Addison’s back was to me and his guard was focused on Harvey and Levi off to the side. Misty was facing me but didn’t acknowledge my presence other than a slight lift of her shoulders.
“You think I should come with you so you can use me however you choose and then let you kill me when you’re finished?” she asked and my hands fisted at my sides. “Who in their right mind would agree to that?”
I sidestepped against the wall until I was closer to the guard. Sneaking up behind him and wrapping my hand around his mouth, and my other arm around his neck, then I yanked him back. I held tightly for a few seconds and lowered him when his body went limp.
“You were never like the others,” Addison said and I looked back over to them. “Even as a child, you were more human than of the other nephilim.”
I waved for Levi and Harvey to come and they slowly scooted down, then quickly got behind me. Harvey put a hand on my shoulder and pulled me down so she could whisper.
“He said he’d kill us if she didn’t go with him.” I glanced at her brown eyes and nodded. “He tortured her when she was a kid.”
I turned back to Misty and tried to control my anger. She was my best friend, the girl I loved with my entire heart. She was there for me when nobody else was and stood up to me when other people were too afraid to make eye contact. She had always had my back, even with her parents who she adored so much. She was beautiful and strong and watching her face off the man who’d tortured her was enough to send me over the edge. She looked like a girl who should be enjoying her prom, wearing her tight black dress and long blond hair curled over to the side. She should be getting pampered, not fighting against the monster in front of her.
“What about Raven? Was she like the others?” Misty’s voice cracked and I took a step forward. “Is that why you tried to kill her?”
“Raven was nothing like you and you know it. She was born dark and has never failed to remind me exactly what nephilim are capable of.”
“You took her from me.” A tear slid down her cheek and I pulled for power but felt none.
“No,” he sneered and lifted his gun. “You ran away. I think that’s enough talking, it’s time you make a choice.”
I closed the distance and wrapped my arms around him from behind, knocking us both to the ground. The gun skidded across the floor. I flipped him to his back and pinned him down. My hand was around his neck and my eyes narrowed. He wasn’t afraid of me at all, and the grin on his face pissed me off.
“The son of Lucifer came to save his girlfriend,” he said and I tightened my grip. “You can’t kill me unless you plan on never seeing her or your family again. You’ll never get away with it.”
“Max,” Misty said and placed her hand on my shoulder. “He’s using something to protect himself. If you find it you could use your new power.”
Addison bucked under me but he wasn’t big enough to throw me off. He might be a solder, but Sariel and Charles had trained us like Watchers. Not to mention, I was a good size, much larger than him. He started spewing curse words and telling us how he was going to kill us, then switched to talk about the girl named Raven. I pulled the hat from his head and shoved it in his mouth, then held him in place and nodded to Misty.
“Find it.”
The power I’d recently discovered was one I wasn’t comfortable with, but if it saved the girl I loved from this man, then I would use it. I would scramble his brain so badly he wouldn’t be able to recognize his own reflection. Misty’s hands dug through his pockets and emptied them of useless things, then hovered over his chest. She opened his shirt and lifted the pendant from him. It wasn’t large, maybe the size of a quarter. On one side was a rune I didn’t know and the other was covered in crystal. She jerked the chain until it broke, and Addison fought to get from under me.
Levi took the necklace from her and said he would take it out of the building. He said if it was a type of protection it most likely extended for a certain amount of space. He and Harvey turned to leave, and as soon as they made it past the door, I felt Misty’s power connect with me.
“Will you back up a bit?” I asked and met her eyes. “I don’t want it to affect you.” She nodded and moved to the other side of the room, taking a seat near our families They were laying on the floor and covered in blood, but their chests were rising. I looked away and focused on the man under me.
His wide eyes were panicked, but I held no sympathy. This man was responsible for a lot of pain in a lot of people. He’d stolen our families, kidnapped nephilim, and tortured kids. He didn’t deserve a second chance, even though it was what I was technically giving him. I opened my mind to his and connected, I tried to shut my walls down before I saw anything but wasn’t quick enough.
The kids were lined against the wall, each of them strapped down and hooked to machines. At the end of the line of beds were two girls sharing one. They were wrapped in each others arms with their foreheads touching. One of the girls had white blond hair and the other pitch black. I couldn’t see their faces, but I knew who they were. Addison made his way through the room, checking the monitors and came to a stop near the girls. He snapped his fingers and told a nurse to take the blond again. They picked her up and moved her to another room, strapping her to a metal table, and attaching wires to different parts of her body. Her eyes flew open as soon as they hit the button and sparks danced around her skin. Addison told the nurse to turn it up more and the nurse shook her head. He asked her if she’d rather be hooked up herself, she closed her eyes, then turned the knob. Her little body arched off the table but wasn’t able to move because of the straps on her arms.
I tried to close my walls, not wanting to see anymore.
Addison scribbled something on a piece of paper and muttered under his breath.
Project lightning- Misty- assumed age four.
I pushed myself from his mind and trembled, breathing deeply and trying to calm the rage inside. When my eyes opened I found Misty staring at me from where she was sitting. I wanted to go to her and pull her into my arms. I wanted to hold her close and never let go, tell her how much she meant to me. I wanted to wipe the memory from my mind and never see her put through any type of pain again.
