~hunter~
“Paige,” I said.
She didn’t respond.
“Paige, you need to get up.”
Nothing.
I was starting to get a headache. I looked at Chance, who was coming back into the living room with a suitcase full of Paige’s clothes. We’d tried to convince her to pack some of her own stuff, but she wouldn’t do anything.
It was like she’d turned off.
“Paige, we’re leaving, and you’re coming with us,” I said.
She slowly closed her eyes and took a shuddering breath.
That was more than she’d done for hours. “Paige?”
“I don’t want to,” she said in a tiny voice.
Oh god, she’d spoken. I looked heavenward, relieved. “That’s good, Paige. Talk to me.”
She sunk back into the couch, curling in on herself. “I don’t want to go anywhere.”
“I know you don’t.” I reached out to touch her, to comfort her.
She shied away from me. “I don’t even know you.”
I looked to Chance for help.
He gave me a helpless shrug.
“You know me,” I said.
“I don’t,” she said. “We’ve hung out like three times? Now you want me to get in a car with you and drive to New York City to see some person I’ve never met?”
So, while she was catatonic, she’d been listening to everything we’d been saying. I hadn’t been sure if she’d even been aware of what was going on.
I bit down on the inside of my cheek. “Well, you can’t stay here. There are… there are bodies here, and you don’t want to be around that.”
She swung her face around to glare at me. “Shouldn’t we be calling someone? The police?”
“Uh… I don’t really do authorities. If I get in the system, then people know where I am. Bad people.”
She hunched even further into herself. “How do I know that you’re not a bad person, Hunter?”
“Because I’m not.” I was kind of hurt that she’d even suggest that.
“You convinced me to sneak out. While I was gone, my parents were…” She made a choking noise and tucked her head down.
Damn it.
Paige started crying again.
I fidgeted, unsure of what to do. “You don’t think I had something to do with this?”
She made an exaggerated shrug and wouldn’t look at me.
I leaned close to her. “I would never… Well, only in self-defense. Look, I didn’t hurt your parents. I don’t know who did. And I can guarantee you the police won’t be able to figure it out either. But if you come with us, maybe we can figure it out. You’re part of this now, Paige. I know it sucks, but that’s the way life is sometimes.”
She raised her tearstained face to meet my gaze. “That’s all you have to say? Life sucks?”
I sighed. “I’m sorry. I’m not good at this.”
“Yeah? Well, neither am I. I don’t have a lot of experience with coming home and finding my parents slaughtered in the kitchen, you know?”
I rubbed my temples. My headache was getting worse.
“You’re some boy I dream about,” she said. “Until a few days ago, I didn’t even think you were real. And maybe, when things were normal, I thought you were interesting and kind of hot and mysterious and broody and stuff, but now? I can’t think about things like that. Everything’s so messed up. And I can’t…” She thrust her hands into her hair.
Tentatively, I reached out and touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry about your parents.”
She broke out into fresh sobs, but she let me touch her. “They were all I had. It can’t be real. It just can’t be real.”
Shit. I could hardly imagine what she was going through right now. I slid my arm around her. “I’m so sorry.”
Suddenly, she lunged at me, practically tackling me as she crawled into my arms and clung to me. Her shoulders shook as her body was wracked with the force of her tears.
Stunned, I put my arms around her.
Chance cleared his throat.
I looked over her shoulder, making a helpless, confused face.
He walked out of the room.
I held her.
She cried.
I rubbed her back. I ran my hand over the top of her head, smoothing her hair.
I felt it again—that feeling of rightness, as if she belonged close to me.
“Hey,” I murmured, dipping down my head to see her.
She lifted her face.
I brushed wayward strands of hair out of her face. She didn’t look pretty at that moment. She was a mess, her eyes bloodshot, her skin blotchy.
But somehow, I felt connected to her. I felt…
“There’s a reason you dreamed about me,” I told her softly. “There’s something about the two of us. Do you feel it?”
She dragged her teeth over her bottom lip. “I… I think so.”
“Come with us,” I said. “I couldn’t handle leaving you here. I couldn’t handle not knowing if you were okay.”
She hiccuped. “O-okay.”
* * *
“You say you’re Chance, but how do I know it’s true?” The voice of the British woman emanated from the call box outside the apartment building.
The three of us were standing on the street in New York City. It was midmorning, and the sun was bright in the sky overhead, but it was very cold outside.
Next to me, Paige huddled close. Her teeth were chattering. She hadn’t cried in a few hours, and I thought that was progress. Maybe. I knew that I wanted her close, and I didn’t want anything to happen to her.
Chance tapped his fingers on the top of the call box. “Who would pretend to be me?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said the voice, which I assumed belonged to Marlena. “Any number of people. For all I know, you tortured Chance to get the location of my apartment. For all I know, Chance is dead now. Maybe once you got what you wanted from him, you shot him execution style and buried him in a shallow grave. I haven’t even seen Chance since he was about seven years old. I’d have no way of knowing if you’re really him, now would I?”
I tapped Chance on the shoulder. “I thought you said you came to the city to pick up documents sometimes.”
