The Trials of Renegade X (21 page)

“
Me?
I told you, I can’t. There’s nowhere to put the card! Not unless we get to the security office downstairs!”

Crap. I shut my eyes. Maybe Riley’s right—maybe we are going to die. “Change into something else,” I tell her. “Something quiet that runs fast, like a mouse or a rat. Get out of here!”

“Damien!” She squeezes my hand really hard, twisting to the side to avoid another laser.

“Do it, Kat! We don’t all have to die!”

“No, you idiot!” She lets go of me and holds up her hands, splaying out her fingers and miming using magic powers or something. “Electrocute them!”

Whoa. Why didn’t I think of that?

“Now!” she screams.

Right. I hold up my hands, sparks twitching to life in my palms. Waves of electricity flow over my skin. All my hair stands on end. The robots are only a few feet away. I gather up everything I’ve got and let them have it, shooting a beam of lightning at them.

The one in the middle takes the beam straight on and falters a little. It hesitates, fighting against the electricity, and then keeps moving. The other two, which are off to the sides and not getting the full force, don’t even seem to notice.

“Oh, great!” Riley snaps. “I
knew
you couldn’t do it! And now we’re all going to—”

“If you say we’re going to die
one more time
, Perkins, I swear I’ll electrocute you!” Rage boils up inside me. At Riley, for assuming I’m going to fail and for calling me down here in the first place. Kat and I could be safely holed up in my room right now, having lots of sex, but
oh no
, I had to drop all that to come down here and save his sorry ass. And this is the thanks I get.

A new surge of electricity bursts from my hands, fueled by my rage. The force of it pushes me back against the wall. Lightning crackles through the hallway, hitting the first robot and flowing into the others, stopping all three of them in their tracks. They twitch a little, their saw blades powering down, and then their lights go out and they stop moving altogether.

I’m breathing really hard and I feel kind of lightheaded. And even though this isn’t the first time I’ve used my lightning power, I stare at my hands in disbelief.

“Well, X,” Riley tells me, “I guess you’re not completely useless.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Wow,” Kat says. “That was
amazing
.”

I sink back against the wall, wiping a bunch of sweat off my forehead with my sleeve. Being so amazing is apparently hard work. I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and check the time. “And we still have over an hour and a half left to get back home and—”

The elevator dings. The doors to my right open, and a familiar dark-haired man in a business suit steps out. “Hello, Damien,” Kat’s dad says, not exactly sounding happy to see me. He must have overridden the elevator, either using his CEO status or his superpower that lets him commune with machines.

I wonder why he addressed me and not Kat, but then I glance around and see she’s turned herself into an office chair and Riley’s gone invisible. Which is probably better for everyone, considering her dad’s going to kill me enough as it is. He doesn’t need to find me sneaking around with her, and I don’t know how I’d explain Riley being here. There’s no way I’m telling him my sidekick and her douche superhero boyfriend broke in and changed his mind-control message, which they only knew about because I apparently have a big mouth.

“Tom!” I say, stepping away from the wall to greet him and pretending like there’s nothing weird about me lurking in his office after hours with some dead killer robots in front of me. “What are you doing here?”

“I was going to ask you the same thing.” He folds his arms across his chest, looming over me.

While he’s not looking, Kat shapeshifts back into herself and slips into the elevator, along with Riley, who turns visible again just in time for me to catch a glimpse of him before the doors close. Kat gives me an apologetic look and mouths something at me, but I can’t make out what it is.

“You look awfully dressed up,” Mr. Wilson says, eyeing my clothes. “Big plans this evening?”

I glance down at myself, hoping I don’t look too disheveled from my activities with Kat earlier. “This is how I always dress.”

“No, it is not. Did you know that my daughter’s in town tonight?”

“Oh, is she?”

“You know that she is. And I was surprised that she didn’t ask to go see you or have you over at the house. In fact, I found it somewhat suspicious. And then I got a call that the security system cut out. And that someone from the building next door saw two kids sneaking in here.”

My mind is spinning. It could have been us, or it could have been Sarah and Riley. Either way, they’re not here and I am. And I’m not going to have any trouble faking being sick later, since I feel like I’m going to throw up.

“Now,” he says, “why would you and my daughter be sneaking around a deserted office building on a Saturday night?”

“We’re not. I mean, we weren’t. It’s just me. I was, um, fighting robots. See, it turns out I can shoot lightning from my hands, and—”

“Don’t lie to me, Damien. I’m not stupid, and neither are you. It was a rhetorical question. I know exactly what you two were doing.”

Then why is he asking? Plus, that’s
not
what we were doing, at least not here. “I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

“I told you not to touch her,” he says, staring down at me. “What part of that
didn’t you understand
?”

Kat’s dad is apparently not big on listening to explanations, because instead of giving me a chance to concoct some story about how I wasn’t trying to sleep with his daughter, he grabs my shoulder in a death grip and hauls me into the elevator. And not to take me to the lobby and kick me out, either. No. He takes me to the
roof
.

This is how I die. He said he’d kill me, and now he’s actually going to do it. And he knows I’m afraid of heights, so he’s purposely choosing the worst way possible. Wilson Enterprises might not be the Golden City Banking and Finances building, but it’s plenty high enough that the fall will kill me. Just glimpsing the drop surrounding it makes me dizzy and sick, especially knowing what’s coming. I’m already reliving the last time it happened. My palms sweat and my vision blurs as he drags me through the garden—this is a
nice
roof, meant for people to, like, hang out on, which sounds crazy to me—and toward the ledge.

