by Sara Preucil
Dina moved quickly. Her hand sunk into her pocket and pulled out something small. Keegan was closest and made to grab her arm, but Dina caught her in the face with a stream of pepper spray.
Howling, Keegan wheeled away, clutching her face. Dylan and Emmy moved to help her, as Tara took a step closer to her mom.
Dina spun, pointing the small canister at Tara instead.
“You going to spray me too, Mom?” Tara asked calmly.
The wary look her mother gave Tara was answer enough. Something had shifted; Tara saw it in her mother’s eyes. The way she regarded Tara wasn’t as a mother looking at her child. Dina was looking at her as if she didn’t know her, as if she were alien, as if she were something to be feared.
Tara’s heart broke a little.
“Tara.” Aidan spoke from behind her. “She’s going to alert the Order that we were here unless we do something.”
Tara stared at the pepper spray that was still pointed directly at her face. She let the fury in, let it take hold, filling the fracture in her heart with its icy chill. She nodded.
Aidan stepped past Tara, and Dina moved to point the canister at him instead. He held out his own hand. Sparks danced between his outstretched fingers, which were glowing red-hot.
“I wouldn’t.” He warned. Dina lowered the canister, fearfully eyeing Aidan’s hands.
“Unnatural,” she hissed, as he took her by the arm, leading her out of the entryway and down the hall. Tara followed them into her family’s dining room, where Aidan guided Dina to a chair.
“We will need to tie her up,” he said to Tara.
Tara nodded and headed out of the dining room, past the kitchen where Emmy was helping Keegan rinse out her eyes at the sink, into the mudroom, and through the door that led to the garage. There she found what she was looking for: the lengths of rope that her father would use to tie their annual Christmas tree to the top of his SUV. Turning to the door, something else caught her eye, and she snagged it before heading back into the house.
“Here,” Tara said, handing Aidan the ropes, old pine needles still clinging to their fibers. “I found this too.” She set a roll of duct tape down on the dining table.
“Probably a good idea,” Aidan muttered.
Tara left the room, letting Aidan tie up Dina. Tara was angry, but she didn’t want to be part of that. Instead, she headed for the entryway, where Dina had left her briefcase. An idea had come to mind. One that would make their entry into Modern Alchemy’s labs even easier. She fished around in the case, finally pulling out what she was looking for.
Dina’s keycard.
She pocketed it along with her flash drive and the scrap of paper. Making a split decision, she then dashed upstairs. Back in her room, she fished out a duffle bag from the back of her closet and began shoving random articles of clothing into it. She then grabbed her purse from where it hung on the back of her bedroom door, shoved that into the duffle bag as well, and headed back downstairs.
Bag slung over her shoulder, she waited at the front door for everyone to join her. Emmy, Dylan, and Keegan arrived first. The front of Keegan’s shirt was splattered with water and her eyes were bloodshot, but she could see well enough to glare at Tara.
“Sorry about that,” Tara said to Keegan, and she was surprised with herself that she actually meant it.
Soon, Aidan strode down the hall. Tara could hear Dina’s muffled voice coming from the dining room, and forced herself not to feel anything about it.
“What’s that?” Aidan eyed the duffle bag.
“I can’t exactly come back now, can I?” She retorted.
When they were all gathered, Tara opened the front door, and then used her house key to lock it once they had all filed out on to the porch. In silence, they walked back up the block to Dylan’s Jeep and climbed inside.
The original plan was to wait until after office hours to infiltrate MA. But now there was a problem.
“We can’t let my dad find my mom. Not yet.” Tara sighed. They would have practically no time to get into the offices before her dad would get home, at which point he would immediately notify the Order. “We are going to have to intercept him. Delay him somehow.”
Emmy turned around from the front seat to look at Tara. For the first time she seemed to regard Tara without her defensive walls in place. There was empathy in her dark eyes. “I’m sorry,” Emmy said. “This can’t be easy for you.”
