Legacy (11 page)

Of course, that wasn’t why we were here. If people actually
did
try to attack Ganzfield again, they wouldn’t catch us by surprise. And Trevor and I could do a few things to stop them. I’m sure Isaiah, if his remote viewing reached this far, knew he wouldn’t get in undetected. That fact might’ve been the only thing keeping him from coming after us here.

Deterrent—or, at least, mutually assured destruction.

The thought was more comforting than it probably should’ve been.

The caffeine headache pressed whiningly behind my eye sockets, strong enough to wake me. Maybe we should get a coffeemaker for the church. I could order one online pretty easily. I groaned as I looked at the clock—nearly 4 p.m. The all-night patrol had left us feeling zombie-like and vaguely nauseous.

Trevor and I went to the dining hall in search of enough coffee to make the pain stop. We each gulped our first cups and went for seconds. The day felt off-kilter with the knock to our circadian rhythms. Dinner hadn’t started yet, but we sat together at one of the empty tables, holding hands and trying to bring our minds into focus.

A golden glow shimmered into existence around me and I felt Rachel’s thoughts come into my range as she walked over from Blake House. My mind snapped into greater wakefulness as she joined us.

So?
I asked.
Did you tell them?

She glanced at Trevor.
Should he be here for this? It’s kinda personal. Well, he’s a nice guy, I guess. And he pretty much knows everything Maddie knows, anyway.
She shrugged. “I told Sean’s parents.”

In her mind, I saw their reaction. When she’d first arrived, they’d been polite and distant, unsure of her purpose in visiting them. Her memories showed their growing shock as she’d explained—then the wary scowl as his mother had demanded to know what Rachel wanted from them.
Yikes.
So, not the happy family moment that Rachel would’ve liked.

How are you doing with it?

“I’m okay. I mean, it’s completely embarrassing that every-one’s going to know, and I still think my dad’s going to kill me when I tell them, but…”

You actually seem better, though
.

“It’s like Sean’s not completely gone, you know?” Her eyes glinted with threatened tears.

I nodded.
I can feel that.

“Hey, can you sense the baby’s thoughts yet?”

Could I?
Ooh! Cool idea.
I focused in. There was something…nebulous, soft and light, fluttering nearly silently against the edges of my consciousness. It was so subtle I hadn’t noticed it before. Next to me, Trevor went very still as he piggybacked on the sensations. I smiled as I projected the experience to Rachel.

She gasped, and then made the baby start to glow as she envisioned it with her RV ability again.

I had a feeling she’d been doing that a lot. A little shard of cold stabbed into my thoughts and my smile dribbled off my face. Could all this extra mental energy be healthy? Maybe we were irradiating the baby or something. And Rachel still could use her ability, which meant she still had dodecamine in her system.

Do you need backup?
I asked.
I could be there, if you needed me to be.

“Maybe. I just don’t— Let me think about it, okay?”

I met her eyes.
Just know that you’re not alone in this, all right?

Trevor nodded in agreement.

“Thanks.” She gave us a nervous smile and her eyes darted toward the front door as footsteps and conversation drifted down the hall. We changed the subject as Drew, Ellen, and Harrison joined us.

Our second long and uneventful night on patrol drained us. I hated this reversal of sleep and wake. Even though exhaustion soaked through me, the light outside made it hard to sleep. I pulled a pillow over my head and drifted in and out of a half-waking stupor.

Maddie! Meeting in Williamson’s office.

Ugh. Go away, Seth!
His mental voice gave me a headache—or maybe I already had one.

Four more deaths
.

Crap. That was important enough to get up for. My unintentional noise woke Trevor.
Sorry!

No problem.
He glanced at the clock.
I’m too hungry to get back to sleep. I’ll walk over with you and get some lunch.

He joined Drew at one of the dining hall tables as I trudged up the stairs to the third floor.

My mom greeted me with, “You look tired, honey.”

