The Forbidden Trilogy (49 page)

He pulled the door closed and sat next to his daughter.

Her labored breaths came at fewer intervals, despite the
oxygen attached to her.

Yes, if she dies, someone
will
pay.

In the last moment of his life, a bright glow rose from his
chest and out through the window. Was it his soul? A final burst of energy from
his powers? I didn't know, but whatever he'd been, the Seeker died to protect
someone else.

It was a noble deed, and that's how I'd remember him.

The climb down the fire escape tore at my burned hands until
the pain threatened to overwhelm me. The view from the window showed me a
school fallen into chaos. My dorm would be completely engulfed in flames soon.
Bodies of students and guards littered the once peaceful walking paths, and
para-powers sparked everywhere in conflict.

A group of students moved toward the front gates, which had
miraculously remained untouched by the fire, but not for long. I needed to get
down there and find Lucy and Luke... and Drake.

Just thinking his name carved another hole in my mangled
gut.

The ground rose to meet me faster than expected, as I slid
down the last ladder of the fire escape. I stumbled onto my knees, tearing my
pants and leaving small marks of blood on the cement. I hobbled along through
more than just a trace of blood smeared across the campus walkways.

I joined a swarm of students heading for the front gates.
"Drake! Drake!"

Bodies pushed me forward, and I couldn't tell one person
from another. No one looked familiar, and yet everyone looked the same.
"Luke? Lucy?"

"Luce, where are you? I'm stuck and can't see
anyone?"

'Sam, oh my God, we've been worried sick about you. Get
to the gates. We're about to get out.'

I imagined a single file line as we all walked off campus
and into the world. Leave it to Lucy to plan something far more dramatic.

The entire perimeter of the fence pulled itself out of the
ground and flew into the forest. In another display of power, the brick wall
beyond the metal fence crumbled to dust.

Teens of all ages screamed and cheered and ran from the
school that had become worse than a prison.

But where were they going? Brad should've been here by now
with backup. I needed to get to Lucy and Luke and help organize the students.

I locked on to Lucy's mental signature and pushed through
the crowd, following her link.

We reunited just outside the old fence line. All around us
fires burned, things exploded, and people laughed and cried.

I wrapped my arms around my best friend and added my tears
to the mourning. "You're safe. I'm so glad you're safe."

"You too, Chica. Where's Drake? We've got to get out of
here."

My sobs came harder.

"What did I say? What's wrong?"

"I lost Drake. I can't find him."

"What do you mean, you lost him? He's not a puppy.
Can't you use your link?"

I gave her the
Reader's Digest
condensed version of
what happened.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, Sam."

Luke came up and wrapped his arms around both of us.
"We'll find him, but first we need a what-do-we-do-next plan. We have
that, right?"

"Yes. Let me see what I can find."

With my two best friends both hugging me, I reached out my
mind and scanned our area. Something had shifted in me since the Seeker had
kissed my forehead. Some space I hadn't known existed now opened up, but I
didn't know what it meant, and I didn't have time to explore it.

A mass of consciousness lumbered toward us, and one familiar
signature. Brad had brought the cavalry.

"We're going to be okay. Brad's coming with help. I
need to try and connect to all the students and create some order."

Normally I would have needed Drake for this kind of power,
but I didn't have him anymore, at least not in that way. Maybe not in any way.

I sat down to steady myself, and let Luke and Lucy guard me
as I reached out to every mind around me. Not all were students and teachers.
Many of the guards survived. I could feel their confusion and fear, like
zookeepers whose animals had escaped—that's how most of them saw us.

The students were scattered everywhere, but most realized an
escape from a secret facility in the middle of the forest needed more thought
than just running. It didn't take as much power as I'd imagined to connect with
everyone.  I offered a gentle push for them all to listen and respond.

"I am Sam. I escaped once and have come back to
help. Friends are coming with vehicles and supplies, but I need you all to come
to me and stay calm and orderly while we sort it all out. Guards, look around.
Your leader is dead. You've lost, and more of you will die if you don't walk
away."

