Kindred (17 page)

FORTY-FOUR

Kindred

The woman still hadn’t noticed anything. It was fascinating to me how I could so easily infiltrate someone’s life, and they never even knew it. She went about her evening activities, which included some cleanup. After she worked for a couple hours cleaning up her house she had a minor breakdown, sitting in the middle of some clothes on the floor and crying. The cat joined her, ignoring my presence for the moment to rub up against its owner.

It was the moment the woman picked up the cat—still crying softly and murmuring nonsense to it—that I began to question my dedication to this job. She didn’t seem like a bad person, wronging her ex-husband for the sake of spite. Instead she seemed genuinely distressed by her situation.

Which meant the husband was probably the one who needed to die. He hired me to kill an innocent woman. Someone who didn’t deserve death. And I found myself unable to follow through.

“I’ll leave you to your sad life, little one,” I said, although she still couldn’t hear me, the cat didn’t hiss or run away when I moved toward the door. She wouldn’t hear me leave, and with luck, she’d never know I even existed. The woman would never realize how close she came to death tonight. Her husband would see me coming, but it would be too late for him to do anything about it.

But first I would go back to the apartment and get some sleep. There was no rush. I always knew where to find my employers. And how to get payment, whether I did the job or not.

As I drove to my apartment, I saw a boy with his mother on the side of the road, and I got a flash of a different boy. One that I’d seen before, laying in a hospital bed. And the woman, happy for a split second, before being covered in blood, eyes wide and unseeing.

I blinked the images away, swerving into the other lane for a moment before I regained control. What was going on? Why was I getting these flashes, and why did I feel a sense of deep sadness and loss? Who were they?

The answer came to me, and I wasn’t sure if I welcomed it or not. They must be memories from my forgotten past. Indicators of the life I once had, and could never have again.

Running my hands wearily over the rough scarring that marred most of my face and scalp, I began to wonder if my life had ever been normal. I also started to question how I’d ended up with Mason to begin with. Not to mention, what I looked like before he scarred me so badly I couldn’t even recognize myself.

Had I been married? Had kids? I guessed not, but with the flashes I wondered all the same. The boy in the hospital bed seemed strikingly familiar. He was someone I knew or had known, although I didn’t get a clear look at him in the dream. And the woman; smiling, happy. Sharing her joy with me for what felt like only a moment. Who was she? And—a question I hadn’t dared ask since I’d begun working with Mason—who was I?

FORTY-FIVE

Jason

The next day worked just as I said. Alice woke me up briefly, and I filled in the hollow spot outside the door so she could leave. When I woke again later in the morning, I decided to visit her at work in order to find out if they had any of Mason’s people in custody who we could question. It would be nice to get some idea as to who we were looking for if someone was out to get me.

Most likely Alice or Dan already thought to do exactly that, but it never hurt to check. Besides, I also hoped there was a case I could help with to get my mind off my own problems. I was starting to feel pretty self-centered with all the concern about my problems and what was happening with me, so if there was something I could do to help someone else who was in trouble, it would help me remember there were others who also had problems. That, and right now, this was my only job. If I ever wanted to be able to get off the streets into a place of my own, and not just keep mooching off Alice and Hannah, I needed to start saving some money.

The thought of looking for another job, and needing to go through the interview process, scared me a little. Besides, until my name change was legalized, I couldn’t get a job without needing to go by my birth name. And I would not do that. There was no way I would go by that name anymore, not even just on paper.

Hannah was at school already by the time I got up, so I left as soon as I was dressed. The walk to the police station was uneventful, and I enjoyed the fresh warm breeze, pushing my sleeves up slightly as I walked. There were few other pedestrians out, and the ones who were paid no attention to me.

The sleeves went back down just before I reached the station, covering the evidence of past abuse before anyone else could see it. There was little I could do for the scarring around my neck from the collar, but compared to those on the rest of my body, they were pale and harder to notice if you didn’t already know about them.

“Jason, what are you doing here?” Dan asked, looking up from his desk. His voice was tinged with concern. “Did something happen?”

“No. I just wanted to check with you and Alice to see if any of Mason’s men were in police custody. I figured we…you guys could ask them who in the gang was still loyal enough to want me dead.”

He chuckled and shook his head in amusement. “You’ve been living with Alice too long,” he said. “You guys are starting to think alike. She’s already talking to one of them.”

“Good. I guess she’ll let me know if she finds out anything.”

“You know she will. Was there anything else you needed Jason? Is everything going okay?”

“Same ole, same ole,” I said with a shrug. “Another thug wanting to kill me, Kindred suddenly taking a break from tormenting me. And me kind of stuck in one place until the whole thing is over. Not much I can do about it right now. Until I’m able to tell if someone is following me, I can’t turn the tables and follow them.”

“And just what would ya do, if you did follow them? How would you react, knowin’ they were the ones who wanted you dead?”

Getting defensive, I snapped, “What would you want me to do? I have the ability to stop them from hurting people. I won’t let them hurt anyone, Dan.” My voice was low to show him I was deadly serious. “No matter what, I will not give them the opportunity.”

