Steel for 5 (Mags & Nats Book 3)

by Stephanie Fazio

  But tonight hadn’t just been the most passionate I’d ever felt in my life. It had been so much more.

  For the first time, I thought I understood the way Kaira and Graysen looked at each other. I hadn’t thought I wanted the emotional part of that connection, but I was beginning to see the appeal. This was all too new to even think the L-word, but as I watched Diego’s eyelashes flutter and heard him whisper my name as he dreamed, I felt myself falling.

  And after everything that had gone down between us, I could sense Diego tumbling over the edge of that precipice right alongside me.

  CHAPTER 44

  When I woke, the apartment was dark. The blanket had been tucked around me and there was a pillow under my head. And I was alone.

  “Diego?” I croaked.

  My voice sounded like a smoker’s.

  “Go back to sleep, cariño. It’s still early.”

  I stretched, luxuriating in the unfamiliar soreness. My body would need to get used to this new kind of workout.

  The thought brought a smile to my lips.

  “Come back to bed.” I held out my arms for him.

  “I wish I could,” he replied.

  I heard the rustle of clothes and Diego’s soft footsteps as he moved around the apartment. I fumbled for the lamp beside the bed.

  I flicked it on in time to see Diego pulling a shirt over his head. There were two empty duffel bags next to the door.

  A horrible feeling replaced my elation from a few moments ago.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, my voice coming out far calmer than I felt.

  “I need to make my move before you and your friends destroy the mine,” he said as he pulled on his socks. “I don’t want to get caught in the crossfire when you and your Super Mags storm the place.”

  “Wait. What?”

  Diego looked at me. “I can drop you back at the mansion on my way if you want, or you can hang out here until you’re ready to go. There’s food in the fridge—”

  “I thought you couldn’t get the Agent S without me,” I spluttered.

  Diego dug into his pocket and pulled out a silver key.

  “I took this off Felix yesterday,” he explained, giving me a sheepish look.

  Those few minutes with Felix had been a blur, but I remembered Diego disappearing and then reappearing.

  “You stole that key while he had Lilly?” I hissed, anger starting to permeate my shock.

  Diego shook his head. “It was before he grabbed her.”

  “Why didn’t you get Lilly if you were going to steal something?” I demanded, my voice rising. “You could have gotten her away from him. You could have gotten her away from that monster!”

  Regret passed across Diego’s face before his expression hardened.

  “You saw those Synthetics,” he said, buttoning his jeans. “Making MRP is more important now than ever. They’re even more dangerous than my kind.”

  My kind.

  “I thought you were done with this self-loathing bullshit,” I said, not trying to hold back the bitterness in my voice. “After last night—”

  I want you, I’d told him. You and all your magic.

  When he’d reacted so strongly to those words, I’d thought that meant he accepted himself and what he was.

  I’d thought we were on the same side.

  “I care about you, Bri.” Diego stopped fiddling with his clothes to look at me. “But I told you yesterday. The only thing that changed was that the Synthetics made me more committed to taking away our magic.”

  “It’s not that simple!” I threw up my hands in frustration. “You can’t just lump people together like that. You don’t have the right to pass judgment on people who haven’t committed a crime and likely never will. Just because someone is strong, it doesn’t make them evil.”

  “I have to do this,” Diego replied. “I’m going to make enough MRP for the Synthetics and other Super Mags, and then I’m going to inject myself.”

  “Go, then,” I said, sneering in disgust. “Run away, just like you did after all your other quickies.”

  Hurt flashed across Diego’s eyes.

  “That’s not what this is,” he said. “And I think you know that.”

  I did know. And part of me understood I wasn’t being fair. Diego had never deceived me or led me on. I just hadn’t wanted to believe him. Hell, I’d wanted to fix him.

  “Whatever,” I muttered, feeling that awful, telltale sting at the back of my eyelids.

  “We can talk about this tomorrow,” he said. “Once you have Lilly back and I have what I need.”

