“He wouldn’t,” Kelsie said, her voice cold. Her eyes were fixed on the mall. “There’s no fun in eating unconscious people. There’s no fear to feed on.”
The rest of the Zeroes went silent.
Ethan shivered. He totally could’ve done without knowing that. And he could’ve done without knowing that Kelsie knew. Like she’d been in Swarm’s head somehow.
“Maybe we got far enough away,” Nate said, like he hadn’t heard Kelsie. “Hard to lead an angry mob for miles across desert. Is anyone still glitched?”
“I’m fine,” Flicker said. “Not sure about Thibault, though.”
“The sky’s still wrong,” Tee said, sounding like he had a hangover.
“Crash?” Nate called. Then he hesitated. “Mob?”
Kelsie was silent. She just kept staring down at the mall.
“We’re fine,” Chizara said, for both of them. She reached out to brush Kelsie’s hair from her face.
“We are not fine,” Ethan said. “We’re in the direct path of a psycho. With no ride home!”
“Ethan, just shut up, okay?” Flicker sighed.
“Well, it’s not like we can hitch a ride back to Cambria!” Ethan felt himself getting hysterical. “And my sister said she’d kill me if I did anything out of line, which I think applies to driving all night to attend a mob killing!”
“Stop it!” Nate cried, his expression pleading.
Ethan stared. He’d never seen anything like that expression on Nate. The guy almost looked afraid.
The others were eyeing Kelsie, who was still frozen to the spot.
Ethan waited for the moment when Nate—the reigning charisma champion—would grab hold of the Zeroes and focus them all on a new plan, dragging them away from thoughts of death and defeat. But Nate was quiet. The one time they could’ve really done with a leader, and he had nothing to say.
Ethan reached in to the voice for something to shake Nate out of his funk. If he could just get Glorious Leader back on track, the others would fall into line.
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
For one blind moment he was scared his power had been glitched for good. But he could feel the voice sneaking away down his windpipe. Apparently it had decided Nate’s funk was immune to mere words.
Or maybe Kelsie’s sadness was too strong, and would keep them captive forever in a superpowered feedback loop of despair.
Both those options sounded pretty terrible.
It was Flicker who broke the spell. She got to her feet and said wearily, “Let’s go home.”
“Good call, Flick,” Ethan said. “One question: How?”
She turned to him, looking more pissed than anything else. Her voice came out dangerously gentle. “I don’t know, Scam. Got any ideas?”
In that moment Ethan really wanted Flicker to not hate him. He wanted her to lead the Zeroes to safety. He wanted to go home. He wanted all that more than he’d ever wanted anything.
And with that fervent desire, the voice leaped right back up into Ethan’s mouth like it had never left.
“We head back to the mall!” it said. “Whose turn is it to steal a car?”
CHAPTER 33
BELLWETHER
THE CAR CRASH HAD STOLEN was fast, but it wasn’t a Mercedes.
Nate hadn’t called the police yet, or Papi. The Mercedes had a serious theft prevention system. It could be shut down remotely, or tracked, and he couldn’t risk Glitch winding up in prison.
Not after what she’d just lived through.
What they’d all lived through.
Everyone was quiet in the back, tired and stunned, consumed by what they’d seen. Kelsie’s mood sat over them, thick as smoke from an oncoming wildfire.
Nate wished someone would talk. He didn’t want to think, to process what had happened.
What he’d let happen. What he’d been unable to stop.
A Zero had been torn apart, right in front of his eyes.
Swarm was stronger than anything Nate had ever seen before. His hold on that crowd had been steely, brilliant. What kind of purpose drove that awesome hunger? Beside it Nate’s ambitions looked paltry, his power a plaything.
Dolls, he thought, revulsion deep in his belly. Revulsion and fear—he was truly afraid, and he didn’t like it.
But his power had been useless. When Swarm had taken over the crowd, Nate had tried to claw every strand of their attention toward himself. Stop. Listen to me. Heed. But no one in the lethal mob had even spared him a glance.
