Bad Bloods (6 page)

“Only a minute,” I promised, patting Timmy’s
head as a silent thank you. Despite being nine, all the kids played
a role in raising the ones younger than them. Without the teamwork,
we’d fall apart.

I left as quickly as I could, but my nerves
didn’t heighten until I stepped foot into the hallway. It couldn’t
have been six in the morning, but Catelyn was there and so was
Niki—both pulled out of bed. Ami stood on the stairs, staring at
her hands, and one glance at the downstairs revealed Steven,
sitting in a chair as if he couldn’t stand up.

My throat squeezed, causing my voice to
strain, “What happened?”

Robert folded his arms across his chest. He
was the only one looking at me. “A rumor broke out about Henderson
a few hours ago,” he explained, telling me everything he knew about
the missing daughter. “We’ll have to stay low for a while. No one
leaves. Not until we figure out our next move.”

“Next move?” I did not like the sound of his
words.

When Robert didn’t respond, I looked to
Catelyn and Ami—even Niki—for answers, but everyone was as quiet as
the morning should’ve been. My heart pounded as the realization
sunk in.

I stared at Robert. “You’re thinking of
escaping?”

His frown deepened. “Nothing’s for certain
yet,” he said, emphasizing each word, “but we have to stay calm for
the kids.”

“We can’t leave Vendona,” I almost screamed,
and Robert laid his hands on my shoulders to remind me to lower my
voice. I trembled. “We’ll only get killed if we try to leave.”

“And what do you think will happen if we stay
here?” Niki asked.

I opened my eyes to meet her red gaze,
bordering on a glare. I steadied myself, ready to fight her, but
Robert forced me to look at him. “Serena.” His voice was sharp, a
tone he rarely used with me, but his brown eyes were warmer than
usual. “I didn’t say that was the plan, okay?” He forced a smile,
and even though it was small, a shadow of a dimple appeared beneath
his freckles. “Just,” he sighed, the familiar expression
dissipating. “Encourage everyone to stay inside without warning
them about what’s happening. Okay?”

“Okay.”

I said it too quickly. I agreed too soon. And
Robert knew it. He froze, gripping my shoulders, and for a moment,
I swore I could feel his heartbeat through his hands. His eyes
searched mine, but eventually, he broke away and walked down the
hallway without another word.

My eyes followed his back, but as he passed
Niki, she gained my attention. Her skin was paler than usual, like
she understood what Robert had said between the lines. I wasn’t
agreeing. And when she turned around to follow him, it was clear
that all the older kids had heard it in my tone. Ami stared at the
ceiling, and Steven shook his head back and forth. It was only when
I looked at Steven that I saw him—Justan—one of the younger ones,
listening in on a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear. I was
about to say something when I heard a door click closed near me. I
followed the noise to Catelyn’s room. She’d left before I recalled
she was there.

I turned away from Justan and the others to
follow my practical sister. I didn’t even knock. I entered her room
and found her throwing blankets into a bag.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

She didn’t stop. “I could take them,” she
ranted. “I could walk right through that gate, and I could—” Her
voice cracked as she glanced over. Briauna murmured in her sleep,
obviously disturbed by Catelyn’s speech, and Catelyn choked on the
fact that she almost woke up the girl.

I grabbed Catelyn’s arm, but I went straight
through her. She had lost control, and there was no way I was going
to drag her out of the room, so instead, I started unpacking her
bag. “You can’t do that and you know it.”

“I’m powerful,” she squeaked. “I—”

“Not in this state,” I stopped her. “And you
can’t get everyone through. Maybe one, two people at most, but then
what? Where do you go next?” She was shaking, and I was tempted to
stop talking, but I knew I couldn’t. She needed to hear the truth.
“You can’t just manifest food or shelter.” We didn’t know much
about the world outside Vendona, and Vendona kept it that way for a
reason.

“But something better has to be out
there—”

“What if there is something worse out
there?”

Catelyn was in tears now. “I don’t want to
die.” She’d already discounted any chance Henderson had at
winning.

I pulled her into a hug. “You’re not going to
die,” I said, already feeling her tears on my shoulder. “I’ll find
you a home. I’ll find you somewhere to live.”

She sniffled, slowly calming down. “What
about Steven?”

“Steven, too,” I promised. “And Melody and
Timmy and Jake and everyone else.”

Her arms squeezed me before she slowly pushed
me back to look at me. Her tears caused the scar on her face to
burn redder. “This is why everyone loves you, Serena.”

“What?”

“It’s not because of your powers,” she said
before an awkward smile broke her tear-stained face. “I know you
think that. You always have. I can tell.” Her blue eyes filled with
tears. “But it’s because of you. You’re always so kind, no matter
what, and you’ve probably been through more than the rest of
us.”

“No I haven’t—”

“You have secrets,” she interrupted, “and
that’s okay.” My heart pounded. “We all do.” Her right shoulder
rose in a half-shrug. “I let my cat eat table scraps sometimes, and
I even saw a mouse the other day.” A broken laugh escaped her. “But
you already forgive me, don’t you?”

I blinked, thinking of the tabby cat that
followed her around, the one that Robert disliked, the one I
secretly cuddled with once or twice. “I was never even mad,” I
admitted when I found my voice.

“And that’s why everyone loves you,” she
said, squeezing my arm. “That’s why I love you.”

“Catelyn—” My voice went quiet.

“Go home, Serena,” she said. “Go back to your
family.”

I shook my head. “You are my family.”

“Then go home where you’re safe.”

“I’m safe right here,” I argued, “and you are
too.”

