Impostor (19 page)

Electricity crackled again as Kate’s screams filled the room. I struggled against my restraints, my eyes burning. Ignoring me, he tased her again. I tried to shape-shift, but nothing happened.

“Leave her alone!” I screamed, and this time he did. He staggered to his feet and lumbered toward me. Miniature lightning bolts crackled between the electrodes of the Taser.

Every breath felt like a jagged flame inside my chest. When he squatted beside me, I shut my eyes, bracing for the pain. Something touched my lips and a scream was on the verge of bursting from my mouth when I realized he’d put tape across my face to shut me up. “I loved you and I killed for you and you didn’t care.”

He smiled for a moment before my body exploded with pain. Fire shot through my side, into my chest and arms. I gasped against the tape, my throat constricting. Bile crowded in my mouth. Maybe I’d choke on my own vomit, a valiant way to die. He tased me again, and the touch was like flames licking across my skin. I screamed without a sound but he kept on going until my world was fire, blue sparks, and hot tears.

Eventually, he stopped.

“No talking,” he said before he walked out.

CHAPTER 22

T
aking deep breaths through my nose, I struggled against the pain. Kate was curled up in a fetal position across from me. I tried to speak through the tape over my lips but all that came out were incoherent sounds. At least they managed to draw Kate’s attention. She raised her head an inch, her eyes watery and half closed. Slowly she propped herself up on her elbows. I wriggled and shifted until I looked Kate straight in the eyes. For two years I’d avoided that like the plague, determined not to give her access to my head, and now here I was,
inviting
her to read my mind.

If everything went as Ryan wanted, we’d probably be dead soon. There wouldn’t be time for regret. Or for Kate to kill me out of anger.

The way her eyes flashed with fury, that was currently on her mind. She struggled into a sitting position, her eyes blazing. Despite the urge to look away, I kept my gaze trained on her. She blinked at me, sweat and blood trickling over her pale skin.

Sorry, Kate. I can’t read your mind. What are you doing here anyway?

She licked blood off her lips, coughed, and swallowed thickly like she was trying to find her voice.

Did Major send you
?

She shook her head no and closed her eyes for a moment, her face draining of color. She looked sick, and her blouse was drenched in blood; her temple wound had bled a lot. “No,” she said finally, her voice raspy. “He doesn’t know I’m here.”

Kate had disobeyed Major? Wow.

“It’s your fault,” she continued. “I wanted to keep an eye on you and Alec. I know what happened. Holly’s mind is like an open book.”

How did you find me?

“I was sitting in a car outside the house. I thought you might go on another midnight stroll to meet Alec. But then I saw you running after that guy.”

Why did you follow me inside? You must have known Alec wasn’t here. And just a few minutes ago you distracted Ryan from me. Why?

“Not because I like you, if that’s what you think. I owe it to Major to do what I can. I’ve been neglecting my responsibilities enough in the last few days.” A coughing fit stopped her from saying anything more.

The tub was full of water. We didn’t have much time before Ryan would return.

We need to find a way to escape.

She nodded and ran her eyes slowly over the length of my body before raising one eyebrow.

I can’t shift. My Variation isn’t working.

“Focus,” Kate whispered. Panic flashed on her face.

I closed my eyes. How had I managed to get past my Variation block last time?

Alec. But he wasn’t there, at least not physically. I let my favorite memory reclaim me, the memory I’d tried to forget in the last few days. Alec’s gray eyes, tender and loving, his lips soft and demanding, his touch like whispered promises on my skin.

The rippling started in my fingers and spread like a wildfire in my body. My skin started quivering and then shrinking; my bones and muscles were next, growing smaller.

I opened my eyes and for the first time I saw admiration, maybe even jealousy on Kate’s face, but it was fleeting and quickly replaced with a glower.

The ropes hung loosely around my newly childlike wrists, and slipping out of them was a piece of cake. I stretched, my muscles aching. Letting the rippling sensation wash over me once again, I shifted back into Madison’s body.

