The Embers Of My Heart (37 page)

"No way," Drew said. "Dude, really? That explains a lot. Damn."

"If we want to get technical," Max said. "I guess I might qualify too."

Jess sat back down. "You too? This is crazy. What's your specialty, Maxie?"

"I don't have one. I'm latent, I guess," he said. "That's the term, right? According to Kev, I can't consciously do shit with the power, but I might use it by accident, and I could learn to use it. I think."

"I'm surrounded by freaks. Freaks on every side of me."

"You are, but that's all the psions around you, as far as I know," I said. "Unless someone else wants to confess?"

She groaned. Andreas shot me a look and cleared his throat. "This is an abnormal concentration of psionically gifted individuals. This is not a coincidence, is it?"

"No, it isn't."

"Can we make the assumption that this university is affiliated with your organization?"

"Ripley's the main training center for my group, yeah. The headquarters, as far as I know."

"And those of us who are not psions are here as cover, so to speak?" He pressed his fingers together. "I am unsure how to feel about this."

"It's still a great school," Drew pointed out.

"Way to dodge the question," Kait snapped. "So you wanted someone stronger?"

"I didn't dodge it, we just went off on a tangent." I focused back on her original question. "About Nikki, no, I don't think she's weaker than Star, but they have very different skill sets. Honestly, that never even crossed my mind at any point. It doesn't have any bearing on what happened."

"So what did cross your mind? Other than just getting your dick wet."

I shrugged. "Nikki's erratic. Emotionally and mentally." I wasn't going to talk about the injury I caused her. No matter how open I was being now, some secrets would go to the grave with me. "She was a nice girl when she was on, when she wanted to be. Then she started changing. She was needy and clingy one day, furious with me the next. She was hiding a lot of baggage and I think that's why she started getting hostile to the rest of you. She even accused you and me of doing things behind her back, Kait."

"You haven't got a clue."

"So explain it to me, then. What am I missing?"

"Not enough time in the world."

Drew cleared his throat. "Chill, people. This has been a lot of fun and I'm glad we've all gotten to know each other a little better, but how about we take a break?"

I shook my head. "Not yet. I haven't gotten to the bad part."

"Oh, there's a bad part?" Max yawned. "This should be entertaining."

"It isn't entertaining." I looked down and folded my hands. "It's about Lisa."

The temperature of the room seemed to drop. Drew spoke into the silence. "Dude, you don't have to do this."

"It's not what you think," I said. "No, I couldn't save her. I didn't see the other car coming. I didn't have any warning. If it had hit the van, I'd be as helpless as the rest of you. I'm not invincible. You'd be surprised how many times I've had the shit beaten out of me. Some people can use their powers to heal severe, life-threatening injuries. I can heal a paper cut or two on a good day. I tried."

"No one's blaming you. We've been over this," Max said.

"I blame me," I said, lifting a hand before he could protest. "That's because she was murdered by a man who wants to hurt me." No one said a word. No one even breathed. "I was trained by a man called Shade. He's cruel and vicious. He trained me by hurting me when I didn't do what he wanted. We didn't get along. After Washington, he didn't trust me. Remember last year when Nikki walked out on us? I went after her and we fought. I took a walk afterwards to cool off. Star found me. She came up here specifically to find me.

"We talked and she used her powers. It got attention. My organization sent some agents to attack her. I helped her. I didn't think about it, I just did it. Shade showed up. We fought. He told me he'd take control of me, make me a puppet and make me kill my own friends and family. He'd make me kill Star. He'd leave just enough of me awake so I could watch everything he made me do. So, we fought. I fought to force him to kill me. If he killed me, he wouldn't have a reason to go after anyone else."

"Fuck," Max murmured.

"I broke a lot of rules that night," I said. "I used power I didn't know I had. I forced him into a coma. I thought he was going to be in that coma forever. I stopped short of killing him. I could have. I should have. I should have!"

"You couldn't have known!" Jess snapped. I looked up and she was leaning forward, fists clenched on the table. "Don't second guess yourself. You'll eat yourself alive."