Catelyn leaned forward and pulled me into a
hug that felt like it would never end. She was shaking like the
first time I met her—when she was ten years old and homeless. We’d
become sisters almost instantly, and Robert joked that we were
long-separated twins who’d finally reunited, but she never seemed
complete until Steven arrived. It was one of the happiest days of
my life because it was one of the happiest days of her life.
Imagining life without her seemed impossible. She would always be
my sister—even above my biological one I had never met. I squeezed
her back, wondering if I was naïve to believe in my own words.

“I’m safe right here,” I repeated, feeling
the words one more time, not expecting Catelyn to respond when she
did.

“Then why do you keep leaving?” she asked,
revealing the one question I couldn’t even begin to answer.

I already wanted to leave again.

A few days had
passed since the first phone call, and my mind hadn’t stopped
racing. Calhoun Wilson—the stranger who saved my life—knew Alec
Henderson. They had met as teens, as soldiers in the Separation
Movement, and now, Calhoun was convinced his friend could beat the
rumor about his missing—and possibly bad-blooded—daughter. That was
all I knew. Despite being in the Northern Flock home, Cal kept me
at a distance as he waited for the next phone call. It was probably
for the better anyway. Blake was sick, really sick, and I knew he
had undoubtedly contracted the cold from me. I replaced the wet rag
on top of his forehead before leaving him to sleep in our shared
room.

With my back pressed against the door, I
lingered in the hallway, wondering if I got Serena sick too, but so
far, out of my entire flock, the only one who caught it was Blake.
I was glad Adam had stocked up on supplies but worried about his
uncle, one floor below, creating a plan that was already twisting
my gut. My instincts were hardly ever wrong, and my instincts were
demanding that I worry. Cal had a plan. But he wasn’t involving me
for a reason.

“How is he?” Her voice drifted out of the
wall before she solidified from the stretched out shadows. I
wondered if Vi felt more normal as a shadow or as a human, but I
decided not to ask when she repeated her question, her black eyes
searching the door of my room. She loved Blake as much as I
did.

“He’ll get better,” I said, waiting for the
reason she came to see me. It wasn’t just for Blake. She had
checked on him herself five minutes ago. She met my eyes like she
understood I knew this. I also knew she had been spying on us. None
of the other members knew why Calhoun was in the house, but Vi was
like Blake—they knew everything, even when they shouldn’t. Michele
too. But the difference between Michele, Blake, and Vi was a simple
one to draw. Michele and Blake didn’t mean to spy; it came with
their abilities. Vi did. She meant everything she did, and knowing
it was wrong, she did it anyway.

“He’s on the phone,” she said, relenting
information. Alec had finally called again, and Vi described it
like it was a regular conversation. I never bothered reprimanding
her for spying. It was one of the reasons I thought she came across
as more mature for her age, but I was beginning to believe it was
more than that—that, perhaps, Vi was older than she realized—like
she hadn’t aged while hiding in the shadows. This time, though, her
stare gave me shivers.

She looked away like she could sense my
discomfort. “You’re not going to like his plan.”

I didn’t ask for an explanation. I went
downstairs and found Cal seated at the dining room table by the bay
window. Cal pointed at the chair next to him like he wanted me to
sit, and I obeyed.

He never met my eyes as he continued talking
in his phone. “We need to replace your daughter with a threat,
Alec.” So his daughter was gone. “It can’t just be anyone. Think
about it.” Cal tapped his forehead like Alec Henderson sat with us.
“If you have just anyone, they’ll prove it. But if you have someone
who scares them—who reminds them of what they are doing to
Vendona—it will stop them.” He paused, and for a moment, Cal
appeared to be the one running for presidency. “You have to fight
back. That’s why I called you in the first place.”

Another pause took over, but I quickly heard
a deep voice rambling on the other line, too far away to make out
the words. That’s when Cal pressed the side button, and the speaker
crackled on.

“You’re right,” Henderson said. He was
actually talking on the phone. Not on the news. Not during an
interview. Not for his campaign. But talking—live—to Cal right now.
“I know you’re right, and I trust you more than any man I’ve met,
but—”

“The girl who escaped,” Cal interrupted,
stopping both Henderson and my heartbeat. “You know you need
her.”

“The girl who escaped?” Henderson’s voice
rose an octave. “She’s dead.”

I barely heard him. I was too focused on
Cal’s eyes. He was staring at me, waiting for my reaction, and I
gripped the table in response. It made sense now. Why Calhoun
wanted Serena around, why he didn’t want me in the initial
conversations, why he didn’t warn me. He wanted Serena to take the
place of Henderson’s daughter. He wanted Serena to fight back.

“Hello?” Henderson spoke up after neither of
us responded.

Cal widened his eyes at me, begging for a
confirmation, but I shook my head. He glared. My grip tightened.
Henderson called out again. And I saw Serena, standing in Shadow
Alley, a hollowed out version of herself, and I saw Serena now,
standing in the same alleyway, holding a flower—still hollow, but
more alive than before. Calhoun’s plan made perfect sense. She was
a ghost, and her mere presence would haunt them into silence.
Serena could win the election for Henderson, for us all.

I nodded, and Cal sighed before he said, “We
have her.”

Henderson’s intake of breath was practically
a gasp. “They said she was dead.” He exhaled like he had inhaled
too much. “Don’t they always,” he muttered. “This is fantastic,” he
said. “This is fantastic.” He emphasized the last word, over and
over again. “When can she fill in?”

“Will she be safe?” I asked, speaking up for
the first time. I knew I shouldn’t have. Calhoun had already made
that clear by never announcing my presence in the first place, but
I had to know.

A pause followed my question, but Henderson
cleared his throat. “Who is this?” he asked, his voice deeper this
time, more monotone, like he half-suspected one of his staff
members had hacked into his phone line.

“Alec,” Cal started slowly. “You must excuse
my…son.”

“Son?” he asked. “But—”

“I told you about him,” Cal interrupted.
“Daniel. Daniel Wilson now.”