I made my way over to Kate and tried releasing her from her restraints. But my ropes had been easier to loosen than the tape. It stuck together and was much too strong to rip. Steps sounded in the hall.

Kate’s eyes grew panicked. “Hurry! He’s coming.” My fingers fumbled with the tape, but without a knife or scissors there wasn’t a chance to remove it.

The door swung open, almost hitting me in the head. I stumbled back, lost my balance, and collided with the sink. A pang shot through my lower back, making me grimace. Mist crept over the floor, reaching out for me like hungry claws.

Ryan staggered toward me. I’d never realized how tall he was. He held the knife in one hand and lunged at me, but I sidestepped the stab, missing the blade by inches. I punched his arm and the knife clattered to the ground, the sound muffled by the growing mist. He gripped my hair and motioned with his free hand at the fog. Like ropes, it began to slither around my body. I struggled but its hold only tightened. It wound around my throat, cold and wet and constricting. I cried out but its grip was relentless. It strangled me. Strangled by fog. The mysterious way that two of the victims had died. Black dots danced in my vision. I could feel the fog pulsating around me as though it had a heartbeat of its own.

I passed out before I hit the tiled floor.

• • •

The taste of blood in my mouth was the first thing I noticed once my senses returned. It took a few more seconds before the whooshing in my ears quieted down enough for me to hear what was going on around me: gasps and screams.

I struggled against the sleepiness.

Another piercing scream raised my hackles. The next scream stopped abruptly and all I heard was the splashing of water. I forced my eyes open. One of them seemed crusted shut with blood and no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t open more than a gap. Fog floated in the bathroom, a wall of milky white.

I touched my throat and winced. The skin was tender. But there was another spot that ached even more. I glanced down at the hole in my shirt and the A on my skin peeking through. It was glaring red and oozing blood. Ryan had renewed the cut.

Focusing my attention on the mist, I tried to make out what was going on.

Ryan was holding Kate’s head under water. She’d stopped struggling, her arms hanging limply at her sides. Summoning my strength, I staggered to my feet. Ryan let go of Kate and the rest of her upper body sank beneath the water’s surface. Waves lapped over the edge and flooded the bathroom.

Dots of light danced in and out of my vision.

I willed my body to transform but nothing happened. This couldn’t be true. What was wrong with me? Ryan was coming toward me, slashing the air with the knife. Why wasn’t he siccing his fog on me? Maybe he too was out of energy.

I tensed my legs the way that Alec had taught me. I struck out into a high kick, but my aim was off and I almost lost my balance. With a deep breath, I tried again. This time I kicked the knife from his hand. It clattered to the ground.

Ryan lunged forward, his hands closing around my throat like the mist had before, tightening until I couldn’t breathe. His nails burrowed into my skin. I gripped his arms, trying to pull him off balance, but he was too strong. My fingers dug into him, hurting him as much as I could.

His grip was relentless. My lungs constricted and the blurry black dots returned to my vision. The olive green of his irises disappeared until there was only white. The fog densed, began to hum, snatched at my hair and skin. It would kill me. I didn’t have much time.

A faint rippling sensation started in my legs and traveled through my body. I focused all my energy on the shift while more dots danced in my vision. The rippling increased and I felt my bones lengthening, my muscles growing. With a yelp, Ryan let go and the room cleared of mist. Stretching, shifting, reshaping, and then the transformation was over, and I was as tall as Ryan. I’d changed into Alec.

“You’re—you’re one of us? Did Abel’s Army send you?” His irises had returned to their usual green.

“I’m not a killer and I don’t care about your army,” I said.

He staggered forward again, his arms extended. I blocked him and thrust my knee up, hitting him in the groin. With a groan, he stumbled backward and sank down on one knee, the knife inches from him.

