Anna forced herself to stare up at the cabin’s curved ceiling in an effort to stave off her own tears. Silently, she offered a prayer to anyone or anything that might be listening. Please don’t let us be too late. Please…
~~~~~
“Mom?”
Anna started and tore her gaze away from the oval window to look up at Jason.
“We’re about to start the descent.” He lowered to one knee in the aisle and leaned his forearm on Anna’s armrest. “Do you mind boosting Larissa’s illusion while we land?” He glanced at Peter. “I’d like to hear whatever intelligence he’s gathered, so we’re ready for whatever we’re walking into.”
Anna nodded. “Of course,” she said, stiffly pushing herself up and out of her seat. She started up the aisle but stopped when she felt Jason’s hand latch onto her wrist. She looked back at him, eyebrow raised in question.
“We’ll find her,” Jason said with the utmost conviction. “This isn’t how it ends for her.” His familiar, sapphire-blue eyes hardened. “It isn’t.”
Again, Anna nodded, too choked up to utter a response. Carefully—she still felt a little out of it from the medication she’d taken a few hours ago—she made her way up the narrow aisle to the cockpit. It was a little awkward, but she managed to settle herself in the copilot’s seat without too much hassle.
Larissa offered her a smile. “Welcome to my world,” she said, her facial features relaxed and her eyes filled with contentment. It was clear that she belonged in the sky, that this was where she felt most at home. “The sun’s just starting to set. It’ll be a beautiful landing.”
Anna felt a pang of pity that this was likely the last time Larissa would ever fly again.
“Yeah,” Larissa said softly, nodding to herself. “I’m going to miss it more than a squirrel misses his nuts.” She offered Anna another smile, apologetic this time. “Sorry, I don’t mean to intrude, it’s just that I’ve never been good at blocking out any of it.”
“It’s alright.” Anna returned her smile with a weak one of her own. “I was married to someone like you, a long time ago.”
“I know.”
Anna laughed under her breath. “Of course you do.”
“Seems like he was a really good man. You were a lucky woman.”
Anna snorted. “Your definition of lucky must be different from mine.”
Larissa was quiet for several minutes. When she finally spoke, her voice had taken on a sharp edge. “I was married before the Virus—your virus—changed everything. He was a great guy with a great job and big plans for our future…on his good days, at least.” She met Anna’s eyes briefly, then returned to staring out the expansive windshield. “He was bipolar, and he stopped taking his medication a few years after we got married. His good days were even better than before, but his bad days…” She laughed bitterly.
“I wanted to leave. I told him I would if he didn’t restart his meds, but he refused.” She cleared her throat. “He threatened to kill himself if I left, and no matter how hard I tried—no matter how many people told me I had to take care of myself, that I had to do what was best for me—I couldn’t place my freedom above his life.” Her voice was thick with emotion. “I just couldn’t.”
Anna reached over and took hold of Larissa’s hand, feeling a strong kinship with the younger woman. “It’s alright, Larissa. It’s over now. You’re free now.”
Larissa swiped her hand over first one cheek, then the other before looking at Anna. “Because of you—your virus. You took the choice away from me, and I know the price was awful, but I’ll be grateful to you for the rest of my life. You set me free.”
“Well…” Anna cleared her throat and released Larissa’s hand. “I don’t know about that, but I do understand.” She inhaled and exhaled deeply. “Better than most, I think.”
“I know.” When she spoke next, Larissa’s voice took on a wistful tone. “But now you’ll get a second chance at happiness—with Tom and your kids, I mean.”
Anna sighed. “I’m not going to get my hopes up.” She doubted—severely—whether Tom, Jason, and Zoe could ever forgive her for all that she’d done. No, a long life and happy family weren’t written in her stars. She’d accepted that long ago.
“Maybe,” Larissa said, responding to Anna’s personal thoughts. “But try not to sabotage your chances at happiness. Most people want to forgive, they’re just waiting for a good enough reason to do it.” She shrugged one shoulder. “You never know…”
Anna exhaled heavily. “Maybe, but I won’t hold my breath.”
