Relentless (The Hero Agenda, #2) (5 page)

But the moment Draven lays a hand on her and does whatever he does with his biomanipulation power that knocks her out, all the objects she was controlling drop to the floor.

V stalks over to Jeremy and yanks the iron poker from the wall, releasing his sleeve.

“Did you kidnap Rex’s kids?” Anton demands. “Do you have a death wish?”

“We didn’t kidnap them,” Dante replies.

“I’m here voluntarily,” Riley offers with a small wave.

Anton nods at Rebel’s limp body. “And her?”

“That’s”—Dante winces—“complicated.”

Anton shakes his head. “This is unacceptable. You”—he points at Dante—“and you”—Draven—“and you”—he spins around to point at Deacon—“are coming with me. Now.”

Deacon pushes unsteadily to his feet. “I already told you. I’m not going anywhere.”

“
We’re
not going anywhere,” Dante clarifies.

“That was not a request!” Anton roars.

Dante stands shoulder to shoulder with his brother. “Don’t yell at him! He’s been through enough.”

“Enough?” Anton echoes with a humorless laugh. “Enough? Try believing your children are dead or—worse—in the hands of your enemy, and then talk to me about enough. We’re leaving.”

“We’re not going anywhere,” Dante repeats.

Nitro steps forward to defend his friends, a pair of almost black fireballs simmering in his palms.

V places him in a choke hold.

Jeremy applauds, then stops as soon as V shoots him a warning glare.

“Enough!” Draven shouts. His roar stills the entire cabin. “We just watched Dr. Swift die. Can we all just…stop?”

It’s like the air goes out of the room. Out of my lungs.

No one moves. No one breathes.

Deacon collapses back into his chair. He looks devastated, if possible even more heartbroken than before.

I can feel my heartbeat in my ears. When the tears sting at my eyes, I blink them away.

“Jeanine is dead?” Anton finally asks, his voice barely more than a whisper. “How?”

Draven wraps an arm around my shoulder and squeezes me close. “Plasma blast.”

“Damn it.” His face contorts in pain. True anguish. True grief.

“Did you—” I step away from Draven and place my hand on Anton’s arm. “Did you know my mom?”

“Your mom?” He scowls for an instant before his entire face softens. “You’re Kenna.”

Before I can answer what obviously was not a question, I find myself wrapped in a tight, warm hug. The kind of hug I always imagined my dad would give.

I have the strangest urge to slip my arms around his waist and press my cheek to his chest. But I don’t know him. And I’m afraid that if I succumb to the urge, the fragile bits of motivation and willpower currently gluing me together will shatter.

“Jeanine is…was one of the finest people I know,” he whispers against my hair. “She and my Evelyn were the best of friends.”

“Mom?” Dante asks.

Anton leans back. “Jeanine, Evelyn, and Lucinda were inseparable as girls.”

I think we are all reeling from this revelation. My mom, Draven’s mom, and Deacon and Dante’s mom were best friends. Some crazy twist of fate must have brought us all together.

“When Lucy died,” Anton says, his words directed at me, “your mom turned her grief into determination. She decided then and there to infiltrate the League and bring the heroes down from the inside. With her power, she was the only one who could.”

Anton guides me over to the dining table, and I fall into the chair next to Deacon. It makes me feel better to hear Anton talk about her. To tell me things about a part of her I never knew. To help me understand why she did what she did. Why she lied. Why she lived a lie for so long.

“We all blamed Rex for Lucy’s death,” Anton says, resting his hands on my shoulders. “But Jeanine was always smarter and more coolheaded than the rest of us. We wanted to blow up League HQ. She knew that would only get more of us killed.”

“So she became a mole,” I whisper.

Draven drops into the seat next to me, his attention just as focused on Anton as mine. Because Anton isn’t just talking about my mother. Lucy—Lucinda—was Draven’s mom. This is about both of us. All of us.

“Over the years,” Anton continues, “she slipped us information. Warned us of impending attacks. Shared her discoveries. Kept us from being eradicated by the heroes.”

I nod as the details start to make sense in my mind. “And kept the heroes from getting the weapons that might be used against you.”

“As much as she could, without raising suspicion.”

“What changed?” I ask. “How did they find out who—what—she was?”

“I wish I knew.” Anton paces to the kitchen door and back again. “Her last message said she was close to finding out the truth about why Rex and his kind are so determined to wipe us out. Maybe she…”

His voice trails off as he shakes his head. He is just as lost as the rest of us.

I’m not sure if that makes me feel better or worse.