He grabbed it, his knuckles turning white, and advanced on me, weapon brandished. His gait wasn’t as steady as it had been before and only a few streaks of haze danced around his legs. He thrust forward like a snake serving its deadly strike. Fire seared my arm where the blade sliced open my skin. Immediately my sleeve soaked up the warm liquid.

The pain triggered the familiar rippling sensation. It was so unfair that my gift abandoned me right when I needed it most. I had to act before that happened. With a battle cry, a mixture of my voice and Alec’s, I charged. Ryan froze, his face dumbfounded. The shock lasted only a moment. He slashed the knife in an arc, aiming straight at my head. With a jolt I shifted back to a female body. I didn’t even know if it was Madison’s or mine. The blade missed me by less than an inch. If I hadn’t shifted, Ryan would have scalped me.

He lost his balance, flailed his arms, and stumbled forward, bumping into me with his full force. The impact squeezed the air out of my lungs and made me gasp. We fell backward and my tailbone slammed into the solid floor, sending a jolt of pain up my spine. Ryan’s heavier body landed on top of me, and something hard dug into my stomach.

I grew stiff with fear. Had he stabbed me?

His eyes widened in shock before his mouth went slack. He sagged against me as something warm and wet soaked my clothes. I pushed him off. He rolled over onto his back, the knife handle sticking out of his midsection. Blood trickled out of his mouth and his eyes lost their focus. Gurgling breaths spurted out of his body. Strands of mist curled around his arms and seeped into his skin.

His chest heaved and then stopped. The last thread of fog disappeared.

Ryan was dead.

CHAPTER 23

I
’d wasted too much time.

Every inch of my body ached when I stumbled toward her. My hands shot into the pink water, gripped Kate’s shoulders, and pulled her out. She was unnaturally heavy, as if her body had soaked up loads of water. Her head lolled to the side, her face slack as I lowered her to the ground. The gash on her forehead had stopped bleeding.

I pressed my fingertips harder into her skin, trying to find her pulse. There was none. My hands flew over her throat, prodding and touching. Choking fear gripped my chest. Not again.

I wiped the tears from my eyes. Crying over Kate; I’d never thought that day would come. I pressed my palms against her rib cage and started CPR. Three pushes. One, two, three. I leaned over her and released my air into her lungs. Seconds dragged by, maybe minutes. My arms ached, but I couldn’t stop. If I stopped, I’d admit defeat. I wouldn’t allow it; wouldn’t let him take another life. Not when he’d already taken Devon.

“Let me,” a male voice said.

A cry ripped from my throat, leaving it raw. I whirled around and my heart must have skipped a beat. Leaning against the doorframe, clothes ripped and bloody, his hair still matted with blood, stood Devon. He couldn’t be alive. It was absolutely impossible.

But there he was.

He took a shaky step closer. Struggling with every motion, he dropped to his knees beside me. He was so close that I could see the hole in his head had closed and a thin layer of skin had grown over it.

I blinked. None of this was possible.

He braced himself on his thighs and breathed in as if he had to get used to being alive again. He turned his head to look at me. “You aren’t Madison. I should have realized it sooner, but believing the lie was easier.”

Without waiting for me to say anything, he placed his hands on Kate. One on her rib cage, one on her cheek. The color of his face turned from white to sickly gray and his eyes narrowed in concentration.

“What are you doing?”

Suddenly I heard the faint intake of breath. At first I thought I’d imagined it, but then Kate’s chest heaved under his hand. I cradled her head in my lap.

“How?” I croaked.

Devon sagged against the tub, shuddering. He looked like he was about to pass out. “Healing others and myself . . . that’s my gift—just like yours is apparently deceit.”

“Why—” I stopped myself.

