The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (41 page)

A thick sheet of black glass separated
the limo’s rear compartment from the driver’s. Haven pressed a
small button in a console near her seat and the glass
lowered.

“
What’s your name?” she
asked.

The driver looked at her in the
rear-view mirror and smiled. “Augustus,” he said. “My friends call
me Oggie.”

“
What’s new,
Oggie?”

“
Nothing is new, Madame.
The sun is hot, the ground is dry, and no one has figured out how
to fix the world’s problems. It’s a real mess.”

“
I know what you mean,”
said Haven. “Hey Oggie, thanks for the lift.”

“
Of course,
Madame.”

Haven sank back into her seat. She
could barely make out the setting sun through the tinted windows.
It dropped beneath two distant mountains, sinking quickly, inch by
inch, until the tip of it shone out with rapid brilliance before
disappearing completely.

Haven sighed. Sudden comfort swept
over her because she knew she was going home. It had taken her
months to get used to the fact that she and Noah would be living at
the Dome for the foreseeable future. She had resisted the idea at
first, telling herself that it was temporary until—until what? Her
parents weren’t coming back. They had been murdered by Bernam’s
henchmen, leaving Haven and Noah alone in a world that would
persecute them if it learned the truth about their abilities. As
months in the Dome passed, that aching for her old life slowly
faded. Haven came to realize she had a new home; a new family that
needed her. She devoted her attention to Noah’s education and
happiness, and saw to her own in the precious little free time she
managed to steal amidst the chaos of her busy new life.

Haven opened her eyes and realized she
had fallen asleep. Oggie had already pulled off the main highway
and was entering a parking garage in Bozeman—she had slept almost
the entire trip. She yawned and stretched her back as Oggie parked
on the first level of the parking garage, cut the engine, and came
back to open her door.

“
Your destination, Madame.
How are you feeling?”

“
Much better, Oggie. Like
I left all of my troubles behind.” She grabbed her backpack and
stepped out of the limo. She looked around the parking structure,
then up and down the dusky street outside. They were
alone.

“
Most excellent, Madame.
Most excellent.”

“
Thanks a lot, Oggie,” she
said, and shook his hand.

“
Will there be anything
else, Madame?”

“
Should there
be?”

“
Not usually,
no.”

She snapped her fingers and swung her
backpack around to her front, then unzipped it and rummaged through
its contents. The airport may have been footing the bill for her
trip to Bozeman, but that didn’t mean she shouldn’t tip the driver.
She pulled out her half-eaten bag of gummy bears and handed them to
Oggie. “Spent my last few bucks in the airport,” she said. The next
best thing after money was food, and sometimes the other way
around—or so her father always said. “They might be a little
smooshed from the crash.”

“
I assure you, Madame,
it’s not necessary,” said Oggie. He smiled genuinely at her offer
and held up his hand to resist.

“
They’re really good,” she
teased.

“
Wellll…” he said,
glancing at the candy from the corner of his eye. His diamond
earring glinted as he looked around cautiously.

“
It’ll be our secret,” she
said, and handed him the bag. He took it and quickly tucked it away
into his inner jacket pocket.

“
Thank you, Madame.” Oggie
nodded formally and gave a slight bow. “It has been my
pleasure.”

“
Drive safe,” she said.
“Lotta crazies out there.” He seemed truly amused by that notion as
he got back into the limo and drove away.

10

“
Y
ou’ve injected others before this?” asked Colton.

Kamiko pushed some of her perfectly
straight, black hair behind her ear. The motion lifted the hem of
her white shirt an inch above her belt. Colton looked away when he
found his eyes drifting down to her exposed midriff.

“
You find me attractive,”
she said.

“
I find you repulsive,” he
replied.

“
You are not a good liar.”
She finally got bored with her inspection of the room and turned to
face him. She crossed her arms and tapped a slender finger against
her elbow as she chewed on her bottom lip in deep thought. “Now we
just need to wait and see if any of your friends are immune,” she
said at last.

“
I hope they all are,”
said Colton. “I hope they mop the floor with you and your
goons.”

“
The prisoners know that
if they lash out, I will kill everyone in this
compound.”

Colton looked into her eyes, searching
for a hint that she was bluffing. He could find none. She had the
ruthless look of a girl detached from her own humanity—void of
sympathy and love.

He looked past her into the hallway. A
brief thought of running for it crossed his mind.

Kamiko smiled as if she were reading
his thoughts. “If I find you missing, I will torture everyone you
left behind until you return—or until they are dead.”

“
You’re going to kill us
anyway,” said Colton.

She shook her head and some of her
hair fell in front of her face. “Not true. As long as I get what I
want.”

“
What do you
want?”

“
I want you all to behave
while I finish my work so I can tell Alistair how you were all good
little boys and girls. And I want you to tell me where I can find
Haven Kincaid.”

Colton almost told her Alistair was
dead, but didn’t think it was wise to correct her. “I don’t know
what you’re talking about,” he said.

Kamiko smiled without humor. “There’s
another lie. I know she lives in this facility. I know she left
recently, but I don’t know her destination. If you tell me, I
promise that no one will die.”

“
She went to visit her
grandma in Egypt,” said Colton. A fraction of his strength returned
and solidified into hard defiance.

Kamiko lifted her chin and looked down
at him. The little amount of light in her eyes disappeared
completely. She turned and walked to the door. “You will follow me
now,” she said quietly. The soldier reappeared. He nodded his head
in the direction of the hallway and pointed his rifle at Colton’s
chest.

