by JA Huss
“What?” Sheila replies.
“Why the fuck can’t you talk to Lincoln in his head? You really need to work on that.”
Sheila huffs. “I’ll take your upgrade suggestion into consideration, Mr. Brooks. Now stop being so… not-Thomas. I need that cold motherfucker back, pronto. Get dressed and get your ass down there. Now!”
"I want to stay with you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY - SADIE
“Shit,” I say. “I’m so sorry, Thomas.”
“What for?” he asks. But he’s already out of bed, pulling his clothes back on.
“This is all my fault. I think they set us up.” I get out of bed and look around the room for my clothes too. They’re in a neatly folded pile on the chair.
“What do you mean?”
“Listen,” I say, tugging my jeans on. “I think they sent me to the hospital for you.”
“Yeah, I got that part,” Thomas says. He’s got his shirt on now and he’s looking for shoes.
I get my shirt on too, then turn to look at him. “I think they sent me there, not to kill you, Thomas. We know that’s not possible. They sent me to bring you back. And I did, didn’t I?”
He’s got his shoes on and he’s waiting for me to finish with mine. “They couldn’t have planned this.”
“No?” I say. “Think about it, Thomas. We’re here. At Lincoln Wade’s house. With all three Alphas, and their greatest weaknesses. Lulu and Molly and… me. Oh, fuck, Thomas. They wanted you to bring them here. They’re here on purpose. They’re here to get all of us. And who knows if they’re working alone or with Prodigy—” God, that makes my stomach sick when I think about it. “It doesn’t matter. They sent me to bring you back to them. They want us together, Thomas. They want us as their ultimate weapon. But now—this is turning out even better than they planned. Because they have you, me, Lincoln, Case, Molly, Lulu, and Sheila. They have every weapon in your arsenal, Thomas.”
We’re ready now, so Thomas is at the door, pulling it open as I join him. We enter the hallway, and already I can hear the arguing going on downstairs.
“Look,” Thomas says. “That might be true. In fact, it’s highly probable you’re right. But we still have the element of surprise. They don’t know we know about their little plan. OK?” He’s shaking me a little to make sure his words sink in. “They have no idea what Lincoln is. They have no idea what Case is, either. I don’t even know what Case is, but he’s a smart, formidable motherfucker. Plus we have Sheila. We can take them down, OK? Just let us lead the way. You stay hidden while I try to diffuse the situation.” He grabs my shoulders, making me focus on him and not Uzi’s and Cyan’s voices down below. “Do you understand me, Sadie?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE - THOMAS
Sadie stares up at me. I shake her shoulders again, a little harder this time. “Tell me you understand.”
She nods her head, but then begins to shake her head no. “I don’t think you understand, Thomas. I don’t think you know how powerful we are.”
“We?” I ask. Is she with me? Or them?
“Not that way,” she says, struggling to clarify. “We, like who Cyan, Iziah, Uzi, and me are together. We’re not just your average Prodigy project. We’re not Alphas,” she says. “We might be worse.”
“Yeah,” I say, giving her a small smile to try to make her feel better. “I’m getting that impression. But we’re not your average Prodigy project either. We’re so much better than they could ever have imagined as a team. And your friends fucked up by thinking they could take us on in our own domain. We have everything going in our favor, Sadie. Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”
“They are very powerful in teams, Thomas. You can’t even begin to understand what Iziah and Cyan can do. And Uzi and me…” She lets her words drop off. “Well, we’re perfect killers together.”
“OK,” I say, trying to keep her calm. “But you’re not linked with him. You’re linked to me. So he can’t combine his power with yours. He’s only half the monster he thinks he is right now.”
She just stares at me.
“Understand?” I say, still gripping her shoulders.
She sighs, looks down the hallway towards the stairs where the voices are getting louder. Doesn’t look the least bit convinced. But she finally nods. “OK. I’ll follow your lead.”
