Yeah, yeah, I knew she had Jaxson with her, and technically he was a lot more powerful than me, but still, a guy had to do whatever he could to protect his girl.
“Lexus, promise me you’ll keep me in the loop, at least,” I begged, in case I couldn’t get there before she dove headfirst into trouble. “I want to know everything that’s happening. Text me every hour, no, every 30 minutes. Heck, text me every five minutes. I just want to know you’re okay.”
I could practically hear her eyes rolling, and I knew I was acting like a psycho boyfriend, but I just couldn’t help it. Tension coiled up inside me like an over-flexed spring, and I was about to go flying.
As soon as we hung up, I called my brother. “Get your ass outside; I need to talk to you.”
He came out a few minutes later wearing jeans and a sweater, pulling on a jacket. “What are you doing outside in your pajamas, Phoenix? It’s freezing out here.”
I rolled my eyes at him and thought about yanking the jacket out of his hands, but I didn’t want to waste time fighting.
“Lexus just called me.” I quickly filled him in on what was happening, and his face scrunched tighter with each sentence, fog puffing out of his mouth with each heavy breath.
“I can’t do it, bro. I can’t go to Alaska and hide out for the rest of our lives. Not when Lexus needs us. I love our parents, but I love her more, Griffin.”
His face instantly relaxed, and he actually smiled — a big, goofy, toothy grin like he’d just won a years’ supply of tacos. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t get that excited about tacos, considering how they affected him, but you get the picture.
“I’m so glad you said that, Phoenix, because I didn’t know if I loved you enough to go along with what they’re planning.” He motioned towards the door with his thumb.
“We have to go tell ‘em. You do the talking, okay? You’re better at it.” Plus, I knew he’d keep his cool when I was likely to fly off the handle.
He rolled his eyes at me but headed for the door to our motel room. When he opened it, our parents were both awake. Dad was standing at the window, and Mom was sitting on their bed, looking nervous. With the tacky motel room in the background, it looked like a scene from a crime drama where they discover the dead body.
“Is everything okay, boys?” Mom jumped up and examined us, rubbing her warm hands up and down my chilly arms and patting Griffin’s red cheek.
“What’s going on?” Dad let go of the curtain and headed towards us, his face frozen stiff like he was the one who’d been outside in the cold.
Griffin’s eyes flicked from him to Mom to me and back to Dad again, his face getting progressively scrunchier. Dad’s face got stiffer, if that was even possible, and Mom’s face began to droop like she was about to start crying. Damn, they must already know what’s coming.
“Lexus needs us, and we have to go help her,” Griffin said, and I sighed in relief.
I thought he was gonna go straight for the jugular and tell them we didn’t want to live with them, but this was better. We could put some distance between us and have that conversation later, when we didn’t have to look them in the eye. I didn’t think I could stand to see the rejection written all over their faces, especially my mother’s. She already looked like somebody’d killed her puppy.
“What’s going on, Son?” Dad sat on the edge of the bed next to Mom and put his hands on his knees.
“Lexus and Jaxson discovered that Winslow has a laboratory where he experiments on Specials. That’s where Anders took her mother. They’re headed there now to try to rescue her.”
“Oh my goodness, that sounds dangerous!” Mom gasped and put her hand over her mouth, and Dad started shaking his head.
“We can’t let her do it alone,” I added.
Mom nodded her head, and Dad got up and started pacing. “This is exactly the kind of thing you should avoid, boys. Running headfirst into danger over a girl is the quickest way to lose everything. Is that what they taught you at that school — reckless lunacy?”
Griffin scowled at him. “It’s not lunacy to want to fight injustice, Dad. It’s the right thing to do! Hiding in the woods like a hermit sounds more like lunacy to me. We can’t live like that.”
I winced at Griffin’s words. So much for breaking it to them easy, and later.
Mom and Dad just stared at him like they weren’t sure they heard him right.
