Forbidden Fire (Forbidden #2) (22 page)

Before Lucy reached the door, Mr. Black entered alongside a young girl on a stretcher. He held her disfigured hand with such gentleness that Lucy had to follow him to learn more.

After all, know thine enemy is a basic tenant of the art of war, is it not?

Mr. Black spoke to a doctor. "I need her closer to me in these final stages. The other hospital said she might not last more than a few weeks. You have to buy her some time."

"We can make no guarantees. I've never seen anyone recover from such severe degeneration."

"Just keep her alive for as long as you can, okay? She's all I have, and I won't give up my little girl without a fight."

The knowledge that Mr. Black had a daughter startled Lucy. Of course he had parents—did they know what evil they'd spawned—but a wife and child? That required empathy, compassion, and some capacity to love, none of which Mr. Black seemed to possess. Yet this young girl, with her beautiful and disfigured form, argued otherwise.

As if she didn't have enough conflicting thoughts, now she had to factor in a human Mr. Black, one who hadn't been spewed out of hell—a demon in human form.

The doors to the private clinic swung closed, and Mr. Black and his daughter disappeared.

Lucy left the hospital and immediately ran into Luke and Gary.

Luke embraced her in a gentle bear hug that avoided her shoulder and arm, which hung in a sling for protection. At least it was her left arm. "I'm so glad you're okay. How did you escape the Seeker?"

"He let me go. He wasn't that bad, actually."

Both guys looked at her like goldfish with their mouths agape.

"Don't look at me like that. You weren't there. I'm just saying there's a lot we don't know about what's going on."

Gary swatted the air as if to make her words go away. "I don't care about any of that. We have to get out of here. Now's the time to try again. We can get out, no problem, as long as the Seeker isn't around to block our powers. If we move fast, we're free."

"I don't know, guys. I'm still in a lot of pain, and I can't help but think that we're partly to blame for all this. If we didn't keep pushing the boundaries, they wouldn't have to get so strict. Maybe things will get better if we just chill for a while and see what happens. Luke and I won't be going on assignment, or to any breeding facility, and the Seeker has promised to come clean with all their plans soon. We just need to give them a reason to trust us."

Luke frowned. "Did you knock your head when they shot you? Look around, Luce. No way are they going to lighten up. The lockdown has only gotten worse. We rebelled
because
they started all this, not the other way around. How many more kids do you want to see die before we do something?"

The loudspeaker buzzed to life before Lucy could respond. "ATTENTION ALL STUDENTS. THERE IS A MANDATORY ASSEMBLY IN THE HUB CENTER TO MOURN THE LOSS OF A STUDENT. PLEASE ATTEND IMMEDIATELY. NO ONE IS EXCUSED WITHOUT VALID MEDICAL REASONS AND A NOTE FROM THE DOCTOR."

The three of them headed towards the Hub.

Luke offered to carry her backpack, but she declined. "I heard they cremated Kyle and his ashes will be here today. Everyone is really shaken up."

A crowd formed around the center where a small stage had been erected. A few teachers were present, including Mr. Lancaster, who gave Lucy a meaningful look, though she didn't know what meaning it held. Mr. Black stood on the stage, next to a table holding an urn, and directed students and guards. He held his gun as if ready to fire at any moment, and Lucy worried he'd get trigger-happy.

The guards formed tight circles around groups of students, and kept them pinned to location like insects on a collector's board. When a boy fell out of line and tried to join another group, a guard pistol-whipped him and brought him back to formation.

Lucy swallowed a bit of vomit that rose in her throat.

She'd understood the Seeker's intention and ideas, but nothing had changed—and it wouldn't change unless they did something.

Her black eye still throbbed from the beating Mr. Black had given her, and her freshly shot shoulder pulsed with a painful reminder of how students were treated here.

Whatever Mr. Black and the Seeker cared about, it wasn't the students. Rent-A-Kid may have been well-intentioned at one point, but their methods got one kid killed and had seriously injured countless others. There had to be another way, a better way that didn't involve holding them prisoner and treating them like cattle.

Her brother and Gary were right. They couldn't wait for more kids to die. They had to escape now, today, and Lucy knew how.

The sphere in her backpack sent a surge of warmth into her and gave her strength. The pain in her shoulder disappeared, and she discarded her sling.

Before she could be pulled into formation, she slipped through the crowd towards Mr. Black. Once close enough, she grabbed a gun from one of the guards.

And held it to Mr. Black's head.

Drake hadn't regained consciousness yet, and I couldn't stop crying. If I hadn't kicked the gun away... if we had done things his way....

But he would have shot Mary. She may not have been my favorite person in the world, but I didn't want her dead, or zombified.

The Seeker left us in the same dark room, with only the flicker of candle light to see by. One door led to a hallway, but I'd heard him lock it as he'd gone. No windows, no other way out, and no furniture save the chair and loveseat. I'd spent the first thirty minutes calling for help, but no one who cared could hear me.

My powers flitted in and out, but even when they worked I couldn't connect to anyone. The entire school thrummed with the Seeker's energy and mental signature. Power like that scared the hell out of me. The influence he had over the men he sent to capture us paled in comparison to what he controlled here.

I had no idea how we would ever escape.

Drake groaned, and I squeezed his hand. Tears choked my throat and left wet lines down my cheeks. "Are you okay? Drake, I'm so sorry. You have to believe me. I need you. Our baby needs you. Please wake up."

"Sam? Oh, my head. Feels like a Mack truck ran me over, then backed up and did it a few more times for fun."

I helped him sit up and move to the loveseat. "What did he do to you?"

"Blew up my head. At least that's what if felt like. I can't use my mind powers. Can you?"