“I can only heal those that haven’t moved on yet. Madison was gone, even though her body was kept alive. I can’t explain it but I think it’s something about the soul clinging to the body or not. I think it broke Maddy that Ryan was the one who tried to kill her, like somehow it broke her will to live.” He trembled, perspiration glistening on his forehead. “That’s . . . that’s why I couldn’t bring her back when I found her at the lake.” A tear slid down his cheek. “But I allowed myself to believe that you were her, that by some miracle my gift had brought her back from a place no one returns from.”

“But why were you at the lake?”

He stared at his hands, still covered in blood. “I knew that she used to meet there with Yates. I wanted—I don’t really know what I wanted to do when I found them. Maybe punch him in the face.” He rubbed his hands over his jeans as if to clean them, but the blood stuck to his skin. “Please, at least stop pretending to be her now.”

My body shook. I barely felt the rippling, but from the look on Devon’s face I knew that I was no longer Madison.

His chest shuddered with a breath. “She still needs medical treatment. I couldn’t heal her completely; I’m still too weak from healing myself.”

Stroking Kate’s hair, I looked over at Ryan’s body. His eyes were wide and directed at me.

Devon followed my gaze and shook his head. “I won’t bring him back, even if he hasn’t moved on yet. I want him gone.” I wouldn’t have asked him to. Though I wasn’t proud of the feeling, I was glad Ryan was dead.

The front door burst open and the sound of thundering footsteps filled the house.

“We’re here!” I called.

Alec and Major stormed in first, a squad of men in black body armor right behind them.

They took in the sight of the dead body on the ground and then of Kate, Devon, and me. I shivered, my arms wrapped around myself. Alec was at our side in a blink. All three of us were covered in blood, but I was mostly uninjured except for what felt like a gaping hole deep within my chest. “I’m okay,” I whispered as Alec touched the gash over my eyebrow.

“What happened?” Major asked, his voice controlled.

“It was Ryan. He’s a Variant. He could create and control fog.”

Major’s lips tightened with disappointment, as though he was sad that one precious Variant had slipped through his fingers. Major glanced at Devon, his eyes resting on the dent in his head and the holes in his shirt. But it wasn’t my place to decide if Devon wanted his gift to be known.

“Ryan said something about joining Abel’s Army.”

The room fell silent. Dread flitted across Major’s face before he put on his neutral mask. Alec exchanged a look with Major. He knew. They all knew, except for me.

Alec ran his hands over Kate’s hair. “Why is she here? She wasn’t supposed to be.”

“I don’t know. But she stopped breathing for a while because she was held under water. She needs to be taken to a hospital.”

“What about you?” Alec asked as he lifted Kate into his arms. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” How easily the lie slipped from my lips.

He hesitated, his eyes conflicted.

“Alec, I think you should hurry,” Major said.

Alec gave a terse nod, his eyes darting to me once more before he turned. I watched as he walked out. For one last moment, my eyes dropped to Ryan. The other FEA agents were checking him. All except for Major, who only had eyes for Devon and me. He probably knew about Devon already. Major always seemed to know things.

“You should let a doctor check you,” he said, looking at my chest.

“I’m fine.” I crossed my arms over my body. “What is Abel’s Army? And why would Ryan kill to join them?”

Major’s dark eyes bored into me, as if he was trying to extract something from my mind. He hesitated. Major never hesitated.

“Abel’s Army is a group of Variants.”

“Why aren’t they part of the FEA?”

“They don’t like to play by the rules and they don’t want to be under the control of the government. Their leader has his own agenda.”

“Abel?” I guessed.

“There’s one thing you should never forget: Abel’s Army is dangerous. Very dangerous. They’re a bunch of criminals, and nothing more. We don’t associate with them, under any circumstances.” He cleared his throat. “I’ll let Stevens take you to headquarters. A helicopter is waiting.” Hawk-Face stepped forward when he heard his name.

“Headquarters? But what about Linda and Ronald? They’ll be worried.”

Devon pushed himself upright, one of his arms wrapped around his chest. “I think it’s better if they never see you again,” he said softly.

Major gave a nod. “This mission is over, Tessa.”