Maybe if he’d been down in the melee instead of up on the escalator, he could have matched Swarm’s willpower with his own.
Of course, they might’ve torn him to pieces instead of Davey.
As it was, all the Zeroes’ powers combined hadn’t been able to save the poor guy.
Losing Papi’s Mercedes was nothing compared to the hole that Swarm had punched in Nate’s world.
When rain began to mist the windshield, Flicker finally broke the silence.
“The sad thing is, we finally got it right. All your training worked perfectly, Nate. We saved that crowd from Glitch and Coin.”
“But not the other way around,” Nate pointed out.
“And what if he comes for us next?” Ethan said. “We don’t even know what he looks like!”
“Did you see him, Flick?” someone asked—Thibault, of course.
As she considered the question, Nate felt the energy in the car grow tense. Mob was echoing their fear, their horror. She’d been in the crowd’s mind for the long, awful minutes of the murder—and on top of that, Ren had called her a baby Swarm. Could Nate summon the energy to even start bringing her back from that?
And what if Ren was right? He couldn’t get his mind around what that might mean.
“There were hundreds in that crowd.” Flicker’s words came slowly. “But yeah, I think I spotted him.”
She hesitated, and Nate concentrated on steering. Suddenly everything felt dangerous—his fatigue, the rain-slicked road, even Flicker’s voice. Was that Mob’s emotion, or his own?
“There was a guy near the back,” Flicker said. “About our age.”
“Born in 2000?” Nate hadn’t asked Ren her and Davey’s birthdates. An opportunity to learn, missed. Everything he could have found out about Coin’s power, gone for good.
“Yeah, probably. And about my height,” Flicker said. “Kind of preppy. He had a little suitcase, one of those rolling ones. He was super neat, in this blazer and long pants. White socks. Terrible haircut. And he was skinny, like not-eating skinny.”
“Why do you think he was in charge?” Anon asked.
“He was the only one not . . . not buzzing, is all I can call it. And he had this smug little soft smile on his face, like he was keeping a secret.” Flicker paused. “He was enjoying it, like Glitch said.”
“Don’t call her that,” Anon said. “Her name’s Ren. His was Davey.”
Silence fell again at those names, and Nate felt his will petering out. What did it matter who’d done it, beside the appalling fact that it was done? The pictures flashed across his eyes again, the blood leaping, the force it took to break a person—
He clung to the wheel. Just watch the road. Just do your job. Just get these people home alive.
CHAPTER 34
BELLWETHER
“WE LOST A ZERO,” NATE began. “That can never happen again.”
He stood in front of them on the dance floor of the Dish, his hands out, trying to draw in their attention. But the pose had nothing behind it. He was spent, waiting for someone to laugh at him.
“We didn’t lose Davey,” Anon said. “We killed him. I killed him. The handcuffs were my idea.”
Ethan groaned. “Who cares who screwed up worse? That guy’s coming for the rest of us. We have to get ready!”
“Ready? But we don’t know anything about his power,” Chizara said. “I mean, besides the obvious—he makes crowds kill, and Bellwether can’t stop him.”
Six against one, and they’d lost. What kind of leader let that happen?
“We should just skip town!” Ethan threw a shimmering glance at Kelsie. “Split into pairs, maybe. Hide out in the wilderness. That guy’s helpless without a crowd to do his dirty work.”
“So are we,” Nate said, trying to sound calm as he fought off panic. “Alone, we’re nothing.”
“Yeah, but I’d rather be nothing and alive!” Ethan argued. “Beats dead superhero any day!”
Chizara sat forward, throwing out a whip of attention. “Your power would work fine in some hick town, Ethan. Not so much the rest of us. And you expect us to just ditch our families? And everything we’ve put into the Dish?”
Nate looked at her, trying to feel pride in how the nightclub had bound her to the group. But all his strategies seemed inconsequential now.
Flicker’s voice broke in: “We need a better plan than running away.”
