Legacy (19 page)

“Drew. We’re going after Isaiah,” Trevor said. “You in?”

Drew let out an enthusiastic whoop.

Harrison? How about you?
I asked.

“Hell, yeah!” He echoed his brother’s whoop.

What’s the yelling about?
Hannah poked her head up from behind the barricade.
No one seems to be injured.
She turned back to her book but I caught her attention.

New mission. We think we have a way to stop Isaiah. We should have a healer with us.

I’d have to ask Ann if she saw a color for lack of enthusiasm. I got nothing.
Rachel’s pregnancy—

C’mon, Hannah. You’ve trained with the team, and the others can take care of Rachel. We’ll be back long before the baby’s born. This will only take a few weeks, at most.
Isaiah would come after us before he ran out of dodecamine.

“Let me think about it. I’ll talk to the other healers.” Hannah headed back toward the infirmary.

The rest of us descended on the Fireball field. More than a dozen sparks moved across the grass. The largest group practiced fundamentals—bouncing a flaming ball from one to another across a large circle. At the far end of the field, four more people juggled flaming batons.

I smiled. Sparks
loved
playing with fire. Their bright joy gave me a contact high.

“Ellen! Mel!” Drew’s cousins turned. “C’mere a sec!”

The two stepped away from the Fireball practice and joined us. As Drew relayed the invite, Ellen and Melanie also whooped. Was that a new spark thing, or just a McFee thing?

“You’re asking Jonah Parker, right?” Mel wasn’t going to let it go. “He’s the best at directional control when we work together.” She turned to Ellen. “He increased our range—what? Forty percent that time?”

“At least,” she agreed, nodding. “Hey, Jonah. JONAH!”

One of the jugglers froze his flaming pins in mid-air as he searched out the source of the shout. When his eyes landed on our group, Ellen waved him over. Jonah’s focus shifted to the unmoving torches for a moment. The flames died as though they’d been snuffed by giant, invisible fingers, and the still-smoking pins dropped to the ground as he turned and started toward us.

I didn’t know Jonah well; I don’t think we’d ever spoken to each other. He had a dark mahogany complexion, slender build, and was only a few inches taller than me. His hair had been shaved very short, which gave him a clean-cut appearance, although his prominent cheekbones and watchful, almost-black eyes made him look somewhat exotic close up.

Jonah wasn’t a whooper. He simply nodded seriously and said, “Okay.”

We finally tracked down Dave and Claire down by the lake. Drew’s shout gave them enough time to get presentable before we came into view.

Dave whooped—definitely a McFee thing.

“You really want me instead of Rachel?” Claire asked. “I’m not that strong an RV. I can’t see things more than about fifty or sixty miles away. Rachel’s the varsity team—I’m more like the JV.”

JV RV?
I grinned.
Pretty sure we’ll just need local stuff on this trip.
Claire had no idea why Rachel wasn’t going on missions anymore—and I wasn’t going to be the one to tell her.

Trevor changed the subject. “We’ll leave from the main building at 8 a.m.”

“Hey! Dibs on one of the new tents!” Drew grabbed a couple of shiny bundles off the shelf and tossed them to Trevor, who caught them in mid-air and added them to the growing pile of gear in the main building’s basement storeroom. The tents had been custom-made of a flexible aluminum fabric called pyreflect and could withstand heat of up to three thousand degrees for up to a minute. We took six of the ten, along with four of the standard, blue nylon tents for the non-incendiary among us.

Trevor picked up a ground cloth.
I hope it doesn’t rain too often.

I frowned. Trevor would have to sleep shelterless for the next few weeks.

Wait, why would he have to? Didn’t I have millions of dollars?

Jon!
I called up to the third floor. Sometimes I just loved telepathy.
Does your pharmaceutical plant have open space for a new building?

It’s got acres of open space. Why?

I want to put up a new hanger or garage or something.

For Trevor?