Twenty minutes later, they were parked in an open hangar and gathering their things in preparation of exiting the plane. Jason and Larissa slipped out of the cabin and down the steps first, Larissa cloaking the plane and its four passengers in an illusion while Jason did a sweep of the hangar to make sure it was secure. Anna hung back inside the plane with Peter, waiting for the all clear.
Footsteps—boots on cement. There were too many. And there were voices; they were shouting. Anna held her breath, waiting for the ear-splitting sound of gunfire.
It never came.
Instead, she heard laughter. Familiar laughter.
She was dreaming. She’d fallen asleep, and they were still flying. This had to be a dream. It was the only explanation. And yet, she rose from her seat and made her way to the small plane’s open door. In a daze, she descended the steps and walked toward the group of a half-dozen men and women laughing and embracing.
Standing in the middle of it all was Jason…and Tom.
Anna’s heart fluttered, skipping beats erratically. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from the man she’d given her heart to so many years ago. And Tom, by all appearances, was in an equal state of shock and awe.
When Anna reached the group on shaking legs, she and Tom stood several feet apart and stared at each other. Their eyes roamed over familiar features, changed by over two decades but still so much the same. A spell wove around them, blocking out everyone else and encasing them in their own private world.
“Tom,” Anna said breathily. “I—I—”
“Mom?” Anna felt Peter tug on the sleeve of her coat. “We need to hurry. I can feel Zoe’s panic. Can you boost my Abilities now?”
Anna looked at her younger son, but it was Tom who spoke. “You can sense her?” He glanced at Gabe, who Anna had only just noticed was among the group, along with Becca and an unfamiliar man and woman. “Anything?” he asked, hope filling the single word.
Gabe shook his head. “Either she’s still being nulled, or she’s awake.” He looked at the woman. “Sanchez? Anything?”
Rubbing her temple, the woman shook her head.
Tom took a step closer to Peter and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Can you tell us where she is, son? Can you help me find my little girl?”
Peter nodded and pointed toward the hangar’s north wall. “She’s that way.”
30
DANI
DECEMBER 15, 1AE
The Farm, California
“Shhh…shhh, little one,” came a rough whisper. It was Grayson, attempting to speak quietly, a thing he was renowned around the farm to be horrible at. Sure, he could use his voice to weave a captivating story that was so rich and detailed it was better than watching a movie, but he couldn’t make his voice inconspicuous. It was too resonant, too enchanting. It was a voice that couldn’t be ignored. No doubt it was Ability-related, however hard it was to pinpoint the actual Ability. Some were just like that.
I felt the warm bundle that was Everett being lifted from my arms. “No, no, I’m awake,” I mumbled, eyes closed and mind groggy. “I got him. It’s fi…” The fog of sleep drifted back in.
“Okay, come here, kiddo,” Grayson not-whispered, pulling me back to consciousness once more.
I relaxed my hold, letting him take Everett without resistance, and dragged my eyes open. Golden light from the setting sun streamed in through the farmhouse’s large living room window, bathing me i
n the last hints of warmth the day would offer.
Grayson smiled at me through his gray, bushy beard, his eyes twinkling. “A few days ago, you couldn’t sleep no matter how hard you tried.” He chuckled as he sank into the couch beside me. “Now you can’t seem to stay awake.”
I blinked sleepily, already wanting to close my eyes and float back to the land of dreams. Instead, I shifted on the couch, stretching and making several drawn-out, incoherent noises, then relaxed back into the couch. I felt minutely more awake. “I know.” I offered Grayson a small smile. “I think it’s Junior,” I said, patting my tummy. “Must’ve inherited Jason’s Ability to null. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“Remarkable,” Grayson said, his voice—and eyes—filled with wonder. “And here we thought we were the evolved ones…the next evolution of man.” He shook his head slowly, his gaze drifting down to the child sleeping in his arms. “But really, it’s the next generation, those who follow us. Who knows what they’ll be capable of achieving.” He smiled, just a little. “What sort of a world they’ll create…”
I splayed the fingers of both of my hands over my belly. “I just hope it’s a safe world…a better one.” I squinted into the last sliver of the sunlight through the picture window. “One that’ll last.”
