by Tracey Ward
“I tried but I couldn’t get there,” Alex continues, making Campbell and his pervert brain chuckle harder. “I was so exhausted on the street, and then we got to the motel and I thought it’d be no problem, but it never happened.”
I grind my teeth back and forth, clenching my jaw so hard it hurts. It’s the serums. I never should have given them to her. I definitely shouldn’t have given her so many. Now she can’t sleep and she’s messed up physically. Who knows what those things are really doing to her?
I stand up, pull the last three vials out of my pocket, and toss them on the ground. Before Alex can protest I slam my heel down on top of them. The fragile glass shatters instantly, easily, and just like that they’re out of the equation. No more lies, no more pleading, no more last resorts. I’ll never put their poison in her veins again.
“Nick!” she cries, outraged.
“What was that?” Campbell asks.
I sit back down slowly, ignoring Alex’s hot stare. “A crutch. And now it’s gone.”
Alex puts her hand to her mouth. “Oh my God. You threw away my only chance at Slipping. We’ll never get out of here.”
“That’s how she does her thing?” Campbell snaps at me. “With those doses? Why would you do that? I assumed we were banking on her getting us out of the country because we sure as hell can’t fly out.”
“She can do it without the doses,” I promise him, and I believe it. Even if Alex doesn’t.
“No, I can’t,” she insists angrily.
“You did it for most of your life without those things. You have the power to do it, you’re just too afraid to tap into it.”
“I’ve never done it on purpose! You want to sit around and wait for it to happen by accident in my sleep? How will that work? You and Campbell will sleep with me sandwiched between you, all of us clinging all kinky to each other night after night hoping I accidentally Slip us to Malaysia or something?”
“I call sunny side,” Campbell says quickly.
“Now that you’ve said that,” I ask Alex carefully, “are we more likely to Slip there? To Malaysia?”
“You mean the way we Slipped to Japan because you wouldn’t stop throwing out destinations? Yeah, we are. And you know what else?” she asks, her voice getting more heated, her face turning red. “I don’t even know where to begin to learn how to do it on my own. The one person who had any shot of teaching me hates me.”
I can’t help but chuckle at how completely off base she is. “He doesn’t hate you. Liam resents how much his father adores you and he’s jealous of what you can do, but he absolutely doesn’t hate you.”
“Well he definitely doesn’t like me.”
“Maybe, maybe not, but he does feel some kind of connection to you. Probably because of your abilities and how angry you both are at his dad. I wouldn’t consider him an enemy is what I’m saying.”
“Are you for real?”
“Don’t go BASE jumping with him, he’s not that trustworthy, but you should trust what he tried to teach you about Slipping.”
“He only wanted me to get good at it so I could work for his dad as an assassin.”
Campbell holds his hands up, halting the conversation. “Is that serious or is she being dramatic?”
“It’s serious. The doctor who did this to us gave me my abilities to rent me out to people looking for a highly skilled assassin,” Alex answers.
He scoffs. “Highly skilled? You can’t even hold a gun right.”
“I knew I was doing it wrong,” she grumbles.
“I’m pretty sure some extra training was on her horizon,” I assure Campbell. “He wanted her because she could go anywhere at any time. No locked door or security system in the world can keep her out.”
“Only she can’t actually do that, can she?”
“Not yet. But none of this matters. What matters right now is getting off this train, finding somewhere to hide, and getting Alex rested up. She needs to work on her control if we’re going to get out of here.”
“Have you ever been able to control it?”
Alex closes her eyes, shaking her head faintly.
“Hmm,” Campbell sighs. He sits back heavy in his seat. “I may have been rash in joining your gang.”
“Feeling some buyer’s remorse?” I ask him.
“More like I’m reconsidering all the things fifty thousand dollars could have bought me.”
