by W. J. May
Molly flashed her a sweet smile. “We were just going out for a little walk to clear our heads. We’ve been studying so much for finals I think mine might fall right off…” Her voice petered out as she stared at the strict headmistress of Aumbry House.
“Both you and Miss Kerrigan are still under curfew,” she answered sharply. “There’s no wandering the grounds after nine p.m. and you know it. Now get back to your rooms.”
Rae cleared her throat and tried to sound braver than she was. “Actually, the curfew for seniors is eleven p.m. I believe…” She let her words trail off when Madame Elpis harrumphed. Rae decided to try a different route. “The four of us have business for the Privy Council and we—”
“Both you and Mr. Wardell were suspended from the Privy Council,” Elpis cut her off. “The headmaster made sure the faculty were all informed. It’s come to my attention that both Miss Skye and—” Her head turned sharply as Julian moved a step back up the stairs. “You too, Julian, are on a temporary leave of absence, so allow me to repeat myself.” She put her hands on her hips and all four teenagers fell back another step. “Go back to your rooms.”
In a flurry of hasty nods and averted eye contact, Rae and the others tripped all over themselves to head back to her dorm room. As they high-tailed it back up the stairs, they heard Elpis call out behind them, “You’re lucky that seniors are allowed co-ed study groups or you gentlemen would be banished back to your side of campus!”
“She’s so interfering,” Molly complained as she slammed Rae’s door on the top story in a huff. “I really think we need to do some sort of love intervention—find her a man. Wasn’t she dating Professor What’s His Name’s brother? Donald something?” She threw her hands up in frustration. “That obviously didn’t work out. She needs a man! It’s the only way she’s ever going to develop some basic human traits. You know…like compassion.”
“Fat chance,” Devon grinned as he helped Rae push open the window. “Could you imagine dating her? She’s terrifying.” He caught Rae’s eye and flushed self-consciously. “I mean, she doesn’t terrify me, but…other people…maybe.”
Rae laughed and leaned against the open frame as her boyfriend threw himself carelessly out the three-story drop, landing lightly on his feet. Rae followed right behind him and Julian next. Molly took a bit of convincing but Devon and Julian caught her easily. They stomped happily over the grass out to the parking lot.
Only to run into Madame Elpis. Again.
Rae’s heart leapt to her throat and Molly made a strange little squeaking sound as they froze in their tracks once more. This time, not a word was said. The four of them just took one look at her and spun around in their tracks, heading back to the dormitory in silence.
“Well, we’ll just have to wait it out here for an hour or so until Julian sees that she’s gone to bed. Or we sneak past her room when she’s snoring,” Devon muttered as they settled back down in Rae’s room.
“And until then?” Rae looked around the room, her eyes settling on the closet. Maybe they could go through the files.
“Until then, we get some sleep while we can,” Julian answered, settling into a chair with a sweater scrunched up beneath him as a pillow. “Looks like it’s going to be another all-nighter.”
“It seems like that’s all we’ve been having lately,” Molly whined as she climbed onto the chair beside him and cuddled in beneath his arm. “Don’t bad guys know,” she yawned loudly, “that we need to sleep?”
“Dev?” Julian asked routinely as he hitched Molly higher on his lap and shut his eyes.
“Yeah,” Devon replied automatically. “I’ll wake you in an hour to see if the coast is clear from ol’ hawk eyes.”
He pointed to the bed. He and Rae curled up together on top of the sheets and watched as their two friends succumbed quickly to sleep. It wasn’t long before Molly and Julian’s breathing had shallowed and steadied out, leaving their faces relaxed and peaceful.
“They both look so much younger when they sleep,” Rae whispered with a grin, staring at her two friends.
The juxtaposition was hilarious. Julian was all long and lean with his tanned skin, sleek dark hair, and legs that seemed to stretch all the way to the door. Molly was a different thing entirely. All curled up, she probably only took up about a third of his body, and her vibrant crimson hair splayed out across his chest made it seem as though he’d suffered a recent knife wound. When contrasted to his, her fair skin was shockingly pale, and every now and then, little sparks would flick from the tips of her fingers. He would flinch each time they hit him, but his arm would tighten automatically—even in sleep—to keep her supported on the chair.
