Spirit

by Brigid Kemmerer

  Hunter turned a corner, and the alarms faded. The darkness somehow became more absolute, almost smothering. He could hear himself breathing. He could almost hear his own heartbeat.

  His pocket buzzed again.

  We’re in the parking lot. Where R you?

  Hunter turned the phone off.

  He forced his senses farther. Water. Gas. Concrete. The air was stale down here, lacking current. He fed a little power into the water, pressing a hand to the wall where it dripped, begging for direction.

  At first, nothing. Then . . . this way.

  Another path through darkness. He must have passed below another hatch because the alarms became briefly louder before silencing. Another turn. Then another.

  Then the air whispered that someone was nearby.

  Hunter froze, his hand finding his gun.

  This way.

  He turned another corner, moving cautiously. He saw light, the very palest light, just around the next bend in the tunnel.

  He kept his gun out and stepped around the edge.

  And there they were. Half a dozen teenagers sitting under one lone penlight strung from the ceiling.

  They froze when he appeared. Half looked like they wanted to run—and a few looked ready for a fight.

  Michael had been wrong. They probably had been living in the tunnels all weekend. Maybe longer. Hunter could feel their hunger, the chill in their skin, their desperation.

  And there, at the front of the group, was Noah.

  He was one of the ones who looked ready to fight.

  He was shivering. “Get out,” he snapped. He rolled a lighter across his palm and put a hand on one of the pipes. “Don’t make me do something you’ll regret.”

  His voice was sharp, but he didn’t sound certain.

  He sounded terrified.

  “Where’s Calla?” Hunter said.

  One of the other kids stepped forward with an ax. “She’s waiting for us to do our part against the Guides.”

  Then he raised it to swing.

  Hunter rushed forward to stop him. The kid was small, but the ax was heavy. Hunter caught his arm, driving him back. The kid tried to swing again. Hunter shoved him, hard, and the ax went clattering to the ground.

  “Stop,” said Hunter. “You need to get out of here. You don’t know what you’re up against.”

  “We know what to do to prove we’re serious,” said Noah.

  “There’s a Guide coming. You need to run.”

  “Let him come,” said one of the girls. “We’ll bring the school down on top of him.”

  “Not if I take care of the problem first,” said an accented voice from the darkness behind Hunter.

  Followed by the click of a gun.

  Hunter’s training kicked in without thought. He was spinning, registering where the sound had come from, swinging a fist to send the shooter off balance. He didn’t want to shoot, not here, not yet, when gas lines were so close.

  But that didn’t stop Silver from firing. A bullet hit a pipe, and steam exploded into the small space.

  Not a gas line. Not yet.

  Girls were screaming.

  “Run!” yelled Hunter. “Get out of here!”

  The gun fired again. A flare of light, the clang of a bullet on steel. More steam, making the near darkness even more blinding. Sneakers scuffed on concrete, and they had to be running.

  “They’re kids,” Hunter cried. “Let them go!”

  “No.” Silver fired again, and Hunter darted left, hitting the pipes. He begged the steam to give him Silver’s location.

  Silver must have been doing the same thing, only his abilities were stronger. The gun found the edge of Hunter’s jaw before Hunter even sensed motion.

  Hunter froze.

  “Drop your weapon.”

  Hunter dropped it. The dark clouds of vapor swallowed it immediately.

  Silver gave him a little shove with his gun, pushing Hunter’s head up. “You sent those children running. Do you honestly think they’ll stop causing damage just because you told them to?”

  “They’re kids. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

  “They do know what they’re doing. The deaths at the carnival proved that. I’m not worried about them right now. Your files will be quite helpful to track them down.”

  His files. The ones he’d lost when Silver tracked him to the Merrick house.

  Something told him Silver wouldn’t just threaten to harm those kids’ parents the way he had behind Noah Dean’s house.

  Silver put more pressure on the weapon. “Tell me where the Merricks are hiding, and I’ll give you a quick death.”

