Caged (Talented Saga) (35 page)

Chapter Thirty-Two

“Go find Mac and tell him to meet me down there,” I ordered Erik as soon as we landed.

“What? No, I’m going with you,” he replied.

“I’m not arguing about this.
Please just trust me, and go.”

The anger and resentment had built to a crescendo on the ride, and it was invigorating my senses.
I put the full force of my Talents behind my words, leaving Erik unable to protest.

“Be careful,” he cautioned.
He leaned down and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before sprinting into the administrative building.

Once I was certain that he wouldn’t veer off course, I set out for the Crypto Bank.
I knew that Erik was indignant on my behalf. He felt my pain and fear, and had experienced one of my seizures first-hand. He’d been inside my head and knew what I went through with every episode. As angry as I was, I had so many questions; if Erik got there first, he wouldn’t afford her the opportunity to answer.

I jogged across campus, and every thump of my sole against the soft grass amplified the rage building inside of me.
My hands shook when I grabbed the door to the Crypto facility, but now the tremors were driven by anger, not my illness. I covered the length of the long hallway that led to the main Crypto Bank in record time. The doors slid forcibly apart with a loud, echoing bang as I neared.

“Talia!”
Penny exclaimed in surprise when I burst through the opening.

Gemma’s bushy head snapped around to catch sight of me.

“Get out,” I barked at her. At first, she was too shocked by my violent entrance to move. “I said get out!” I screamed. Tripping over her feet as though they were too big, Gemma finally clambered from her computer chair. She shot me one last terrified glance over her shoulder before exiting.

“Talia, what’s going on?” Penny asked in a low, even voice.
It was the same voice that I used when I was trying to take control of someone; the same voice that Erik had used with the Crypto boy earlier that day. The voice she’d probably used on me a hundred times before.

Erik wasn’t the only person who’d convinced me to divulge things.
He wasn’t the only one who’d always seemed to know what I was thinking and feeling. I recalled all of the conversations where I’d been so intent on keeping my thoughts bottled up inside, only to find the words tumbling from my mouth, and I hated her more.

I’d wanted to tell Penny everything and had felt so comfortable around her.
She’d made me feel safe and happy when no one else could. Being around her had given me the same comfortable peace that Erik gave me. Now I knew why.

How could I have been so stupid?
How could I’ve trusted her? Every time I’d even thought about reading her mind, I’d instantly dismissed the idea – it was too intrusive, and she was supposed to be my friend. Why hadn’t I ever wondered why she was the only person who never projected even a single thought in my direction? No one was that good at blocking me.

“Don’t you
dare!” I shrieked at my supposed best friend. “Don’t you dare use my abilities against me!”

Penny shrank back, wilting like a flower in mid-summer heat.
Understanding sparked in her bright eyes.

“How could you?” I hissed.

“Tal, please,” she begged. “You don’t understand. You weren’t supposed to get hurt. It wasn’t supposed to happen that way, I swear. Just calm down and let me explain.”

Tears illuminated her lime-colored eyes and began falling down her deathly pale face, landing in fat splotches on the tiled floor.
If it had been anyone else, I would’ve attacked right then. But she wasn’t just anyone; Penny was my best friend, my confidante.
She is also a traitor
, I had to remind myself. She was the reason that I was sick. She was the reason that I’d nearly died at the hands of my parents’ killer.

Pain and rage swirled inside of me, and I flashed to a similar scene between myself and Donavon – windows shattering, shards of glass flying.
Then Mac’s words played in my head:
Sometimes, the people closest to us are the best at deceiving us. You of all people should know that.

“Tal, let me explain.
You have to let me explain,” Penny wailed.

The glass breaking wasn’t only in my memory.
The wall next to us exploded, bits of hard plastic spewing across the room. Computer monitors splintered, and electrical fire sparked from the screens. Penny covered her head, screaming.

“Explain what?” I spat.
“How you sold me out to Ian Crane? How you set me up to be tortured and killed? How you betrayed the person who was supposed to be your
best friend
?”

“No, no,” she sobbed.
“He wasn’t going to kill you. He just wanted to talk to you. He wanted you to understand what Toxic is really about – what they do to people, what they’ve done to you.”

