Edgewood Series: Books 1 - 3 (111 page)

I whispered
, Russ, I’m in the building still unconscious.
I told him I was in a closet in the basement and that I’d guide him. I thought it would be a simple matter. He’d find me, I’d slip back into my body, and we’d be reunited.

Ten minutes later in the supply closet, I watched as Russ cradled me in his arms. He stroked my cheek with one finger, looked up at the astral projected version of me and said, “You’re so cold.” He turned to look at Dr. Anton, who stood behind me. Jameson, too, had followed him down, and all three of them looked worried.

I started to say I was fine, but I was interrupted by Dr. Anton who knelt down to check on me. He pressed two fingers to my wrist, frowned and then checked my neck. “Her pulse is really faint,” he said.

Russ said, “But the fact that you are getting a pulse means she’s okay, right?”

It’s probably because I’m projecting
, I said, referring to my faint heartbeat. I’d discovered that although Dr. Anton and Jameson could make out my form, I could only talk to one person at a time. Only Russ could hear me.

“She says it’s because she’s astral projecting.”

If the idea that I could astral project was news to Dr. Anton, he wasn’t showing it.

Jameson smacked a fist into his hand, like a catcher punching his glove. “So tell her to get back in there already.”

“Wait!” Dr. Anton said. “Ask Nadia what they did to her. What’s the last thing she remembers?”

A needle to my neck. One quick prick and I felt myself slipping away.

Russ repeated my words, and Dr. Anton nodded. He looked up at me and said, “Nadia, I know it’s scary, but you need to slip back in. We’ll do whatever we can to try and counteract the damage done by the injection. It may take some time, but we’ll have the best minds in the country working on your case. You’re in good hands.”

Until he said the word damage, I hadn’t been afraid at all. I’d assumed the effects of the injection were temporary, something to keep me quiet and out of the way. The thought that I might be permanently damaged never occurred to me. It didn’t take much to go from there to thinking I might die. My mind reeled and in seconds I’d imagined my own funeral, my parents sobbing inconsolably, and Russ grieving for a short while before going on and living his life without me. In the future he’d have new girlfriends or a wife, and I would be just a bittersweet memory.

“Don’t worry, Nadia,” Russ said aloud. “I can heal you.”

He sounded so positive that the whole funeral scene faded from my mind. Of course I wasn’t going to die. I was sixteen. I had so much more to do.

“Go ahead,” he urged, looking from me to my body. “It’ll be okay.”

Like diving into a pool, I just did it. I added my ethereal form to my human body. It would be okay. Russ said so.

Russ

Dr. Anton called the paramedics who arrived a few minutes after Nadia slid into her body. I’d expected a change once she went back—that her face would regain its color or her heartbeat would grow stronger—but nothing happened. She was exactly the same. I put my hands over her body and directed my energy into her cells. I added every positive emotion I had, love being foremost, and willed it with every ounce of my being. But just like with David Hofstetter, I failed. “Why isn’t it working?” I asked.

Dr. Anton rested a reassuring hand on my shoulder. “It’s not a matter of healing her,” he said. “Because she’s not sick or injured. I suspect that she was given something akin to a paralytic drug. Until we figure it out and give her the antidote, nothing is going to change.”

It was so frustrating. I could feel Nadia’s energy, but I couldn’t connect. The realization washed over me that maybe I’d never be able to find her, that maybe the Associates had paralyzed her permanently, and Nadia was now trapped in some lower depths I’d never be able to reach. I brushed my lips against her cheek and whispered, “Hang in there, Nadia. I love you.”

And then the paramedics took over, checking her vitals, moving her onto a rolling stretcher, putting an oxygen mask over her mouth. The three of us moved along with them as they maneuvered down the hall and into the elevator. On the ride up my eyes never left Nadia. Even under the harsh light there was no sign that she’d once had scars covering one side of her face. Now she was perfect inside and out. Thoughts ran through my head.
Please let Nadia be well. Please, please, please. Bring her back to me.

When the elevator opened on the main floor, Mallory stood, blocking our way. Her face registered surprise. “I was just coming down to find you,” she said.

