No Peace for the Damned (3 page)

“Please,” Thirteen continued. “Please, everyone just find your seats and let’s start again.”

I took my place beside him, leaning against the wall.

“Magnolia is here to help us,” Thirteen began again. “She can very obviously handle herself, but more importantly, she is offering her insight, her knowledge. And she is offering this at great personal risk and sacrifice.”

Thirteen looked each person in the eye before he turned a softer gaze to me. The disappointment was gone, replaced by a warm reassurance. How could he make me feel so accepted with just one look? Even after I’d just injured one of his agents? Shit. I was
way
too close to Thirteen.

When Heather returned, she wrapped Charles’s hand in a makeshift splint and an Ace bandage. “Be careful,” he hissed between clenched teeth as she finished taping him up.

I could heal him. It would be painful, considering how many bones were broken in his hand, but I could still do it. He glared at me over his shoulder. Maybe I’d offer later.

“Magnolia is here to share her insight,” Thirteen explained again, trying to get the meeting back on track. “And just to give you an idea of how valuable that insight is, she has agreed to a demonstration.”

“Haven’t we already had a demonstration?” Theo asked, getting comfortable again in his seat. “I think we can all agree that the whole take-Charles-down-in-a-blink-of-an-eye thing was proof enough that she is who she says she is.”

“Not to mention that we already knew that Kelches could kill with merciless efficiency and unnatural speed,” Shane added. It was the first I’d heard him speak. Considering the way his words oozed with malice and hatred, I kinda hoped he’d go back to being the strong, silent one of the group.

Jon leaned forward on the table, his hard stare locked on me. “We need to know why she’s here in the first place.”

I stepped forward, power already rising under my skin. Thirteen touched a hand to my arm, stopping me. He had had this whole explanation planned for the group: how I would use a power they’d never seen before to project a memory of my family into their minds, providing real-life footage of my family’s abilities. He’d been so eager for them to see what a valuable resource I’d be that he’d forgotten the most important thing about me: I was a Kelch. Charles’s jumping the gun and now Jon’s questioning my motives brought him back to reality.

Thirteen looked at me, then without a word, stepped back, offering me the floor. Guess we’d do the explanation thing later. Resigned, I closed my eyes and reached out with my power, pushing past Heather’s and Theo’s blocks, until I was deep within the mind of every person in the room. They might have tackled supernatural beings in the past, but they had no clue what horrors awaited them when it came to my family.

It was about time they found out.

Thick leather restraints dug into my wrists and ankles, holding me tight to the metal chair. The chair itself was large, heavy, and bolted to the floor of an otherwise empty tank. I took a deep breath and blinked my eyes into focus
.

Cold steel surrounded me, the tank walls gray except where the bolted seams had rusted to a flaky red and green. My legs weren’t long enough yet to bend where the seat ended. Instead, my bare feet dangled oddly off the edge, pulling against the straps that held them in place
.

Five feet above me, the top of the tank was open. I could see my father’s head and shoulders. Dressed in his CEO best, he rested his arms on the tank’s edge. He looked down at me, his face pinched in frustration. The water wasn’t working right. It was coming out more as a spray than in droplets. It needed to be as close to real rain as possible. I shivered, wearing nothing but panties and an undershirt
.

Father’s features contorted in disgust the moment our eyes met. He rolled his gaze away from mine and spoke directly to the man next to him. One of my uncles? Probably, but my eyes were still blurred, and I couldn’t tell which one. They shared the same dark hair, sculpted features. Their faces all ran together for me
.

I turned my head, but the movement tore open a wound on the side of my neck—a soldered gash that went from behind my right ear, down my neck, all the way to my collarbone. It hurt like hell. I knew it was fresh because it had barely started to heal. I could usually heal burns and cuts, even severe ones, in a matter of minutes. That was why Father had taken Uncle Max’s advice and started using the soldering irons—to see if the combination of deep tissue tears and flesh-melting burns took longer for me to repair
.

“Yes, yes, that should work.” The excitement in Father’s voice startled me. My stomach automatically lurched. If he was happy, it meant that whatever new means of torture he had been working to perfect was about to be tested. On me
.

Father looked down on me again, watching me. The sadistic anticipation on his face made bile rise in my throat. I swallowed it down and braced myself. Four other faces appeared around him, and I now recognized each of my brothers and uncles. Even Uncle Max was there. The feeling of dread quadrupled. Uncle Max was busy these days. He would only have taken the time to watch if it was going to be especially horrific
.

My brother Malcolm, now at Father’s side, handed him a clunky remote control. Malcolm looked down on me with a gleam in his eye that matched Father’s exactly. Markus was sandwiched between my uncles. I didn’t have to read his mind to know that he was just happy it wasn’t him in the tank. Our eyes met for only a moment before he looked away. Such a coward
.

Uncle Max looked at his watch. “I have a meeting at four,” he drawled. Father scowled at him
.

“You’re not going to want to miss this,” he said. “Trust me.”

All eyes were on me again. I held my breath. Father pushed a large yellow button on the remote. Water sprinkled down on me. I flinched when the first drop touched my skin. Father’s deep chuckles from above echoed in the tank around me
.

