Rebels Rising (Dark Rebels, #1) (12 page)

“He kills our kind without any mercy,” Blake retorted. “He’s as bad as the Creators.”

“We both know the Betas he kills die a lot more willingly than they would have at the labs. They die for a better world for the rest of us, not for some grand master plan thought up by a bunch of egomaniacs that want to live forever.”

“I won’t gift Janine with blood. The Blood Gift is sacred. When we give our Blood to another, we give them part of us. We give them some small part of our Power, too.”

“Maybe that is why Krista was able to fly.”

Blake had not thought of that. “She was not really flying.”

“Close enough, and she might still. There is no telling how much she can gather from your blood.”

“Just one more reason not give any to Janine. All we need is another flying Seeker.”

“Perhaps we can turn her without it.”

“How?”

“Maybe there was something between her and Krista, a bond or a friendship we can exploit. Or maybe she is just smart enough to want to be on the winning side no matter what side that is.”

“You do know if you do Gift her she is tied to you forever, always in your debt and vice versa.”

“Did you think of that before you Gifted Krista?”

Blake turned away so Connor could not read his face, which was harder to hide than his thoughts. “She was starving. There was no other way.”

“Perhaps.” There was censure in Connor’s voice. So, he was interested in her, in that way. Great, just what he needed, to be falling in love with the girl his twin liked. If that was not a recipe for disaster, nothing was.

Resentment ate into him. He had always watched over his twin. Connor had been the younger, the smaller, all their lives. He had a gentle nature despite his willingness to fight for his freedom and the freedom of the others in the labs. He never took any pleasure in killing, but Blake did. He felt satisfaction in destroying the work of the Creators, in killing them, in hearing their bones crack and smelling their blood. He even liked killing the Second Adams. He was no better than Steven, or the monsters they were all fighting. Self-loathing rose to the surface. What kind of man was he? Was he even a man at all?

“Be careful when you look into the abyss,” he muttered.

“What was that?”

He shook his head and smiled at Connor. “I think we should go with her plan. We will just storm Luke and see what happens. I mean, what is the worst that could happen?”

“We could all end up dead, or worse, captured and back in the tubes.”

“It won’t be us in the tubes,” he said grimly. “It will be our Receivers.”

“Is that any less bad?”

“No, in fact it is worse because they will remember this freedom, and that will make it even worse for them.”

“Do you honestly believe that they gave us that, or do you think it something else?”

“Inherited memories? Who knows? At least they did not give us four arms.”

‘”I think four arms would have been cool. You know what else would have been cool?” Connor flashed a thought at Blake, one so nasty and hilarious they both collapsed into laughter. “How would you decide which to use when you had to go?” Blake got out between guffaws.

Tawny and Krista sat at the bottom of the hill. The wildflowers nodded their heads and bowed in the wind. She plucked one and held it up, looking at it. “It’s too pretty to grow out here in the wild. Why isn’t it dead already?”

Tawny forgot to hide her thoughts, and Krista heard that one:
She does not know about the omens
! Loud and clear. “What omens?”

Tawny looked down at her feet. She wanted to tell her, but what would happen if she did? Would that mess everything up? Krista was already fighting who she was. She was enraged most of the time just at the thought that she was a Natural who had been taken from her parents, what would she do—what was she capable of—if she knew the whole truth?

None of them, including Krista, knew the full extent of her Power. She could blow up the entire world if she got a mind to for all they knew. What they did know was that an angry person with too much Power was dangerous, and to tell her the truth right then was to take dangerous to a whole new level.

“Oh, it’s just a silly folk tale. I grew up hearing it.”

“They tell folk tales in the labs?”

“No,” Tawny forced a laugh. “Tawny 1 did that. I remember the stories, that’s all. There was one about wildflowers in winter.”

Krista gave her a look that said she did not believe her. “What do you mean, you remember?”

“We inherit memories from our Givers.  I can’t explain it, but Steven said the Creators were playing around with brain studies. They knew that at one point, human ancestors passed down memories. It was some weird stuff, and I never was a math or science kid like the ones at Luke that are Powerless that they press into service, so I don’t get it, but Steven could tell you.”

That little tidbit got Krista’s attention in a hurry. “What do you mean, the ones that are Powerless?”

“I mean some of the kids at Luke really are just geniuses in math and science; they don’t have any Powers. They are just smarter than most, so DARK uses them. They also use athletes. They have been known to kidnap a promising athlete and use them as a Giver to build their war Betas. Bigger, stronger, faster—you know.”

“No, I don’t know. Is that why you can shape shift? Because they built you that way?”

Tawny weighed her answer carefully. To give Krista the whole truth would be dangerous She was not exactly a calm and easygoing kind of girl. She was mad as hell, and what was more, she was disgusted and outraged by what DARK had done. Her empathy ran higher than any of them might have imagined.

She could have controlled the Remnants instead of locking them away, and nobody had done that since Dorian. That made Tawny uneasy. Controlling the Remnants was an inborn trait, a Natural thing, but Krista was far from Natural. Or was she?

It was hard to say.

She could have been Natural, or she could have been built. There was no way of knowing if this was the Natural Krista, or if there was such a thing anymore. She had fallen into DARK hands, and they could have—would have—done a hell of a lot of cutting and testing and probing. Krista was the single best weapon ever made, and everyone knew it.

What none of them knew was which side she was going to come down on. She could go either way, still, and Tawny absolutely did not want to be the one to accidentally tip the scales in DARK’s favor.

What would Krista say, or do, if she knew how deep this all ran? If she knew the true origins of the ones DARK had originally used as Givers? Could she look within herself and see anything good in there, anything human at all?

“Sort of. Looks like our fearless leaders are coming back down the hill.”

“I don’t like Connor, you know, like that. God that sounded really moronic, and like I’m twelve. You know what I mean though, right?”

“Yes, I know.”

“I mean if you like Connor...it’s not my business but if you do or whatever I just wanted to let you know I am not trying to run up on him or anything like that.”

“Okay.” What could she say? It did not matter because in the end she could never have Connor anyway? That God or Fate or whatever anyone wanted to call it had already decided long ago who belonged to who, and for how long?

It wasn’t fair, though! Tawny squashed that thought and said, “I hope they have a plan that includes sleeping somewhere that features a shower and sushi.”

“I could so use a shower. And sushi.” Krista agreed.

“Chocolate cake.”

“An ice cold soda.”

“Lo mein, hot and spicy.”

Their conversation was broken by Blake saying, “Come on, we have to get going. We need to get back to the city and hook up with Steven and then find some supplies— there was nothing here after all.”

Krista knew that was not true. There was a lot of things there at that lab. The memory of the Remnants came back, and the sense that she could have—should have—done something else with them.

But what?

They set off down the road, four teenagers with weary bodies and thoughts they were afraid to share. In the sky a single star blazed down brightly, casting its light on their footprints in the snow in a solid sliver glow, a beacon to the ones hunting them. The ones who were not very far behind. ###