The Mind Games (2 page)

But, for thirty minutes on that trip to Savannah, she’d been gone, disappearing inside some building. She’d returned and we’d left. She’d never explained why or what she’d done. But then again, she explained little to me.

The bright spot had been when we’d stopped for lunch at a restaurant that used to be a pub for pirates. I’d been thrilled as we rarely went anywhere cool. I could still remember the story of the tunnels uncovered underneath that restaurant. Tunnels pirates had supposedly used to kidnap victims and escape the law.

But this tunnel was long, narrow…different.

“You use the tunnels?” I asked.

He nodded as we turned a corner, heading down yet another dimly lit corridor, this one with wooden doors spaced every so often. “We took use of them decades ago. No one but us knows about the corridors.”

I couldn’t help but wonder what was behind all those doors. More people like me? Kidnapped, used? I wrapped my arms around my waist, shivering. “What do you use them for?”

“We house those like us. Those who are in trouble or in pain. And we use some of the rooms for meetings and research.”

Those like us. Mind readers. Up until a year ago I’d thought Grandma and I were the only people on the planet who could read minds. It was still difficult for me to process the fact that there were actually thousands.

“The singing?” I rubbed my forehead, my skull beginning to throb from too much information, and too many unanswered questions. I only wanted to find Lewis and leave. He’d been right all along. We should have fled, we should have trusted only each other.

“Ah, yes, you were underneath the floor of a church. The church where I practice.”

Nothing made sense. Underground Savannah? Mystery rooms? Mind reading priests? “I want to see Lewis.”

“You will.”

“When?”

“Soon, hopefully.”

I released a puff of air, frustrated with his lack of information. “Where are we now?”

He looked thoughtful for a moment as he glanced up at the ceiling as if reading a map on the carved blocks of stone. “I’d say we’re under Johnson Square.”

The words meant nothing to me, but I made a mental note to check a map as soon as possible. It was hard to believe that just above us there were cars driving, people walking, clueless as to what hid below. Hard to believe that somehow I’d traveled to Savannah without waking. I reached toward my right side where the muscle ached, a reminder of the tranquilizer Nora had shot into me.

“Why not just tell me the truth? Why send Nora to lie to me?”

We paused outside a wooden door. “Because we feared if we told you the truth you wouldn’t come.”

Warning bells rang through my body, clamoring an alarm in my head. I knew, if they’d kept the truth from me, it must be something major. “What truth?” I demanded.

He pushed the door wide. Inside, the room was much like mine, only larger. Stone walls, dimly lit, no décor. In the middle of the room was a large wooden table that seated twelve. Only one chair was occupied. Nora stood as I entered. My hands fisted, heated anger rushing through my blood fueled by pure hatred.

She looked nervous, unsure. That smirk she’d always worn was gone, replaced with obvious discomfort. Her bravado had disappeared. “Hey.”

My God, she was afraid… of me. The realization made me feel better, but not much. I still wanted to hurt her. It was all I could do not to lunge forward and show her exactly how I felt about her little tranquilizer stunt in Massachusetts. “Where’s Lewis?”

“He’s okay. Don’t worry.” She shoved her hands into her jean pockets. “You’re safe now, that’s all that matters.”

How dare she act like she cared about me. “No.” I started toward her. She actually took a step back. “What matters is you tell me what the hell is going on. What matters is that you tell me where Lewis is. What matters is—”

“I know.” She held up her hands, warning me off. “I understand why you’re angry. And you can say whatever you want, but first I need you to meet someone.”

I paused, too damn curious for my own good. “Who?”

She took in a deep trembling breath. “Cameron,” Nora turned toward the far wall. “My mom.”

Confused, I spun around.

A woman stood there, arms crossed, relaxed, as if watching a play. She was too far away and the room too dimly lit for me to get a good look at her. How long she’d stood there, I hadn’t a clue. Most likely she’d heard our argument, but I didn’t care.

The woman stepped away from the shadows and into the light, her movements fluid and easy, like a graceful dancer. A tingle of awareness whispered over my body. A warning that told me there was something important I’d missed. Even before I saw her completely…
I knew
.

My heart warred with my rational mind.

