The MORE Trilogy (53 page)

Ava felt nauseous as a wave of panic curdled her stomach. “You made him want to work with the Rogues?”

“I didn’t
want
to do it,” Emma said, pleading. “They made me. That’s why you have to let me come with you. I need to fix this. I can put Caleb back to the way he—” With a choked shriek, she flew backward and slammed against a tree.
 

It took Ava a moment to realize she’d done that. Her power enveloped her, feeding on her fear—her rage—and Emma stared blankly back at her, terror sparking tears in her eyes. The pounding of Ava’s heart echoed in her ears, blood rushing under her skin as her gift held Emma tight against the tree. She could hear Tiernan speaking to her in a low voice, but at first it was just a muddle—white noise under the screaming of her anger.
 

“Ava, let her go.”
 

She felt cool fingers against the heated skin of her wrist and blinked down at Tiernan’s hand carefully wrapped around it.
 

“She’s a victim here. Just like Caleb. Don’t hurt her.”

She looked up at him.

“You need to calm down,” he said. “Let her go.”
 

Ava took a deep breath . . . and another. Slowly, resentfully, her gift receded, and Emma slid down the tree into a shivering heap, curled up among the gnarled roots.
 

“I’m sorry,” Ava whispered. “I didn’t mean—”

“We need to talk about this later.” Tiernan reached down, and Emma shrank back. He rolled his eyes and offered her a hand, which she took at last, allowing him to haul her to her feet. “Jeep’s just over the rise,” he said, releasing Emma as he took off in long strides.
 

Ava and Emma followed behind at a distance, neither meeting the other’s eyes.

Once they’d finally reached the Jeep, Emma slid into the backseat and shrugged out of her coat. She pulled her legs up, wrapping her bony arms around her knees, and wiped at her nose with the back of her hand.
 

Ava looked through the windshield, ignoring Tiernan’s significant glances. It was only when they pulled out onto the main road that she finally sighed heavily and turned around to look at Emma. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I shouldn’t have done that back there. I know you didn’t hurt Caleb on purpose. It’s just that . . . Caleb is important to me. I need to make sure he’s all right.”

Emma unfolded her body and reached over the seat to touch Ava’s shoulder tentatively. “I can help you,” she said. “I will. I’ll undo what I did and he’ll be . . . Caleb again. The Caleb you know.”

Ava wasn’t sure that they had an alternative. If Emma changed Caleb, she’d have to change him back. Who knew if there was anyone else who could undo what she’d done, and it wasn’t as if they could spend the time looking.

“How long have you been with the Rogues?” Ava asked.

Emma sat back, resuming her curled up position as she looked out the window. “Since I was a little girl.”

“How old are you?”

“Seventeen. Almost eighteen,” she said the way seventeen-year-olds did, with a slight lift of her chin.
 

Ava smiled briefly. “And what you did to Caleb—did they make you do that to other people, too?”

Emma’s gaze darted back out the window as she swallowed thickly, her eyes fluttering closed. “They made me do a lot of things.”

“How?” Tiernan eyed her through the rearview mirror, ignoring Ava’s reproving look. “If you could do to Caleb what you say you did, why didn’t you fight back? Make them let you go?”

Despite her protective feelings toward the girl, Ava found herself almost breathless, waiting for the answer.

Emma picked at a loose thread on her sweater, avoiding Tiernan’s hostile gaze and Ava’s more concerned one. “They have ways,” she said, her voice low and almost brittle. “Drugs and . . . pain.” She rubbed at her temple, eyes drifting shut as if remembering something unpleasant, and when she opened them again, they were glazed and almost blank. “Let’s just say I’m not the only one able to affect someone’s mind. Maybe it makes me a coward, but after a while, I
 . . .
” She looked away and swallowed heavily.

Ava felt a rush of empathy for the girl and blinked back a prickling of tears. She swiped at her eyes and turned to Tiernan. “So, what now? Are you going to call Andreas again?”

Tiernan glared at her, with a significant jerk of his head toward the backseat. Obviously, he still didn’t trust Emma, regardless of what she said.
 

“We’re kind of in this together now, I think,” Ava said, barely resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “A little late for suspicions, don’t you think?”
 

Tiernan apparently got what Ava wasn’t saying—that if Emma had the power she said, she could have turned either of them over to the Rogues at any point. Really, if she could do what she said, and they had pretty good evidence that she could, she could have made them turn themselves in. Or even turned them Rogue.

Ava felt a bit nauseous at the thought. Still, it seemed apparent that they were on the same side. And she couldn’t get past the fact that they needed Emma if they were going to help Caleb.

Tiernan may not have been a mind reader, but it didn’t take him long to catch up with Ava’s train of thought. With a disgruntled noise, he picked up his phone and called Andreas.

Chapter 8

North. According to the sensor, they were to head north.
 

Tiernan clenched his jaw in frustration. He hated depending on Andreas and his super-sensor, but Caleb’s trail had disappeared before they’d reached the Jeep and he really had no alternative. Someone was helping Caleb evade them. Someone was covering his trail, and apparently, even masking his shifts, making it more difficult for the sensor to track him.

So . . . north.
That was the extent of their instructions.

“So what’s north?” Ava mused, half to herself. “Idaho, Wyoming, Montana
 . . .
”

“Canada,” Tiernan said when she paused. He might have imagined it, but he could have sworn Ava stiffened a bit at that. “What?” he asked.

Emma leaned forward over the seat. “I think Canada,” she said.

“Why do you say that?” Tiernan made a turn onto the highway and floored it. The Jeep shuddered in protest but slowly sped up.

