The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (64 page)

“
Already what?” asked
Kamiko.

“
Nothing,” said Colton.
“It was nothing.”

She eyed him suspiciously.

“
So,” he continued, “what
do you think Alistair’s going to do with you when he finds out you
didn’t improve the virus?”

Kamiko shrugged and inspected her
fingernails. “I’m not worried about it.”

“
You
should
be.”

“
He needs me,” she
said.

“
But for how long? What
happens when his charity runs out?”

“
I’ll be long gone by
then.” She crossed her arms and glared at him. “So what is your
answer?”

“
Answer for
what?”

Anger flashed quickly over her face.
“Will you stay?”

Colton sighed and looked up at the
ceiling. “Nah,” he said at last, then looked into Kamiko’s eyes.
“I’m in love with somebody else—the person you were looking for the
moment you set foot in the Dome. I don’t know how many girls with
blue flame you killed before you started looking for Haven, but I
promise that you’ll never get your hands on her as long as I’m
around.”

Dark blue fire ignited from Kamiko’s
skin and swept over her body as if she had been doused with
kerosene and set ablaze. Her eyes looked like swirling pits of blue
lava. The energy coursing through her body was so intense that
Colton could see the outline of her bones through her glowing blue
skin.

She stood, fists clenched, and leaned
over him. He backed away from the heat. It burned his eyes and made
him sweat. The table he was sitting on burst into flames. He kicked
it away and fell to the floor.

Over in the command
center, there was a
ping
, and a soft, mechanical voice
said, “Proximity…alert. Proximity…alert.”

Kamiko smiled down at Colton and tiny
bolts of lightning crackled over her teeth. “You were
saying?”

40

T
he black tower loomed ahead, thrust upward from the desert
like a spear. Dormer drove the Jeep straight toward the building.
None of the four passengers had said a word since they left the
Dome. Haven rode in the passenger’s seat and tried not to think
that Colton might be dead. Roku and Bastian sat in the back, each
absorbed in their own thoughts.

A heavy weight of seriousness had
settled over all of them when the black building first appeared on
the horizon. It had been built atop the ruins of the blocky,
mirrored headquarters of Bernam, Alistair’s old boss. Haven and
Alistair had destroyed that building in a vicious fight—a fight
that should have killed him.

The top of the tower glinted in the
sunlight like a beacon, calling Haven to her fate, whatever that
might be. Two Sources and two Conduits—each of the others among the
strongest she’d ever met— should be more than enough to handle
Kamiko.

Then why are you so
nervous?
thought Haven.

She didn’t have an answer. All she had
were sweaty palms and a fluttering stomach. She wanted to get
everything over with so she could go back to the Dome and sit with
Colton under the Grove willow. He was the one who had suggested the
correct way to bring the floating blue lights into existence,
although she hadn’t had a chance to tell him yet. Haven and Colton
had wandered out to the willow tree late one night to pay their
respects to Elena. Afterward, they ended up sitting at the edge of
the teardrop pond under the willow, and Colton offered one of his
many suggestions on how to create the lights. Haven had returned to
the pond the next day and was surprised to find that he had finally
given her the answer. Hers couldn’t float up into the air like
Elena’s—not yet, anyway—but they could dance over the surface of
the pond like tiny blue fireflies.

Haven smiled and tried to keep the
warm memory at the forefront of her mind as she looked up at the
black building. She could see no obvious entrance at the base. It
appeared as if the entire bottom of the outer wall was a series of
pits and grooves, almost as if the architect had scooped out huge
pieces of material with an enormous spoon.

A plume of red sand erupted next to
the Jeep and a machine gun with a rotating barrel rose quickly from
the ground. The gun swung around to track the Jeep and the barrel
gave off a high-pitched drone as it spun to a blur.