“What about my dad? Did you know him?” My voice is barely a whisper. “
Do
you know him?”

“No, I never had that—” Anton stops and spins back to face me. “What do you mean
Do I know him?
Is James Swift still alive?”

I nod. “My mom said so. She told me before she…”

I can’t say the words. Draven scoots his chair closer to mine and is just wrapping his arm around my shoulders when the cabin echoes with a high-pitched alarm.

Anton pulls his phone from his pocket and curses when he sees the screen.

He walks to the nearest window. “Yes? How bad? Casualties?” He pounds his fist into the wall. “I’m on my way.”

“Dad?” Deacon asks.

Anton turns to face the room. “I have to go.”

“We can help,” Dante says, stepping into his father’s path.

“Yes, you can.” Anton pushes past his son. “By staying out of the way.”

“Five minutes ago you wanted us to come with you,” Deacon argues.

“Plans changed,” Anton replies. “Now I want you to stay put.”

Draven follows Anton to the door. “It’s our fight too.”

“And ours,” I say, joining Draven.

“Haven’t you done enough?” Anton roars. “Haven’t you nearly gotten yourself killed enough for one month?”

“That’s not fair,” Deacon says as he struggles back to his feet. “If you’d let us help in the first place—”

“What?” Anton throws back. “You wouldn’t have been caught and tortured by our sworn enemies?” He turns to Draven. “You wouldn’t have been put on the fast track to execution? You wouldn’t have gotten Jeanine killed?”

I jerk back.

“I had a plan, damn it,” Anton shouts.

“Yeah, well, we couldn’t afford to wait around for you to decide that the timing was right.”

Anton turns on Dante, and for a second, I think he’s going to hit him again. But he drops his hand to his side with a heavy sigh.

“I don’t have time for this.” He grabs the door handle. “Stay put and don’t try to
help
any more than you already have.”

“Who’s going to stop us?” Dante shouts as the door slams.

V steps in front of it. “Me.”

After that announcement, the only sound in the cabin is the roar of Anton’s engine as he goes off to deal with the fallout from the latest hero-villain skirmish.

To say that things are tense after Anton’s departure is an understatement. V doesn’t move from the doorway. I’m sure she knows that there are other exits—a back door and a dozen or so windows that require only one of Nitro’s fireballs or a gust of Dante’s wind to open. Or, you know, unlatching the lock.

As much as the guys want to fly out the door after Anton, defying his orders just for defiance’s sake, we all know that we are in no shape to help right now.

Deacon is still a shell.

Draven is still weak.

Rebel is a huge liability.

And I’m… I don’t even know what I am.

I let Draven convince me to go into the bedroom and take a nap. I don’t sleep. How could I?

Those last moments in the courtroom play over and over in my mind. Releasing Mom. Indulging in a hug. Her spinning us so the plasma blast hit her instead of me.

I’m not sure if it makes it better or worse knowing that she sacrificed herself to save me. It’s bad either way.

I lie there on my side on the rough wool blanket, staring straight ahead at nothing for as long as I can stand. When I can’t handle the silence and the solitude any longer, I push to my feet and force them to carry me back into the main room.

“Rebel, stop,” Riley is pleading as I emerge.

She spits in his face. “Traitor.”

Dante and Riley are struggling to hold her down on the table, while Draven is trying to lay his hands on her temples. Normally he can use his power from a distance. The fact that he can’t now is a testament to how much Rex’s treatment or the attempt to save my mom, or both, drained him.

Rebel’s power, on the other hand, seems to be at full force. Objects of various sizes fly across the room, crashing into people, walls, and other objects.

Jeremy is shielding his computer setup with his body.

“Rebel, what is the matter with you?” Riley sounds close to tears.

“Me?” She laughs like a wild dog. “I’m not the one who turned my back on family. On all of herokind.”

Who is this reverse Rebel? She is
absolutely
the one who turned her back on her family and the heroes. Riley is a recent convert—and even he still has a lot more sympathy for the heroes than I have left.

Something heavy flies at the door and hits V in the stomach.

She reacts instantly, racing toward the table.

Nitro throws himself in her path. “Guys…”

“Put the bitch down,” V snaps. “Or I will.”

“You’re not going to touch her,” Dante growls.

“Wanna bet?”

“Hell, yeah, I do.”

“Hurry up,” Nitro urges Draven.

“I’m trying.”

He finally manages to get a hand on her, and immediately her fighting stops.

“It’s biomanipulation, isn’t it?” Riley asks. “You have mixed blood, so you have a second power.”

He sounds almost jealous.

Draven shrugs.

