“Why are you here, Raven?” It was strange. I didn’t feel scared or weirded out that he’d sat beside me while I slept, but I was curious why he’d spend four hours sitting in a dark cell waiting for me to wake up.
His eyes glowed that swirling orange. I wondered how he went out in public. Eyes like that would garner attention in a hurry.
“Did Marcus tell you to stay with me? Did he want to know when I woke up?”
“No.”
“Then are you going to tell me why you’re here?” I couldn’t keep the irritation from my voice. I was cold, scared and damned angry about being continually drugged against my will.
Raven still wouldn’t meet my gaze. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he looked embarrassed.
I leaned back against the wall. If he wasn’t here for Marcus, I could only think of one other reason for why he’d hide in here, waiting for me to wake up.
“Do you want to know about Di and Flint?”
A few seconds passed. He gave the barest hint of a nod.
My heart pounded. I abruptly felt wide awake, headache or not. I had no idea how long we had and there was so much we needed to discuss.
“I’ll tell you everything you want to know, but I first need to know more about where you came from. How is it that we didn’t know about you? There wasn’t anybody else in the warehouse when we blew it up, so you obviously weren’t there. Right?”
He shook his head. “No. I never went there. I didn’t know about it until a month ago.”
“Then where have you been living?”
“With my dad, Marcus.”
My eyes bulged. “Your dad?”
“Yeah, I mean, he’s not my biological father, but my adopted one. He adopted me when I was an infant.”
“And you believe that?”
He glanced down, his shoulders hunching forward. “He’d never tell me where I came from or who my parents were, but I always knew . . .” The silence stretched.
“You knew what?”
“That he was lying about something.”
I breathed shallowly. “You’re right. He’s been lying to you your entire life if he didn’t tell you about us—Di, Flint, Jacinda, Jet, Jasper, Mica, Amber, Savannah, Luke, Edgar and all of the other lost children that were killed over the years in O’Brien’s experiments. They’re all like us. You’re one of us.”
His eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”
I sighed in frustration and waved at the flame. “That’s what I mean.”
“So all of you really can do strange things too?”
I nodded. An aching five seconds passed with nothing but silence stretching between us.
“Okay, tell me,” he finally said.
I let out the breath I was holding. “I think you need to know the truth and understand the things that Marcus has done.”
He frowned warily. “What kinds of things?”
I summarized my origins and everyone else’s as quickly as possible: how we’d been born on the streets, how our parents hadn’t cared about us and abused us horribly, how Conroy, Marcus and Albert Darlington stole us from our abusive homes to be subjects in Project Renatus. And from there, how they’d forced drugs into us which created our abilities. Lastly, about all of the lost children over the years who’d been killed because of those drugs. I then told him what part Conroy, Marcus and Albert had played in that. “But it all started with Marcus. Marcus was the instigator of Project Renatus.”
“How do you know that?”
“My father, Conroy, told me.”
“Your father?”
“I suppose you could say he’s my adopted father. He’s obviously not my biological one.”
Raven crossed his arms. “How do you know he’s not lying?”
I pictured the rainbow cloud that swirled around Father’s shoulders. Then I thought about Marcus’ black one. “I just know.”
“But you could be wrong. It’s his word against my dad’s.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. I see auras around people. That’s the ability I got from the drugs. It tells me how good a person’s soul is. Marcus’ cloud is black. Conroy’s isn’t. Trust me, your dad killed those kids without a second thought.”
“No, he wouldn’t do that!”
I held up my hands. “I’m not making this up.”
“But you could be wrong.”
“But I’m not.” I told him about my earliest memories of Marcus, about the way he drugged me and was so cruel. “His cloud is black, Raven. That’s as bad as they get. I know it’s hard to believe all of this, but it’s true.”
“Cloud?” he replied. “Is that what you call the things you see?”
I nodded. “Marcus has a black cloud—his aura is black. His soul is evil.”
Raven frowned and gritted his teeth. A few minutes passed. I let him take the time to process what I’d said, not trying to push him.
He shook his head, his jaw set. “But he’s never done anything like that to me!”
“How do you know that? He might have when you were younger. You may not remember it.”
“He didn’t.”
I didn’t know how to argue with that one.
“And he is still my dad,” Raven added.
I frowned contemplatively. I now understood why Raven had been helping Marcus keep me prisoner. He felt loyal to Marcus. “Is he a good father?” I couldn’t imagine Marcus being a good anything, but Raven obviously didn’t hate him.
Raven shrugged. “I guess. I mean, he’s never been loving or affectionate, and half the time he doesn’t seem to care that I exist, but he’s never hurt me.”
“Even when he drugged you?”
Raven’s eyes flashed brighter. “He’s never drugged me.”
“Yes, he has. How do you think you got your fire starting ability?”
“I don’t know. I’ve always had it. My dad said I have a genetic fluke, that I was born this way.”