“
Sentry guns!” shouted
Bastian. He stood up in the back seat and stuck his arms out toward
the long barrel of the gun. Bright yellow orbs of plasma grew from
his shoulders and moved quickly down to his closed fists. He
slammed his fists together and a jet of molten energy shot out
toward the gun. The sentry gun managed to fire off a single bullet.
It sank into the side of the Jeep with a loud
THONK
right before the stream of
energy hit the barrel of the gun and liquefied the
metal.

“
So much for the surprise
attack,” said Bastian. He sat down in the back seat and the yellow
orbs shrank and disappeared into his hands.

“
How do we get in?” asked
Haven.

Dormer drove the Jeep up to the base
of the building and circled it slowly, looking for a door. Another
gun popped out of the ground ahead of them but Haven was quick
enough to hit it before it rose all the way up. A quick burst of
blue plasma and the gun was a glowing puddle of liquid
metal.

“
We might have to make our
own entrance,” said Dormer.

He drove past a deep groove at the
base of the building and a door suddenly swung inward. Dormer hit
the brakes and the four of them sat there, staring into a dark
hallway.

“
I don’t know about that,”
said Bastian.

“
She is very treacherous,”
said Roku. “We should be careful.”

Haven looked up at the building. The
surface was smooth all the way to the top—there was no way to climb
high enough to get to a vulnerable window for access, if there were
any vulnerable windows at all.

“
I don’t think we have
much choice,” she said.

“
You go first, then,” said
Bastian with a grin.

“
I’ll go first,” said
Dormer. He got out of the Jeep and approached the door. The others
followed and stood close behind as he leaned over the threshold and
squinted down the dark hallway. He took a few hesitant steps
inside.

Haven walked past the door and looked
up. “Tall ceiling,” she said. “Security cameras. Kamiko definitely
knows we’re here.”

“
Of course I do,” said
Kamiko from above. Haven and the others jumped at the sound and
looked up quickly. Speakers embedded in the walls of the hallway
played a tinny, metallic version of Kamiko’s voice. “I hope the
trip was worth it,” she said with obvious amusement. “It will be
the last journey you’ll ever make. Well, not including death, of
course.”

“
She had to spell it out
for us,” said Bastian, shaking his head.

“
Where’s Colton?!” shouted
Haven.

There was a pause. Then, “Why don’t
you come and see? I’ll be waiting.”

The speakers went silent.

Dormer led them farther down the
hallway. When they were about halfway, a distant whirring noise
came down from high above their heads.

“
That sounds familiar…”
said Bastian.

Haven looked up and saw the small
objects between the security cameras on the ceiling. “Run!” she
screamed.

The guns in the ceiling opened fire.
Bullets rained down from above, hitting the floor and ricocheting
back and forth between the walls. The surfaces of the hallway had
been intentionally lined with bulletproof material and the bullets
easily bounced off, as if they were made of rubber.

“
Stay close!” shouted
Dormer.

Haven huddled against his back as he
ran forward. Her eyes were only open for a part of the time, and
she caught glimpses of bullets sparking off the walls and then
bouncing away inches in front of her face. Suddenly Dormer stopped
and Haven nearly pushed him over as her momentum carried her
forward. The guns stopped firing and the last of the bullets
clattered to the ground. Dormer put his hands on Haven’s shoulders
until she steadied.

They were at the end of the long
hallway. Bastian stood by a closed, black door and quickly patted
down his entire body, looking for holes. “Hah!” he said, then
slapped Roku on the back. He nodded at Dormer. “That did the trick,
didn’t it?”

The door behind him opened and he was
yanked out of the hallway, his eyes wide with terror. He left a
yellow stream of energy in his wake, which flowed through the air
like a snake into the next room.

“
No!” screamed
Roku.

He lunged forward to grab Bastian, but
it was already too late.

41

H
aven hurried through the doorway and into an enormous
circular room with a vaulted ceiling that ran unobstructed all the
way to the top of the building. Across the room and up a small
flight of stairs, Colton sat chained to a chair. A thick strip of
black tape covered his mouth. He saw Haven and shook against the
chains as he struggled to free himself.

