Dr. Karlton yelled behind us. “Where do you think you’re going? We’re not going to let you leave.”
John whirled around. “Take a nap for two hours.”
The doctor’s eyes glazed over, and he walked over to Whit’s bed and lay down on it. I would have been okay with John telling the doctor to quit breathing. But that wasn’t John’s way, and we were lucky our friend was even willing to take it this far.
I grabbed onto Mace’s arm. “I guess he’s coming with us.”
“For now. Until we can get him out of our heads.”
I nodded. That made sense. Dante’s silence made me think that he was already working on a way to make that happen. “What are you thinking?”
“There’s a way. I don’t like it. No one is going to like it at all. I hate it. But it could work.”
Nick spoke up from behind us. “Don’t beat around the bush, big genius of ours. How do we get this fucker away from us and out of our link?”
“We have to break the link. Entirely. End it. Kill him. Or not kill him, put him someplace where he can’t be forced back into our link and then reform.”
My heart stuttered. “Dante if we do that, we’re vulnerable for capture. Just like the old days. We could be taken by Dex or we could start to decompose. And what happens to Whit if we just leave the link like that?”
He sighed. “Exactly the things I’m saying to myself.”
He still hadn’t answered the most important part of my query. “And Whit?”
“Truth is, I don’t know. Will she always need seven of us now? Is it permanently altered? Can she survive even the seconds apart? And if so, are we right to break the circuit and never establish it again? I mean, hasn’t she been through enough. She loves us. We love her.”
What he didn’t have to say was that we would do the hard stuff for the person we loved, even if it might literally kill us.
“It was worth it for the few months, you know?” Nick’s voice was low. “It was worth it to know her. To love her.”
It really was. I hoped she’d say the same.
35
Dante
There are moments in a man’s life when he realizes he’s made some big fucking mistakes, but weighed against the other choices, the mistake had to happen.
Coming here—with Karlton—was the absolute dead last thing I’d wanted to do, but Whitlee needed to live. Karlton had the cure, and the price was me.
Easy. Done.
Except nothing could be simple, or easy. The circuit was shut, but fuck if I wasn’t still drained. If killing Mace wouldn’t have killed Whitlee, I’d have done that. I hated having my hands tied. I hated dragging this piece of shit around and not heaving him toward the Controlled as a snack.
“Car,” I got out as we stepped into the sunlight.
“On it,” Nick answered and took off.
Isaiah stared after him, and I jerked my head in the direction Nick took off. “Go.”
My friend nodded and ran. I watched him, fully aware that Isaiah was another issue I’d need to deal with later. Fantastic.
In no time, an engine revved. Nick and Isaiah appeared in a cloud of dust. At least, I thought it was dust until I took a breath. It was exhaust.
“I think I found some kind of auto shop,” Nick yelled out the window. “So hurry. I don’t know how much life this old girl has left in her.” His face suddenly paled, as his gaze landed on Whit. “I didn’t—”
“We know,” John replied, opening the door for Brandon, who slid inside with her on his lap.
“Put him in the trunk,” Isaiah said, jumping out of the passenger seat. He lifted the trunk, waiting for me. I dropped him unceremoniously inside, not caring whether he hit his head again. Circuit was closed, he could fucking suffer for all I cared.
Isaiah shut the trunk, hurrying back into the car. I slid in next to Brandon and John. Whitlee lay across the three of us, her head against Brandon’s chest. I got her feet. It would have been nicer to get her head, to stroke her hair from her face, but I’d take what I could get.
For as long as I could get it.
“You really think this will work?” John asked quietly.
I did.
“How?” he asked.
How indeed?
“Overload it,” Brandon said. “Blow it up. It’s like when there’s a storm and a power line is knocked down. The electricity still has to go somewhere, so it back tracks down another line. Then another line goes down, and suddenly there’s too much for the system. Transformers explode, it shuts everything down.”
“Transformers?” Nick asked.
“The big metal container things on the poles. It transfers the electricity from one circuit to the other.”
“Whitlee is our transformer,” I said quietly. What Brandon said made sense.
“Like Optimus Prime,” Nick said. “Another way she’s the fucking coolest.”
Normally, I’d ignore his ill-timed jokes, but what he’d said was right. “She is.”
“If we’re blowing up the transformer, does that mean we’re overloading her?” Carson asked. “It could kill her.”
“But we could also take Mace somewhere far, far away and leave him there,” Isaiah countered.
“And what happens when he gets hurt?” I asked. “And let’s not forget that we’re going to have Karlton and Dex and whoever the hell else is out there after us. So we have to move fast. And go far. How much gas do we have, Nick?”
“No idea,” Nick said. “I think the gauge is broken.” He tapped the glass on the dash. “Yeah. It’s broken.”
Nothing was ever easy. “Then let’s just fucking drive until we run out of gas.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Nick nodded.
We drove in silence, none of us knowing how long it would last, and none of us having anything to say on the subject.
