“Poor Sam,” Chris murmured. I met her eyes and gave her hands a squeeze. We all liked Tavis, but he’d become something of a father to the ten-year-old. Sam would be devastated.
Hesitantly, almost like he was afraid to ask, Harper said, “How do we know Zoe’s just missing and not…?”
“She’s not dead,” I said. “Gabe sensed her dreaming mind a couple times. Just quick blips, but enough to know she’s alive and nearby, just not exactly where.”
Chris nodded slowly, eyes narrowed as she considered what I’d told them.
Harper was gripping the edge of the bed now, and I had the impression that he was physically restraining himself. “We should go to them, tend their injuries and—”
Chris stood and held out her palm to Harper. “Just hold on there, buddy.” She pointed back at me. “You heard Becca; Dani can’t go anywhere if she wants to keep herself and the baby safe.”
Harper stood as well, facing off with Chris. “Exactly, Dani’s staying here.”
“You two go,” I said, desperate for someone to do something. “Gabe said they’re in a hotel, just outside of Sacramento. We’ll be alright here without you for a few days, and Becca said I’d be fine so long as I stayed here, so I’m sure the baby’ll be okay. You should go,” I urged. Hell, I was getting close to flat-out begging.
Uncertainty flashed across Chris’s face, looking completely out of place. “It’d be a several-day ride just to get there.”
“But only a couple hours in a car,” Harper countered.
“True,” Chris said, drawing out the word. “We could ask the council to lend us another vehicle.”
“And if they say no?” I asked quietly. It seemed more than likely that they would refuse, considering we’d just ruined the last one they let us borrow.
“Then we’ll leave on horseback first thing tomorrow morning,” Harper said.
I bit my lip, considering our options. “You should take Grayson to New Bodega, Chris. He gets along with the council the best.”
Chris nodded and started for the door. “I’ll wake him up and fill him in.” She glanced back at me. “Will you get our horses ready?”
“Of course.”
“I’ll help,” Harper said.
The three of us left the bedroom in a line, worried and filled with uncertainty over what the day would bring. But at least we had a plan.
24
ANNA
DECEMBER 14, 1AE
The Colony, Colorado
With one hand covering her mouth and the other gripping her side, Anna paced in her office, striding from the shut door to the desk, over and over and over again. Her eyes felt grittier with each successive blink, and she kept thinking she was seeing things on the edge of her vision—going nearly two full nights without sleep tended to do that to a person. But in other ways, she’d felt like she’d never been more alert.
Jason was inside the Colony. He’d been there for two days now. She’d been unable to track him down so far, and she had no clue what he, Cole, and Larissa, the perception-altering woman, were up to. Casing the base, likely—learning how it worked, who did what, and who they’d have to remove in order for their takeover to be successful, assuming that’s why they were in the Colony in the first place. But it was the only explanation that made any sense at all.
Anna squeezed her eyes shut, just for a moment. How was any of this happening? She had to find Jason and get him out of there. She just didn’t know how to find him, not to mention how to approach him without Cole or Gregory noticing…without getting herself, and probably Jason, killed.
Hand covering her mouth, Anna shook her head and continued to pace. And then there was Zoe; according to Peter, something had happened to her. He’d been able to sense that she was distressed and in pain. Peter’s connection with his half-sister was so strong and went so far beyond anything Anna could have imagined. She was astonished by how much he knew about Zoe—far more than Anna herself knew about her only daughter.
But despite knowing all of this, Anna was a sitting duck. She’d mulled everything she knew about each situation over and over, all to no avail. She couldn’t see any pathway that led to her helping either Jason or Zoe, not this time, not with her current lack of substantial information.
Anna had her hand on the doorknob before she realized she’d made the decision to head home to check in with Peter. It was midafternoon, and he was bound to be up by now, teenager or not, healing or not. She knew she should let him rest after the extreme stress of the new form of electrotherapy. But still, she was so very tempted to run home, wake him if he was still asleep, and beg him to tell her whatever else he might know about Zoe’s current status or see if he knew Jason’s exact location in the Colony.