Kamiko hovered in the air thirty feet
off the ground, suspended over the middle of the room by long
strands of lightning that extended from her back and arced down to
the floor. She held Bastian in front of her like a rag doll. His
body was limp in her hands. Two strands of lightning extended from
her shoulders and burrowed into his temples. He moaned softly and
turned his head away.

Roku pushed past Haven and raised his
fists. Haven joined him, allowing her energy to flow to her hands,
ready for release.

Kamiko’s eyes sparked with lightning.
She brought back her arm as if she meant to throw a baseball, only
what she threw was a ball of lightning the size of a small car.
Dormer grabbed Haven’s arm and tried to pull her back but it was
too late. The ball of lightning flew through the air and hit Haven
full-force. She was knocked backward to the ground, paralyzed as if
she had been hit with a giant taser gun. The lightning passed over
her and hit the wall, exploding the hallway door. Huge chunks of
metal and concrete burst into the room. Debris hit Roku and Dormer
from behind and pushed them to the floor. They struggled to get out
from under the heavy rubble.

The lightning around Haven died and
the room became just quiet enough to hear Bastian whisper, “I don’t
want to die.”

Kamiko held his chin in her hands and
turned his head until he was staring directly into her eyes. “Then
you shouldn’t have come here.” She opened her mouth in a silent
scream and blue energy poured out to envelop Bastian’s entire
body.

Roku stumbled to his feet. He banged
against a table as he tried to walk forward. Haven pushed herself
up and fell right back over. Her muscles were still jerking in
spasms from the lightning. Bastian screamed, and then there was
silence. Kamiko was alone in the air. Bastian was gone.

“
Who’s next?” said Kamiko.
She sounded bored.

Blue energy covered Haven’s body like
a new layer of skin. Kamiko smiled when she looked down and saw
Haven approaching. Then she noticed Roku circling around to the
other side of the room and her smile slowly faded. Roku looked up
at her with a mixture of hatred and love.

“
I never thought I’d see
you again,” said Kamiko. More strands of lightning grew out from
her back and grabbed onto the walls. She hovered lower, moving
toward Roku gracefully.

“
I always knew we would be
together,” said Roku. “One last time.”

She saw something in his face that
made her angry. She scowled at him and brilliant blue energy shot
out from her back and arced over her head. It crashed against
him—but he remained standing. The energy hit the center of his
chest and he absorbed all of it. A bright blue aura surrounded his
body as he walked toward Kamiko. She lowered herself closer to the
ground as he approached. Soon his eyes were as luminescent as
hers—two small blue stars emitting enough heat to melt
steel.

Haven tried to lift a large piece of
concrete on top of Dormer. He helped push up one corner and managed
to scoot out just before Haven lost her grip and let go. The
concrete slammed down to the floor, sending up a cloud of
dust.

Dormer coughed and pulled Haven closer
to him. “Hit her now,” he said. “We might not get another
chance.”

“
He’s her counterpart,”
said Haven. That was why Kamiko’s energy wasn’t vaporizing Roku
upon contact. They were a Source and a Conduit who had found each
other in the world—against all odds, they had once been
together.

Haven looked over at Colton. He
struggled helplessly against the heavy chains that bound him. She
wanted to run over and melt away the chains, but between them was
Kamiko, and Haven was sure she would never be able to reach him in
time. Faint blue fire sparked from his hands as he tried to use
some of Kamiko’s excess energy to melt the chains, but it wasn’t
working.

In the middle of the room, Roku and
Kamiko were almost touching. The energy she fired in his direction
shot up from him like a pillar of dark blue light. He walked toward
her with his fists clenched. His eyes of blue fire were hard and
unforgiving. For a fleeting moment, Kamiko’s face seemed to soften.
She looked suddenly tired and alone, like she had been lost for
years and had suddenly found her way back to her home.