The fighting stopped, and they came. Not as zombies, but as
free members of society, though society didn't even know they existed.

As if on cue, icy rain broke from the heavens. It poured
down so hard, it subdued the fires and eventually put them out.

When Brad and his people arrived, Luke, Lucy and I had
organized everyone into groups with team leaders and jobs. Some groups were
assigned to clear buildings and retrieve the bodies of the dead and wounded.
Other groups were responsible for gathering research material and secret
information, using the codes and keys Higgins had given Lucy to access the
safes.

So much loss of life. And who could say for sure where the
lines of good and evil lay? No single person was all one or the other. So how
did we decide which actions to place on the scale of good and evil?

I chose to look at how they'd spent their last moments of
life.

***

The familiarity of Brad's embrace sent me into another round
of tears. No one had seen Drake, and his body hadn't been found.

"We'll find him." Brad took off his jacket and
draped it over my shivering shoulders. "In the meantime, there's someone I
think you should meet."

An elderly priest in cleric robes got out of the car and
came to me. "You must be Sam."

He held out his hand, but I reached over it to hug him
instead. "Father Patrick, it's so good to finally meet you, but you
shouldn't have come here. It's still very dangerous."

The father's smile was infectious, even in the midst of such
bitter sadness. "Do not worry for me. The Lord is my keeper and He alone
decides the time and place of our reunion, does he not? But I'm not here to
give a sermon. We've brought buses for the kids, and I have a safe haven for
them lined up until we sort all of this out."

I marveled at all he and Brad had done, but a man and woman
dressed in suits walked up to us before I could thank the priest.

The man held out his hand to me, and I shook it. "I'm
Agent Morrison, and this is Agent Simmons."

I raised my eyebrow at Brad. He'd involved law enforcement?
I couldn't decide if this was really great news, or really dreadful news.

"Sam, these are the people who sent the mysterious
email. They work for a secret arm of an intergovernmental agency created, in
part, to stop Rent-A-Kid from becoming too powerful: IPI, International
Paranormal Investigations. They helped us put together the resources we needed
to get your guys out, and they want our help in taking down the entire organization
from the top."

Agent Morrison's mind opened up instantly to my mental
touch.
'I know you can read my mind, Sam, so you'll know I'm telling the
truth. We're here to help. We can discuss all the details later. In the
meantime, we're taking your friends and fellow students to a property owned by
the Church and run by Father Patrick. We assumed that would be a more
comfortable solution for all of you while we get to know each other?'

I nodded and called to Lucy. I could read minds, sure, but
sometimes a lie detector is better to have around. For me to tell if someone
was lying, I had to dig. She knew instantly.

She walked over with Luke in tow. "Can you read these
guys for me?"

We had both agents make several statements of intent about
what they planned for us and whether they intended to hurt us—intentionally or
otherwise.

"They're on the up and up. We've got some seriously
injured kids here. Did you guys happen to bring any medical personnel with
you?"

Agent Simmons got on her walkie-talkie, and within a minute
or two several ambulances drove up with E.M.T.s ready to get to work. I'd never
seen so many vehicles around our school.

One medic noticed my hand and pulled me away from the group.

Lucy stayed beside me as the woman had me sit on the back of
her ambulance, where she unwrapped my makeshift bandage. "This is a pretty
bad burn. How'd it happen?"

I told her, leaving out all the painful details.

Lucy arched her eyebrow.

"I'll tell you later, Luce. Just know, the Seeker is
dead."

Her eyes filled with tears, which I did not expect. "I
believe you. We have so much to talk about."

"How far along are you?" The medic palpated my
stomach and held a stethoscope to it.

"Um... I guess I'm... four months along. I'm not
sure."

"You look big for only four months. Are you sure?"