Before me, Dante was the only other person who knew about Draven’s second power. The only other person who knew that Draven’s dad was a hero.

But we’re all long past keeping secrets from each other now.

“Well, we can’t keep knocking her out,” Riley says. “That can’t be good for her.”

“Do you have a better idea?” Nitro replies. “’Cuz if you know another way to stop a pissed-off telekinetic from sending everything in sight flying at my head, I’m all ears.”

“He could be frying her brain a little more every time he does that. We don’t know!”

“I’m being as careful as I can,” Draven tells him.

“Nitro’s right,” Deacon says. “Eventually she’s going to tear the entire cabin apart.”

“If one of you geniuses had thought to grab one of the powers-neutralizing helmets, that might have been useful,” Jeremy says.

One of us had. But she got hit by a plasma blast.

“They were fried, weren’t they?” Nitro throws back.

Jeremy points at himself. “Technopath. Remember? Or is that too much for your tiny brain to keep track of?”

“Oi, I’m not the nutter who thinks aliens are poisoning his pancakes!”

“And I’m not the one who can’t control his powers.”

“That wasn’t my fault,” Nitro cries. “My powers just sparked out for a second.”

“Oh yeah,” Jeremy mocks. “
Just sparked out.
Right in the heat of battle when—”

“Stop.”

My word is barely a whisper, but everyone in the room freezes as if I have a supersonic voice.

Draven is at my side in an instant. “Kenna, love, you should be resting.”

“I couldn’t,” I say, shaking my head. “Couldn’t be alone with my thoughts.”

I let him guide me to the table, where Deacon is still sitting. I wonder if he’s moved all day.

Once Riley and Dante get Rebel moved to the couch, they join us at the table. As if by unspoken agreement, everyone gravitates there. Everyone but V, who doesn’t leave her position by the door.

I think we all feel at a loss, not sure what to do next. Only knowing that we have to do
something
.

Deacon is the one to voice it first.

“We can’t just stay here,” he says, looking at me as if I might somehow have the answer. “What do we do?”

I start to shake my head. I’m the last person to lead us right now.

But before anyone can respond, Dante says, “Rex Malone has to die.”

My breath catches at the pure hatred in his voice.

“Wait a minute,” Riley argues. “Let’s not get too extreme.”

“Extreme?” Dante parrots. “
Extreme
?
” He points at me. “Rex just killed Kenna’s mom. He was prepared to kill Draven too. He’s tortured the hell out of my brother and just about any villain he can get his hands on.
Extreme
is exactly what Rex deserves.”

“I know he’s done some bad things—”

“Open your eyes, hero boy,” Draven says. “You’re on the wrong side of the line. Good old Dad won’t hesitate to catch you in the crossfire.”

“No,” Riley insists. “You’re wrong. He wouldn’t do that.”

There’s something childlike in his insistence, in his still-unwavering belief that his father isn’t the monster we all know him to be. I almost wish we could protect Riley from accepting the whole truth. At this point, it’s inevitable.

“Killing Rex isn’t a plan,” I whisper. “It might be one of our goals, but we have other priorities.”

“Like what?” Nitro asks.

“Like finding the immunity serum formula.”

“What good will that do?” Dante retorts. “You want to get rid of our powers?”

I’ve done my time as an ordinary. I’m not eager to ever feel powerless again. “No, not
our
powers.”

Deacon nods. “Rebel’s.”

“Exactly,” I say. “The immunity serum will suppress her power like it used to hide mine. We won’t have to keep rendering her unconscious.”

Riley nods. “It will make her harmless.”

“Have you met your sister, mate?” Nitro asks with a humorless laugh. “A full body cast wouldn’t make her harmless.”

“No,” I agree, “but it will make her manageable.”

I hope.

Jeremy grabs my mom’s phone from his station and hands it to me. “It’s fully charged.”

“Thanks,” I say as I clutch it in my hands. It’s still warm from charging, almost like it’s holding on to my mom’s body heat. “Once we have Rebel taken care of, we do what my mom said. We find Dr. Harwood. And then we find my dad.”

As far as plans go, it’s not much more than a direction. But it’s better than nothing.

If anyone disagrees, they don’t say so. Maybe they’re just being nice because…well, because. Or maybe they just don’t have any better ideas. Or maybe—just maybe—they agree that it’s the right path.

We’ll see.

First, I have to find the serum formula in Mom’s phone.

That’s not going to be as easy as a quick search. Since that awful night when the heroes took her and I found the phone in her bedroom, I’ve been through it a million times. I’ve read every message, every text, every note. All in the vain hope of unearthing some clue that might help me find her.