  “I’m going to kill you,” Hunter said.

  “Good luck,” said Silver.

  It wasn’t a matter of luck, it was a matter of time. Hunter just had to stay alive long enough for the kids to get out of the tunnels.

  Then he could blow up the school himself if that’s what it took to kill this guy.

  “You showed up pretty quick,” he said.

  “Tell me where the Merricks are hiding,” Silver said again.

  “Fuck you.”

  Silver shot him.

  In the leg.

  The pain was quick and immediate, and Hunter was on the ground before he even registered what had happened.

  What had Bill said about arteries? Hunter’s vision already felt spotty.

  He rolled and looked up at Silver. “You’re really an asshole.”

  Silver shot him in the other leg.

  Hunter cried out. He couldn’t help it. Pain ripped through him like a white-hot poker. It felt like the bullet had gone straight through bone.

  Maybe that had really happened. He could swear he couldn’t feel his feet.

  He needed to find his gun. He needed to shoot Silver. Or a gas line.

  Or himself, just to stop this blinding pain.

  “How many more of you are there?” said Silver.

  Hunter almost couldn’t think to process the words. “More of me?”

  “Fifths like you, living outside our notice?”

  “Just me.”

  “I don’t believe you. How did you coerce Kate to join you?”

  The mention of Kate bought him a moment of clarity. “I didn’t coerce her into anything. Kate wasn’t a killer. She didn’t want to be like you.”

  Hunter patted his hand along the concrete, searching for a weapon. Even the ax.

  “My mistake,” said Silver, “was working with children.” He shot Hunter in the leg again, closer to the knee.

  His vision went white for a moment, and Hunter felt like he lost a minute of time.

  “Who else is like you?” Silver demanded again.

  “Fuck you.”

  “What are you, sixteen? No wonder you couldn’t save your father. No wonder you couldn’t—”

  “Shut up! You don’t know anything! He was nothing like you.”

  “You’re right,” said Silver. He pointed the gun at Hunter’s head. “I do what needs to be done.”

  He pulled the trigger.

  The gun exploded. Hunter saw the flash, but that was it.

  Then Silver was yelling and the smell of gas was in the air.

  Then Hunter felt fire. Somewhere distant, but a raging fireball, heading this way.

  The kids must have started a fire as they fled, somewhere farther down the line.

  Maybe it was the blood loss, but Hunter was having a hard time figuring out what was going on.

  Especially when Michael stepped out of the darkness and slammed Silver into the concrete wall with enough force to break the stones. Rock crumbled around him. Silver crumpled to the ground.

  Hunter felt himself lifted by the shoulders. He opened his eyes but didn’t remember closing them.

  Gabriel was dragging him.

  But he was looking at his brothers. “We need to do something! I can feel it building!”

  Fire. He could feel fire building. Hunter could feel it, too, a swelling
rage coming fast.

  “Did they . . .” started Hunter. He had to wet his lips and really think to string a sentence together. “Did the kids make it out?”

  “Yeah. They got out.” Gabriel didn’t sound entirely happy about that.

  Hunter could feel the heat, the rage in the air around him.

  Then he felt the fire, true fire, barreling through the tunnel.

  His mind was trying to panic, but he could barely lift his head. At least it let him string a sentence together. “Gabriel! We need to stop it!”

  Too late. Hunter felt the fire wash over him. Heat seared his lungs and scorched his cheeks, blinding him for an instant.

  But then he felt Gabriel’s power in his element. His friend was trying to harness the energy, to keep it from spreading.

  There was too much. He couldn’t handle it all. This fire wanted to explode from these tunnels, and Gabriel couldn’t hold on to it.

  But then another source of power joined Gabriel’s. Nick, trying to choke oxygen from the fire.

  Not enough.

  Chris, pulling power from the steam in the pipes, the trickles of water on the walls.

  Not enough.

  The fire was weakening, slowing, but not enough.