Everyone’s attention brightened on her, hopeful.
“We could throw Swarm off our scent,” she said. “Create some sort of crowd disturbance a few hundred miles away.”
“Wasn’t that Ren and Davey’s genius plan?” Ethan asked. “It didn’t work!”
“Because Swarm can sense us,” Anon said. “Especially in a group. We shouldn’t do anything together.”
Before the group’s feeble strands of hope could fall to the floor and die, Nate spoke up. “Ren and Davey could have been wrong about that. We found them without any special powers, and they found us. Swarm knows how to search the internet, just like we do.”
“Then we’re dead, thanks to Sonia Sonic!” Ethan said.
Nate didn’t answer, didn’t give Ethan so much as a glance. He had to take control and give them some solid hope.
“Swarm’s been following Ren and Davey this whole time. He’s obsessed with them. Even when they came to Cambria and painted a target on our backs, he didn’t take the bait.”
“Which was us,” Ethan mumbled.
Nate ignored him again. “He may see that job as only half done, and keep looking for her.”
It sounded so cold-blooded, and so flimsy—nobody’s attention was tightening in his grasp, not even Flicker’s.
“And even if he’s bored of chasing her,” he forged on, “he’s just as likely to be distracted by some other bunch of people with powers. Zeroes are popping up everywhere.”
Too many words. He was practically babbling.
But they were still listening, at least. They must all desperately want to believe.
Then Kelsie said, “He won’t go anywhere else. All he wants is me.”
It was like ice water drenching the room. Those were the first words she’d spoken since they’d stolen the car.
“What do you mean?” Chizara asked.
“He wanted me, after he killed Davey. Not to kill me, though. He wants me to join him.”
Her cold dread echoed through them, and Nate felt the spine-creep of Kelsie’s feeling singled out, like a wolf was staring at her through the trees. He tried to speak, but the feedback loop was too strong.
“Because I’m like him,” she added softly.
“Is that what you really think?” Chizara said, and Nate was amazed she could fight Mob’s fear. “Or are you just scared it’s true?”
“Oh, it’s true,” Kelsie said, but as she stared back at Chizara, her voice rose a little. The question in it made a space where Nate could jump in.
“You can’t be sure of that,” he said. “And Swarm doesn’t know where you live, Kelsie. That mall is hundreds of miles from here.”
It had taken all his effort, but here they were, in his hands again.
“All he knows is that you’re part of a big group of people with powers. Which means we should split up.” He saw Thibault glance at Flicker. “Or at least stick to small groups. No more than two Zeroes together, maybe.”
Damn. Babbling again.
“What about when Ren and Davey were here?” Chizara said. “If anyone puts up pictures of that night, he could recognize us.”
Anon spoke up. “Last I checked, Sonia was still posting about the wedding. Much bigger news than a nightclub riot. We got lucky there.”
Even from Anonymous, the words resonated in the group. They all wanted to believe they’d been lucky. That they might keeping being lucky.
But Nate’s own heart was aching at the thought of splitting up the group he’d worked so hard to bring together. He needed to keep them here just a little bit longer.
“We should do something about that stolen car. Wipe it down for fingerprints, for a start.”
“Buckets are in the storage closet,” Flicker said. “We need detergent, too.”
The connections broke apart, full of bright relief at doing something practical.
But again Kelsie let loose a cold rain.
“I hope Swarm does come here to Cambria.”
“Are you nuts?” Ethan sputtered.
She looked older, grimmer. “I hate what he did to that crowd. He took all those connections, those human bonds, and made them evil. I hate that he gets to walk away from killing one of us. We should deal with him ourselves.”
Nate knew that he should speak now, say something to defuse the others’ alarm. But he didn’t have it in him.
“Well, I’m totally okay with someone else handling that,” Ethan said. “I’ve got a big sister to pacify and Christmas presents to wrap.”
A relieved sparkle of laughter went through the room. Ethan’s good-natured cowardice had broken Kelsie’s spell.
