Deviate

by Tracy Clark

  Despite my revulsion at doing what was necessary to stay alive, I was becoming frightened for myself. If I couldn’t walk, if I couldn’t find someone to take from, how in the hell was I supposed to stay alive? Or help Saoirse? Helping her get through her first kill was one of the reasons I came. I was already sick. Now my situation was dire. I was caving in on myself, imploding into a black hole of need.

  I felt for the old envelope and pouch from the wooden heart in Ultana’s office, glad I’d taken the chance to poke around while I could. They were still tucked in my jeans pocket. I was eager to be alone to open the envelope and find out what it contained.

  “I’m worse,” Saoirse said in a miserable voice, shuddering. Her pink lips were cracked, as if she were dehydrated. I knew her insides felt just as parched, just as thirsty. We huddled together, shivering in the morning light.

  “Get Lorcan,” I said. “We need him to undo whatever it is he’s done to me. Both of us are running out of time.”

  “I already tried,” she said. “It was all I could do to do make it up the stairs. Once I finally roused his smelly, snoring arse, he said something about you learning a lesson and went back to snoring.”

  My teeth ground together. “Someday, your brother and I are going to have a moment of serious reckoning.”

  “Get in line, Finn.” Silence, then. Silence that stretched on for a good hour. Then another, before she looked up at me, trembling. “What are we going to do?”

  Forty-Two

  Cora

  “Anything you want from the outside world?” Mari asked, breezing into the room in a web of thrilling colors. My cheeks were burning both literally and metaphorically from Giovanni’s intimate touch. Mari’s knock at the door had interrupted…something, and if pressed, I couldn’t say if I was relieved or disappointed. “Teruko has to go for supplies tomorrow and take a report to some mucky-muck investors, and since I’m, you know, normal, I get to go, too.”

  “Is that a good idea?” I asked.

  “Who knows how long we’ll be stuck here? Any opportunity to get out in the real world is one I’m gonna take. Besides, that mad scientist doesn’t want anything to do with me. He’s only letting Dun and me stay here because of you.”

  “Of course, but—”

  “No buts. Place your orders now. We’re heading out kind of early.”

  I told her to call Mami Tulke while she was out, and to see what information she could glean on these mucky-muck investors, then whispered to her about getting me some girl stuff and candy. I’d about kill for some Hot Tamales. She nodded. “And you, señor?”

  “That’s Spanish.”

  “Whatever.”

  Giovanni shrugged and she left. I was surprised to feel the pang of jealousy that she was going to get to be free tomorrow. Free and normal. Would I ever feel either of those things again?

  The next day, Teruko and Mari’s absence hit Dun noticeably hard. “I’m normal, too,” he pouted.

  Truthfully, I thought it was mean that they hadn’t asked him to go. Though he did stick out like a sore thumb in the streets of Dublin. I patted his back. “Sorry. But I’m glad you’re here. I have a job for you,” I said, lowering my voice to a whisper. “I want to find out more about Dr. M’s work. He’s been really open, but I want to find out what he isn’t telling us.”

  “What do you want me to do?”

  “I love that you’re in, no questions.”

  “Soul-snatching lunatics are trying to kill my best friend. Helping you snoop around some high-tech lab is the least of my worries.”

  Giovanni entered the common room, leading Claire by the hand like a big brother. It surprised me, but was sweet. She obviously liked him, as she had a huge grin and was chatting happily. It had to get lonely around here, with no other kids. Teruko’s grandfather, Abraham, wasn’t around. Then again, neither was my mother. I hoped they’d found good company with each other. Abraham had a placid silver aura, one I was sure my mom would appreciate being around.

  I tried to get a firm grasp on Claire’s peculiar aura. It flashed like Giovanni’s and mine, but only occasionally, and so quickly, it could be a trick of the light. Her head whipped to look at me. Startled, I tried to smile, but her eyes were so unnerving. “Hi, Claire,” I finally said. Kids had never made me nervous before.

  “Claire has been telling me how she’s lived here as long as she can remember,” Giovanni said.

  “Really? Do you go out much?” I asked her.

  “Never.”