He shifted his glance to me. “I do, but I never actually see her. There’s usually just packages waiting in one of the mailboxes.”
“Oh,” I said.
Chance went back to the call box. “Marlena?”
“Yes?”
“You want me to tell you stories about my childhood?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe you tortured those out of Chance too.”
“Fine.” Chance tightened his mouth. “Then you ask me something. If I get it right, you let us up.”
“Why are you here alone?” said Marlena.
“Is that the question that proves that I’m me?”
“No, it’s not the question.” Marlena sounded annoyed. “Where are your parents?”
“They’re busy,” said Chance. “I didn’t want to bother them. We’ve got a problem, and I thought of you.”
“You’ve got Hunter with you?”
“I told you I did.”
“So, you want me to let him in, too, when there are god-knows-how-many people trying to kill him?”
Chance sighed. “Forget it. When I was a kid, I remember you being very helpful and kind, but clearly things have changed and—”
“Things have changed,” said Marlena. “I suppose you remember my husband.”
“Sure, I remember Hallam,” said Chance.
“You remember how your father killed him?”
Chance narrowed his eyes. “Is that what happened? They don’t talk about it.”
On the other end, Marlena laughed bitterly. “Well, how wonderful for them.”
“Okay, I get it,” said Chance. “You hate my parents. Apparently, you don’t hate them entirely, though, because you’ve been doing work for us for years. And,
besides, whatever happened to Hallam, I didn’t have anything to do with it. I always liked Hallam. I never wanted anything to happen to him.”
A heavy sigh. “Oh, fuck it all. You can come up, I guess.”
A buzzing noise.
Chance tried the door to the building, and it opened.
* * *
A girl opened the door. She looked to be a few years older than me. She had dusky skin and green eyes—an unsettling, alluring combination. She looked us over, an expression of distain on her face.
“You’re not Marlena,” said Chance.
“No, I’m not,” said the girl. She had a British accent too. “I’m her daughter.”
“Kenya,” said Chance, his gaze sweeping her from head to toe. “You grew up a lot.”
Kenya set her jaw. “So, you know my name. So what?”
“I remember you,” said Chance. “You were like two years old the last time I saw you.”
“Well, I don’t remember you,” said Kenya. She gestured for us to enter—the movement exaggerated and sardonic. “My mom says to let you in, so come on in.”
We stepped inside.
We’d entered a dim hallway, lit only by antique light fixtures on the walls, which were covered in red, paisley-textured wallpaper. The floor was black and white tile. It looked pretty old too. Some of the tiles were cracked. A few were missing their corners.
Kenya shut the door behind us and then she strode down the hallway, into the bowels of the apartment.
Paige reached out for my hand. I grasped it, stealing a glance at Chance.
He looked wary, but he went after Kenya.
We followed.
We emerged into a living room. There were heavy drapes on the windows, closing out any light. A few brass lamps sat on end tables. They barely penetrated the darkness. Kenya was sitting on an antique sofa, her arm flung over the back. She glared at us.
Chance stopped short, and Paige and I did too.
Kenya lifted her chin.
Chance shoved his hands into his pockets. “So, um, where’s Marlena?”
“My mother?” said Kenya. “She doesn’t really talk to people much. Or see people. She doesn’t trust the outside world. But anything you want to say to her, you can say to me.”
“Honestly,” said Chance. “I don’t think you’ll be much help. We need to talk about things from the past. Things your mother might remember.”
“Okay,” said Kenya. “Well, you tell me what you want to know, and I’ll ask her if she remembers anything.”
Chance hesitated.
Kenya raised her eyebrows. “Look, you wanted to come in. You’re in. This is the way it works in here. So either talk to me or get the hell out.”
“All right.” Chance stared her down. “Kieran and Eve. This is their daughter, Paige. They’re dead. Also, my brother Hunter and Paige here have been having dreams about each other. Before they met.”
Kenya furrowed her brow. “Okay… That’s pretty much the weirdest thing I ever heard.”
“You gonna run off and tell your mom now?” said Chance.
Kenya’s mouth twitched. “When I’m ready.”
Chance looked around. “So, she just holes up in here, huh? What’s your job? You gotta go out into the world and take care of all the stuff she doesn’t deal with?”
Kenya got up off the couch. “That’s none of your business.”
He shook his head. “She really has changed.”
* * *
Marlena was polishing several pump-action shotguns. Looked like a few Winchester 1897s and a couple Remington 870s. “I never did like all that magic stuff. It started small enough, but then everything got really, really weird.” She sat on a rug in another dimly lit room, the guns laid out around her. “Before I knew it, there was mind control, and everyone was killing everyone else, and then I had to live in abandoned metro tunnels under D.C. I was happier when everything calmed down.”
Kenya had led us back to this room. Marlena hadn’t greeted us. She’d simply started talking. Now we all stood in the doorway, watching her.
Marlena looked up. “So, you’re Kieran’s and Eve’s daughter, huh?”
Paige blinked rapidly. “Um, yeah?” Her voice was a squeak.
