Exposed (23 page)

“What was that?” June was panting, her voice rich and warm. 

“Frank?” Ivan guessed. 

Damned Frank. It had to be him and his ridiculous power. Ivan had to readjust his pants to hide the arousal still hard there.

June groaned. “I’m shaking so hard.”

Ivan was too. He slipped his hand around June’s, and together they inched toward the entrance to the mineshaft. 

Out of the darkness, June giggled. Then laughed harder. “I can’t believe that happened. I know I’m trying to care less what others think, but that ….”

That … the places they were touching, kissing. The feel of her slick center opening to him …. 

No. Ivan desperately thought of something else. Just the memory of where June’s fingers had gone, where his mouth had nearly gone made his arousal stir again in his pants. They reached the edge of the tunnel, where the midnight black faded just the tiniest bit to dark gray. 

There the light went again. It
was
Frank. Across the cavernous space, he stood near a group of people and shot ten beams of light from his fingers and waved them through the air, ten separate searchlights flashing through the dim building.

Ivan sighed in relief. All the way over there, he doubted anyone saw them. He tucked his shirt in and willed the heat from his face. “I don’t think anyone saw us.”

June walked her fingers up his side. “I thought you said you didn’t care,” she teased.

Ivan choked on a laugh. “Not like
that
!” He paused, caught up June’s fingers and pressed them against his lips. “Will you come into the mountains with me?” It came out in a tumble of words, but Ivan suddenly knew what he could do to prove that he trusted her. “There’s something special I want to show you.”

June smiled up at him, and his heart kicked at the beauty of it. Her wide, deep smile that lit her eyes to liquid caramel. “Of course.”

His body took over, was already half-tugging her back down the tunnel to continue where they’d left off.

June tugged her fingers free and slapped gently at Ivan’s cheek. “Later,” she laughed. 

Then with a quick kiss on his cheek, she walked into the crowd of people, her hips swaying side to side. His body ached for her, and he had to wait a long moment before he rejoined the group.

CHAPTER TWENTY

June

June didn’t know how long they’d been working at their powers, trying to slowly, carefully figure out the extent to these strange new abilities. But her temples throbbed and her eyes scraped against her lids every time she blinked. 

She stood around one of the barrels of fire, others nearby. Exhaustion made them quiet, contemplative. 

Ivan was still in one corner with Teddy and Betty Carroll. The poor girl was having a hard time controlling her levitation power without blacking out, and the two men were trying to be her safety net.

June watched Ivan. Despite the awful things people accused him of, he was using his time to help Betty. For so long, June had only ever seen Ivan as the grim Soviet with a glare and a sharp retort. How very, very wrong she’d been. 

Meg and Evie joined her at the fire, and June slumped her head onto Meg’s shoulder. The fire crackled and hissed, casting dull orange light into the abandoned building. 

“I’m done,” Blanche said, coming to stand nearby with Cora. Clayton had found her a threadbare old blanket near the ratty couch, and she’d wrapped it around her shoulders. Still, her eyelashes frosted over and crystals climbed up her arms. “My husband thinks I’m staying with my mother tonight. I don’t know how I’ll explain the exhaustion.”

Cora looked out over the group slowly trickling together. “We’ve all worked hard,” she said.

Gray morning was seeping through the knots in the old wood building and made the world ashen. Over in the corner, Teddy and Ivan still worked with Betty.

“Tonight was long,” Clayton said to everyone.

Evie laughed—a raspy thing—and shook her head. “You don’t say, Clay.”

June shot a glance Evie’s way but then leaned back to Meg’s shoulder.

“So that’s it? We’re kind of like a social club with superpowers? I mean, gee, do we even have a name?”

“The League of, uh, Powers?” Frank suggested.

Evie pulled a face. June had an idea, but wasn’t sure if she wanted to hear Evie’s derision.

“Or,” Frank said quickly, “Super Specials?”

“That’s worse,” Evie said helpfully.

Ivan broke off from helping Betty to come stand beside June. Slyly, he reached up behind June to rest his hand at the small of her back. The feeling warmed her to the core and made her smile.

