In My Skin

by Shannon McKenna

  One where she did not want to be.

  The footsteps got closer. Something blocked the light from the open doors. A huge silhouette. “Dani?”

  Luke’s voice. His darkness against the bright white sky radiated an even darker fury. “Dani? Are you OK? Are you hurt? Shot?”

  She couldn’t answer. Her throat was locked, along with the rest of her body.

  She shook, lips working. No breath to make a sound.

  Then he saw the blood. “Holy shit. Did that asshole cut you?”

  “I…I…” Her voice stuttered off to nothing as he leaped inside.

  He picked her up like she was feather-light and jumped from the back of the van to the road, surefooted as a big cat.

  “Luke,” she whispered.

  “Hold on. First let me get rid of this piece of shit.”

  The nightmare van roared to life. She wound her fingers into Luke’s shirt and watched as it sped down the road toward another sharp curve with only emptiness beyond it. It drove off the edge, sailing into the air.

  Two or three seconds passed before they heard the first crash. Then more, each crash fainter than the one before until the thing finally came to rest at the bottom of the canyon.

  Luke loped to his own car, setting her gently on her feet as he pulled the Porsche’s passenger side door open. He got her settled inside. She was shaking violently, but warmed by the blaze of fury in his eyes.

  He jumped into the car and took off with a burst of speed.

  “What did that fuckhead do to you?” he demanded.

  She inhaled, trying to power her voice. It took several tries to make it just barely audible. “You saw it. He cut me. He wasn’t going to stop. He didn’t, until you started shooting. And did that thing you do with cars. It’s magic.”

  Funny how that was growing on her. She’d never appreciated the true advantages of being able to mentally hijack machines until right now.

  “Were any of them people that you saw at your house?” he asked.

  “Yeah, the main guy was the same. He had three new henchmen, though. Slave soldiers. He didn’t use names for them. He called them by numbers.”

  “Yeah. Technokinetics, like me,” Luke said. “One tried to block me from taking control of the van, but I was faster. Then I shot him in the head. What did they want?”

  “Same as before,” she whispered. “The capsule. The key. And, uh…you.”

  He blew out a furious breath, and shook his head grimly. “Fuck.”

  “That drone,” she said. “Did you—”

  “What? Put that drone through that motherfucker’s brain stem? Yeah, that was me. Wish I’d put it through his balls, but my fucking processer always defaults to the brain stem. The sure kill. Efficiency over style, every damn time.”

  “Oh,” she whispered.

  “Probably just as well.” He talked on, restlessly, like he needed to unload his energy somehow. “You don’t want to get too imaginative when it comes to killing, or you morph into a psycho-freak on top of all the rest of it. That’s all I need.”

  She was racked by a shudder. Luke noticed, of course, and looked her up and down, cursing under his breath.

  He took his hands off the wheel and his feet off the pedals and twisted himself over the central console, rummaging in boxes in the back seat while the car hurtled swiftly onward without him appearing to drive it, screeching around hairpin turns at ninety miles an hour.

  Dani stared out at the road, eyes wide. Afraid to breathe.

  Luke twisted back around after a couple of minutes, holding another big T-shirt, a packet of sterile gauze pads and a thick woolen blanket.

  “Get something on,” he said gruffly. “And get yourself warmed up.”

  He tried to tuck the blanket around her, but she pulled it from his hands. “Um, Luke,” she said. “I know you can drive cars with just your naked mind, but it scares me to death when you take your hands off the wheel on a cliff road. Just saying.”

  “I’m just taking care of you. Deal with it.”

  She huddled further down under the blanket. “Ah. OK,” she whispered. “Fine. Sure. Can deal.”

  Luke drove the car for several miles without saying a word, but she felt the pressure building inside him every second that passed. So she was braced for what was coming when the dam finally broke. Sort of.

  “Jesus, Dani,” he exploded. “Why the escape? What the fuck were you thinking?”

  She waited a thoughtful moment before she answered. “Is that a real question?” she asked. “Do you want a real answer?”