Chapter Eight
Alex
I should have asked Campbell to grab me a water. I didn’t expect it to be so hot! My feet are hurting, bugs are biting me, I’m sweating through my clothes, my head is starting to pound, and my vision is beginning to go fuzzy around the edges. I would tell Nick all of that, but he already knows. He’s watching me closely—I think they both are—and it doesn’t matter, because I couldn’t hide how I feel even if I wanted to.
And I don’t. I feel like crap and I want the world to know it.
“You gotta walk faster, SB,” Campbell warns for the fiftieth time in five minutes.
I groan. “I know. I’m trying.”
“Let me carry you for a little while,” Nick offers. “Just until you feel stronger.”
“No thanks, I got it. I promise I’ll keep up.”
“We’re not in a hurry.”
“I am,” Campbell corrects.
He’s about ten paces ahead of us, marching through the countryside down an old packed road like he knows where he’s going. No one knows where they’re going out here or where they are! Not even the locals. I think they all got lost and trapped here on accident like that creepy episode of The Twilight Zone with the kid who collects and controls people and the girl doesn’t have a mouth because she got lippy and they—
I let out an embarrassing shriek as I’m spun around and flipped into the air. It takes me a second to realize what’s happened, and when I do I’m even more embarrassed.
“Nick, please put me down,” I plead.
As though I were nothing more than a pillow, Nick has lifted me off the ground and slung me over his shoulder.
“Take it easy,” he says in a deep, soothing tone. “Let me help you.”
“I can walk.”
“I can walk faster.”
“Not with me on your shoulders, you can’t.”
“Yes, I can. Using the stone has me amped. You weigh nothing to me right now. Besides, you were slowing down.”
“That stone trick was pretty impressive,” Campbell tells me seriously. “You got skills, man.”
I feel Nick chuckle. “I’m just getting started. Hey, Alex, how’s your shoulder doing? Is this position hurting it?”
“A little bit,” I admit, “but everything hurts a little bit right now.”
“I’ll take a look at it again when we find somewhere to stop. Your hands too.”
“What about your head?”
“What about it?”
“You have a pretty nasty gash on your hairline where the dragon got you.”
“Whoa!” Campbell shouts.
Nick freezes, his entire body going tense underneath me. I instinctively wrap my arms around him to brace myself, my hands meeting at his stomach. I’m careful not to grab too low, to get ahold of anything inappropriate, but I do lay palm to abs and holy hell, boy is ripped. It shouldn’t be a surprise ‘cause, come on, I’ve seen him naked. But that was a dream and either he or I could have… enhanced some things.
We didn’t. Far as I can tell, he is tailgating under his T-shirt.
“What’s wrong?” Nick whispers.
I lift my head a little to look through my hair. I find Campbell stomping quickly back toward us, his face deathly serious.
“Dragon. Real or a codename?”
Nick jumps a little, shifting me on his shoulders. “Real.”
“Ish,” I add.
Campbell scowls at me. “Ish?”
“It was kind of real. I pulled it from a dream.”
“Sure felt real when I was fighting it,” Nick
says.
“Dead or alive?” Campbell demands.
“Dead.”
“You killed it?”
Nick shrugs, jostling me with the movement. “It was pissing me off.”
I roll my eyes at how nonchalant he talks about his battle with his greatest and only fear on the planet. It would be like me saying ‘Yeah, I went to The Void and all I got was this lousy T-shirt.’ He was shaking with fear when he fought that thing! I guess that’s not something guys tell each other, so I keep my eye roll and my thoughts to myself.
Campbell whistles appreciatively, long and loud. “Nicholas Carver, the Dragonslayer. What else can you do, man? What else aren’t you telling me? Have you killed a troll? A giant?”
“What is he talking about?” I ask Nick’s ribcage.
He sighs, stepping us around Campbell. “I think it’s Dungeons and Dragons.”
“You know it is!” Campbell calls out behind us. “You’re blowing my mind here!”
“I think I liked him better when he didn’t believe us,” I grumble.
“You haven’t seen how bad it can get,” Nick warns me.