One of the paramedics said, “Miss, could you please step aside?”

Mallory ignored him. “Was Nadia injected with something?” she asked.

Dr. Anton and I simultaneously said, “Yes.”

“Then I know how to fix her.” She stepped inside the elevator.

Dr. Anton spoke to the paramedics. “Could you just give us a minute?” He held the door open, and made a motion for them to leave. Both of them left without questioning him. I was starting to understand that Dr. Anton was kind of a big deal around here. He pushed the button to close the door, giving us privacy.

Mallory held a hand out. “Russ, I need the necklace I gave you earlier.” When I didn’t react, she added, “The one in your pocket?”

“You said not to give it back to you no matter what.”

“I meant
during
the Bash. It’s okay now.”

Dr. Anton said, “Go ahead. Give it to her.”

I reached into the inside pocket of my suit coat, pulled out the rose necklace and handed it to her. She examined it for a moment, then turned it around. “It has two parts,” she said. “When I press on here,” she said, pointing, “a needle pops out that can be used to disable someone. If you do the same thing on the other side, another needle pops out that dispenses medication to counteract the first one.” Mallory pushed on the top of the rose and a short needle popped out at the base of the rose. “And then you do this.” She put the needle against the base of Nadia’s neck.

Jameson, Dr. Anton, and I all reacted at once.

“Wait!”

“Stop!”

“Just a minute!”

But she was too fast for us. By the time I’d grabbed her hand, she’d already plunged the needle into Nadia’s skin. My heart sank. We had no idea what she’d just injected into Nadia. What if it was more of the same and the added dose killed her?

“You shouldn’t have done that,” I said. “We don’t know what was in that.” I was so angry I couldn’t stand to look at Mallory, so instead I looked down at Nadia, still and sweet, defenseless against the world.

“I told you what was in it,” Mallory said, her eyes wide and innocent. “Why would I do it otherwise?”

“If you gave her the right thing, why didn’t it work?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe it takes time.”

Dr. Anton said, “It would have been better if we could have analyzed the medication before it was administered.” He beckoned to Mallory with one curved finger. “If you’d close that up and give it to me, I’d appreciate it.” Once she handed it over, he said, “PG officials will want to know how this came into your possession.”

Mallory said, “I understand.”

Nadia’s neck had a tiny puncture mark from where Mallory had poked the needle. I ran my finger over her collar bone while Dr. Anton opened the door and motioned for the paramedics to return. I kept pace with them as they wheeled her out of the elevator and down the hall to the front of the building. I kept my gaze on Nadia the whole time, so I was the first to notice when her eyes fluttered open.

“Hey,” I said, smiling down at her. “Welcome back.”

Russ

The Bash had taken a lot out of all of us, so when we finally got on the plane we were more than ready to go home. I was the middle man this time around, in the center seat with Nadia by the window and my sister Carly on the aisle. Once we were in the air, I let out a sigh of relief. We’d all made it safe and sound.

The day before we’d been questioned by some Praetorian Guard officials in a conference room in PGDC. Our old friend Dr. Wentworth was there along with Mitch and Will, but I got the impression that wasn’t the full extent of it. They were the ones interviewing us, but others elsewhere were watching us via remote viewing. I could sense a surplus of electricity in the room—microphones, cameras, and cables.

Mallory got the brunt of their questions. I got the idea they weren’t entirely convinced that Mallory wasn’t an Associate spy, but when Nadia backed up her story by telling them what she saw in Mallory’s room that night—Mr. Specter controlling her through the Deleo, they softened. “I was instructed to inject Layla Bernstein,” Mallory said. “She’d collapse and the distraction would give them an opening to bring the doctor in with the wheeled gurney with the Specteron…”

“The Specteron?” Mitch asked.

“That’s what he called it. It was his invention. A death ray machine.”

“Go ahead,” Dr. Wentworth urged.

“Well, that’s about it. I was supposed to inject Layla but I didn’t.”

“Instead you gave the necklace to Russ?” Mitch said, prompting her.

“Yes.”

“And why would you do that?” he asked.

“So that I wouldn’t give in and follow Mr. Specter’s orders.”

