The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade (8 page)

Colton shook his head and sighed. “So
what’s the catch?”

“
Catch?”

“
This guy gave you a
briefcase—probably full of money—and told you to use it to get me
out of jail. So what’s the catch?”

“
That’s the best part of
the whole thing! He didn’t want anything except to meet you after
you were released.”

Colton frowned. “What do you mean,
‘meet me’?”

“
Exactly what I said. He
wants to talk to you, in person. He said I could go, too. I think
he might have some sort of business offer for us. Great timing,
right?” Reece turned left at the next street but Colton kept
walking toward the apartment building. “It’s this way,” said
Reece.

“
He wants to meet
now
?” said
Colton.

“
That’s what he said. I
had to agree before he handed over the briefcase.”

Colton looked down the unfamiliar
street.

“
This doesn’t feel right,”
he said. “How does he even know who I am, or who
you
are?” Colton shook
his head. “How did he know I was in jail in the first
place?”

Reece raised his eyebrows. “For a guy
who just survived a few hours in the lion’s den with cutthroats and
thieves, I would think you’d be a little less of a
chicken.”

“
It doesn’t seem weird to
you?” asked Colton.

“
It seems like this guy
wants to talk to us, hopefully about how we can both make tons of
money with minimal effort. Of
course
it doesn’t seem weird to me.”
He pulled a wrinkled piece of paper out if his jeans pocket and
squinted at a written address, then looked up at the street signs
next to the road. “I was right. Not much farther,” he said, and
started walking.

Colton thought about it for a moment,
then followed Reece down the dark street.

“
I’m not going to bail you
out of trouble again,” said Colton. “That was a one-time
thing.”

Reece held up his hands. “Totally
understandable. And again—thank you.”

They walked the rest of the way in
silence. Reece led them down quiet streets to a tall, unmarked
building in University Heights. All of the windows were dark and
the brick face was crumbling from age.

“
This is it,” said
Reece.

“
He told you to
come
here
?”

“
Yeah. Spooky,
right?”

They walked up the small set of stairs
that led to the front door.

“
I feel like I’m about to
have my organs harvested,” said Colton.

“
Look, if you want, you
can just say ‘thank you’ and then we’ll leave. We owe the guy that
much at least. But there’s still the matter of all that potential
cash…”

Colton sighed. “Let’s just get it over
with.”

“
Atta boy,” said Reece
with a grin. He pushed open the old, wooden door and walked
inside.

11

C
olton followed Reece into the old building. They stepped into
a single large, dark room. The entire first floor of the building
had been gutted except for a few structural pillars which propped
up the ceiling. Debris from interior walls that had been torn down
years ago was piled into small mounds throughout the
room.

A single, naked light bulb shined in
the middle of the huge, cavernous space, hanging from a wire that
ran up to the ceiling and over to an outlet on the wall. A man
stood beneath the light, alone. He waited with his arms at his
sides, feet planted on the ground in a wide stance. The man wore a
long, dark coat over black clothes. His face was hidden by the
shadows cast from the overhead light, but Colton could tell he was
staring at them.

“
This guy really knows how
to make an impression,” whispered Reece.

“
Is that him?” asked
Colton.

“
Yeah. Come
on.”

They walked over to the edge of the
light, their footsteps crunching on small chunks of debris and
echoing loudly across the concrete floor. The man tilted up his
head slightly and looked at them. His face was long and thin, with
sunken cheek bones and deep-set eyes. His black, slicked-back hair
glistened wetly in the light.

Reece cleared his throat. “So, you
already know me. This is Colton.”

Colton took a step forward and looked
into the shadow covering the man’s face. “Thank you for your
help.”

The man tilted his head down. “I am
Alistair,” he said in a slight English accent. “You have a good
friend here, to do such a thing without knowing who I am or what I
really want.”

Colton looked over at Reece. “If you
say so.”

Alistair squinted at him. “Perhaps you
are wondering why it was done at all.”

“
It crossed my
mind.”

“
I have been looking for
you a long time, Colton Ross. You were not easy to find. But
now…here you are.” He smiled to reveal a mouth full of perfectly
white, straight teeth.

“
Right,” said Colton.
“Look, I just came to say thank you, so thank you. Reece, let’s
go.”

They started to walk away.

“
Colton,” said
Alistair.

Colton turned just as
Alistair threw a small, round object directly at his face. Colton
ducked to the side and reached up his hand. It hit his palm with a
loud
SMACK
. He
turned it over—it was an apple.

“
What is that supposed to
be?” asked Reece. “He wants you to have a snack?”

Alistair smirked and walked toward
them. “He knows what it means. Don’t you, Colton?”

Colton stared at the red piece of
fruit. He had always been so careful after buying the apples from
the produce stand. He made sure that no one was watching before the
fruit withered and died in his palm.

“
Like I said,” continued
Alistair. “It took me a long time to find you. Searching for you in
the world was like throwing a rock into a big pond to try and hit
an invisible fish.” He frowned. “I threw many rocks. It took far
too long, and for that I am truly sorry.”

“
Who are you?” asked
Colton.

“
Me? I am just one small
gear in a giant machine. But you are a big gear. Bigger than me,
bigger than almost everyone I know. At least you will be, someday.”
He laughed. “You are very important, Colton Ross.”

“
What is this psycho
talking about?” asked Reece. “Can we please leave now?”

