Tremble (15 page)

And the line went dead.

“Aubrey?” When he got no response, he growled and I was sure he’d toss the phone, but he didn’t. He crammed it into his back pocket, and in a single swift movement, he had his jacket off. Shoulder of his T-shirt pulled aside, he turned to me. “Can you see anything?”

“Yeah,” I said, backing up so I could see his face. He looked angry, but more than that, he looked worried. Aubrey was right. There was no place we could go that they wouldn’t find us. Tugging his collar back into place, I frowned. “I see darkness.”

I could have sworn he rolled his eyes. He snatched up his jacket, stuffing both arms through the sleeves, and said, “It needs to come out.”

“I totally agree, but it’s not coming out here. First off, like I said, I can’t see crap. Second, what am I going to do, dig it out with my fingers?”

Kale poked his head around the side of the building and scanned the area. “Okay. They know we went into the sewers. So if we keep moving, we might be able to throw them off track long enough to get it out.”

“That’s brilliant, but how exactly are we supposed to do that?” I wiggled my fingers in front of him, frowning. “My nails aren’t quite that epic.”

He nodded across the street with a sly smile. There was a small mom and pop convenience store on the corner. “We’ll need supplies.”

We dashed across the road and around to the back of the store. The outer door was easy to get through. It was old and the handle was rusted, breaking easily in Kale’s capable hands. When we got to the second door, he drew his elbow back, then smashed it into the small window. The sound of shattering glass echoed through the air and I held my breath waiting for the betraying high-pitched squeal of an alarm—but there was nothing. With a twist of his arm, he was able to slip through the opening and undo the locks.

“I’ll find a knife,” he said, closing the door behind me. “You grab medical supplies.”

We dashed in separate directions. Luckily, the medical supplies were close to where we came in, so I didn’t need to go searching in the dark. I stuffed several packages of gauze, some tape, and antiseptic into my pockets, then moved a few aisles over to the medicine. It took a minute, but I finally found a bottle of Advil. As a rule, Kale didn’t like taking medicine. Pills, liquids—it didn’t matter. Mom once said it was because they’d drugged him so often as a child. I couldn’t blame him, but I took the bottle anyway. Just in case. I’d never had anyone carve something from my skin, but I imagined it would hurt like hell.

Supplies in hand, I turned back to the door, but something occurred to me. Kale’s blood. His abilities were different now, but we didn’t know what else the drug might have changed—or not changed. Scanning the shelves, I found a small box of gloves. Better to be safe. Kale’s blood had the ability to render Sixes mindless and compliant. Denazen used it to control us.

Kale emerged from behind the counter with what looked like a Leatherman tool and a yellow Sponge Bob lighter. “Time’s up. We need to move.”

“Where to? It’ll take time to get out. Wherever we stop, they’ll find us.”

“I have an idea.” He grabbed my hand and my breath caught. I couldn’t help the familiar tingle I felt when his fingers closed around mine.

18

We ran seven blocks to the transportation depot on the edge of town and were lucky enough to catch a train just before it pulled from the station. Kale’s plan was brilliant. We’d set up on the train, dig out the tracker, all while staying mobile.

“Here,” Kale said, handing me the knife and lighter as he settled into one of the seats at the back of the car. He pulled off his jacket, followed by his T-shirt, and set them down on the bench beside him. “Sterilize it with the lighter before you make the first cut.”

It was after 3 a.m. and thankfully, that meant an empty car. Having to explain to other passengers why Kale was half naked and I was performing minor surgery on a moving train with a swiss army knife and Sponge Bob cigarette lighter might be difficult, not to mention disturbing.

Reluctantly, I took the items from him. I knew it was going to have to be me. He couldn’t slice the damn thing from his own shoulder. But that didn’t mean I was happy about it. Blood didn’t squick me out like it did some people—namely Brandt—but I wasn’t necessarily a huge fan of it, either. And hacking into someone’s skin to dig something out? Ick factor squared.

I flicked the flint and held the blade over the flame as Kale sat there, patient and bare-chested. I tried hard not to look. Really. But I couldn’t help myself.

He noticed, too. “You’re going to have to look at me—not to mention
touch
me—if this is going to work.”

“I know.” I let go of the flint and set the knife down beside me to cool. “Too bad Alex isn’t here. He’d get a kick out of it.”

Kale took a deep breath and angled his shoulder closer. “Can you do this?”

Digging into my back pocket, I pulled out the handful of rubber gloves I’d taken from the store and wriggled my fingers into the left one first, and then the right. “Not like I have a choice, right?”

