Winter's Wrath: Sacrifice (Winter's Saga #3) (11 page)

Farrow sighed and rubbed the puffiness around her eyes with her fist.  She looked like a little girl, so small and fragile, her frame barely lifting the blanket off the gurney. 

She held still for a moment. 

Her companion waited patiently. 

“You’re not going away until I eat something, are you?”  She asked, exasperated.

“Nope,” he said.

With a huff, she sat up and regretted it.  The pain in her abdomen was still crisp.  Her head spun with the sudden change of position.  She closed her eyes against it and steadied herself.  When she opened them she was staring into the concerned face of the target known as M61—Alik Winter.

“Take it easy on yourself, kid.  Evan’s a great surgeon and you’re a meta, but it still takes time to heal,” Alik gently scolded.

Farrow took a slow deep breath, inhaling more of the delicious scent of food.  Her eyes followed her nose.  Watching her closely, Alik smiled smugly as he finished readying her tray and carefully positioned it onto her lap.  “Eat slowly, Farrow.  Evan says the bullet did some damage to your intestines he had to repair, which is why the semi-solid meal here.  He wants you to sit for a few minutes between bites, just in case your body revolts.” 

Alik smiled widely and continued, “Which is why I also brought an ample supply of these handy vomit bags.”  He held them up like a host on a game show and waved his hand around them with flair.

Farrow couldn’t stop herself from giggling.

Alik was mesmerized at the sound of her laughter.  He had to peel his eyes off her smile so as not to look like a dumb-ass by staring.

Farrow daintily stirred the soup before trying to lift a spoonful to her lips, but her hand was shaking too badly.  She frowned as though accusing it of turning traitor before trying again, with the same messy result. 

Alik tried not to watch, but couldn’t help noticing her frustration.  Deciding it was too painful not to help, he started babbling to hide what his hands started to do.

“So, I should tell you about the first time Jacobi and Trainer tried flying us stateside.  What a wild ride that was!”  Alik kept talking as he gracefully lifted the soup bowl into his hands and maneuvered the spoon to Farrow’s lips slowly, allowing her time to savor and her body to adjust to the food.  Farrow felt awkward at first, being fed like a baby, but after a minute, she was so immersed in Alik’s story, she didn’t even notice. 

After she finished the soup, Alik opened the applesauce thinking she might like something sweet.  All this he did without missing a beat in the retelling of the story—skipping the life-or-death parts and focusing on the excitement and adventure in a way only Alik could. 

Farrow put her hand on Alik’s as he lifted another spoonful of applesauce for her. 

“Are you full?” he asked, interrupting his own story. 

“Well, nearly,” she watched his eyes, “but I wanted to ask you something.”

“Okay, go ahead.”  Alik said, putting the spoon down and removing the tray from her lap.

“Your gift, it’s your memory, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“How detailed is your recollection?”

“Extremely.”

“How far back does it go?”

“All the way.”

“All the way till when?”

“I remember being injected with the Infinite serum when I was a baby.  I remember getting branded,” Alik’s hand reached up and rubbed the back of his neck as though the thought of it brought back the pain.  His thick biceps twitched.   He sighed deeply and reached again for the container of applesauce and spoon before he continued. 

“I remember everything, every conversation, every dream, everything I’ve ever read, seen or heard, down to the most minute detail.”  He shrugged his muscular shoulders and slipped the plastic spoon to Farrow’s lips. 

“What about you?  What are your special gifts?” Alik asked.

Farrow self-consciously licked her lips and ran her small hand through her dark pixie hair.  “I’m nothing special,” she mumbled, ears turning red.

Alik frowned at her.  A quick glance at his face had her feeling the need to elaborate.

“I mean, I’m a normal metahuman.  I have no heightened gift like you and M57—I mean Meg or Evan.  I was given the serum when I was a baby, too, but they call my serum ‘Infinite II’.”  Farrow shrugged demurely.  “None of us from the second generation of metahumans have reported gifts.”

