The Cure (3 page)

I turned to avoid the knife, hitting him at the same time with another left jab. He stumbled past me, pivoted on his heel, and dived at me again. I cracked the gun in my right hand down on his head.
Take that, idiot.
A pistol had more than one use.

He fell forward with a thump—and lay there unmoving.

Carefully I turned him over. He’d cut himself in the stomach with the knife, but unfortunately not deep enough to bleed to death. He still had a pulse, too, so that meant he’d recover from being pistol-whipped. For all that he was a scumbag, I was relieved. Since my Change, I’d shot people and fought a lot more, but I’d never killed anyone. Not permanently killed. Killing Unbounded didn’t count if it wasn’t permanent. At least that’s what I told myself because in truth it was still horrifying.

No time to think about it. I had to get Mari to the safe house—and I still had to decide what to do with the Hunters. They could identify me now.

I turned, half expecting Mari to have collapsed in a sobbing heap, but she’d grabbed one of the Hunter’s rifles and was pointing it—at me. She backed away, her eyes wild.

I put the Sig in my pocket and held my hands up to show I wasn’t armed. “Put it down, Mari. We have to get out of here.”

“You—how—why . . .”

“I promise I’ll explain everything, but later, okay? Trust me.”

“You killed him! You were going to shoot me!” Her face was flushed and her eyes wide, her hands shaking with fear. Fear of me, the person who’d gone to work at a boring accounting firm for months in order to protect her from people a lot worse than the Hunters. The person who’d brought her food when she was too depressed to eat. The one who’d urged her to start taking charge of her life.

The truth of it was that she had more than enough reason to be wary of me. I’d run myself if I were in her place—in fact, I
had
run, and my family had paid for that mistake with a life. Luckily, Mari had no family to endanger, except fourth cousins she didn’t know and Stella, who was technically her fifth-great aunt but whom she hadn’t seen since she was a little girl.

Mari looked ready to bolt, and I still didn’t know what else might be lurking out there in the dark. “He was going to rape you,” I reminded her. “Besides, he’s not dead.”

“How did you know I was here?”

“I followed you.” The street lamps in the park chose that moment to go on, making me feel exposed. How long before the Hunters’ backup arrived?

“You followed me?” Her voice rose to a pitch that hurt my ears. “Who are you, Erin? Who are you really? Because
normal
people don’t follow their friends.
Normal
people don’t know how to fight like that.” Her eyes went to the sprawled Hunters.

“I told you I’ll explain later. We have to get out of here. These guys usually travel in a pack.”

Besides, wherever there were Hunters, the Emporium was never far behind. Hunters might hate all Unbounded, but Emporium agents had been infiltrating their organization for decades, using them as a weapon against us. That the Hunters had found Mari or knew to watch for her Change smacked of the Emporium more than the Hunters, who were too short-lived to think over generations. But no matter how they’d found her, if I didn’t get Mari out of this situation safely, Stella might never talk to me again. Renegade Unbounded guard their family lines as carefully as any treasure—even from most fellow Renegades—and she’d been waiting more than a hundred years for someone in her family line to Change.

I sent out my mind, trying to determine if anyone else was out there in the darkness, or at least within my sensing range. We needed to avoid running into anyone else. Mari was already spooked as it was without watching me fight again.

Someone
was
coming—and fast. Had to be Unbounded. No mortal could move that rapidly. No time to run.

I reached for my gun.

Mari gasped as a shadow appeared from behind her, yanking the rifle from her hand. Her eyes went to the man, as if she didn’t know whether she should scream and run—or fall into his arms and weep with relief.

Which was almost exactly the way I felt.

He was a tower of strong muscle, carrying himself with undeniable grace, as did all those gifted with combat. No movement wasted, no attack he couldn’t anticipate. His black hair fell to the right, grazing a mole on his cheek. His square jaw, in need of a shave, was set in determination, and his eyes glittered with anger. He carried a gun in his right hand, and the sword emerging from a back sheath announced that he’d come prepared to find Emporium Unbounded. Wet-looking patches spotted his black jeans and jacket. Definitely blood.

Ritter was back. After two months with no word, he was back.

“Gaven and I took care of their friends.” He spoke in a clipped voice, one he might have used in his former life as a policeman a quarter of a century ago. I wondered if he was thinking of his family—and the woman he hadn’t been able to save.

“Who are you?” Desperation laced Mari’s voice.

Ignoring her, Ritter crossed the space between us. I felt burning inside him when he was still feet away. I’d always been able to catch glimpses of him like this, even from the first before I knew about my ability or how to use it. Desire swept through me, and I couldn’t tell if it was his or mine—or if it mattered. I had a brief vision of going into his arms, of our mouths clinging together, our bodies melding. Everything in my body screamed that he was mine.

Yet he’d broken his promise, and in a world where almost everyone I knew lied to survive, I valued truth more than just about anything. At least that’s what I told myself.

He reached for me, but I held myself stiff.

“Erin,” he began.

“Later.” I pulled my arm from his grip, jerking my chin at the Hunters. “They’ll be able to identify me, and we still don’t know how they found Mari. Are you sure you got the rest of them?” The emotions swirling around him cut off when I pulled away, as though they’d never existed. I knew differently.

“I’m sure.” His eyes glittered so darkly that the only color for them was black. He was nothing but empty space to my sensing now, and it wasn’t likely he’d relax enough to let anything more slip. We all learned how to block or suffer the consequences. The Emporium had at least two sensing Unbounded, one more powerful than I dreamed of becoming. She’d almost controlled me once, and I knew she’d eventually come for me again. I might be young in Unbounded terms, but I was valuable—or so everyone told me. I hoped when the time came that I’d be ready for her.