Night patrol. I’m working on almost no sleep here
.
What’s going on?

Williamson looked up from his computer screen.
Isaiah’s killed again. The victim was an RV. He also murdered her husband and their two children.

I closed my eyes as a dizzy-weak ache rolled through me.

“Could we warn people when he’s coming? Is there any way we can predict where he’s heading next?” My mom clasped her hands in a bundle next to her chest.

Williamson gave me a meaningful look. His thoughts were shielded again.

Oh, there’s a way, Mom, but you wouldn’t like it. We could always use your only child as bait.

Her resistance felt like stone. “No! No way!”

I didn’t argue—or explain that it wasn’t up to her—but she picked it up from my mind and gave me that I’m-considering-locking-you-in-the-attic-until-you’re-thirty look. Until I started dodecamine, I’d never known how accurately that look reflected her thoughts.

Is there a pattern to any of this?
I asked.

Seth chimed in from outside.
Isaiah kills in different ways. Sometimes the victims just die in their homes; others stroke out in public. But if he gets them at their front door, he goes in and ransacks the place.

I’d seen that in Rachel’s vision.
But why? What does he want from their homes?

A cold
“a-ha!
” splashed across Williamson’s mind, splattering eureka bits to the rest of us.

My eyes widened.
Dodecamine?

Williamson pulled up some files on his computer, comparing them to one another.
Why didn’t I see the connection earlier?
All the home invasions had been committed against
dodecamine-enhanced
G-positives.

The cops didn’t find any dodecamine in their homes, did they
? asked Seth.

No.
Williamson shook his head.

Goosebumps prickled my arms.
He’s killing them to supply himself
.
You and Coleman cut off his old source.

Isaiah had bribed one of the Allexor Pharmaceutical’s employees to divert dodecamine to him. Williamson had located the thief easily—his mind had been filled with his guilt and his greed. After a few charmed words from Coleman, he’d resigned his position at Allexor, given everything he owned to charity,

and become an aid worker in sub-Saharan Africa. Apparently,

his new calling left him feeling…very fulfilled.

Williamson’s twisting emotions rolled dizzy nausea through the rest of us. He hadn’t known that his actions would make Isaiah kill to get more of the drug. Suddenly, the emotional spigot shut off. Williamson’s shield strengthened and his mental presence vanished.

New part of the plan just fell into place, huh?
I asked him.

He gave me a tight, grief-filled smile. “Try not to think about it. You’re smart enough to figure it out.”

I left Williamson’s office and listened for Trevor’s mind. He wasn’t in the main building so I went back to the church. His bed was empty. I bit my lip and scowled.

Where is he?

Being away from Trevor made me twitchy. I couldn’t sleep as I waited for him to come back. Did he feel smothered by my desire to always be with him? Had he gone somewhere just to have a little time away from me? Was I too clingy? Did he need a break from being around me?

Ugh.

I hated these insecurities. I knew Trevor loved and adored me in the same all-encompassing way I loved and adored him. We both had these stupid little doubts when we were apart—it was one reason we
didn’t
like to be apart.

After an hour, I couldn’t stay in the church any longer. No one had seen Trevor in the main building and he wasn’t in Blake House or one of the other dorms. None of the sparks knew where he was. The butterflies in my stomach had started doing heavy construction so I went to ask Rachel.

She located him instantly. He sat alone on the flat, table-like rock in the little alcove on the lake—the place where we’d fed each other grapes. Trevor had his long arms wrapped around his knees. A look of pain and disbelief filled his face as he stared out at the water. The urge to comfort him pulled me like I was being reeled in on a hook.

Thanks, Rachel!
I ducked out of her room and half-ran through the field and along the edge of the lake. I sensed Trevor there and a few steps later, started to feel some of his—

Oh, my God in Heaven.
The images coming from his mind punched me in the gut. They were vile and…and…
pornographic
. Every muscle in my body tensed. I started to shake and my eyes filled with tears.
What had he done?

