His gaze shot to the side. Before I could look, he knocked me so hard that I’d have fallen if Daniel hadn’t grabbed me. Something hit Ash in the shoulder. He toppled. We tried to grab him, but he was a dead weight, and he fell from our hands, tumbling down, striking one branch before hitting the ground.
When I tried to go after him, Daniel caught me. I swiped at him, but he held me firm.
“It’s a tranq dart, Maya,” he said.
“I don’t care. He—”
Daniel clapped a hand to my mouth as a dark-suited figure slipped from the trees and crouched beside Ash’s sprawled body. The figure pressed a hand to his neck and nodded.
Daniel tugged me up and motioned to the branch above. I hesitated. Then another figure joined the first below, both armed, and I realized any rescue would turn into a group capture. So, after one last look down, I steeled myself and escaped with Daniel.
FORTY-FIVE
DANIEL AND I MOVED carefully, crossing to the next tree then waiting there until they finished scanning the treetops and decided Ash had been alone. They carried him away and we continued on.
Now and then I’d hear a tree limb creak, but that was it. Then I caught the faint sound of footfalls on the ground. When I peered over I could make out the pale shape of faces moving in the forest. Two of them. I squinted.
“Derek and Kit,” I whispered.
Daniel nodded. We were about to head away from them when I heard the crackle of undergrowth. Derek froze, then yanked Kit down. Their faces vanished, their dark clothing blending into the night.
Daniel and I watched as two figures stepped through a cluster of trees. Men dressed in camouflage gear, carrying rifles. Tranquilizer rifles, I hoped. They were heading straight for where Derek and Kit were hiding.
I tensed, but they just kept looking around, not calling for backup, unaware of how close Derek and Kit were.
Daniel had tensed, too. His jaw worked, as if he instinctively wanted to use his shout. Of course he couldn’t. Invoke his power and every Cabal guy within a kilometer radius would come running.
I laid my hand on his. “It’s okay. Derek knows they’re there.”
Daniel nodded and rubbed my thumb. I looked down at my hand on his. There was a time, not long ago, when I wouldn’t have done that. Rafe was right. Something had changed, and I don’t think either Daniel or I had even realized that. It was the little things, like this, reaching out to reassure each other, the chaos giving us an excuse.
I leaned down to focus on the men below. If they walked under us, we could have leaped on them. They didn’t. But they were still heading straight for—
Derek pounced, slamming one guy to the ground before his partner had time to react. I heard a sizzle, and a bolt like lightning flew from Kit’s fingers. The other guy stumbled back. Kit took him down with a right hook. Beside him, Derek let out a hiss of pain. I didn’t see what had happened—presumably his opponent used his supernatural powers.
Derek flipped his target onto his stomach and pinned him there as Kit fought with his. At a thump from below, I glanced over to see that the spot beside me was empty. Daniel was on the ground, running toward them. He grabbed the guns and threw them aside, then helped Kit subdue his target.
As the fight ended, I crawled closer. I stayed in the tree, though, where I had a better vantage point if anyone else came. They had just gotten both men secured when Corey tore from the woods.
“I missed the fight?” he whispered. “Damn.”
Derek wheeled on him. “Where’s Chloe? You were supposed to be—”
“I’m right here,” whispered Chloe as she stepped through.
I inched along until I was nearly over them. Daniel noticed me first and nodded. Kit crouched to take a radio from one man. I realized they were unconscious. Knocked out or tranquilized. Daniel bent to take the other radio.
“Guns?” Corey asked.
“Just take the darts,” Kit whispered.
“Is it okay if I stay grounded?” Corey asked. “The monkey route really isn’t my thing.”
Kit said it seemed safe enough now, and asked Daniel if he’d stay down, too, keeping the fighters on the ground. Daniel glanced up at me, just a quick check. I nodded.
“I’m staying here,” I whispered down. “I’ll keep an aerial eye out for trouble.”
“I’ll come with you,” Chloe said.
