The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (45 page)

Haven looked away, into the desert.
“Yes,” she said. “Like that.”

She suddenly reached out for him and
drew him close. Her mouth found his and they kissed, softly and
deeply, and Colton felt warmth bloom in his chest. His lips burned
and he stepped away. Haven put her fingers to her lips and moved
them through the light blue flame that wavered back and forth. The
skin of her entire body was alight with a layer of flames unlike
any Colton had ever seen. They shimmered back and forth in
beautiful harmony, like a field of tall grass in a strong, shifting
wind.

He touched his own lips and felt a
small burn mark. “They took my ability,” he said. “They took
everyone’s.” Physical contact had not been an issue between them
until that moment, even though it had been confined to long hugs
and holding hands. Once, while they hugged, Colton had brushed
Haven’s cheek with his own and held it there, pressed against her
soft skin until the blue flames ignited and flowed out from her and
onto him. But it hadn’t burned—not like the kiss had burned. He had
been able to absorb the flames and not feel a thing. Without his
Conduit ability, his skin would burn with every kiss.

“
We were just getting
started,” whispered Haven. Her eyes filled with tears as the
calmness in her face was replaced with anger. She took a step
toward the jagged hole. Shouts echoed up from the floor
below.

Bastian reached out and grabbed her
arm. “There’s a cure,” he said. “Alistair designed the virus, and
he made sure there was a cure in case he accidentally got
infected.”

Marius, who had sat forgotten in the
background, grunted loudly and got to his feet. “We will get it,”
he said, as if it were that simple. “Then we come back to save the
day.” He brushed sand from his pants and looked at the others with
his eyebrows raised. “Well?”

Colton looked at Haven
expectantly.

“
I made a promise,” she
said, more to herself than to Colton.

“
You promised Elena you
would try to keep everyone in the Dome safe. The best way for you
to do that is to find the cure. We’re powerless without
it.”

She reached up to touch his cheek but
blue flame sprouted from her palm. She clenched her fist in anger
and turned away from him. “We’ll return as soon as we can,” she
said. Without looking back, she walked off into the
darkness.

Bastian slapped Colton’s shoulder.
“We’ll sort it out, mate. Say, you don’t get many scorpions around
here, do ye?”

Colton looked at him and
blinked.

“
Thought not,” said
Bastian. He smiled with relief and patted Colton on the back, then
followed after Haven.

Roku walked past Colton and stopped.
He looked down into the jagged hole of the dome room, the muscles
in his jaw working. With reluctance, he followed the
others.

Marius stood next to Colton. “Why you
didn’t tell me you were staying?”

“
I thought you wouldn’t
climb the ladder if you knew the truth.”

“
Maybe so.” He sighed.
“Don’t worry, I look out for Haven.”

“
And I’ll look out for
Corva.”

Marius smiled sadly. He hitched his
belt a little higher around his protruding belly and set off across
the sand. The four silhouettes receded into the shadows until their
outlines disappeared. A moment later, Colton heard the low whine of
a helicopter motor and the slow spin of its blades cutting the
air.

He went back to the hole and sat on
the edge. He waited until the helicopter lifted off the ground and
flew away into the night. The small blinking lights on the tail
grew dimmer and dimmer, and Colton felt Haven drifting farther and
farther away.

When he could no longer feel her
presence, he leaned over the lip of the hole and banged loudly
against the metal edge with his fist.

“
Hey!” he shouted. The
soldiers’ heads snapped up and they looked right at him. “Missing
somebody?”

Kamiko glared up at him from the dome
room balcony, blue lightning shooting out like whips to lick at his
feet. Colton smiled and rolled onto his back in the dirt. There was
no way he was climbing back down the ladder. Let them come and get
him, if they could. He put his hands behind his head and spent his
last few moments of precious freedom looking up at the distant
stars.

17

T
he helicopter thumped low and quiet across the night desert.
There was a silencing system built into the craft that muffled the
loud
whup-whup-whup
of the blades, presumably to allow for stealth approaches and
deployment.

The moon had finally risen and peeked
just over the horizon, shining bright and full and painting long
shadows over the small rocky hills and hard-packed dirt. It did not
reflect against the exterior of the chopper, which had been painted
flat black with no identifying marks. The paint seemed to absorb
the moonlight and created the illusion that a black hole was
floating over the desert. The chopper flew so low that swirls of
sand puffed out on the ground below as Marius piloted the craft
away from the Dome.

It looked like a giant wasp flying
toward its prey. The body of the chopper was segmented near the
back and gave the craft an insectoid appearance. Two long, heavy
guns protruded from the front of chopper below bulbous black
windows that looked like giant eyes. The overall impression was
that of intimidation and malice.

Marius mumbled to himself from the
pilot’s seat and reached up to flip a red switch that blinked
quickly. As soon as he flipped it, the chopper shuddered and
dropped a few feet in the air. The twin landing rails attached to
the belly of the chopper momentarily scraped the desert
floor.

Bastian let out a scared yelp and
everyone in the chopper scrambled for a handhold. Haven wrapped her
hands around a thick strap of nylon that was bolted to the wall
next to the door.

“
Are you sure you know how
to fly this thing?!” shouted Bastian toward the front of the
chopper. He sat in one of the six black seats lining the back
section of the craft, right before the body segmented and dipped
down toward the tail rotor. Even with the silencing system, the
cabin of the chopper was obnoxiously loud.

“
Pah!” said Marius from
the pilot’s seat. “Put wings on a cow and Marius could fly it.” He
reached over his head and flipped another switch. The aircraft
smoothed out and ascended to its original cruising altitude. Marius
looked back at Haven and winked right before another shudder ran
through the chopper. He gripped the steering column firmly with
both hands and turned away to focus on flying.