  Rubble scraped against pavement, and it took Hunter too long to realize what that meant. Silver was getting to his feet.

  And he was pulling power, lots of power, from the air around them. Hunter felt it building and knew Silver could kill the Merricks, right here in these tunnels, using their own power.

  So he did what he’d been told never to do. He added his power to theirs.

  And like a final link clicking into place, the five of them formed a perfect circle. Everything hesitated. The destructive power was right there, in Hunter’s control, lighting up his vision like a power grid. Waiting for direction.

  Hunter looked at Silver.

  Then he shoved every ounce of power in his direction.

  Hunter felt the force of energy leave his body and slam into Silver’s.

  And then he didn’t feel anything at all.

  CHAPTER 34

  Hunter woke up in a hospital.

  It took a moment to realize he should probably be grateful to be waking up at all.

  An IV was in his hand, one of those oxygen cannulas strung around his face. Nothing really hurt, but at the same time, he had no desire to climb out of this bed, either. A dull, unsettling ache clung to his bones.

  He tried to move his legs.

  They worked. They hurt, but they worked.

  He wasn’t handcuffed to the bed, either, so that was a plus.

  One of the Merrick twins was asleep in the recliner on the other side of the room. His T-shirt said I Google Myself.

  Gabriel.

  Hunter wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  “Hey,” said Hunter.

  Nothing. He tried again.

  Finally, he grabbed the box of tissues on the small table beside the bed and threw it.

  Gabriel sat up with a start. He grabbed the box and tossed it onto the window ledge. “Dude, you’re lucky you’re hurt or I’d be shoving this right up your—”

  “Save it. What happened?”

  “Oh Em Gee, Hunter, you are so welcome,” Gabriel said in a lilting falsetto. “I had a blast saving your life.”

  He couldn’t be too mad if he was cracking jokes.

  Or maybe he was furious. Sometimes it was hard to tell with Gabriel.

  “Maybe if you told me what happened, I could get around to the thanking you part.”

  Gabriel’s face lost the mockery. “When we realized that the shopping center was a false lead, we had to make a decision: find you, or get out of the area before the school blew up.” He shrugged, and mischief sparked in his eye. “So we flipped for it.”

  “Thank you for finding me.”

  “You should be thanking the coin.”

  Hunter didn’t say anything for a long moment. Gabriel waited.

  Then Hunter looked away. “I’m sorry I lied about the shopping center. I just—I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt—”

  “We knew you were lying.”

  Hunter blinked. “What?”

  “We knew. How do you think we found you so fast?”

  “And you still came after me?”

  “I’m not sure anyone has ever told you how this whole friendship thing is supposed to work, but . . .” Gabriel stared at him, hard. “Yeah, you idiot. We came after you.”

  Hunter wasn’t sure what to say to that.

  So Gabriel kept talking. “It took some time to find you. And then we saw that dickhead pointing a gun at you. I tried the trick you mentioned, the one about stopping the spark before the gun could fire.”

  Hunter remembered the flash, the way the gun had exploded in Silver’s hand. “So what happened?”

  “Yeah, so I don’t have enough control for all that, but I kinda like how it worked out anyway.”

  Now Hunter understood. He could read between the flippant answers. “Thank you.”

  “If I’d let you die, I couldn’t have kicked your ass for going after Noah Dean.”

  Hunter propped himself up on his elbows. “Of everything, why are you still pissed about that?”

  For the first time, Gabriel’s expression showed true fury. “Because, jackass, you should have taken me with you.”

  Hunter dropped back on the pillow, wondering if he should punch Gabriel or hug him. “So that night you knocked me down the stairs—you weren’t mad that I might have been screwing over your family. You were mad that I left you behind?”

  “Hell, yes! Nicky never wants to do that stuff.”

  Hunter was touched. “I’m getting all misty.”

  “Fuck you.” Then Gabriel’s expression changed. “You look really different without all the piercings.”

  Hunter’s hand flew to his face. They were all gone. “What happened?”