But his outburst also reminded Nate of the sobering fact that it was Christmas Eve. How the hell would everyone get through Christmas after what they’d seen today?
CHAPTER 35
ANONYMOUS
THIBAULT THREW HIMSELF INTO THE bus seat next to Flicker and stared past her out the window. The winter sun still lay behind dark storm clouds, and the world was a featureless gray.
Flicker leaned against him, her sight lines winking out as she turned her vision off. Her other senses clouded around Thibault, registering his shape, the textures of his clothes and skin, the rise and fall of his breathing. Was she taking comfort from what she found? For him their clasped hands were the best and sanest thing in the world right now.
The bus ground on toward Flicker’s house. He was going to stay the night there, but then . . . he didn’t know what. He couldn’t live at Flicker’s forever, however much he wanted to protect her. And if Swarm was out there hunting for groups of Zeroes, the safest thing was to keep everyone separate.
“I keep worrying about fingerprints,” she murmured.
“Tell me about it.” The six of them had spent an hour wiping down the interior of the stolen car. Then Thibault had taken and dumped it a mile away from the Dish and walked back. The cops might not know what to make of a murderous mall riot, but they’d sure be interested in a car hot-wired in the parking lot a few hours later.
“Anything to preserve Nate’s spotless police record,” Flicker said.
“I’m more worried about his confidence. I’ve never seen Nate run out of steam like that.”
“We’re all a little freaked out.”
“Freaked out?” A short, harsh laugh escaped him. More like traumatized. Heads full of a horror movie they couldn’t unwatch. “When Kelsie was talking about Swarm wanting her to join him, I was waiting for Nate to step in and take it down a notch. And he just stared at her, like . . . game over. Glorious Leader, totally choking.”
Flicker pressed her lips together, and the warm cloud of her senses withdrew from him. Maybe he’d said too much.
She and Nate had a connection that went back before the Zeroes, to when they were little kids. And they’d had that near romance bubbling beneath the surface until Ethan’s voice had snuffed it out two summers ago. It was the only thing Flicker didn’t like to discuss with Thib
ault.
“And when she was talking about dealing with him ourselves,” he said softly, “it almost sounded like she meant killing him.”
“I was wondering about that,” Flicker said. “But then I thought, Come on, not Kelsie.”
“Yeah, sure. But remember, she grew up around criminals.”
“I guess.” She put her head on his shoulder, her senses reaching for him again. “Let’s hope we never find out what she meant.”
He nodded wearily. Bad enough to watch Swarm commit his bloody murder. But to see a friend do the same . . .
“I’ve been thinking about something,” he said. “Ren and Davey remembered their friend, the Stalker guy. So if anything happened to me, the chances of you remembering me are pretty good.”
She gripped his hand painfully tight. “Don’t, Thibault. Just—”
“I mean, they couldn’t remember his name. And they laughed at me when I asked about it.”
“We’re good, okay?” Flicker took his other hand and made him touch his name in braille on her bracelet. “I’ve always got this.”
He heard Ren’s voice echoing in the chapel: Till death do us fucking part! She’d meant those words. Anyone who knew about Swarm would have to take death seriously.
He pushed the thought out of his mind, lifting his gaze to the passing suburban houses outside, their mowed lawns, their brick porches, the Christmas lights decking their gutters. In a weird way, being mindful of the present was a lot easier when you didn’t know what horrors tomorrow could bring.
Thibault’s phone beeped.
“Ten bucks that’s Glorious Leader,” Flicker said. “Full of great ideas, twenty minutes too late.”
The message read: Is this you?
“Whoa,” said Thibault. “That’s my mother’s number.”
“Holy crap. She’s never called you before, has she?”
“Never!” Thibault’s chest went tight around his heart. “I put my number in her phone, last time I was there, like you said I should. But I never thought she’d—”
The phone beeped again.
I was wondering if you were coming tonight. Saw ur present for me.
Swarm Page 15