Alik stared at her for a few moments, unmoving.  If his brother or sister had seen the expression on his face, they would have recognized it immediately as the look Alik gets when he’s putting pieces of a complex puzzle of memories and thoughts together to solve something big. 

“Hum.” Alik finally offered.

“Hum, what?” Farrow asked.

“Well, you said none of the second generation reported gifts to the scientists at the Facility.”

“Right.”

“Well, that doesn’t mean that the gifts aren’t there; just that they haven’t been reported.”

“How could anyone hide a gift?”

“I suppose it would depend on the gift.”

“So you think there are metahumans out there capable of more than they’re letting on?”

Alik shrugged, “Think about it, Farrow.  If it were you, would you offer yourself up as a lab rat to Williams and his whack-job scientists?  What, so they can suck your blood and DNA trying to duplicate the desired mutation, all for their nefarious plans?”

Alik shook his head as he delivered another sweet mouthful of applesauce to Farrow.

It was Farrow’s turn to sit pensively.

“Creed,” she finally said.

“What about him?” Alik asked, not offering anything further.

“There’s something different about him, but I never put my finger on it before.  I just thought he was one hell of a tough soldier.  But he’s more than that, isn’t he?”

“
Was
.  He
was
one hell of a tough soldier.”  Alik stared into the half-empty container in his hands, face falling.

Farrow’s doe eyes widened.  “Oh, no.  What happened?”

Alik didn’t respond right away—only rubbed his face, looking immediately older as stress creased his forehead.

“What happened to him?”  Farrow felt an overwhelming sense of loss, knowing, but still needing to hear Alik say the words.

“According to Meg, Creed is gone.  She can’t locate his emotional signature anymore.  She tried for the first three hours of our flight, and got nowhere.  She is really upset; we all are.  Creed insisted on staying back to face Williams himself.”

Farrow groaned.

“Yeah, I guess things didn’t go as he hoped.”  Alik sat back and closed his eyes, lost in his memories of his friend.

“I’m so sorry,” Farrow said softly swallowing the emotional lump lodged in her throat.

“Me, too,” Alik whispered.  “In the end, he turned away from Williams.  He decided all the sick, brainwashing he grew up with was wrong.  He chose to fight alongside us.  He sacrificed himself trying to rid the world of the cancerous growth that is Dr. Kenneth Williams.”

The two metahumans sat in silence for a while, trying to absorb the impact of Creed’s death. 

Finally, Farrow shared her thoughts.  “I was raised at the Facility, too.”

Alik looked up at the small-framed girl who had pulled her knees to her chin, wrapping her graceful arms around herself.

“What was it like?” Alik asked, wondering if the metahuman may need to talk about her experiences.

“I don’t know how much Creed told you.” Farrow looked away evasively.

“He gave us a general idea.  I think it was hard for him to talk about his feelings.  Meg helped him a lot with that.  She healed his heart with her gift before he died.”  Alik sighed.  “At least we could give him that.”

Farrow thought back to what Meg had done for her.  Somehow, she pulled all the anger and sadness away from her heart and left peace and love in its place.  Farrow was thankful Creed experienced peace, even if only for a while.  “Your sister is amazing.  I had no idea she could…heal emotional trauma.”

“She
is
amazing.  It takes a lot out of her, that gift of hers, but she’s one tough little lady with a heart of gold.  She would do anything for anyone.  She can fight like a she-cat and love as fiercely as a mama bear.  No one is left unloved or unprotected around Meg.” Alik smiled looking over at where he knew his big sister was sleeping toward the front of the plane, Maze snoring in her lap.

Farrow felt a wave of loneliness listening to Alik. 

Here he was, surrounded by his family who loved him no matter what.  They were hunted, but nothing separated them.  They fought as a team against their enemies.  Without realizing it, tears began slipping down her face.