Derek tried to stop her. She said it made sense for her to be in the trees with me in case of a ground attack, and that convinced him. Not that it mattered, I think—she’d have done what she wanted. She obviously didn’t take his crap. Still, it would drive me crazy, constantly needing to remind my boyfriend that I could handle myself just fine. My brother was bad enough.
Chloe climbed up and we set off. The guys broke into pairs to get a little distance from one another, so there weren’t four of them tromping together. They stayed close enough to keep an ear on the others in case they needed help. Chloe and I followed from the trees.
As we moved, I could hear the distant noise of the searchers, but none got close again. I kept an ear out for Hayley, hoping she might have avoided capture, but there was no sound or sign of her, and I knew she’d been taken.
Finally, Derek led us to a spot he’d picked on the edge of the woodlot. There was a house just past the tree line. It was dark—everyone gone or asleep.
Chloe and I climbed down and found Kit easing open the door on a pickup.
“We’ll take this,” he said. “Boys? Get up front and push when I give the signal. We’re going to roll it out of the drive, then I’ll get it started. Everyone can pile in the back while I do that.”
Corey looked over sharply. Kit was stealing the truck? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. He’d been on the run for years; he’d do whatever it took to get his kids out of here. Daniel didn’t seem shocked at all. He’s all for law and order—unless it interferes with common sense and necessity.
When Kit released the brake, the guys rolled the pickup out of the drive. With Derek’s super strength it was easily done, and Kit decided to have them keep pushing—from the rear now—down to the first side road. He got around the corner, then we crawled into the truck bed and lay down while he hot-wired it. Within minutes we were off, leaving the Cabals behind.
We drove for two hours, then ditched the truck a couple of kilometers from a roadside motel and walked back to that motel.
Mr. Bae checked in while we hid. Then we made our way in twos to the room. Mr. Bae left to make a call on the prepaid cell he’d picked up in the first major town. He was calling Calvin Antone to begin the process of negotiation.
On the car ride, he’d told Derek and Chloe about Antone’s suggestion. To my surprise, it was Chloe who’d protested, while Derek just sat there, processing. Chloe was worried about how the Cabal treated werewolves. Beyond that, though, she wasn’t personally averse to the idea. They’d been running for months and had all come to realize there was no foreseeable end to that running. They’d talked about moving to Australia, but no one was particularly keen on that. Even if they made it there, it would involve more hiding and more lying.
It wasn’t hard for Kit to convince Chloe that he’d never take any step that would endanger Derek. He’d uprooted his life a decade ago and spent the intervening years on the road to protect him. Now Derek had come fully into his powers and he was, by any standard, a success. Chloe’s own powers had apparently gotten off to a rough start, but she was also a Project Genesis success. Same went for Tori. They’d all learned to control any side effects and were super-powered supernaturals, which made them valuable. Simon wasn’t showing the same power boost, but he hadn’t displayed any negative issues, either—just a smooth transition into a supernatural.
Still, the Nasts had been the ones to kidnap Kit and hold him captive for months. He seemed remarkably unconcerned about that. It was business, he said. He’d been part of a top-secret science group and the Nasts wanted to know more about it. His imprisonment had b
een more like house arrest. The worst part of it had been worrying about his boys, but he couldn’t ask the Nasts to check on them without, in effect, handing them over, so he’d had to trust they were safe while he worked on getting free.
When he was released, it was actually Mattias Nast who’d helped. The same Mattias Nast now heading the work in Vancouver. Not a nice guy, Kit admitted, but Nast was a businessman, inclined to be reasonable if it helped him climb the corporate ladder. Bringing us all to the fold would certainly do that.
No one was forgetting what the Edison Group did to Liz Delaney and a couple of other subjects. Not forgetting. Not forgiving. But the people who’d done that—Dr. Davidoff and others—were dead. That knee-jerk reaction to problems seemed to have died with them. And it wasn’t the St. Clouds we hoped to deal with anyway. As “nasty” as the Nasts were, Kit felt he could work with them . . . at least for a few years, long enough for us to grow up into the kind of powerful supernaturals they wanted, and use those very skills to fight back.
