Driven (6 page)

I’m mute, blinking like an idiot, as Kolek examines me.

“Valac tells me you did well today, Lirium.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Kolek drops his hands from my shoulders. “Not everyone is cut out for our work,” he says, taking a step back to retrieve his drink. He points a finger at me. “I see potential in you, Lirium. You’re young, but you have guts.” He curls the finger in to make a fist. The sleeve of his loose, white-silk shirt is rolled up, so I can see his forearm flex. “You’re strong. I like that.” He takes a sip of his drink. A ring on his hand clinks against the glass. “I hear you and Ophelia make a good team.” He nods his approval.

“Yes, sir.” A flicker of hope that he’s decided not to test me after all fades when he throws a look to Nico. I glance at his henchman, but he’s already turned away, walking toward the back of the room.

“However,” Kolek says, capturing my attention again, “some young men make the mistake of thinking they can come into my house…” He gestures wide with his hands. “… and take what belongs to me. I like that less, as you can probably understand.”

“Yes, sir.” My heart picks up the pace.

“A young man came into my casino today.” He points at me again. “The one you visited, by interesting coincidence. He tried to rob me. Thought he could sneak in and make off with the swipe cards we hand out to our donors. Now…” He spreads his hands wide again. “You can imagine, I didn’t care for that
at all
. Can’t let people think that we’re such an easy mark a boy can come in and walk out with our money.”

A boy?

His gaze flicks behind me. I slowly turn, my stomach hollowing out. Nico has returned with the boy, a meaty hand wrapped around his upper arm. He’s fourteen, fifteen at the outside. Lanky, thin as a sapling. Nico doesn’t even have to flex a muscle to hold him in place. I know immediately he’s my test. Kolek’s going to have me drain the life from this kid.

A kid.

I swallow. The smirk on Nico’s face as he meets my gaze tells me this was hand-picked for me. Nico saw my reaction at the casino. He saw me flinch, when I had to collect from the mother. The boy struggles uselessly against Nico’s hold until he brings him to stand a few feet away from Kolek and me. I shoot a look to Valac, but his face is impassive.

“This boy stole from me,” Kolek says. My gaze locks with his. My stomach is a hard rock. I know what he’s going to say before he says it. “I can’t let something like that go unpunished. Transfer him out for me, Lirium.”

My throat closes up. I swing my head to look at the boy.

His eyes have gone wide, and he struggles anew against Nico’s hold. He makes a strangled sound.

No hesitation.

I take two long steps toward the boy, my hand out, reaching for him.

“No!” he cries, voice cracking. “Wait!”

He flails against Nico, who catches his other arm and holds him still for me. My hand lands on his forehead before he can say anything more, a smack that sounds across the room. I start the transfer immediately. His face contorts into a scream that never gets air. His thin fingers spread wide, as if he’s been shocked. The surge of his life energy hits me like a giant, rushing wave.

I push back against the flood reflexively, then consciously focus to narrow the transfer point and slow the gush. The boy has a lifetime ahead of him, a vast lake of life energy that’s dammed behind my hand. He sags in Nico’s grasp, his body frozen in a death pose even though I’ve slowed the transfer to a trickle. I breathe hard as Nico slowly lowers the boy to the ground. I go with him, keeping my contact with his forehead. I have to kneel down next to him. He lies face up, eyes focused on mine, wide with terror. His face shadows as I watch, turning the color of death, even though I’ve only begun to take his life.

The vast waters of his life energy push against the spigot. I open it a little more. The boy’s body twitches. I feel the rush hit my brain, boosting me high again, my whole body buzzing. I clench the hand I’m not transferring with, gritting my teeth against the high, feeling it like a hundred strikes of Dr. Brodsky’s penance.

It will take me some time to drain the boy, but it’s possible. After all the practice in collecting with Ophelia, I know I can do it.

Something itches my cheek. I brush my fisted hand across it. It comes away wet.

I stare at the back of my hand, shiny with tears I didn’t know I was shedding.

He’s just a boy.

I have to do this!
I tell myself. I have no choice. It’s the boy or me. Kolek will kill me if I don’t. He’ll have Valac’s hand on my neck before I can blink. And even if I could fight Valac off, Nico would have a bullet ready for me.

I look back and the boy’s face blurs. His mother probably doesn’t even know he’s missing yet. She will find his body later, but his life, filled with potential, will be long gone. Stolen by Kolek’s debt collectors. By
me
.

It’s him or me
.

Then a realization wells up, an idea from somewhere deep inside me, some secret place I didn’t know existed: there
is
a choice. It’s mine to make, and mine alone.

And I can choose
him
.

I keep transferring, but I slow it to the barest trickle.

Only one of us can live. And the only right thing in the universe is for it to be this kid, not me.

Kolek may kill him anyway. I know that. But it won’t be
me
that killed a fourteen-year-old kid for trying to pinch a few swipe cards. I don’t know if Valac’s right about there being nothing on the other side. But I’m sure he’s right that there’s no redemption for men like us, not after the things we’ve done. There are too many lives we’ve stolen. Too much death in our hands to have any hope for salvation. Sparing this boy won’t save me.

But it might save
him.

Nothingness might not be so bad after all. I can think of worse things.

I’m about to find out.