“We can’t go with you to Alaska or wherever it is you’re planning on hiding. It’s not the life we want.” Griffin spelled it out for them.
They both immediately looked at me, probably hoping I was going to have a different opinion, but I just stared back and nodded, clenching my jaw and putting my hands on my hips. “We’re going to go help Lexus save her mom, and then we’re going to make sure that asswipe Anders never has a chance to take advantage of another Special.”
“Absolutely not.” Dad puffed up his chest and scowled. “I’m sorry, boys, but I have to put my foot down. You’re my children, and obviously still too immature to make good decisions. It’s my job to keep you safe; I just can’t allow that.”
Griffin and I exchanged a look, then Griffin turned back to Dad. He sucked in a deep breath and lifted his head up to face him, the tension so thick between them I could practically see it. “You don’t get to make this decision, Dad. We may be your children, but we’re not kids anymore, and you don’t even have legal custody of us. We’re doing this, with or without your permission. You can come with us and help, or we’ll leave you here, but Phoenix and I are going. Now.”
Griffin turned away and started tossing things in his suitcase, and I followed his lead, for once glad that my parents refused to use their powers. They could stop us in a heartbeat if they wanted to.
Mom and Dad glanced back and forth from us to each other, watching us pack, Dad working his jaw and Mom wringing her hands, her face twisted with indecision. I could tell she wanted to offer to go with us, but she either didn’t know how to stand up to my dad or wasn’t willing to. And Dad was too much of a pacifist to fight with us.
I hated doing this to them. They were my parents, and I’d spent the last ten years wishing I could see them again; but things had changed, and I wasn’t six anymore. I had my own life to live, and I had to live it the way I thought was best. And Lexus was what was best for me.
I changed into some jeans and threw on a jacket, and when we were ready to go, Griffin found a pen and wrote our cell phone numbers down on a page he tore from the phone book.
I went to our mom and gave her a hug, leaning down to her. She wrapped her thin arms around me tighter than I thought possible, her fingers digging into me, and sobbed into my shoulder.
“I’m glad you’re safe now, Mom, and I’m so glad I got to see you again. Call us when you get settled, okay? Maybe we can come visit you.”
I stroked her long, graying hair like I did when I was little. It wasn’t soft and silky anymore, but maybe that would come back once she was safe and happy again. Could she ever feel that way again? I hoped so.
She nodded, wiping the tears from her cheeks, her bottom lip quivering.
I handed Mom off to Griffin and went to my father. He was still taller than me, but not by much, and standing in front of him I felt like I was stronger.
“I don’t agree with what you’re doing, Son, but I understand having convictions. I know you have to do what you think is right, and I can’t deny you that freedom. Thank you for finding us, saving us. You and your brother did an incredible thing, and I’m very proud of you.” He pulled me in for a hug, and when we pulled away his eyes were shiny.
“Take the car, boys. Your mother and I need to find something different, anyway, something they can’t trace. We’ll pay cash for something.” He picked up the keys from the nightstand and handed them to Griffin.
Once we said our goodbyes, I opened the door and took one last look at them before leaving. They looked small and helpless, and I suddenly wondered if we were going to rescue t
he wrong people.
“We’ll be fine, boys. Don’t worry about your mother and me.”
I ducked my head so they wouldn’t see my tears and headed out, wondering if I’d ever see them again.
19
“This can’t be right.” Jaxson squinted down at the address he’d programmed into his phone then glanced back up at the property in front of us. The number on the mailbox was the same, but the charming, white farmhouse with green shutters and a wraparound porch was definitely not what we were expecting.
“Google this address; see what comes up.” Jaxson pulled to the side of the road and waited for me to type it into my phone.
“Randall Winslow.” I held up my phone for Jaxson to see.
Jaxson slammed his hand against the steering wheel, seething. “This is his house, not his laboratory! The bastard lied to us!”
I put my hand on his arm to calm him. “Jaxson, he couldn’t lie to us. He was compelled. Maybe the house is just a cover, and the lab is hidden inside.”