  “No, you know what?” I snapped. “I’ll make this easy on you.” I grabbed the pile of my dirty clothes from the day before and dressed faster than I ever had in my life.

  If I was going to do a walk of shame at four in the morning, I’d do it in my own clothes, thank you very much.

  “I’ll get out of your hair so you can finish your planning…alone.” I gave him a scathing look. “That’s how you prefer it, right, Diego? Just you and your obsession. I’m sure all those Super Mag files keep you nice and warm at night.”

  I left him, standing in the middle of his kitchen with his jaw clenched hard enough to break. I wrenched open the door, pausing when I caught sight of the key hanging on a lanyard around the knob.

  I could call any of my friends to come get me, but I had no interest in talking about tonight…ever again.

  “I’ll have A.J. send your motorcycle back,” I said, grabbing the key and slamming the door behind me.

  Or maybe not, I thought viciously. The motorcycle could be like my prisoner of war, or something.

  I raced down three flights of stairs, unwilling to wait for the elevator.

  Diego’s motorcycle was parked outside, and even though I’d never driven one before, it didn’t take a genius to figure out how to get it going.

  A few seconds later, I sped away from the curb. I didn’t look back.

  ✽✽✽

  I cut the engine at the bottom of the driveway so I wouldn’t wake anyone. It was a true mark of how upset I was that I hadn’t even enjoyed speeding along empty streets on a sort-of stolen motorcycle.

  I left the bike and walked around to the back of our property, where the fewest security cameras and guards would see me come in.

  I smiled at the guards on duty, said all the right things, and hurried past before anyone got a good look at my face. I didn’t need anyone realizing I was about two minutes away from breaking down.

  I was halfway across the lawn when I stopped in my tracks.

  “Damnit, Diego!”

  He stood in front of me, his arms crossed.

  “Who do I see about stolen property?” he asked, his lip twitching.

  I was so not in the mood for his lighthearted, flirty bullshit.

  “You can fly,” I pointed out. “You don’t need it.”

  “After I lose my magic, that won’t be true.” Diego’s teasing smile faded. “But that was really just my excuse. I didn’t like the way we left things.”

  I laughed bitterly.

  “Bri, is everything okay?” one of the guards on duty asked.

  “Fine,” I said quickly, dragging Diego into a dead zone between two cameras. Smith and I really needed to do something about that.

  “I’m not going down with your sinking ship, Diego,” I whispered, not wanting to draw any unwanted attention. “You’re so determined to be the bad guy. I’m done trying to convince you you’re not the monster you think you are.”

  “You’re one to talk.” Diego uncrossed his arms and closed the short distance between us. “Tell me you aren’t the same.”

  “I’m nothing like you!”

  “Right. Then look me in the eye and tell me you don’t blame yourself for Lilly’s situation. Tell me you aren’t carrying the weight of your entire family’s grief on your shoulders.”

  “You piece of shit—”

  “Tell me I’m wrong,” Diego challenged.<
br />
  I couldn’t, and we both knew it. In that moment, I hated him for seeing my vulnerabilities and throwing them in my face.

  “You want to be the one who spent her life down in that mine.” Diego threw his hands in the air. “You think if you punish yourself enough, it will somehow make up for something that was never your fault in the first place!”

  “It is too darn early for all this hollerin’,” a voice that was neither Diego’s nor mine huffed.

  Grandma Tashi, followed by Kaira and Graysen, was crossing the lawn toward us.

  Great. Just great.

  “Problem?” Graysen asked, giving Diego a cold look.

  “No problem,” I said. “This pendejo was just leaving.”

  “Language,” Grandma Tashi snapped at me.

  Too late, I remembered Kaira’s father had been Mexican. Clearly, her grandmother had picked up at least some of the language.

  “Sorry, Tashi,” I began, but she wasn’t paying attention to me anymore.

  “I know you,” Grandma Tashi said, stalking over to Diego.