He shook his head. “You have the ability, but not the right. Having those powers,” he spoke quietly so no one would overhear, “doesn’t give you the right to go around the law. If your life isn’t in immediate danger, and you know where they are, then you need to call me or Alice. We can arrest them, get them off the street.”

I wanted to protest, but he continued. “Think about it, Jason. Would you really be able to live with yourself if you killed another person? Think about how you felt after Mason. I saw how devastated you were. How afraid you were to continue learning your abilities. Just think about it.”

I gave a terse nod, agreeing to consider what he said carefully. “I came down for another reason,” I said, changing the subject. He raised an eyebrow in question. “Are there any cases you could use my help with? I want to help someone else.”

“Jason…”

“Please?” I interrupted. “I just need to get my mind off things. It would be good…”

Dan shook his head. “Using a case to get your mind off things is generally a bad idea. Your focus will be divided, and you may make mistakes you wouldn’t normally make. You need more time to…”

“I don’t.” Breaking in again, I knew I was being rude, but I needed to push forward. “I’ve been working through stuff for the last six months. I need to get back to normal, and normal is helping you and Alice with cases. Something I haven’t done much of since…” I hesitated.

“Since your rescue. You can’t even talk about it, Jason. You still need the time.” He spoke sternly, but his eyes showed nothing but kindness. It was hard to get mad at him when he clearly was concerned for my well-being.

“Wait until at least one of the people working against you is off the streets. Until then, it’s too dangerous for you. I’m sorry, Jason. But I wouldn’t be able to face the kids if something happened to you because we let you come back before it was safe. Kindred is still out there, even if he seems to be lying low for now. And we already know he can control you.”

I looked down, ashamed of the fact someone had been able to so completely take over my consciousness. “If it makes you feel better, I’m not sure if he can do that anymore. My mind started fighting back.”

I glanced up in time to see him smile. “With you, that was only a matter of time. I know you’re a fighter, Jase, but I hope you don’t fight me too much on this. We all care about you, and no one wants to see you get hurt.”

“Fine,” I agreed finally. “But if something comes up and you do need my help?”

“We’ll let you know. Until then, you are helping with the Kindred case, and calling if you come up with any clue to who else is after you.”

I nodded. I paused as I began to turn away. “Have you come up with anything on who he might be?” I asked hesitantly, not facing him.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Dan shake his head in frustration. “No. He’s still the same mystery he’s always been. We’ve found some old cases that he may have been involved in—murders that were never solved and had very little evidence left. But no hints to his identity.”

“From the little I was able to see of him when his power flickered he had scars. I don’t know if he had them before Mason got to him, but he definitely has them now. I couldn’t tell exactly how bad they were, it was too quick, but they seemed pretty severe.”

“We’ll look into it,” Dan promised, jotting down a note on his pad. “I don’t want to rush you, Jason, but…”

“You need to get back to work. It’s okay. I’m going to head back to the house. Maybe take a walk after lunch. Let me know if you guys find anything.” He nodded, and I headed out, ignoring the other officers I passed as I left.

They wanted me to get back to feeling normal, but in order to do that I needed to work. If I couldn’t work, it made me feel like there was something wrong, something I couldn’t fix. But they wouldn’t let me work. What was I supposed to do to occupy myself in the meantime? I had two…at least two killers after me, so being out and about didn’t seem like a very good idea, and there was only so much sitting around the house I could take.

Alice and Dan wouldn’t have to know, but it was time for me to get proactive. To take the time I had to myself, and use it to figure out who was after me.

FORTY-SIX

Hannah

He was gone. Again. I came home from school expecting a very bored, somewhat annoyed Jason to be waiting for me. What I found instead was a completely empty and silent house. He could have just gone out for a walk, but somehow I doubted it. Unless there was a good reason, he wouldn’t risk his life. And feeling the need to get out of the house for a walk wasn’t a good reason.

Wanting to go out and find answers, on the other hand, was something I could see him doing. Maybe he was at the station with Alice. The thought was reassuring, and I picked up the phone right away to call. What I found out wasn’t reassuring. He had been there earlier, but neither Dan nor Alice was there. If they were gone, so was he.

Fine. If he was with them in the field I’d let them have some time and check with them later. There was one final take-home test I needed to do anyway. Maybe I could use the unexpected silence to do well on the last test of the year. Then I could yell at Jason to my heart’s content for scaring me.

I set to work and relaxed when, about twenty minutes later, I heard the door open and slam shut as someone entered.

“Hannah! I’m sorry. I meant to be back before you got here.” Jason sounded so apologetic that I had a hard time staying angry.

“Where were you? I was worried.” I said.

He looked to the ground, the corner of his lip quirking upward in a quick grimace. “I needed to go out. The house was too quiet and stuffy. I just needed some air, so after I went to talk to Dan, I took a walk in the park. Don’t worry,”—his soft brown eyes met mine earnestly— “I was careful. No one was going to sneak up on me. And I was only out for a little while.”