“The Independents?” June offered, standing tall. Around her people nodded, considering the name. 

“More important than a name,” Don said. “Do we think there are more of us?

Evie huffed. “Isn’t it obvious?”

“What do you mean, Evie?” Cora looked uncomfortable confronting Evie, whose sharp tongue could leave a mark.

“Of course there are others. Look around ….” She waited a second then rolled her eyes. “We were all sick. Which means probably everyone who had that awful illness in that gross military infirmary has powers.”

“But I, for one, have no idea how many of us were sick,” said Don. Around him, people nodded. June shivered at the memory of the horrible sickness. “And that is missing the bigger question: What do we do with these powers?”

“For now, we learn more,” Clayton started. “We need to keep researching and—”

Veronica spoke over him. “You go ahead and research. I’m more interested in what I can do.”

Near her, Kent, Don, and a couple others nodded. 

“I think first …,” Clayton started. 

But half of the group wasn’t listening. Murmurs spread around the circle, dissent growing and rippling through them. June worried her lips together, and her headache grew more insistent against her skull.

“Why can I suddenly incapacitate people with my voice if not to use it for something?” Veronica demanded. “To help my life.”

“That’s not—” Cora started.

“We already know your thoughts,” Don said loudly. 

“Hey,” Clayton snapped.

Kent stepped forward, looked around. “Veronica’s right. These powers give us an advantage. Why hide them? We should show ourselves.” 

Others in the circle shouted dissent, but Veronica talked over them all. “I’m not ashamed of what I can do. People should respect us!”

“People should fear us,” Kent added.

June swallowed back sour unease to see people nodding in agreement. Who could honestly think Kent—and Butch before him—had a point? Kent was the boy June studied history with in school. The boy who’d been a stocker for her father. And he thought people should fear him? It was unbelievable. But Veronica had moved from her spot in the group to stand next to him; Don too. 

Ivan shook his head and stepped forward. “Can’t you see how that’d turn out?” 

Kent’s expression soured, and Veronica’s mouth grew tight. 

“Don’t you understand? The townspeople outnumber us, and you want them to be
afraid
? We’d be in real danger.”

“I agree,” Will said. He’d been quiet that evening, and by the way he was still limping from trying—and failing—to teleport, June could sympathize. Her arms were tender from attempting—unsuccessfully—to move through solid rock. “We need to wait until we know more.”

“Wait,” Veronica scoffed. “I’m not afraid of people knowing how much power I have.”

June squirmed back and forth on the balls of her feet. “But what if these powers could help? Ivan, you could help farmers grow their plants. Cora, you could water them without wasting money on diverting water from the lake. Think of the possibilities. Surely they wouldn’t be afraid of us then.”

Ivan smiled sadly, his blue eyes drawn. “In my experience, people fear what they don’t know. And no one will have ever known anything like us.” He looked at June, his expression pleading. “Please, believe me.”

June pressed her lips together. Before Ivan, June would have stood back and nodded along with the majority. But now … this was her future they were talking about. She couldn’t keep quiet. 

“We can’t hide this forever,” she said. “We need to at least have a plan for when the outside world discovers us.”

“She’s right,” Blanche added. “I need to know what to say when I accidentally freeze my poor husband.”

“But for now, we need to learn more about all this,” Will spoke up. He cleared his throat and shared a look with Meg. “My teleportation goes wrong more often than not,” he admitted.

Veronica snickered. “Well, I can’t help it if you can’t handle your power.”

Will dropped his chin, but Clayton spoke for him. “It’s not just Will. Cora helped me understand my power. Without controlling it, I could kill.”

Frank wiggled his fingers before shoving them into his pockets and rocking back to his heels. “Haven’t found a downside to my power yet.”

“The pain,” June added quietly, her eyes cast down. “I can walk through walls, but it comes with a price.”

Don shrugged. “So you guys are afraid of your power? That doesn’t mean we all are. I vote we should show ourselves to the town.”

Thick silence rustled through the assembled group, people shifting glances around. Distrust grew like a weed.

“Let’s vote,” Clayton offered.