For a brief moment I thought with envy of my former life as a law-school dropout working a dead-end job as an insurance claims agent. Nothing more exciting than talking to distressed people and pushing buttons on a keyboard.

No one trying to carve me or my family into pieces.

Except I didn’t really want to go back. If it meant saving the lives that had been lost, I’d agree in a heartbeat, but that could never happen.

Being Unbounded changes everything.

G
AVEN MATERIALIZED FROM THE DARK
and began talking quietly with Mari. His face, the color of rich coffee, was sharp and dangerous-looking and his wiry body was pure corded muscle, but he had an easy way of speaking and I hoped he could calm her. There were other things I needed to do.

Kneeling next to the old Hunter, I reached out and touched his face, while Ritter stood over me, a silent brooding shadow. I wanted to ask him where he’d been, what had been more important than being at the hospital after the operation, but now wasn’t the time. Maybe a part of me didn’t want to know the answer.

I closed my eyes and pushed my awareness inside the Hunter’s mind. I still trusted Ritter to watch over me. Didn’t that say something?

Down.
The Hunter’s unconsciousness made this part easier—perhaps made it possible at all. Of course I wouldn’t be able to learn much about the kind of person he was while he was out, just observe some of his memories. Down further. Until at last I dived into a lake of memories that appeared below me, my entry rippling the placid liquid, though I couldn’t feel any wetness. Images floated around me, muted by the Hunter’s unconsciousness. I moved aside to let an image of a truck go by, and yet another of a laughing woman. The woman was older than me, and I couldn’t help wondering about her. Was she his wife? His sister? If he were conscious, I might be able to tell.

I’d practiced unconscious memory manipulation with Ava, my ancestor, but this was the first time I’d done it on my own. I had to be sure to find the right memory. He’d lose anything I took with me, and the less I took, the more seamless it would be. Extracting larger memories would leave black spots, and even Hunters would begin to connect that to us—eventually.

There. An image of me entering the clearing. Exactly the one I needed. I snatched it in my hands and it vanished. But there were more thought bubbles of Mari, and the deeper I went the more there were of them. If I removed them all, his memory would have too many holes, and besides, others knew about her. She’d already been written up in their computer database, and I couldn’t erase that.

Sighing, I sidestepped a scene of the Hunter spitting tobacco with some buddies and stroked upward in a single motion to the surface of the memory reservoir, separating myself from the old man.

I nodded at Ritter before moving to crouch next to the younger Hunter. “Impossible to remove the memories of Mari,” I said in an undertone. “They’ve been watching her for years.”

“Figured as much.” Ritter picked up the fallen knife. “This one’s bleeding.”

“He shouldn’t play with knives.” I wasn’t feeling as flippant as I sounded. I didn’t want to go into this rapist’s mind, even unconscious.

Down I went again, this time into black oil. Ava had said it wasn’t always a lake, and I wondered if this was my representation of him or his own. His memory felt less crowded and I easily located the bubble I needed, the one that would keep me out of the Hunter’s database for yet a while longer. The other memory of his attempted rape floated by, radiating sickness. Disgust rolled through me as I stepped out of the way.

I opened my eyes, still feeling slick with dirt and grease, wondering belatedly how the Hunters’ minds would cope without the memories of me. Would they believe they’d been jumped from behind as they attacked Mari? It’d be the only reasonable explanation for the memory gap—if Unbounded abilities were anything near reasonable. In theory, a sensing Unbounded should also be able to input false memories into the unconscious mind that were as seamless as the real ones, but Ava said the knowledge to do so had been lost a thousand years ago, or the ability had been. She wasn’t really sure which.

“You’re bleeding.” Ritter’s mouth clenched tightly as he stared at my stomach and the rip in my shirt, the edges of the green material crimson with blood.

“I’m okay.” I spoke quickly because Ritter was volatile, and while I had no love for this Hunter, I didn’t want his blood on my hands. “They may know too much about Mari,” I added, coming to my feet, “but it was only last week that she Changed, so maybe we can at least remove that.”

“Then we’d better keep them unconscious until we talk to Ava.” Ritter glanced at Gaven, who was still with Mari. “Gaven, we’ll need to put them with the others.”

Gaven strode toward us, and Mari glanced behind her as though preparing to run. Time to get back to work. Breathing in, I began absorbing nutrients from the air. I caught a hint of leaves and something fruity, not so much a taste on the tongue but a smell or a feeling. Strength tingled through my limbs, and the wound in my stomach no longer ached.

“I’m taking her to the palace,” I told the men. The palace. The name my brother Jace had mockingly given to the sprawling rundown hotel where we’d been living for the past two months. At least it had enough room for all of us. “I’ll leave these guys to you.”

Without waiting for a response, I hurried to Mari’s side. I could feel Ritter’s gaze on me, but not a hint of his emotions came through. Once I would have been discouraged at the backward step, but for now I was relieved. I hadn’t yet decided how I was going to play this.

Ava had warned me that Ritter didn’t stick around, and I’d replied that at least he kept coming back. We were both right, but I didn’t know if I could share a man with whatever else held so much fascination for him. I also didn’t know if there was room enough inside him for both his obsessive hatred of the Emporium and his feelings for me. In the end, maybe I was better off without him. He was scarcely more than a killing machine. That was what the Emporium had made of him—what they’d made of us all.

Mari’s gaze fixed on my bloodied shirt before going to my face. “I don’t understand any of this. It’s like a nightmare. Look, I’m getting out of here. I need to talk to Trevor.”

It had to be shock that made her even consider going after him. “You can’t. You’re not safe with him.”

“He loves me!” Tears started down her cheeks.

I shook my head. “He’s a Hunter. Or at least connected with them. He was paid to watch you—you heard that yourself. Hunters kill people like you and me.”