“Knew your dad,” said Marlena. “This was a while back, right after the solar flare. He worked for the OF, which was the government at the time. All of us did, except for your dad, Chance. Back then, Kieran and Azazel were an item. I can’t say I was really rooting for them, sorry to say. All you had to do was watch Azazel and Jason together once to know they were meant for each other. Even when they were angry with each other, they were always obsessed with each other. So, I can’t say I knew Kieran too well. Seemed like a nice enough guy. Back then, anyway.”
“You, um, have any idea why anyone might want to kill him?” Chance asked.
Marlena snorted, setting down one gun and picking up another. “Sure. Lots of people. When he and Eve ruled the world, they took away people’s free will and turned them into happy little automatons.”
“What?” I said. “That’s not what they said in my history class.”
Marlena gave me a withering look. “Your parents never talk to you about this?”
“No,” I said. “They’re not much for talking about the past.”
“Well, they wouldn’t be, I suppose. Nothing in their past but pain. Mostly pain they caused themselves.” She smiled grimly, dragging a cloth over the barrel of the gun. “No, I can’t say I’ve got warm-fuzzies for any of your parents. Jason, Azazel, Kieran, Eve, the lot of them. All they’ve done thus far is screw up the world, near as I can see.”
Paige made a little noise, something like a whimper.
Marlena’s head snapped up. “You don’t like my saying that?”
Paige shuffled closer to me.
“Her parents just died,” I said. I wasn’t sure I was liking Marlena so much. “Maybe now isn’t the time to be insulting them.”
Marlena laughed. “Oh, look at the two of you. How sweet.”
Paige stepped away from me.
I looked down at my shoes.
“Can you tell us anything that might help us figure this out?” said Chance. “Can you tell us about the past?”
“You want to know about the past.” Marlena rubbed a spot on the gun.
“How are Kieran and Eve connected to Zaza and my dad?” said Chance. “Is there any reason that Paige and Hunter would be having dreams about each other?”
Marlena kept rubbing. “Well, it’s like this, kids. Jason and Azazel had these powers. They weren’t particularly nice powers, not exactly. Mostly, they were good at taking over people’s brains and making them do whatever they wanted. Turning people into puppets, if you know what I mean. For years during the solar flare, they fought big battles, forcing armies of people to kill each other.
“Then Kieran,” Marlena continued, “somehow managed to strip Azazel’s powers from her. But instead of the powers disappearing, they transferred to Kieran. Then Kieran somehow got in with that Eve girl, and the two of them stole Jason’s powers and gave them to Eve. But Kieran and Eve didn’t use the powers to make people kill each other. They just turned everyone into mindless Stepford wives.
“Until Jason and Azazel went into a coma. And then everything was okay. Kieran and Eve disappeared. People had their free will back. Everything was perfect.”
Marlena set down the gun. “Then, of course, Jason and Azazel had to go and wake up from that coma. And from the minute they did, everything started going downhill again. When they were asleep, I wanted them back so badly, but I was an idiot. I wish they’d never woken up. They did something in that coma. Something good. And it’s undone now.”
We were quiet.
Marlena picked up another gun. She set it on her lap, but she didn’t start to clean it. “Part of the reason it all went bad was you, Hunter. Those powers? You had somehow inherited half of them. Now, the way I see it, these powers seem to come in twos.
Couples. Jason and Azazel. Kieran and Eve. So, it seems to me, if you and little Paige here are dreaming about each other, it’s probably because she’s got the other half of the powers. And, if you want my advice, I think it would probably be best if the two of you stayed away from each other. Because honestly, no people with those powers have ever done a damned good thing when they were walking around and talking. You two are a menace.” She pointed at us.
I swallowed, taking a step back.
“Hey,” said Chance. “Watch what you’re saying about my brother.”
“But he’s not your brother, is he?” said Marlena. “Not technically. You only have to look at how complicatedly you’re related to each other to see how sincerely screwed-up Jason and Azazel are.”
Chance cleared his throat. “I know that you’re still hurting after what happened to your husband—”
“You don’t know anything.” Marlena smirked. “You really don’t. Look, the three of you can stay here tonight if you want. I don’t mind. Maybe Kenya will entertain you. But come tomorrow, you are leaving. Understand?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
~hunter~
“We should just leave now,” I said. “That woman hates us. By virtue of who we are.”
“I don’t know,” said Chance. “We still don’t know who did that to Kieran and Eve. That message they left on the wall mentioned Chaos, which is your power. If Marlena’s right, then Order is the other power, and Paige has it. That means they’re after both of you. So, we can’t go back there. It wouldn’t be safe. We’ll have to go somewhere else.”
“Where?” said Paige.
“I don’t know,” said Chance. “Maybe we should stay overnight here and try to make some kind of plan.”
“Should you, um, call your parents?” said Paige.
We both looked at her, then back at each other.
“You know, they’re still busy,” I said.
“We can handle it,” said Chance. “Don’t you think we can handle it?”
“Definitely,” I said.
“Okay,” said Paige, but she didn’t really sound certain.
Of course, what did she know? She was still grieving over her loss, which meant she couldn’t be at the top of her analytical game.
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