“I see,” Dr. Wentworth said, looking over her glasses. “But I think the real question is,
why
didn’t you follow Mr. Specter’s orders? What kept you from complying?”

Mallory pointed to Nadia and me. “It was them. Nadia astral projected to me and told me not to listen to him. And Russ told me how he fought the Deleo the last time so I knew it could be done.”

“I see,” Dr. Wentworth said, but she didn’t look like she understood at all. “And the vice president—what message did you give him?”

Mallory said, “His loyalties are with the current administration and the Praetorian Guard, of course.”

I raised my hand. “I have a question.”

“Yes?”

“Did you guys know that Mr. Specter was still alive and that he was the new commander?”

“I’m sorry, Russ, but that’s classified information,” Dr. Wentworth said. I took that as a no.

In the end they had all of us write out everything that had happened from the minute we’d left Edgewood until the time we were called into the conference room. When we’d signed our statements we were free to go.

After we’d packed up and left PGDC, taking the elevator to the parking structure, Nadia said, “Now I know how Dorothy felt after she had to leave Oz to go home to Kansas.” And now we were on the plane, where she rested her head against my shoulder. Her eyes were closed and her breathing slow and relaxed. She’d refused to go to the hospital the previous night, but the doctor had checked her over and given her the okay.

“Is she sleeping?” Carly asked, leaning over.

“Yeah, I think she’s pretty tired.”

“I think we’re all really tired,” Carly said.

It was the most she’d spoken to me since I’d failed to bring David back. I saw my opening. “You know Carly, David must have had a feeling that he was going to die. He told me that if he didn’t get a chance to talk to you that I should tell you that he realized he made a big mistake and that if he had to do it over again he would have stayed with you, no matter what.” There was one more thing, too. What was it? Oh yeah. “He also said that he figured out later that love should always come first.”

She sighed. “Thanks Russ, but I know all that. We had a chance to talk for a few minutes before he died. He said he was sorry and that I was the only woman he ever loved. His life insurance policy has me and Frank as beneficiaries, can you believe that?”

“That’s something anyway.”

Carly shook her head. “Whatever it is, it’s not enough. Money can’t replace a person. And where do I go from here? It’s like I’ve been waiting years for something to happen, and now I know it’s never going to happen.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry too, Russ. I shouldn’t have blamed you. It wasn’t your fault. Damn Associates.”

“Well the good news,” I said, “is that Dr. Anton thinks they’ll leave me alone now. He said that with the new leadership their focus will shift and that the Praetorian Guard has the upper hand now.”

“I hope he’s right.” She adjusted her seat to recline. “But I tend to think they’re like cockroaches. Just when you think you got ‘em all, they pop up again.”

Nadia

“Nadia,” my mother called up the stairs. “Your young man is here.”

“Coming,” I yelled back. I did one last check. My hair was pinned up, with curly wisps framing my face. My glittery red headband added a nice touch and held everything in place. I double-checked the zipper on the back of my dress, slipped my feet into a pair of red bejeweled shoes, and admired myself in the mirror. I spoke to my reflection, “Not bad. Not bad at all.”

When I came down the stairs, I saw from the look on Russ’s face that he recognized the dress. I didn’t think I was supposed to take my evening gown home with me, but no one asked for it back, so I just tucked it into my suitcase. In the days that followed, sometimes I had to take it out and look at it just to convince myself that it had all been real.

Russ whistled and said, “Wow. You look beautiful.”

I curtseyed and said, “Thank you, sir.”

“You mind your manners with my daughter,” Mom said. She’d been taking her medication and was a lot more reasonable, but no matter how many pills she took, she was never going to be my dream mother.

“Yes, ma’am, I will. I promise.”

“And have her home by eleven.”

“Certainly.”

My dad said, “Oh I think they can stay out later than eleven…”

I saw the look on my mother’s face and knew not to push it. “No, Dad, it’s okay. If Mom wants me back by eleven, I’ll make a point to be home by then.”

“If I find out you weren’t at the Homecoming Dance you’ll be in big trouble,” Mom warned, a scowl on her face.