by Jade Kerrion
Zara seemed to accept the death of her employee with equanimity, though her eyes had narrowed and her jaw was tense. Zara exchanged a glance with Xin. The Chinese clone nodded and walked away.
“Where’s she going?” Dee asked, her voice tearful.
“To take care of paperwork,” Zara said.
Dee’s brow furrowed. How could Zara sound so calm and perfectly in control at a time like this?
The assassin continued, “So, Seth is still out there with two men and a cooler full of Danyael’s blood?”
Dee nodded.
“Did he say where he was going?”
“No, but he seemed to expect his other men to follow with Dum.”
An expression flickered across Zara’s face, too swiftly to decipher. The assassin turned her back on the twins, went to a closet, and pulled out two pieces of clothing. “Here, wear this.” Zara handed Dum and Dee each black fleece sweaters, the neckline studded with three small buttons. “You look cold. Did you want something hot to drink?”
Dee tugged the sweater over her head. “How can you be so calm?”
“Getting excited isn’t going to help Danyael. He’s beyond my help, but Alex and the council will do everything they can to save his life. You should return to your apartment, both of you, and get some rest. We’ll take it from here.”
“What are you going to do?”
Zara smiled. It was not a pleasant smile. “Probably several things that Danyael will disapprove of.” She turned and strode out of the room.
Dee glanced at her brother.
Dum shrugged, apparently indifferent, but his brown eyes were bleak, despairing.
“Oh, God.” Dee slumped into a chair and buried her face in her trembling hands. Jessica couldn’t be dead, could she? She was an alpha mutant, a telepath and a telekinetic. She was a child. She wasn’t even old enough to drink or drive. How had she died? Had she suffered terribly? Dee’s lips quivered. “Was it my fault?”
Dum’s mouth dropped open. He grabbed her cold hand and pressed it against his chest. He shook his head with fervency and urgency.
With her other hand, Dee swiped the tears spilling from her eyes. “Then whose fault was it? If I didn’t try to break away from the council, Jessica would never have gotten involved. We would never have dragged Danyael into this.”
Xin’s voice spoke up from the doorway. “Danyael is an adult of sound mind. He’s fully capable of making his own decisions on when to get involved.” Her brown eyes scanned Dee and Dum. “I see Zara has already headed out. You two should head on home, too.”
“Can we wait here? I need to know how Danyael’s doing.”
“I will call you with news of Danyael. Go home.”
Xin’s orders left no room for disagreement. The two enforcers standing behind Xin went so far as to escort Dee and Dum from the building, and did not leave their side until the twins boarded a bus headed for Anacostia.
Something about the situation did not smell quite right, but Dee was too mentally exhausted and emotionally drained to dig any deeper. Dee looked at her brother as the bus started moving. “Should we go by the club and let people know that you’re all right?”
Dum shrugged. He turned his face away from her, but not before she saw a single tear trickle down his cheek.
She knew why. Jessica. Dee’s chest ached as if swollen with pent-up tears. She reached for Dum’s hand, wishing she could do more for him. “You could dedicate a song to her—”
He scowled at her, pulled his hand away, and dug his ear pods out of his pocket.
She snatched his ear pods away from him. “Don’t shut me out. I need you to listen to me. I need someone to listen to me. And you need—”
He made a grab for his ear pods, but she flung them out of the open bus window. “Damn it, you don’t talk to me. You don’t even listen to me. What good are you as a brother?”
Dum pushed to his feet, slammed his hand on the emergency button, and the bus screeched to a stop. He hurried down the steps, and Dee raced after him. She caught his arm and swung him around. “Are you going to look for your ear pods? After everything that has happened, the only thing you can think about is your damn music? For God’s sake, when will you start realizing that there’s a world of people around you?”
He glared at her with hate blazing in his brown eyes.
Dee recoiled, and then realized with the certainty bestowed by kinship, that his hatred was self-directed. He had empathically fueled the gang violence that killed four of Seth’s men. If he could have killed Seth and the other two men, he would have too, as recompense for Jessica’s death, and he would have hated himself for it. She grabbed his hand. “It’s not your fault!”