  “Oh, wow.”

  “Tell me what America is like,” she said. “I have a tutor here and she teaches me lots of things, but”—she inclined her head conspiratorially and lowered her voice—“I think she leaves stuff out.”

  I laughed. “Do you? What would you like to know?”

  “Are loads of people dropping dead all over America like they are in other places?”

  I blinked. How could I even answer that? “How is it you’ve heard of people dying?”

  “With my ears.”

  Dun snickered.

  “That’s a pretty serious thing to be interested in. Isn’t there something fun you’d like to know about America?”

  “Fun seems pretty banal in the face of deaths,” she said haughtily, stunning me. Her frank manner and intellect reminded me of Giovanni—the part that drove me insane, anyway. This child was certainly unusual, especially for her age.

  “Now, Claire,” Dr. M interrupted. He entered the room with his frenetic energy that reminded me so much of my dad’s second wife, it made me miss her. I wondered how she was doing. “Is that polite breakfast conversation?” he asked. “Run along. Your schoolwork awaits.”

  Claire affected a pout but flounced off, disappearing through one of the doorways.

  “Could we get a tour of this joint?” Dun asked Dr. M. “If I’m going to be stuck here for the duration, I’d like to know the lay of the land a bit.” I bit the inside of my cheek. He was quick. No time like the present.

  Dr. M looked bothered by the request, but when he saw all of our expectant faces, acquiesced. “Very well. Come along.”

  It was confounding how anyone found their way in the facility, as most doors were not marked. We followed silently as Dr. M showed us around the lab we’d seen during our initial experiments. We also knew what was on the top floor, and we’d been in the lobby. From my memory of the night we’d arrived, there were at least one or two more floors to the building, as well as the underground parking garage.

  Every door, every elevator, every damn file cabinet had a scanner that would recognize only certain people’s fingerprints or voice commands. “Start a fight,” I whispered to Dun. “Take out the doctor. I need to separate.” I jerked my head toward Giovanni.

  “Dude!” Dun yelled at Giovanni. “Did you just mad-dog me?”

  “Pardon?” Giovanni asked, completely perplexed. “Dog you?”

  “Don’t give me that Grey Poupon answer, you uppity son of a bitch!” Dun pushed Giovanni square in the chest, sending him reeling into Dr. M. I registered the intensity in Giovanni’s eyes as he scrambled toward Dun. Dr. M picked himself off the floor and moved to separate them. I backed away slowly, then took off running.

  Peering carefully around corners to avoid the ever-present staff, I tried to distance myself as much as possible. A little time alone, that was all I needed. We were putting an awful lot of trust in Dr. M and his motives. As Giovanni had once said to me, no one does something for nothing. Who funded these magic walls and this high-tech research?

  Not like an office would have Dr. M’s name on the door. That would be wishful thinking. So I started pushing doors, looking through windows. One room looked like an opulent office, probably Dr. M’s, but of course I couldn’t get in. I turned another corner and came upon the medical exam rooms where I’d been taken each morning for blood tests, my temperature, more questions. The doors were open and, at the moment, no one was around. The exam rooms were more sterile and devoid of
personality than any doctor’s office I’d ever been in, so I doubted I’d find anything in them. But there was a touch-screen in each room where our information was entered.

  No expectations. Vague hope, maybe. That was what I felt when I touched the screen in the first room. It immediately asked for a password. I tried the next exam room and the next. The last one was directly across from the elevators. I had no idea how much time I’d have before I was found. I reached my sweaty hand to the screen, but an idea made me pause. Could I get a memory from the keypad? Surely, the same numbers would be entered over and over. Would that imprint the device in a way I could feel? I closed my eyes and hovered my hand over the display. A five-number code materialized in my mind and dissipated like smoke. I mouthed a silent plea and keyed the numbers in. A home screen popped up.

  I touched the tab for “Patients.” Easily a dozen people had medical records stored—too many of them with a red DECEASED notation. I gulped hard. Who were these people? How had they died?

  I scrolled by Claire’s name, but then paused, scrolled back to it, and clicked.