“So do you,” Devon whispered back with a grin. His lips brushed against her hair.
Rae could feel his warm breath against her scalp. It sent a shiver down her back. The good kind. She turned to him in surprise. “You’ve watched me sleep?” She tried to sound accusing even though she couldn’t help but smile. She most certainly had done the same thing to him.
“Oh no,” his face tightened in a mock frown, “I would never.”
He opened his arm and she slid inside without a second thought, nestling up against his side as she stared out the window. For as much as she’d advocated this particular plan, she had to admit, the idea of seeing Kraigan again terrified her. You couldn’t be trapped in an underground lair with a guy pouncing on top of you and draining all your powers without that happening.
But Kraigan would see the truth she told herself again and again. He would see that none of this was her fault. Sure, they’d never be friends, let alone the family that they technically were, but he shouldn’t have any further reason to want her dead.
She rolled over so her back was spooning Devon’s chest. She stifled a little sigh. Shouldn’t didn’t exactly mean wouldn’t in Kraigan’s book. As incredible as Julian’s drawing had been, she wished he’d been able to see just a little bit more.
She turned her neck so she could look at Devon. “What was that about earlier, on the stairs with Julian? Why won’t you let him drive?”
For a moment, Devon looked uncomfortable. He glanced over at his friend, but it was clear Julian was fast asleep. After a moment of watching, he sighed. “Julian and I were in Spain a couple of weeks ago—on a mission for the PC. We were speeding down this country road in a rental, when all of a sudden, Julian got a vision. It was stronger than anything he’d ever had before—like the one you saw today—and it came out of the blue. No warning or anything.” He shifted almost nervously and bit his lip. “Unfortunately, Julian was the one driving the car.”
Rae’s jaw dropped open. “What happened?!”
“The car flipped, sent me flying through the windshield. Julian didn’t even feel it—he was in a trance. It’s probably the reason why he wasn’t really hurt, his body was completely relaxed.”
“But you went through the windshield?!” Rae demanded in a fierce whisper.
Devon stroked back her hair soothingly. “Rae, it wasn’t his fault. And trust me, when he came to, he felt horrible. There was no predicting—”
“I’m not saying it was his fault.” She pulled herself into a sitting position. “I’m saying, you were in a car accident in Spain and you didn’t even tell me. Devon, what if something happens to you in some remote corner of the globe and I don’t hear about it until weeks later, if I hear about it at all?”
“That’s not going to happen,” he assured her, kissing her on the forehead. “In fact, there’s even less of a personal risk now that our powers are developing so quickly. We just need to get through a couple of speed bumps along the way.” He flashed her a quirky grin.
“Speed bumps?” she repeated in disbelief.
“Too soon?”
She chuckled softly and smacked him on the arm before settling back against his chest. “So, that’s why you’re not letting Julian drive?”
Devon nodded. “At first, he was completely on board. But his visions haven�
��t caught him unawares for almost two months now and he’s getting restless.” Rae felt him shrug behind her. “I can understand. It has to feel a little claustrophobic—almost like they’re holding him captive, controlling him instead of the other way around.”
Rae mulled this over as she pulled his arms tight around her. She could certainly sympathize with the feeling herself. When she’d gotten her first flood of new powers, she was almost afraid to be in the same room as the people she cared about. She never knew which one was going to come flooding to the surface and catch her off guard. And as strong as each of her tatùs were, none of them, except the ones given to her by her parents, had come close to matching Julian’s in terms of development. It was actually kind of thrilling to know that each one had the capacity for so much growth. Who knew where she’d be in just a year or two’s time?