Dum turned away.
“You saved both our lives. You saved Danyael’s life.”
But he had not been able to save Jessica.
Dum swallowed hard, slowly shaking his head. He kept his head bowed, his gaze locked on the ground.
She had seen that expression in his eyes before. For twelve years, she had lived with that glazed emptiness in his eyes, but over the prior four months, Danyael had drawn Dum out of his shell. Her brother had learned to express himself through his music, and then later, Jessica had taught him how to laugh, love, and live. Dee could not let him fall apart, not when he had come so far.
She grabbed him by the shoulders. “Dum, look at me.”
With apparent reluctance, he raised his gaze to meet her eyes.
She forced a smile. “We can get through this together. We did it together when Dad died, and then later, when Mom died. We still have each other. We’ll always have each other.”
He shook his head, a bittersweet smile on his lips. He poked a finger at her chest and clasped his hands.
Dee frowned. Dum did not speak, but he did not know sign language either, at least not any official form of sign language. Whatever gestures he used he made up to suit the occasion. Dee, however, had twelve years of experience in translating Dum’s incomprehensible gestures. “Are you saying that I’m the one who held it together?”
He nodded, a bitter curve to his lips.
She chuckled, the sound equally bitter. “Holding you together held me together. When Dad died, I couldn’t think. I couldn’t move until I saw you huddled in the corner, shaking so hard that I thought you would fall apart. I held you, and I said I wouldn’t let you go until everything was all right and we were safe again.” Dee sighed. “Some promise. I’m sorry.”
Dum sighed inaudibly. His brown eyes darted past her, and he stiffened suddenly.
Dee spun around, gaping at the black car that screeched to a stop at the curb. Seth! She did not wait for the door to open. “Run!”
She reached into her pocket, her fingers fumbling around for her cell phone. It fell, slipping past her clumsy fingers. She skidded to a stop and half-turned to retrieve her phone, but Seth’s two men were closing the distance fast. She swore under her breath, ignored her fallen cell phone, and kept running.
Dum raced ahead of her, and it wasn’t until they started scrambling up rocky terrain that she realized that they were at Fort Stanton Park. Damn it. They could take cover among the trees, but everything considered, crowds of people would have provided far better cover. She spared a glance over her shoulder. Seth followed, several feet behind his two men, and fell even further behind on the rougher terrain.
Dum touched Dee’s hand. He jerked his head toward her and then away from her.
Split up.
She nodded, breaking away toward the right and darting into the murky darkness behind a thick cluster of trees. Panting hard, she dashed behind a tree, and pressed back against it, trying to listen for sounds of approaching feet, but heard nothing. She peered out from behind the tree and saw Seth’s two men running in the opposite direction, presumably after her brother. Seth followed.
Dee ground her teeth. Damn it. Of course, they would follow Dum. They wanted the empath—she was just a worthless human—but like hell she’
d let them get their hands on her brother.
She scrambled down the hill, loose pebbles skittering in her wake, and then raced across the ruins of Fort Stanton. The full moon shone down, illuminating the stone parapets. “Seth!”
He spun around, a disdainful smirk on his lips. “Dee.” He shook his head. “Pathetic. Four men couldn’t handle two teenagers.”
“Pathetic is what you are, leaving your men to do your dirty work for you. Why didn’t you have the guts to kill Danyael yourself?”
Something flickered in Seth’s blue eyes. “It would be a crime to destroy something so beautiful, so perfect.” His soft, reverent tone contrasted with the madness gleaming in his eyes.
Dee snorted. “Danyael’s not perfect, but nor is he the wreck you made him out to be. If anyone’s the monster, it’s you. You pretended to be our friend. You pretended to care for us. Dum doesn’t need people like you in his life, and I’m not going to let you hurt him.”
Seth laughed and walked up to her. “And how do you intend to stop me, human?”
Dee held her ground, even though she trembled.