“Hey, now don’t start that.  I can’t stand when girls cry.” Alik hurriedly passed her wads of tissues he yanked from the nearest box. 

Farrow sniffed and rubbed her eyes.  “Sorry.”

“If you’re sad about Creed, I completely get that,” Alik offered, beyond uncomfortable with a crying girl.  Meg usually yelled when she was upset.  Yelling he could deal with.  There was no defense against a pretty girl’s tears.

“I am, but—it’s more—than that.”  Farrow sobbed between words.

Alik’s eyes darted around, desperately looking for help.  “I should get mom for you.  This is probably a girl thing.”  He started to bolt down the aisle.

“Alik?”  Hearing Farrow say his name for the first time had him frozen, stock-still.  Like a siren’s call, he couldn’t stop himself from turning to the sound of her voice.

“Did you all welcome Creed into your family?  I mean, once he chose to fight against Williams?”  Farrow looked up at Alik with wet eyelashes, tears tracing paths between and over the light brown freckles on her flush cheeks.

“Absolutely,” Alik said without hesitation.

“Why?”

Alik shrugged.  “Because he needed us.”

“You never questioned his allegiance?”

“Well, we did at first, but he proved himself to Evan and me.”

“How did he do that?”

“Remember the flight I was telling you about?  First, he warned us you were on the island with orders to kill our mom then let us call her to relay the warning.”

Farrow cringed at the mention of her treacherous part in Williams’ plan.

“Then, when mom told us Maze found the dart that struck Meg down and could isolate an antigen, it was Creed who talked the pilots into turning the plane around halfway across the Pacific.  He knew there was no going back after that.”

Alik watched Farrow’s face.

“What can I do to prove myself to your family?” she asked in a small voice.

“Do you want to?” Alik asked sincerely.

Farrow studied her hands for a moment before nodding.  “Yes, more than anything.”

Farrow risked a sideways glace at the silence she was sure meant recrimination and judgment from the metahuman.  Instead, she was met with Alik’s genuine smile.  She couldn’t help but smile back. 

“Well, that’s the best news I’ve heard in a long time.  We need to have a family meeting,” Alik nodded at her.

“Okay.” Farrow lay back down gingerly, her smile replaced by a thin line.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m lying down.”

“I can see that, but why?”

“What else should I be doing?”

“Well, you could put on some clothes, unless you like hanging around a bunch of people wearing nothing but a hospital gown.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I told you.  We need to have a family meeting.”

“So, go ahead.  I’ll wait here for your decision.”

Alik looked at Farrow with a furrowed brow and shook his head slowly.

“You really have no idea, do you?”

Feeling like a freak, Farrow didn’t answer.

“I can tell I’m going to have to spell things out for you,” Alik said rummaging through a bag Farrow hadn’t noticed wedged beneath her gurney.  He pulled out a pair
of
light pink sweatpants and a white T-shirt.  He frowned at the contents remaining in the bag, then just placed the entire bag on Farrow’s feet.   Under his breath he added, “I think there are some undergarments you may need in there.”  Alik blushed a deep shade of red, even as he kept talking.

“When I say ‘we need to have a family meeting,’ that means you, too.”  Alik put his hands in his pockets.  “You want to be welcomed into the fold, this is part of it,” he explained.  “We all put our collective heads together and come up with a plan.  Now, do you understand?”

Farrow nodded, biting her lip with anxious excitement. 

Alik grinned again, nodding his approval.  “I’ll just pull this curtain and give you some privacy to change.  When you’re ready, just holler, and I’ll help you down the aisle, okay?” 

Farrow could only offer a smile in response.  She was so stunned by the gentle treatment to which she was unaccustomed.  Back at the Facility, she would have been given an order or directive.  No one would have asked her opinion or preference.  No one would have cared if she had an idea and absolutely no one would have wanted her to share any thoughts.  And no one would offer to help her if she were injured.