I grab her hand and half-walk, half-jog down the hallway. When we get to the stairs I stop and look at her again. “Stay here. If things get out of hand, go back to that room Sheila took you in.” I point down the hallway, past the stairs. “And go into the lab. It’s safe in there. They can’t get in, I promise. Molly and Lulu will join you and we’ll come get you when it’s over. Got it?”
She’s still not convinced, but she swallows down her doubt and nods her head. “OK.”
I place my hands on her cheeks as I look down into her eyes. “Trust me,” I say. I lean in and kiss her. “I want you, Sadie Scott. We are the perfect team.” She kisses me back, her hands clutching my shoulders like she never wants to let go.
I don’t want to pull away, but I do. She grabs my hand as I try to walk over to the stairs. I let her keep it for two steps, desperate for me to change my mind. But there’s no way I’m going to change my mind. We have Prodigy right here and there’s no way I’m not gonna take this chance to end them. We might all be almost indestructible, but there are worse things than death. I know that better than anyone.
We make our way to the stairs and Sadie holds on to me for as long as she can. But one more step… she squeezes my fingertips as they slide through her hand… and then she lets me go.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO - SADIE
“What’s all the fucking yelling about?” Thomas yells as he descends the stairs.
“Oh, there he is,” Uzi snarls. “Did you have fun fucking my little Sadie?”
Thomas laughs, but I have this deep, sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. This is wrong. Everything about this is wrong. Thomas has no idea what Uzi can do. He has no idea—
“I thought we had a deal, Uzi?” Thomas says.
“Yeah, your friends here,” Lincoln says, nodding at Thomas as he walks up to them. His friend Case positions himself on the other side. They are a team. And they are powerful. But I’m so fucking scared for them. “They’ve overstayed their welcome. I’m gonna have to ask you to leave.”
“Get Sadie,” Cyan says. “And we’ll be on our way.”
“No,” Thomas says. “Sadie stays. But the three of you, you’re leaving. Right now.”
“Not without her,” Cyan says. “I’m not leaving my sister in the hands of you freaks. Who knows what you’ll do to her.”
“That’s funny coming from you, Cyan. Do you really think we don’t know who you are? What you did to her?” He nods at Iziah, who has not said a word. And, come to think of it, he hasn’t said a word since we got here. “And him?”
Cyan and Uzi both look at each other.
And then a message flashes across my field of vision. It’s fast. Barely a blink and it’s gone. I don’t even get a look at the letters. Was that from Thomas? Sullivan? Is he trying to warn me about something?
Pain shoots through my head. Pressure, so severe I feel like I might explode. I fall to my knees, holding my head like this is the only way I can keep my brain intact.
Downstairs everything is pushed. Case and Lincoln go flying backwards. Lulu and Molly are slammed against the fireplace and slump to the floor.
But Thomas is still standing. He sends one back towards Uzi and Cyan and gives them a little taste of their own medicine.
Iziah is the only one of them who takes the hit. He crashes into a window and disappears from sight. God. Thomas threw him like a rag doll. Iziah didn’t even try to defend himself.
Why didn’t he react? Uzi and Cyan must have some kind of control over him.
Uzi and Cyan raise their arms, like they are magicians, wielding power. How? How are they doing this without me and Iziah? Two mentalists? Linked? Not pos
sible. It can’t be—
But it is. Because they push the next mind blast towards Thomas and send him flying.
Then—little robots appear. From every corner of the room. From every doorway. They emerge from their secret hiding places like a swarm. Some have pincer claws, some are flying around Uzi and Cyan’s heads. They crawl all over them, making Cyan scream, her hands desperate to try to swat them off her clothes.
Sheila, I realize.
But that’s when I notice Uzi. He’s not fighting—he’s laughing. They are crawling all over him like ants. “That’s all you got, Alphas? Really? Robots?”
Case and Lincoln are getting to their feet. “No,” Lincoln says. “That’s not all we’ve got.” He raises his cannon arm, aims at Cyan, and shoots her.
I gasp, my hand over my heart. My sister! That’s all I can think as her body explodes into millions of shards. She shatters. Like glass.
What the fuck is happening?
I feel her for a moment. Inside my head. Memories go flashing by. Her whole life runs out like a movie in super-fast-forward. She’s reaching… looking for…
Shit.