I stand up, peeling my hand away from the boy’s head. He gasps in air and moans, curling on his side, away from me. By the time I’m standing, Nico’s gun is already out and pointed at my head.

“I’m not going to kill the boy,” I say to Kolek, but my gaze is calmly fixed on Nico, past the barrel of his gun, which is hovering an inch from my forehead. Nico’s eyes are brown. Dark brown like mud.

I wait for the bullet.

It doesn’t come. Nico blinks. He flicks a look to Kolek. No one is saying anything, probably trying to figure out what the hell I’m doing, so I decide it’s time for a few last words. Maybe I can say something that will help the boy. I turn to Kolek. His face is red with confused anger, like he’s not quite sure what has happened yet.

“It’s a foolish waste, Kolek,” I say, my voice amazingly calm. I expect to get a bullet in the back of my head any second, yet my words are strangely unhurried. “The boy has a ton of potential life in him. He’s strong, just the kind you like. He made a mistake, but the kid’s got guts. He tried to steal from a mob boss. You have to give him credit for going up against the biggest bad guys in his neighborhood. That’s the kind you want inside your organization. And a dead kid is one of the few things that might make donors more angry than afraid.” 

The red in Kolek’s face is fading a little. Valac’s is completely white, his mouth hanging open. I give him a small smile. If Kolek tells him to drain me, I’ve already decided I’ll lunge for Nico. I’d rather take the bullet. At least then he can tell Ophelia that Kolek killed me, not him.

“You have some balls,” Kolek says, and oddly, it sounds like a compliment.

I don’t say anything, just square my shoulders and judge that Nico’s still within lunging distance. The boy struggles up from the floor. He looks wildly between me and Nico and Kolek, then throws a look toward the door.

“Don’t,” I say to him. “Be smart. You’ll live longer.”

He swallows visibly, and I can see his legs are barely holding him up. But he stands straight and doesn’t make any more moves to escape.

The tip of Nico’s gun presses against my head, forcing it to tilt to the side.

“Nico,” Kolek says. “Take the boy downstairs and get him cleaned up. I’ll have a talk with him later.”

Nico’s gun lingers on my head, then he gives me a nudge with it, and the pressure disappears. I hold in the sigh of relief as he takes the kid by the shirt and shoves him toward the door. It seems like the boy has a reprieve, but I’m not sure why I’m not dead yet.

Kolek comes closer. His blue eyes stare into mine. I should be afraid. He could have a gun under that expensive Italian suit he’s wearing.

I’m not.

“I should kill you,” Kolek says.

“Probably,” I say.

He lets out a snort, but he’s smiling. He’s not actually going to kill me, not right now, anyway. In that case, maybe I can do something to clean up the mess I’ve made.

“Or, you could use someone like me inside your organization, too,” I say. “Someone with guts.”

He throws a smirk to Valac, who has managed to shut his mouth. “I think the boy is angling for your job, Valac.”

He says nothing, his stare still wide-eyed.

When Kolek turns back, his eyes are smiling, but his face has gone severe. “Last week you came into my house thinking you could steal from me,” he says. “Now you think you’re cut out to be one of my enforcers?”

“I’m a fast learner.”

“Not fast enough.” His eyes have lost their mirth, too, and I wonder if he’s going to kill me after all. “Your psych officer said you might be some trouble.”

I’m glad that Valac told me earlier, so I can keep it cool. Like I knew Candy sold me out all along. “We had a disagreement about my training. She thought I needed lessons from Ophelia.”

“I hope you’ve learned all your lessons now, collector, because I’m not inclined to give you any more chances.” He waves to Valac. “Bring up the boy’s file.”

I frown. Valac hesitates just a split second, then rapid-touches his palm screen. He steps closer to Kolek and holds it out. Even from a few feet away I can see it’s a picture of me—a younger me. It’s my intake picture for the Agency.

The bottom drops out of my stomach. That record is supposed to be sealed.

“Joseph ‘Joe’ Louis Miller,” Kolek reads from Valac’s palm. “Born September 13
^th
2049 to Alice and Stanis Miller. Raised by a single mother here on the east side. Father: whereabouts unknown at intake.” He glances at me. “That’s a shame. A boy needs a father, don’t you think?”

I don’t answer, every hair on the back of my neck standing at attention.

Kolek brushes aside Valac’s palm. He steps closer, his clear blue eyes cold. Flat. They remind me of my eyes in the mirror. The eyes of a killer. “How is your mother these days, Joe?”

“I wouldn’t know,” I say, but the roughness of my voice betrays me. “Haven’t talked to her in years. She could be in Arizona for all I know.”

“You should call her,” he says. “Family is important.”

I nod.

He leans in close enough that I can smell his aftershave and lightly smacks my face twice with his palm. It stings, but I hold absolutely still. He grasps hold of my face and whispers, “Don’t disobey one of my orders again, Joe.”

“No, sir,” I say quickly.

He turns away, dismissing me with his back, and wanders over to where he left his drink.

I’m going to live, at least for the moment. Which only means I’ve burned my chance to escape into the afterworld, whatever that is, with just my life. Without anyone else getting killed along with me. Now I either have to stay in Kolek’s mob forever or get out and find my mom before he does.

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The Debt Collector Serial

EPISODE 6 –
Fallen

Available 5.15.13

Lirium’s hopes for escape from Kolek’s mob are threatened when Valac seems to be coming unhinged.

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