He stared at me for a second before nodding. “You’re probably right. Either way, we have to check it out, but we can’t just walk up and ring the doorbell. We’re gonna have to sneak in there.”
Jaxson stared at the property a few seconds more then put the car in reverse and backed up till a small grove of trees blocked our view of the farmhouse.
“Hopefully our car won’t be visible from here. Are there any napkins in the glove compartment?”
I blinked at him, confused by the non sequitur, then pulled the handle on the glove box. A few paper napkins were shoved in between the owners’ manual, a lint roller, and a bag of trail mix. I grabbed the napkins and handed them to him.
Jaxson popped the hood then got out and positioned a few napkins so they were hanging out the window. Then he went around to the front of the car and propped the hood up.
“This way it looks like we’re parked here because we’re having car trouble, not because we’re scoping out the property.” He smirked and winked at me.
We tromped through the trees, fallen leaves crunching underfoot, and the sound seemed way too loud to me, but then so did my heartbeat and my ragged breathing. My nerves were on edge, and every scrape of a branch felt like an attack. I jumped every time a bird chirped or a twig cracked.
The small woods wrapped around the side of the property, so we followed it till we were near the back right corner of the house. There were windows looking out this direction, but the house had windows on every side, so we were just going to have to risk it.
There were no cars in the driveway, and the house seemed still and empty, but we stared at it for a few minutes anyway, watching for any kind of activity. Did anyone else live here besides Mr. Winslow? We knew he had a few Specials working in the lab, so where were their vehicles?
I didn’t know if he was married or not, but this didn’t really look like a house a bachelor would own. It was too cute, like something a woman would pick out. But as I stared at it, I noticed a few details that changed my opinion. Or maybe lack of details, I should say. The landscaping was plain and simple; there weren’t any flower beds or lawn ornaments, there wasn’t even a pumpkin on the porch and it was late October. There was no wreath on the door or pillows on the rocking chairs. No feminine touches anywhere.
Why would Winslow choose this house? Did he inherit it from family? Or maybe he just wanted someplace out in the country where there weren’t too many people around to nose into his business. Suddenly, my eyes landed on something I had completely overlooked until that moment. There was a large, white outbuilding in the far left corner of the property.
Jaxson and I turned to each other at the same time, and he said what I was thinking. “The lab is in the barn, not the house.”
Relief washed over me. I really didn’t want to have to break into his house and search through all those rooms with the fear of a stranger lurking behind each door and around every corner. The barn was better, simpler. Of course, it was probably also more open which meant less places to hide. Anxiety ratcheted up again, and my breath came in quick gasps.
“Hey, hey. It’s okay. We got this. We’ll be fine.” Jaxson took my hand and squeezed, and I realized my palms were slick with sweat even though the rest of me was chilled from the cold, autumn air.
I nodded and tried to calm my breathing. After a few moments, I was still anxious, but not panicked.
“Are you ready?” Jaxson glanced at me, and his eyes seemed brighter than ever, like little pools of sparkling, clear, blue water. My own eyes were probably murky with worry.
I nodded, and Jaxson took off running towards the barn, pulling me along across the crisp, dry lawn. He dashed around the back so we were out of view of the house, just in case anyone was in there watching, then he peeked around the corner and waited for the fallout. When no one came charging out to investigate the two trespassers, I finally breathed out again in relief.
“Lexus.” I turned to look at him, but he was facing the other direction, staring at two vehicles parked nearby. One was the SUV that Anders used to drive the twins and me back and forth from Magna Virtus.
I grabbed onto Jaxson, clawing at his chest, capturing a handful of his jacket. “He’s here, Jaxson!”
Suddenly, I no longer felt like a powerful Special with incredible abilities like mind control and time reversal. I was once again a teenage girl trying to fight a pair of powerful leaders who’d been successfully kidnapping and experimenting on other Specials while keeping their monumental secret for decades. What was I thinking?
