I could hear what they were thinking.
We’re too late.
The powers have joined.
We have failed.
I knew without looking that they were the same people that had come to us in the hotel room, that they were all in black robes, that they all carried knives, and that they’d come here to slaughter both Paige and me.
They were part of a group of witches. Their leader had received visions, warning of the dangers of Paige and I together. According to the leader, we were going to destroy the individuality of everyone on the planet, suck down the souls of all people and leave them husks. The leader had been killed at the hotel room, but the rest of them had fought on. They were determined to stop us whatever way they could.
They were afraid.
They didn’t understand us.
Paige kissed me.
I sighed into her mouth.
And then we reached out together with our invisible selves, curling into the intruders’ brains, finding places where they were hurting and frightened.
And we soothed.
Immediately, I felt them all stop moving. They dropped their knives. They pushed their hoods back away from their foreheads and turned their faces to the rain.
Paige and I made them smile.
Our kiss deepened. We probed each other’s mouths. Our bodies were still connected and our tongues were tangled up, and we were joined.
Our invisible reach went further, spreading out over the town of Bramford.
It was like a bird’s eye view, an aerial look at everything beneath us, with all the people in the town burning like tiny bright lights.
I saw my brother Chance, and I saw Kenya. There were men swarming our motel room. Kenya was bleeding and terrified. Chance was in anguish. The men were full of bright rage and purpose.
Paige and I swooped in, touching all of them.
I nudged the bullet out of Kenya’s skin. I knitted her body back together.
And again… we soothed.
Our reach flew out from Bramford, expanding in an ever-widening circle, touching as we went. Healing.
We saw the Nephilim and the vampires, felt them. They had pieces of our power in them, something put into them earlier, created by the separation of Chaos and Order.
Paige and I absorbed them back into ourselves. We stripped away their power, their immortality, leaving them human again—and nothing more.
And then I saw my parents. They were hurt. They were frightened. I reached for them, trying to soothe them as well.
But there was a barrier somehow. Something keeping me from them.
At first it bothered me. I deeply wanted to help them. I loved them.
But then I felt an overwhelming surge, the press of so many people, so much power, and I suddenly wasn’t sure how important two tiny minds were to the grand scheme of things.
Paige and I continued over the world, spreading everywhere, into everything.
We drew everything into ourselves, into our power.
And with each person’s mind we touched, we were more alive, more buoyant, and more powerful.
* * *
~azazel~
Something went through Imri and all of the guards at once. They all jumped a little bit.
And then, slowly, they all lowered their guns.
They turned to each other, smiles wreathing their faces.
Even Imri was smiling. He looked relaxed and pleased. He peered down at us. “It’s the oddest thing. Just a second ago, I wanted both of you dead, but now I can’t understand why I’d want to do anything so terrible.”
I looked at Jason, who looked alarmed, even through the intense amount of pain he was in.
Imri looked wonderingly around the room. “It’s as if a weight has been taken from my shoulders. I’d been harboring so much anger and hatred. Now, it’s all washed away.”
Oh, god. We’d seen this before.
“Jason?” I said. “This is like Kieran and Eve.”
He nodded. “You’re right. But how?”
I rubbed my forehead. “Well, we always knew that Hunter had my power, and we thought it might stand to reason that your power is floating around out there in someone, so maybe the two of them met, and…”
Jason grimaced. “I guess it’s lucky we got shot with those leaves?”
Cringing in pain, I managed to get to my feet. “Imri, did you say that Hunter is in Bramford?”
Imri smiled. “Oh, yes. Do you want to go see him? Wow, I’m really glad I didn’t kill him. Anyway, if you want, you can take my plane.”
“Really?” I said. “That’s very generous of you.”
“Least I can do, really, after shooting you and practically killing you. Geez, I’m really sorry about that.” He offered Jason his hand and helped him to his feet. “Anything I can do to help and make it better, I’d love to do.”
* * *
Once we got to Bramford, it wasn’t hard to figure out where to look. We only had to follow the crowds.
Jason and I both were in pretty bad shape. Our wounds weren’t healing, and we probably couldn’t let them heal, considering that if the leaves left our system, we’d be under the thrall of Hunter and whoever. Assuming this worked the same way that Kieran’s and Eve’s power did.
I really hoped we weren’t going to have to go live in metro tunnels again. That was basically the last thing I wanted to do.
Besides, without immortal blood, I wasn’t even sure if these wounds were going to heal at all.
Anyway, we managed to get a car, and we drove out, following the stream of people going outside of town.
When the people turned up a back road, we turned too.
The crowds parted slowly for our car.
“Wait a minute,” I said, as we slowly made our way through the sea of people, “I know this place.”
“What place?” said Jason. “There’s nothing here.”
“This is where Toby and I used to go to make out,” I said.
A white gazebo came into view. People had swarmed around it. They were on their knees, looks of beatific joy on their faces.
