The Forbidden Trilogy (76 page)

"We did ask, Luce. We asked, and we escaped and we
helped free the others. It took a while, sure, but they drugged us so we'd
believe their bullshit answers."

Blah blah blah.
She crossed her arms and pulled away
from his touch. "Another reason. Another excuse. I'm tired of them, and
I'm just plain tired, so goodnight." She stood and walked to her tent,
then paused. "And regarding Hunter, I don't have to explain myself to you.
You're not responsible for me."

Luke's voice trailed after her. "Then who is? The
teachers back at Rent-A-Kid? Our parents? Wait a second, we never knew our
parents, except for that one conversation with our now-dead mother. Yeah, that
relationship lasted long. So tell me. Who's been watching your back all these
years?"

Lucy ignored him and kept walking, but her heart ached. He
wasn't wrong, but he wasn't right either.

"Fine. Whatever," Luke said. "I'm tired of
looking after you, anyways." The wind carried his final words to Lucy.
"I'm tired of seeing you get hurt."

Like the story of the princess and the pea, Lucy couldn't
get comfortable on her bed of leaves. She tossed and turned and tried to fight
the sadness that plagued her.
Why did Luke have to ruin such a perfect
night?

She'd finally found a guy who understood her in a way no one
else had, someone who made her feel strong and beautiful and alive, someone
whose kisses set her body on fire. And her brother had to stick his damn nose
in and suck all the joy from her experience. Her twin was only looking out for
her, and yes, he'd always had her back, but she'd grown up and could make her
own decisions. She didn't need his approval to date a guy. Granted, she didn't
know a lot about Hunter, but that was the point of dating, right? To get to
know someone better? Besides, her instincts were rarely wrong about people, and
her para-power confirmed that he hadn't lied to her. Hunter was the kind of guy
Lucy wanted to be with—strong, smart, sexy, caring and committed to his work.

Her mind drifted back to the kiss, to the feel of his lips
and his arms wrapped around her. She couldn't wait to see him again tomorrow.
Hopefully Luke would go back to normal. They'd had such fun today, and she
didn't want to lose him to his brooding, mopey double. Why couldn't he just
trust her and give Hunter a chance?

A soft pulsing filled her body with warmth. She reached into
her pocket and took out the sphere. It glowed with a comforting light and
immediately calmed her—until her argument with Mr. K popped into her mind. Did
he remember what she did to him? If so, why hadn't he said something?

Damnit, I have to talk to him.
She hated this guilt
and unease.

With the sphere secure inside, she strapped the pack to her
shoulders and made her way to Mr. K's mini Garden of Eden.

Mr. K smiled as she approached, but his branches slumped and
wilted. He looked tired. "Lucy, I'm glad you came over. Sorry about
earlier. I shouldn't have given Hunter such a hard time."

His apology made her feel even worse. "You were both
upset. It's understandable."

"Just because it's understandable doesn't make it
right."

She nodded. "You're right, it doesn't. Look, Mr. K, I'm
sorry about last night. About... what I did to you."

Mr. K looked into her for several long seconds before he
spoke again. "You did what you felt you needed to. I understand."

Lucy's lips twitched into a wry grin. "Just because you
understand, doesn't make it right. I lost control and compelled you to lie.
That's not me."

His branches shook as he chuckled. "Let me tell you a
story, Lucy. Take a seat. This is a long one."

The boulder next to Mr. K had become her customary seat
while visiting with him. An indent fit her perfectly as she sank into her spot
to listen.

As he spoke, Mr. K's branches swayed in response to his
mood. "The day after they took me from Rent-A-Kid, I woke up strapped to a
bed, needles and wires jabbing out of my body, tape over my mouth. This man
came in, dressed up in white with a blue mask, like a doctor, and introduced
himself as Bill. Then he injected me with a serum."

Lucy shuddered, remembering her own injections at the hands
of Rent-A-Kid—injections to keep her complacent and happy, injections to prime
her for pregnancy.