If there had been any notations about the immunity serum, I would have seen it.

Which means it’s hidden.

I could let Jeremy have a whack at it with his power. But something inside me wants to try. Needs to try. As if searching for this secret will keep her close to me.

After entering her passcode, I start scanning through the apps. Deciding to be scientific about it, I go through them one by one. Methodically.

Mom didn’t keep her phone organized in any pattern that I can discern. Email, solitaire, decibel meter, videos, notes. On and on in random order.

In her text messages, I see the cryptic ones she’s gotten from Dr. Harwood.

The scarlet phoenix flies at dawn.

How could I have forgotten?

When I saw him in the bunker, right before Quake leveled the place, Dr. Harwood begged me to give her that message. But in the chopper, when she mentioned his name and told me to find him, I totally forgot. Was it important enough that I should have told her, even as she lay dying? Should I have used a few of our precious seconds to pass the message along? The only way to find out now is to ask Dr. Harwood himself.

I push that question away for later.

My eyes are starting to blur by the time I get to her photos app.

When it pops up, the first picture on the screen is one I took of her last year when we were hiking in the foothills. She is standing at the edge of a rock, her back to the plains below. She looks so happy and free, like she is literally on top of the world.

I don’t realize I’m crying until Draven reaches over to wipe my cheek.

“She’s beautiful,” he whispers.

I smile through my tears. “Yes.”

I start swiping through her album. I’ve looked through these pictures countless times. But this time I have a mission.

Draven drops his hand to the table and lets his fingers trace a pattern on my forearm. “I don’t remember my mom. I’ve never even seen a picture of her.”

“Really?” I can’t imagine what that must be like.

Something Anton said tickles at my memories. About my mom and Draven’s and Deacon and Dante’s being best friends. An inseparable trio.

“Wait,” I say, swishing quickly through the pictures. “I think there’s a picture of her in here.”

The picture had stood out when I was looking through Mom’s photos before because it was obviously a scan. Not a digital picture, like the rest of the images in my mother’s phone. It predates camera phones and yet it’s on hers, which makes me think it’s important to her. The fact that I’d never seen it before only makes me more certain of who is in the photo with her.

“Here,” I say, pulling up the full image from the beginning of her camera roll.

I hold the phone out to Draven. It displays a picture of three women—three girls, really. They can’t be more than fifteen or sixteen. They’re standing in a line, arms looped over each other’s shoulders and legs lifted like they’re doing a Rockettes kick line. All three are smiling like they don’t have a care in the world.

It’s heartbreaking to think that two of them are gone now.

“This is my mom,” I say, pointing to the girl on the left.

While two of the girls have medium-brown hair, I recognize Mom’s smile. She didn’t smile enough in the last few years, but when she did, it lit up a room.

“That’s my mom,” Deacon says, leaning over from the other side to point at the girl on the right.

Dante is immediately at my back, leaning over so he can see.

From the wistful longing in Deacon’s voice, I’m almost afraid to ask. “Is she…?”

Deacon nods.

“Car accident,” Dante says. “We were, what, seven?”

“Six,” Deacon answers.

My heart breaks again. All three of these girls—captured in this photo so full of life and energy—are dead. It seems like more than coincidence. More than just bad luck.

“So that’s my—” Draven’s voice breaks as he gets his first look at his mother.

The woman in the middle has dark hair, like Draven. They have the same full lips and the same spark in their eyes, although Draven clearly got his icy blues from Rex. More than the others, his mother—Lucinda—is looking directly into the camera. As if she’s daring it to capture her likeness. As if she’s daring the whole world to take her on.

It’s easy to see where Draven got his defiance.

“She’s so…”

“Beautiful,” I finish. “You have her chin.”

“You think so?” he asks, sounding more like a little boy lost than the tough guy image he usually projects.

“Absolutely,” I say, my smile growing. “Here, look.”

I touch the screen to zoom in on Lucy’s face, to show Draven their similarities. But as soon as I start to move the image, the picture disappears.

“What the—”

The screen flickers, and all of a sudden a stream of text scrolls up the screen. After a second, the phone reboots. When it does, almost all of the apps are gone. All that remains are the photos and notes apps.

Finger shaking, I tap open the notes app.

There is only one note:
Kenna’s Protection.

“I’ve got it,” I say as I skim the procedure. “This is the formula for the immunity serum.”

Relief sweeps through me. This might not be the key to saving the whole villain world, but at least we’ll be able to stop Rebel from trying to kill us all. That’s one in the win column for today. At this point, I’ll take what I can get.