  “Fucked if I know. This is a disaster. Now they know what they’re dealing with, and probably who. They know more about me than I know about myself. All because I couldn’t just let you go. I couldn’t let them destroy you. I fucked myself completely.”

  “I appreciate that,” she said. “I’m grateful that you came for me. And I’m sorry.”

  “Yeah? So why did you run? I told you that you weren’t a prisoner. I told you who those people are. What they’re capable of.”

  “Yes, you did.”

  He wasn’t finished. “You’d seen enough strange shit to know I was for real! You saw how I fought! You saw Naldo’s capsule. His scars, my scars. How I healed so fast, the thing with me and the car. You knew I was for real and you chose not to believe it because it scared you. That was fucking lazy of you, Dani. And cowardly.”

  She took a moment before she tried speaking. “Yes, I know. And you’re right. But it was just too much all at once. I couldn’t let it in. It was…too much like Jimmy.”

  “Yeah? Who the fuck is Jimmy?”

  “A guy my mom was with for a while when I was a kid,” she said. “He’s been dead for years now. I liked him. He was a sweet guy. When he was taking his meds.”

  “Oh. Oh, fuck.” Luke put his fingers to his forehead. “I see where this is going.”

  They slowed as they reached the roadblock and the detour sign that Blue Eyes and his goons must have put there. Luke scanned the area in every direction and answered the question in her eyes. “Don’t see any sign of them,” he said. “Maybe the drone I crashed was the only one monitoring us. We might shake them off. With luck.”

  Dani’s guts lurched. “We might? Wow. That’s great.”

  “With luck,” Luke repeated. He maneuvered around the roadblock on the shoulder and picked up speed on the slightly larger two-lane highway. At least this one had guardrails.

  “Go on,” he said. “You were talking about Jimmy.”

  “Yeah, well,” she murmured. “So when Jimmy went off his meds, things got weird in Chez LaSalle. Aliens would come. Bad guys who wanted to take over the world. Thought control rays that could only be blocked by the bathtub. He’d lock himself in there for hours at a time, hiding from aliens in the tub. And there was the poison gas from the fridge that would turn us into mindless drones. So, your story…it pushed all my buttons.”

  “It’s not a fucking story,” he burst out savagely. “It’s the truth.”

  “I get that,” she said. “I believe you now. Swear to God. It’s just that some of the details, the world domination and the secret experiments and the genetic modifications, it was just so Jimmy, you know? I couldn’t make room for it in my mind.”

  “I see.” He put on a burst of speed to pass a logging truck. “Is there room now?”

  “Oh, God, yes,” she said fervently. “Plenty. Being abducted and tortured is mind-expanding.”

  “Trust me, I know,” he said harshly. “From personal experience.”

  His tone made her cringe. She was trying not to get defensive, but it went against every instinct she had to just shut up. Let silence sit heavily between them.

  She had no business yapping at him. Not right after he just saved her ass. Again.

  “So you thought I was a psych
o head case,” he said. “While fucking me.”

  She winced. “Well, no. Not only that. I also thought you were brave and selfless and amazing. And I thought it was a cruel joke that I finally found a guy who rang all my bells, but there was just one little bitty problem—he happened to be a paranoid schizophrenic.”

  “I’m not a—”

  “I know you’re not!” she yelled. “I believe you now, OK? I’m just trying to explain my reasoning.”

  “So what was your game?”

  “Game?” She shot him an incredulous look. “I don’t have a game! I got nothing, Luke! I’m hanging on by my fingernails! Right now, my game is, let’s see…how about, save me from the villains! Take me to your alternate universe and fuck me all night long!”

  “I was just trying to keep you alive,” he ground out. “That’s all.”

  “I know that now,” she said. “Please calm down.”

  “I can’t,” he said. “My ASP is all out of whack. I’m pumped full of stress juice with nowhere to put it. So I’m liable to be in a shitty mood for a while. Be warned.”

  “OK,” she whispered.

  They drove for a while in silence. “One thing you should know,” he said finally. “If the aliens ever came for us, you wouldn’t find me hiding in the bathtub. I’d be out there armed to the teeth, kicking their wrinkly gray asses.”