I parked the car. “Jason, this is the place where we met.”
He leaned forward, grunting because it hurt to move. “Is it?”
I pointed. “You ran out of the woods right there. And I jumped out of the car and…” I turned to look at him.
He looked at me. “And the minute I saw you, I never wanted to stop seeing you.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Me too.”
I got out of the car.
Jason did too.
I clutched my gut, where I’d been shot. The pain seared through me.
I managed to get myself to the front of the car, holding on to keep myself upright.
Jason got there too.
Then we held onto each other as we began to make our way through the crowd, going towards the gazebo.
As we got closer, we could see that Hunter was standing inside. He had his arm around a girl with long, blond hair.
Hunter spotted us. He waved. “Mom! Dad! You’re here. I want you to meet Paige.”
Jason glared at him. “I thought we told you not to have girls over while we were out of town.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
~azazel~
“You need to let us take you guys to the hospital, Mom,” Hunter was saying. He peered down at us, and he looked concerned, but he also looked detached. I remembered that feeling. I remembered being in Columbus, Kentucky, having just kissed Jason and feeling our power reach out to touch the entire world. Knowing what it felt like to control every human alive. Knowing that to me, they were nothing more than insignificant flies—Jason’s and my playthings.
Jason and I had been brought back to a motel in Bramford, and we were now inside, lying on a bed together. Our wounds weren’t healing. All the effort in getting here in the first place had weakened both of us. I felt lightheaded and woozy. Jason didn’t seem much better.
“No ho
spitals,” I managed. “We have to stop this.”
“Stop what?” said Hunter.
“Listen, Hunter, I know how you feel right now. All that power thrumming through you. It’s like being a god. But it’ll eat you up. It’ll twist you,” I said.
Jason coughed. “She’s right, Hunter.”
Hunter looked back at Paige, an unsure look on his face. “I do remember that before this happened, we were trying to stop it, weren’t we?”
Paige came to stand by Hunter, slipping her hand into his. “We didn’t understand it, that’s all.”
“But you said that your parents told you about what having the powers was like, and you said you didn’t want to end up that way,” he said.
“That was before I felt it.” Paige kissed him on the cheek. “Honestly, Hunter, can you imagine giving this up?”
“Well… no,” he said. But he still looked uncertain.
“Parents?” said Jason.
“She’s Kieran’s and Eve’s daughter,” said Hunter. “I guess, when you two were in that coma, you took the powers back from Kieran and Eve. But you gave them a child, because that’s what they wanted.”
I made a face. “We did?”
“You won’t remember that,” said Hunter. “But Paige and I know.” He rubbed his jaw. “Is there even a way to give the powers up?”
Was there? “I don’t know yet. But we’ll find something. And you have to give them up. You don’t understand what you’re doing. You’re controlling these people. You’re taking away their free will.”
Hunter furrowed his brow. “No, we’re making them happy.”
“We’re taking away their fear and their pain,” said Paige. “How could that be bad?”
“There has to be pain,” said Jason, struggling to prop himself up against the headboard. “Without pain, we aren’t human. We’re robots. We might as well not exist.”
“That can’t be true,” said Paige.
“People need to be able to make their own decisions,” I said. “Even bad ones that make them suffer. If they aren’t doing that, then they’re just puppets. Your puppets.”
Hunter patted my arm reassuringly. “Trust me, Mom, we won’t do that.”
I squeezed my eyes shut. How was I going to get through to him? Had anyone gotten through to me when I was riding high on my power? When I was sending armies of people to do my bidding?
No. No one had. Kieran had to steal my power from me to make me see reason.
The door to the motel room opened, and Chance walked in, a pretty black girl on his arm. “Hunter, you’re okay. I thought you had to be. I couldn’t imagine feeling this good if something bad had happened to you.”
Hunter grinned at his brother. He crossed the room to hug him. “I’m fine, man. Everything’s good.”
Chance held Hunter at arms’ length. “I gave you up. I told Imri’s men you were in that motel room. But they were going to hurt Kenya, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
Kenya. I squinted at the girl. Could she really be little Kenya? I hadn’t seen her in years. She looked so grown up.
Chance was still talking. “I felt really guilty about it right afterward. But then… I don’t know. Something happened. Kenya’s okay, and I feel great.”
Hunter smiled. “Good. I want everyone to feel great. That’s exactly what I want.”
“No,” said Jason from the bed. “You don’t. You don’t understand what’s happened to you, Hunter.”
Chance turned to look at us. “Dad? Mom? Are you guys okay?”
“No, they’re not,” said Hunter. “We need to get them to a hospital.”
“Whoa,” said Chance. But he didn’t seem very upset. That was because no one could be upset when the powers were controlling their minds. Couldn’t Hunter see that this wasn’t natural?