He had explained that staying low to
the ground was a good way to avoid being detected by enemy radar; a
trick he had learned during his military time in Russia. Haven was
less worried about enemy radar and more worried about enemy
tracking devices. They had all performed a cursory check as soon as
the chopper lifted off the ground, but of course had found nothing.
Haven wasn’t surprised. If there was a tracking device on board, it
would be buried deep within the craft’s circuitry and nearly
impossible to disable without ripping the instrument panels to
pieces.

Marius banked the chopper to the left
and Haven looked back in the direction of the Dome. She saw a tiny
light on the desert floor—the hole that led down into the dome
room. There were no headlights between the chopper and the Dome—no
pursuing vehicles that she could see.

“
So where we go, anyway?”
asked Marius.

Bastian released the death grip he had
on his seat and walked to the front of the chopper. The electronics
on the instrument panel glowed bright green and painted his face a
sickly color as he shakily sat down in the copilot’s chair. He
spoke to Marius in hushed tones, and a moment later Marius changed
course and headed east.

Roku sat across from Haven quietly,
studying her. She returned his stare and he looked away
slowly.

“
Where are we going?”
asked Haven.

Bastian turned around in the copilot’s
chair. “There’s a facility two hundred miles east of here. We think
it’s a manufacturing plant for the Fade virus.”

“
How do you know it’s
there?”

He grinned. “Mr. Skinny
told us at the airport after some…hmm…
convincing
. He’s actually quite nice
when he’s not trying to murder you.”

“
Is Alistair
there?”

Bastian shook his head. “I doubt it,
unless we get really lucky. Hopefully someone at the facility will
know more.” He turned back around and Marius handed him a set of
headphones. Bastian pulled them over his head and tapped the small
microphone next to his mouth. Marius had on a matching pair and
spoke to Bastian quickly. He pointed to an instrument panel in
front of the copilot’s chair and Bastian flipped a couple of
switches and turned a dial. Marius nodded and settled back into his
seat.

Haven looked at Roku. His face was
sternly set, as if he were forever struggling to make the hardest
decision of his life. He didn’t notice when Haven got up and sat in
the seat next to him.

“
What’s wrong?” she asked.
He flinched in surprise and his trance was broken. “I’m sorry,” she
said quickly. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“
You didn’t scare me,” he
said. “I was thinking.”

Bastian turned in his copilot’s seat.
He watched the two of them for a moment. Haven thought she saw
either jealousy or caution in his eyes. He turned away and spoke to
Marius.

“
The memory you shared
with me,” said Haven to Roku, “was it from your home
town?”

His frown deepened and he shifted
uncomfortably in his chair. Finally, he nodded. “I didn’t want to
show you, but there was no other way for you to see.”

“
I’m sorry you had to
share something so personal,” said Haven.

He looked at her briefly, and he
looked surprised that she understood his pain.

“
My family was taken from
me as well,” she continued. “I only have my brother,
Noah.”

“
Did you get
revenge?”

Haven thought for a moment. The image
of Lee jumping to his death from a building in Chicago flashed
across her mind. “In a way.”

“
No, you didn’t,” said
Roku. “I can read it on your face.”

“
The ones who burned our
homes are dead.”

“
But not the one who told
them to do it,” said Roku. “Alistair.” His teeth clenched and his
hand balled into hard fists when he spoke the name.

“
That’s the main reason
you’re here, isn’t it?” asked Haven. “It’s not really about finding
a cure for the virus or anything else so noble.”

“
There are many reasons I
am here.”

Haven chose her next words carefully.
“You and Bastian knew Alistair was looking for the Dome. You knew
he wanted to infect everyone inside.”

“
We suspected. He has been
using the virus against our kind for months. The Dome seemed like a
logical target, but we didn’t know where it was. Then we saw you at
the airport and knew it was our chance to catch up with Alistair.
We failed to convince you of the real danger.”

Haven looked away. There was no way
she could have known whether Roku and Bastian were really trying to
help. Her one thought at the time was keeping the Dome safe along
with everyone inside.

“
We hoped we could get
there first,” said Roku. “To stop Kamiko from releasing the virus.
I am truly sorry we could not.”

She turned away, unable to stop tears
from welling in her eyes. “It’s fatal, isn’t it?” she asked. “The
virus.”

“
Everyone who has been
infected has died.”

“
Is it
contagious?”

“
We don’t think so. The
virus must be directly injected into your bloodstream.”

“
How long before it kills
you?”

“
It varies. We’ve seen
anything from one week to several months. It always strips your
abilities before it moves on to attack the rest of your body.
Sometimes that only takes hours, and other times, days. It attacks
your immune system, slowly at first. After your abilities are
completely wiped out, it works faster. Eventually your organs shut
down, and—”

“
I get the picture,”
interrupted Haven. “How do you know there’s a cure?”

Roku said nothing.

“
It’s okay,” shouted
Bastian from the front seat. “Tell her.”

Roku looked at him and Bastian
nodded.

“
Tell me what?” asked
Haven.

“
Bastian worked for
Alistair,” said Roku.

“
I thought he said he
worked with you at Helix.”

“
I worked for Helix alone.
Bastian is still ashamed to admit the truth, even though it is
obvious his heart was never with Alistair’s cause.”

“
I know something about
that,” said Haven, thinking of Colton and his temporary,
manipulated allegiance to Alistair and Bernam. “When did Bastian
work for Alistair?”