Exactly.

Actually, we were going to put in another building a few years ago. Poured the slab but the contractor had an accident on another site and delayed the project. The state changed the tax rules in the intervening time and the project was no longer cost effective, so it was scrapped. Perhaps we could put up a Morton building or something similar on the slab.

What’s a Morton building?

Pre-fab equipment garage. The crew can set them up in a day.
He flashed me an image of a large, metal structure.

That’d do it.

I’ll order one. I’ll have Coleman get the permits, so we’ll probably have them by the end of the day.

I sent a dose of happy up to him.
Thanks! Have him bill me or something.

This one’s on me.
Williamson still felt responsible for Trevor freezing in the unheated church during his first winter at Ganzfield.
I’ll also get a couple of trailers delivered and hooked up, so you’ll all have showers and kitchens, too.

Bonus!
I grinned.
You have no idea how much better that’ll be than camping!

Maddie, I sleep in my car when I’m not here. I know EXACTLY how much better it will be.

Thanks, Jon.

This is it. We’re going to stop Isaiah this time. I can feel it.

I wished I shared his confidence. Now that we had an actual plan, the thought of facing Isaiah again dropped a rock in my gut.
I hope so.

Allexor’s security staff has been told to expect you tomorrow afternoon. Zack knows who to talk to when you arrive. You’ll all need to keep a low profile. Most of the people who work there make pain relievers and drugs that treat anxiety disorders. They don’t know anything about us or about our abilities, and we want to keep it that way.

I’ll bring a few good books
. My lips twitched. “Drew” and “low profile” worked so poorly in the same sentence.
Good news, guys.
I relayed the trailer and building information to Trevor and Drew.

“Sweet,” said Drew.

The situation didn’t seem too dangerous if we’d have hot showers and dry places to sleep. Almost like a vacation.

Almost.

Maddie?
Trevor thought to me. We were alone again, back in the church, packing our personal gear.

I looked down over the edge of my loft to where Trevor stood.
What’s wrong?
I asked, feeling his uneasiness even before I met his eyes. I stumbled down the ladder and landed in his arms.

“I feel like we’re missing something. Isaiah’s not stupid. He calculates the odds of success, like he did in Detroit. And he’ll be able to RV us. Why would he come into a trap?”

Desperation?
Cold dread trickled rusty tentacles through me and I frowned.
But you’re right—he won’t just walk in if he thinks we have a good chance of stopping him
.

“Maybe he’ll come armed.”

But he knows we survived after he shot at us, so he might guess you can stop bullets. And Isaiah could tell that the sparks kept his gun from firing—he heard it in their heads.
I felt a humorless laugh bubble up.
Maybe he’ll drive up in a tank.

“That’s actually not impossible.”

No problem. The sparks could stop a tank.

“Probably,” he agreed.

Drew would LOVE to stop a tank. It would make his day.

Trevor smiled at the thought. “Yeah.”

That’s not the only thing bothering you, though.

Trevor bit his lip as he looked away at nothing in particular. “They had the funeral yesterday.” He’d found the obituary on the website of a Michigan newspaper. Neither his mother nor his grandmother had contacted him to inform him of it, and he wasn’t listed in the obituary as one of Archer’s survivors—although both of his half-sisters were. Grief and hurt churned within him.

The intensity spilled across our mental connection, catching my breath. Trevor was so tired of the emotional pain, and I ached to take the pain away. My hands slid up to frame his face. I met his eyes and we sank to the floor together as the light of the church dimmed around us. The connection was gentler this time. We pulled together with a glowing fullness that lifted our souls with a rhythm like a beating heart.

We returned to the trembling bodies that lay entwined on the smooth wood of the floor. The afternoon light painted everything a warm gold. We looked into each other’s eyes, still feeling the perfect connection with the other’s soul. His finger traced the edge of my lower lip—no, my finger traced his.