Sighing, Anna hung her head and released the doorknob. She both wanted to utilize her son’s current Ability and was utterly terrified of being in the same room as him. She didn’t want him to see any more of her memories than he already had, not that she had the slightest inkling of how much he’d already seen. She’d considered nulling him but hadn’t been able to bring herself to actually do it. After all, he was her son…her little boy. He was her second chance, her do-over.
Anna resumed pacing. To the desk. To the door. To the desk. To the door. Her mind was spinning uselessly. She couldn’t help Zoe or Jason, and she couldn’t help but be scared for Peter…and be a little scared of him, if she was being honest with herself.
“Mom…”
Startled, Anna froze, her eyes darting around the office. She held her breath. Had she imagined Peter’s voice?
“Mom?”
“Peter?” Anna continued to stare around the room. Apparently he’d recently come into contact with a telepath and had absorbed that Ability for the time being, as well.
“Will you come home, Mom? It’s Zoe…I’m scared.”
Heart in her throat, Anna inhaled sharply and opened her mouth to demand more information, despite being fairly certain that Peter’s version of telepathy only worked one way.
Anna’s office door opened, and she spun around to face the intruder. “What the hell do you think you’re—” Her question cut off abruptly, and she clutched the front of her lab coat and stumbled backward a few steps until the backs of her thighs hit the edge of her desk.
The intruder shut the door quickly and quietly, then snicked the deadbolt locked and turned to face Anna. “Mom,” Jason said as he crossed his arms and leaned back against the door. His face was cold, expressionless, his features twisted on one side by a grisly scar that swept almost from hairline to jaw. But his eyes—they were brilliant and focused. They were accusing. “Been a while,” he said, his tone as expressionless as his face.
Anna stared at her eldest son and ever so slowly shook her head, at an utter loss for words.
“Were you at the gatehouse when we came in?”
Anna blinked several times, having difficulty believing that Jason was really there, in her office with her. “I—” She blinked several more times, then nodded. Why was she being such a dumbstruck moron? This was what she’d been waiting for. This was her chance to convince him to leave. This was it…but she could only manage to stare at Jason, eyes wide and tongue tied. She hadn’t seen him since he was five years old. She’d seen photos in Gregory’s files, sure, but it wasn’t the same. She’d left him a little boy, and now he’d returned to her a grown man.
“I thought that was you, but I wasn’t sure.” He pushed off the door and started moving around the room, eyes roaming everywhere. “Cole didn’t notice you, in case you were worried.” Jason stood in front of the meticulously organized bookcase to the left of her desk and glanced back at Anna. “With how much he talks about you and Herodson…he would’ve mentioned it.” Jason’s attention returned to the fourth shelf of the bookcase, which was filled with neatly labeled binders documenting Anna’s research on both the gene therapy and the modified strain of influenza she’d used to spread it.
Anna swallowed, a us
eless action considering how dry her mouth had become in the last minute.
“His plan is simple, really.” Jason continued to browse through the labels on the spines of the binders, apparently not a care in the world. “When he’s done scoping out the place, he’s going to kill Herodson and take over as leader here…and I’m perfectly fine with that.” Seeming to grow bored with the binders, Jason turned away from the bookcase and made his way behind the desk. Slowly, he eased himself down into Anna’s chair.
Anna faced him. When had her little boy grown so large? How? It didn’t seem possible. “Why are you working with him?” Anna forced herself to ask, even though she feared the answer.
“I didn’t have a choice.” Again, Jason crossed his arms. “He’s planning on killing you, too.” He speared her with a stare. “Which means it’s time for you to finally leave this place. We’re just lucky that Cole’s been a little too free with his commands lately. He’s managed to get a fair number of your people under his control, but he’s drained his Ability too much, even with me boosting him. He renews my commands every morning.” Jason smiled grimly, the effect only emphasized by his scar. “But this morning he was a little, well, impotent.”
