Forbidden Fire (Forbidden #2) (16 page)

There had to be a way to fight him.

She willed him to lie, to get on his walkie-talkie and say he needed backup. Anything to distract him.

Nothing happened.

Just more punches, more slaps, more kicks.

She fell to the floor.

She pushed again.

Mr. Black didn't stop.

She tried to sit up, but couldn't. She wrapped her arms around her head and let him beat her.

"Get up. Get up and fight me, you bitch."

He kicked her ribs, and sharp bites of pain spread through her. She screamed out, but still couldn't move.

She spat on his shoe—the only way she could fight back. "Kill me if you think that'll make you a real man." She coughed.
So hard to get air.
"Such a hero, beating up kids. Your family must be proud."

He leaned over and spat in her face. Rather than enrage him further, her taunts seemed to calm him.

"I'm not going to kill you, bitch. It wouldn't make a difference. You're not going to be here long anyways."

He smiled like the oily bastard he was, and left Lucy lying on the ground, broken and bloody.

No one helped her. No one cared.

Time held no meaning. She slipped in and out of consciousness. Darkness had fallen by the time she finally managed to stand and walk—Mr. Black had taken her to the interrogation room early in the day.

Lucy wished real life came with a soundtrack as she stumbled to her dorm. For this scene, she would've played something by Clint Mansell, one of his beautiful instrumental compositions suited a miserable walk home.

Imaginary music filled the air around her. She tried to hum with it, but couldn't spare the extra breath.

She entered her suite and collapsed onto the couch.

***

"Luce? Lucy? Oh my God, what happened to you? Who did this?"

Luke stood over her, but he was blurry. No, wait, her eyes didn't work. Why wouldn't they open all the way?

"Lucy, don't move. You're hurt, bad. Just... stay still. I'm going to get the nurse."

Darkness came again.
Fists—so many fists—slamming into me again and again.
Her dream cry turned real when hands pressed into her bruises, jolting her awake.

A calm voice soothed her. "Shh. It's okay. I'm giving you something to help. It's experimental, but it should have you right as rain in no time."

Images flickered in and out of her mind until cohesive thought returned to her. When she opened her eyes again, and fully, she saw Luke asleep on the floor next to the couch.

"Luke, wake up."

He sat up and hugged her as he might hug a butterfly. "You look a lot better. That drug could make them a fortune in the professional boxing circuit."

Lucy laughed, and it didn't hurt as much as she had expected.
Like being kicked in the ribs rather than stabbed with a knife—now that's improvement!

Luke brushed a stray hair out of her eyes. "Who did this to you?"

"Mr. Black. It was payback for botching the operation."

Luke balled his fists and hopped up. "I'm going to kill him, right now. I'm going to smash his face is until it isn't a face anymore."

"Bro, believe me, no one wants to bash his skull in more than me, but we can't. It'd be a suicide mission, and then we'd lose all chance of helping our friends." She reached for his hand and pulled him to sit next to her. "It's time for another meeting. Do you think you can do that shield thing again? You know, the way you blocked the bullets with your new power? Because I have an idea."

***

Lucy wore her black eye and not-quite-healed bruises in front of the group like badges of honor.

When the room quieted, she began. "It's time. We can no longer stay within the walls of this school and survive. Look what they did to me." She gestured to her bruises. "When have we ever been beaten for the way we completed a mission? And look at our school? We've become prisoners. We have to act fast and hard, take them by surprise before they have a chance to prepare for us.

"Luke, can you come up here?"

Luke met her at the front.

"There's more to our powers than we realize. You all know my brother, Luke, and his para-power of walking through walls, right? Well, I'd like you to see something." She turned to Gary, already prepped for this demonstration, and nodded her head.

Gary flicked a penny at Luke, and Luke raised his hands. The penny stopped in midair, held there by some unseen force.

The students gasped, and whispers rippled throughout the room.

"As you know, he's never been able to do that before. I think it's connected to his original power, but its inverse—a shadow power. Luke can separate the molecular structure of something in order to pass through it. Now, he can enforce that same structure outside himself, creating barriers and fields. We discovered this while on our assignment. In addition to detecting lies, I can now coerce someone to lie. I have a theory that each of us has a shadow power to complement our normal para-power. We just have to tap into it and practice it. Then, we will be twice as strong."

Everyone in the room smiled openly. For the first time in a long time, hope filled them. The shift in energy was palpable. Her mind flashed to Adam. They owed him so much and they would never know it.

"We need a bigger meeting place, somewhere secret where we can train and improve our powers."

A girl stepped forward. "I could start looking. I know this school well. Someone once showed the blueprints of the entire campus, and I have a photographic memory."

Lucy frowned. "What's your name?"

"Linda."

Gary nudged Lucy and whispered to her. "She's been a close friend of mine for a long time. We can trust her."

Lucy nodded but still had to check. "Linda, can you come up here for a second?"

Everyone watched as Linda approached. She was a slight thing with eyes too big for her head. Lucy softened her tone. "You're new. Everyone has to pass a lie detector, just to be safe. It's not personal."

Some of the tension eased out of her. "Oh, right. Gary told me about that. Sure."

After a few questions, some standard, others new, Lucy trusted that Linda wouldn't betray them.

"Great. Everyone, consider what your shadow powers might be, but don't get caught practicing them. We aren't safe here anymore. We'll reconvene when Linda has found us a spot."

***

Lucy eyed her computer with evil intent, but resisted the impulse to throw it through the window. After all, it wasn't her computer's fault she couldn't crack the damn code on the damn disk she'd copied from her damn assignment.

