Flying Free
Page 9
I had a feeling that meant exactly what Jaxson had assumed, that Anders crimes would be swept under the table. What would stop him from doing them again?
“What about the Eastons?”
“They will be tracked down, and you’ll wipe their minds, as well. Then they’ll be free to live however they choose.”
There was one more question haunting my mind, but I didn’t dare ask it — what would happen to me and Jaxson? I had a feeling he’d never let us go as long as we knew the truth. Would he find someone to wipe our minds, as well? Or did he have something worse planned for us?
“Edgar, take Lexus to the basement and lock her up for the rest of the night. Let me have the gun; I’ll go get Jaxson.” His eyes glinted, and I knew he wanted to work out his aggression against Jaxson for defying him.
My body started to quake at the thought of being locked in one of those cells even for just a few hours. I had to find a way out of this mess, but there was no one here to help me. Edgar yanked open the access panel in the floor with one hand and grabbed my arm with the other.
I stumbled down the stairs, his hands at my back pressing me forward into the dark maw of the basement. Once we reached the bottom of the stairs, he shined his phone around till he found a cord dangling from a light. A tug of the chain illuminated the gray, stone walls and piled-up cardboard boxes. A leak somewhere sent a tiny rivulet of water trickling down one corner.
A chill ran through my body, and I sneezed when he pushed me through the nearby door, knocking into a box in the process and sending dust flying. Inside the boiler room, the black behemoth sat lifeless yet still intimidating. Beyond it lay the room where half a dozen empty cells were an eerie reminder of the years of captivity my mother and so many others had endured.
I couldn’t let him lock me in there; if I did, I was afraid I’d never get out. But no one was coming to rescue me, so if I was going to escape I would have to figure it out on my own.
Before I had a chance to formulate a plan, the man shoved me into one of the cells and jammed a key in the hole, twisting the lock with a click that echoed with finality. He ran his hand across the bars with a sneer, each clank jolting me.
He was a Conduit; I could siphon his power to unlock the cell door, but what good would it do? He could overpower me in an instant, and I’d probably end up right back where I started only bruised and beaten. I didn’t think it would work to use his own power to try to control his mind. No, I would just have to wait for the right opportunity.
It presented itself a few minutes later when Mr. Winslow shoved Jaxson into the room at gunpoint. Winslow must not have realized that I didn’t need to touch Jaxson to access his powers.
“Jaxson, get the gun!” I yelled as soon as I saw him, shooting a bolt of energy towards him. His power reached out for mine, and the gun jumped from Mr. Winslow’s hand to Jaxson’s.
Jaxson immediately pivoted on his heel and stuck the gun in Mr. Winslow’s belly, pushing him backwards. Mr. Winslow’s eyes bulged, and he stuck up his hands. As soon as he was inside a cell, Jaxson slammed the door, and I clicked the lock in place.
Edgar raced for the stairs as Mr. Winslow started bellowing, but Jaxson hurtled after him, his long legs eating up the distance between them. He grabbed Edgar by the collar and stuck the gun against his throat. Edgar’s Adam’s apple bobbed as he gulped, and the gun followed the path of his constricting muscles.
“Not so fast, asswipe.” Jaxson yanked on his collar, twisting him around till he faced the cells again, then shoved him forward into one of them.
Edgar grabbed the bars and started shaking them as soon as I latched the lock, and Mr. Winslow was still hollering, both of our prisoners now making as much noise as possible. Did they really think someone would hear them? Anders had kept prisoners down here for years, and no one ever had a clue. The thick, stone walls muffled any sound.
Still, the ruckus was unnerving, so I sent another flash of power towards Jaxson, using mind control to silence them. They stopped the racket immediately, their mouths still hanging open but now mute.
“That’s better.” Jaxson smirked as he turned his attention towards my own cell, unlocking it with a quiet snick.
Jaxson slid my door open, and I threw myself into his arms, sobbing as the stress hormones flooded my senses, overwhelming me. He hunched over and wrapped his arms around me, holding me tight, his strong hands digging into my sides, and I suddenly felt safe again.
“Are you okay?” Jaxson pulled away so he could look at me, and I nodded but then gasped when I saw a lump on Jaxson’s head. I reached out tentatively to touch it.
“Did he hit you?”
Jaxson grimaced. “And I thought waking up to a screeching alarm clock was bad.”
I bit my lip and stroked his temple, and he smiled at me.
“He has my phone.” I pointed at Edgar, and Jaxson nodded. A second later, the phone was back in my possession.
“Now it’s time for you to answer the questions.” Jaxson turned his attention to Mr. Winslow, manipulating his mind. “Where’s Anders?”
“He’s at my laboratory.” Mr. Winslow’s voice was emotionless, robotic.
Jaxson and I exchanged curious glances. “What do you do at your lab?”
“Experiment on Specials.”
His words hit my gut like a battering ram. Just like Anders! Under mind control he looked weak and harmless, a forgettable face in an ill-fitting suit, but I knew without any other explanation that he was dangerous, evil.
“Where is your laboratory?” I demanded, shaking the bars of his cell, my pent up stress and anger bursting out.
