Tremble (12 page)

14

I tried to pull the edge of the blanket up around my shoulders to chase away the chill but it wouldn’t budge. That’s when I remembered I was lying on top of it, not underneath. Without opening my eyes, I gave an internal groan. Kale. Hijacked. Nookie motel. Memory loss.

Ah, crap.

As sleep faded, I stretched my right leg and wiggled my toes. It was much colder in the room than it had been, and every part of me was freezing. My nose and fingertips were nearly numb. Either someone had moved the bed outside to the parking lot, the heat had gone off—

Or the window was open.

Something thumped from the other side of the room. I fought back an icy shiver as my heart kicked into hyper-speed and my eyes flew open. Kale was on the bed next to me, lying very close, eyes wide with a finger held over his lips. He’d heard it, too.

I nodded to show I understood and took a deep, controlling breath as he carefully rolled over and slipped off the bed. Reaching across, he flipped the light switch several times. Nothing happened. Power. The power could be out. That would explain the cold. No power, no heat. And that would have been an awesome theory—if the alarm clock on the nightstand hadn’t glared bright red numbers back at me.

Kale took two steps, then turned and motioned for me to follow. I wasn’t nearly as quiet as he’d been. The mattress creaked twice as I eased myself off, and my foot came down on a particularly creaky board. Typical.

When I finally got around the bed and to his side, he took hold of my arm and dragged me toward the bathroom. We’d almost made it when a soft, annoyingly familiar
pop
disturbed the eerie silence.

Kale turned to me. There was a spark of worry in his eyes. His gaze traveled over my face, then dipped lower, catching on my arm. I followed it down and all the air rushed from the room in a single, dizzying swirl.

I didn’t know what scared me more. The fact that the dart had embedded itself in my forearm and I hadn’t felt a thing, or the fact that the dart had embedded itself in my forearm and I was possibly moments away from keeling over, helpless.

His fingers gripped the dart and, with one smooth yank, pulled it free. We stood there, eye-to-eye, and then I was flying backward. In a blur, Kale’s arm shot out, knocking me aside as something flew at us. Another dart.

He wasn’t happy about it, either. A feral scream split his lips as the door exploded inward and several agents swarmed the room. Two went for Kale while the third rushed me.

I stumbled narrowly out of my attacker’s path, falling backward onto the bed as he tripped over the tacky shag carpet. He recovered quickly and dove again, this time catching my ankle and yanking hard. I slipped from the bed, landing with a jolt on the floor, breath knocked from my lungs as his other arm made a swipe for anything he could grab.

He probably would have gotten me, too, if one of the other agents hadn’t careened backward into him. They fell sideways, giving me enough time to scramble off the bed and wobble unsteadily in Kale’s direction.

“Ignore her,” the one circling Kale snapped. He nodded to my arm. “She’s as good as down.”

I started forward, determined to help Kale, as the other two regrouped and joined the fight. Kale struck out at the first, gripping a handful of his hair and pulling hard. “What are you doing?” he snapped. “Why are you attacking me!”

When the only response he got was a poorly aimed right hook, he pressed his palm flat against the man’s skin. There was a rush of churning darkness and seconds later, the man was nothing more than dust.

The other two were smarter. They teamed up, coming for him from either side. He ducked, and for a minute I lost track of the fight. Everything started to water around the edges. The sounds of struggle were hollow and far off, and my vision snapped in and out of focus.

When things cleared, one of the agents lay still at Kale’s feet, while the other was in a pile already blowing away in the icy breeze streaming through the open window.

“Denazen,” Kale whispered, face pale. He had one of their guns in his hand and stared at the motionless agent on the floor. “These are agents. They attacked me.”

“Welcome back to—” His face zoomed out of focus and the entire room faded away.

Reality. I’d been about to say reality.

…

When I came to, everything was stiff. My back had a wicked knot and my arms were pins and needles from fingertips to shoulder. Oddly enough, I was happy to feel the pain.

“I know you’re awake,” Kale said. “I can tell by the change in your breathing.”

Of course he could. I opened my eyes and did my best to stretch. We were in Ginger’s car again, parked behind a dark brick building. It wasn’t the nookie motel. “How’d we get here?”