“That’s how you’re here, talking to me?”
Jason nodded. “He’s resting right now, and Larissa’s scouting the northwestern sector. He’ll never know I was gone.”
Anna studied his face, searching for hints of the kind, gentle boy she’d left in Bodega Bay so many years ago. “So you came here to warn me that Cole wants me dead?”
Again, Jason nodded. “You need to get out of here, and soon. Herodson and Cole can battle it out.” He shrugged one shoulder. “I couldn’t care less who’s in charge of this place.” He looked around the office like he could see the rest of the Colony through the walls. “Looks like it’s barely hanging on by a thread anyway.” Jason refocused on Anna, his eyes on fire with challenge. “I say we run and don’t look back. I say we let it fall apart.”
Feeling defeated, Anna collapsed into the thinly padded chair across from her son. She laughed wanly. “Before you showed up, I was in here trying to figure out how to find you and tell you that you needed to leave the Colony for your safety. It never even crossed my mind that you’d tell me the same thing.”
Jason studied her, tilting his head to the side, just a bit, and narrowing his eyes. “This place—it’s a goddamn illusion, anyway; it won’t last, so what’s the point of drawing out the inevitable?”
Anna sighed and raised her shoulders. After a moment, she let them fall and hunched her back. “I can’t leave.”
“You’ll die if you stay,” Jason said, frozen in place and voice coated in ice.
Anna shook her head. “That may be, but you don’t understand. I have to stay here…for Peter.” Now that she’d managed to get herself speaking, Anna felt as though she would never shut up. “He’s sick, and he needs to be here for his treatments.” She shook her head more emphatically. “Don’t you see? I don’t care what happens to me so long as he’s okay.”
“Always playing the goddamn martyr,” Jason muttered. He held up a hand to keep her from rambling further. “What’s wrong with him—with Peter?”
“He—he’s—”
There was the clicking sound of the door being unlocked, and Anna’s entire body stiffened. There were only two keys that would grant access to her office—hers and Gregory’s. And if Gregory was on the other side of the door, Anna had no doubt that this would be the last time she would ever see Jason again. Ever.
“It’s just me,” Peter said in her mind, right before he slipped into the office and relocked the door.
“Peter?” she said, staring at him wide-eyed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Jason freeze, halfway out of the chair. She glanced at the lock on the door, then back at her younger son. “But, how…?”
“Camille’s Ability.” Meaning, he hadn’t needed a key at all. “From before she left…” Which meant he’d had her Ability to control metal for more than eight months. It was the longest he’d ever retained an Ability, no doubt a result of his increased electrotherapy sessions.
Anna exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding and all but collapsed in on herself. She couldn’t take it anymore—all of the stress, the paranoia, the always looking over her shoulder…always expecting the worst to happen. She felt like she was on the verge of having a heart attack.
Peter placed his hand on hers. “Don’t worry, Mom.” He gave her a squeeze. “We’ll get through this; we always do.”
“You must be Peter,” Jason said. Anna watched his eyes scan Peter’s face as he lowered himself back into the chair.
“And you’re Jason…my brother.” Peter laughed, but it sounded halfhearted and thready. “Until two days ago, I didn’t know I had a brother.”
Jason lowered his eyes to Anna, his expression no longer blank; his features were tensed, his eyes heated. “You told him I was here?”
Anna shook her head. “He just knew. His Ability—he can absorb parts of other people’s Abilities.”
Jason’s attention switched back to Peter, a new interest gleaming in his eyes.