  Five years old. Born in Dublin. IQ of 152. That explained her mature conversational abilities. I read further down with a slight pang of guilt. This was none of my business, right? Method of gestation: in vitro fertilization. Mother was listed as Class III Human, whatever that meant. Father listed as Class I. I gasped, disbelieving what I read next.

  Paternal father: Giovanni Teso.

  My mouth went dry. A million questions zinged through my mind. Could this be true? Who was the mother? Did Giovanni know? Was he keeping this from me? Was this why he’d wanted to come here so badly?

  The shuffle of footsteps and Dun’s overly loud talking reached me. I hit the close file button and jumped on the exam table. No sooner had I done that than Dr. M appeared in the doorway. His eyes flashed to the now-black screen, then back to me. “What are you doing in here?”

  “The fighting…it frays my nerves. I take on people’s energy. I—I can’t handle the stress of that. I had to find someplace quiet. Those two are constantly at each other.” Dun’s lips pursed together in an impressed smile. A silver storm of agitation flared in Giovanni’s aura. “I’m not feeling well,” I said. “Maybe the guys can walk me back to my room? That’s if you’re behaving yourselves now,” I tacked on for good measure.

  Giovanni growled out an exasperated sound. Surely he wanted to be as far away from Dun as possible. That situation, I could diffuse. But there was a knot in my stomach the size of a boulder. Now that I thought about it, Giovanni had been here before. Claire did very much resemble him. The mass of curls in her light hair. The way she looked at you as if she were standing on a dais. Her formidable brainpower. And he had been holding her hand…

  I rocked on my heels, beyond impatient to be alone with Giovanni. I could feel the scientist’s eyes on our backs as we got in the elevator. Dr. M activated the keypad and pushed the button for the top floor.

  “Find anything?” Dun whispered when the doors closed.

  Giovanni pushed between us. “What—you’re saying that was all a ruse?”

  “Shhh,” I hissed, glaring at them.

  “Why is your aura pulling back from me, Cora? I’m not the one who did anything wrong.”

  “You can see things like that?” Dun said. “Freaky. I need to sit Mari down in front of that wall again. See what’s really going on with her.” He put his hand on my shoulder. “I bet no one can lie to people like you, can they?”

  “I’m about to find out,” I said, glancing at Giovanni as the elevator doors opened.

  Forty-Three

  Finn

  “Christ! The two of you have a bloody death wish?” Lorcan yelled.

  Bleary-eyed, I blinked up at him. He looked like blazing shite, but I was certain I looked worse. His hands were on his hips as he surveyed us, shaking his head like we were two errant children in need of a stern lecture.

  “You reckon I should army-crawl myself out of here, dragging my useless legs behind me, Lorcan?” It took enormous effort to speak. I felt like I’d been ripped up out of a coma and told to swim the English Channel.

  Lorcan steadied himself like he was about to throw something, pointed one finger at me dramatically, and said, “Your legs work perfectly now!” in a booming, commanding voice.

  Nothing. I strained with colossal effort. My legs wouldn’t move. It was nearly funny. Except it was my goddamned legs we were talking about. Worse was that any fight I’d normally have in me was completely spent. I was wasting away. Saoirse was, too. She hadn’t even woken up. I slid my arm out from under her, rubbing the tingles out of it.

  “As much as I hate your cocky arse,” Lorcan growled, “it’d be mine on the line if I let you die.”

  “Not to mention your sister.”

  He prowled back and forth, taking twice as long as the average person to come up with what was obvious to me. He was either going to have to carry us out of here and help us find someone, or bring them to us. I was near to vomiting. Finally, his slow brain caught up. “Well, I either gotta take you two to kill, or bring you some fresh meat.”

  “God, Lorcan…” Saoirse mumbled.

  “Pick one, little sister, cause you and lover boy here are lookin’ like you might die on me any minute.”

  “Be a hero, for once,” she told him.

  Lorcan turned on his heel and walked out, slamming the front door.

  Much like the night on the boat, my conscious awareness lifted up and away like a helium balloon slipping out of a careless hand and soaring up into the sky. I’d feel the slip, wake with a start or a gasp, then drift again, my body bobbing as if we were on the air.