Seth loomed over her. He tipped her chin up. “I can wipe your memories. I can twist them. I can turn enemies into friends, and friends into enemies. I can send you to kill Danyael, and you would obey. Best of all, I can leave some part of you aware, screaming in horror, in denial, as your body obeys my every order.”
She jerked out of his grip and glared up at him “No, you can’t. You’re not strong enough.”
Seth’s eyes widened.
She had to keep him distracted with her taunts. “Danyael absorbed your telepathic powers without repercussions, but you weren’t strong enough to resist the potency of Danyael’s empathic powers. You blame him for your madness, but you never possessed his character and strength of will.” Her hand slipped into the pocket of her denim jeans and closed around her tiny tube of pepper spray. “You’re weak. You scorn Danyael’s life, but you’ll always live with the knowledge that you were the weaker of the two—”
“Danyael is dead. I’m alive—”
Dee jerked up her hand and released a haze of pepper spray into Seth’s face. He screamed. She kneed him hard between his legs and he crumpled, groaning, to the ground. “Danyael is alive, and he will hunt you down—”
Pain stabbed into her mind. White lights exploded before her eyes, the agony blinding. She tasted blood in her mouth and realized that she had bitten her lip bloody. When she opened her eyes, Seth stood over her, his smile mocking.
“You are nothing,” he said. “Less than nothing. Do you think I need my telepathic powers to deal with the likes of you?”
Dee kicked out hard. The heel of her boot slammed into his shins. He howled, doubling over. Dee scrambled back, pushed to her feet, and dashed away, but another psi-blast drove her to her knees. She rolled over, grimacing against the pain. “Did you change your mind about not using your powers?”
His lips curled in a silent snarl. “You stupid girl—” He turned his head toward the sound of running feet.
Dum dashed out of the shadows and threw his arms around Dee.
Seth’s eyes widened. “You took out my two men.” Surprise and awe infused his voice. “You’re more powerful than I thought. Perhaps I could use your blood, after all.”
Dum snarled.
Seth grinned at Dum, his smile malicious. “Your sister has been your only anchor to reality. How would you like to kill her? After all, you killed your father.” Seth laughed as Dum paled. “Why not add another body to your count?”
Dum winced and tore away from Dee, reeling to one knee, his hands pressed against the side of his head. He shook his head, the motion frantic, as he whimpered, apparently trying not to succumb to Seth’s telepathic persuasion.
“You leave him alone!” Dee snatched up a rock and drew her arm back, prepared to hurl the rock at Seth.
With a low moan of pain, Dum lunged at Dee and slammed her to the ground. His hands wrapped around her throat. His eyes were wide with horror as his grip tightened, cutting off her breath.
No… Dee clawed at Dum’s face, trying to push him away. Blackness encroached on the edges of her vision.
Tears streamed down Dum’s face, and a whimper of raw agony emerged from his throat. His lips shaped a single soundless word. “No…”
No, she couldn’t die. She wouldn’t die.
I have to stop…Seth. Dee’s fist tightened around the rock, and with the last of her strength, she slammed it up into Dum’s head. With a startled cry, Dum fell back. Coughing, Dee dragged air into her burning lungs. She rolled onto her knees and hurled the rock at Seth.
The rock skimmed past Seth’s head, barely grazing him, but his blue eyes glazed, and he slowly toppled backward. Only then did Dee see the blood dripping slowly out of a bullet hole in the middle of his temple.
What— She backed away from Seth’s fallen body.
Beside her, Dum climbed slowly to his feet, a hand pressed against his bleeding temple. He wrapped an arm around Dee’s waist and tugged her to him. His body shuddered, and he sobbed quietly against her neck.
Dee stroked his back to soothe him as she looked around, searching for the sniper who had saved her life and Dum’s.
“It’s all right, Dee.” Zara’s voice broke the silence.
Befuddled, Dee stared down at her chest where the voice had emerged.
“It’s over now. Xin and some enforcers are on their way to you. They’ll handle the clean up and make sure you get home safely.”