Her words seemed to hurtle through the air and assault my ears.
They were similar to the ones that Crane himself had spoken in Nevada – words that sliced through skin and bone to hit a nerve. As my fury dimmed, spasms shot through my arms and legs, nearly crippling me. I briefly entertained the notion that I’d been struck by one of the sparks from the monitors. Then I realized that it was a seizure.
No, no, no,
I thought.
I need to stay conscious
. I grasped for my fury from just moments before. It was the only thing holding me together. It wasn’t hard to catch. The mental and physical anguish that I’d experienced over the past couple of months were fresh in my mind.

My temper flared as Penny’s tears continued to fall.
They were like gasoline fueling the fire until it blazed like an inferno.

I bared my teeth.
The sharp points of my canines pricked my lower lip, and I tasted blood. I wanted Penny’s blood. I wanted her to hurt to pay for all that she’d cost me. My fingers curled into claws, the nail beds seeming to elongate. The transformation sent a trickle of fear through me, but the brief flare of panic was quickly doused by my escalating rage.

Alarm bells screeched overhead, and I knew that Erik and Mac would be here shortly.

“Toxic gives special children a place to feel normal,” I hissed, making my way forward. My voice came out in a growl that was unrecognizable to me. It sounded primal, ferocious.

“No, they don’t,” Penny moaned as I closed in on her.
“And I think that deep down, you know that.”

“What I know is that you are a traitor.
You cheated on your placement exams. You befriended me. You made sure that the intel about Crane’s visit to Nevada would be intercepted. You knew that Mac would send me there for my solo mission because of my past with Crane. You knew that he’d need a Manipulator to get onto the compound. Then, under the pretense of being my friend, you helped me gather intel so that you would know exactly what I was planning to do once I got there. Crane knew who I was that night in the pub because you told him what I look like. You told him that I’d be there.” I stopped my rant when I felt a tug on my psyche. “Stay out of my head!”

“I’m n-n-not in your head,” Penny stammered.
“Please, listen to me. You need to get away from here. You need to find Ian. You aren’t safe. He did know who you were that night in the pub, but not because I told him.”

“
Tals, are you okay? We’re coming.”
It was Erik forcing his way into my head. He was somewhere close by. I could feel him.

Heavy footsteps thundered overhead, cutting through the wailing alarm as they trampled down the corridor to the destroyed room.
Penny and I now stood inches apart. I was close enough to hit her, but I didn’t. I couldn’t.

Penny didn’t take her focus off of me.
I wasn’t sure if it was because she couldn’t hear the approaching men over the alarm, or because she just didn’t care.

“What did Crane inject me with?” I hissed.

“I don’t know,” she cried, reaching tentatively for me. I snatched my arm away from her grasping fingers. Now that we were so close, I didn’t want to touch her. I didn’t even want to be in the same room with her anymore. I might have left then – Erik and Mac were nearly there –but I needed to know one more thing.

“How does he know my father?”
I didn’t mean to phrase it that way; I’d meant to ask her
if
he knew my father. But sometime between Nevada and now, I’d come to believe that he did. The only question left was how.

Penny glanced nervously toward the open door.
She could hear the men coming for her. She was scared, but not for herself. Her concern was for me.

“Talia, listen to me.
Look inside of yourself, all of the answers are there. You just need to be willing to accept the truth.”

I didn’t get a chance to ask her what that meant.
A team of Operatives, led by Mac and Erik, stormed into the ruins. Mac and another man seized Penny, forcing her to the floor. Erik pulled me out of the way.

“You can’t trust him.
You can’t trust any of these people,”
she screamed in my head.
“Please just listen to me. Find Ian. I promise, I’ve always been your friend even before we met in the Hunters’ Village.”

I shook my head, trying to clear Penny’s voice as it forced its way in.
All of her mental barricades were down, and the rush of thoughts and images was suffocating. It suddenly became hard to breathe, like her memories were physically crushing my lungs. The weight of her mind caused my knees to buckle, and I fell to the ground. Broken glass tore through my jeans and ripped my flesh. The pain brought the room back into focus, but I couldn’t hold on to it.

Erik’s arms encircled me from behind, cradling me to his chest.
The room no longer existed. All I saw were Penny’s memories dancing like clouds through my head.

