Rouge (41 page)

“Hunter, just give me
another chance to prove to you that-”

“No,” she hissed. Her heart
ached as she remembered her mother’s letter. “Sometimes we don’t get second
chances Joshua.”

Something like fear mixed with
surprised flashed in the pale blue of Joshua’s eyes. It was the very same look
he’d given her the night after the benefit when Hunter had blown up the stove.
He
knew
something, something that scared him. Before she could decipher
it, Joshua raised his other hand and pointed it at the roof of the warehouse. A
torrent of ice disappeared into the darkness and crashed into metal.

They both fell silent as the
ice that had clung to the roof began to crack, and within moments there was a
deafening crash and the corrugated iron ceiling caved in.

Hunter had just enough time
to dive behind the chair she’d been confined in and cower behind the ice tanks
that had been sending cold liquid into her bloodstream as heavy debris from the
ceiling fell to the ground and scattered. As if shaken out of a nightmare that
wasn’t even hers, Hunter stood on her feet and looked up at the hole in the
roof. Through the great gape, rain poured down on them. She had been so
consumed that she hadn’t heard it pound on the tin roof of the warehouse.

Hunter was sent back to the
night of her first date with Eli. She had been so anxious that the fire would
escape that she had run out into the rain. There, they shared their first kiss.

Tears ran from her eyes and became
lost in the rain as Hunter stared up at the ceiling and smiled.

Be a fighter Hunter,
came her mother’s voice somewhere inside
her head,
and no matter the pain this curse causes you, know that you are
stronger. Your soul controls it. Use it.

Just as the rain washed away
the flames burning inside her, the voice of her mother and the comfort of the
memory of Eli holding her under the veranda of Raoul’s restaurant gave her
peace. It washed through her, cleansing and replenishing her. She was reminded of
something that – in all her rage and fury – she had almost forgotten:

How much she truly loved
him.

And just like the night she
and Eli made love, Hunter grasped the fire and used it not for revenge, but for
strength. Her fight was not over yet.

Hunter stood slowly from
behind the chair and breathed heavily, the rain soaking her pleasantly. A haze
of rain and smoke surrounded her, blinding her. She could hear nothing but the
thundering of rain and suddenly she started to sob. She had conquered her own battle
and defeated her dark side. She was much stronger than Joshua ever believed
possible, and for that, Hunter felt completely alive.

“Hunter!”

The plea for help rang in
her ear. Jack’s plea. Hunter snapped out of her momentary lapse of bliss and
back to reality.

Joshua lay under a slab of
fallen metal, unmoving. A stab of guilt flashed through her, but she ignored
it. Her eyes searched for Jack through the sheet of rain and her heart leapt
when she saw him on the ground, his leg caught under a rafter. She ran to him.

“Jack, are you okay?” Her
hands shook as she gripped the beam and heaved with all her might.

Jack screamed through
gritted teeth and weakly dragged his bloodied leg from under the rafter. Hunter
dropped the metal beam that weighed a ton and ran to Jack’s side. Blood from
his chest and ankle dripped into the puddles of water around them. “Oh God,
what did he do to you?” she gaped and hauled him to his feet. Jack cried out
weakly. “We have to get you out of here.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” he
muttered. “Are
you
okay?”

Hunter nodded, but her
strength was almost out. Escaping the chair and the fight drained all her
energy. And the pouring rain soaking her dress did nothing to fuel the flame.
She looked up at Jack and didn’t need words. He saw the defeat in her eyes.

“Hunter.” Jack stared deep
into her soul. He believed she could get him out. He trusted her completely.
“You made it this far. We’ll get out, okay?”

Hunter blinked through the
rain, wishing it could wash her away completely. But he was right. She couldn’t
give up when they were so close to safety. Jack needed help, and Hunter
intended to get him there. They were almost free and she was so close. Whether
Joshua was dead or merely unconscious, Hunter had to keep fighting until Jack
was truly safe again.

After all, isn’t that was
heroes do?

“Let’s get out of here,” she
smiled and both of them twisted around.

Hunter and Jack froze before
taking even a step as their eyes fell upon the pile of fallen debris where
Joshua was moments ago. Her heart practically flew up in her throat and she was
almost afraid to turn, because she knew he’d be there with that same psychotic
smile, fully recharged and angry as hell.

And she was right.

The two of them spun back
and there he stood.

“How sweet you two are,”
Joshua purred. “What would Eli think of you moving on so quickly Hunter?”

The fire raged inside her,
but she swallowed the urge to fry him and gently moved away from Jack. He
wobbled on his one good foot.

“Run Jack.”

Jack hesitated. Hunter turned
to him, pleading with her eyes. A million words passed between them.

“You’re brave Jack,” she
whispered, trying to smile. “I know that. But this isn’t your fight.”

He took an unsteady step
back and glanced at the long corridor leading to the exit. For a moment, Jack
paused. He lifted a hand to her cheek, the touch of his skin electrifying. Once
again, Hunter saw the darkness in Jack’s eyes, but this time the darkness was
full of hope and promise. They told her that she would see him again soon.

“Go!” she shouted and Jack
limped back into the rain and disappeared into the dark shadows on the other
side. She lost sight of him and that was when she was truly calm. She turned to
Joshua, warm inside. She didn’t want to hurt him anymore. Though she hated him
from the bottom of her soul, she wouldn’t stoop again. The fire was hers to
control now, and it wasn’t meant to be deadly.

As if instinctively,
Hunter’s hand reached up to her neck to touch the empty place where her
necklace used to be. And though it was no longer there, she knew it was with
Eli, and Eli was with her, just like her mother and father had always been.