Trevor remembered having sex—crazy, wild, raunchy sex—with Belinda.
What am I supposed to do now? I don’t understand. Why did I do this? I can’t let Maddie see these memories. I can’t hurt her that way. She’ll never want to be with me again. And I can’t blame her. I don’t deserve to be with her. Maybe I should just go—get as far away as I can. I could leave her a note. Hell, I could just swim down to the bottom of the lake and hold onto a rock. After what I’ve done, I can’t be with Maddie anymore. I just can’t.

Belinda.
This must be her revenge. Red-hot energy crackled across my skin. My hands balled into fists.

Had she just implanted fake memories or had she charmed Trevor into actually
doing
the things that kept playing through his head? Did it matter? Either way, she’d violated him. Crystalline shards of hate formed in my mind.

I want her DEAD.

Whether Williamson liked it or not, I’d make sure Belinda never had a chance to do that ever again. The blast of lethal energy pressed against the inside of my skull. I squeezed my eyes shut.

Not yet.

Right now, Trevor needed me. With thoughts of drowning himself going through his mind, I couldn’t leave him alone. The uneven ground felt like it was trying to trip me with each step but I forced my feet to move toward him. I wanted to scream, and then hurt something until it stopped moving, and then pull myself into a fetal ball and wail.

Trevor’s anguished eyes met mine as I came into view. “I’m so sorry.” His voice was a hoarse whisper. “I’m so sorry.”

You didn’t do anything wrong.
I bit my tongue and tasted blood. The images in his mind showed him as an enthusiastic participant, but I knew Trevor. He wouldn’t have done this willingly. I
knew
him.

Trevor’s eyes squeezed closed with pain and he put his head down in his upraised knees. “I did.”

Belinda charmed you
.

Trevor’s face lifted in surprise. “She’s a charm?”

Yes. You knew that. She must have told you to forget that when she…when she implanted those false memories.
I didn’t know whether the memories were false or not, but Trevor had no idea that was even a possibility.

“They’re false?”

I nodded.
I think so. I hope so. But can you think of something else now? Please?

Trevor’s brows knit in concentration.
I can’t—I can’t seem to stop.

Then we’ll need another charm to take her commands off you.
It couldn’t be soon enough for me. My head felt like it was about to explode! But what if it was a real memory and her command had just been to join in?
Arrrgh!

Simple plan: I’d help my wonderful, gentle man get free of Belinda’s mind-control, and then I’d hunt her down and fry her brain until smoke billowed from her frikkin’ eye sockets.

Trevor unfolded himself slowly. Guilt and shame radiated from him in waves of yellow and dusky pink energy. But a little seed of hope—
this nightmare isn’t real
—began to take root within him.

I sped up, unsuccessfully trying to get out of range of Trevor’s porn-filled thoughts on the eternal walk back. Step one of the plan: find a charm, any charm. A few months ago, that would’ve been so easy! Now—

ZACK!

He turned to locate the source of the shout in his head. He’d been heading out of the main building, but he changed direction to meet us. His thoughts popped up loudly as he lowered his mental shield.

Behind me, I heard Trevor’s unspoken curse and a distinct
not him!

Deal with it,
I snapped
. He owes me
. I couldn’t handle Trevor’s jealousy right now—not when my own dug into my throat with long, red fingernails.

Zack, we need your help.
I bit my lip.
Please
.
Belinda put some memories into Trevor’s head—

“—and you want me to take the whammy off.”
Must be really raunchy to get Maddie this upset. Or to come to me for this.

My fingers dug into my crossed arms hard enough to leave bruises.
Please
, I repeated. Zack knew I’d blast him if he screwed with Trevor. I felt the killing energy rise just at the thought, but I forced it back down.
Not him. He’s not the one I’m going to kill.

I felt Williamson’s
What’s going on down there?
float to me from somewhere far away.