by Lexi Ryan
Collin rubbed his neck lightly and sighed. “The girl is wise.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not patient, so spit it out,” Tanner said.
“We don’t know who the Keeper is because no one sees the Keeper,” Collin explained. “Those who work for him speak with someone else or to one of his few trusted employees. In fact, anyone who knows anything about the Keeper knows that if he allows you to see his face, he’s as likely to kill you as let you leave.”
“So, you’ve never met him,” Fernandez said. “He could be a myth?”
“Then how do you explain my visions?” Josie asked quietly.
Collin gave her a curt nod and continued. “This isn’t the first time the Keeper has tried to unlock this latent power he was prophesied to have. He wants to play God, but the last time he tried, he failed.”
“What happened?” Josie said.
Darian cast a glance to Tanner who said, “I filled her in as best I could in the car.”
Collin strode to the table where Chrissie and Fernandez sat. He leaned against a leather arm chair as he spoke. “He had a pair of twins, just like this time. One was a precog, the other was her twin—identical save the gene for Special powers.”
“What about it?” Chrissie asked.
“The precog’s twin didn’t have it,” Rider explained, as he and Collin seemed to be the only ones in the room who knew what the hell was going on. “The prophesy states that the Keys must be a precog and her non-Special match.”
“What happened with the previous attempt?” Fernandez asked, leaning forward.
Collin answered, “The chemistry wasn’t right, and the Keeper’s new power flickered but didn’t take. They thought they had to go back to the drawing board.”
“But if it didn’t it work the first time, why are they doing it again? What makes them think it’s going to work this time?”
“The prophesy just said ‘precog and her non-Special match’ but perhaps it had to be a very specific precog.” Collin frowned. “Unfortunately, we were unable to break the code in the journal. So who knows?”
Darian cleared his throat and lifted a stack of papers above his head. “I know.”
Collin narrowed his eyes. “What’s that?”
“A copy of Josie’s mother’s journal. I didn’t want to mark the pages so I’d been working on a photocopy. When it went missing, I decided it best to keep this copy to myself.”
Tanner shook his head. “You son of a bitch,” he said, smiling.
“I should have known he’d have done that,” Paige said, but her smile was forced.
Tanner’s smile dropped away. “What did you find out?”
“Dr. Martin was the geneticist who created Josie and her twin for the Keeper,” Darian said. “Before that, he found something when working with pregnant women who came to his clinic. When Specials get pregnant, their powers are heightened and the chemistry of their blood alters just enough that—”
“So, they have to be pregnant?” Paige sagged in relief. “So, it’s okay.” She looked at Josie. “There’s no way you’re pregnant, is there?”
“Of course not,” she said. “We used protection every time we—”
Tanner spun to face Josie, and Chrissie thought, fuck!
“You’re on the pill, right?” Tanner asked.
Josie’s eyes widened. “I can’t take the pill. It makes me fat,” she said. “But we used condoms. Didn’t—”
Tanner set his jaw. “Every time but one,” he said in a low whisper.
“The beach…” she said.
Chrissie raised a brow and exchanged a glance with Paige.
“I should never have assumed,” Tanner said.
Darian rubbed the back of his neck. “If you hadn’t messed up that time, you would have another time. You both have to be pregnant at the same time, don’t you see?”
“See what?”
Darian took Josie’s hand and turned it to show the S-shaped scar on the inside of her wrist. “Do you know what this is from?”
Josie shook her head. “I got it in an accident as a child.”
Paige cocked her head, her brow furrowed. “Do you remember, sweetie, or was that what you were told?”
Josie stared at the scar. “What is it then?”
“This is the mark of a Controller.”
“What, like Fernandez?”
“Fernandez’s power is nothing compared to this guy. Once you’re marked, he can influence you to do things you wouldn’t have done otherwise. He can’t physically make you do anything, but his power gives him control to manipulate your emotions. He can give you dreams, fantasies. Make you wish for things you wouldn’t have wanted otherwise. He controls you by making you think you feel emotions: frustration, anger, lust.” He waited a beat. “He can even make you believe you’re in love.”
Chrissie watched Tanner and Josie both turn pale. Double fuck!
“And if I had to guess, I’d say your twin, wherever she is, has the same mark.”
“Who’s the Controller?” Josie asked, her face hard. “Who is this ass who’s been fucking with me?”
Fernandez pulled a hand through his hair and shook his head. “That’s a pretty badass power if it does indeed exist.”
Collin gave him a sardonic smile. “You SIA boys think you know everything, but you’ve hardly skimmed the surface of what the Ascendants can and will do.”
“Just because you were their poor little lab rat doesn’t mean you know everything,” Fernandez said.
“Enough!” The booming command came from a new voice.
Chapter Seventeen
Tanner straightened when he saw Lieutenant Armstrong enter the room. “This is my library,” he said, “and I’ll not have the petty bickering.”
Fernandez clenched his jaw but nodded. “If the Keeper’s who goal is to manipulate free will, then explain why he wouldn’t just steal the Controller’s power.”