36
Isaiah
All of this was my fault. It was hard to come to terms with that fact. I was so used to John fucking up. Was this how he felt most of the time? Like the whole world exploded and all of the blame could be placed solely on his shoulders? If pressed, and no one had done so, I couldn’t even have explained why I’d done what I did.
I was just angry and the lightning, it had struck. I’d made no move to control it, no move to keep the energy inside me. I’d even liked it when it happened. Let the fuckers burn, that’s what I’d thought. Dante and John had been in the room. I’d given them no thought. I’d struck.
And now we were in a world of hurt. No one was saying it, at least not currently, but there was every chance that we were going to lose Whitney. She wouldn’t die, but she would be separated from us and there might not be any way that we could be rejoined. We really didn’t understand how this worked, just that circumstances had to be correct and lightning had to strike.
I was the lightning, the flash of almost nothing that could explode the world, set fire to the ground, end existence.
Attach Mace to our circuit.
John leaned forward. “You didn’t do it on purpose.”
“I didn’t control myself. This is my fault.”
“It’s more like negligence than malicious intent.” Carson yawned. “Still jail time but a lesser sentence. Or we could call it a misdemeanor.”
I rolled my eyes. “I fucked up. Now, once again, Whit is hurt and we are screwed.”
“Not so easy being the screw up.” Nick met my gaze in the rearview mirror. “Welcome to the club, Zero. The good news is our girl forgives and she likes fuck-ups. I think you’ll be safe.”
I closed my eyes. I’d always said—and meant—I was never supposed to be a leader. And that wasn’t me feeling sorry for myself. I’d really done this. It was appropriate for me to feel like shit about it.
“So—” Brandon cleared his throat. “How did you do it? You’re supposed to control the elements. But this time, the lightning came from everywhere.”
“Maybe it was just electricity,” Dante said. “It was
n’t like it surged out of the sky or anything.” He had Whitney’s feet in his lap, and he kept rubbing his hands against her calves, like he was comforting her.
“Maybe,” I agreed. I really didn’t know how I did it. I didn’t know how I did anything. What a waste.
“This is what I think,” Brandon began. “I think we need to go to the river. And I think we need Isaiah to zap us.”
“Uh. Water conducts electricity, dipshit,” Nick said.
Brandon glared at the back of his head. “I know. But we’re not looking to ground a current. We want to overload it. If we’re standing on the ground and build up the electricity, it’ll just flow right out of us into the earth. But if we stand in water, or on metal, then…”
“Then we’re electrocuting ourselves,” John said dryly. He turned his head, glancing over his shoulder toward the trunk. “Or maybe we just overload one of us.”
“What do you mean?” I asked. He was thinking about Mace, that much I knew, but I didn’t understand how we were supposed to overload just one of us.
“Shut down the circuit,” Brandon said.
“I thought—”
“As soon as we overload it,” he spoke right over me. “We pour every ounce of electricity, of energy, of whatever it is that keep us alive, into Mace. And then we keep going. You call down the lightning, and then we shut it down. It’s like blowing the transformer, but then shutting off the power. It’ll stay in him.”
“It’ll kill him,” Carson whispered.
“He’s already dead,” I said. “And if the choice is Mace or Whitney, I can live with this. He’s going to kill her, Carson. You saw him in her room, he’ll hurt himself to hurt her.”
“And he’s new to this.” John was nodding. Part of me was surprised he’d agreed with me, but he always saw the bigger picture.
It was late evening, and the sun was going down. We were driving west, and I was all turned around. “Where are we?” I asked.
“That’s the road to the mall,” Nick said. “Where do you want to go?”
“The river,” I answered.
I stared out the window as Nick turned the car around, driving south and then east, away from the sunset. The back of my neck prickled, and I turned around. John stared at me, eyebrows raised. “What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to be the Storm Master,” I answered. “That’s what Nick called me.”
“False,” Nick said. “I called you Stormy. Like a horse. Storm Master.” He snorted. “That’s ridiculous.”
“It was me,” Dante said. “I called you that. Pedal to the metal, Nicholas. Let’s get there before she wakes up and tries to stop us.”
“She won’t,” Brandon replied. Like I had with John, he seemed to sense that I stared at him. He grimaced. “She’s the one who killed him first.”
37
Whitney
I was so sick of passing out and waking up. If I lived through whatever the next mess was, I was never fainting again, not even if my brain turned to mush from exertion.
I looked around. Someone had propped me against a tree, and I was, as far as I could tell, alone.
Footsteps rushed toward me, and I sat up. It could be anyone. I couldn’t assume the person was friendly. When Nick came into view, I let out a breath.
“Sorry you woke up alone.” He touched the side of my face. “I thought maybe I had time to pee before you came back to us.”
I laughed. “That might have been more information than I needed. I’m fine. Obviously, we must be somewhere safe.”
He smiled. “Safe enough. You’re up. That’s good. We’re going to kill Mace and it might be messy.”
Goosebumps broke out on my arms. “Come again?”
“That would imply I came at all.”
My cheeks heated. Yes, I was wildly aware that I hadn’t slept with three of the men I loved. I’d kill to remedy it, just as soon as we were safe and away from Mace.