Sighing, he said, “I drove.”

“You
drove?
” I repeated, then bit down on my tongue to keep from screaming when a charley horse attacked my thigh with a vengeance. Apparently Kiernan
had
taught him to drive. A part of me was jealous. It was something Kale and I planned to do next spring. “As in, the car? How’d that work out for ya?”

His face flushed and he looked away. “I didn’t like it—but I had no choice. I managed to get us here and decided to wait for you to wake up. As I said, I’m not very good at it.” He opened the door and kicked out his left leg. “The car was making odd noises.”

I could have pushed it, but he was obviously embarrassed, thinking he’d forgotten something so elementary. I let it go and slipped from my seat to trade places with him. “What happened?”

He slid into the passenger’s seat and closed the door, thankfully cutting off the gusty supply of icy wind. “You’re clumsy. You walked into one of their darts.” A slight pause. “Tell me how I did that.” There was the smallest hint of panic in his voice. It made him sound so much younger.

I fastened my seat belt—or at least, I tried. Ginger’s driver’s side belt had a habit of sticking when it shouldn’t. I hadn’t tested it and didn’t want to, but I wondered if it would actually stick in an accident. My guess was no. “Did what?”

“Marshal had one of his men teach me a few defensive moves, but that was—”

“Something more?”

His eyes met mine. Intense blue filled up every inch of my vision. “Yes. I didn’t think. Only reacted. Like my body was controlled by some greater force.”

“You’ve been a fighter all your life, Kale. It’s called instinct. You don’t remember, but you’ve fought like that before. Many times.” I snickered and tore my gaze away from his. “You’re actually one hell of a badass.”

“I think I would remember something like that.”

“Obviously not. None of it was familiar? Nothing at all?”

“No,” he said, but I could tell he was lying. His eyes flickered from the building to me several times and he began tapping his fingers against the seat. Just like he’d done after our kiss and at the bridge.

“Why didn’t you…” I held my hand up, wiggling my fingers. “You know.”

“Touch them?”

“Yeah.”

He sighed, and for the first time on our little road trip to crazy, he looked genuinely sad. “Because I liked it. I’m not sure how I was able to fight like that, but I liked it. Using my gift, it would have been too easy. Too fast.”

The tone of his voice nearly killed me. It was something Kale refused to talk about with me under normal circumstances. I knew he didn’t like using his ability to harm people, but I’d seen him fight. Deep down, I knew he enjoyed the rush of it. The surge of adrenalin that came when you were in the thick of it. I knew, because I felt the same way. Maybe not about fighting, but I lived for the rush. Before Kale, it’s all I had. Now he was my rush—and I wanted him back. “Where are we going?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

Not exactly helpful. I reached across and turned the key—for once, the engine started right up—and turned the heat to high. “How did they find us? GPS on your cell?”

“Aubrey said he turned that off.”

I let a few minutes of silence pass between us. Something was bugging me, and when I couldn’t stand it anymore, I gave in to curiosity. “You could have left me there. I’m sure there are more on the way.” I held both hands over the blower vent in hopes of getting some of the feeling back. The heat in Ginger’s old rust bucket was tepid at best, but it was better than nothing. “There are always more.”

“I could have,” he agreed. Suddenly he looked tired. Like he’d gone days without more than a few hours of sleep.

“So why didn’t you?”

“I need to find out the truth.”

“Let’s be honest, Kale.” I threw the car in reverse and backed from the spot. “You don’t need me to find out the truth. You know about Simmons and you know where he’s going to be. You can’t tell me you’re keeping me around to exact your revenge on the off chance I’ve been lying. I think you know I’m not lying—especially after what just happened.”

“I don’t know what’s true.”

“This is confusing. I can’t imagine how hard it has to be. After everything you’ve already been through, this is the last thing you deserve.” I took a deep breath, letting the car idle on the edge of the lot. My heart wanted me to take an awful chance and ask again. I needed to know my Kale was still in there. “Tell me the truth. Why didn’t you leave me?”

I was about to pull from the lot, assuming he wouldn’t answer, but he sighed and said, “I’m not sure.”

“Not sure? Did you remember something?”

“No,” he growled. “Yes. I don’t know? Stop asking questions. You’re worse than Roz.”