And he’s right. For the next half hour Campbell talks our ears off about dragon lore. It’s interesting for ten minutes, then it’s tedious for another ten, and finally it’s mind-numbing for the last third. Between his droning on and on and Nick’s steady stride, it’s almost enough to put me to sleep.
Almost.
I need to sleep and soon. I’m getting rummy. I’m also still sweating—something I wish Nick wasn’t so intimately aware of. My heart won’t stop racing randomly. I feel fine for a while, and then out of nowhere it slams in my chest like I’m scared or anxious. It’s crazy and weird and I am so grateful when Nick finally agrees to put me down and let me walk. My body is mine again with no one reading it like the beat of my heart is braille.
We walk all day. It’s nothing to these guys who are trained to within an inch of their life, but for a girl who lies to her treadmill it’s a nightmare. When Campbell finally says we’re deep in the country enough and starts looking for a farmer with a barn or shack we can hole up in, I’m ready to kiss his sarcastic, smart mouth.
“I thought you said you run to work out,” Nick says, watching me bend over to lean on my knees.
I have a stitch in my side that is killing me. “I did,” I breathe, “but I meant it the way people say they speak Spanish when really all they know are the words off a lunch menu at Don Guapo Pantalones.”
“Sir Handsome Pants?”
“Of course you speak Spanish.”
Nick grins. “Dinner menu at best.”
I stand, groaning and nodding toward Campbell. “Can he really speak Japanese?”
We’re standing on the side of the road watching Campbell work his magic. He’s stone serious, his face hard and his posture rigid. I would feel bad for the farmer he’s negotiating with if he weren’t striking the exact same pose. I have no idea who has the upper hand here.
“He’s been in Japan for more than a day, so probably, yeah.”
“Is he really that smart?”
“Yes. It’s disgusting.”
I smile, then wince. Charley horse. “Why is it disgusting?”
“Because he has the mind of a machine. He could be out there curing cancer right now, but instead he’s fluent in Klingon.”
“The made up language from Star Trek?”
“Yeah. Elvish, too. I think he speaks some dwarf, but it’s spotty.”
“Wow.”
“Exactly.”
I shrug my shoulders lightly. “Whatever makes him happy, I guess.”
Nick snorts. “Really? If you were that smart you wouldn’t feel like you should do more with your life?”
“Not if it didn’t make me happy.”
“Hmmm.”
I open my eyes wide at him. “Oooh, that’s judgy.”
“What is?” he asks innocently.
“‘Hmmm,’” I mimic.
“That was judgy? I thought I was being pensive.”
“Well your pensive comes off as judgy.”
“Hmmm.”
I grin, shaking my head. “Now you’re doing it on purpose.”
“I am,” he admits, “but it made you smile.”
Whatever skills Campbell has in Japanese, they do the trick. So do a few more U.S. dollars. Quite a few, actually. I’m surprised by how much we give the guy, especially when I see where we’re staying.
It’s a literal shack. Not even a barn—a shack. It looks like the home to hay for some goats, and some seriously intimidating farming equipment—lot of steel, lot of sharp edges. I feel more like we’ve paid to stay on the set of a horror film than a farmer’s backyard.
“Cozy,” I say, bright-siding the balls off this place.
“Are you going to be able to survive slumming it with us, SB?” Campbell asks wryly. “No room service. No down pillows—though I could probably pluck you a chicken and stuff a burlap sack. Pretty close.”
I plop down in the hay, giving him a hard stare. “I’ve slept in worse conditions than you can even imagine, so you can take your down pillow and shove it up yo—”
“We’ll have to sort out where we go from here,” Nick interrupts. “We won’t be able to stay here forever. Probably not more than a day or two.”
I lean back into the hay, feeling it poke and tickle into my hair and through my shirt. “If we had serums,” I yawn, “we could be gone tonight.”
“If we had serums, I wouldn’t give them to you.”
“If she can get her act together, where are we going?” Campbell asks, stopping the argument before it can get going.
“I don’t know yet. Somewhere stateside, for sure.”