“Force her out,” Erik whispered in my ear.

The sound of his voice helped me summon the strength to do just that. I pushed against her mind until the weight of her consciousness lifted, the effort causing me to collapse into Erik’s arms. A low keening started in my throat and built to a blood-curdling scream that tore my vocal chords as I processed what I’d just seen. Erik tried to calm me, but I was past the point of reason.

Mac and his men were dragging a struggling Penny to her feet.
Every Operative not actively trying to contain her had his weapon trained on Penny. Her hair was quickly turning dark red from a wound on her scalp. Her cheek was already swelling from where one of the men had slammed her into the floor. When she opened her mouth to speak, Mac’s elbow connected with her temple.

I watched, horrified as she slumped against one of the men holding her.
I wanted to cry out, tell them to stop. But I couldn’t. What had I expected to happen when I sent Erik for Mac? Had I thought that he would politely ask her to accompany him to interrogation? If he wasn’t so concerned about me, Erik’s hands would be around her throat, choking the life from her.

“Everything is okay now,” Erik soothed, running a hand over my hair.
He was still attempting to calm me, but his words had no effect. They weren’t true. Everything was not okay. Everything would never be okay.

The horrible sound coming from my mouth died off as the Operatives carried a now-unconscious Penny up the hallway.
I watched their retreat until my vision blurred and the angry black dots connected. Then, I passed out.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Calloused fingers tickled my arm.
The sensation was pleasant, and I didn’t want it to stop. I felt a slight tug on my head while someone played with my curls. I smiled. Erik must be impatient, waiting for me to wake up so that we could go have breakfast. I turned into him, reaching for his warm body. A sharp stinging sensation shot up my arm when the back of my hand made contact with cold metal. My eyes shot open, and clear blue irises fluttered into focus. Not Erik. Donavon. Antiseptic filled my nostrils, but when I tried to wrinkle my nose, I found that I couldn’t. Something was in it. Frantically, I clawed at the plastic tubing.

“Easy, Talia,” Donavon whispered.

“Am I in Medical?” I asked drowsily.

“You are.
You have been for a couple of days now,” he answered, still stroking my arm.

“A couple of days?
Why does this keep happening?” I moaned.

Donavon chuckled softly.
“Dr. Thistler said that the overload of emotions, coupled with the fact you hadn’t taken your medicine, sent you over the edge.”

“Overload of emotions?
But we just kissed,” I said, confused. I thought back to the night on the ledge. Erik was right; he did overstimulate me. I smiled at the thought. Erik was going to have to learn patience. Where
was
Erik? I frowned. If he was the reason that I was now in a hospital bed, hooked up to an IV and a breathing machine, the least he could do was sit by my sickbed. A serious talk about his priorities was in our future.

“Kissed?” Donavon asked, looking confused now.

“Where’s Erik?” I demanded.

Hurt clouded Donavon’s clear eyes.
His jaw hardened and his lips pursed into a thin, angry line at the mention of the boy who he considered his rival.

“We’re on lockdown.
Dad sent him back to Headquarters until further notice.”

Wasn’t I at Headquarters?
Then I remembered Donavon saying something about Dr. Thistler; if she was treating me, then I was probably at school.

“What is the last thing you remember?” Donavon asked, speaking slowly, enunciating every word.

I had to think. I remembered being in Erik’s room at Headquarters. We were lying in his bed, kissing. There was paper everywhere. Then I remember standing in the doorway to his room. He was about to tell me that he loved me, but I’d stopped him. Why had I stopped him? What could’ve been more important than hearing those words come from Erik’s lips? Penny......

“Oh, my God,” I gasped, trying to sit up.
The machine next to my bed emitted a long, alarming screech. The beeps on the heart monitor stopped being individually distinguishable. Every excruciating detail came rushing back.

“No, no,” I moaned, the all-too-familiar tears stinging the backs of my eyes.

“Shhh. Just relax. She’s where she belongs,” Donavon said, wiping at the tears with his rough fingers.

“How could she be a spy?” I wailed.

Donavon didn’t get the opportunity to answer as Medics rushed into the room, responding to my out-of-control vitals. The first one through the door shoved Donavon aside. The Medic reached for my IV and plunged a syringe full of yellowish liquid into the port. The medicine quickly reached my bloodstream, and my flailing limbs stilled, now heavy with the chemicals. Suddenly, moving required too much effort. I sought out Donavon, now standing against the far wall. He smiled and nodded reassuringly.