But before a single person could raise their hand to vote, an ear-piercing scream tore through them.

Betty hung high in the air, her body twisting and jerking.

June’s heartbeat rammed against her chest and her knees turned to jelly. She looked so … so unnatural. Like something out of a horror story.

Ivan sprinted toward the woman, his eyes on her. June was at his heels. They had to help her. Do something. Her breath was shallow, her hands shaking. What could they do?

June craned her neck up, up, up. Betty’s body was quivering now, her limbs hanging limp under her like a marionette waiting for its master. Her arms jerked violently once, twice. Then her back arched up and she let loose a scream so primeval, so horrific June’s skin crawled and her lungs deflated.

“Do something!” She shouted it, but she already knew. What could they do? What could they possibly do?

June felt a buffeting wind and snapped her head around just as Will teleported. But he reappeared on the ground on the other side of the mine, useless.

Frank lit Betty’s body as they group gathered under her, ready to catch her when she finally fell.

Her neck shook back and forth, her long red hair shaking out behind her in tangles. 

Her body gave a final, awful jerk then went completely still. Her back arched and her head was flung back at a horribly unnatural angle. She hung there, motionless. Her skirt dangled beneath her, as still as if it were hanging from a mannequin.

“Is she …?” Evie couldn’t finish the whispered question.

“Evie, hush,” June snapped.

The seconds stretched out, each moment a small agony. Then just as suddenly as she’d jerked high above their heads, she plummeted to the ground.

She fell with the force of a crashing meteor, and it was all anyone could do to jump out of the way. Teddy threw up his forcefield, but Betty punched through it like it was nothing but a bubble.

There was a deafening crash. A deep boom and the crack of splintering wood reverberated up to the rafters. Dust assaulted June’s eyes, but then slowly, slowly it settled.

June squinted through the gloom.

There was a giant hole in the floor. A hole that led only to blackness.

Frank shone his fingers down into the chasm, and June was almost afraid to look.

But she did. 

June jammed her hand against her lips in horror. Betty lay at the bottom of the black pit, absolutely still.

Her eyes, though. Her eyes were open, staring. Lifeless.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Ivan

Ivan acted without thinking, without considering. He crouched on the ground and pressed his fingers to the rock exposed under the broken flooring.

It was faint, so faint. But he could feel a pulse of life somewhere. The plants? Or could it be Betty? 

Please
, he said silently.
Please be her.

Ivan clenched his eyes shut and searched for life. There. He could feel the flowers outside the mine twist and grow, respond to the call of his power. Sweat beaded his forehead as he pulled.

And suddenly, a vine burst up between the rock and the splintered wood at the edge of the chasm. Ivan grabbed hold, and his power rushed forth.

The vine grew heavy and strong in his grip, and Ivan looped the plant around his waist.

Ivan stood tall and leaned out tentatively over the edge of the pit. It had to be thirty feet down, maybe more. But the vine held strong, and Clayton and Kent grabbed the vine where it went slack to help Ivan over the edge.

Ivan looked up into June’s eyes, held her gaze for a moment, then he disappeared into the pit.

Using his legs to steady him, Ivan slowly lowered himself into the chasm. The world grew dark and stale, the smell of decay and minerals heavy in his nose. Above, Frank shone light down to spotlight Betty, but other than that, the pit was blacker than night. 

Dust fell onto his head, rocks and pebbles shook loose with every step deeper. Each movement was slow and agonizing. But finally, finally, he kicked his legs down and stood up.

Betty lay on a bed of rubble. She didn’t move. Ivan’s heart skipped a beat in his chest, his throat tight. He crouched again and pressed his fingers into the loose dirt and rocks around her. The pulse of life he’d felt up at the lip of the chasm was gone.

She was gone.

Ivan closed his eyes and breathed out a long, shuddering sigh. Then he lifted Betty’s body into his arms and called up to Clayton and Kent. His voice cracked.

He cradled her, almost like she was asleep. But the body was heavy in his arms. Jesus, he was already thinking of her as a body, a shell devoid of life. But Betty was a person, a living person. A person who was robbed by this power that had infected them all.