Grayson patted my knee. “Nothing lasts forever.”
I looked at him curiously, surprised by the unusually depressing statement. He was generally a reliable optimist.
He smiled, sadness—memories, I supposed—tainting the expression. “But let’s hope they have a better go of it than we did.” He laughed softly, the sadness fading from his eyes. “We sure mucked things up.”
I rested my head against the top of the couch cushion. “Mmhmmm…” My eyelids drooped shut once more. “We sure did,” I tried to say, but it sounded more like, “Weshhhummm…” Sleep claimed me once more.
~~~~~
I woke from my evening nap, part two, with much more energy. “Oh my God!” I screeched, jumping up off the couch and turning around in an indecisive circle. I was too excited, ecstatic even. I simply couldn’t decide who to tell first.
A baby started crying in the dining-room-turned-office. I sensed Grayson in there with the twins. My telepathic radar told me that Carlos was outside in the shower, Annie was in the barn with Jack no doubt getting into some sort of trouble—relatively harmless trouble, I hoped—Camille and Mase were up in the room we kept reserved for them when they weren’t staying at one of the Re-gen farms, and Chris was out in the stable with Vanessa.
“Everything alright, Danielle?” Grayson asked from the other room, a chorus of baby cries accompanying his question.
“Yeah, yes!” I called as I rushed to the mudroom. “They know where Zo is! They’re going to rescue her right now! And Jason’s with Gabe and the others! I’ll be right back.” I threw on my coat and boots, burst out through the back door, and ran toward the stable as fast as I could without tripping over my untied bootlaces or any other booby traps I couldn’t see in the inky darkness.
“Chris!” I shouted. I slowed to a jog when I entered the stable. “Chris!”
“What?” Holding a lantern out, Chris poked her head through the stall doorway at the end of the aisle, blonde ponytail golden and swaying in the lantern light. Her shadowed expression changed from worried to curious when she caught sight of me speeding toward her. “What is it?” She stepped out of the stall, sliding the door shut behind her.
I walked the last few steps, breathing hard and flushed with excitement. “Gabe…I was napping…Jason…he’s there!”
Chris’s eyes lit up, and she grasped my shoulder. “Seriously?” She gave me an excited shake. “He’s there? He’s okay? He’s with them?”
“Yes,” I said, nodding even as she yanked me into a one-armed hug. “And yes and yes.” The last two affirmatives were spoken against her down coat.
She pulled away and walked me to the bench opposite Vanessa’s stall. “How? What happened? What else? Are Harper and Biggs there? What about Sanchez? And Zoe?”
I held up my hands in a useless defense against her barrage of questions. “They haven’t found Zo yet, but they’re close. They know where she is. Sanchez—”
“They’re close? How—”
“Chris!” I said. “Holy crap…give me a chance to catch up!”
She raised her eyebrows in a clear, if silent, “Well then, go on…”
I took a deep breath. “Sanchez seems more or less okay, but still has one hell of a headache. Harper and Biggs should be close now—” I paused for a few seconds, focusing instead on my ever-present connection with Wings. Harper’s mind was just a quick hop away. “Give me a sec,” I told Chris. “I’m just finding out their ETA.”
Less than a minute later, I refocused on Chris’s eager blue eyes. “They’re several hours away from Sacramento. They think they’ll be there around midnight. And Gabe and the others know they’re close to rescuing Zo, because Peter can sense her—I guess he shares some sort of a connection with her or something—and they’re just closing in on the house where she’s being held captive now.”