“You can do this, Max.” I nodded and she gave me a small smile.
I forced his face forward and our eyes locked like magnets. He flinched when I opened his mind again.
“Your name is Gary Addison, and you’re distraught over the horrendous things you’ve done. You want to apologize to everyone you’ve hurt and beg for forgiveness for the lives you’ve ruined. You know you can never undo the damage, but you can live the rest of your life trying to make up for it. You will tell the world what you were doing here and make them see how wrong you were about nephilim. You will do whatever it takes to make things right.”
I took a deep breath and tried to focus but the room was starting to spin.
“You will hand over all the information you have on your research facilities,” I said and slid to the side. My hand hit the floor and wrist buckled under my weight. Misty started to move toward me but I shook my head, I needed to finish this.
“You will never hurt another person, not human nor nephilim. You will spend your remaining years researching ways to help the world in a non-threatening way.” Addison’s body convulsed and he passed out.
“Max,” Misty said and gripped my arms. “I think you’ve done enough.”
I peered into her eyes and smiled as I fell back. She fell with me, running her hands over my face. Her mouth was moving but I couldn’t hear the words she was saying. Her tears were hitting my cheeks and I wanted to comfort her but couldn’t move my arms.
“I love you,” I said but the words were silent. Dark spots bled into my vision and from the corner of my eye, I saw Andi rushing over. At least I knew Misty would be safe with her mom there.
I relaxed and let the darkness take me.
Chapter thirty
Misty
I didn’t
know how to feel. My heart was happy at the words he spoke, but heavy by the fact he was unconscious. Never once in all the years I’d known Max had I ever seen him weak. Watching him pass out was by far one of the scariest things in my life. Andi and Sebastian slipped in right as his eyes were closing, thankfully. I was glad to see them okay and grateful they’d come back so we weren’t stuck there.
Andi slipped us to the house and called for Beth to come over. I questioned her when she asked for Ezra to come with, and she told me how he was the one who’d healed them.
After an hour of Beth working on them, everyone was waking up, everyone other than Max.
He was laying in my bed, his heartbeat was steady and breathing even, but he wasn't there. I’d been crying fat ugly tears since the first failed attempt at healing him, and wouldn’t leave the room when they’d asked me to. I didn’t want him to be alone, or to wake up without me there.
Andi went to get Beth’s mother- Gabriella- who was the leader of the Luminaries, and the strongest healer anyone knew. When she walked in and hugged me, I felt the peace she tried to push. I shook my head and told her to focus on him before trying to calm me down. I tightened my grip on his hand while she ran her palms over his head. Her eyes were closed but the frown on her face forced my sobs to break free again.
“Calm down, child. He will wake up when he’s ready,” Gabriella said.
She left me alone with him after placing a few of her stones around the bed. As soon as the door closed I crawled in next to him and laid my head on his chest.
“You gotta wake up,” I said and sniffled, trying to stop my crying. “I don’t like seeing you hurt, Max.”
I traced the outline of his collar and ran my hands down his stomach, drawing symbols with my fingertips.
“When I was little,” I started and paused when there was a noise from the desk. It was time I told someone about the past, time I let go of the pain I’d been holding in for so long. “I used to get scared a lot and Raven would draw pictures on my arms with her fingers, sometimes she would make a small cloud over us and use it to act out stories. She was really powerful for how young we were, which was something I didn’t understand back then.”
“But let's start before that,” I whispered and took a deep breath. “I’ll tell you something I’ve never told anyone. There are only a few of them, but I have some memories of my past, and I think a couple of my real mom. I’m not completely positive or anything, but I think it’s who she was. I have no memories of my father, not even a small one. The lady though, she was beautiful with really long black hair, and a soft voice, one she would sing with all the time.” I wish there was more I could say about them, but I can’t remember anything else. “I don’t know how I ended up at the facility, but one day I woke up in one of their rooms. There were no windows or lights and the bed didn’t have a mattress on it, just a thin blanket that didn’t keep us warm. I remember being scared and confused. I was too young to understand what had happened or why we were there.”
I flattened my palm over his heart and use his beat to soothe me.
“They were mean. I can’t remember a single one of them being nice to us.” I let a tear slid down and opened my eyes again, staring at the wall and watching the memories play out. “The only positive I can think of was that I wasn’t alone. I’d never been alone. This is the part I have the hardest time dealing with.” I inhaled and exhaled before continuing. “I’m a twin and my sister's name was Raven. She was everything to me when we were little. She was the person who protected me and held me when I cried. She made me promise to keep my power a secret from the people there, and I listened because she was a genius and always knew everything. I know now it was because she was trying to save me from them, not wanting them to use me the way they did others. She thought if I was too weak they would let me go, but they never did. Raven was my opposite in every way. Where I could make light, she could control the darkness. I was blond and she had black hair, I was timid and she was brave.”
I smiled at the thought of how courageous she really was. Even as little kids, she was a hero- a warrior.