Colton stood slowly, fighting the
dizziness that clouded his head. He left his room and followed
after Kamiko. The soldier stayed right behind him, brushing
Colton’s heels with his steel-toed boots. Kamiko led them down the
hallway, her silhouette swaying from side to side with the fluid
movements of a predatory cat on the prowl.

She led him out to the dome room.
Soldiers just like the one from Colton’s room were stationed all
around the massive, circular area. Two stood before the heavy door
to the freight elevator which led up to the garage—the garage that
was now presumably collapsed after the earlier assault. More men
patrolled the balcony that half-encircled the room, their insectoid
eye-shields looking robotically from person to person.

Dormer stood at the railing on the
second-tier platform, looking down at Colton. He gripped the
railing firmly with bone-white knuckles. His brother Adsen lay on a
cot next to him. One of the soldiers stood over Adsen, probing his
temples with some kind of medical instrument. Colton saw no sign of
Marius or Corva.

Kamiko walked to the middle of the
dome room and stopped near the crashed fan that used to spin far up
in the ceiling, at the very apex of the dome. She beckoned to a
soldier and he walked over quickly, pushing Noah Kincaid before
him. Kamiko took Noah’s arm and pulled him to her, then let go as
if disgusted by his presence.

“
Haven’s brother,” she
said, studying Colton’s face. He hoped he was giving no indication
that she was right. “There’s something about him,” continued
Kamiko. “Something we can’t quite figure out.”

“
I’m not going to help
you,” said Colton.

Kamiko went on as if he hadn’t spoken.
“He’s not immune, but the disease isn’t working on him the same
way.” She waited for Colton to take the bait.

“
What disease?” he asked
at last.

“
The virus we injected
into everyone here.”

“
Virus?”

“
Don’t look so stupid,
Colton. You’re infected. Look at your arms.”

Colton didn’t need to. He clearly
remembered the black veins beneath his skin.

“
But this little guy,”
said Kamiko, “this little guy is special. The virus is working much
more slowly on his system. He’s a fighter.” She knelt down next to
Noah and pinched his nose playfully, then winked at him. “Aren’t
you, little fella?” She patted his cheek a little too hard and
stood up. “I think he’s the Nova that escaped from Bernam’s
lab.”

Colton had to look away to hide his
surprise. No one outside of a few people at the Dome was supposed
to know that. There was no way to know what someone might do to a
boy like Noah if they learned he was a hybrid. Bernam had already
cut him open to study his insides, and Haven and Colton both vowed
they would never let anything like that happen to him
again.

“
That’s what I thought,”
said Kamiko. A brief smile touched her lips and then disappeared
just as quickly.

“
I never told you
anything!” said Colton loudly. He lunged for Kamiko but the soldier
behind him grabbed Colton’s shoulder and clamped down on him like a
vise.

“
You didn’t have to,” said
Kamiko. Dark blue flame ignited in her eyes as she studied Noah. “I
would guess he is far too young to display any abilities.” She spun
him around, as if she would find a switch that would activate his
hybrid power. “Pity.”

“
I want my sister,” said
Noah quietly. He was trying his best to be brave, but he could only
pretend for so long.

“
She’s not coming for you,
little Nova,” said Kamiko. Noah began to cry. “No one is coming for
you.” She turned to Colton. “And if you don’t help me, none of you
will leave this place alive.”

11

H
aven found the black sedan waiting for her on the third floor
of the parking structure. She unzipped her backpack again to hunt
for the keys and her finger brushed against something
cold—something she hadn’t noticed while hunting for the gummy
bears. She pulled out a small black box. It was a perfectly sealed
plastic cube. Haven frowned as she studied it, then she realized
what it was.

She quickly threw the tracking device
over the railing of the parking structure and watched it shatter to
pieces on the ground below.

“
It’s too late,” said a
voice behind her. She reeled around, already reaching deep within
for her energy. She breathed a sigh of relief when Bastian stepped
out of the shadows with his hands raised calmly. Roku appeared
behind him but stayed half in the darkness at the back of the
parking structure. Bastian smiled. “Sorry, Haven, but we had to
follow you.”

“
You put it in my backpack
at the airport,” she said. “You’re a real jerk.”

He looked genuinely hurt. “We have to
find the Dome. If you won’t go with us, then getting help from your
friends is the only way to stop Alistair.” He took a step toward
Haven and she backed away.

She looked out of the parking garage
at the city of Bozeman and thought it over. “A good friend once
told me that the Dome was open to everyone like us,” said Haven.
“They wouldn’t turn away anyone who needed help.”

“
That’s right,” said
Bastian.

“
But not the kind of help
you need. You want to ask my friends to follow you and die trying
to kill a man who has turned himself into a
monster—
if
he’s
even still alive.”

“
He’s alive,” said
Bastian. “I’m certain about that, Haven.”

She stepped toward the railing at the
edge of the third level, checking for ways to quickly escape if the
situation went bad. “What happened in Chicago?” she asked. “How did
you get away from the thin man?”

“
I’m strong on my own,”
said Bastian. He nodded toward Roku. “But we’re stronger together.
That’s the whole idea in getting help to go after Alistair. The
longer we wait, the more people will die.”

Haven looked at him warily. She had
the distinct feeling he was holding something back. “Is Roku your
counterpart?”

Bastian laughed. “You mean Mr.
‘Rock-You’ over there?”

Roku grit his teeth,
keenly aware that Bastian was poking fun at his expense.
“Row-
koo
,” he
said, pronouncing his name phonetically.

Bastian rolled his eyes. “I know how
to say it. I’ve said it a thousand times, right? It’s just a bit of
fun, Rock. But to answer your question,” he said, turning back to
Haven, “no. I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting my Conduit yet.”
He winked at her. “Got any sisters?”