“I sort of met a woman yesterday—one of your companions, Larissa,” Peter said. “And now I know things about people…can see their memories and feel some of what they’re feeling. She can actually change what people think they see and remember…but I can’t do that. It’s pretty weird.” He paused for a moment. “Like, I know she’s like you—she isn’t here by choice, and she doesn’t want to hurt anyone.” He gave Anna’s hand another squeeze. “She noticed you when they got here a couple days ago, Mom. She could tell that you weren’t affected by her illusion, that you saw them come in, but she didn’t say anything to that guy Cole about it. She—she hates him, wants to kill him, but she can’t because he’s controlling her, like Dad does with everyone, just like Cole’s controlling Jason. Right?”
Jason nodded slowly.
Baffled, Anna shook her head, her eyes narrowed. “But how could Cole—why didn’t you just null him the first time he tried to use his Ability on you?”
“I couldn’t,” Jason said, his tone cutting off any further discussion on the hows and whys of his current predicament.
Anna pursed her lips. “I see. Well, I’m sure he’s commanded you not to try to leave him, yes?”
Jason leaned forward and nodded.
“And I’m sure you can’t hurt him, that’s the obvious way to break his hold on you, but…” When Jason confirmed her assumption with another nod, she said, “Then you’ll need the neutralizer. It’ll take a little while to make, but it’s the only way I can see to get you out of here safely.”
Jason inhaled to respond, but Peter spoke first. “You have to take us with you.”
Jason frowned. “I thought you couldn’t leave…”
“Oh, but I can now.”
“What?” Anna craned her neck to look up at her youngest son. “The treatment’s not a permanent fix, Peter. You’ll need—”
“I know, Mom, but they’ve got people who know how to do electrotherapy on their farm.” He smiled broadly. “Did you know that Becca and all the others are there? I can see them in his mind…”
Anna had no words. At the moment, she barely had any thoughts. She was completely and utterly stunned. Peter could leave the Colony? She could leave? She’d long ago given up hope that the day might ever come, but now…
“You’re a Re-gen,” Jason said, and Peter nodded. “How’d that happen?”
“I was sick—leukemia. I died. Mom brought me back.”
Anna cleared her throat. “He was the driving force behind the Re-gen program in the first place,” she said numbly. “I knew he was dying, but I couldn’t survive losing another of my children.” Anna was aware of how desperate and maniacal her explanation made her sound, but it was the truth.
“You didn’t lose us,” Jason said, the corner of his mouth lifting just enough to show the hint of
a sneer. “You left us.”
“She didn’t have a choice,” Peter snapped. “You’d be dead if Mom hadn’t—”
Jason stood abruptly. “Don’t you think I know that? But now I’m alive and everyone else is either a fucking corpse or has lost their fucking minds.” He bared his teeth in a smile. “Can’t say I feel real good about that.” He stared at them for several seconds, waiting for either of them to defend Anna’s past decisions, or maybe daring them to. “What do you need from me to make the neutralizer?”
Anna licked her lips and sat up a little straighter, grateful that they were back on somewhat familiar ground. “I just need a sample of your blood. If I take it now, I should have the neutralizer ready by morning. Will you be able to wait that long?”
“Have to,” Jason said with a nod. “Will you?”
Anna nodded eagerly.
“Well, alright.” Jason started rolling up his sleeve. “Let’s get started.”
25
ZOE
DECEMBER 14, 1AE
Location Unknown
I thought I’d only closed my eyes to collect my wits for a minute, but I opened them to find the scarred-faced man in the room again. I hadn’t heard him enter, which meant I must’ve fallen asleep. I bit back the questions I had and the pleas that pawed for voice. I took a deep breath, in…and out.
Hoping it was all a nightmare, I squeezed my eyelids shut. But the man was still there when I opened them again, sitting on the floor, his back against the wall across from the bed. He was staring down at the now-empty vodka bottle, which he turned around and around in his hands. It wasn’t a dream.
“You’re finally awake,” he grumbled. His words were a tad slurred, but his tone was stern, different than before. It was worrisome. When he looked up at me, a strand of hair hung in his face, making him seem more worse for wear than he had before. Once again, I tried to use my Ability, to sense something, anything about this man and his intentions toward me.
The Ending Series: The Complete Series Page 152