The scientist had said something about viruses. Were they creating some kind of biological warfare to wipe out humans? A virus to infect people with para-powers? A virus to control those with para-powers? The possibilities were endless, which was why she needed to crack the code.

She stretched her back and stared out her window at the moon. The campus looked so peaceful at night; it reminded her of life before the men in black turned it into a prison.

The sphere in her pocket pulsed with energy of its own. Lucy took it out and examined it again, tossing it back and forth in her hands. There didn't appear to be a way to open it or use it—no buttons or triggers. Still, some power surged through it, and Lucy could feel the same power rushing through her own body.

The sphere mesmerized her and drew her in. It unlocked her mind's secrets—

"Lucy!"

The sphere slipped from her hand, and she glared at the interruption. Gary stood at her door with Greg beside him. "Sorry to bug you, but we found a place to train. It's perfect."

Anger filled Lucy with a ferocity she'd never felt before. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

The boy's head dropped. "We... did. You didn't answer, and I thought you'd want to know, because of the timing and everything."

The web of emotion weighing her down vanished. She shook her head to clear it. "No, of course. I'm sorry, I'm still recovering from my injuries and I get a bit grumpy. You did the right thing. Let's get Luke and head over."

Lucy leaned over while the boys turned to leave, and grabbed the sphere. She shoved it back into her pocket and followed them out.

***

The walk through campus at night was a risk, but Greg kept the surveillance off of them. It was too late to call a meeting, but they could at least set the place up.

Linda and a few other Freedom Fighters met them at the Hub and took them to an abandoned building that, before the soldiers had moved in, was going to be refurbished as a new gym.

A guard with a flashlight approached, and they all ran into the main doorway. Larry, a guy who could generate light, used his shadow power to shut down the guard's flashlight.

The guard slapped the useless metal against his palm, then swore and headed back in the direction he'd come.

Linda led them through the gym area and into a corridor none of them had ever noticed before. "There's a secret passage here, a door that leads to a basement. It's perfect for us. No one ever goes down there."

The basement gave them plenty of room to practice, and even had smaller rooms off to the side for the more dangerous para-powers.

Lucy brushed some dust off a chair, but didn't sit. "This is perfect, Linda. You did an awesome job."

They spent the next hour moving boxes and throwing away random bits of wood and trash. Then they set up some basic practice areas before they headed back to their dorms.

Luke grabbed her shoulder as they crossed the quad. "What's up, Sis? You've been distracted all night."

"I'm just thinking. What did Mr. Black mean when he said we wouldn't be here long? There are obviously bigger plans at work, and I want to know what they are. I wish the meeting you recorded in Russia had given us more information. It's all so confusing."

"Yeah, I've listened to it a thousand times, and I still don't know what it means—only that Rent-A-Kid isn't the only organization at play here. They talked about the I.P.I. as if it was the enemy, which means it might be an ally for us, but who knows? We don't even know what I.P.I. stands for, much less whether they really can stand up to whoever's in charge here."

A guard approached them and shone his flashlight in their faces, destroying their night vision. "Curfew is in ten minutes. What are you two still doing out?"

Lucy pursed her lips. "If it's in ten minutes, then we're not breaking any rules, and therefore it's none of your business."

Luke elbowed her in the ribs. "What my sister means to say is we're just out for some fresh air and a jog. We're heading back to our dorm now and will be there before lockdown."

The guard grunted like some wild pig. "Hurry up, then."

They jogged back to their dorm, and Luke pulled on Lucy's ponytail. "You trying to get us busted."

"No, I'm sorry. It's just so irritating, these stupid wannabe soldiers thinking they can boss us around. I hate them."

"I know. We'll figure a way out of here. Somehow."

***

Ms. Fenkle's computer class used to keep Lucy's attention—she was, after all, the most advanced student. But, like everything and everyone, Ms. Fenkle was affected by the school's change of leadership. Her normal lessons were replaced by rote assignments a chimp with a typewriter could do.

Lucy had the distinct impression this new regime didn't actually want them to learn anything useful. Even more troubling was that she had no idea what they wanted the students for, or why they kept up the charade of an education.

She missed the days when school was fun, when she and Sam would pass notes in class and talk about boys and compare powers, when life made sense and they didn't have to worry about death and pregnancy and being beat up.

When the bell rang, Lucy hustled back to her dorm. The loudspeaker voice had strictly forbidden fraternizing in the hallways—or anywhere else for that matter.

That didn't stop Mary from flirting with Darren.

When Lucy walked past them, Mary pushed her aside. "Watch it, freak!"

In the past, Lucy would have had a witty retort to throw her way, but it didn't matter anymore. Mary, with her stupid games and her stupid flirtations... Lucy didn't have time for it. She had bigger worries.

To Lucy's surprise, Gary came out of his physics class and approached Mary. "Have you given any thought to our new club?"

Mary flipped her hair back and turned on enough charm—AKA para-power—to make most boys sweat. But Gary had a boyfriend, so Mary didn't get far with him, much to her obvious chagrin.

"Do you really think I want anything to do with you and your stupid little group? I am way too cool for all that and wouldn't be caught dead with you!"

Gary ignored her attitude and turned his attention to Darren, who focused on levitating a rock by his foot. "Darren, what about you?"

"I've got to agree with Mary on this one, but not for the same reasons. I just think you're fighting the wrong people. Rent-A-Kid keeps us safe. I know it's gotten a lot worse around here, but it's to protect us. Who knows what the rest of the world would do if we were discovered?"