“Peter?” Chris’s eyebrows rose even higher. “As in…”
“Dr. Wesley and Herodson’s kid, yeah,” I finished for her. “She’s there, too…Dr. Wesley, I mean. And Larissa, the woman who planted my fake memory…oh, but Cole’s dead!” I waved my hands in the air excitedly. “Yay!” After taking a deep breath, I barreled on. “Thanks to Peter, they know that there’s only two guys holding Zo prisoner, so they’ll be pretty easy to take out. Finding her was the hard part, and now that they’ve done that…”
“Let’s just hope they don’t get overconfident,” Chris said. “Situations like this can go sideways in a heartbeat.”
I bit my lip, worry easing into my chest and souring my excitement.
“What kind of shape is Zoe in? What have these men been doing to her over the past three days? Why did they take her?” Chris asked. “Does Peter know anything about that?”
My worry quadrupled, and I frowned. “I—I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “Gabe didn’t say anything about that.” My frown deepened along with my concern. “In fact, he was really quick to pop in, pass along his message, and pop right back out of the dream.” I felt my eyebrows draw together. “Do you think he was hiding something?”
“There’s no way to know right now,” Chris said, slapping her hands on her thighs and standing. “But all in all, it’s a night for good news, I’d say.” She strode across the aisle to the stall door, slid it open, and gestured for Vanessa to come out. “Hopefully we can keep this gravy train going. Come on, kiddo, let’s finish your hair.”
Cautiously, Vanessa moved toward the opening. The lantern light illuminated a long, half-formed French braid that was quickly slipping apart. She’d been so calm the previous evening that we’d managed to get her relatively clean. As it turned out, there really was an adorable teen girl under all of the grime and snarly hair.
“Sit right here,” Chris said, directing Vanessa down onto the floor in front of the bench. Chris sat behind her and started running her fingers through the disintegrating braid. “We’ll have to start over, but it’ll go easier now that Dani and the baby are here to keep you calm, hmmm?”
Surprising me despite her genial behavior the past few nights, Vanessa glanced at me over her shoulder, smiling shyly.
Chris pulled a comb from her pocket and started running it through Vanessa’s sleek black hair. “I thought braiding her hair might keep it from getting so bad this time.”
“Makes sense,” I said, nodding in agreement, but I was more than a little distracted as I tried to wrap my mind around how different Vanessa seemed over the past few days. She’d gone from a wild and all but frothing nightmare to a young, smiling woman so suddenly, part of me wondered if any of it was real. Part of me also wondered if having her out in the open, unrestrained, was really that good of an idea.
Chris had come to
the split conclusion that something about either the baby’s Ability or my pregnancy hormones was affecting Vanessa. Either way, it was impossible to ignore the fact that while my presence had exacerbated her condition before, it calmed her now.
Chris was nodding, slowly, thoughtfully. “Now isn’t that interesting.” Her combing stopped. “You know, this is the first time I’ve been able to actively sense the change your presence causes in her mind as it happens.”
I frowned. “What do you mean?”
Chris narrowed her eyes in concentration. “In her prefrontal cortex, there’s one section that is usually a chaotic tangle of wild synapses—like an entire fireworks stand all going off at once—but when you came in here, it all settled down and, hmmm…it’s almost like it’s started thrumming in concert with portions of her temporal lobe.” Her gaze grew distant. “Hmmm…” She pursed her lips. “It’s this gap here, like it’s been bridged by what I think is your pregnancy hormones. Unless it’s the kiddo…hmmm…” Chris closed her eyes. “Regardless, when these two portions of her brain are linked up, everything seems to work properly.”
I watched Vanessa’s face. Her calm, almost serene expression. It was far from the face of a Crazy.
“But ten minutes ago, it wasn’t like this,” Chris said, continuing her mad scientist ramblings. “Those two areas weren’t synchronized…there was nothing linking them, nothing allowing any kind of communication between them. I wonder if I increase this, it might strengthen the link a little more, and I think it might be able to sustain itself if…”
“Okay.” I gave her forearm a squeeze. “Well, I think I’ll just leave you to your—”
“Oh!” Chris pulled her hands from Vanessa’s hair like she’d been burned. Her eyes were wide, her mouth open in a small “O.”
The Ending Series: The Complete Series Page 157