Kale reached over and grabbed the knife from the seat. Holding it out, he said, “That’s not what I asked.”

“Guess we’re about to find out.” With a deep breath, I took the blade from him and ran my left hand across his skin. With just the slightest bit of pressure, I felt along his shoulder, trying hard to ease the trembling in my fingers. The light wasn’t fantastic in here and I felt it before I saw it—the thinnest ghost of a scar. “I think this is it.” Pressing down with my thumb, I poked around until I felt something hard beneath the surface.

“Good. Get it out. It won’t be long before Denazen figures out what we’re doing and where we are.”

“Right,” I said, and positioned the tip of the blade down what felt like the center of the chip. “Ready?”

His left hand curled tightly around the top of the seat. “Just do it, Kiernan.”

So we were back to Kiernan, were we?

I told myself that pushing the blade through his skin was out of necessity and not because he’d called me Kiernan again, but it was probably an even mix of both. He gritted his teeth, muscles tightening beneath my gloved fingers, as I deepened the incision.

“You know…” I spoke as much for his sake as mine. I needed to keep myself grounded. There’d been a lot of crazy messed-up crap in my life, but I was sitting in an abandoned train car zooming through a strange town while trying to dig a tracking device from the skin of my boyfriend who may or may not still want to kill me. It was enough to make anyone dizzy, and I deserved an extra-large cup of coffee and one of those chocolate-covered strawberries the Blueberry Bean had for taking things as well as I was. “I seem to recall telling you my name was
Dez
. Not Kiernan. Aubrey confirmed what I told you. I heard him—not to mention what Penny said.”

I dug the tip in a little farther and Kale flinched. “Penny could be lying.”

“You’re unbelievable. You even called me Dez not an hour ago!” The tip of the knife clipped the chip. I flicked the point in an attempt to move it closer to the surface, but the blade slipped and Kale hissed in pain.

“Easy,” he snapped, gripping the edge of the seat. “And so could Aubrey—but I believe him. I don’t know why, but I have this feeling…”

“I don’t suppose you remember what he trusted you with, huh?” The night in the woods behind Ashley’s house rushed back. Aubrey telling me that he’d made Kale a promise. Now this. My curiosity was going wild.

“I don’t,” Kale said. He gripped the edge of his seat, knuckles turning white as I flicked the point of the knife again. “Why?”

“Just wondering. Aubrey is… He’s a little hard to pin.”

Kale tilted his head to the side, thoughtful, and sighed. “No. I trust him. I’m very curious about the proof he said he’d supply, but I believe what he said.”

I didn’t know what to say to that but thankfully, Kale didn’t give me much of a chance.

“I don’t belong with them,” he said after a moment. “I’ve felt it from the moment I woke up in the hospital bed.”

“If you felt that way, why did you stay? And why fight so hard against what I told you?”

“Have you ever been blind?” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath as I continued to probe his skin with the tip of the knife. “Have you ever walked into a room, closed your eyes, and tried to find your way?”

“Can’t say that I have.”

“Do it. Do it and you will know what my life has been like since I woke up in that hospital bed. Blind. Imagine that you’ve been blind your entire life. Then one day you can see. Someone tells you that the color of the sky is called purple.” He opened his eyes. “You don’t feel like it’s purple—you feel like there might be another name, a
better
name, but no matter how you try, you can’t remember what it might be. It haunts your every waking moment but you can’t remember. What choice do you have?”

“I guess,” I said, swallowing a lump. “I guess I’d have to go with purple.” I was blue and Kiernan was his purple.

“Correct.”

I swallowed and flicked the point again. This time, the edge caught the chip and it moved a little closer to the surface. “Can you… Would you tell me what happened? After you woke up, I mean?”

“There’s not much to tell. At least not much I remember. I woke up and Marshal was there. He told me I’d been in an accident and that I’d gotten hurt trying to save my girlfriend—his daughter. Roz.”

The chip moved another centimeter. “And you knew who he was? Cross?”

Kale shrugged to cover up another flinch. Typical boy. “It was hazy. I remembered his face and that he was somehow a large part of my life. Other than that, there was nothing.” Another flinch.

“What about her?”

“He told me her name. It sounded familiar, but I couldn’t place it. When she came in and I saw her, it was strange… I didn’t recognize her. Not really. But little things screamed familiarity.”

“Like what?” With one last flick of the blade, I finally saw the chip. Gripping the edge between my thumbnail and pointer, I took a deep breath and pulled. The gloves made it difficult, but after slipping a few times, I was able to wriggle it free.