Something shifted within Trevor, like he’d been underwater until his lungs burned, and then had finally broken the surface and drawn a deep breath.
If they don’t want me, I don’t need them. I don’t need their approval anymore.

Lilith and Laurie?
I asked, even though I could tell whom he meant.

I—I can’t let them cast this…shadow over any more of my life. I don’t need to beg for scraps of affection.
He stroked the side of my face.
Not anymore. Not when I know what it feels like to be cherished.

It doesn’t have to be either-or
.
I’ll adore you, no matter what.

I’m not completely cutting off ties with them. If they don’t, that is. I just know that their opinions don’t define me anymore.

I kissed him tenderly.
If you’re going to base your self-image on MY opinion of you, you’re going to get a huge ego.

The sparkle returned to his eyes.
Oh, well. You know me better than they do.

Stop stealing my line!

He smiled.
It was MY line first.

I snuggled against him, feeling the warmth of his arms around me and the fullness of his soul. There was peace and contentment within him now, and I felt my own soul react to it. The restlessness I’d felt within myself calmed.

Trevor was whole again.

And we were whole together.

CHAPTER 10

“Maddie, you don’t have to do this.”

Mom, we’re going.

My mom crossed her arms as she watched us load our gear into the big black van. She scowled as she briefly considered grabbing my bag and making a run for it—anything that would keep us from leaving this morning. Guilt pinged within me; I actually felt bad for my mom. Since last fall, I’d gotten comfortable with the concept that regular rules didn’t apply to me. But she hadn’t had as much time to get used to it, so she kept trying to enforce some of them. Back in our previous life, I hadn’t given her too much trouble. She didn’t know how to set parental limits for a seventeen-year-old, lethal telepath.

“Nina, it’s going to be okay. I’m not going to let anything bad happen to her.”

Aww.
I really didn’t deserve this wonderful guy, but there was no way I’d ever let him put himself in danger and go up against Isaiah to save me.

Well—not
again
.

My mom’s too-bright eyes fixed on his face. “Keep her safe or I’ll never forgive you.”

Trevor nodded. “If anything happened to Maddie, there’d be nothing left of me to not forgive.” His brows knit in frustration. “Wait, did that make sense? You know what I mean. I’d die to protect her.”

My mother pulled Trevor into a hug, which made a happy-green flash of energy flow through him. I tried not to let him read in my thoughts that she wanted to get a hand on him to see if he really meant it.

Claire gave Rachel a nervous smile as she slid into the front passenger seat. Rachel didn’t notice. She frowned as we packed up without her—she’d been part of the team since before there was a team.

You going to be okay staying here?

Rachel scoffed. “Safer than the rest of you. I’m not the one he keeps tracking down.”

Ellen looked up sharply.
Wait—Isaiah’s coming after us? I thought we were going after him!

Don’t stress,
I told her.
Isaiah’s in—where is he, Rachel?

“Phoenix.” I saw her vision of him at a desk. Early-morning light draped across the wall behind him as he focused on a computer screen.

I wonder how he communicates these days
? As far as we knew, he couldn’t project thoughts like I did.

Rachel frowned, thinking. “I haven’t seen him talk or use sign language. He pretty much avoids other people. But he’s been on the computer a lot recently. Maybe he does everything online.”

Everything except kill.
Isaiah still did that in-person.

It was disconcerting—he had to deal with the same disability I had. It was like he was a parallel-universe version of me—the evil one with a beard. I humphed. If this were a movie, I’d soon discover that he was my real father or something—Darth Lerner to my Maddie Skywalker. Ugh. I shuddered.

Not funny.

Dave hopped into the driver’s seat. “Let’s go, everyone.”

My mom stood next to Rachel as we drove away. Both wondered if we’d all be coming back alive. I tried to swallow the lump in my throat and brace myself for the long drive. The thoughts of everyone in the van filled my mind—the babble of nearly a dozen mental voices, loud and close.