  A startled laugh jolted her chest. “Are you trying to be funny, Luke?”

  “Not at all,” he said. “I’m not a funny guy. I am dead serious.”

  She blew out a sigh. “God help me.”

  Luke shook his head. “Joking aside, if that’s what I was doing, you’re in this now, Dani. Your choices are simple.”

  She shot him a startled look. “Are they? For real?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “If you believe me, then stay and fight with me. If not, go back out there and take your chances. Just let me know where you want me to let you out. I have some cash with me, a few thousand bucks. You can have all of it. Go it alone if you want to. But that’s it for me. I hate it, but I’m done. I won’t come back to save your skin again. This is the last time I slow down for you.”

  “Oh, Luke, don’t—”

  “Just be aware. They will come for you. They will never get tired of looking.”

  “I understand. And I—”

  “So decide, because I need to haul ass and regroup. I screwed myself left right and sideways by coming back for you. And for nothing.”

  “Is that so,” she said quietly.

  He made an impatient sound. “I didn’t mean that your life was worth nothing,” he said gruffly. “I’m pissed, yeah. But I’m sorry they hurt you.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “You’re sweet.”

  “Hardly,” he scoffed.

  “You came to save me when there was nothing in it for you,” she said stubbornly. “That makes you a good guy.”

  “No, actually.” His voice was sour. “I think technically, that makes me an idiot.”

  “Oh, shut up. You know I’m right. And if there’s going to be a battle, I want to be on the right side of it. With you.”

  He refused to look at her. “Don’t do me any fucking favors.”

  “Listen to me, Luke,” she said. “I think…I might actually have something that you can use.”

  He looked at her, which freaked her out again, since at that exact moment, the car was swerving around another hundred and eighty degree turn, and way too damn fast.

  “What might that be?” he demanded, eyes locked on hers as the car speeded around the hairpin bend.

  “The key. I think…I have the key to decrypt Naldo’s chip. I had it all along. But I didn’t know.”

  “Had it?” He looked suspicious. “Had it where?”

  “In my skin,” she said simply. “Naldo must have slapped it on me when I got down on the floor next to him, in my kitchen.” Her voice caught, remembering the blood pouring out of her friend’s chest. “He put his hand on my leg. A transparent film, I guess, with a code hidden in it. I never had a clue. And he tried so hard to tell me.”

  “Tell you what? Tell you how?”

  “How to read it,” she said. “Those Obsidian guys found it. Right here.” She pointed to the wad of gauze over her leg. “That’s why he was cutting me. He was going to flay that piece of skin right off me.”

  “I’m not following you,” he said harshly. “I didn’t see anything on your leg.”

  “Me neither. I thought it was strange that Naldo kept talking about juvie,” she said. “But he was dying, and I was panicked, so I wasn’t really listening. But now I get it. He wasn’t saying ‘juvie’ at all.”

  “What the fuck was he saying?” he demanded. “What the fuck are you saying?”

  “Ultraviolet,” she said. “Naldo was saying ‘UV.’”

  Chapter 15

  Zade swept his mind over his army of trawler bots as he stood on his terrace, gazing out over the Puget Sound and the Seattle skyline. He’d programmed them to constantly, ceaselessly search through databases for clues that could lead to Luke.

  No hits. Not in the last forty seconds, anyhow.

  “How’re you doing out there with the carne asada?” Hannah called from the kitchen.

  Zade dragged his attention back to the big chunk of marinated steak sizzling on the barbecue. Another three seconds, and it would have been on the far side of perfect.

  Hannah had been tracking those seconds. She liked it rare.

  “Ready,” he called. “It just needs to rest for a couple minutes.”

  He forked the meat up onto a platter and carried it into the kitchen, where he stopped in his tracks. Hannah was chasing Simone around with an unmarked spray can.

  Simone was laughing. “Get real! Do you have to bedazzle me before dinner? I have tortillas on the griddle already and they’re going to burn!”