Her dark hair glimmered in loose familiar waves that ran down her back. Her blue eyes found me and she smiled, a slow, easy smile. A smile so familiar my heart squeezed painfully as it denied what my brain knew to be true.

“Hello, Cameron,” she said softly, the voice achingly familiar.

“Mom?” I whispered.

My mother was still alive.

The realization shook me to my very core, but none of these things affected me in the way they should have. Maybe I was finally going insane. Maybe I was so used to being shocked, that nothing surprised me anymore. Or maybe I just didn’t care.

I jerked my gaze toward Nora. “Where’s Lewis?”

I didn’t miss the nervous glance Father Myron shot my mom. I knew what they were thinking. Maybe I hadn’t heard them. Maybe I was so stupid I didn’t understand. Or maybe I was too surprised to piece the facts together. But I knew the facts…

I had a father. John.

I had a mother. Katherine.

I had a sister. Nora.

I knew. I just didn’t care.

“He…” Nora paused and glanced toward our mother, who remained oddly still. It was obvious she was seeking permission from Mommie Dearest. I swore, if they didn’t tell me soon where Lewis was, I’d start hurting people.

“Katherine,” Father Myron said, almost pleading with my mother. “Tell her.”

My mom gave a curt nod and Nora focused on me once more. “I had to leave him.”

Okay, so apparently I could still feel some surprise. But the shock quickly gave way to boiling anger.
“What?”

Nora sighed, pacing across the large room, her feet echoing annoyingly against the stone floor. “I had to leave him Cameron. I could only take you. They were coming, and hell, I was dragging you across the field—”

“
Where
is he?” I didn’t give a crap about her excuses. I didn’t give a crap that my mother still lived despite the fact that I’d been told she’d died years ago. I didn’t care that Nora was my sister, a sister I didn’t even remember. I wanted answers and I wanted them now.

“They have him.”

“They
who
?” I demanded.

“John and his people,” Mom broke in.

The woman who had abandoned me.The woman who supposedly had a drug problem. Supposedly overdosed. Supposedly dead. I felt angry and sick and devastated all at once. The one thing, the only thing I wanted to do was get the hell away from them. “Where are my clothes?”

“There’s a chest full of clothes in your room.”

She was so calm about it all that I wanted to hurl something, anything, at them. Instead, I turned and swept out the door. I concentrated on my footsteps, concentrated on remembering the way down that dimly lit corridor and back to my room. If I allowed myself to think about anything else, I knew I might just have a break down. And I couldn’t let that happen, at least not yet. I turned the corner. Easy enough, but which door was mine?

“Cameron,” Nora called out. I could hear the thump of her feet as she followed me. “Please understand that I had to choose. I knew you wouldn’t come with me, I knew you wouldn’t believe the truth. I mean, who would? So I didn’t tell you. You’d abandoned me and ran off with Lewis.”

She said it as if I should feel ashamed. As if all of this was my fault. And I suppose it was… for trusting the wrong people, for trusting
anyone.
I kept walking, ignoring her, studying the doors I passed. She was nothing to me, an annoying gnat.

“I could only take you. I couldn’t take you both, and I knew Lewis wouldn’t trust me. I knew you would pick him over me.”

I swirled around to face her, overcome with the emotion boiling within. “And so you left him there to bleed to death?” I seethed between clenched teeth, cursing myself for speaking at all. “He could be dead!”

She shook her head. “No. We have people inside S.P.I. who secretly work for us. He’s okay. S.P.I. won’t hurt him, they’ll eventually want to use his powers.”

“That makes me feel so much better,” I snapped.

She sighed, obviously frustrated with my lack of acceptance. “Don’t you remember me, at all?”

“No.” I spun around and pushed open the closest door. An empty room. I pulled the door shut and I tried the next. It was full of boxes.

“I remember you,” she said. “I remember letting you play with my dolls, I remember swimming at the beach…”

An shimmer of awareness whispered through my brain. A memory? I pushed the thought aside. “How sweet. Now where the hell’s my room?”

She shouldered her way past me and pushed open the next door, all softness gone from her face. “I had to choose you. You’re my sister.”