Is fighting back what Antone expected? He’d never said it, but he’d hinted that he didn’t expect us to grow up to be Cabal wage slaves. Just let the Cabal take care of us until we were old enough to take care of ourselves. Maybe that meant fighting back. Maybe it just meant breaking away safely. Either way, it was freedom, something we had no shot at otherwise.
All this wasn’t to say we could trust the Cabals. We couldn’t. But Antone had provided a detailed proposal for negotiations, and Kit thought it was workable.
First, though, Kit needed to speak to Antone.
So he did that. When he came back almost an hour later, he said only that he needed to wait for a call. That came twenty minutes later. He took it outside and returned to say a preliminary negotiation meeting had been arranged. It would be tomorrow in Buffalo, where their ordeal had begun, and he would attend alone while we stayed here in Pennsylvania.
While Kit had been doing all that, Chloe had managed to make contact with Liz again, and she was outside, patrolling. That let us relax a little—you can’t beat an invisible guard. Though we’d napped in the truck, everyone was exhausted. Kit said he’d stay awake and “make a few calls” while we got some sleep.
FORTY-SIX
I WOKE TO A rap on the door. Kit had left the lights off with the drapes pulled, so it took a moment to get my bearings. When the knock came again, I shot up and looked wildly around. Kit was walking to the door.
“Don’t—!” I began.
Corey cut me off. “The bad guys aren’t going to knock, Maya.”
Kit looked out the peephole. Then he spun to us.
“Don’t think of going out the bathroom window,” called a vaguely familiar, but muffled voice. “It’s covered.”
“We’re just here to talk, Kit,” said a woman’s voice. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? To talk.”
Something flickered on our side of the door. Moreno appeared. Inside our hotel room. I fell back in surprise. Daniel was on his feet. Derek was already barreling toward Moreno, who reached out and quickly undid the chain, then vanished. The door flew open before Kit could leap forward and relock it.
In walked Dr. Inglis, flanked by two men with guns. Real guns.
I turned to look toward the bathroom.
“Uh-uh,” Moreno said. “Already warned you about that, Miss Maya. But you can go check if you like.”
Beside me, Chloe was whispering. To Liz, it seemed. From the way Chloe was reassuring her, Liz had been around back when they arrived. An invisible guard is helpful, but not perfect.
“Can she scout now?” I whispered.
Chloe nodded and told Liz to see what we were up against. Moreno and the others didn’t seem to notice—they were too busy convincing everyone not to bother resisting. We knew better than to try as soon as we saw the other two armed men blocking the door. These two had tranquilizer guns. Four armed guys here and more out back. Plus two supernaturals—a witch and a teleporting half-demon. Not odds we could take on.
“It’s been a long time, Kit,” Dr. Inglis said. “You’ve been busy.”
“So have you.”
“But I’ve been more successful in my endeavors. I told you Project Genesis was doomed. The real money was in Phoenix. Genetic tinkering with existing types will never be as valuable as reintroducing extinct types.” She pulled a chair from a tiny dinette, sat, and waved for him to take the other one. “So let’s talk.”
“This wasn’t the plan.”
“Because it isn’t the plan. Right now, executives from both Cabals are hopping onto their jets and flying to Buffalo. I’m beating them to the punch. I had the advantage of knowing exactly where you were. Thanks to Maya.”
“Wh-what?” I scrambled up. “No. If you’re saying I betrayed—”
“We know you didn’t,” Daniel said, pulling me down.
Corey seconded that and said, “She’s lying to divide the ranks.”
“No, Maya did tell me . . . unintentionally. When she was at the Vancouver house, I implanted a tracking device. The St. Clouds have been working on an undetectable one ever since last spring, when the Genesis subjects escaped. I used the latest prototype. Apparently, it worked. When I realized you’d joined Kit, I knew I couldn’t hold this meeting at the farmhouse—the St. Clouds might notice. So I had an associate tell the Nasts he’d overheard Maya and Rafe talking about finding Kit. I dutifully informed the Nasts that the St. Clouds knew where Kit was. A joint raid was born. I managed to divert attention enough for some of you to escape. Now you’re here, out of sight of the Cabals, and we can talk.”
