by W. J. May
His handsome face froze as he tried to understand. “Regret it? Of course I don’t—”
“What about that day on the bridge?”
There was a second of horrified silence, then Rae, Devon, and Molly started shouting at the same time. The specifics were lost in the profanities and clamor, but the gist of it was the same.
Samantha silenced them with a single hand; she didn’t even glance their way. “I wasn’t there, but I heard about it.” Her eyes were shining, burning into his. “Two lives, in exchange for over a hundred? I don’t care if they were on the wrong side or not. You can’t tell me that you don’t think about it. Wonder if you made the right call.”
Julian’s face went ghostly pale as he tried to keep himself together.
A silent tear ran down Rae’s cheek; she quickly wiped it away. Thought about it? Yes, one could say that. He’d dreamt about it almost every night since it had happened. She and the others had heard him screaming in his sleep.
“It ended the fight,” he murmured, fighting hard against her influence. “If I hadn’t done it, Cromfield’s followers would have won. Even more people would have died—”
“That sounds like a line one of the others gave you,” Samantha cut him off. “Something they told you to help you sleep at night. But the fact remains: you traded the lives of you and your girlfriend for a hundred people you’ll never know. So, my question is this: do you regret it?”
Don’t—don’t make him say it.
“I…I can’t…”
Samantha twitched her fingers, and he winced in pain.
“Oooooh, I’m afraid you’re going to have to,” she carried on in a singsong voice. A voice that made Rae want to strangle her. “You were the one who made the trade. For the life of a girl you feel like you can’t ever completely trust. The same girl who lied to you from the very beginning, who was reprogrammed to lack basic human emotions, who pulled out a knife just last week and stabbed someone right in front of you.” Her voice rose slightly with each one, creating a wave. A wave designed to crush him. “For a girl you’re afraid is just a little too twisted to ever fully love.”
“That’s not true! Those aren’t my words,” he cried. “Angel, you know that’s not true!”
Samantha stepped in between them. Eyes dancing. Ready to deliver the final blow. She spoke slowly and carefully, letting her ink work its way deep into his mind. “Do you ever regret it?”
Julian fell silent, looking like he’d been punched in the face. Then his head bowed to his chest, and in a voice so soft they could barely hear it he dug his own grave. “…Yes,” he whispered.
Another friend down.
Another bout of chilling laughter in its wake.
Rae ground her teeth together, clenching her armrests with all her might.
It was quickly becoming clear what Samantha’s strategy was. It was as simple as it was devastatingly effective, given the truth-telling spell she’d placed over the room.
Why fight your enemies, when you can get them to fight each other?
“You bitch.”
Samantha spun around to see Molly sitting rigid in her chair. Every line of her usually sunny face was set in hard anger, and the look in her eyes promised certain death were she ever set free.
“You think Simon Kerrigan was so terrible, but you’re just like him.” Her eyes flashed electric blue, hinting at sparks just below the surface. “Torturing people as part of some sick game.”
They were bold words, and given Molly’s present condition Rae would have given anything for her not to have said them. But she showed not an ounce of fear as Samantha walked her way.
“Torturing?” Samantha echoed innocently. “I’m not torturing anyone, Molly Skye. I’m educating you. You all came in here tonight hoping to plan my death. I’m simply showing you what you’re up against. Reminding you that there’s no reason to plan, because there’s no way to fight.”
To prove her point she snapped her fingers above her head, keeping her eyes locked on Molly the entire time.
There was a scrape of chairs as Angel and Luke pushed to their feet. Their eyes were just as blank as that day at Guilder, and there was a strange robotic quality to the way the moved.
Unfortunately, it was not enough to stop them.
They strode purposefully towards each other, and without a moment’s hesitation they grabbed each other and began to kiss.
“Stop it!” Molly whispered, watching as Luke’s hands wound through Angel’s hair.
On the other side of the room Julian was staring with his mouth agape, as still as a statue.
“I said, stop it.”
The kiss heated up. Hands were beginning to grope. Things rapidly picking up speed.
“STOP IT!”
Devon and Julian leapt to their feet at the same time, breaking through Samantha’s command at the same time that Angel and Luke broke apart.
The forced couple stared at each other for a moment, confused as to how they’d gotten so close, before a sick kind of realization visibly settled upon their shoulders. Each one looked like they wanted nothing more than to bolt from the room, but the next second they were heading back to their chairs, marching as if invisible strings were pulling them along.
“I’d be careful,” Samantha warned, swishing her skirt back and forth as she focused her attention on Devon and Julian who were still standing in the middle of the room. “Unless the two of you want to really get to know each other.”
Both men paled and backed away but Samantha merely giggled, directing them with a wave of her hand to their seats. Her revenge may have been rooted in the deepest of hate, but it had become a game to her. One that there was no doubt in her mind she could win.
But there was one person who refused to play.
“Your father would be so proud.”
A terrifying silence fell over the room as Samantha turned to Gabriel in what felt like slow motion.
He alone hadn’t said anything since the minute they’d sat down. Since the minute they’d been frozen. He’d been watching instead. Studying his opponent. Planning his move.