  Diego shook his head. “I don’t think we’ve ever met.”

  Tashi reached up, grasped his chin in her bony hand, and pulled his face down until it was level with hers.

  “Grandma,” Kaira began, and then gave up when her grandmother held up a hand to hush her.

  “Boy, you do look like your daddy, don’t you?”

  I heard Diego suck in a surprised breath.

  “You knew my father?” he asked.

  Tashi shook her head. “But your mamma came to visit me a few months back, and I could see your father through her.”

  Diego’s face clouded over in confusion. As much as I hated him at that moment, I couldn’t stop myself from explaining, “Kaira’s grandma is a Medium.”

  Diego swallowed. “My Amá…came to see you?”

  “Twice,” Tashi replied, still studying Diego. “She was talkin’ to me about the slaves down in that mine, and how their bodies weren’t buried the way they shoulda been.”

  I thought about all the empty graves and biohazard containers I’d dug up over the last few months, and then I thought about that tomb in the mine. I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly aware of the chilly air.

  Diego bowed his head, hiding his expression.

  Tashi said, “She came to see me a second time soon after that.”

  Diego jerked his head back up. “What—”

  “She didn’t say anything, but I could sense her sadness for you. She felt responsible for whatever you’ve been going through. She was…conflicted.”

  Grandma Tashi’s brow wrinkled, and for a second, her brown eyes turned cloudy.

  “She loves you deeply, and that love is also mixed with deep regret,” Tashi said. “I believe she wanted more for your life than what she felt she gave you. She felt like she failed you.”

  “No. Never.” Diego reached out a hand to Kaira’s grandma, as though he could get to his mother through her.

  I looked away, unable to bear the anguish on Diego’s face.

  Kaira and Graysen were turned into each other, pretending like they couldn’t hear what was being said.

  “Please,” Diego said in a rough voice. “I need to tell her—I just—” He braced his hands on his knees. “Can you tell her something for me?”

  I had to stop myself from going to him.

  Just as she did whenever someone asked her a similar question, Tashi shook her head. There was sympathy in her usually-hard features.

  “It doesn’t work that way, but I’ll tell you what. I know your Amá loved you very much.”

  She stroked her thumb across Diego’s cheek, nodded to the rest of us, and then headed back the way she’d come.

  “Diego,” I began, having no idea what to say, only knowing I couldn’t let him suffer alone.

  “Don’t,” he replied. He stayed where he was for several seconds. Then, he straightened.

  Diego walked away without another word.

  Kaira cleared her throat. She gave Diego’s retreating figure an inscrutable look before turning her attention on me.

  “Bri, we hit a wall with the Super Mags. I’m so sorry.” Her eyes watered as she reached for my hand.

  “What?” I asked, my mind still reeling from everything with Diego.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Diego stop to listen to what Kaira was telling me.

  “We tried,” she said, her grip tightening on me. “I swear, we tried.”

  “They’re scared,” Graysen added, giving me an apologetic look. “After everything they went through in MagLab…well, they’re afraid of getting locked up again.”

  “I get it,” I said, dully. And I did.

  If it wasn’t Lilly’s life at stake, I’d be relieved. Super Mags or not, I didn’t want to drag a group of kids into a dangerous situation with me.

  But that left us back where we’d started.

  “We have a plan, though,” Kaira said quickly, following the direction of my bleak thoughts.

  “Okay,” I sighed. “Let’s go gather the troops.”

  I glanced back once as the three of us made our way to the house. Diego was gone.

  CHAPTER 45

  Even though it was barely 5AM, the 7.5 were awake and gathered in the living room. A.J. gave me a questioning eyebrow raise. At whatever expression crossed my face, he nodded in understanding. He plopped a very excited Sir Zachary in my arms and said he had a new nail polish color that would look divine on me.

  I bit my lip until I tasted blood, because all I wanted to do was lean on A.J.’s shoulder and cry.