"No. On and off, but no one around here is open. His power... Drake, it's unparalleled."

The Seeker's voice startled us both. "Why thank you. That is the highest compliment coming from one such as yourself."

I hadn't heard him come in. The man was like a phantom. Did he have powers that we didn't even know about?

"Drake, I am so glad you are awake. It is time the three of us got to know each other—a family reunion, if you will."

I clenched my teeth. "We are
not
a family."

The Seeker frowned and feigned injury. "Your words hurt. My dear Sam, we have more in common than you know."

He sat in his chair and adjusted his white robes. Did he wear them for dramatic flare? "I have been looking forward to this day since you each were born. Drake, you came first, obviously. I was only a young boy then, just starting kindergarten, but my powers had already manifested. Oh, the things I could already do at such a tender age. My father, he couldn't have been happier to have a son with such talents, but.... Well, let us just say there is always room for improvement. So, he began research to create Sam."

Fear settled in my stomach like a brick. "What do you mean, create me?"

"Why, Sam, you are the most remarkable of all genetic experiments. You have our father's DNA, but you were lab-made. They used all the best bits of science they could find, I must say. They gave you power, health, longevity, beauty and brains. You are Father's perfect creation."

I could feel all the blood in my body rush to my feet. My face tingled with shock. "Are you saying that I'm... a test tube baby? And you're my brother?"

"Oh, that is just the beginning. You see, the woman in whom I had been implanted,
my mother
...." He spit the words at her as if they were poison. "She was in love with someone else. After she had given birth to me, she went on to get pregnant, without permission, with one of the doctors who worked in the labs. Drake, you were that baby. She snuck you out when you were an infant, and you disappeared into foster care. Father killed her, of course, but he could never find you—not until a few months ago. Admittedly, that was a clever plan of hers, to lose you in the bureaucracy. Do you have any idea how impossible it is to track anyone there? A real headache, I'll tell you."

What? Had I somehow slipped into a
Twilight Zone
episode? "You're insane. Truly, one-hundred-percent crazy."

The Seeker smiled and shrugged. "Perhaps, but it does not change the fact that I am telling you the truth. And do not worry about your relationship and your baby. There is absolutely no blood relation between the two of you. We made sure of that before breeding you together. Was that not a brilliant pairing? It was my idea. Father was quite pleased... until you two escaped. Now, that was not very sporting, after all we had done for you. But all's well that ends well. Here we are now, right where we were meant to be. Sam, you carry the most powerful human being to ever walk this Earth, right there in your belly. Mary, mother of Jesus, should have been so lucky."

Nightmarish memories that weren't memories flashed through my mind. Bile rose in my throat, and I ran to a corner to vomit out the limited contents of my stomach. If I never threw up another day in my life, it would be too soon.

A cold hand rested on my arm. I looked up, expecting to see Drake, and looked into eyes so pale they might not have had any pigment at all. The Seeker stared into me, and I felt him probing at my mind.

"This is a family business, Sam, and you and Drake are family. Granted, your boyfriend is more like the redheaded stepchild, but still, he has his uses. Together, there is nothing we could not do. You know only a tiny portion of what you are capable of. I can teach you, guide you, give you everything you need to fully utilize your gifts. We can be gods among men, Sam. We will rule the world."

He grabbed me, and his eyes blazed with a holy fervor. But something felt off about him, besides the whole being crazy thing. Something was draining his energy and power. Through his touch I could sense a poison crawling through him, eating him.

Crimson drops fell onto his robe. Blood.

"Your nose, it's bleeding, and... what's wrong with your eyes?"

A pink tint lined the corners of his eyes, as though he'd applied pink eyeliner. He pulled away from me and backed out of the room. "I must go. Think on what I have said. We shall talk again."

With all eyes on her, Lucy had to act fast. She pulled Mr. Black to her. "Call off the guards, or I'll blow your head off."

In the last few days, Lucy had become more violent than ever before in her life. Necessity dictated her actions. Still, after years of assignments targeting some of the worst creeps imaginable, she'd never had to fight, disarm, or threaten so many people. What had her world come to?

The sphere in her backpack pulsed, and she felt Mr. Black reach for the Seeker. "Call him and I pull the trigger. You don't have to be a human lie detector to know I'm telling the truth, do you?"

"I know you're a scared girl who's trying to play grown-up, and you've never killed anyone in your life. You're not about to start now."

Lucy cocked the gun, relishing the power of it in her hand. Then she aimed and fired.

The bullet sank into the cement just an inch from Mr. Black's left foot. He bellowed like a lion and jumped away from the sound.

Mr. Black nodded to the guards. "Get away. Do as she says, you assholes."

Lucy thought about what to say to these kids who'd been drugged and manipulated for years. "Do you remember what life here used to be like? The idyllic peace we enjoyed before this invasion?"

Many heads nodded.

"It was all a lie. Even now, there's a drug coursing through your veins designed to make you, to make all of us, complacent and docile. They would have you believe we need them to keep us safe, but our lives mean nothing to them. Like you, my best friend was promised a life of college and friends, but what she ended up with was a forced pregnancy. When she escaped, they hired guns to trail her. What does
your
future hold if you stay here?

"I didn't know Kyle well, but I had him in many of my classes. He was a good guy, an innocent, like you. This man blew his head off from behind." Lucy jammed the gun deeper into his back.

"That's not justice. That's murder."

Her voice carried through the crowd, escalating with each word. "We have to act now, to stand our ground and say 'No more' to this tyranny, 'No more' to abuse and murder. We have to break free from the artificial bonds this school has enslaved us in. Who's with me?"