In the same breath, she echoed some of Devon’s worry. Now was not the time for anyone on her team to be even remotely vulnerable. Not when they’d be seeing Kraigan in just a few short hours. Who knew what the psycho had up his sleeve? She stifled another shudder.
She couldn’t stand it if Devon was right about Kraigan.
Just as long as he didn’t actually try to kill her again.
Chapter 7
“I don’t care, okay? I’m sure there’s a better way to go about it.”
“What’s wrong, man? You don’t like falling into my arms?” Devon grinned mischievously and Julian shot him a withering glare.
“I’m just saying, if we’re going to be jumping out of Rae’s third-story window on a regular basis, maybe we should invest in a rope ladder or something. Not all of us have your guys’ weird little fox power…”
“Okay, first off; it’s not our power, it’s my power. My darling girlfriend just steals it from time to time.”
“Mimics it,” Rae interjected from the back seat.
The boys ignored her.
“And second; I seem to remember my ‘weird little fox power’ saving your ass on more than one occasion, so you might want to show some respect.”
A hundred streetlamps flew past as they raced down the darkened interstate, staining everyone’s faces with an intermittent orange glow.
Julian cocked his head. “Wait a minute…I’m having a vision here. Oh yeah! It’s of me punching you in the nose. That’s odd, isn’t it?”
Devon flashed a devilish grin. “You might want to hold off on that for now seeing as I’m the one who’s driving…”
Julian opened his mouth to say something else, but Rae held up her hands. “Enough! We’re all going to need to focus if we’re about to meet Kraigan.”
“Which I still think is a bad idea.”
Molly kicked the back of Devon’s chair, but Rae just smiled sweetly. “Yes, honey, you’ve made that abundantly clear.”
He glanced back in the rearview mirror, and for a moment, Rae forgot her teasing and the mission and stared, simply entranced. It was impossible not to be. Flying down the highway with stars and flashes of light streaking by, Devon’s dark eyes seemed depthless. Deep chestnut pools with no end in sight. How could one not lose themselves in those eyes? Sigh.
Suddenly, his brow creased in a question and she realized she had been staring a bit too long. At the same time, Julian groaned softly from the front seat.
“What is it?” Molly asked with concern.
“I just saw the two of them kissing the second we get out of the car.” He rubbed his temples like the entire ordeal had been very trying for him. “This is getting ridiculous. It’s getting constant, now. I can’t just close my eyes anymore without seeing things. Rae seems to be in the hot seat, starring as the main character. Just like the drawings.”
The drawings had been left on a shelf in her brain to ask about another day. Now was not the day. Rae put her hands on his shoulders. “Visions? Or Devon and I kissing?”
Julian’s lips twitched up in a reluctant smile. “Both. Equally terrible.”
“Well, why don’t you do something useful with your gift and scan ahead for cops?” Devon pulled off at an exit. “We’re coming into the city.”
For a second, Julian’s dark eyes turned pearl in the moonlight. Then he brought himself out of it and shook his head. “No one’s going to pull us over. Drive as fast as you want.”
Devon put his foot to the floor and the car lurched forward as they raced down a shadowy side street away from the main roads. Rae could almost feel the tension growing more and more palpable the closer they got to the Second Sister, and by the time the pub was within sight, all four of them were glued to the windows.
Devon circled around once, searching for anything out of the ordinary, before pulling into the back of the parking lot. The friends paused for a moment, safe from sight behind the tinted windows, before both boys turned around in unison for a last-minute huddle.
“Okay, so we just stick to the plan,” Devon said, and then dropping his voice so only Rae could hear, “There’s no telling what kind of tatù Kraigan is currently working with.” He cleared his throat and continued, “Molls, you stun him. Julian, come around behind. I’ll attack from the front. And Rae—”
“Yeah, I know.” Her three friends watched in wonder as she melted away into thin air. “I’m invisible.”
“That’s so freakin’ creepy…” Molly whispered.
“Cool,” Julian corrected.
Devon didn’t smile or acknowledge their comments. He was all business. “Let’s go.” He lowered his voice again to a whisper only another tatù like his could hear. “Remember to go out Molly’s door and let her close it.”