I tried to move, but it hurt too much. Just moving my head made me feel dizzy. “Jason? What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” said Jason. He swallowed.
Hunter came back over to the bed. “Why can’t we heal you guys? We healed everyone else. What makes you different? Is it because you used to have these powers?”
I shook my head. “It’s the leaves. They block the powers. It’s the way we steered clear of Kieran and Eve.”
Hunter scratched the back of his neck. “So, after the leaves wear off, then I’ll be able to heal you?”
“No, Hunter,” I said. “You’re not touching our minds. You can’t do that to us.”
“I still think we should take you to the hospital.”
“The leaves,” said Jason, reaching for me. “Imri was going to dose food with blood and turn everyone with vampires. But what if we dosed the food with leaves? We could get everyone free of this.”
“How would we do that?”
Jason started coughing again. “We need to get Imri to do it. He’s got to have leaves because he used them to make bullets, right?”
“But would he even listen to us?”
“I don’t know,” said Jason. “Still, there were guys when we came in, weren’t there? We had leaf bullets. Did we shoot any of them? Are any of them alive? They could help us.”
I thought back. All I could remember was pretending to be part of the guards. I was pretty sure they’d wrangled me into cuffs without my getting a single shot off.
“Regardless,” said Jason, struggling to sit up, “we need to find a way to get back there.”
Hunter pushed him back on the bed. “Dad, don’t be crazy. You’re not going anywhere except the hospital.”
“Seriously, Mom and Dad,” said Chance. “You’re not in any shape to do anything.”
He’d called me Mom again.
But that hardly mattered.
Jason and I had to figure out a way out of here.
* * *
But that didn’t happen, because Hunter called an ambulance, and the paramedics came into the room to take us away.
I tried to fight, and they sedated me.
I slept for a very long time.
When I woke up, I was in a darkened hospital room.
I wasn’t in much pain, but that must have been because they’d doped me up with lots of painkillers, considering I still had deep wounds. I could see where I’d been bandaged, and I was still bleeding.
It was hard to think or move. I felt groggy and strange.
Still, I did my best to sit up.
The world spun. I could see the IV drip in front of me, but it kept tilting sideways and back and forth.
I shut my eyes.
When I opened them again, nothing was moving.
I pushed the covers off of myself.
Then I tried to get out of bed.
Pain splintered through my body, deep and searing.
I grunted.
It was too much.
I stopped trying to move.
After resting for a few minutes, panting, I tried again.
This time, I managed to get out of the bed.
I stood on unsteady feet. I felt like I was swimming in a dark cloud of confusion.
And everything hurt.
In particular, the wound in my gut was pulsing at me—agonizing throbs.
I clutched the IV. Using it to hold me up, I began a slow journey towards the door of the hospital room.
I had to take breaks.
I made it a few steps, and then I had to stop. The pain was too much. The drugs were too disorienting.
It seemed to take forever.
When I got to the door, my hair was pasted to my forehead with sweat, and I was out of breath.
I clung to the doorknob, gasping.
Finally, I found the strength within myself to open the door.
Bright light from the hospital hallway streamed inside.
I stumbled through the doorway.
“Mom?”
Hunter was standing at the end of the hall. He ran for me.
No. It had taken me so long to get out here. He didn’t understand wha
t was going on. And how were Jason and I going to fix this if we didn’t get those leaves into the food?
“Mom, what are you doing?” Hunter grabbed me by the shoulders.
“Where’s your father?” I panted.
“He’s resting, like you need to be.” Hunter turned me around and guided me back towards my hospital bed.
“No, sweetheart, you don’t understand,” I said. “The powers have warped your mind. You think that everything’s okay, but it’s not. We have to stop this. This is wrong.”
“Come on, Mom, you never talk much about right and wrong.” He steered me through the doorway of the room.
“I haven’t always done good things, Hunter,” I said. “I’ve done a lot of very bad things. But I know that people need to be able to make their own choices. Please, sweetie, please, you have to understand.”
He helped me get back in bed. “Paige and I aren’t doing anything bad. You’ll see, it’s all going to be okay.”
I tried to get up, but I was exhausted.
I fell back on my pillow, and my eyes fluttered closed.
I was so tired.
I couldn’t go to sleep. I had to get up. I had to do something.
But I couldn’t fight my exhaustion.
I fell asleep anyway.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
~azazel~
And when I woke up later, I saw that Hunter was right.
Everything was okay.
The leaves had worn off, and he’d been able to heal me, and that… that madness that had taken over me before was gone.
Now, I felt perfectly at peace. All the guilt, the anger, the sadness that I used to feel? It was gone.
I was happy—really happy—for the first time in my life.
Hunter took me into Jason’s hospital room.
He was out of bed and staring out the window with a smile on his face.
“Jason?”
He turned to look at me, and his face lit up. “Azazel.”
I went to him.
He took me into his arms. “Isn’t this… amazing?”
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