You are not alone
. The thought gave her courage to face
Joshua without the fire. The only warmth came from this knowledge that beat
powerfully inside her heart.

“You lost Joshua,” she said.
Her mouth twisted into a humorless smile. “Despite your wise remarks, you can’t
beat me this time. You’ve nothing left to bargain with.”

Joshua faltered ever so
slightly, the left side of his lip twitching up. “I’m much stronger than you
Hunter. I’m older and smarter.”

“Those things don’t matter
to us, to our powers. I have something you don’t.”

He snarled at her. “Oh yeah?
What’s that?”

Hunter shook her head slowly
and began to back away, down the isle of the warehouse into the falling rain
again. “If you really can’t figure that out for yourself, Joshua, then you are
truly lost to the ice.”

Joshua’s pale face went
instantly slack as his eyes widened. He took a step toward her, his hand outstretched.
“Hunter, don’t you leave me! They’ll find you! The world will know your secret!
I swore to your mother I’d protect you-”

“Enough!” she shrieked back
at him. Her shoulders slumped from physical and emotional exhaustion. “It’s
done, Joshua. They know. And I couldn’t care less whether they find me or not.
I have
nothing
left to live for, no thanks to you. But you know what? It
doesn’t matter. So long as I still have a hold of myself, I will
never
be
like you.”

“Hunter, please-”

“If I ever see you again,
you’d better hope you’re strong enough,” she growled. “Goodbye Joshua.” The
words were almost lost in the rain as she limped away.

She was aching. The gash in
her shoulder bled down her back. Her head throbbed and her heart felt as if it
had been beaten like dough or spun in a washing machine. But despite the grief,
she stared ahead at the open door of the warehouse, at the pounding sheet of
rain and saw a glimmer of hope on the horizon. She had finally figured out the
answer to controlling the flames. It wasn’t training with Joshua or sitting
alone in a hotel room. The fire was there in her anger and her fear and her
passion. But what kept it in her grasp, what soothed the flame and left it
alive and strong was the simplest and most powerful emotion of all.

Love.

Smiling to herself, Hunter
lifted her tattered Prom dress and walked away from Joshua, into the warm
shower of rain.

The laboratory was a complete mess. The
majority of the filing cabinet contents lay spilled across the steel floors.
His desk was littered with every kind of geological device he owned. Water
bottles and dishes and off-smelling food packets were scattered on the shelves
next to pages of information with ugly brown stains. Among this chaotic
clutter, Joshua sat cross-legged on the floor. He rocked back and forth, his
hair in disarray, his shirt crinkled and unbuttoned. He gazed at the pages
spread before him as though the answers might finally jump out and slap him in
the face. Someone had to slap him, or he might lose his mind.

“How,” he whispered, raking
his hands through his greasy hair. “How did she do it?”

For days now, Joshua had
nearly driven himself crazy as he searched through every page of information
he’d ever collected. He went through his notes on Hunter’s powers, on Liz’s
powers and even his own powers. But no matter how hard he worked, he could not
understand why the ice seized control of him so easily, and the fire bowed to
Hunter.

I have something you
don’t.

“What?!” he screamed at the
empty room. He slapped his forehead with the palm of his hand at least ten
times, the pain doing nothing for his poor, befuddled mind. “What
do you
have
?”

No sound remained but the
gentle humming from the glass tank in the corner. He hadn’t heard from Hunter.
She didn’t return to the apartment. He wasn’t even sure if she found Jack, who
disappeared before Hunter herself. But so long as she was out there, she was in
danger. He had to do something about that eventually, but right now he needed
to know how she had overcome the fire within her so suddenly. For years, Joshua
struggled with the cold, dark devil in his soul, and still he let it control
him. He had hurt her more than anyone, when all he wanted was to keep her safe.
Joshua’s eyes welled with tears and he covered his face in his hands.

Hunter knew he’d killed Eli.
She was splitting with rage, and at one point he truly believed she lost
herself to the fire and she would find revenge and end him. But then the roof collapsed
and it started raining and something in her changed. She was herself again. But
how?

Joshua couldn’t possibly
figure out the answer on his own. It was neither scientific nor logical. He
needed someone who knew the truth, someone who had the research. Someone smart.

With shaking hands, Joshua
got to his feet and stepped carelessly over the papers to where the filing
cabinet stood against the far back wall. The top left draw was already open, so
he stuck his hand inside and pressed a four-digit code on the back panel. After
a moment there was an electronic beep and the cabinet was sliding gently
sideways for him.

Joshua stared at the steel
door, at the glass window the size of a hat and the foggy mist that surrounded
its fringes. He swung open the freezer door and as the cool air blasted over
him, he relaxed a little. At least here, he was at a regular body temperature.

The door swung shut and
silence suffocated him. Only the consistent puff of air coming from the two
machines before him resounded in his ears. It was just louder than the thumping
of his heart.

Joshua had made many
mistakes in his lifetime. Most of them were parental. He wasn’t exactly the
greatest role model, nor did he ever win Dad-of-the-year. But one thing Joshua
prided himself most, above anything, was his persistence. He spent his entire
life taking care of Hunter, devoting his time and energy into raising her in a
world without harsh testing and probing from the public. Only when the ice took
over did he ever experiment on her, and that was many years ago.

The ice had come back a few
months ago. It was the night Hunter ran away, when she killed the homeless man.
Joshua was alone in the lab when the Iceman – a blue figure of himself that
Joshua imagined to make listening to the voice a little easier to visualize –
returned to him like a ghost from the past. Joshua tried to force it back
inside him, but he was so filled with other emotions like worry and fear for
Hunter that he had no strength to fight it. Since then, the Iceman was always
present, talking to him, convincing him to do what was necessary to keep Hunter
safe.