My lightning power has abandoned me, either because I need to recharge after killing those robots, or because I’m just that terrified. As is, my legs don’t want to move and I can’t get enough air. And even though my body is screaming at me to do whatever it takes to get out of here, it’s like all my muscles are frozen and can’t hear the signal to move. It’s like I’m watching this happen to someone else and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

“Kat’s going to be really mad if you kill me,” I tell him, not liking how small my voice sounds. He’s not really going to do this, is he? He’s just trying to scare me. At least, that’s what I tell myself. But when I look up into his face, and at the anger flashing in his eyes, I’m not so sure.

“The fall won’t kill you,” he says, sounding a little disappointed about that. “After all, you can fly. Because you’re half
superhero
.” He shoves me to the edge, his grip on me tightening. My shoulder burns and is going numb at the same time. “Do you think I want my daughter to end up with someone like you? Someone who’s only
half
a villain?”

I’m staring down at all the empty space below me. My stomach drops and my mind reels and it’s all I can do not to throw up. I shut my eyes, unable to keep looking at my surroundings, but then I open them again, because not being able to see the floor beneath me makes me feel like I’m already plummeting off the edge. “I think I should tell you that I haven’t flown in months. I don’t know if I can still do it. And this building’s shorter than the last one—my power might not kick in before I hit the ground.”

“Kat’s going to Vilmore,” he says, as if he didn’t hear me. And while he seems pissed, he also seems way too calm for someone standing so close to a ledge. Someone who can’t even fly. What if I freak out and fall and take him with me?

Not
that I’m going to do that.

I hope.

“This is her chance to make something of herself. Her two short years there will decide her entire future, and she doesn’t need some boy distracting her. Especially not one who couldn’t even get in.”

“I’m not—” I start to say I’m not just “some boy,” but then he puts more pressure on my shoulder, shoving me that much closer to the edge, and I shut up.

“And she especially doesn’t need someone who’s trying to be a hero. I understand that you didn’t make it as a villain, but you’re
not
going to drag her down with you.”

Nice word choice. I feel my legs start to wobble, and then my knees buckle, dropping me to the floor.

He yanks me back up again, forcing me to stand on unsteady legs. “What do you think you can do for her? What do you
possibly think
you can give her, except one problem after another?!”

My thoughts swirl together, trying to come up with a way out of this. “I love Kat,” I tell him, since it’s the truth and three words is about all I can muster right now.

“If you loved her, you would want her to be happy. How is she going to be happy when all her new friends find out she’s dating a superhero? Who goes to
Heroesworth Academy
? How is she going to build a career as a villain? No one will trust her if she’s with you. Tell me, Damien, are you going to sign the League Treaty? You want to get your
H
, don’t you? How the
hell
do you think you’re going to do all that and still be with her?”`

“I’m not signing it,” I say, shaking so hard I almost can’t get the words out.

He snorts at that. “Doesn’t matter. You’ll have an
H
while she has a
V
. I know who your father is. Just wait until
that
gets out.”

I’m pretty sure I’m delirious. I must be, because the next words out of my mouth are, “We’re getting married.” At least, I think that’s what I say—I’m not coherent enough to know for sure.

But then he jerks my shoulder really hard, like he’s getting ready to actually throw me off the edge, and I know I
did
say that. “That’s never going to happen. You don’t have a future with her. It won’t work.”

“We’ll make it work.”

“She deserves better. You and I both know you’re not good enough.”

“No,
we
don’t.”

“I should have told her she couldn’t see you as soon as it happened, as soon as you got that
X
. But I thought it would blow over, and she would have only wanted to see you more if I told her she couldn’t. So now I’m telling
you
, Damien. Do you want me to throw you off this ledge?”

I cringe, my legs giving way again, so that I sway a little and would probably fall if he didn’t have such a tight grip on me. A cold gust of wind ruffles my hair. I lick my lips, my voice rough and strained. “
No
.” Please, God, no. What the hell is wrong with everyone in this town? When did it become acceptable to throw people off of buildings?

“Then tell me you’ll leave my daughter alone. Tell her you’re not going to see her again. She’ll be upset, but she’ll get over it, and she’ll find someone at Vilmore. Someone with a
V
on his thumb who she doesn’t have to be ashamed of.”

“Kat’s not ashamed of me.” And she wouldn’t just get over it. I know she wouldn’t.

“Not yet. You’re still young—you don’t know how hard it will be. Say it, Damien. Promise me, or you go over the edge.”

I feel hollow inside. The ground below looks impossibly far away, lit up by streetlights and the glow of nearby businesses. The back of my throat burns. He’s right, I probably won’t die. My flying power will probably kick in. But waking up every night in a cold sweat, endlessly reliving plummeting to the ground, is almost worse. Dread prickles in my stomach and down my back. And I would do anything to stop this from happening.

Anything except what he’s asking, that is.

“No.” I brace myself for the fall.

“No?” He grabs me with both hands, holding me as close to the edge as he can without actually dropping me, so that I’m leaning over it and my feet are precariously balanced. One more shove and I fall straight down. “The two of you can’t last. One of these days, she’s going to realize what she’s missing out on. She’s going to realize just how many things she’s never going to have as long as she’s with you, and she’s going to regret it. It’ll be easier on both of you if you break it off now. Promise me you won’t see her again, or you—”

“I said
no
! I can’t do that! I
won’t.
So if you’re going to push me off, then just do it already!” I twist out of his grasp as I say that, rage overcoming my fear at least long enough to make my muscles work. I shove myself away from him, my feet slipping on the ledge. A horrible, nightmarish feeling of not having solid ground under me—of not having
anything
under me but a dozen stories of air—washes over me. I remember with sickening clarity what the fall will feel like, already reliving it before it even happens.