Tara gave her a small, appreciative smile and shrugged. “It is what it is.”
Emmy nodded. “So. What’s the plan?”
Chapter 50
An hour later, the five of them sat in nervous silence in Dylan’s Jeep. Tara had given Dylan directions to the center of downtown, intending to find her father’s car in the usual parking garage. But as they drove by, orange cones and yellow tape blocked off the entrance to the garage; no doubt the construction crew was still repairing the damage that Tara had inflicted the last time she was in town. So, they circled the streets near Modern Alchemy’s office building, searching for her dad’s vehicle.
Finally, they found it. The sleek black Escalade was parked three blocks west of MA. Luckily, the spot right next to it was vacant. Dylan parked right next to the Escalade and cut the engine.
Then they waited.
To give them the time they needed to access the Order’s records, it was imperative that Tara’s father didn’t return home to find her mom. Not yet anyway. Not until they had what they came for.
Tara sat behind Emmy now, her knees were drawn up to her chest as she waited for her father to appear, trying not to think that she would essentially be holding both of her parents captive in the same day.
On the other side of Keegan, Aidan was fidgeting, snapping his fingers, lighting and then extinguishing a flame with each alternating snap. Dylan was tracing his finger along his window; the raindrops on the pane followed after his finger like children to the pied piper. No one talked.
And then, Tara saw him. He was crossing the street, approaching from the rear side of his car, as Tara hoped he would. He was looking down at his phone screen as he walked. Tara opened her door and slid from the seat, her feet meeting the pavement silently. Only when John was a few steps away, did he look up, finally noticing the obstruction in his path.
His expression shifted from annoyance, to recognition, to suspicion as he laid his eyes on Tara. He didn’t move to hug her, nor did he show any sign of concern or relief at seeing her.
Perhaps it was Dina’s motherly instinct that had allowed Tara those few moments of compassion before she threatened her with the pepper spray. But her father had clearly skipped over any parental inclination and was now regarding his daughter with distrust.
“Tara.” He said coolly. He looked down at his phone again. “I suppose you are the reason your mother isn’t picking up.”
“She’s fine,” Tara said, stung at the implication. “Just like you will be. But we need you to get into the car.” Tara gestured toward her vacant seat.
“We?” John’s brown eyebrows arched, creating rows of wrinkles in his forehead. “Ah, you mean the escapees. So you were involved.”
Tara began to panic. If they stood out here much longer, someone was bound to notice.
“Get in the car.” She said, a little more firmly.
“No.” John took a step closer to her, simultaneously reaching into the pocket of his pea coat.
Instinctively, Tara stamped her foot on the ground. The pavement cracked under her sneaker, shooting out like a lightning bolt toward her dad. The road buckled under him, and he staggered.
Something clattered to the ground. It was a stun gun. Grimly, Tara wondered whether her parents had armed themselves such before or after her suspected act against the Order. She swooped down and picked it up before her dad could recover from the shock and loss of balance. She held it out toward him.
“Get in the Jeep,” Tara repeated.
Her father was staring at her in disbelief. “So you
are one of them,” he said, tone full of disgust.
How quickly her parents could shut off their feelings for her once they came to this realization. Wasn’t she the same person? She had always been this way, they just hadn’t known it. Tara’s lip curled as she felt hatred toward the man in front of her. She pressed the button on the device in her hand. A tiny, blue electric spark arched between its prongs, crackling.
“I’m not going to ask you again.”
John glared at Tara, but obliged, sliding into the waiting seat to be met with looks of loathing by the rest of the vehicle’s occupants. Tara slammed the door, walked to the back of the Jeep, opened up its hatch and hopped into the back, closing the hatch behind her. She refused to look at her dad, but by the sounds of ripping tape, he was already being bound at the wrists and ankles.
“You’re abominations! All of you!” John snarled. “You’re crimes against nature; you shouldn’t even exist.”
“Will someone shut him up?” Dylan groaned from the front seat.