"It hurt," Mr. K continued. "It hurt like
acid being pumped through my veins, and they didn't give me any pain medication—that
would've messed up their tests. After Bill finished, he gave me a pat on the
head, said 'Good job' like I was his dog, and left. It took hours, but the pain
eventually went away. Next day, Bill came in and gave me another injection. I
groaned, pulled, twisted—tried anything to get out of those straps, to ask what
I'd done. Why me? Bill gave me another pat on the head, another 'Good job,' and
left. He did this for days, always the same routine. 'Hello, Mr. Krevner. Good
job, Mr. Krevner.' And all the while I kept thinking, 'Do you realize that
you're hurting another human being? Do you even care?' As time went on, the
pain built. First, I occupied myself with thinking up escape plans, but nothing
worked, so I stopped. As far as I could tell, Bill's tests showed no results,
and I began to think that I was going to spend the rest of my life locked in
that room. Then, one night, I thought of something else."

Lucy could see where this was headed, but she remained
still, feeling Mr. K's pain. His branches whipped back and forth in agitation
as the story continued.

"Bill came in and began his daily routine. And all the
while I imagined myself ripping off my straps, jumping out of the bed, and
beating his face bloody. Then I would escape. It didn't calm me down when the
pain seared my body, but breaking out of those straps, punching Bill's face
in—that helped. Day after day passed without change, until finally I started to
feel the serum pulsing through my veins. A gray tint spread through them, and
my muscles bulged against the straps, burning my arms and chest. Whatever Bill
had given me, it was working. So that night, I showed him the results of his
experiments.

"He came in, 'Hello, Mr. Krevner,' lifted the needle as
he walked over to the bed, and leaned down for the injection. My hand shot out
and clasped his throat. I'd torn the straps off my arm with my new-found
strength. I leaned up, and the rest of the straps broke away. That's how strong
they'd made me. With a flick of the wrist, Bill tumbled into a corner. I headed
for the door, but something hit me on the back, and I spun around without
thinking, swinging my arm. My hand hit Bill, who had come at me with a chair,
across the face, and he flew back. His head hit the bed with a crack, and he
collapsed on the ground, silent.

"I'd broken his skull. Before that moment, I'd never
even so much as gotten into a fight at grade school. I knew guards would show
up any minute, so I ran out of the room. Shouts and footsteps followed me and
corridors spun like a maze. Finally, I found a window, the ocean spread out
below, as a squad of guards rounded a corner. With nowhere else to run, I
jumped.

"With my new strength, I swam for hours—swam until I
reached this island, though I didn't know it was an island at the time. I thought
I'd reached the mainland, so I walked inland. Over the days, my skin hardened.
My fingers grew longer and my hair grew thicker. I didn't know what Bill had
done to me, but I'd worked with paranormals before. Had he turned me into one?
Why? I'd pissed off Rent-A-Kid, and thought they'd been punishing me with the
serum, but they'd actually been experimenting, trying to create something
new—something else. I saw my reflection in the water one day and never looked
again. At one point, I had to cross a river, so I walked in, and the current
swept me away. Something was different. I floated to the top, felt lighter in
the water, but couldn't get out before the waves threw me down a waterfall.
Eventually, I drifted to shore—here—and managed to drag myself onto a patch of
grass and fall asleep. When I woke up, I couldn't move."

Lucy's eyes filled with tears as she looked at Mr. K's body,
how it had become the tree, how his skin was now bark. How he'd never be human
again.

"My feet had dug into the earth. My toes had turned to
roots. I struggled for hours, but the soil only gripped me harder. That night,
I imagined escaping, but could only think of Bill.

"I'd killed him."

The whipping of branches slowed to a soft sway as Mr. K's
voice lowered. "You could argue that I didn't mean to, that it'd been an
accident, or even that it'd been self-defense. You could say it wasn't me. But
deep down inside, I wanted to kill that man. I wanted to squeeze the life out
of his eyes. You could say whatever you like, but that was me. Still is.

"Hell, I can change. I hope so, anyway. But honestly,
if I were to see Bill again, I wouldn't just kill him. I'd hold him down with
my roots, drive a sharp stick in him every night, and say, 'Hello, Bill. Good
job, Bill'—and I'd enjoy it."

Lucy shivered at the cold, hard rage in Mr. K's voice, made
so much worse by the fact that she identified with it. Those bastards had
tortured him beyond imagining, and instead of helping him, she'd used her
powers against him too. What kind of person did that make her?

