Taming the Fire (37 page)

Devlin beeped Trance early—an urgent request to come to his boss's office. Within half an hour, Trance had showered from his early-morning PT, dressed and headed to see Devlin.

A woman named Christine manned Marlena's desk—an odd sight, but before Trance could ask if Marlena was all right, Dev was waving him into the inner sanctum.

“Come in, Trance. Have a seat.”

Trance did so, on the soft leather couch even as Devlin remained on his feet.

The book of dead and missing ACRO agents was on the table in front of the couch—Trance recognized the book immediately by its black leather binding and red lettering.

Dev reached down and flipped the book open to a man named Arthur Scott.

“I remember seeing him at the gym, and at meetings. He was an excedo, right?” Trance said. His memory was slightly fuzzy on that—the man died the same year—and month—that Trance had been forcibly dragged into ACRO.

“Trance, this man, this agent—he was your father.”

Trance stared at the picture as Dev's words swirled in his head. If he wasn't already sitting, he would've had to, as his world tipped violently upside down. “My father was a fucking ACRO agent…”

“Yes. He had the same superstrength you have. But your hypnosis effect, that's a mutation.”

“Fuck talking to me about genetic mutations, Devlin. I was here when my father was here—why wasn't I told about this?”

“He didn't want you to know.”

“Yeah, well, he'd never wanted anything to do with me before that, so it's not a surprise.” Trance slammed the book closed.

“He was young when he got your mom pregnant,” Dev said. “They were both only sixteen. And your mom didn't know your dad was an excedo—he was young and scared, the same way you were.”

Trance spoke through clenched teeth. “Then he should've been there for me. If not at first, then once ACRO took him in. I would never do that to a son of mine.”

“He figured you were better off without him.”

“That's bullshit, and you know it.”

“I do know it, Trance. But I couldn't force him to find you—he didn't know where your mom had taken you, if you were even alive. Until you walked through these doors and he saw you—”

“And why didn't he tell me then? I was brought here weeks before he died.”

“He didn't know how to tell you. He made me promise not to say anything until he was ready.” Dev paused. “He spoke to me before he left for his final mission. It was routine; he was supposed to be back within thirty-six hours. He was going to tell you then. And when he died, I didn't see the point of hurting you with what might have been.”

“That wasn't your decision to make, Devlin.”

“I know that now.”

Trance bowed his head, because he didn't know what else to say. All he wanted to do was leave this office and go find Rik and lose himself in her arms. “So why are you telling me this now? You've kept it from me for years. Is he alive or something?”

“No, he died the day it says on that page. We were just never sure who was responsible.”

“And now you are,” Trance said, and Dev nodded. “And you want me to find that person? Because hell, I wouldn't mind the chance.”

“That person is already here, at ACRO.”

“Devlin, I don't understand—what the hell are you trying to tell me?” Dev was typically straightforward with his mission details, laying it out immediately so his agents had no doubt what their plan of attack needed to be.

This time, though, Dev looked like he wanted to be anywhere but here. “It's Rik.”

Trance's world took another hit and he had to check to make sure he wasn't on his knees, because his entire body was numb. He heard himself ask, “Does she know?”

“She knows she killed an agent named Arthur Scott—she doesn't know he was your father.”

Trance didn't know anything anymore, except the fact that his world had once again changed, irrevocably so, and not for the better.

R
IK DIDN'T THINK
she'd been so happy in her entire life. Trance had stopped by her room last night right before curfew, and he'd lingered long enough for one of the training center monitors to finally nudge him along.

This morning, Neema brought her breakfast, but she hadn't eaten more than a few bites of the rare steak and eggs when Kira arrived, looking exhausted, as though she'd been dragged forcibly out of bed.

Rik frowned. “What's wrong? You said you were on vacation and would only be here if absolutely necessary.”

“I know.” Kira sighed. “Dev thinks it's necessary.” Kira pegged her with a look of concern. “We need to talk.”

A feeling of foreboding tugged at Rik's gut. “Can we go outside? I was just getting ready to take a walk before Neema drags me to the gym.”

Kira nodded, and they walked out into the cool morning. She didn't say anything until they came to the little park that sat in the middle of the compound, where a pond full of ducks watched Kira warily.

“It's funny how animals flock to me, but they run from you,” Kira said.

“The lion and the…” Rik cocked her head and studied Kira, because the woman was not a lamb. But neither was she a predator. Still, Rik had a feeling Kira could scrap with the best of them if she had to.

Kira shrugged and sat on one of the benches that lined the sidewalk circling the park. Rik sank down next to her.

“What's going on, Kira?”

“How in control of the wolf are you at this point?”

“Well, right now, she's pretty calm. Still wary and not willing to trust most, but she's learned to accept you and Neema. And Trance.” For some reason, Kira winced. “Okay, I'm starting to freak out a little here.”

“Dev wanted me to prepare you. Mainly because he doesn't know how Trance is going to react.”

Rik's stomach plummeted. “React to what?”

“The news about his father.”

Rik blinked. “Father? He said he never knew him. Has he been found?”

“He worked here at ACRO, but Trance never knew.”

“Well, where is he? Where's Trance? What's going on?” Worry had her completely on edge, because the idea that Trance was upset was eating at her. She wanted to go to him, but she didn't know where he was or what she could do.

“I don't know where Trance is. But his father is dead.” Kira took a deep breath and locked gazes with Rik. “You killed him.”

Rik rocked backward so violently she nearly fell off the bench. “No.” She stood. “That's not… I couldn't…
no.”

“You identified him to Dev yesterday,” Kira said softly.