Oh, shit.
Thomas stands up, a smirky grin on his face. “Finally,” he says. “Finally.” Only this time he cackles with laughter. It’s the most diabolical sound I’ve ever heard.
And it’s not Thomas.
It’s not Sullivan either.
It’s Cyan.
She’s not in my head, she’s in his.
I take my attention back to Uzi, that evil laugh filling the room until it echoes. “You did it!” he yells. But who he’s yelling to, I’m not sure.
Not me.
Not Thomas.
And not even Cyan.
He’s talking to Lincoln Wade. Who aims his cannon arm at Uzi now. But Uzi pushes him back with another mind blast. Lincoln smashes into a wall and sinks down, momentarily stunned.
The little robots are all over Uzi, but he ignores them as he walks up to Lincoln. “That’s all I wanted, Bike Boy. How do you kill someone who can’t be killed?” Uzi laughs as he grabs Lincoln’s collar and pulls him up to his feet. “You get an Alpha.” Suddenly every squirming robot on Uzi’s body goes still. Then they drop off, like someone… turned them off.
Good God. He was the one who stopped the train back in the tunnel! He can control mechanical things with his mind.
“We need you, Linc,” Uzi says, right into Lincoln’s face. “So Cyan could die and slip right into Thomas’s mind to take over. If you think two mentalists linked together are powerful, just wait till you see what we can do with three.”
He throws Lincoln down on the floor with the most powerful mind blast I’ve ever seen. It makes a crater in the floor so deep Lincoln’s body disappears into a dark hole.
And then Uzi looks right at me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE - THOMAS
“No,” I yell, clutching my head. She’s in me. That bitch, Cyan. The second Lincoln shattered her, I collected her memories. She’s inside me.
No. It’s Sullivan. Sorry, bitch. No room for you in here. Sullivan, the master of the dark places in my head, has some kind of hold on her. Some kind of quarantine.
Take control, Thomas. But that’s not Sullivan. It’s Cyan. She’s here. Inside me. She’s got my thoughts. She’s controlling me.
“Get out of my mind, you bitch!”
Fight her, Thomas. Sullivan is trying to hold on to me. Desperate to keep me with him. But there’s a link… there’s always been a link, I realize. Ever since I let Sadie in my head.
We come in twos, Cyan whispers. When you let my sister in, you let Uzi in too, you fool!
How many fucking people are inside me right now?
“Thomas!” Sadie’s call for help makes me struggle to open my eyes. Uzi’s got her by the hair and he’s dragging her into the center of the room. Sheila’s robots come over the side of the broken front window, dragging Iziah’s body behind them.
“Thomas!” Sadie calls again.
I reach for her with my hand. But it’s stupid. I’m all the way across the room. And Cyan is there anyway. Fighting with Sullivan.
He’s strong, but she’s… a force. I have to help him.
“Thomas!” Sadie is still calling me. And that’s when I notice… none of my friends are still standing. No Lincoln, no Case, no Molly, no Lulu….
“Thomas!”
I need to help them.
Thomas.
I need to help Sullivan too.
Thomas.
But it’s too late. Because that’s Cyan. Inside my head. In control.
You’re mine now, Thomas.
Sullivan is gone. Molly gone. Lulu, Case, and Lincoln, gone.
I need to help them. I need to help them all.
Silly Thomas, Cyan croons inside me.
“Help me!” Sadie calls.
I open my eyes, the pain from Cyan’s takeover so severe, my blurry world spins. I squint, try to focus. And then I see it. I realize just how badly I’ve lost this fight.
Uzi has Sadie in the middle of the room. Iziah is lying down beside her. Already lifeless.
But she’s next.
I can feel Uzi’s build up in my mind. I am linked to that motherfucker, so I feel it.
He lets loose a mind blast right over top of Sadie and Iziah. It literally blows their minds. If Iziah wasn’t dead, he surely must be now. Sadie’s body goes limp. She crumples under his force.
Everything is silent.