  “You’re all in for a treat,” Yutika said by way of greeting. “Check these babies out.”

  She held up the most intense-looking gas masks I’d ever seen.

  “I’d like to see any of the MRP gas get inside these,” she said, knocking on the hard-plastic exterior. “They’ll block out any toxins and even pump fresh oxygen inside if the air is contaminated.”

  “Why are they pink?” Smith asked, frowning over the top of his computer screen.

  “Because I wanted them to be,” Yutika replied, at the same time A.J. asked, “What’s wrong with pink?”

  “So, Kai and I were thinking,” Graysen said quickly, before the conversation could devolve. “Since we don’t have the Super Mags’ help, we decided it would be better if we didn’t have to waste time fighting the Synthetics. If we can keep them distracted long enough to get the slaves out—”

  “—then we can blow up the mine with all the bad guys still inside,” Kaira said.

  “I can’t Whisper to them,” Michael said. “Their minds are porous, or something. As soon as I Whisper, it’s like whatever I told them filters right out of their brain again.”

  “We’ll figure something else out,” Graysen said.

  “Maybe Sexy Cinnamon Man could help with the distraction part,” Yutika suggested. “Like, he could fly around and make the Synthetics chase him, and then he could go all Chameleon before they kill him.”

  “Diego’s not an option,” I said shortly.

  I had decided that I wouldn’t stop him from getting his Agent S. I owed him that much, since he’d already have it if he hadn’t helped me go after Lilly first.

  Once we were all out of the mine and I had Lilly, Diego and I could go back to being enemies. Then, I wouldn’t feel even a shred of guilt about hunting him down and destroying whatever Agent S he’d salvaged.

  But for now, I owed Diego a debt.

  “It wouldn’t hurt to ask,” Yutika said. She narrowed her gaze at me. “And by the way, you never mentioned what it was like spending the night with him.”

  Queasiness roiled through me.

  “Flying buttresses,” A.J. said quickly.

  “What about them?” Michael asked.

  “Nothing,” A.J. replied. “I just like the sound of it.”

  “The first time I heard that term,” Kaira said, catching on, “I thought it was referring to
literal flying butts.”

  “I love Kaira-isms,” Graysen said fondly.

  The conversation spiraled from there, sparing me from any more mentions of Diego.

  I noticed the way Yutika and Michael were staying on opposite sides of the room and making a point of not looking at each other. Between the three of us, there was enough heartbreak in this room for the whole place to combust.

  Before I could expend any more mental energy on that pitiful thought, Smith jerked to his feet. His eyes were closed, and I instinctively reached out to steady him before he knocked into his chair. A.J. rescued his computer, which was about to crash to the tiles. Instead, it floated carefully onto the center of the table.

  “Smith, what?” we all asked.

  “We’ve got a situation outside.” Smith’s eyes snapped open. “Valencia’s here.”

  I was titanium before he’d even finished speaking. All 7.5 of us moved in a flurry of curses and magic.

  I hurried out first, making sure there wasn’t a security threat before I let the others follow.

  “No weapons,” the head of my security team said, meeting me halfway across the lawn. “She’s claiming her right to gather in a public place.”

  I saw the reporters first, who were setting up camp all along the street. A few of them were even trying to climb our fence to get a better vantage point.

  Valencia was standing in the street as close to our property as she could get without touching the grass. She stood on a precarious stack of crates and had a group of her Nat bigot friends in front of her. All of them were working together to hold up a banner that read “Make Boston Natural.”

  “Can we buy the whole street and arrest her real quick?” Yutika asked from behind me.

  “I’ll look into it,” Smith replied.

  I was going to kill Valencia. We were supposed to be on our way to the mine to rescue Lilly, and now, there were two dozen reporters standing right outside our gate. We weren’t going anywhere until we got rid of them.

  “Director Gald-ah,” Valencia called into a megaphone. “I have solved our city’s biggest problem. You’ll thank me when I tell you that I’ve found a way to make your wife normal.”