He tried to pull Colton toward the
front door, but Colton took a step closer to Alistair.

“
What
are you?” he asked.

Alistair smiled and wagged his index
finger at him. “Now we are getting somewhere.” He walked back to
the hanging light bulb and reached up to touch it. The light dimmed
and Alistair’s skin seemed to glow ever so slightly in the
darkness. He lowered his arm and light flooded back into the
bulb.

Alistair nodded toward the apple.
Colton held it up and concentrated on its red skin. He watched the
apple slowly wither and die in his palm, shrinking into nothing
more than a blackened core. He felt the warmth grow between his
shoulder blades and spread down to his hands.

“
Good,” said Alistair,
laughing. “Good! You have discovered the first part. But do you
know the second?”

Colton dropped the shrunken apple and
set his hand on Reece’s shoulder.

“
Colt, what are you—” said
Reece, then stopped. “Hey, that’s really warm. How are you doing
that?” He looked down at his shoulder in amazement.

Alistair clapped his hands and smiled.
“Excellent. Almost a year with no training and you can do all of
that on your own. I am very pleased.”

“
What is it?” asked
Colton. “The thing we do, I mean. What are we?”

Alistair looked at him. “I was born in
England,” he said, “but I am not English. You were born in America,
but you are not American. We are something different. Something
very special.”

“
Enough with the mystery,
already!” said Reece. “My shoulder feels amazing, by the
way.”

Colton waited eagerly for an
answer.

“
You need special
teaching,” said Alistair. “This is a very powerful gift you
have—one that has gone to waste until now. Someone must show you
the true path. I will tell you everything, but not here. You must
come with me.”

“
I can’t leave. I have a
job and an apartment…and a
life
,” said Colton.

“
Your job will be waiting
for you when you get back, if you still want it. Your apartment,
well…your friend here has no more money, so maybe it’s time to find
something else, yes? And he can come along as well. I insist that
he does, actually. As for your old life, I can assure you it won’t
be missed.”

“
I’d listen to the guy,
Colt. This could be really big.”

Colton crossed his arms and kicked at
a small piece of broken concrete on the floor. “Where do we have to
go?” he asked.

Alistair grinned and showed his
perfect teeth. “Montana.”

“
Wait, what?” said Reece.
“That might sound good to you, being from overseas or whatever,
but
Montana
? I
thought you were going to say Egypt or Switzerland or someplace fun
and, you know,
exotic
.”

“
You don’t like Montana? I
must admit, it wasn’t my first choice, either. But it grows on you
after a time. We go where we’re needed, so to speak,” said
Alistair. “And I
am
paying for everything.”

“
Oh,” said Reece. “In that
case, where’s the plane?”

Colton couldn’t force himself to
completely let go of caution long enough to take the chance that
the man was telling him the full truth.

“
Colton, listen,” said
Alistair. “You have a wonderful gift, and you have the potential to
help a lot of people. I know you’ve been doing it already, haven’t
you? At the homeless shelter. Don’t be modest! Your instincts led
you there because those people needed help. I can show you how to
do so much more.”

Colton stuffed his hands in his
pockets and shrugged—the choice was made. “So, what’s in Montana?”
he asked.

Alistair smiled. “More people who are
just like you.”

12

T
wo weeks after her house had burned down into nothing more
than a pile of charred wood and debris, Haven went back to try and
find anything that had survived the flames. It took her a few
minutes to work up the courage to step over the blackened wooden
plank that was the only remaining piece of what used to be the
front door.

As she walked through the grey and
black ruin, her feet kicked up small clouds of fine powder, which
floated into the air and clung to her clothes. She had barely taken
ten steps and it looked as if she had been crawling around in dirty
air vents all afternoon.

Yellow police tape still encircled the
yard to keep out anyone with more than a passing curiosity about
the unusual fire that had so quickly consumed the Kincaid home. She
had been told that she was allowed to come back anytime she wanted,
as long as she called the local police and informed them of her
visit.

The fire was classified as “unusual”
because the Fire Scene Investigator could not yet determine what
started the blaze. The authorities suspected arson due to the
strange red color of the flames, so they had been searching for an
accelerant—some type of chemical that started and fed the powerful
fire.

Haven’s parents had both been in bed
at the time—presumably asleep—and had suffocated on the poisonous
fumes.

The police could find no sign of Noah.
Haven overheard one of the firemen explaining to a news reporter
that the remains of those who died in a fire were usually very easy
to identify. Sometimes only a bone was left, but it was enough to
run a DNA test and identify the victim. Haven was still unclear as
to whether or not the police intended to classify the fire as an
accident—they told her they couldn’t be sure until they ran more
tests. No one seemed to want to talk to her about the devastating
incident. Whenever she managed to pull someone aside, they simply
said that they were working on it and would have an answer for her
soon.

Haven felt utterly
helpless.

Noah’s room—which had collapsed down
through the first floor and fallen into the kitchen—was covered
with pieces of his burned bed. A few blackened toys lay scattered
across the broken floor. The police had briefly mentioned that it
could have been a kidnapping, but Haven could tell by the look on
their faces that they thought it was only a matter of time before
they found his remains in the ashes. They had no leads to follow
besides the black car that Haven had seen driving away from her
home when the fire started. Since she hadn’t seen the license plate
or the driver, the chances of the police finding the car were
practically zero.