The drops of water sped up as Father made adjustments on his remote. It felt like real rain now—a fast, sharp rain that stung a little with impact. Uncle Max yawned
.

Then Father handed the remote back to Malcolm. His face went eerily blank. His eyes dilated so completely that any color his irises had was lost behind the empty ink of his pupils. His skin tightened. His features went completely devoid of emotion. His mask was complete
.

This is it
.

The sharp coolness of the downpour mutated into a burning wetness. A spasm of screams wrenched from my chest. My eyes clamped shut. Pain pierced through my senses. Like my entire body was being peeled away, one fiery piece of flesh at a time
.

The fire rain remained clear, looking every bit as normal as a spring shower. But as the liquid made contact with my skin, it instantly scorched circles into the flesh. Each burn spread, deeper and wider, until the edges of one burn wound met with another. Within minutes I could see cartilage where the liquid burrowed past flesh and muscle
.

And the tank was starting to fill. I could no longer hear my own screams. My feet were nearly covered in the pool of acidic rain. The flesh melted away, exposing tendons and bone. And when I looked down, thick chunks of my face fell into my lap. My lungs stopped working; the burning broke through my chest. In one final act of defiance, I forced my melting eyes to my father. Encompassing pleasure spread across his face. Then everything went dark
.

It was like changing the channel on a TV show. I switched off the memory and was back in the Thirsty Turtle’s basement conference room. It only took me a moment to get my bearings. The others had a more difficult time.

Heather and Cordele struggled to find their breath. Tears streamed down both their faces. Charles huddled in a tight embrace with Marie, trembling. Chang was curled up in the fetal position on the floor, his chair knocked backward. Banks and Shane both had their faces covered with their hands, shaking in restrained sobs.

Jon was the first to move. He scrambled from the head of the table to Heather’s seat and pulled her into his lap as she curled in a ball. Her knees tight against her chest, he rocked her back and forth, gently rubbing her back. Then he buried his face in her hair just as she buried her face into his neck.

Wait a minute.
What the hell was this?
This softness, this comfort…this didn’t correlate at all with my earlier assessment of Jon. I turned to Theo. He was already staring at me, his brow furrowed with pain and anger. I took a step toward him. His breath hitched and his chin lifted in response, stopping me midstride.
What was I doing?

“I asked Magnolia to share this memory,” Thirteen said in a shaky voice, “to show just what this family is capable of. Experiments such as this one are confirmation that the Kelch brothers have been honing their powers for years. We have to assume they are planning something big.”

I stared at the floor, my cheeks burning in humiliation. What Thirteen hadn’t said, but what was in the back of everyone’s mind, was that no one had ever imagined that the Kelch family would practice their horrible, torturous methods on one of their own.

Always knew they’d kill anyone in their path
, Shane thought.
Callous bastards
.

Fucking monsters
, Marie silently growled at me.
And she’s one of them…

That guy in Buenos Aires was telepathic, but I’ve never heard of anyone who could take over our thoughts like that
. I glanced over to Jon.
She could completely manipulate our minds if she wanted to
.

Cordele thought I was a mole, here to gain inside information about the Network. Shane and Charles thought I was the perfect distraction, sent by my father to plant false intel, steering the Network away from whatever huge terrorist plot they were concocting. They had visions of my Uncle Max forcing foreign nations into signing contracts, or my father destroying one of the primary competitors of Kelch Incorporated. Whatever was being plotted, it must be huge to send me into enemy hands.

I tried not to roll my eyes.

As if my family thought that much of the Network. Sure, they caused a setback every now and then, but truth be told, the organization was little more than an annoyance to my father. And Senator Max? He thought they were cute.

“Another team needs to use the safe house where Magnolia has been staying,” Thirteen said. “So I will be taking her to the southwest HQ where she will be living for the rest of the summer. There is much to be discussed. Take the rest of today to do what you must then we’ll meet again at HQ tomorrow evening at six. Until then…” Thirteen wanted to say more, but what was there to say?
Your newest team member just totally mind-fucked you, but really, trust her—she’s on our side. And by the way, be nice and don’t attack her again. She really doesn’t want to have to kill you
.

Yeah, there was nothing else to say.

I turned to leave with Thirteen but glanced back at Theo once more. He hadn’t moved since I had pulled back the memory. He knew I was the biggest threat any of them had ever seen. He knew the Network was in over their heads with my family. Any other time, he would have made the practical decision and killed me before it was too late. But this time, with me, the thought of hurting me made him sick. And the thought of someone else hurting me? He reached for the blade hidden at his ankle before he even knew what he was doing.

Our eyes met. His pulse sped until it beat in time with my own. He leaned forward in his seat and gripped the table to hold himself in place just as I gripped the frame of the door.

Thirteen touched my arm and I jumped.
Shit
.

Without looking back, I hurried past Thirteen and out of the room. I didn’t breathe again until the metal door was shut securely.

The Network wasn’t the only one in over its head.

I loved downtown Indianapolis. The city was alive, vibrating with people. Renovations were everywhere: the Circle Center mall, the convention center, the historic circled street that anchored the city. And with Lucas Oil Stadium having just hosted the Super Bowl, the place was busier than ever. It was awesome, exciting, and I loved it whenever Thirteen brought me here.