“I overheard some of them talking,” she said. “They said something about Ontario.”

“Ontario?” Ava seemed nervous for some reason, and she avoided his gaze. “Why would they send Caleb to Ontario?”

Emma shrugged. “I don’t know. I didn’t hear much. They stayed away from me when they didn’t need me.”

Tiernan eyed Ava curiously, watching as she stared purposefully out the passenger window. “What is it?” he asked.

“Nothing.” She bit at a hangnail, frowned when it started to bleed, and an instant later was healed. “Kind of anxious about everything, you know?” She gave him a weak smile, and he let it go, even though he was far from convinced.

About an hour later, Tiernan pulled into a gas station and set the pump as Emma and Ava went inside for supplies. He pulled out his phone and dialed Andreas again.

“What is it?” The Council member didn’t seem happy to hear from him.

“We’ve picked up a passenger,” Tiernan said, keeping his eyes on Emma through the glass walls of the mini-mart. “She claims to be a Rogue prisoner with a particular gift for dealing with memories. She says she’s altered Caleb’s mind and wants to help us find him so she can undo what she’s done.

“I thought you’d want to know,” he said. “And maybe check her out.”

“I see,” Andreas said slowly. “And this girl’s name?”

“Emma Reiko.” Tiernan waited a beat, but got no response. “You heard of her? She said she’s been held by the Rogues since she was a child.”

“No. The name doesn’t ring a bell,” Andreas replied, but Tiernan could hear the tap of computer keys in the background. “I’ll look into it. In the meantime, keep the girl with you. It’s possible with such a gift she could prove useful to the Council. I don’t need to tell you how important it is to keep her away from these Rogues.”

“Understood.”

“She hasn’t influenced you, has she? Or Miss Michaels?”

“No, sir.” Of course, how could he be sure? Tiernan didn’t like that thought, so he put a bit more conviction in his voice. “My loyalty still lies with the Council, sir.”

“Good.” After a beat, Andreas asked, “And Ava?”

“Sorry?”

“Is her loyalty with the Council as well?”

Ava and Emma shoved open the mini-mart doors, carrying several bags and chatting quietly. “It’s no secret she has no love for the Council, sir.” He lowered his voice, hoping she couldn’t hear him. “But she’s no Rogue.”

“Very well,” Andreas said. “I’ll be in touch.”
 

Tiernan put his phone back in his pocket and grabbed a couple of bags from Ava, peeking inside. “No doughnuts?”

“Other one,” Ava replied, taking Emma’s bags so the girl could get into the Jeep. “You eat too much sugar, you know.”

Tiernan shrugged. “It tastes good.”

“But it’s bad for you.”

“Doesn’t matter,” he said, thumping his chest lightly. “Race, remember?”

Ava shook her head and got into the car. “You know, just because you
can
eat it, doesn’t mean you
should
.”

“Why not?” Tiernan took a little too much pleasure in watching her flounder for an answer.

“You just . . . you just shouldn’t!” she snapped at last, and Tiernan laughed as they pulled out of the parking lot and headed north.

It was late that night when they crossed the border from Montana into North Dakota. Despite the chilly temperatures, Ava sipped at an iced coffee—lukewarm and watery from sitting in the Jeep—while Tiernan finished off the last of the stale doughnuts. Emma lay curled up on her side in the backseat, sleeping peacefully, as she had been for the past few hours.
 

Ava yawned and noisily slurped up the last of the coffee, ignoring Tiernan’s annoyed huff as she stuffed the empty cup into the bag they’d deemed for trash. She’d picked up a disposable cell phone at their last stop, and her thumb brushed idly at the keys. She’d texted the number to Caleb, knowing Tiernan would be furious, but she couldn’t bear the thought that he might try to get in touch with her and not be able to do so. She still, however, didn’t know what to do about her mom and dad.

“You know you can’t call them,” Tiernan said, and she wasn’t even surprised he knew what she was thinking.

“They’re my parents. They’ve got to be worried sick.”

“By now the police are monitoring their phones,” he reminded her. “You’re lucky your friend used a pay phone, or they’d probably already be on us.”

“I know that,” she said, throat catching slightly on unshed tears. “This has got to be so hard on them, though. And my dad
 . . .
” She reached up to swipe at her eyes. “He’s been sick. The doctors say stress doesn’t help.”
 

“What is it?” he asked, throwing the remnants of a doughnut out the window.
 

“They’re not really sure,” she replied. “One doctor says MS. Another, maybe lupus. They can’t get a firm diagnosis, which only makes it harder. All I know is he has good days and bad days, and something like this is sure to make it worse.”
 

Tiernan cleared his throat. “I’m . . . uh, sorry.”

Ava shrugged. It was all anybody could say. “Thanks.” She put her phone away.

“I . . . umm.” Tiernan rubbed at his neck, as if he could feel the slight color rising above his collar. “Maybe I could ask Andreas to send someone to them. Ease their minds a bit?” His eyes flicked to hers only briefly, but his flush deepened, and he shifted uncomfortably in his seat under Ava’s surprised stare.

“Are you being nice to me?” she asked.

Tiernan’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah, well, don’t get used to it.” He bared his teeth in what should have been a terrifying grimace, but instead somehow seemed to lighten the mood.

Still, he
was
being nice, and Ava couldn’t tease him too much about it. She reached out to nudge his shoulder. “Thanks.”

He grunted.

She smiled and thought about his offer. “I don’t know about sending someone to muddle around in my parents’ heads, though. I mean, on top of the obvious—I like their brains as they are, thank you very much—”