I snorted. Genetic fluke? Born that way? That was the lie of all lies. We’d all been born normal children without these abilities. I’d buy that Raven didn’t remember being drugged. None of us remembered it. We’d all been too young for that, but I did remember the drugs that came after it, the ones that didn’t create our gifts but were additional drugs that Marcus was testing to see their effects. Luckily, the ones he’d given me weren’t mind altering, but I’d been a lucky one. Some of those drugs had killed other lost children.
“So you’ve lived with Marcus your entire life and never knew what he really did?”
“If he did those things,” Raven growled.
“And you never knew about any of us, until recently?”
“Yeah. After that explosion last month, he sat me down and told me there were other people like me, people who could do special things. He said he wanted to help you all.”
I almost choked. I couldn’t imagine Marcus helping anyone. “Why would he tell you about us now?” It seemed as though it would make more sense to keep lying to Raven.
Raven ducked his chin. “He said he may need my help.”
“Your help in what?”
He looked embarrassed again. “Uh, in capturing you guys.”
My eyes went so wide they felt like saucers. “And you didn’t see anything unusual about that?”
“He said you’d been brainwashed by a guy named Conroy. He wanted to help you and said the only way he could do that was to take you by force.”
Anger strummed through me again. The only one who’d been brain washed was Raven, but he obviously didn’t know that.
“What other details did he tell you about us?”
“That he’d known you once, before Conroy took you and brainwashed you. My dad said he’s been looking for you ever since.”
“And you didn’t find anything strange about that? That he’d lied to you your entire life about not being alone? And that we’d all been taken, from him?”
Raven’s irises glowed brightly again. The fire tha
t still burned in the corner abruptly grew a foot. “But why would he experiment on all of you and not me?”
“I’m not sure why Marcus hasn’t done to you what he’s done to us, or why he raised you in secret, and I have no idea why he raised you as his son.”
“See? You could be wrong.”
I groaned. “Will you at least consider what I’ve told you?”
He stared at me, his face unreadable.
I shifted on the cold floor. My bottom was numb. “Were you there last night? At Marin Headlands?”
“Yeah, I was there.”
My heart leaped. “Do you know what happened to everyone?”
Raven frowned. He looked regretful. “No.”
“So you don’t know if they’re okay? Or if they all got away? Or what happened during the fight?”
“I saw one guy turn into a wolf. That must be, what did you say his name was? Luke?”
I nodded. “Yeah, he’s one of the three we rescued the other week.”
“Right.” He frowned.
The delay in information almost killed me. “What about everyone else?”
“Another one, he seemed unstoppable. No matter how many men jumped on him, he flung them off like annoying flies. He went crazy when he realized we took you. We left shortly after that, as soon as we knew we couldn’t stop him or catch anyone else.”
I stopped breathing. “That was Flint.”
“The guy you claim is my brother?”
“Yes.”
“And the others? What happened to them?”
Raven shook his head. “I don’t know, but I do know we didn’t kill anyone if that’s what you’re worried about. We left as soon as we had you. It became apparent, with the wolf and how strong uh . . . Flint was, we wouldn’t be able to capture anyone else. One person ran, and two people in ski masks, I think they were guys from their builds, were fighting like normal humans.”
“That would be Jet and Jasper.” And Di ran. Good, she got away. “What about three other women? Mica, Jacinda and Amber? Did you see them?”
Raven shook his head. “It was hard to tell since it was nighttime and all of you were dressed in black and most wearing ski masks, but if I remember right, there were just four guys and one woman, but the woman fled before I could see her.”
“That was Di, your sister. She was probably going to Jacinda, Mica and Amber. They were at a different location.”
Raven gave me a curious look. “Aren’t you worried I’ll tell my dad all of this?”
My eyes widened again. I wanted to kick myself. How could I have been so stupid?
“I won’t tell him,” Raven said quietly.
“You won’t?”
“No. I, uh, need to think about all of this before I say anything.”
“Please don’t tell him.”
A long, heavy silence followed. I could tell from his brooding expression that he was trying to process everything. I glanced at the fire in the corner of the room. It had returned to a small ball. It flickered a few inches above the floor. I could feel its warmth, but what amazed me most of all was that it burned when it wasn’t burning anything. Usually, a fire burned wood or was supplied by gas or something that fed it, but Raven’s fires seemed to appear out of thin air. And unlike the rest of us, he didn’t seem to get tired or struggle to use his power.
“How do you do that?” I pointed to the flames. “Make a fire from nothing?”
His contemplative expression evaporated. “Oh . . . um, I don’t know. I’ve been making fires like that since I was a kid.”
“How big can you make them?”
The fire abruptly shot to the ceiling and quadrupled in diameter. I yelped and pulled back. The flames receded to the previous tiny fire. It supplied just enough light for us to see each other.
“It’s that easy for you?”
He nodded. “It’s like breathing. I don’t have to think about it.”
“Wow.”
“What about you?” he asked hesitantly. “You said you see auras, or clouds or whatever, but you can do more than just that?”
I nodded and tried to switch my vision. Once again, it didn’t click. Whatever drug Marcus gave me was blocking the receptors I needed to access the dormant part of my brain.
