The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (47 page)

“
What do you want from
me?” asked Colton. “What can I give you that you can’t take by
force?”

She smiled and her eyes
sparkled. “I want the cooperation of everyone in the Dome. You can
assure them that they will be well-cared for if they follow the
rules. If any of them try to escape—if any
more
of them try to escape—then I
will hold you personally responsible.” Her voice carried a
malicious edge, and Colton knew he never wanted to find out what
she had in mind as a punishment if anyone disobeyed. “The Russian
is gone,” she said. “I am willing to let it go—just this once—if
you do as I say without question.”

“
You can’t expect us to
just lay down and die.”

“
I can and I do. But it
doesn’t have to be as bad as you think. The sooner I get what I
want, the sooner I will leave.”

“
What is it you want,
exactly?” asked Colton.

“
I need to know why Fade
infects some of our kind and not others. I need to know how to
improve its mortality rate to one-hundred percent.”

“
Liar,” said Colton.
“Whoever’s pulling your strings cares about all of that. You just
want Haven.”

Kamiko bared her teeth in an
animalistic snarl and Colton knew he hit a nerve. Sparks of
lightning shot from her back and her hair slowly stood on end. Dark
blue flames licked up from her eyes like two dancing candles. She
floated over the ground and stood inches away from Colton. The
hairs on his arms reached out for her, crackling with static
electricity.

“
Will you force me to hurt
the children?” she asked.

The sparks of lightning on her back
became a solid tube of blue fire that extended into the air above
her, like a fire snake ready to strike. It slammed down into
Colton’s body and moved over his skin. His resolution to not show
pain was broken and he screamed in agony. Kamiko spoke and somehow
her voice pierced through his deafening scream, as if she were
speaking directly in his mind.

“
I
will
hurt them, Colton. All of them.
It would be nothing to me. You are brave, and that is a noble
thing. But do not let your bravery be the death of your friends.
Will you help me? Make your decision.”

Suddenly the pain was gone. The blue
fire vanished and Colton was left hanging numbly from the rope,
swinging slowly back and forth. At first he couldn’t force his
mouth to speak the word, but finally his muscles loosened and he
whispered, “Yes.”

Kamiko reached toward the rope over
his head and a spark of lightning shot out from her palm. The rope
snapped and Colton fell the last few feet to the ground. He landed
against his broken rib but was too exhausted to utter a sound.
Instead, he lay there, mouth open in a silent scream. He rolled
over onto his back to get the pressure off his broken bone, but the
pain followed him.

He stared at Kamiko as she walked
away. As if in warning, she looked back over her shoulder and dark
blue light flared up in her eyes. She disappeared through the doors
that led to the Grove and Colton lost his fight with
consciousness.

19

H
aven floated in a great void, as if she were in the deepest
heart of space. Every star had been extinguished, leaving only
darkness. She knew she was dreaming, yet she was unable to force
herself to wake.

In the blackness, something skittered
onto her left hand. She wanted to shake it off but couldn’t move.
For a split second Haven was back in her old home in the comfort of
her own bed—before the fire, before her parents had been murdered.
A huge spider slowly crawled over the back of her hand, its hairy
legs probing her skin as if it were searching for the softest bit
of tissue. The tips of Haven’s fingers twitched, but the rest of
her was frozen stiff.

The two foremost legs of the spider
rose up into the air and its glistening fangs spread impossibly
wide. For a long moment the spider waited, ready to strike. Then,
with lightning speed, it sank its fangs into Haven’s
skin.

She screamed and sat up. Her head
smashed into a panel and her vision went white. She fell back
against the inside wall of the helicopter, groaning. Whatever had
been on her hand skittered away. Haven opened her eyes and, with
blurred vision, saw the raised tail of a scorpion disappear outside
through a massive hole in the helicopter.

She held up her arm, ignoring for a
moment the long streak of blood that ran from her elbow to her
wrist. A tiny, red welt formed on the back of her left hand. The
sting was spreading across her skin rapidly and the pain was
getting worse.