He rattled off an address, and Jaxson quickly typed it into his phone.
“We have to go there Jaxson, but what do we do with them?” I waved my hand at our prisoners.
Jaxson worked his jaw for a few moments, thinking. “Let’s just leave them here and compel them to forget who put them here or what they told us. That should buy us the time we need. We’ll figure out a long-term plan later, after we see what we’re dealing with.”
17
For the third time, Jaxson and I stole a car from the school parking lot. But this time, it was a mundane sedan instead of a sports car. That didn’t really make me feel any better about it, though. I didn’t know whose car it was, but the pumpkin spice-scented, Yankee Candle air freshener and the “I love my schnauzer” bumper sticker made me think it might be Mrs. Stein’s.
We didn’t have the keys, but we managed to figure out how to start it with our powers. Jaxson immediately switched the radio from the oldies station to heavy metal and started pounding on the steering wheel as he belted out the lyrics, his foot pressed hard on the accelerator.
I turned the volume down a notch and looked at him. “Jaxson, what are we going to do when we get there? We have no idea what we’re getting into.”
He shrugged. “We’ll just have to take it as it comes. You’re a level five, babe. I’m pretty sure we can handle whatever happens.” He winked a bright blue eye at me.
His overconfident attitude worried me. Not that I had any better ideas, but it still seemed foolish to go barging in without any knowledge of what we were up against. We’d questioned Mr. Winslow a little more before we left and learned that his laboratory was on a couple acres of land in rural, southern Indiana, and he had several Specials helping him run the place so he could attend to council duties.
I felt just a little better knowing that we were at least headed in the direction of Griffin and Phoenix, even though they were still hundreds of miles away. I pulled out my phone to call them but thought better of it. It wasn’t even dawn yet. I sighed and dropped it between my thighs.
Jaxson glanced at the phone then back at me. “What are Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum up to?”
“They’re in Nashville. I guess their dad had some money hidden there. They told me that Winslow used to be in charge of Magna Virtus back when Anders was a student. I guess they were pretty close.”
“Short for Randall,” we said in unison.
“It sounds like Anders learned all his methods from Winslow. You were pretty close to Anders, did you ever… suspect anything?”
Jaxson winced, squeezing the steering wheel till his knuckles were white. “Maybe. I don’t know. He always seemed very intense — laser-focused on his goals. He was always pushing me, and everyone really, to be better, to be as strong as we could be. Power was very important to him.”
Jaxson worked his jaw as he spoke, the muscles clenched tight. “Anders and I were closer when I was younger, and I think he wanted more from me, especially these last few years that my parents… weren’t around. But I resisted him. I don’t like to be told what to do, and I didn’t need another father figure.”
He glared at me, his eyes steely. “But if you’re asking if I knew anything about the prisoners in the basement, the answer is no. I’m a lot like Anders in some ways, but I never would’ve been okay with the idea of capturing Specials just to experiment on them or take advantage of their powers.”
“Did you really think that about me?” he asked before I had a chance to respond, pain and insecurity weakening his voice.
I touched his arm and gazed up at him till he looked at me. “No, Jaxson. I know you’re not like that. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you had anything to do with it; I know you didn’t.”
He turned his head away and ground his jaw again. “I know I’m no saint like your precious boyfriends, but I’m not evil.”
“Griffin and Phoenix aren’t perfect, Jaxson. I never thought they were. But they are good, and so are you.” I laid a hand on his knee, and he dropped his head to stare at it. When he looked up at me, his eyes held a thousand questions.
He asked the most important one. “You think I’m a good person?”
I nodded. “Don’t you?”
He shrugged, but I could see the insecurity in the slope of his shoulders. “Not too many people think so.”
I wrinkled my nose. “What are you talking about? You’re the most popular student at Magna Virtus.”
“Being popular means nothing. All those people that hang around me, they’re just hoping my power will rub off on them. They don’t actually care about me, or even like me. They just want to be on my good side because they’re weaker than me.” He ran his hands through his hair, tugging on the long, black locks, and I absent-mindedly wondered if they felt as silky as they appeared. When one fell back into his face, I wanted to reach out and slip it behind his ear so I could have an excuse to touch it.
“I care about you, Jaxson.” The words spilled out of my mouth, soft but insistent, and my hand reached out involuntarily to move the wayward lock of hair. A tiny frisson of electricity sparked between our skin as I touched him, and he turned his head to stare at me.
“I care about you, too, Lexus.” His voice was just as soft and silky as his hair.
“If you weren’t…” He let his voice trail off without finishing the question then tried another one. “Do you think… what if…”
He signed and shook his head. “Never mind.”
I had an inkling of what he was trying to say, but I didn’t know how to answer it any better than he knew how to ask it. Instead, I just reached for the hand that he’d dropped in his lap and wrapped my own around it. He glanced down at it then back at me but didn’t say anything else, just squeezed my hand.
We drove for a few hours, making small talk but avoiding the big questions like what would happen next if we did manage to rescue my mother and what would happen if we didn’t. I couldn’t stop the worries from bouncing around my mind, though.
What would the other council members do when they found out we’d imprisoned Mr. Winslow? Were they just as corrupt as he was, or were they ignorant about his darker side? And who would bring justice to him and Anders?