Lucy glared at her and the woman shrugged. "You'll need
to have a full psychical as soon as possible. And regular prenatal
appointments, if you want a healthy baby."

Somehow prenatal appointments hadn't been high on my list of
things to do with people trying to kill or imprison me, but I promised I would
follow up.

She smeared ointment on my hand and wrapped it in clean
gauze. "This is a third-degree burn. You need to get it checked out
immediately."

I promised, and headed back onto the school campus.

Lucy grabbed my arm. "Where you going, Chica? We need
to get out of here."

"I have to find Drake. He's not with any of the
students, so he must be on the campus. He could be trapped or hurt. I have to
get to him."

"Okay, but let me at least get Luke to help."

I waited while she found her brother.

The three of us searched every room, every hallway, every
soggy, burned-out area. No Drake.

My feet and hand and... just about every part of me hurt so
much, but I couldn't stop. Waterlogged, frozen to the bone despite Brad's
jacket, and nearly delirious from exhaustion and pain, I kept looking.

Luke pulled me into another hug. "Sam, we've got to go.
He's not here. Not anymore."

Some of the buildings had been burned so badly. There might
be remains....

Brad's new government friends promised to launch a full
investigation and sort out the bodies, but they made it clear anyone not alive
and accounted for had likely perished in the fires.

I would never accept that story.

Drake was not dead, and I would find him.

He had to know. He had to understand.

The Seeker gave me one last gift before he died, and while I
didn't know what it all meant, I knew one thing clearly.

I could restore Drake's powers.

Winter winds howled in the distance as we crowded into the
abandoned cathedral. Father Patrick had found this sacred place for us to honor
our friends who had fallen—a place off the grid, for those who still had
nightmares of being captured and imprisoned.

IPI had needed the remains for autopsies. No bodies meant no
burials, so we decided to have a mass memorial service instead.

Each day my baby grew bigger, and my black dress now
stretched to the point of almost tearing. I rested my hand on her as she
wiggled around inside me.

Drake's body had not been found, alive or... the other.
Everyone assumed the fire consumed him, but I could feel in my heart, if not my
mind, that he still lived, somewhere. He just chose not to come home to me, to
us—which was almost worse.

I understood his reasons, to a degree, but couldn't forgive
him for abandoning me while pregnant with our child, nor could I forgive myself
for what I'd done to him.

Brad, Luke and Lucy slid into my aisle and flanked me in a
show of friendship and support. Greg and Gary also joined us in our row. I'd
gotten to know them a bit, since our escape, and was impressed by how much they
had done for the cause. They gripped each other's hand tightly in shared grief.
I envied them that connection, that intimacy.

Everything had changed, even my friends. I suppose I had
too. Our carefree days had ended the moment Rent-A-Kid kidnapped Drake and
impregnated me.

Father Patrick stood at the podium to begin the service.
"Each of you has lost someone you loved or cared for. The loss of a human
life is never an easy burden to bear, and the loss of so many young lives is
nearly impossible to comprehend. We all come from different spiritual practices
and beliefs, but today we are unified in our grief, and in our celebration of
the lives of our friends and loved ones."

Organ music played in the background as the priest talked
about sacrifice, justice, and right and wrong. My mind wandered to the night we
all escaped and the Seeker died. I racked my brain for any sign I could have
done something differently, something that wouldn't have resulted in Drake
leaving.

Many photographs lined the front of the church: kids I'd
grown up with, teachers who'd shaped my education in small and large ways,
Higgins, with his no-nonsense approach to everything, Mary, with her toothy
grin—her death lay especially heavy on my soul.

But others weighed even heavier.

Though Mr. K hadn’t died in the breakout, his picture had
been included. He’d been a part of this from the start, he’d tried to protect
me and save me.

And Gar, my fierce protector. He’d been more than he seemed,
but weren’t we all? No one could find a picture of him, so I’d drawn one from
memory. I’d tried to capture the one and only smile I’d ever seen on him.