The Forbidden Trilogy (46 page)

"Yeah, I guess. Of course, we
are
related to
the Seeker. That's bad enough. And— Oh crap! My father is the evil mastermind
behind this whole organization. Isn't that what the Seeker implied? Daddy
Dearest is behind all this? Oh my God, Drake, does this make
me
evil?"

'You, my love, could never be evil. It's a choice, not a
birthright. You are who you choose to be.'

Those words sounded good, in theory, but in reality I was a
designer test tube baby, made from God-knew-what bits and pieces. Those parts
could have been custom-made, Grade-A evil, and I'd never know until it was too
late.

"Drake, I don't know how long we have before he
clamps down on our power. I wish I knew what to do to fix all of this."

He sat up and held my eyes with his.
'I have an idea, but
I'm not sure you'll like it.'

"What?"

'Mary. We mind-jack her and use her to escort us out as
though the Seeker had ordered it. We find Luke and Lucy and help them with
their get-out-of-jail-alive plan.'

"You're right. I don't like it."

'Can you think of anything else? Anything we can do to
save your friends, and not die in the process?'

Unfortunately, I couldn't. I thought about what the
professor and Father Patrick had both said about morality. Could mind control
be just a tool, to be used for good or evil? And if Mary was already under the
control of the Seeker, couldn't this actually benefit her in the long run?

"Okay, we can try it, but carefully. We don't know
what damage he's already done to her."

With the mind link already in place, we scanned for Mary. I
knew her signature and found her easily—she was just outside our room.

I expected a wall to block us out, but she had something
else going on inside her mind. Rather than a shield to keep others out, what I
felt was more like an energy source attached to her mind, growing into it.

It meant the difference between a demolition and brain
surgery. It also meant a seriously high risk to her and us.

'We have to at least try, Sam. We have no other way out.'

"I'll see if I can pry the other energy off her mind
without damaging her, but if it looks too dangerous, we're pulling out."

Tendrils of power brushed against mine. Rather than bash my
way in as I normally would, I surrounded each tendril with my own power and
ever so gently brushed it aside.

The whiplash slammed into my mind so hard I nearly tumbled
off the couch. Pain pierced through my eyelids and blurred my vision.

Mary's mind remained unchanged.

"Drake, I can't do this. That thing is attached to
her for good. We could kill her, or ourselves, trying to get it off."

'Let me try, just once. I'll be careful.'

He used the same approach, but instead of picking pieces to
pull away, he created a cocoon around the entire power source before pulling
back.

Blinding white light. Fierce and fiery pain.
"Drake,
stop! You're killing her."

'I'm nearly there, and it's our last hope.'

I could feel pain flood his brain, but he ignored it,
unwilling to let go.

"No. You can't. She's innocent. We can't risk
it."

He didn't stop.

I felt her mind splinter into fragments.

Her pain swam through me. Her confusion and fear, her anger
and her hopelessness—it all hit me.

Heat flared in my belly. I felt my baby's power activate and
merge with mine, pushing away my own pain and compounding my power until it
swelled bigger and stronger and brighter than ever. No longer in control or
fully aware, I knew only that I had to save Mary, an innocent, from being
destroyed. Too many had already died to save us.

My power coiled inside me, coalescing into one great ball of
unfathomable force, and I knew I could no longer pull it back, no longer stop
what I had started. It needed a release, a command in which to dissipate, and
so I gave it the only one I had to give.
"Drake.
Stop, now!"

As though someone had taken scissors and severed the connection
between us, my mind emptied of everyone but myself. A loneliness I could have
never imagined swept through me and settled into my heart, cracking it into
shards of pain. I slumped forward and cried out.

Drake tumbled forward off the loveseat, and his head hit the
floor.

My mind probe revealed no trace of Mary, and when I tried to
connect with Drake, I couldn't.

And not in the power-on-the-fritz way.

Somewhere inside me, somehow, I knew.

I had destroyed his power permanently.

And he would never forgive me.

Ever.

"You'll never get away with this. You have no idea what
kind of power you're messing with." Mr. Black's voice grated on Lucy's
last nerve.

She jabbed him in the ribs with her fist. "Shut
up."

Students marched toward the front gate, following her and
Mr. Black.

Like an avenging army of gods, they destroyed everything in
their path. Gary pulled a metal and glass building apart, and threw it into a
crowd of guards who'd aimed their guns into the crowd.

Luke followed behind Lucy as close as he could, worry and
fear lining his face. She could feel the field of power her brother formed
around her for protection.

Another group of guards surrounded the students and fired.
Luke raised his hands and conjured a giant force field against the bullets.

A warm glow of power pulsed from the sphere in Lucy's
backpack. Though no one else appeared to notice, the students around her lost
the weariness and fear that had plagued them since their earlier attempt to
break free. They stood taller and stronger, their energies renewed.

Gary stood next to Luke, who dropped his shield for a split
second, and sent the bullets flying back toward the guns that fired them. The
group of guards fell, killed by their own bullets.

A guard that had managed to slip inside Luke's field charged
Lucy. Gary used his power to fling the soldier's gun to the side, but his aim
was off and it crashed into a propane tank and exploded in a shower of fiery
light. The guard flew back from the impact and landed, unconscious, to the
ground.

Lucy shook uncontrollably even as she tried to press the gun
to Mr. Black's head. Everywhere around her the world erupted in chaos and
death. Righteous revolutions were supposed to be victorious and moral, not
bloody and horrifying.

The kid with ice power, Larry, ran to the flames from the
explosion. He held his hands to the fire, but nothing happened.

What little confidence the rebel students had diminished
with their powers. No one had any, and so went their tactical advantage.

A cold emptiness filled Lucy where once the sphere had
warmed her. It no longer pulsed. Like all the powers around her, the sphere was
blocked.