And what would I do when this was over? Did I want to go with the twins and start a new life somewhere, pretending to be a normal? Could I even do that? Did I want to? And what if my mother wanted to be part of my life again? What would that look like?
Or should I just stay at the school and continue to develop my powers till I graduated?
“Jaxson, what will you do next?” I blurted. It was suddenly imperative that I know his plans. “Will you stay at Magna Virtus, or do… something else?”
He flicked his eyes towards me, catching a glimpse of my distress. His own face was tight with worry. “I’ve been there practically my whole life, Lexus. I can’t even imagine being anywhere else. What would I do, enroll in public high school?” He chuckled darkly. “I’d probably get frustrated and blow my cover in the first week.”
“No, as long as the school’s still running, that’s where I’ll be. Let’s just hope it can survive the fallout.”
I was worried about the same thing. With Anders gone, who would take over the school? And would there be any students left after word got around about what had happened? Maybe it would have been better if we’d done what Winslow wanted and brainwashed everyone. It was just one more thing to feel conflicted about.
When the sun came up, the pink and yellow light revealed the road in front of us, but not the path I still needed to travel. I reached for my phone again, hoping the twins could shine a light into the darkness of my thoughts.
18
I jolted out of bed at the sound of my phone ringing, accidentally kicking my brother in the back. He flinched and groaned, and I mumbled out an apology as I silenced my phone and snuck outside, shoving my bare feet in my dad’s loafers that were next to the door.
“Lexus?” I whispered, walking away from our motel room door and out into the parking lot.
The sun had just poked its head up, and the horizon looked like a watercolor painting. I wasn’t a morning person, so I hadn’t caught too many sunrises, but I needed this one. It was a new day, and I was hoping things would look different in the bright light of the morning, because last night had been pretty bleak.
“Hi, Phoenix.” Her voice alone was enough to brighten my mood, and I took a calming breath of crisp, morning air, blowing it, and my stress, out in a cloud of steam.
I was about to make a smart ass comment about how she better be dying since she was calling me at the butt crack of dawn, but her next words stopped me.
“Sorry for calling you so early, but I couldn’t wait any longer.” Her voice was weak and shaky, and my good mood disappeared faster than my frozen breath.
“Lexus, what’s going on?”
“Winslow threatened me and Jaxson at gunpoint. He wanted us to brainwash everyone so they’d forget what happened. For the good of the school, he claimed. But we overpowered him and left him in one of Anders’ cells.”
“Holy shit, Lexus! When did that happen?” My blood ran cold and chills raced up and down my body at the thought of how much danger she’d been in while I was hundreds of miles away, completely clueless. I shivered uncontrollably, wishing I’d put on a jacket over my threadbare, Nirvana tee shirt.
“A couple hours ago. We stole a car and took off.”
I wrapped my arms around my abs and hollered into my phone, steaming up the screen. “Lexus! Why didn’t you call me sooner? I don’t care if it’s the middle of the night; if you’re in trouble, call me!”
“I was okay, Phoenix, and there was nothing you could do, anyway. Besides, Jaxson is here with me.” I knew she regretted what she said before the words were even all the way out of her mouth, but they still stung a little.
I was glad Jaxson was there for her, but dammit, I didn’t want someone else taking care of her, I wanted to be there for her!
“Where are you going?” My frustration came out in my voice, and I could picture her flinching at it.
“Winslow has a laboratory where he experiments on Specials.
That’s where Anders took my mother. It’s near Louisville. We’re almost there.”
Suddenly, I wasn’t cold anymore, I was blazing hot with rage. “Lexus! What the hell? You’re just gonna go in there alone, guns blazing, and try to rescue her? It’s too dangerous! Do you even have a clue what’s there, what you might be up against? You can’t just walk in there and take your mother!” My voice shook with fear and anger.
“I’m a level five, Phoenix! Anders said so himself; he’s never seen anyone as powerful as me. And Jaxson is almost as powerful. Together we can take on anyone that gets in our way. I’m not going to let Anders win this; I’m not backing down until my mother is free and so is everyone else.”
I never expected Lexus to respond like that, with fire and fury. It was so unlike her; it sounded more like me — wild and out of control. Who was this, and what had she done with my meek, little Lexus? It was sexy and scary at the same time.
She was right, of course. She was the most powerful Special I’d ever met, possibly the most powerful one ever. But she was still just a fifteen-year-old girl, one I felt an irresistible need to protect, and she was doing all this without me.
Meanwhile, my parents were planning to drag our family to some remote cabin up in Alaska where we could bury our powers, tuck our tails between our legs, and avoid the rest of society in hopes that no one ever found us.
My head was about to explode at the contradiction.
I managed to squelch my anger enough that I could apologize. “I’m sorry, Lexus, I know you’re a total badass and you can handle this, but I just hate being away from you, especially if you’re gonna go do something dangerous and awesome.”
She chuckled, and I hoped that meant I was forgiven.
“Will you at least text me the address so I know where you’re at?” I didn’t make any promises, but I had every intention of getting my butt there as fast as I could so she wouldn’t be going in there alone.