“Gladly,” Keegan responded, and with another stretch and rip of tape, John’s insults became muffled and incoherent.
Tara pulled her knees to her chest with shaking hands. Laying her chin on her knees, a hot, angry tear slipped, unwelcome down her cheek. She swiped it away.
How could her father say that about his own daughter? She clenched her hands into fists as her growing fury and indignation caused them to shake even more violently. She gritted her teeth, forcing herself not to cry.
“Tara.”
Emmy’s voice broke through the raging storm that was brewing. And then Tara felt it; the Jeep was rocking underneath them.
Oh.
Tara unclenched her fists and took a deep breath, trying her best to focus on something else. She looked up, searching for a distraction, and locked eyes with Aidan. He was turned halfway in his seat, staring back at her, and he looked pissed. His dark brows were furrowed, the corners of his mouth were turned down, and his nostrils flared as he breathed deeply. For one scary moment, Tara thought he was angry with her, but when his eyes softened as they caught hers, she saw something else there. Sorrow. Empathy. And she realized that Aidan wasn’t angry at her, he was angry for her.
The storm inside of her fizzled and calmed. The rocking became a slight sway, and then the Jeep was still once more.
“Sorry,” Tara whispered, her throat tight.
Aidan watched her for another moment, his expression unreadable. The bones of his square jaw jutted as he clenched and unclenched his teeth. His dark eyes travelled to her mouth before he seemed to catch himself and quickly turned around to gaze out of the window.
Tara flushed, remembering the feel of his lips on hers. She could feel Keegan’s gaze on her from the seat in front of her, but she ignored Keegan and instead started down at her hands, smiling to herself as, once again, they waited.
Chapter 51
For a long time the six of them waited in the Jeep, mostly in silence barring John’s muffled protests. The sun had set while the cars around them had slowly vacated their parking spaces. The streetlights were flickering on in the twilight as the pedestrians on the streets were transitioning from workers ending their day to younger crowds starting their night.
“Okay,” Tara breathed. “Let’s go.” She, Aidan, and Keegan slipped out of the Jeep; Dylan and Emmy hung back to act as lookouts and babysitters to Tara’s dad.
Hood up, eyes trained on the sidewalk, Tara led Aidan and Keegan along the couple of blocks to the backside of Modern Alchemy’s office building. At the back entrance, she pulled out the keycard that she had stolen from her mom and hovered it over the tiny black box above the door handle until a small green light blinked. She pushed the door open, immediately turning to her left and heading up the stairs with the others in tow.
As quickly and silently as possible, they ascended the cement staircase all the way to the fourth floor. At the correct landing, Tara paused outside the door. Through the small window in the door, the building appeared dark and empty. She cracked it open a tiny amount, listening intently, but didn’t hear anything.
Tara waved Aidan and Keegan forward as she opened the door farther and slipped into the hallway. They crept to the right, Tara leading them to the labs she had passed both times she had visited Aidan in the freezer. Peering into the first door’s windows, Tara determined that the lab was also void of human activity. Flashing the keycard once more, she unlocked the first door.
The three of them sneaked into the large room, and Tara shut the door quickly behind them. Immediately, they set to work searching the lab. There were no computers sitting on the countertops, so they started checking through every cabinet and drawer large enough to fit a laptop.
“There has to be one here,” Tara whispered, closing another cabinet which contents consisted mainly of microscopes and blood bags. She had shuddered upon discovering the bags, wondering if Aidan’s blood occupied any of them. A fresh wave of anger surged through her at the thought that her parents would probably be completely fine with her undergoing similar treatments. She stood up. Both Keegan and Aidan had come up empty handed.
“Let’s check the next room.”
They were walking toward the door when a light flicked on in the hallway. Silently, they rushed to the wall, pressing up against it, making themselves as skinny as possible. Tara and Aidan were on one side of the door, Keegan on the other. Tara’s heart beat frantically in her chest as she listened to the approaching footsteps. They paused outside the door. A light shone into the lab, illuminating the surfaces that, moments ago, the three of them had just been combing over.