“Because a master Controller can only manipulate one or two people. Ever,” Collin said. “Once his mark is on them, he can’t use it on someone else. The Keeper wants the power to manipulate everyone.”
“Who is he?” Josie repeated.
“We don’t know,” Darian said. “We’ve been looking, but we don’t know. We need to know if you’re pregnant, and if you are, we need to hide you.”
Josie shook her head. “If I am, it wouldn’t show up on a pregnancy test yet.”
Collin nodded. “Can you look? Use your power?”
Josie closed her eyes. “I’ve seen myself having a baby with Tanner for a while now. But I don’t know if that’s precognition or planted vision. I have no idea what’s real anymore.”
Rider rolled his eyes. “I don’t mean to be an insensitive ass here—”
“Sure you do,” Chrissie said.
“—but we’re in a time crunch. What do you see?”
Josie exhaled. She looked to Tanner, and he could tell she was trying to figure out what she felt for him and what she’d been made to feel. “I had a dream. I saw them taking my and Mallory’s blood,” she said finally, pulling her eyes away from him. “I must be pregnant.”
Tanner stared at her, willing her to look at him again, but she wouldn’t.
“What next?” Paige asked.
“Josie’s mother’s journal implies that the only answer is the DNA conversion.”
“No,” Tanner said.
“Tanner,” Josie whispered, “we have to think about more than ourselves!”
“It’s dangerous! And if you die...” He trailed off. He couldn’t bring himself to speak of the child she might or might not already be growing inside her.
“We’ll hide her,” Darian said. “If we hide her until the pregnancy comes to term or we can find the Keeper—”
Collin pulled a hand down his face. “Don’t you understand? That’s why Rider and I didn’t tell anyone. You put Josie into hiding for the rest of her life, and the Keeper will only try again with another set. You’d be postponi
ng the inevitable. We need him to reveal himself so we can find a way to take him down.”
“You’re real quick to offer up my friends as bait,” Chrissie said. “Sadly, it’s one of your more charming qualities.”
“So, what are our choices?” Paige asked. “DNA conversion or putting her into hiding and leaving this for our children to deal with? How would they even know where to look?”
Lieutenant Armstrong put up a hand and spoke for the first time since he came in the room. “We’ll come up with something else,” he said. “The SIA will hide Josie until we find another way.”
***
The silver-haired doctor studied Tara and offered her the vial of blood again.
She reached for it, then gagged and had to draw back to cover her mouth.
“Do you want to help or not?” he asked.
She locked eyes with the wide-eyed Josie look-alike in the corner. Now she understood why Josie and Greyly had called her Mallory. Tara didn’t understand who the girl was but she kept mumbling something in French that Tara thought might mean, “My dad was right.”
She was in no shape to do this, which was why Dr. Martin had found Tara. “You’re sure he won’t know?”
“He doesn’t have the luxury of time and he’s getting cocky,” Dr. Martin assured her.
“Okay,” Tara said, taking the vial of blood from his hand and swallowing it in one long gulp. She blinked as her power blossomed in a pleasure-filled surge. Disgusting, yet awesome. Interesting.
“You have the extra supply?” he asked.
She nodded and patted her hip.
“Good. Now, go!”
***
Josie rode shotgun as Lieutenant Armstrong drove her away from her friends.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked.
She exhaled heavily. “As okay as can be expected.”
Which wasn’t okay at all. As she’d hugged her friends goodbye, Paige had squeezed extra tight and Josie had taken the hint and opened herself to the vision.
Paige kneeled in front of a grave. She read the name Josie Bovard on the headstone and tears seeped out of the corners of her eyes. “I’ve never done anything like this before, Josie, but you said the visions you get of our future are not fate but visions of the path we’re traveling down at that time. So I planned with all my might to tell you this here and now in the hopes that you might see it.
“The only way we can stop this is to kill the Keeper. Since he’s immortal, you’re probably wondering how to do that. You kill him by taking his power. His power is what keeps him immortal. You have to drain his blood fast enough that his body won’t be able to reproduce it quickly enough to heal him. If he’s gone, the threat’s gone.
“I didn’t want to tell you this in front of so many, so I hope you see this message before it’s too late. And I hope you’re able to save yourself if you need to.”
Josie glanced at the lieutenant and swallowed. She sure had to hand it to Paige, it had been a creative way to get Josie the message.
Unfortunately, the only way it could have worked is if the choice Josie was making by going with the lieutenant would somehow lead to her death. Otherwise, there would be no gravestone for her to see.
***
Tanner sunk into Josie’s couch and put his head in his hands. How could he have just let her go like that? He’d hated his other options—he hadn’t had other options—but he letting her leave his protection didn’t sit right with him.
A pounding at the door made him sit up.
Tanner answered it to find the officer from the hospital, looking out of breath and worse for wear. “Can I help you?”
“Do you know anything about Specials?” he asked, saying the word as if it were foreign.
Tanner straightened. “You’ll have to explain what you mean.”
***
Tara took a deep breath and tried to channel someone who was a much better actress than she. She glanced down to check herself first. To every last detail, she had shifted into Mallory Aston. Dr. Martin had made sure of it.