She walked up to him and hesitated. Finally, she put a hand
on Mr. K's trunk, touching him for the first time. Then she leaned in closer
and hugged him.

Branches wrapped around her as he did his best to hug her
back. "You can change, Lucy, but never pretend you're not yourself. When
you pretend, your actions will always be for someone else's benefit, and change
will never come."

I sit in the backseat of a car, strapped in tight, and
play with my Transformer. It's me, but it's not. The body I wear belongs to the
Seeker. Steele sits at the steering wheel, hands clenched tight as he drives.

The boy I embody clutches his—my—blankie close, tears in my
eyes. "Daddy, where are we going?"

"To our new home, Son."

"Isn't Mommy coming?" Sadness fills me.

"No."

"Why not? She didn't do anything, Daddy. Is this
about the broken vase? I'm the one who did that, not Mommy. Don't blame
her."

"No, it's not that. Your mother betrayed me.
Betrayed us both."

"How?" I'm confused.

"She had another child, another son." I feel
Steele's rage.

"I don't understand, Daddy."

"She had another baby with another man. She loved
them more than us."

Stunned, my eyes leak, I—the young Seeker—cry and cry,
inconsolable.

"Don't worry, Son. I swear one day I'll get her
back."

***

I woke with a start, again unnerved by the Seeker's
memories. Steele had been talking about the Seeker's mother... and Drake's
mother. He said he'd get her back. Did he find her and kill her? The Seeker had
told us that his father killed his mother for betraying him.

And now he wanted Ana. Would he kill her too, after he'd
gotten what he wanted? Both Drake and the Seeker had grown up without their
mother. Of course, I had too, but then I didn't have a mother at all, only a
test tube. That thought made me sick to my stomach, as if I were missing a
vital cord to humanity.

Now a mother myself, and I had to protect my baby.

My anger once again flared at having to wait to start the
mental interrogations of the mansion's residents, but I had no choice. I tried
to sleep, but the green glow of the clock kept me awake.

Finally, morning arrived, and I could begin. Bernard had
offered to call everyone into the gym, so I could scan them all at once, but
that wouldn't have worked for me. A large group of people in close proximity
produced a lot of white noise. Better to hunt them down one by one, when they
were less likely to be on guard, which would help me to access what I needed.

Besides, I already knew who was guilty: Mary. I clutched the
list of names that Bernard had given me, and went off in search of the bitch
who'd made my life hell since that first day of kindergarten, when she dipped
my pigtails in green paint and ruined my new dress. She'd denied any
involvement last night, but I hadn't scanned her. Now was my chance to prove
that she'd taken my daughter, and to find out why and where.

Halfway down the hall, it occurred to me that I had no idea
where Mary was staying. She'd arrived during the delivery, and I hadn't seen
her since that day she came to my room and held Ana.

Norm darted around the corner, and I flagged him down.
"Hey!"

He stopped, shuffled his feet and avoided eye contact.
"Hey, Sam, you doing the mind scanning now?"

"Yeah, starting with Mary. Do you know where I can find
her?"

"Um, not really. She keeps to herself mostly. Pretty
quiet, these days."

"That's a change. Okay, thanks. Where are you
heading?"

He perked up. "The new gym. They finally finished it,
and it's awesome. It's indoors and attached to the mansion. I'm playing
basketball with some of the guys."

"That's cool."

My thoughts stuck on what he'd said about Mary. Back at
Rent-A-Kid, she'd roamed the halls looking for prey, and cementing her place as
Queen Bee. One time, I'd sat in her seat in the cafeteria by mistake, and she
showed up with her posse and bullied me out of it. I didn't do a great job
standing up for myself back then, so I'd fled like a scared mouse.

What change had caused Mary to go into hiding, rather than
re-establish herself as Her Royal Bitchiness?

Norm cleared his throat nervously. "Um, so, can I go
now?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. Have fun and good luck."

He hurried off, flying instead of walking, and I continued
down the hall to the cafeteria. Darren sat alone in the corner, which wasn't
unusual. He spent most of his time alone, especially since Kyle died. Well,
since Mr. Black had shot him for dueling with another student.