If Jaxson was as worried as me, he didn’t show it. “I don’t think there are any windows. I didn’t see any on the front or side, and there’s none back here. We’re going to have to go in there blind.”
There was a man-sized door on the back of the building and a large overhead door on the front. Panic threatened to swallow me again. “We can’t just walk in there! They’ll see us, or hear us!”
Jaxson pressed his lips together and shook his head. “We don’t have any other choice, Lexus. Unless you want to wait for someone to come out, this is our only way in.”
Yes, that was what I wanted to do — wait for them to make the first move. If Anders or whoever was driving the other vehicle came out, we could ambush them. That would even the score, at least. Right now, we were tied — two against two. Or worse, maybe there was more than one lab assistant and they’d come together in one vehicle.
But was that the smartest plan, or just the safest? I couldn’t tell if it was my head or my emotions talking. Besides, I had decided to be brave, and sitting around waiting for somebody else to do something seemed cowardly.
“They probably already know we’re here.” Jaxson pointed up to the roofline where a small camera stared at us with an unblinking eye.
“Let’s do it,” I said, sucking in a breath and reaching for the doorknob.
20
“It’s my turn to drive,” Phoenix said, grabbing the keys from me. I rolled my eyes but let him take them. He would drive faster than I had the guts to, and we were 170 miles away from Lexus.
“We don’t have time for a traffic stop,” I warned him, and he waved me off.
“Have I ever gotten a ticket?” He hadn’t, but that was pure luck, not because he didn’t deserve one.
“Just don’t do anything… obvious.” There was no point telling him not to speed, but he could at least avoid swerving in and out of lanes, revving the engine, and peeling out at stop lights.
He hopped in the drivers’ side and readjusted the seat. We were exactly the same size, but he liked to put the seat back further so he could stretch his limbs more. I didn’t understand how he could look so relaxed behind the wheel yet still maneuver like a race car driver.
We took off with a jolt out of the motel parking lot. “Whoa, this thing has some nice pick up.” He grinned and wiggled his eyebrows.
The radio was still playing Dad’s 80’s music, some solemn song about a fast car and a
plan to get us out of here. It seemed strangely appropriate. We let it play till the song ended, feeling nostalgic, but as soon as it was over, Phoenix scanned through the stations till he found something more modern and less angsty.
This was no time to agonize over the decision we’d made. Right now, Lexus needed us, and nothing else mattered.
Besides, there were still plenty of things to worry about, and my mind couldn’t stop running through all the possible scenarios. None of them ended well.
The problem was, as much as we wanted to help Lexus, adding two more Conduits to the team wasn’t that useful. We couldn’t do anything for her that Jaxson couldn’t do. We needed another Catalyst.
I ran through the list of all the ones I knew, but they were all at the school, and there was no way to get there and back to Lexus in time. We might already be too late as it was. Plus, we couldn’t show our faces there as long as the council was around or we’d be detained for questioning.
The only Special we knew who didn’t live at Magna Virtus was Lexus’ father. And he was a Catalyst.
But William Wren had vowed to stay out of the Specials world and hadn’t used his powers in years. He was so opposed to getting involved in our world, he hadn’t even gone to see his daughter when he was paroled from prison.
When we met, it seemed like he cared about her, though. How could he not? He was her father. He just figured she’d be better off without him. Maybe that was true in some regards, but not when she needed all the help she could get. But could we change his mind? There was only one way to find out.
“Phoenix, I think we need some backup.”
He raised an eyebrow, but I didn’t bother to explain; I didn’t want to take the time to argue in case he had a different opinion. I just dialed the number and put my phone to my ear. It rang four times, and I was just about to hang up when I heard him answer.
“Mr. Wren? This is Griffin Easton, Lexus’ Conduit. Your daughter’s in trouble, sir.” Hopefully, that wasn’t true, but I wanted to get his attention.
Flying Free Page 10