Once my vitals returned to acceptable levels, the Medics retreated just as quickly as they’d come.
Donavon moved back to my side.

“Why don’t you try to sleep?” he suggested gently.

I shook my head vehemently, fighting the drowsiness. “I don’t want to. No more sleep,” I slurred. It was a losing battle.

“It’s better this way,” Donavon whispered, stroking my cheek.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the two scars on his palm. “Sorry I bit you,” I mumbled.

“It’s okay, I deserved it,” came his quiet reply.

Then I lost consciousness again.

I spent another week in Medical.
Most of my time there was spent in a drug-induced slumber, under Mac’s orders; he thought it best that I recover my strength without unnecessary distractions. He didn’t allow me many visitors, and I felt like I was back in my bedroom at his house, cut off from the outside world.

Donavon came every day.
By unspoken agreement, we didn’t discuss our fight further and put our mutual, lingering animosity aside. He sat with me while I slept. Even though I was barely conscious, I always felt his presence, and I actually welcomed it. In one of my more lucid moments, he told me that he’d talked to Erik and let him know that I was okay. He passed on Erik’s sentiments of concern, despite the fact it obviously pained him to do so. I regretted that I’d been too chicken to just tell Donavon the truth from the beginning that we would never get back together. I wanted to call Erik myself, but Mac wouldn’t approve it. He said that once that I was feeling better he’d reconsider.

Mac came every day, too.
He congratulated me on uncovering the spy. He informed me that Toxic had launched a full-scale investigation to determine how deeply the Coalition had penetrated. So far, Penny hadn’t cracked under psychic interrogation, but he assured me that it was just a matter of time. Mac had the good grace to refrain from suggesting that I question her myself, and I was glad. The thought of being in the same room with her caused my blood to boil and my heart monitor to spike.

Gretchen came to visit several times as well.
She didn’t say much. Mostly she just sat with me, but I appreciated her company when I registered it. She was the least stressful visitor that I could ’ve asked for. When we did talk, she never mentioned Penny. Instead, she teased me about my relationship with Erik. If it had been anyone else, I probably would have thought she was being nosey, but I knew that she was just trying to improve my mood. She’d always hoped that I would marry her son, but really, she just wanted me to be happy.

Dr. Wythe made a couple of very unwelcome visits.
He asked probing questions that I didn’t feel like answering. I usually fell asleep midway through our sessions, and when I woke, he was gone. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to avoid him forever, but the drugs at least helped to prolong the inevitable.

Donavon snuck Kenly in towards the end of my stay in Medical.
She rambled about all the training she’d been doing in my absence, and assured me that Donavon was a suitable substitute until I was back on my feet. Despite the progress that Donavon insisted she was making, I knew in my heart that she would never be ready in time. Her crowning achievement – preventing me from breaking my leg – hadn’t been hers at all. I now knew that it had been Penny who kept me from falling. I enjoyed Kenly’s visit, but she reminded me too much of my ex-best friend; I asked Donavon not to bring her again.

When the trifecta of Mac, Dr. Thistler, and Dr. Wythe were finally convinced that I could function without the help of drugs or machines, they agreed to let me move back to Mac’s house.
It wasn’t my first choice, but it was certainly better than the hospital. Dr. Thistler insisted that I be under constant supervision, so returning to my room in Instructor housing was out. In the aftermath of what happened with Penny, I was still in no condition to go before the Placement Committee, so returning to the Hunters was not in my immediate future either.

As soon as I was settled in my old bedroom, I begged Mac to let me call Erik; I needed to hear his voice.
I wanted to tell him about the accusations that Penny made before he and Mac had barged in – the accusations that nearly mirrored Crane’s. But I knew that I couldn’t. All of my communications were being monitored and recorded, and I had no intention of making the statements part of the official report. If I’d thought that Mac had me on a short leash before, now I would be nearly tethered to his side.