He kept making excuses. I was beginning to believe the old adage, ‘methinks he doth protest too much,’ was appropriate in his case. What was he hiding? Or had he really just needed to get out of the house? And was it really up to me whether he went out?

I sighed. “It's okay, Jason. You don’t need to make excuses. You are an adult, and I can’t make you tell me what you’re up to all the time. I just hope you realize that even with your abilities you could be vulnerable to all sorts of attacks. Keep that in mind the next time you go out.”

I could tell I’d struck a nerve when his eyes narrowed in anger and he began gesturing with both hands, getting in my face as he replied, “I’m at risk? What about you? Just being acquainted with me would be enough to make Kindred or Mason’s goons come after you! I am not the only one at risk here, and I think that’s a fact everyone is conveniently forgetting! You can’t make me sit idly by and watch as you or someone else I care about is used against me! Keep that in mind when you leave the house!”

My eyes widened and I sat in shock as he stormed out of the room and rushed down to his room. I expected the door to slam, but it clicked behind him quietly. We’d been babying him. He was right. Any given moment Kindred could show up to make good on his threat to take me to get to Jason. It was a fact that we’d been ignoring. One we couldn’t continue to ignore.

But we’d have to deal with it a little later. It was time for me to go to Dan’s to pick up Sam. “Jason!” I called down the steps. I waited for his reply before I continued. “It’s time to get Sam. You wanna come? We can pick up something for supper on the way back.”

He didn’t answer, but I heard his door open and smiled slightly when he appeared at the bottom of the stairs. “I’ll come. Is Dan going to be there?”

“I think just June. Alice is still at work, so I’d imagine Dan is too. Although there aren’t any big well-known cases right now. They might be doing more research about Mason and Kindred to see if they can figure out who he really is.”

He didn’t reply, but came up the stairs silently to slip on his shoes and join me at the door. “Shall we?” He gestured to the door, holding it open as I walked through. His bad mood from just a few minutes earlier was almost completely hidden. It couldn’t be gone, there hadn’t been enough time for that, but that he was trying to hide it meant he wasn’t as angry as he had been.

And perhaps he hadn’t been as angry as he sounded. It was possible his concern for those of us who weren’t being careful came out as anger instead of fear.

“Hannah, are we going?” he asked.
I’d been sitting in the driver’s seat zoned out for a couple minutes.

“Yeah, we’re going. Any suggestions for food?”

Shrugging, he replied, “Let’s wait ‘til we have Sam. He’ll probably know what he wants, and we can decide from there.”

I agreed and finally started driving. Jason spent most of the drive fidgeting, looking behind us and to the side mirrors. Obviously not comfortable with riding in a car, he continued the actions until we reached Dan’s. As soon as we parked, he got out and knelt to touch the dirt on the yard. I assumed it was to see if he could tell if we were followed, or simply to check on who was around the neighborhood. He still worried about the kids’ safety, even though they now lived away from him and with a cop.

Of course, we lived with a cop too. It hadn’t stopped Jason’s father from trying to abduct him, or Mason’s people from approaching. It didn’t help to live with a police officer when, one: Jason’s father hadn’t known it until he had a knife to my sister’s throat, and two: when the criminals just didn’t care.

“Everything okay?” I asked when he didn’t rise as quickly as normal.

“Yeah,” he rose with a nod. “Just checking my range a little. It’s increasing.”

I looked at him curiously, “Why do you think that is?”

“Probably because I exercise it regularly. It’s getting stronger,” he said it like it was obvious, and I realized it probably was.

“I’ve seen you completely wiped out and hurting after using your powers. Don’t you think you should at some point get some kind of check up to make sure it’s not damaging you in any way to use it?”

The look he directed at me was hard to decipher. It was some kind of mix between bewilderment, fear, and anger. But I could have misread it. “Do you have a doctor in mind? You know, one who knows about my abilities, and won’t try to use my case to make money or to gain recognition? 'Cause I don’t know any.”

He sighed and directed his now saddened gaze to the ground. “I know you care, Hannah.” The wonder he still showed at the knowledge that I cared, saddened me. “But I need to deal with my abilities the way I feel is best. No one else can tell me anything, because no one else knows anything about them.”

I nodded in acknowledgement, but added, “They don’t know about your abilities, but they do know about the human brain and the body. They’d be able to tell you if there’s any damage to either.”

He stared at the ground as if it could answer all his questions, but he didn’t respond, so I sighed and said, “Fine. Let’s get Sam and some food and go home. But promise me one thing…” he glanced up at me, “…promise me that you’ll think about getting checked if you start having pain or fatigue with the use of your gift,” or curse, I added silently.

With a sigh, he nodded and I let out a quick breath, a little more relieved, even with his hesitant agreement. I was just relaxed enough to turn to the house and enter, when Jason suddenly grabbed me and rushed me through the door. “Wha—“

“No time, get inside, NOW!” He shoved me through the entryway and spun to get back outside. The last thing I saw as the heavy wooden door slammed shut was Jason kneeling and the ground rising around him.