“Silly Thomas,” Cyan says, through my mouth. “You have far too many loyalties, my stupid little puppet. Didn’t your Prodigy school ever teach you about divide and conquer? You have to pick and choose who you will be loyal to. And you can only have one. Lesson learned, huh?” She tsks my tongue. “But you learned it just a little too late.”
“Come on,” Uzi says, reaching for my hand. I take it. Only it’s not me. It’s her. Cyan. I am Cyan now. “He initiated the satellites, remember? We’ve only got about eight hours before the whole thing goes down.”
“I can’t wait,” I say. Then there’s a sick moment when I realize… I’m still me. But now Uzi’s my partner.
Thomas…
But it’s faint. She’s gone. Sadie is gone. She doesn’t matter anymore. Uzi and I are the only ones who matter now.
“We’re gonna take over the world, Thomas.”
“Yes,” I hiss. “But don’t call me Thomas again, you dick. I’m still Cyan.”
Uzi laughs as we walk out the door. “You know I’m gonna come back for Sadie and wake her up. I’ll need her to be my little fuck-doll again when this is all over.”
“I wonder if I like girls now?” I ask Uzi. We laugh together.
“You can like whoever you want, Cyan.”
We get in the car and slam our doors at the same time. And we laugh all the way down stupid Lincoln Wade’s five-mile-long driveway.
“Isn’t it great that these Alphas set up the whole thing for us?” I say.
“We are gonna fuck that city up good, Cyan.”
“Yesssss,” I hiss back at him. “We are.”
It’s still dark but it won’t be for long. And by the time we get down the mountain it will be a brand-new day. We’ll be the ones to take down Cathedral City, not these worthless Alphas. And when we’re done… Prodigy will control everything and everyone.
Bye-bye, Alphas. Your delusions-of-grandeur schemes are ours now.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - SADIE
“Sadie?”
Someone is shaking me. Who? Where am I? What’s going on?
“Sadie, can you hear us?” A new voice. Female this time. But my mind is swimming with illusions and doubt.
Sadie…
They’re talking to me. They’re gonna wipe my mind again. They’re gonna wipe my mind and make me powerless. I will have to obey.
Who?
I don’t know, I just know that I can’t let it happen again.
“What the ever-loving fuck?” a third vo
ice says.
“She’s tripping, you guys. Don’t pay any attention to her illusions, it’s fake. Uzi blasted her and she’s out of control. We need to get her to the lab. Get her arms, Case.”
I fight. I thrash in their grip. I won’t be taken back there. I refuse to be someone’s loyal puppet of death. I won’t do it…
Sadie, he calls. Sadie… help me…
A sharp prick in my arm and I’m swimming again. This is it. This is the end for me. I’m done.
I am in a dark place. Four walls, no light except for a thin strip leaking in from under a door. The room smells like the earth. Damp dirt and stale air. There are lots of voices outside and I recognize all of them. Uzi, Cyan, and the others.
I wait in the dark until I hear the locks disengage. Fear jolts me to my feet as he enters the room. “Time for some fun, Sadie.” Uzi walks towards me, one arm reaching. In my head, I fight him. I grab that outstretched arm and flip him over. Smash his face on the hard floor. Snap his neck and relish the sickening crack of bones breaking.
But in reality, I let him hold my hand. I let him lead me from my prison cell. I let him take me down the hall, feeling shame as everyone looks at me, grinning. Knowing what he’s about to do. Knowing that I will let him.
“Here you go, Samuel,” Uzi says, holding my hand out to the other man. “She’s all yours.”
“She doesn’t look like Azure,” the man called Samuel spits.
Uzi laughs. “Not yet. But she will. You just have to get used to it. Ask anyone. Right, Gordon?” Uzi nods his head towards another guy in the hallway with us, asking for his validation of my skills.
“She looks just like Jayleen when I fuck her.” Gordon shrugs. “She flips in and out. Her trips are short. But she’s pretty enough and you get used to it. Plus, Sadie here gives some first-rate blowjobs. And it’s as close as you’ll ever come to fucking your dead wife again, right?”