Rae shook her head desperately as Samantha walked towards him, but he never broke eye contact. He just kept staring up at her with that calm self-assuredness. In fact, he was the only one besides Samantha herself who looked like he was completely at home.
“Look at what his little girl has become.”
A hint of a snarl broke through Samantha’s smug façade, and her fingers curled up into little fists. For a second the game fell away, and it looked like she was about to do away with him right then and there. As she stared down in the lamplight, Rae could swear she was actually debating it.
But it took an awful lot to scare a guy like Gabriel. As deadly as she may be, this little girl wasn’t cutting it. And it had to be said, in all likelihood this wasn’t the first time he’d been screwed around with in the head while tied to a chair.
“You speak so flippantly,” she mused, almost to herself.
He smiled dryly. “I’ve been known to.”
“You also speak as if you have an idea what you’re talking about,” she snapped. “But you don’t. You have no idea what I’ve—”
“I have no idea what it’s like to grow up without a father?” he interrupted caustically. “To have had some psychopath with a gun take him away? Really?” He shook his head. “Yeah, actually, I know a bit.”
Samantha’s eyes gleamed as she leaned forward, taking in every detail. “And yet you protect him.”
“I’m not protecting him,” Gabriel answered bluntly. “He’s getting locked up for the rest of his life for what he’s done.”
She shook her head incredulously, looking as though she honestly didn’t understand. “…You could have killed him.”
Gabriel stared evenly at her, his face betraying not an ounce of emotion. “I considered it. I decided to do this instead.”
With that, the tone of the conversation made an abrupt shift. Saman
tha crossed the room until she was standing right in front of him, relaxing her angry fists. There was an almost-hungry edge to the way she was looking at him now. A strange craving.
“You were always my favorite, you know?” Her eyes glowed wistfully as she looked him up and down, her eyes taking in every inch. “Whenever people would talk about you guys and the things you’d done…you were always the one I liked best.”
Alicia had better stay far away. Otherwise Samantha might tell her to walk off a cliff.
For his part, Gabriel said nothing. He didn’t even blink when she bent down and put her hands on his legs, leaning forward to whisper in his ear. “You have no idea the things I could do to you. The things I could make you do.”
For a split second, Rae was terrified Samantha was about to show him. Burn it into their collective memory. She certainly looked ready to.
But Gabriel was unfazed. He simply shook back his golden hair, staring without concern at the far wall. “I’m sure you could make me do anything you want.” He twisted his head slightly so they were face to face. And while she was the one who was technically calling the shots, it was his voice that somehow held all the power. “But then it’s not really me doing it. It’s you.”
Her face darkened into a scowl as her cheeks reddened with a guilty flush. “Tell me, Gabriel, when you were working for the other side, how many times did you imagine seeing the people in this room dead? How many hybrids did you help Cromfield track down and kill? How many times, when you were trapped down in those caves, did you wish that Rae was the one in the ground—not you?”
The questions fired out like bullets, but Gabriel absorbed each one unflinchingly. Instead of looking angry or undone, his face grew momentarily thoughtful. “Every day of my life,” he answered softly. “Every day of my life I wished for that.”
Samantha paused. It was clearly not the answer she’d been expecting to hear. But bless his twisted heart, Gabriel wasn’t nearly finished.
“But Rae knows that.” The thoughtfulness was gone, replaced with a strength and certainty just as unyielding as Samantha’s own. “I also used to be in love with her. She knows that, too.” This time, it was he who leaned in, lowering his voice to the same theatric whisper. “I’m not playing this little game. Honestly.”
Samantha sprang back like she’d been burned, for the first time looking as though she wasn’t entirely in control. Her eyes flickered back to Gabriel, but at this point he had her firmly in his sights, lounging back in the chair as though it was his idea to sit down in the first place.
“This was a bold move, sweetheart, but playtime’s over.” His green eyes burned into hers, cutting her down with every word. “You’ve overstayed your welcome. It’s time to go home.”
With a strange hiss, Samantha fell a step backward. Every ounce of curiosity and excitement melted from her face. Replaced with something cold. Something sour. “When this thing finally goes down,” she growled, “count on me finding you.”
Gabriel’s lips twisted up in a cold smile, as lovely as it was lethal. “Honey, I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Her eyes flashed, and with what looked like a great effort she forced herself to turn away from him—focusing her attention on the others instead. “On that very special day, I thought it best to even out the playing field. I know all about the PC’s anklets and inhibitors. I’m sure that’s what saved Simon that day by interfering with my ink.” Her voice took on that supernatural persuasiveness. The tone that couldn’t be ignored. “None of you will ever wear an inhibitor. Never put one on your skin. If someone else puts it there, you are to take it off at all costs. I don’t care if it means cutting off your own leg.”
The command was absorbed and set. Even though nothing had moved, even though nothing had outwardly changed, Rae was sure she would follow the order to the letter. Man, she wished she had Samantha’s ink. Could she counter Samantha’s commands?