“What do you want?” Kit asked.
“Not Simon or Derek or Tori or Chloe. That’s your main concern, isn’t it?”
“I’m concerned about all—”
“Very noble. But your focus is on your own children and Chloe. You can have them. In return, I want the Phoenix subjects.”
“Why?”
She laughed. “Didn’t I just mention how valuable they are? I can have a dozen buyers lined up in a week. International Cabals, independent brokers . . .”
“Sell us?” I said. “We’re not commodities.”
“Oh, yes, dear. You are.”
“But . . . Calvin Antone. You . . .”
“Your father is desperate. Desperate men are easily fooled, particularly by middle-aged women who play the love-struck fool. He thought he was using me. It was the other way around.”
I turned on Moreno. “And you. He trusted you.”
Moreno shrugged. “I was happy to be his wingman while it seemed to my advantage. Then I got a better offer. It happens.”
“If it’s an outside deal, how will I get my kids back?” Kit asked. “The Cabals have them.”
Chloe’s and Derek’s heads both whipped Kit’s way.
“You’re considering this?” Chloe said.
“I can get them,” Dr. Inglis said. “We’ll take Corey now, as a gesture of good faith from you. Then I will take Daniel for your son and Maya for your daughter.”
“Dad?” Derek said.
Kit didn’t answer him. He didn’t even look over.
Chloe looked from us to Kit, her blue eyes wide. “Y-you c-can’t—”
Derek leaped to his feet. “I won’t let you do this, Dad. These kids came to you for help.”
I gaped at Derek. Even Chloe looked confused. I might have known the guy for less than twenty-four hours, but short of demonic possession, I couldn’t imagine him saying that. Derek was a wolf and I knew enough about pack canines to know—as he’d shown already—that his priority was his family. The welfare of strangers came a very distant second.
As he argued, though, Kit looked . . . relieved.
Daniel looked at both of them, then jumped up beside Derek. “You are not going to trade us for your kids. After everything we’ve been through? I won’t let that happen.”
Kit stood and faced the two, his back to the intruders. He lifted his hands. “Stay calm, boys. Just stay calm. We
need to make a deal, but I promise no one will get hurt.”
“No way,” Derek said. “I cannot believe you would . . .”
As he ranted, Kit mouthed something to Daniel. Daniel hesitated, but Derek glanced over with a nod.
“Just relax, boys,” Kit said. “Look at Maya and Corey. They’re being reasonable. I need you two to follow—”
“No!” Daniel shouted—his sonic boom shout was so loud, my ears rang.
The shout sent Kit and the guards flying. Everyone who’d been behind Daniel only wobbled, only those in front of him fell. It took a split second for most of us to realize what had happened, and that the guards were on the floor, stunned by that sonic shout.
Derek hadn’t hesitated. As soon as Daniel shouted, he charged. He grabbed the gun from the nearest guard and threw it aside as Daniel tackled the next one. Corey went after the third and I pounced on the fourth. I got the gun easily—my target was still on the floor, stunned. I kicked it over to Chloe, who was gathering them up.
Beside me, Corey was struggling with his guard, who’d snapped out of it and was on his feet again. Daniel raced over to help. The gun fired. Daniel staggered back.
The other guards were up now, fighting back, but I saw none of that. Just Daniel stumbling, Daniel falling. Daniel with blood blossoming on his chest. Daniel shot.
I screamed. I barely heard it in the din around me. Everyone was shouting. Everyone was fighting. No one had noticed Daniel fall. Just me. No one was running to help him. Just me.
I raced over as Corey continued struggling with his guard, oblivious. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Corey get the guy in a headlock. Saw him look over. Saw him notice Daniel. His eyes rounded and the blood drained from his face. As I ran to Daniel’s side, Corey began to release his grip on his target, as if he’d forgotten he was still holding him.
“No!” I said.
He snapped out of it, then hauled his guy out of the way as I dropped to the floor. Daniel was blinking to stay conscious, his breathing shallow.
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