Kale still hadn’t answered the question, so I looked up from my work to find him staring. “Amazing,” he said, reaching out to finger a strand of blond hair. “This. I saw this crazy hair—blond with black tips—and somehow I knew everything was okay.”

I had a much better handle on my ability than I had several months ago. Right before Kale went back to Denazen it changed, becoming uncontrollable. I mimicked parts of myself at random without trying. Specifically, my hair. It still happened once in a while when I was under a lot of stress or feeling overly emotional. Now was obviously one of those times, since a moment ago it’d been brown.

“I change my hair a lot—normally with dye. This is how I had it when we met in June.”

“I like it,” he said, letting the strand slip between his fingers. “This is silly, but it makes me feel calm.”

I dropped the chip to the floor and smashed it with the heel of my shoe, then dumped some of the antiseptic over the wound and recapped the bottle. Bandage held securely over the incision, I ripped a long piece of tape from the roll and slapped it across. When I was done, I stepped back and sank into the seat next to his. Kale was still staring at me. It was like he’d never seen me before, while at the same time there was a spark of something raw in his eyes. Something familiar. “I think it was my fault.”

“What?”

“They gave the order for your retirement. It was only after I started asking questions that they changed their minds about wanting you brought in alive. I believe that’s why they used real guns at Penny Mills’s house.”

“Of course,” I said, feeling sick. Penny was dead because Kale saved me. The bullet that killed her had my name on it, not hers. “They didn’t want her dead—they wanted me dead. I wouldn’t be a threat to your memory if I wasn’t breathing anymore.”

“They’ve been keeping tabs, and they guessed your next move based on the names left on the list. Two others were sent to one location, while Aubrey and I were sent to Thom Morris’s. We were instructed to kill you on sight.”

“I didn’t see Aubrey.”

“At the last minute, he said he’d found another lead.” Kale picked up another strand of my hair, shaking his head in wonder.

“And you decided to hijack me.” I couldn’t help the sarcasm in my voice—which was stupid, really. Hijacked was better than dead any day of the week.

“I saw you come out of the house and get into your car—”

“You saw me? I sat there waiting for you to show for hours.”

“I know. I was just watching you.”

I forced a smile. “That’s a little creepy.”

“Marshal’s last words to me before I left kept replaying in my head. Over and over. ‘Kill her. Make it fast.’ I tried a thousand times to move.” He moved away and held up his hand. A churning black mass gathered at his fingertips. “I didn’t even have to come any closer. I could have done it from where I stood. There was no need to speak or look you in the eye. You would have been there one moment and simply gone the next.”

“But you saw the picture on the phone and wanted the truth.” I pulled off the gloves and grabbed the empty, discarded Starbucks cup rolling on the floor at my feet. Depositing the bloody plastic, as well as the remnants of the chip inside, I put the cover back on. More than anything, I would have loved to toss it out the window but, since we were in a moving train, that wasn’t an option.

“Aubrey said he found the phone in the woods. I saw the photograph and it confused me, but it was more than that. I kept thinking about that kiss at Ashley Conner’s house.”

I threw the cup down and kicked it across the car. It rolled until it hit the wall, then slipped under the last seat by the door. “I
am
an expert kisser.”

“I thought I loved her—Roz. That’s what they told me, anyway. But when I kissed you back there on the street…I never felt like that with her.”

Standing, I handed him his shirt. “Stop right there. This is starting to border on TMI and to be honest? The last thing I want is to hear about you sucking face with my sister.”

I started to step away, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me back down. “You’re not the only one who feels this,” he said softly. “If everything you’ve told me is true, then I lost just as much as you did.” He let go of my arm and yanked his shirt over his head. Rotating his arm, he nodded. “That’s pretty impressive.”

“What is?”

“The fact that you just preformed minor surgery on my shoulder. Most wouldn’t handle it as well. You seem surprisingly calm.”

“I’m not most.”

“I’m starting to understand that.” He pulled on his jacket. “Roz would have passed out.”

While I didn’t necessarily revel at being compared to Kiernan, I did get some small amount of satisfaction that she wouldn’t have been able to hack it. She hated the sight of blood. We’d gone to a Nix party after Kale and I had returned from our trip to warn the others, and two testosterone-fueled man-monkeys ended up throwing each other through a glass door. She’d puked for an hour straight.

The train slowed, about to come to a stop. Hopefully we weren’t far from the airport. “If you compare me to Kiernan one more time—Roz isn’t her real name, by the way—I might dig into the other arm. Just for fun.”

A slow smile spread across his lips, and he threaded his fingers through mine. “I can see why I like you.”