“I really should be going now.” Samantha crossed back to her chair and removed her coat, slipping it snugly over her shoulders. “I’m also going to have to ask you to wait a full minute or two after I leave the room before getting up. I have a bit of unfinished business with Simon Kerrigan that needs attending to. And on that note…” She suddenly spun around, fixing Rae in her sights. “I almost forgot to ask you my final question.”
Rae braced in her chair, trying to act as brave as Gabriel. “What’s that?”
Samantha’s eyes glowed with a wicked smile. “After Devon stabbed you, when you were lying on the ground, bleeding out as you looked up at him…how did you feel?”
Even from across the room, Rae could hear the hitch in Devon’s breathing. See how he psychologically fell apart, lost in the horror of the memory. But she stared straight up at Samantha. “I was afraid.”
Of course she was. She didn’t see the harm in admitting it. Didn’t see the big surprise.
But leave it to Samantha to have something else up her sleeve.
The young girl nodded twice, frowning, as though she were a bit confused. Then she looked up at Rae with an innocent smile. A smile that seemed to grow stronger and stronger by the second. “And what about right now? No spells, no knives, sitting here in this room. When you look at Devon, when you stare into his eyes…how do you feel?”
Rae sucked in a quick breath as everything around her seemed to grow very still. She could not answer this question. She couldn’t even lift her eyes.
But somehow, she had to. She had to do both.
The two of them locked eyes from across the room. Two people who knew each other as well as they knew themselves. Two people who loved each other more than anything in the world.
One was waiting breathlessly for the answer. The other was horrified to give it.
“…I feel afraid.”
Chapter 12
And that ended the interrogation.
Samantha left a minute later, after making a quick stop in the basement to whisper some horrible nothing into Simon’s ear. The others had stayed rooted to their chairs for exactly sixty seconds before springing in unison to their feet.
Kraigan rubbed his jaw painfully, finally able to open it. Angel took one look at Julian and headed upstairs without a word. Devon took one sad look at Rae, then sank back into his chair. Molly took one glance at Luke and crossed her arms protectively over her belly.
“Molls…?” he began tentatively, looking terrified to approach her. “Babe, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even know what was happening until it was all done.”
Molly jerked her head up and down very quickly. There were tears in her eyes, but they refused to fall. And when she was finally able to speak, it was in a voice much higher than her own. “I’m…I’m going to sleep in Rae’s room tonight.”
Rae glanced over in surprise, but instantly nodded her agreement. By the looks of things, she and Devon certainly weren’t going to be sleeping in the same bed.
Luke, on the other hand, looked absolutely crushed. His blue eyes tightened painfully, but before he could say anything Molly held up her hands.
“I’m not mad or anything, I swear. I just…I need a night. Okay?”
He stared at her for a second, then bowed his head. “Of course. Whatever…whatever you want.”
The two of them disappeared a second later, heading in opposite directions when they reached the top of the stairs. The rest of the gang stared after them for a second, then Gabriel slowly pushed to his feet. He nodded a curt goodnight, but before he could leave Rae stopped him.
“How did you do that? With Samantha?” She didn’t want to ask, she didn’t want to even think about it…but she had to know. “How did you know what to do?”
Gabriel was quiet for a second, lost in thought. Then he flashed her a sad smile. “Cromfield liked to play games.” He left without another word, pausing in the doorway as he passed Julian. The psychic tensed, bracing as if he was about to get hit. But Gabriel clapped him on the shoulder instead, then van
ished up the darkened stairway after his sister.
In the end, it was just Rae and Kraigan across from Julian and Devon. None of them knew what to say. None of them even knew where to start.
Finally, after several long minutes, Julian broke the silence.
“How do I fix this?” he murmured, still staring at the spot where Angel had disappeared into the darkness. “She’s never going to speak to me again.”
Devon glanced at him, but his usual words of advice failed him. Instead, he merely bowed his head, taking great care not to look at his fiancée who was also standing in the dark. “I don’t know if you can,” he answered softly. “I don’t know if there’s any fixing this.”
Rae sucked in a silent breath. His words weren’t just for Julian; they were for her as well. And as much as she wanted to scream them down, as much as she wanted to blanket the room in refusals and denials, she didn’t know if she could do that.
Because she didn’t know if they were true.
“I’m going to check on Simon,” she said flatly, deciding to excuse herself altogether. “Find out what Samantha did to him before I get to bed.”
Devon was silent. Julian was silent.
In the end, it was Kraigan who spoke up. “Good idea. I’ll go with you.”
Together, the two of them separated from the others and made their way down the hall to the basement. Rae wondered how Samantha knew so much about them, how she had figured out all their weaknesses. It was crazy. She sighed, almost thankful she didn’t have Samantha’s power. As she looked around, Rae was becoming hyper-aware of the fact that the entire house had been divided into sections. That the lines between them had started to splinter and split.
But that was a problem for tomorrow. Enough had happened today. Today needed to end.
Simon was standing in the middle of the basement when they got there. From a distance he didn’t look to be harmed, but Rae had long ago learned not to be deceived by appearances. She and Kraigan made their way down the stairs slowly, carefully. Well aware that, at any moment, their father was likely to strike.