“
Northern scorpion,” said
Bastian from somewhere nearby. “I
knew
it.” Haven looked over and saw
him. He was still in the copilot’s chair, but the instrument panel
had been pushed so far into the cabin that his lower body was
pinned beneath a massive chunk of metal and electronics. A small
trickle of blood ran freely from a cut near one of his
temples.

“
Are they deadly?” she
asked.

“
Not that one. Too big.
It’s the little guys you have to watch out for.” He groaned loudly
and tried to push himself out from between the instrument panel and
his seat, but neither would budge.

The pilot’s chair next to him was
empty.

“
Where’s Marius?” asked
Haven. She was suddenly aware of how afraid she was at his absence.
He was the one visual anchor that held her securely to the world of
the Dome and to the people within. It was easier to remember their
faces if she was with someone familiar.

“
Right here,” came a gruff
voice from outside the helicopter. The thick Russian accent was
unmistakable. Marius leaned down and looked into the chopper
through the ragged hole in its side. A large cut ran across the top
of his forehead, but otherwise he seemed unharmed. He frowned when
he looked at Haven.

“
You let yourself get
stung,” he said with disappointment.

“
You weren’t there to
watch out for me,” she shot back.

“
Marius will not always be
there,” he said. He stepped over debris inside the helicopter and
knelt down beside her. “Probably best to get that through your head
sooner rather than later.”

He picked up her swelling hand and
pressed it between his palms. A soft glow of orange light filtered
through his fingers, and a pleasant warmth engulfed Haven’s hand.
When he let go, the red welt was gone, as was the pain from the
sting. Marius then found the deep cut on Haven’s elbow and pressed
his thumb into it. She clenched her teeth and hissed sharply as the
orange light flowed from his skin and disappeared into the cut.
When he removed his thumb, the skin had healed over and left behind
a pink splotch, like an old burn mark.

“
I thought Fade took your
abilities,” said Haven.

Marius grunted. “It did. This is the
new limit of the power. Marius has almost nothing left. He is a
walking Band-Aid.”

Haven patted his bald head and he
pushed her arm away gently.

“
It will scar,” he said,
pointing at the healed cut on her arm. “Sorry.” He stood up slowly
and stretched his back. “Where is the other guy?”

“
Roku?” asked Haven. “I
don’t know.”

“
Well,” said Marius. “Best
we all stay together, yes?” He turned and left the
chopper.

“
Hey!” shouted Bastian.
“What about me?!”

Marius ignored him and followed a set
of footprints leading away from the helicopter.

Inside, Haven unbuckled both of her
belts and stood up. One side of the chopper was now the floor, and
the other the ceiling. She stepped over debris on her way to the
cockpit. Behind her, the entire back third of the helicopter had
been ripped off. She looked back and saw a small silhouette of
crumpled metal in the distance where the chopper had first hit the
ground. A long trench had been carved into the hard earth as the
body of the chopper scraped over the desert floor.

Haven leaned against the pilot’s chair
and watched Bastian struggle to free his legs.

“
How’s it going?” she
asked.

“
Oh, you know, just
hanging out, crushed by a bloody helicopter. This is probably the
worst day of my life. Wait—no, let me think. Yep. Yeah, this is it.
This is the worst.”

“
How do you think
I
feel?” asked Haven.
“First the plane crash and now
this
.”

He smiled. “Guess you need new
friends.”

“
Tell me about it.” She
poked the bent piece of hull below the instrument panel that pinned
Bastian’s lower body to his chair. “I could try to melt you out,”
she said.

“
Are ye daft?” His
Scottish accent was thick with agitation. “Ye’ll melt me own legs
off! Go and find Roku, he can help.”

“
You’re kind of bossy when
you’re in a jam,” said Haven with a smile.