Nick’s voice sounds far away. He’s out of my peripheral and I realize I can’t see him, not even if I needed to. My eyes are glued in place where I’m staring at the fried front of Campbell’s shirt, wondering if he’s hurting. Wishing I had some way to help him, even if most of the time I feel like kicking him. I have to fight to keep my eyes open. Walking all day took its toll on me and most likely helped flush the serums out of my system. I was tired before, but now that I’m lying down I’m crashing hard.
“That’s where most of the files are from,” I mumble. “America.”
“What files?” Campbell asks. “There are more?”
“A few,” Nick confesses.
“Where are they? Are they in that bag she’s been carrying?”
I kick it with my foot, inching it toward him. “Knock yourself out.”
“They’re all like you two?” he asks, snatching up the bag. “They all have superpowers?”
Nick sits down next to him. “We think so.”
“Are we going to find out?”
“Alex wants to.”
“I want to help them,” I remind him. “And I want them to help us.”
“Help you do what?” Campbell asks.
My eyes have closed. I don’t know when it happened, but I can’t get them open again. I can barely make the words leave my mouth to answer him.
“Be free,” I whisper.
Things are hazy after that. Nick and Campbell talk quietly, I hear the bag rustling as they dig through it, papers shuffling as they read and discuss. I catch bits and pieces of conversations but I can’t hold onto them long enough to follow them completely.
“…do what she can?”
“Sort of… control but can’t go anywhere…cocky and…”
“Fire hands… I was right. It’s vibrations… muscular system…”
“Enhanced like mine… faster… feel fear when…”
“...incredible. Crazy… bag full of superheroes.”
“No,” Nick says firmly, his tone briefly catching my attention. “We’re all science experiments gone wrong. People will be angry.” He sighs, sounding tired. “There will be villains.”
∞
“Alex.” Nick shakes me gently. “Hey, it’s time to eat.”
<
br /> I groan and pull away, my lips recoiling over my teeth at the thought of food.
“You still feel sick?”
I want to answer him but I can’t. I can’t find the words or the energy. All I find is darkness.
Sleep.
But what can’t be more than twenty minutes later…
“Sleeping Beauty, wake up. Come on.”
I don’t even bother answering Campbell.
“Yo, SB. Water. Let’s go.”
He roughly presses the edge of a cup to my lips.
I grudgingly take a few sips, surprised by how cool the water feels.
“Thanks,” I croak, my throat feeling bone dry despite the water.
“Drink more. I’m not asking. You can go days without food but you can’t go without water.”
Even though I don’t like his pestering, I love the water so I listen. I drink it down. I try to open my eyes. I try to utter another thank you, but as soon as he pulls the cup from my lips I’m under again. I’m in the dark alone and surprisingly unafraid. I can’t hear or see the boys, I don’t dream, and it’s the closest I’ve ever felt to The Void that I live in so much fear of every single day, but I’m not scared tonight. Tonight I sleep deep and easy and I know exactly why.
Nick is nearby.
∞
“Could be anything,” Nick says.
“Are you serious? You’re going to pretend you don’t know the sound of a chopper when you hear one? It’s a bird, dude. It’s headed this way.”
Nick swears angrily. “The farmer. He sold us out.”
“Guess we didn’t pay him enough.”
“We couldn’t. Not with Evans offering a fifty-K reward for us.”
“Chopper’s getting closer.”
“I hear it. What do you think? Fight or flight?”
“It’s up to you. You’ve got all the goodies. I don’t honestly know what we’re working with.”
“I only have one stone left,” Nick muses quietly.
“What about her? Was that really all the serums that make her work?”
“I smashed them all, yeah.”
“That was stupid.”
“Feels that way now. Now that we’re trapped.”
I open my eyes with effort. My lids feel heavy and thick, sticky with sleep. When I move to sit up my entire body groans and cracks, and I don’t know if it’s the horrible hay bed or the way I slept. It doesn’t matter. I feel rested but I ache.