“I can make you blush, so life is good.” He gave me his hand, and I rose. “Come on down by the river.”
“We’re by the river?”
He shrugged. “A river. I’m not sure which river you thought we might be by. Dante’s ready. And we’re just waiting on you so Isaiah can do his thing.”
What I saw when we rounded the corner took my breath away, or it may just have been how out of shape I was. Attached to what had to be an old fashioned TV antenna, was Mace. He had a gag in his mouth and he screamed through it—or tried to.
His arms and legs were tied, and as much as he struggled, he wasn’t going anywhere.
“Whit.” Isaiah kissed my cheek. “I’m sorry this happened. We’re about to make it stop.”
I cleared my throat. “Are you going to zap him? That won’t kill him, but it might zap the heck out of me. I’m… not passing out anymore.”
Carson’s eyes lit up. “That’s great news. Yay for consciousness. We’re going to shield you. But yes we’re going to fry the fuck out of Mace.”
I choked on his words. Carson had cursed. He must be pissed as well. “And at the end of this zapping, Mace won’t be in our circuit anymore?”
“Correct.” Dante smiled at me. “He’ll be dead. He can’t be in our circuit if he is ash on the ground.”
His words made me look at Carson. “What happens to the soul when we leave our connection?”
He put his arm around my waist. “We’ll do theology another time.”
“Who says there’s a soul?” John squatted on the ground by the river. He turned to look at me. His gaze was stark, and he suddenly seemed so lonely. I’d never seen anyone who needed a hug more than John.
I could do that. I went to him, my knees still shaky. The guys had it all worked out and a sense of relief filled me. It was almost over.
I could feel Mace there, at the edge of my awareness. He was a snake bite, the poison of his evil filling all of our veins. But they were going to take care of it. It might hurt a moment, like sticking my finger in an electrical outlet, but then it’d be over and we’d be free of him.
So why did they all look so upset?
Even Nick—he worried at his lip but when he saw me watching, he smiled.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, leaving John to go to him when the world suddenly got dark. I looked up at the sky. Black clouds rolled in, thick and angry. Within their depths, lightning flashed and the fine hairs on my arms lifted.
There was a pull inside me, like a guitar string being plucked. It felt wrong, making my whole body vibrate.
I glanced around at the guys and saw their gazes were on the clouds as well, except for Dante. He stared at me, his expression tortured.
In the river, Mace screamed. I understood. He didn’t want to be stuck with Dexter again. The most humane thing to do when this was over would be to end him, once and for all.
Someone touched the small of my back—Nick. “I love you, you know.” He was too serious.
The world lit up, blinding me, and I blinked. My vision was covered with balls of light, but Nick’s hand remained on me, offering me safety and comfort.
“Ready?” Isaiah said. I tried to find him, but it was so dark. As dark as night. Darker. He didn’t give us time to answer, which was probably better.
Lightning struck.
For a moment, I saw everything. It went from night to day, and everything was so clear, from the gold in Nick’s eyes to the shades of green on the leaves.
I’d expected the pain. But I thought it would end. This hurt. Every nerve ending fired, and I fell into the river. Water rolled over my face, choking me, as my limbs spasmed uncontrollably.
My brain was on fire, assaulting me with a million memories. Not all of which were mine.
I saw my face, worried and drawn, as I waited near Brandon and my spot on the Roanoke River. I held his letter in my hand, and then I glanced up and saw my own astonishment.
I watched a hand travel over my side, down to my hip before gripping hard. But that wasn’t my hand. It
was Dante’s.
It happened over and over, going on forever but lasting as long as it took me to blink. John. Nick. Isaiah. Carson.
Mace.
Overwhelming hatred, hot enough to burn me to ash. He loathed me. And wanted me. It filled me up, hurting me more than all of the electricity racing like wildfire along my veins.
There was a wrenching. My limbs were torn from my body, pulled from my shoulders, my hips, my neck. The cells inside my skin stretched until they couldn’t stretch anymore and then they ripped.
Leaving me bleeding. Gasping.
Alone.
I lay flat on my back, floating in the shallows of the river, gazing up at the stars. At least I wasn’t passed out. There was that. I’d managed to… to stay awake. In fact, my body felt better than it had in a long time. I stared at my fingers. They worked. I tried my toes. They worked, too. I functioned. My head didn’t pound, my chest wasn’t heavy, everything felt pretty wonderful.
“What the heck just happened there?” I voiced the question but no one answered me. The dark clouds had passed.
Were they okay? I searched my circuit and the feeling of being alone hit me again.
They weren’t there.
“Guys?” Panic filled me, and I easily jumped to my feet. “Guys?
They were there. But they weren’t in me. I found where Mace had been attached to the rod. He was gone. Ash on the ground. Oh thank goodness. No more Mace to contend with, except this felt wrong. My guys were gone, too.
Brandon lay flat on the ground. I ran over to him, grabbing him. “Brandon. Can you hear me?”
He blinked. “I can. You’re okay. We closed the circuit but…”
“I know. You’re all gone. What happened?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know. It doesn’t make sense. Where is Dante?”
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