Mr. Lancaster and a few other teachers intervened to defend
the students as the guards rushed in to beat them. Like true cowards, they only
bullied and abused the defenseless and weak, preying on those who couldn't
fight back.

Some students panicked and ran away from the gates. Others
wrestled with the guards, or threw rocks in misguided attempts to defend themselves.
Before Lucy could react or respond, a young girl, no more than thirteen, fell
to the ground in a lifeless heap. Carey. She had the power to make things grow,
and now she lay dead with blood pooling around her.

And more followed. For every student who stood fighting,
another lay dead at their feet.

Lucy screamed as bullets that had been held by Luke's force
field now shot through the air and hit their targets. "Luke! Get out of
the way!"

She pulled her gun away from Mr. Black long enough to take aim
at a guard firing at them. Her bullet found its target, eliminating one threat
but leaving so many others. She pressed the gun back into Mr. Black before he
tried to get away, and repressed the fact that she had just killed a man. She
didn't have time to let the horror of it all hit her.

Mr. Black sneered. "Still think you're going to escape,
bitch?"

Lucy may have underestimated the Seeker's powers, but she
refused to give up.

She forced Mr. Black to walk the last few feet to the gate.
Guards lay beaten on the ground or had already fled their post.

"The party's not over yet, you bastard. We're still
getting out of here, and I still have a loaded gun to your head."

The distance between us had never been so vast. Oceans and
countries could settle in the space and we'd still have room to move.

And to cry.

What felt like hours had passed, and the tears kept coming.
Blame the hormones or the whole being captured thing, but none of that mattered
anymore. Every few minutes, with the tenacity of an OCD victim, I tested my
mental link with Drake.

Nothing.

He breathed with a steady rhythm on the floor. I couldn't
move him, and he wouldn't move himself. He didn't sleep, he didn't talk, he
didn't do anything except lie there. No amount of coercion could get him to so
much as look at me.

But I couldn't give up. "Drake, it might not be
permanent. I mean, everyone's powers are spurting on and off. It could be
temporary. Please, just say something."

Finally, he moved into a sitting position. "Don't you
think I can tell the difference? It's like you tore a limb from my body or
removed a vital organ. It's not inactive. It's gone. Completely gone, Sam. It's
not coming back."

His once loving eyes had hardened over with anger. His features
no longer resembled the man I loved.

I kicked the wall in frustration. I was so done with this.
The
Seeker will tell me what I want to know—no more nice Sam.

The Seeker's mental signature blared forth like a beacon of
light to ships lost at sea. I used my most commanding internal voice.
"We
need to talk."

His mental voice sounded amused.
'We are talking, little
sister.'

"In person."

The silence lingered beyond what was comfortable, but I
waited.

'I shall send someone to escort you.'

On the last syllable of his thought, the door to our room
opened and revealed a guard.
'Please do not harm him. You will not be able
to reach his mind, but trying would only do to him what was done to poor Mary.'

Guilt sloshed inside my gut like sickness, but I ignored it,
or tried to, until I saw her.

Mary lay crumpled by the door, blood oozing from her nose
and ears.

What had we done? I had destroyed Drake to save her, and
still I had failed.

I stumbled at the sight, and the guard caught my arm and led
me through the building and into the library. This room, too, had only
candlelight for illumination. With so many books lining the walls, I would've
thought they'd avoid the whole fire thing.

My eyes adjusted in increments to the low lighting, until I
could see the Seeker sitting in an overstuffed chair with his feet propped up
on an ottoman. I took the seat across from him, my spine rigid with fear.

His voice had an ethereal quality to it. "You have been
crying. Are you hurt?"

He closed his eyes. A presence, like a ghost or a cold wind,
swept through my mind and was gone before I could block it.

"No, not hurt. Not physically, at any rate. You have
had a falling out with my brother. Let it not worry you, my dear. Time heals
all wounds, even those of the heart."

I held his pale gaze. His face betrayed his illness; I
would've seen it even if I hadn't felt it in him. Sunken cheeks and dark
circles around his eyes—death stalked him.

"I want to know everything. Tell me about our...
father." The word stuck in my throat, but I forced past it. "And
about this organization. Why are you doing this? Why are you hurting so many
kids?"

"Hurting? My dear Sam, we are saving these kids from a
life of testing and scorn, from a society that does not appreciate the genetic
advances of our kind. As I told your friend Lucy—"

"You talked to Lucy? What did you do to her? Is she
okay?"

"I did nothing but speak with her. She is a remarkable
girl with amazing gifts of her own. I can see why she is your best friend. I
explained this all to her, or the parts she needed to know, at least. She is
not family, so I could not tell her everything. But you, my dear, you are
primed to help our father run the next generation of this Organization. We are
the next evolution of humans. That baby you carry is key."

As if on cue, she kicked inside me. My hand hovered over my
belly protectively. "What do you mean, she is the key?"

"Have you not figured it out yet? Genetic mutations
such as ours are natural, but flawed. We are at the forefront of a shifting
genetic pool from which Darwin's fittest will emerge. But we are no longer at
the mercy of unseen gods to propel us forward. We now have the god of science
to speed along the process. We have discovered a way to breed out the
weaknesses of our kind, and breed into them the best of all powers.

"You were our first successful venture, but we knew we
could do better. Combining the genetic material of our father, you, me, Drake,
his mother, and some extra ingredients for fun, we created your child, the
being you call Ana. What a quaint name, by the way. A lovely way of honoring the
woman who helped you escape. Quite a nuisance that was, but it is in the past.
We shall think nothing more of it."

The Seeker's madness had escalated to grandiose ambitions of
taking over humanity, and yet our father stood at the head of this insane
scheme. Was he even madder than the Seeker? What kind of genetic material had
shaped me and my child?