Tara held her breath as the light skimmed over the room. She could feel the heat rolling off Aidan next to her, and she could almost imagine what he was thinking. The last thing she wanted was for him to end up back here. She turned her head and glanced over at Keegan. Her hand was balled into a fist, which had started to glow a faint orange. She was ready for a fight. Tara caught her eye and shook her head. Keegan glared, but the glow in her fist subsided.
Fortunately, at the same moment, the flashlight flicked off and the guard’s footsteps started up again. They listened to them retreating down the hall in the direction of the elevators. They waited, frozen in place, for about another minute longer before easing the door open and slipping back into the hall. Quickly, Tara unlocked the next lab and ushered Aidan and Keegan inside. Silently, they got to work, but it was only a matter of seconds before Aidan got their attention.
“Over here.”
Tara shut the cabinet she had been searching through and headed toward Aidan at the back of the room. He was pulling a laptop out from one of the top drawers in the far counter. He turned it on as Tara pulled out the flash drive and the small slip of paper from her pocket.
Please let this work, she thought desperately as she typed Eld3rJ0hn48 into the prompt on the lock screen.
The screen went blue, and then—amazingly—they were looking at its desktop.
“It worked,” Tara whispered in disbelief.
“Guys,” Keegan hissed from across the room, “hurry up, I think I hear something.”
Tara frowned. Didn’t a guard just walk by? But then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw a small, red light blinking. She looked up. It was a security camera.
“Shit.” She nudged Aidan, and he too looked up. He swore.
“Hurry up,” he said, already moving. “Keegan and I will watch the door.”
Tara jammed her flash drive into its port and started clicking on random files, dragging them on to the drive. She was copying a particularly large file, the blue progress bar was inching its way across the screen when footsteps came running down the hall, and someone was saying, “They’re on the fourth floor, lab B!”
“Tara, we need to go,” Aidan called from across the room.
“Come on,” Tara begged the computer. “Hurry up.”
She heard the door unlock and someone on the other end try to push h
is way in. The file transfer reached one hundred percent, and Tara yanked the flash drive out. She shoved the computer back into its drawer, pocketed the flash drive, and ran to the door where Aidan and Keegan were using their bodies to hold it closed.
“Move to the side,” Aidan ordered. “On three,” he said to Keegan. “One, two, three—” At the same time, they both stepped to the side, and the door flew open. The guard stumbled inside, colliding with an island, sending equipment flying and shattering to the ground. “Let’s go!” Aidan held the door open for Tara and Keegan to race through, and then followed them just as a single shot rang out. He slammed the door shut, and Tara watched in amazement as he melted the metal of the handle, leaving a deformed lump behind.
She could hear the guard trying to get the door to work as they sprinted down the hall. Tara headed for the stairwell, but heard footsteps approaching. “Do that again!” She ordered Aidan as she jammed her finger into the button to call the elevator. Aidan made a mess of that door handle as well.
The elevator chimed and they clamored into it. The steel doors closed and Tara slammed her finger into the button for the lobby.
“We may need to fight out of here like last time.” Tara turned to Aidan.
Immediately, she realized that something was wrong.
His face was pale, and he stumbled back, colliding into the elevator wall with a thud. He was clutching the right side of his abdomen. A scarlet trickle seeped out from between his fingers. When he leaned forward to gaze at his stomach, Tara saw a red smear that he left behind against the shiny metal wall.
“Shit.” Tara moved to him, fingers hovering over the hand that concealed his wound, not daring to touch him.
“Keegan, we’re going to need you to get us out of here.” Tara tried to sound calm and in control, but her voice shook.
Amazingly, Keegan didn’t argue. Without the slightest hesitation, she moved to stand between Tara and Aidan, and the door. With an easy flex of her fingers, two large flaming globes sprung to life at her palms. Tara felt their heat instantaneously.