“She was my best friend and living without her has been painful, painful in a way that has never faded. They pulled her soul from her body and I stood there and did nothing. Then I ran away and never looked back.” I tapped my fingers on his chest and ignored her hand on my shoulder. I knew she’d been listening since I started talking. When she bumped the desk I knew she’d done it on purpose, considering she could sneak up on anyone at any time, she’d made it obvious she was there in case I didn’t want her to hear what I had to say. I loved her for it, but it was past time she knew the truth, too.
“I ran until I collapsed on the outskirts of some small town. I don’t know how long I was there, but an older man found me and took me to his house. I thought he was nice until he brought others in to look at me, then sold me to the highest bidder. I went from family to family, being abused worse by each one, before being sold to The Society. I was in Tony’s basement for a few months before he stabbed me and I lost control of my power in front of him. They’d done it a few times before, trying to force my power out, but I remembered my promise to Raven and kept it in. After I showed them, they moved me to the kennels under the church, where I stayed until she found us.”
I shook my head and rolled to my back so I could see Andi. She was crying, her green and silver eyes wide with pain, and white hair glowing from emotions she was trying to contain. I smiled and grabbed her hand.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” I said and she shook her head.
“Don’t ever apologize to anyone, Misty. What they did to you makes me wish I could track every single one of them down,” Andi said and inhaled sharply. “I’m trying to find her, you know.”
“I know, but I don’t think you will. I wasn’t exaggerating when I said she was a genius. They tested her when we got to the facility and said her scores were higher than anyone in history at her age. She was telling me stories before I could even talk clearly,” I said and snorted, remembering how she helped me learn to use my words. “I don’t think you’ll be able to find her unless she wants you to.”
“I had my suspicions after the first time I saw her, but I wasn’t sure if she was your sister. I was hoping to bring her here first and then tell you about it,” Andi said and sat beside me. She lifted her hand and placed it on Max’s forehead, pushing his hair back.
“He’s grown into an amazing young man,” she said and smiled. “You have both grown into young people we are all very proud of.”
Andi stayed a few more minutes before leaving and telling to me get something to eat. I closed my eyes and replayed the day, from the start to the end, and tried to understand why Raven wouldn’t admit who she was. It didn’t make sense, nor did I understand how she was alive when I clearly remembered her dying.
I was dozing off when an arm wrapped around my waist and squeezed. I jumped up and yelled before throwing myself on top of him.
“Oh, my God,” I said and leaned back to look into his eyes. “Don’t ever do that again, you hear me? Never again!”
Max chuckled and wrapped both arms around me, pulling me to his chest, and rested his chin on my head. My heart began pounding when I realized how close our bodies were, how I was literally laying on top of him in my bed.
“I’m sorry you were afraid,” he whispered, his husky voice not easing my anxiety in the slightest. “But if you hug me like this every time I can’t promise I won’t do it again.”
I inhaled sharply and tried to get away, but his arms tightened and wouldn’t release me.
“Max?”
“Let me hold you for a minute, okay?” he asked and I closed my eyes. “I just need to hug you for a little while longer.”
I nodded and relaxed, although it was more difficult to do when he started running his hands up and down my back. Every time his fingers would graze skin my sparks would fly. It was embarrassing and funny, but most
ly awkward because we both pretended it wasn’t happening.
A throat cleared from the doorway and I tensed, but Max didn’t budge.
“I’m going to let it slide,” Sebastian said and cleared his throat again. “Only this once because we all thought you were going to die. But there will not be a next time.” My door slammed shut and then he yelled from the other side. “Get your hands off my daughter!”
We both chuckled and Max let me go, I sat up in time to hear the footsteps closing in on my room.
“Oh, he’s awake alright. In there feeling up Misty like a horny teenager,” Sebastian said and I dropped my head. Could they be any worse?
“Dude, he is a horny teenager,” Reed said and I heard a growl.
“That’s enough,” Andi snapped. “Both of you go away.”
I told them to come in before they had the chance to knock, and Max was sitting up as Sara came rushing at him. Andi put her arm around my shoulder and guided me out of the room.
“Let's give them some privacy,” she said and closed the door. “Plus there’s something I’d like to show you.”
We passed Sebastian and Reed on the stairs, who I refused to make eye contact with. Sebastian said he was sorry for embarrassing me but I kept walking. I wasn’t mad at him, but it was always funny when he thought I was. I followed Andi to the office and took a seat at the desk while she pulled a file from the cabinet.
“This is everything I’ve found on her,” she said and handed it to me. I flipped the cover and ran my fingers over the photo on top. It was a side view of Raven, staring at something with a haunted expression on her face. “I took that picture while she was watching you.”
I looked up to Andi who was leaned against the chair next to me. Her eyes were searching my face, probably trying to figure out how much she wanted to tell me.
“When?”
“It was the first time I’d been able to get one, but I’d been keeping an eye out for a while. I would catch a glimpse of her from time to time, or I’d feel her power as she came in and out. She never came here but when we were out in public she’d show up randomly, then a couple times she came to the school. She would be outside watching you through a window, this was one of those times.”
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