Surprisingly, Mac agreed to grant me phone privileges, on the condition that I use his communicator.
I didn’t see the point, but my own had been confiscated – ostensibly to review all the messages that I’d ever exchanged with Penny. Mac assured me that it wasn’t because I was under any kind of suspicion; it was, after all, protocol.

“Hello?
Tal?” Erik’s relieved voice came through the communicator.

Tears welled up in my eyes when his tiny holographic image appeared.
I couldn’t speak. I didn’t even know what to say.

“How are you feeling?
The Director won’t let me come see you. We’re on lockdown here until after the sentencing. They even recalled all the Hunters out on missions.”

“I’m okay,” I sniffed.
“I wish you were here.”

The words that Penny had spoken before the cavalry arrived were still engrained in my mind, but the images she’d projected were fading.
They were becoming dim watercolors of the originals, and I wanted to tell Erik about them before they were completely erased from my memory. Somehow, it was just like the way that I couldn’t clearly recall what had happened after the bullet struck me in Nevada.

“I know, Tal,” he soothed.
“I wish I was there, too. I wish that I could hold you.”

“I wish that you could do more than hold me,” I said.

“Why, Talia Lyons, are you trying to have phone sex with me? And on the Director’s communicator, no less. You should be ashamed of yourself,” he teased. “Some Brain is going to appreciate an earful of very graphic details, if that’s the case.”

I gave a thin laugh.
Only Erik would say something so ridiculous right then.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” I chastised.
“I wish that you could take the pain away.” Right now, I didn’t care how weak needing him made me. I liked the numb detachment that the drugs provided me, and I knew that Erik could give me the same feeling without the side effects.

“If I was there with you in that big bed, there wouldn’t be any pain.
Just never-ending pleasure,” he said suggestively.

“How did you know that I was in a big bed?”

“I’ve got a good imagination. Want to know what you’re wearing?”

I laughed again.
I was pretty sure that whatever Erik’s overactive libido pictured me wearing would give the listening ears way too much good gossip for the rumor mill.

“Thanks, Erik,” I said softly.

“For what? Making you blush?”

“No.
For being you.” Though I was indeed blushing.

“As soon as the sentencing is over, I’ll be there.
The Captain and Henri have agreed to grant me some leave to stay with you. Even the Director said that it would be okay,” he promised.

I was shocked.
Mac had agreed to that? He must figure that the best way to keep an eye on us would be if we were under his own roof. I almost couldn’t say that I blamed him after the way our earlier conversation had gone.

“What do you think will happen at the trial?” I asked, abruptly taking the conversation in a sharp turn toward serious.

Erik didn’t answer right away. I could tell that he was measuring his words carefully, trying to find the best way to tell me what I already knew.

“Well, um......,” he cleared his throat loudly.
“There probably won’t be a trial. People accused of treason don’t usually get trials. And they’ll have at least some of the security footage from the ...confrontation. They know that she basically admitted to being a spy.”

“I see.
Will I have to go?” I really didn’t want to be there.

“Probably.
She’ll also be charged with conspiracy to commit murder.”

Oh, right, my murder.

“I’ve already asked for permission to go to the sentencing with you. Henri doesn’t think that the Director will grant it, but I’m trying.”

“Thanks,” I said, tears filling my eyes again.
Dr. Thistler had ordered extra doses of my medication to dull the out-of-control rage that I’d been experiencing, but it actually left me more emotional than ever. I kept crying for no reason. At least that’s what the doctors and Mac told me. Secretly, I thought that without my anger, I was left with only the wounded feelings of betrayal and the loss of someone that I’d considered my best friend.

Neither of us spoke for several long moments, but I didn’t want to get off the phone with him yet.
Just hearing his voice made me feel so much better.

“So ...about that phone sex.
I’m thinking that you’re wearing something see-through. Purple, of course. Lacy, definitely lacy,” he said thoughtfully.

I choked on the mixture of my laughter and tears.

“I love you, Erik,” I whispered. “You don’t have to say it, too,” I hurried on, not giving him the chance to reply. “I know you were about to before, but I just wanted to tell you now, like this. I wanted you to know that it’s for real, and not because of anything that either one of us makes the other one say or do.”

“I love you, Natalia,” he said in a confident tone.
Then he laughed softly. “Man, I’ve never said that before. To anyone. Feels kinda weird. Weird in a good way,” he assured me.