“Normally, I can see clouds around people, when I’m not being drugged.” Since Marcus already knew about my ability, I figured it didn’t matter if I told Raven. “Clouds are like a fog that hangs around a person’s shoulders and ranges in colors from pure white to pitch black. The whiter a cloud, the kinder a person is, the darker, the eviler.”
“So your gift is in your mind?”
I nodded and explained my ability more. “Yeah, but it’s more than that. In the past few months, I’ve learned how to harness those clouds and turn them into energy balls. They can be quite powerful.”
“So that’s what he was talking about,” Raven muttered.
I gave him a questioning look.
“I overheard my dad talking to someone on speaker phone a week ago. He was talking about those security guys in that warehouse you blew up. The security guys had told him some unseen force had pushed them. And then my dad said something blasted him off his feet. My dad told that guy that the force must have come from you.”
“Yeah, that was me.”
Raven cocked his head. “How powerful can you make those balls?”
I gave him a few examples.
“Seriously? So that’s why my dad wanted you. He said something about wanting to study you more.”
A chill ran through me. So Marcus did intend to experiment on me. Now the question is, what kind of experiments?
“What are they like?” Raven asked abruptly.
“What are who like?”
“Um . . . Di and Flint.”
I tried to shrug off the thought of Marcus studying me. “Ah . . . well, they’re like you, in the little I’ve gotten to know you. They look just like you. You all have the same skin tone and similar facial features. All three of you are tall and from what I’ve seen, your mannerisms are similar. Marcus may deny you’re related to them, but I’d bet my life that you are.”
Raven didn’t say anything. His face was expressionless. He finally said in a quiet voice, “Do you know who their parents were?”
I thought back to my childhood when Father had told us what he’d known about our parents. “They’re dead now, I do know that, and if I remember right, your mother was a prostitute and drug addict, and your father was also an addict. Di was around eighteen months old and Flint was two and a half when they were taken.” I frowned. “Do you think it’s possible your mother had you later? And Marcus went back for you?”
Raven shrugged. From his expression, I could tell he still didn’t believe Marcus had done the things I claimed. “How old are Di and Flint?”
“Di’s twenty-three and Flint’s twenty-four.”
“I’m twenty-one,” Raven said. “At least, if the birth date my dad told me is right.”
“So you could have been born after they were taken, and that would make you and Di two years apart. But how does that make sense?” I tried to think about all of the possibilities that would explain how Father never knew about Raven and how Raven never knew about us. Raven would have been born around the same time as me. We were the same age. Yet, he should have been in the warehouse with us if he was part of Project Renatus. It didn’t add up.
A grating sound at the door interrupted everything. I leaped up. Raven extinguished the fire. The cell plunged into darkness.
“Good afternoon, Princess,” a voice called as the lock turned. Dumber.
“Heath, I’m in here,” Raven said when the door cracked.
Heath? The door opened wider and Dumber peered in. In the hallway lights, the jagged scar that slashed across his cheek looked even bigger than I remembered.
“What the hell are you doing in here?” Heath placed his hands on his hips and glared at Raven.
“My dad told me to
get some information out of her.”
My insides chilled. Was I just set up? Did Raven only pretend to want to know about his siblings?
“Oh.” Heath shuffled his feet. “Are you done? I’m supposed to take her to the bathroom.”
“I can do it.”
Heath’s eager expression disappeared. “But Marcus told me to do it.”
A sick feeling ran through me. I wondered if by taking me to the bathroom, Heath would be joining me in there too.
Raven walked to the door. “I said, I’ll do it.”
Heath backed away, but I still caught the angry look he gave Raven before he turned and stalked down the hall.
Distrust oozed through me. “So all of this was a setup? Your dad sent you to talk to me?”
Raven’s eyes widened. “What? No!” He shook his head. “Oh, I see, you think I set you up. No, my dad has no idea I’m here. I didn’t lie to you, Lena. I had to tell Heath something to make him leave. If my dad knows I’m here, I could get in trouble.”
I cursed inwardly that I couldn’t see his cloud. I was so used to being able to gauge people’s intentions and sincerity with my ability. Without it, I felt lost.
“Trust me, Lena. Please.” His eyes swirled bright orange again. His pleading look seemed sincere.
But is it?
“Who the hell are those two?” I nodded in the direction Heath had gone.
Raven shrugged. “Just two guys my dad has on his security team. They normally guard our house, but when my dad goes off on work excursions, they go with him.”
“Where are the rest of them?” I’d distinctly felt ten clouds yesterday at the Headlands.
“They’re looking for, um, you know, Flint and Di and everyone else.”
My stomach clenched.
“Don’t worry. They haven’t found them.”
I met his gaze. “If you’re lying to me . . .”
“I’m not.” His tone softened, and he looked down, shuffling his feet. “I’m nothing like who you claim my dad is. I would never hurt anybody intentionally.”
His words and expression reminded me of Flint. Honor ran so deeply through Flint. It was embedded in his core. Perhaps Raven was the same.
Raven’s look turned apologetic. “I need to handcuff you. If Heath or Trevor see me walking you around here without cuffs, they’ll tell my dad.”
The Complete Lost Children Series Page 66