"He woke up from his coma that morning," I continued. "Maybe even earlier. I didn't get enough warning. I didn't get any warning! He made sure to hide his presence from me. He took control of the other driver and forced him to run that light. That poor guy lived just long enough to give me a message." I looked down again. "Suffer."

"You couldn't have known," Jess repeated, but her voice was dull.

"He was there, at the crash." I looked around the table and made eye contact with Drew. "Drew might remember. I don't know if anyone tweaked your memory of that moment."

He shook his head. "It's fuzzy."

"Let me try this." I used my power to make a quick check. Sure enough, there was a sloppy blur in the links of his memories. Someone had been in a hurry. I unwound the tweak and he shook his head.

"I get it now. Shit. Fuck." Drew's face reddened.

"Yeah. Drew charged him and got tossed around. That's how he actually broke his ribs." I looked around the table. "Shade forced my hand. If I tried to help Lisa, he'd attack me. Or he'd go for one of you. If I fought him, that was time and energy wasted that could have been used to help her." I looked down at the table. "I couldn't let anyone else get hurt. I fought him."

"You let her die," Kaitlyn snapped.

"I didn't let her die," I snapped back. "I don't have anywhere near the ability to heal injuries like that." I didn't mention my brief excursion into her body.

"You could have tried!"

"And then he could have killed me and the rest of you at his leisure," I said. "He had another puppet ready to hit the van. The bastard made backup plans. I figured that if I could drive him off, it'd let the EMTs get there quicker, or some of the people in my organization who could help. I tried. I tried my best."

My throat tightened up and I took a moment before continuing. "They caught Shade two days ago. He was about to attack someone, one of you, I don't know who. He was going to keep attacking my friends before he came for me, but we caught him. We sentenced him to death. He escaped. He's still out there." I took a deep breath. "He's still out there and still gunning for all of you."

"All of us," Andreas said. "Us, Kevin."

"I want all of you to know," I said. "I want you to understand what happened. It's because of me."

"So what's next?" Max asked. I lifted my head. "You're protecting us, right?"

"As best I can," I said. "My organization is stepping up security too. He won't risk another attack while everyone's on edge. He'll hide out and wait. He's patient."

"So what do you expect us to do?" Kaitlyn brushed herself off and got to her feet. "What can we do? You people can just do whatever you want to us normal people. I don't know why you even bothered to tell us. We're helpless. What a waste of time." She walked across the room to the door, looked over her shoulder at me, and shook her head. "You do whatever you want. I'll be fine."

Drew let out a long, hissing breath after she closed the door. "I hate to say it Kev, but she's got a point. What can we do? You can protect us, but dude, you can't always be there, not for all of us at the same time."

"My group's got people on deck now. They're going to watch over you if I'm not around. The campus is going to be as secure as possible. I demanded that much. They have to protect you if I'm not around." I had gone to Alistair the day before and made my demand. He agreed without complaint or argument, much unlike his fury the night of the accident. Shade's escape and open threat must have changed something.

Jess cleared her throat. "So we're going to have guys in dark suits following us around?"

"You won't ever notice them."

"Wonderful."

"Well, I'm happy with that." Drew stood up and as if that was a signal to end the meeting, we all stood. "Should we tell Kaitlyn? I mean, I assume she's included."

I looked to Andreas. He nodded. "I will speak with her once she has cooled down."

"She's going to be unbearable for the next day or two," Jess said. "Thanks, Kev. You're a pal."

"You're welcome," I said. On a whim, I tapped into my power again, getting everyone's attention. I hit Max with a telepathic message. "Can you and Jess meet me in the garden behind the building?"

He tapped his head and nodded. "What are you doing? Making sure we all remember this shit?"

"Just making sure no one's eavesdropping," I said. To make sure it wasn't a complete lie, I checked the lines around us. No one was listening in as far as I could tell.

We dispersed from Andreas's room and I headed straight to the garden. Max and Jess showed up just as I pushed the rock back into place. "So what the hell is going on?" Max asked. "First off, that voice in my head thing, super creepy. Second, do you have a secret hiding place? For a cell phone? Are you serious?"