“Zara? Where are you?”
“Look up.”
Dimly, Dee could make out the unblinking lights of a helicopter hovering so high overhead that she could not even hear the beats of its propeller against the air.
Zara continued. “The buttons on your sweater are the latest in high-tech bugs.”
“You used them to track us?”
“I used them to hunt Seth.” Zara’s ice-cold tone left no doubt as to her priorities.
Dee gritted her teeth. Zara was a heartless bitch. “No wonder you said Danyael wouldn’t approve.”
“Why are you complaining? You’re alive. If you still have a problem with it by tomorrow morning, come see me at the council headquarters.” Zara’s nonchalant tone grated on Dee’s nerves.
Dee’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll be there. Trust me, I’ll be there first thing in the morning.”
13
Dum had left the apartment by the time Dee woke up the next morning. Her initial alarm faded when she saw the neatly printed note on the kitchen counter; Dum had left for the council headquarters. Dee ate a quick breakfast, forcing it down in spite of a nonexistent appetite and a head wooly from lack of sleep.
Seth’s abrupt death did not haunt her nightmares; it was the memory of Danyael, succumbing to the drugs in his veins and the gas in his lungs, reeling unconscious to the ground. If she could have, she would have done anything to save him. Perhaps she should not have been surprised to find that Zara would have, too.
The anger and annoyance had faded by the time Dee stepped into the infirmary at the council headquarters. Danyael was asleep or unconscious on the single bed, but the faintly glowing equipment around the bed seemed to suggest that his condition was stable. Laura Itani dozed on the couch, huddled beneath a heavy blanket. Zara uncoiled from the large armchair on the far side of the room when Dee entered. The armchair could not possibly have been a comfortable sleeping place, but the assassin did not seem the worse for wear.
“Are you feeling better?” Zara asked.
“I’m still mad at you, conceptually, at least.”
Zara chuckled. “I’ll make a note not to expect Christmas presents from you this year.”
“No, I meant to say that I’m grateful you were keeping an eye on things, but I’m not a big fan of being used as bait.”
“No one is. It’s why I rarely tell people in advance that I’m using them as bait.”
Dee snorted and glanced toward the bed.
“How is Danyael?”
“He needed six pints of blood, but thanks to you and others, he’s going to make it.”
“Has he woken up yet?”
“No, and he may not for several more hours.”
It would be too much, she supposed, for Danyael to make it to the concert that evening, but at least he was alive. “Are you going to get into trouble for, um, you know, Seth?”
“For killing Seth? No, it was a sanctioned kill.”
“A what?”
“Xin took care of the paperwork, and it cleared the bureaucratic red tape a second before I pressed on the trigger.”
Dee’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of world do you live in?”
“The same one you do, most of the time, anyway. By the way, the patient in the next room wants to see you too.”
“What next room?”
“Across the corridor.”
Dee walked out of Danyael’s room and knocked on the door across from his.
Come in already.
Jess? Dee flung the door open and threw herself at the teenager seated upright on the bed. “Oh, my God. You’re alive!”
Jessica’s hug was fervent. “Yes, yes. Don’t kiss me. Your brother has already kissed me.”
“Dum was here?”
“Yes, he went down to the kitchen to see if he could sneak out a carton of ice cream. I know I’m not allowed to drink, drive, or smoke, but no one is going to keep me from eating dessert.”
“In the morning?”
“Always start with dessert. Life can be short and uncertain.”
“What happened? Seth said—”
“Did you really think those traitors would take me out so easily?” She snorted. “Of course not, though I’ll admit I had a hell of a fight. I could have died from my injuries, but when you told Zara and Xin what happened, Xin sent a team of west coast-based enforcers out to look for me, and they got to me in time. They patched me up and shipped me back, overnight express, to D.C.”
“Who—”
Jessica’s face tightened. “Arlene Gunter and Henry Dutton.”
They had been her teachers. After Seth, she did not know anyone else better than Arlene and Henry. “And what—” Did she really want to know?