I pushed by her and swept into my room. Was she joking? Was she seriously going to try to play the family card now? She’d known about me for God only knew how long and she’d never cared before.

I turned around to face her, the threshold dividing us. “Remember this, you are nothing to me.
Nothing
.” With those words I slammed the door shut in her face.

I didn’t need to ask, I knew Lewis would be at the compound, and within a couple days, I would be too. I moved around the bed and there, hidden behind the footboard was indeed a trunk. I lifted the lid, the hinges squeaking in protest. A variety of clothing was stacked neatly inside. More clothing than I’d worn. Clothing that didn’t belong to me. I had nothing left, not even my own jeans. Had they taken those from me too?

But it didn’t matter. No, the only thing that mattered was finding Lewis. And I would. No matter who I had to go through. There was a soft knock on my door right before it opened. My mom stepped inside. Seeing her jolted me and for a moment I was five years old again.

“Momma, where are we going?”

She glanced at me briefly as we drove out of town, but it was long enough for me to notice the tears in her eyes. “Don’t worry about it baby, okay?”

Startled, I froze for a moment. It was a memory I’d never had before. Was it real, or something she’d implanted? It didn’t matter, I had to remind myself. Ignoring her, I pulled my shirt over my head and tossed it to the cot.

“We need to talk,” she said softly, closing the door behind her.

I grabbed a blue long-sleeved T-shirt and pulled it on all the while formulating a plan. I’d talk to my dad. Yeah, he was most likely pissed at me for leaving him without a goodbye, but surely he’d at least listen to reason. If not, I’d go to Tara, his wife. I’d threaten to expose the fact that she too, was a mind reader. Something my father didn’t know.

I pulled off my sweatpants and grabbed a pair of jeans.

“I need to explain,” Mom continued. As if there was any explanation she could give me that would make right the wrongs she’d done. She’d abandoned me. She’d kept Nora and abandoned me with a grandmother who obviously hadn’t wanted me.

“I don’t think you understand,” I said, finally looking at her. “Whatever your reasoning is, I don’t care.
I. Don’t. Care
.”

I tore my gaze away and sat on my cot. Looking her in the eyes had been much more emotionally draining than I’d expected. I put on the gray and blue Adidas that had been left by the trunk.

“I don’t know what they’ve told you,” she said, crossing her arms over the leather jacket she wore. She was just as thin as I remembered her, but more muscular, maybe. Her hair was still long and I remembered wrapping my small hands around the silky strands when I was tired.

But it was the age on her face that got to me the most. Don’t get me wrong, she still looked wonderful. There was no gray in her hair, and she obviously kept in shape. But there were the slightest creases at the corners of her eyes. She’d aged. I’d grown up. I’d missed out on having a mother when I’d needed her the most. No going back. I dropped my gaze to the ground.

“They said you were a drug addict,” I said, tying my shoes.

“I was.”

I looked up, surprised. Okay, so I hadn’t been expecting that. She was totally serious.

Slowly, I stood, waiting for her to explain.

She shrugged, showing no shame. “I was young. I had two little girls. I’d just found out my husband was working for the enemy. I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take the pain. I couldn’t control my powers. I couldn’t take the thoughts. The horrible, terrible thoughts coming from everywhere…I couldn’t silence them.”

There was a part of me that related in some way. I pushed that part down, squashed it under my feet. “And so you gave me to Grandma.”

“There were reasons.”

I released a wry laugh. “There are always reasons with you people.” I grabbed a sweatshirt from the trunk and punched my arms through the sleeves. “What about Nora?”

“She stayed with me.”

Just as I’d assumed, but hearing the words tore at my heart. So Nora had grown up with one parent, at least. Swell and dandy for her.

I zipped my sweatshirt. “I don’t remember her.”

I knew how Lewis had felt when I’d arrived with stories about him he didn’t remember or believe.
Lewis.
I ignored the sudden sting of tears.

“You were so young,” her voice softened, as if trying to draw me in with kindness and understanding. “I’m not surprised.”

I ignored her and started toward the door. My entire body was trembling, my bones shivering underneath my muscles. I had to get away from her, from them, from the entire situation.

“Cameron, I was coming for you when you and your Grandma disappeared to the islands.”