"It's a phone that isn't directly connected to me," I said. "At least, it's not completely obvious. Pay in cash, fake name, so on and so forth. I got tired of borrowing phones from strangers."

"That's paranoid. That's almost ridiculously paranoid."

"It's my sister's safety we're talking about here," Jess said. "And Kev, this isn't anywhere near paranoid enough. You're completely fucking obvious out back here. Your people have probably watched you do this every single time. I bet they can listen in, too, right?"

"No one's reported me, so it's good enough."

"Shit. You're going to get us all killed."

"Don't worry about it," Max said. He put an arm around her waist, which she immediately pushed away. "I'll protect you. Kev might too."

"I'm serious. This isn't anywhere near paranoid enough. You should be hiding it off campus, at the very least."

"If we go off campus, we're more vulnerable," I said. "Are you done complaining yet?"

"No, but we can pretend I am if you're going to call my sister. Why'd you want Max here?"

I shrugged. "She asked."

"That's weird."

"I resent that. She obviously has good taste if she wants me around."

"Shut up. Call her, Kev."

I grinned and did just as she asked. "Hey you," she said as soon as she picked up. "What's the story? Did they really catch that guy? You left me on a cliffhanger!"

"They caught him, they sentenced him to death, and he escaped."

"What? How did he pull that off?"

"Teleported."

"Fuck." She went silent for a few seconds. "Will you be upset if I mention this to Todd?"

"Not in the least."

"Good. So, did you bring them?"

"Sure did." They were both glaring at me. "They're pissed I'm talking to you and they're not."

"Just tell them we're having phone sex."

"I'm pretty sure they can tell we aren't. It'd be really obvious from my half of the conversation."

She laughed. "Well, fine. You want to put me on speaker?"

"Sure." I held the phone out and pushed the speaker button. "You're on."

"Hey Jessy."

"Hey yourself." Jess's voice held a strange note. "So, I hear you've been holding out on me?"

"It's a funny story," Star said. "Really funny. I mean, run away from home type funny."

"I'm not laughing."

"Neither am I."

"We're going to have a nice talk about this at some point," Jess said. "You know, one of our sister to sister chats. You remember those, right?"

"Don't threaten me!"

"It's not a threat, it's a promise."

"On a completely different topic," Star said. "Did you bring your stalker?"

Max grumbled something and Jess smirked. "He's listening, yeah."

"Look, Jessy, you don't have to take that. You can get a restraining order if you want. But, is he cute at least? And rich? And successful?"

Jess turned directly toward Max. "He's about a one point three on that scale."

"I'm hurt," Max said. "I'm a perfect three, naturally."

"He doesn't sound cute," Star said. "Kevin, you tell me, is he a creeper, or is he actually ok?"

"He's my roommate," I said. "He did threaten to make me a human sacrifice when we first met, but he's been cool ever since then. No problems."

"I swear I'm never going to live that down."

Star giggled. "Good enough for me, if Kevin vouches for him. All right. Let me get serious here." Her tone changed to all business. "I just picked up a second, well, third cell phone for my personal use. It's a burner phone, like what Kevin does. I want to give you all that phone number."

"Three phones? What sort of business are you into?" Max asked. "Wait, on second thought, I probably don't want to know."

"I can't afford another line," Jess said, throwing a dirty look at Max. "Dad whines enough about paying for the one I have. Maybe we should just get a family plan or something, between the four of us."

"That'd be ridiculously traceable," Star said. "Sorry, Jessy. You could use your normal phone, though. Or just get a burner like the rest of us."

"We'll get burners," Max said. Jess raised an eyebrow. "What? It's not as if I can't afford it. I can buy burners that are nicer than your current phone. Hell, I could buy you a smartphone."

"Wait, he's actually rich?" Star asked.

"Moderately filthy, yeah," Max said. "That's probably most of my score, sadly."

"Jessy! You're living every woman's dream! Good work!"

Jess growled something incoherent and I laughed. "Sounds like we have our phone situation arranged, Star. You have the new number? I'll commit it to memory for when they get their phones."

She read off her new number and I used a flicker of power to make sure I didn't forget it. "This is great. You two don't even really need to be discreet."