“We all make mistakes when we’re young and foolish,” he said. “I’m asking you to help remedy mine.”
“Why do you care now?”
His grin was sheepish. “I have a teenage grandson who’s not a Special.” He shook his head. “Genetically, of course, I of all people knew this could happen, but it wasn’t until it did that I realized how wrong I was when I helped the Keeper twenty-seven years ago.”
When the hippie-looking lady in long skirts came into view, just as Martin had promised she would, Tara lunged at her. “Where is he? Where is my father? Your note said you have him!” This, her script.
The woman pulled back and Tara held her breath. Dr. Martin had promised the blood would enhance her power enough that not even an expert Shifter would be the wiser. This blood, he’d promised (and Tara hadn’t even wanted to know what was in it), would even protect her power from Blockers.
When the woman’s lips formed into a smile, Tara released her breath. “If you want to see him, you have to come with me.” The woman held out her hand.
Tara took it and suddenly they were floating through the air so fast everything around her blurred. They didn’t stop until they were inside a grand hallway with marble floors and ornate chandeliers hanging overhead.
“Where are we?” she asked.
The woman chuckled. “Somewhere very special.”
“My father’s here?” she asked, because that was what Mallory would want to know.
“Follow me,” the woman said, striding in front of her.
Tara followed her into a library of sorts where one young man sat in the corner and several other older men gathered around papers at a conference table.
“Alyson!” the young man said, his lips curving into a smile. “What have you brought me?”
“It’s the Aston girl, Your Majesty.”
He nodded approvingly, and Tara was sure this was the Keeper. Dr. Martin said the man took many forms but was very young in his true form.
“Very well done.” He lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. When a man dressed in black appeared beside him, the Keeper whispered something to him and he nodded.
“You’re here for your father, I presume?” the Keeper said.
“I’d like to see him now.”
He clasped his hands together. “I’ll take you myself.”
She followed him out of the room, but as she exited, she saw the guards take Alyson’s arms.
“Let go of me!” Alyson screamed, but Tara was in the hallway now and couldn’t see. Thudding sounds of punches, then bodies being thrown, echoed into the hallway.
The Keeper winced playfully beside Tara. “She might be the most fun they’ve had all year. She’s quite strong and fast.”
“What’s happening to her?”
“I didn’t need her anymore,” he said with a shrug.
At the end of the hall, they turned down a smaller wing, and he opened a door to a sitting room. “Wait in here and I’ll get your father.”
She nodded and stepped inside, but when he closed the door behind her, her stomach lurched at the sound of the lock engaging.
Chapter Eighteen
Tanner had a sick feeling he couldn’t shake. He’d talked to Greyly and found out Mallory had disappeared, but what good would Mallory do the Keeper without Josie? In the meantime, Paige had called, frantic because Collin told her Tara was missing, and Tanner couldn’t get his mind past the moment he’d put Josie in the car with Armstrong.
His gut twisted again. He didn’t like this at all, and he was headed back into the SIA headquarters to see if he could get a hold of the lieutenant.
He was on his way to his car when Josie’s Healer friend appeared in a flash before him. When she stopped, she swayed on her feet and clutched her stomach. Her face was battered, but her jaw was set, her eyes intense.
“Your girlfriend is here,” she said, pressing a piece of paper into his hand. “It�
�s highly guarded. I killed...maybe a third of the guards getting out?”
“Impressive,” Tanner muttered.
“You’ll need to be very careful, but if you don’t go soon, it will be too late.” She closed her eyes and lowered her chin to her chest.
“You’re one of them,” Tanner whispered.
“The heartless fuck tried to have me killed.” Tears slipped out of her eyes and over her swollen cheeks. “I did everything for him for twenty-seven years, and he treated me like so much garbage.”
Tanner wasn’t sure what to say. “How do I know this isn’t a trap?”
She shook her head slowly. “I don’t have time to argue with you. But listen—” She put her hand on his cheek and looked in his eyes “I made her feel things. I made her feel what she needed to feel to get to where we are now.”
“You’re the Controller?”
Her lip twitched in an attempt at a smile. “I’m a woman of many talents.” The smile faded as quickly as it came. “I’m dying. And when I do, her mark will fade. When they’re gone, she won’t love you anymore. She won’t want you anymore.” She pressed her hand against his chest. “Love’s a fickle bitch.”
***
Josie’s dream had come to life. On the long car ride, she’d fallen asleep—or had she been drugged?—and now she was strapped to a table in a large, sterile-looking room, a big metal machine at her head.
“Armstrong,” she muttered.
She heard a deep chuckle and looked down to see a man she didn’t recognize studying the veins in her arm. “His Majesty takes many forms,” the man said.
When the doors to the room opened, Josie knew she’d see Mallory rolled in, yet upon confirming it, her heart dropped. Even knowing how to kill an immortal, how was she supposed to do it while strapped to this table?
“Let me tell you how this will work,” the man said, nearly giddy. “I’ll hook you up to this machine, then His Majesty will come in and begin the process. It will begin taking your blood in perfect measure and feeding it into our ruler. His destined power will finally be unlocked.”