Bastian opened his mouth to say
something else but Haven was already out of the chopper. She could
dimly see Marius standing a short distance away, looking toward the
dark horizon. Next to him was Roku, still as a statue. He seemed
unharmed by the crash. Haven wondered if he had somehow managed to
use his Conduit power to absorb and deflect the force of the
impact.

“
What is it?” she asked as
she stood on the other side of Marius.

“
The facility,” he said.
“Roku says it is not far now.”

Haven squinted into the darkness and
saw nothing but the faint outlines of several small mountains.
“Bastian is still stuck,” she said.

Roku sighed and walked back to the
chopper with Haven close behind.

“
Finally!” said Bastian.
“What have you been doing out there, anyway?”

“
We are close,” said
Roku.

“
Well, let’s get moving!”
said Bastian. He looked at Haven and nodded toward Roku. “Hit him
with it.”

“
With what?” asked
Haven.

“
Give him your best shot,
let’s go. Light him up. He’ll take it in and push this mess right
off.”

Haven looked at Roku warily. He
nodded. “You’re sure?” she asked.

Bastian slapped his palms on the
instrument panel. “Well, I don’t want to sit here for the rest of
my life, now do I?!”

Haven took a step back. Roku planted
his feet firmly on the floor of the chopper, right next to
Bastian.

Haven closed her eyes and waited. Her
mind went blank and she imagined a giant sphere of blue flame—a
star that was her own source of energy. It appeared in the distance
as it always did, only now, after a year of practice, she was able
to bring it closer much faster than she once could.

The ball of blue fire shot toward her,
growing rapidly in her mind. It stopped and hovered close, slowly
turning on its axis, the blue plasma swirling over its surface like
flowing lava. Haven drew on its energy. She forced the power into
her veins and felt it growing between her shoulder blades. Warmth
cascaded throughout her body, heating her cool skin. It moved
quickly out to her shoulders and down her arms. It pooled in her
clenched fists, and her palms grew hot with raw energy. She felt
her wings spreading from her back, unfolding and stretching
wide.

Somewhere, as if from a great distance
away, she heard Bastian say, “Roku, I hope you’re ready for this,
mate.”

Haven opened her eyes and the world
was painted blue. The fire consumed her vision and everything she
saw danced behind the blue flames that covered her entire body. The
very tips of her energy wings burned through the hull of the
chopper as she stood in its center.

With a final nod from Roku, she let
loose.

A brilliant stream of searing hot
plasma erupted from her outstretched hands. The energy hit Roku
square in the chest and sent him flying through the cockpit window.
He soared twenty feet away and hit the ground at a
tumble.

“
Woooo-hoooo!” shouted
Bastian.

The blue fire dissipated instantly.
Haven ran outside and knelt down next to Roku.

“
I’m so sorry!” she said
quickly. “I didn’t mean to let that much go! I guess I—I didn’t
have as much control as I thought.”

She helped him roll onto his back. He
coughed out a mouthful of sand and groaned as if he had been hit by
a cement truck. Smoke billowed up from his clothes and Haven wafted
it away. “Well,” he said weakly, “you’ve had a lot on your mind
recently. Quick, help me back to the helicopter. I can’t hold this
much energy for long.”

Blue flame erupted on Roku’s hands and
slowly crawled over his body. He kept his fists clenched tightly as
Haven helped him to the chopper. She guided him to stand next to
Bastian, then took a few steps back.

“
I’m ready,” said
Bastian.

Roku took a deep breath and the blue
flames covering his skin vanished. He yelled once, a sharp cry of
concentration, and struck the instrument panel with an open palm.
It was like a sledgehammer hitting a wall with full force. A
visible wave of air pushed in front of Roku’s fist as it slammed
into the panel. The wave transferred into the chopper and ran over
the surface of the panel like ripples through water. It cracked in
a hundred places, exposing the dented hull that was pinning
Bastian’s legs. The helicopter groaned with the force of the
impact.