That was unexpected. “Worse than Roz?”

A frown slipped across his lips. There and gone in the blink of an eye. “She’s always asking me questions. How am I. What’s on my mind.” He turned to me, expression fierce. In his lap, both hands knotted tightly for a moment before his fingers started to flick. Not tap—flick! “I didn’t leave you behind because I
couldn’t
. Like, I physically couldn’t. I tried. I made it to the door. But when I looked back and saw you lying there, all I could think was that more would be coming and they’d take you. Marshal would finally have you. For the briefest moment, the thought nearly crushed me.”

I couldn’t help it. A smile crept across my lips. Kale saw it, too.

“Don’t. It doesn’t mean anything. The thought was there one minute and gone the next. I could push you from the car right now and not think twice.”

I shook my head. “No. You couldn’t.” A short snicker escaped despite my best efforts to rein it in. “You wouldn’t make it far. You can’t drive well, remember?”

“You did something. When you kissed me. My head’s been…wrong ever since.”

“It’s not wrong, Kale. It’s starting to clear.”

…

We drove until the sun crested the horizon. I didn’t know where we were going and didn’t ask, instead following the directions Kale would occasionally bark. I was tired but energized by the tiny glimpse of progress. It was enough to keep me going. The road that stretched in front of us was full of possibilities. Despite the situation, I felt more hopeful than I had in months.

Kale had me pull the car off the interstate and into a Sunoco station parking lot. Digging into his jacket pocket, he said, “I’m going to make a call. Don’t speak.”

“Make sure you put it on speaker,” I said, and to my surprise, he did.

It rang six times before a girl’s voice, frantic, answered. “Kale?”

“What’s going on, Roz.”

“Oh my God, Kale. I’ve been so worried.”

It gave me some small amount of pleasure to hear the chill in his voice as he spoke to her. It was all business, tinted with anger. And the expression on his face? Yeah. Obviously, Kale wasn’t
feeling the love
. “What’s going on?” he repeated. “I was attacked by agents.”

On the other end of the line, you could have heard a feather hit the ground.

“How did they find me?” he pushed.

“Are you sure they were Denazen agents? It could have been an Underground tr—”

“They were Denazen. Why would they attack me, Roz?”

“I—I have no idea. Where are you? Come home. Please? You’re so close to a breakthrough. Mindy’s waiting to do your next session. If you miss it you’ll lose all the progress you’ve already made.”

“I’m in the middle of something.”

I could hear the panic in Kiernan’s voice. Teeth digging into my tongue to keep from saying something out loud, I leaned a hair closer. Kale didn’t seem to notice, or if he did, he didn’t care. I let myself believe the latter.

“Then tell me where you are. I’ll come to you. Whatever it is, we can tackle it together. You don’t have to be alone.”

“I’m not alone. I have Kiernan with me.”

I could almost hear the steam coming from her ears. Her reaction was so epic that for once, I didn’t get pissed about him calling me Kiernan.
“What?”

“I found her outside Thom Morris’s house.”

“And you, what?” she snapped. There was banging in the background—like she was slamming things around. Typical Kiernan. She was the temper tantrum queen. I’d seen it a thousand times. She’d hummed her cell through one of the windows at the hotel when some guy at Ginger’s Six-only rave never called her back. “Thought you’d take her for a ride? Didn’t Daddy give the kill order?
Why
is she even still alive?”

“First I owe her for what she did to me.”

The tension in her voice eased a little. “But we need you back here. We have to find the others before they do any damage—and your treatments… I want to see you well again, Kale. Why don’t you bring her home? Maybe Daddy can reason with her.” Then, in a softer voice, she added, “Please…I miss you.”

Kiernan was frantic. It reinforced Aubrey’s theory about Kale’s memories coming back on their own. Every minute I spent with him was another that her control over him might slip. She knew how much he loved me. Spending time with the real thing—and not the phony—was bound to shake something loose.

Dez Cross. Accept no substitutions.

“I can’t yet. There’s something I need to do.”

“What?” she squealed so loudly that I cringed. “What could you possibly have to do?”

“You’re going to have to trust me.” His eyes darted to mine, then back to the cell. “You trust me, right, Roz?”