The other two started piling out of the car, as Rae slipped back into sight, if only for a moment, and grabbed Devon’s sleeve. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”
He looked at her blankly for a moment. “No, what?”
She pulled them together with no warning, kissing him long and hard even as she faded back out of sight. When Devon opened his eyes again, there was nothing but air.
“Julian saw us kiss,” she whispered.
He grinned automatically, then swiped blindly at the air, knocking her shoulder.
“Ouch,” she giggled under her breath, “nice follow through.”
“Sorry,” he chuckled, “that’s going to take a little getting used to.” He straightened back up and held upon his door. “You ready?”
“Let’s do this.”
Without another word, Molly, Julian, and Devon made their way slowly across the parking lot to the pub. Rae followed along a few steps behind, marveling at how even her shadow was invisible, taking care not to step in any puddles. It wasn’t until they were about halfway across that everything seemed to go suddenly wrong.
“Wait a minute,” Julian murmured, putting his hand to his temple. The next second, his eyes glassed over and he fell to his knees, overwhelmed with the strength of the vision.
Devon was by his side in a moment. “Julian!” He tried to help him up, but his friend wouldn’t budge. “Snap out of it, man! What is it? What do you see?”
A loud click echoed across the empty lot. A sound each of them knew instinctively. A sound none of them could ever forget.
All the hair on the back of Rae’s neck stood on end as she looked up in horror.
It was Kraigan, all right. Holding a gun.
“Well, good evening!” he said overly cheerful. “Or should I say good morning? You cut it so close, we might have passed midnight already.”
Molly raised her fingers a fraction of an inch and he pointed the gun directly at her heart.
“Aw Molls,” Kraigan kept smiling, but there was something chilling buried just beneath the surface, “you wouldn’t want to do anything stupid, would you?”
In a flash, Devon left Julian on the pavement and launched himself at Kraigan, keeping his body in between the gun and Molly. He moved so fast he was nothing but a rush of air and a blur of colors. Rae didn’t need Julian’s gift to know what Kraigan was going to do next.
>
Just as Devon knocked the gun into the air, Kraigan whipped around and grabbed the bare skin on the side of his neck. He needed only a moment for his ink to take effect. Devon’s eyes grew wide and disoriented, and the next second, he stumbled back across the wet concrete, staring around him in horror as he tried to stand.
Rae knew firsthand what it felt like to have one’s tatù taken away. It was like losing an arm or a leg—something as fundamental as breathing. There was no greater violation.
“Wow,” Kraigan closed his eyes as he savored the sensation, “I missed this one.”
“You bastard.” Devon’s whole body was twitching, stripped of its usual sensitivity. “I swear, if you touch them I’ll—”
Then Devon was on the ground. Rae had to stifle a shriek as he skidded to her feet, bleeding from a cut beneath his eye.
“Shit!” Kraigan chuckled, rubbing his knuckles. “Yeah, your tatù lets you hit that hard, but it sure doesn’t dull the pain when you do, does it? And as for the other thing…” He shot forward and kicked Devon in the ribs before he had a chance to stand. “I think you’re hardly in a position to be making threats.”
With an enraged cry, Molly fired a wide band of crackling lightening, but Kraigan both ducked and recovered the gun before it could do any harm. He straightened with a sinister laugh, pointing it once more at her chest. “Try it again, I dare you.” His eyes glared dangerously. Having their full attention, he straightened, keeping the gun trained on Molly and ready to pounce on Devon. “Let’s see…the Privy Council sends out their best and brightest and look what happens. One is held hostage to his own ink, another loses his tatù altogether, and the only one still standing is the little fashionista.” He clucked his tongue disapprovingly. “Hardly a worthwhile fight. And I have to say, not the fight I was expecting.” He took a few steps forward, lifting the gun to Molly’s head. “Tell me Miss Skye…where is my bitch of a sister?”