  Next to me, Saoirse was a statue. Her tiny face was marble against the fire of her hair. I closed my eyes and slipped into a dream where her hair was made of crimson maple leaves that crumbled and deteriorated into the soil of the earth.

  I woke and shook her, my hands so numb that I wasn’t sure I’d actually touched her. Nothing. Gripped with panic that she’d died, I tried to shake her again, harder. When I stilled, I realized I could feel the faintest trace of life in her.

  Barely.

  The door flung open and a load of scuffling could be heard in the entryway before Lorcan appeared with someone over his shoulder. I tried to focus, but my eyes were bleary. He set a figure down on the floor and went back outside. Shortly, he returned with another person, half conscious, and dropped her on the floor. Two young women. I sighed, forcing down the bile that rose up in my throat. No doubt these slight girls were easier for Lorcan to subdue. I blinked and forced my eyes to center on the face of the girl nearest me.

  Every cell in my body screamed shock as loud as it screamed hunger.

  Jaysus, it was Mari.

  “Where did you find these girls?” I rasped. This isn’t happening…

  “Little minxes were making out in a van by the side of the road. Was stupidly easy to sneak up on them, actually, they were so into what they were doing. Though, this one,” he said, with a malicious shove of the toe of his boot against Mari’s arm, “was a right pain.”

  “I—I can’t kill her.”

  “What do you mean you can’t kill her?” He rolled both girls on their backs. Their feet pointed in separate directions, but their heads were next to each other, two black-haired dolls. They were breathing but totally out of it. He either took from them or knocked them unconscious. Probably both. Of all the people in the world he could stumble upon, it had to be Cora’s cousin? I’d rather die. I didn’t care. There was no way I was going to kill Mari.

  Saoirse stirred next to me. Her eyes fluttered open and widened when she saw the people dumped on the floor like corpses. Even that wasn’t enough to keep her conscious. She was in worse shape than me. Lorcan hefted his sister up and plopped her on the floor next to the delicately pretty Asian girl.

  “Lorcan, please! You have to find other people. Get them out of here. I know one of them.” It had to be said. No
thing else would do. “You can’t expect me to kill someone I know.”

  Saoirse looked up at me with sadness, but she was too weak to speak. Her head lolled back to look at the girl’s face. She reached a shaky hand and smoothed the pink-tipped hair from her cheek. The girl opened her doe eyes and looked bewilderedly at Saoirse inclined over her. One improbable tear fell from Saoirse’s eye and landed on the girl’s cheek, like Cora when she’d leaned over me and saved my life. Except this was giving death.

  With a panicked gasp, Mari came to and pushed herself up, but Lorcan shoved her back down with his boot.

  “Hey!” I yelled, useless to move or defend her.

  As soon as she heard my voice, her head rolled to the side. Her mouth opened in surprise. “You. No freakin’ way!” she gasped, grabbing for the hand of the girl next to her who, I just realized by her arched back and limp arms, was already being drained by Saoirse. Saoirse’s eyes were closed as she killed. “Teruko!” Mari cried. “No…” She punched Lorcan in the shin and scrambled to push Saoirse away from her friend, but Lorcan grabbed Mari by the hair and pulled her back, hissing to his sister to finish it.

  As color returned slowly to Saoirse’s face, all had drained from Mari’s as she watched her companion die. Lorcan hauled Mari to her feet and shoved her onto her knees to face me.

  Clapping resounded in the room.

  Lorcan, Mari, and I turned toward the source. Ultana Lennon stood in the doorway with a look of pure amusement. “What have we here?” she asked. “A killing party?” She tsked. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to hold a party while Mummy’s away?” Her tone was teasing, but with a knife-edge to it. Though when she looked at her daughter hovering over her first kill, pride was evident in her eyes.

  “They were dying, Mother. Both of them lying here like sacks. They waited too long.” He pointed at me accusingly. “Look at him now, still refusing to nourish.”

  Ultana leveled a gaze at me that was every bit a challenge. How on board was I? Could I be trusted? Was I one of the Arrazi’s fine young men? Prove it. All of that beamed from her callous stare.