Yesterday came back at Rik like a bulldozer through the brain. The ACRO agent in Ecuador. The one she'd stabbed. The only one she remembered with such clarity that she could still hear the wet punch of metal through flesh.

“Oh, God.” She wanted to throw up. “Trance. Does he know? Does he—”

“Yes.” Kira took Rik's hand. “Dev is telling him this morning. That's why I'm here. We didn't know how he was going to react.”

Rik jerked away from Kira, because she didn't know how
she
was going to react. What if Trance hated her now? Running her hands through her hair over and over, she paced. Kira was talking but Rik had no idea what she was saying.

Suddenly, the hair on the back of her neck stood up, and goose-flesh erupted all over her body. Awareness shivered across her skin. Slowly, she turned.

And locked gazes with Trance.

He stood about fifty yards away, near Dev's office building. For a second, she remained frozen in place. Then she took off at a dead run toward him. Kira called after her, but she didn't listen. She threw herself into Trance's arms. He caught her, but after a brief, stiff hug, he grasped her upper arms and gently put her aside.

In his eyes, she saw pain, confusion and something else she couldn't identify. Disgust? Disappointment?

“Trance—”

“Don't.” He held up his hands and took a step back. “I can't do this right now. I can't even look at you.”

Her eyes stung. She couldn't blame him, but she had to explain. Had to get him to understand… which would be quite the feat when she didn't understand herself.

“I told you what happened. You said it wasn't my fault and that I did what I had to do to survive.” A tear rolled down her cheek, and she dashed it away. “You said—”

“I said a lot of things, Rik.” He looked up at the sky and shook his head. “But it's different when you're talking about someone else.”

“Isn't that a little hypocritical?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It is.” He started to walk away, but she grabbed him.

“Wait. You said you'd be there to catch me. We'd work through this together!”

He peeled her fingers from his wrist, still not looking at her. “You should be used to my lies by now, Rik.”

Stunned, she stumbled backward as he strode away. Inside, the wolf howled for him to come back.

He didn't.

A
T THE SOUND
of Rik's mournful howls, Trance wanted to drop to his knees and cover his ears. He wanted to scream until his throat went raw in order to drown out the sounds and the images in his head, of Rik's wolf killing the man he'd never known as father. And he wanted to hurt the wolf for taking away his only chance of finally putting some goddamned closure on the situation.

“Trance, wait!”

It was Kira, and still, he didn't turn around—couldn't, for fear of seeing Rik's face and losing it.

“Trance, please.” Kira was walking next to him, attempting to keep up with his strides.

“Not now, Kira. I walked away from her before I said something I might regret later. Please, just let me go.”

But Kira got in front of him, so fast he almost tripped. “You can't do this to her.”

“You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do.”

“What if Tommy had judged me to be some kind of whore because of all the men I'd slept with during my seasons, before I met him. Would you have thought that was fair?”

“This is different and you damned well know it,” he told her through clenched teeth.

“Give her a chance… She had no control over herself. Just like me.” Tears stained Kira's cheeks, and fuck it all, Ender would kill him if he even thought Trance had upset his wife.

“This isn't about sex, Kira. I can handle anything that has to do with sex—I would've fucking preferred that. But this… this is about my family.”

“You didn't even know him. He left you. Has Rik done that? No. Not when she thought you were some poor little excedo who needed help. She took you in even though doing so put her in more danger. What did your father do for you?”

He paused, sucked air as the empty feeling in his chest got bigger. “Don't you know better than to push a man when he's like this, Kira? I'm not Ender—I don't have to love you and forgive you and I fucking damn well don't have to listen to you.”

Yeah, there was a fight with Ender in his future, but he didn't give a shit. He moved around Kira and took off at a dead run for the woods that would lead him to his house.

He could still hear Rik's howls, long after he went inside and shut the door.

R
IK HAD SUNK
to her knees on the grass and closed her eyes, unable to watch Trance walk away. Kira had gone after him, but Rik had no idea why, and worse, she knew nothing Kira said would make a difference. She'd seen the resolve in his eyes, knew he wasn't going to give in to any kind of pressure to make him stay anywhere he didn't want to be.

Or stay with anyone he didn't want to be with.

No, Trance's incredible strength was as mental as it was physical.

“Rik?” Kira kneeled next to her, but Ulrika sensed another presence. Male. An anxious, tense male.

She opened her eyes and looked past Kira to Ender, who hovered a few yards away. Menace radiated from him, obvious in his tightly coiled body and tense stance. He was ready to rip into her if she so much as twitched.

The beast wanted to twitch.

Stay calm… stay calm…

Kira's soothing voice treaded around the outskirts of Rik's consciousness, but the words were jumbled, indiscernible through the wolf's howls and growls. It mourned Trance, but was angry at the same time, and it wanted a piece of the man throwing off danger like a neon sign.

“Get away from her, Kira.” Ender's rumbling voice rolled through Rik in a seismic wave, shaking the beast and making it want out more than ever.

“Hush.” Kira framed Rik's face in her hands and forced her to look at her. “Hey, keep it together. You can do it.”

Her skin stretched painfully tight, as if her muscles wanted to erupt right through it. “Can't…”

“You can. You're strong.” Her fingers feathered over Rik's cheek—and inside, the wolf calmed a little. “You need to do this.”

Rik became aware of another presence. Neema. “Kira, let her handle this herself.”

Panic wrapped around Rik's chest. Kira was the only thing keeping her together. If she backed off…

Kira did exactly that. But not before she leaned in and said softly into her ear, “You can do this.”