he could keep track of people with your other ability as well.”

  His uninjured shoulder rolled in a shrug. “Don’t know what to tell you, Hannah, except that I really just don’t think he knew about it. As far as I can remember, it never came up, and he never questioned me on whether I could do more than the destruction.” He glanced at the clock and shifted uncomfortably, the duffel bag still over his shoulder. “Goodbye, Hannah. I’ll see you in a few days, okay? Take care of Sam,” he added as he walked out the door. Even in the midst of everything, he thought about his little brother. Dan would take good care of him, but I nodded, willing to do whatever it took to let Jason clear his mind in order to do his job safely.

  I raised my hand in a silent farewell. “Be careful, Jason,” I whispered as the door slammed shut behind him.

  FIFTY-THREE

  Kindred

  Once Carver had settled in the chair at his desk, I sat in the chair across from him and allowed him to see the persona I usually used with Mason’s men, so he’d know who I was. He would see a man about six feet tall with dyed black hair and wearing clothes that marked him as a Goth. I also allowed him to see the ornate black leather collar that Mason had forced me to wear for so long, although I no longer wore it. The dark eyes of my pseudo-personality glared out under lashes lined with dark eyeliner. Of everything he was seeing, only the eyes were my own. I didn’t wear co
pious amounts of eyeliner, or any, for that matter, but in the majority of my personas, my eyes remained the same.

  “You!” Carver gasped as I appeared seemingly out of nowhere. “What do you want? I never harmed you; do you wish to hurt me?”

  I shook my head slowly. “I do not wish it,” I said formally. “But if you don’t help me, it may be the outcome.”

  “Of course,” he gushed. Matthew Carver was nothing more than a dog wishing to please its master. He’d been the same with Mason. Anyone with more power could hurt him, and he’d do whatever he needed to do to avoid any harm coming to him. I held him in the lowest regard. He was a spineless coward, a sniveling idiot. Albeit a sniveling idiot with a mind for numbers. He kept Mason’s finances straight, and was able to make the books look legit. He was invaluable to Mason’s organization, and was about the only one I could think of who might know exactly who was after the Tracker. And possibly have information about my former life.

  “I need information. Who is trying to kill the Earthshaker?” I asked, careful to use the name given him by Mason. No one else knew he preferred to be called Tracker, and I meant to keep it that way. “He is under my protection.” Technically true, until we met again. His life or death would come at my discretion, not that of some random thug Mason had hired.

  Carver was wide-eyed as he immediately went into the computer to check for any facts he could give me. When he spoke next, it was with a confidence I only heard from him when he was discussing his area of expertise. “According to this, there are several people who have been hired for ‘unspecified duties’,” he used air quotes as he spoke. “It is the same way Mason classified you, Mr. Doe. So I would imagine that means they were hired on to take care of someone.”