  “You had an MRI.” He glanced at the clock over the television. “Your mom will be back soon.”

  “She was here?”

  “She’s been sleeping here.”

  She’d been sleeping here? “How long have I been in the hospital?”

  “Two days.”

  “What happened to Silver?” Hunter paused, remembering the feeling of the power driving into his enemy. “Did he die?”

  Gabriel looked like he was bracing himself for Hunter’s reaction. He glanced at the doorway before pulling his chair closer. “Arrested.”

  Hunter shoved himself upright again. “He’s still alive?”

  “Oh, your blast of power did a lot of damage, but not enough to kill him. We dragged him out. We needed someone to take the fall for all of it—kidnapping kids and hiding them under the school, including you. It’s the only thing that covered everything: your disappearance, the shoot-out at our house—”

  Hunter was incredulous. “Where do you guys fit into that?”

  “Out of town. Weekend college visit for Nick. Missed the whole thing.”

  Hunter opened his mouth. Closed it. “Wow.”

  “It’s helpful that Layne’s dad is smoothing things over with the cops. Mike keeps saying that guy is brilliant with spin.”

  “What about the kids?”

  “They said what we told them to say. You think they wanted to take the fall?”

  “Are they all safe?”

  Gabriel lifted one shoulder. “Confused.” He paused. “There’s no sign of Calla. We’re trying to figure out exactly who’s involved so we can try to keep them out of trouble.”

  “More Guides will come.”

  Gabriel nodded. “I know.”

  Then they fell into silence for the longest time, until Gabriel pulled his chair even closer and rested his arms on the bed rail. “How did that guy know where to find you?”

  Hunter looked away from him, at the speckled tile of the hospital ceiling. “Just lucky, I guess.”

  Gabriel hit him on the
top of his head. Hunter swung around to glare at him.

  “Try again,” Gabriel said.

  Hunter was so sick of lying. He sighed. “I turned on her phone.”

  “Why? Why did you do that?”

  “I didn’t realize he’d get there so fast.”

  Gabriel waited, but Hunter didn’t say anything else.

  “That doesn’t answer the why,” Gabriel finally said.

  “I didn’t want anyone else to get hurt. I was going to kill him. And if I couldn’t do it, I was going to blow up the school with him in it.”

  “Jesus, I could shake the crap out of you.” Gabriel shoved him in the shoulder. “When you’re going to do awesome stuff, let me in on it.”

  Hunter had to look at the speckled ceiling again. “I didn’t expect to survive it.”

  Gabriel’s voice was quiet, no mockery at all now. “Why?”

  Hunter was suddenly so tired. “Go away, Gabriel.”

  “No. Why would you do that?”

  Hunter squeezed his eyes shut. His lashes felt wet, and he pressed his fingertips against his eyes. “Because Kate sacrificed herself for me. She was the only person who’s ever trusted me.”

  “Dude. Hunter. No. She wasn’t. She was just the only person you’ve ever trusted back.”

  Hunter opened his eyes. Gabriel was right. He should have trusted the Merricks long before this.

  He had a lot to make up for.

  “I’m sorry I was a shitty friend,” he said.

  “I’m not sure ‘shitty’ covers it.”

  “I can’t believe I almost killed you two weeks ago.”

  Gabriel rolled his eyes. “I can. You’re kind of a moron.”

  A dark-haired nurse knocked at the door and didn’t wait for a response before entering. She had a tray of food. “I’m glad to see you’re awake,” she said brightly. Her voice carried a touch of an accent. “Feeling hungry?”

  “Not really.”

  “Leave it,” said Gabriel. “I’m always hungry.”

  She set the tray on the table and plugged a stethoscope into her ears. “May I get your vital signs?”

  Hunter held out his arm for the blood pressure cuff.

  She tightened the Velcro, then traced a finger lightly over the tattoo above his elbow. “Ah,” she said. “My favorite proverb.”

  “It was my dad’s, too,” Hunter said.