  “What the hell is that?” he demanded.

  “It’s a thing Sisko and I cooked up,” Hannah said. “Hair and body glitter. Specialized spray, not the dollar store stuff. I was trying to zap Simone with it before you saw. You know, for a surprise.” She made a face at Simone. “So much for that.”

  “Glitter? Sisko?” Zade raised an eyebrow. “Since when?”

  “He cuts loose sometimes,” Hannah assured him. “The spray has traceable nanoparticles. The idea is, you decorate your girlfriend with it, go to a dance club, and then trace her whereabouts if she gets nabbed by nefarious villains when you’re not looking.”

  “Nabbed by who?”

  Hannah shrugged. “Obsidian agents, maybe.”

  Zade grunted thoughtfully. “Could be useful. Sure it’s not toxic?”

  Hannah rolled her eyes. “Dude. You know I have the equivalent of three advanced degrees in chemistry stored in my data processors. Yes, this amazing new product has passed every test.”

  “Really.” Zade looked from her to Simone. “So? Let’s see how this stuff works. But step away from the table. Let’s not get it on the food.”

  “For the record, there’s an edible version,” Hannah said. “Just not for tacos.”

  “Oh, whatever. Do your worst.” Simone held her nose and squeezed her eyes shut as Hannah sprayed a cloud of the stuff over her, then sprayed her again.

  “Whoa!” Zade said. “That’s enough.”

  Simone opened her eyes and turned her arms and hands, admiring the luminous shimmer. “Pretty,” she said. “How long does it last?”

  “It varies, depending on how hot the weather is and how much you sweat,” Hannah said. “Sisko and I tested it. I went out clubbing all glittered up and he followed me using the monitor. Worked great, technically speaking. Aesthetically, too, if I do say so myself. I got all kinds of attention with my sparkly cleavage.”

  “Hot. Right.” Zade couldn’t take his eyes off
Simone. She was so fucking pretty like that. “You look like you fell out of a star or something. Mmmm. Stuff works for me.”

  Hannah made a derisive sound, and Zade flapped his hand at her. “Look away. You’re too young to witness this.” He grabbed Simone and kissed her. A long kiss that promised an erotic night ahead.

  Simone fought her way out of it after a moment, pink cheeked, and shot an embarrassed glance at Hannah, who watched with arms crossed over her chest, beer bottle dangling from her fingers, tapping her foot. “You guys done?” Hannah asked dryly.

  “Yes. And I’m starving,” Simone said. “Oh shit! The tortillas!”

  She dove for the kitchen to rescue them from the grill and piled them on a plate. Only slightly overdone, he was glad to see. Dark brown spots instead of gold. Still good.

  Hannah took a sip of her beer, her whiskey colored eyes boring into him. “So,” she said slowly. “Distracted much?”

  He stared back, sensing a trap. “Not at all. The meat’s done to perfection.”

  “I’m not talking about the meat. I’m talking about your diving.”

  Zade brought the steak to the table and started slicing it. Hannah had been happily giving him hell ever since he’d met her, a scrappy, smart-mouthed nine year old, trapped with him and Luke in the Midlands program. Modified like them by the Obsidian researchers, along with her brother Noah, who was the leader of their rebel group.

  Hannah was the closest thing to a sister that he had, and she took the role seriously. She considered it her sacred duty to harass him.

  “You’re just aching to mess with me, so get it over with,” he said.

  “You’re diving too much,” she announced. “Ten, twelve hours at a time. And you were checking your bots out there on the terrace, weren’t you? I felt you. You never stop.”

  He set the sliced steak aside and covered it. “Don’t spy on me, electronically or otherwise.”

  “Hannah wasn’t spying,” Simone said. “I asked her to talk to you.”

  “She’s worried about you,” Hannah pointed out. “And she’s right to worry. Remember what happened to Pushnell’s group, back at Midlands? Pushnell put those poor bastards under for days at a time with an IV and a catheter and pee bag. Every single one of them got brain burn and went to the shredder. Remember Malachi? And Aaron?”