Mania (25 page)

“Cooper, I think you need what we brought more than anyone.” I spoke the words quietly and sincerely, despite the fact that I'd be utterly satisfied if he just fell over and died instead.

Cooper waved one shaking hand toward a couple of his heavily armed escorts and they stepped aside to reveal three metal chairs behind them. I had to squint into the shadows until someone closed the doors to the outside and flipped on the lights. The room we were in was immense, the walls covered in dusty mirrors. Many were cracked or broken. This must've been a maze at some point, but all the mirrors and walls in the center had been taken out, leaving just a few support beams.

People of all ages stared at us from their spots around the room. Many were standing, but some were seated on triangular concrete platforms that were spaced evenly around the room, which must've been part of the original design as well. The kids in the room were quiet and looked hardened; the adults ragged and tired.

These weren't people who were living it up like the gods Steve Campbell professed them to be. They were just people, many of whom had to be as tired of the endless fighting as I was. A slight spark of an idea wiggled its way to the top of my thoughts. Maybe Cooper wasn't the one I needed to convince …

There was movement near the back corner of the room, and the people stepped aside to let someone through. Two guards dragged something behind them. My hands flexed into fists and I suddenly wished I'd brought more weapons. They were dragging Parker.

My heart stopped and my chest felt like a sucking pit of agony. He had bandages on his arm and leg. His eyes were closed when they lifted him into a chair. A hand squeezed my arm and I turned to see Addie looking as pale and terrified as I felt.

They bound Parker to the chair and gagged him. Even though I wanted to kill everyone around him … my chest felt lighter because I knew he must be alive. No point in tying a dead body to a chair.

Then Parker's eyes opened, his face barely registering recognition as he looked at us. His eyes met mine before closing again. I didn't even care anymore if he ended up getting stuck as a Taker—I was just so relieved to see him. Other guards marched Mia and Mrs. Chipp in at gunpoint and tied them to chairs beside him. They both looked relatively unharmed, which was a relief to see. Parker's mom only lifted her worried gaze from Parker long enough to give me a pleading look.

Chloe growled and stepped up beside me. “When does this stop, Cooper? Does it ever end? Why did you have to take them too?”

“Shut up, you traitor!” he screamed at her, with such fury that he stumbled to one side and someone behind him stepped forward and steadied him. I recognized Joey before he stepped back into the shadows again. “I needed them here to keep Parker in line. He was becoming … difficult to control.”

“You didn't
need
them, Cooper,” Chloe argued, but I put a hand on her arm to signal her to stop. Arguing with an obviously unstable person was never a good idea.

“Just give me the Eclipse.” Cooper's words slurred slightly and he sounded almost as tired as he looked. I was beginning to wonder whether if I just gave him a few more minutes he might die on his own and save us a lot of trouble.

I held up one of the two vials I'd brought. The blue liquid sparkled under the lights. A guard took it, holding it gingerly as he carried it over to Cooper.

My eyes traveled back to the hostages and stopped on Parker. I studied him closer; he now was hunched forward in his seat. Not sitting up like Mia and his mother. Still, even without seeing his face, I could tell he'd lost significant weight too. He was dirty, and dried blood covered his clothes.

Fury bubbled up inside me and I didn't even care about all the guns or heavily armed men anymore. All I wanted to do was smash Cooper through the wall for what he'd done. My hands curled into tighter fists and I had to blink away the red haze threatening to take over my vision. Shadows were lifting up from the ground and snaking around the bodies of the people casting them. It was horrifying … terrifying. My entire body shook and I wondered if my shadow was about to ensnare me as well.

“Easy,” Chloe whispered beside me. “You have to calm down, Jack.”

Her words drove back the images and I realized they were all a trick of my mind. I was more exhausted than I'd thought. I needed to stay calm. Parker needed me at full strength right now. I shook my head and looked away from him, focusing instead on Cooper.

A doctor in a white coat stood beside him. He whispered to him as he examined the vial of Spectrum. Finally, he shook his head in a firm and undeniable no.

“This
will
help you, Cooper. I promise you that … ” I tried to speak up before Cooper had a chance to react.

Cooper's lip curled up and he smashed his fist down across the guard's fingers, causing him to drop the vial. The whole room seemed to hold its collective breath as the vial fell and shattered into a million pieces on the concrete floor.

“Nice try, Jack.” Cooper's voice wavered between disappointment and pure hatred. “The doc here says that Eclipse shouldn't be blue. So I'm going to guess you're lying to us—just like your daddy.”

“It isn't Eclipse. It's something diff—”

Before I had a chance to say any more, Cooper grabbed the gun of the guard closest to him and pointed it at me. His hands shook worse than ever and he screamed in rage and frustration. Before I could even think to react, he shot Finn in the thigh.

Finn cried out and fell to the ground, clutching the wound as blood soaked his pant leg.

Cooper smiled and kept shooting.

“Please, listen!” I yelled, ducking low and pulling Chloe down behind the nearest triangular platform with me. People behind us seemed more confident than me that Cooper was only shooting at us, but they still slid a couple feet to either side. My heart pounded in my ears as I peered around one end of the platform, scanning the room to find some way to fight back, to make Cooper stop.

For right now at least, he was the only one shooting. His guards were looking at each other like they weren't sure if they needed to stop him or pull out their guns and start shooting with him.

Parker lifted his head and looked at Finn. There was still no emotional reaction in his eyes as he watched Finn before looking away.

His best friend, shot and bleeding on the ground, and he had no response.

Everything was happening so quickly. I crouched, getting ready to move toward Finn. He was bleeding too fast. If I didn't stop it soon, he could bleed out and it would be too late.

I slipped out toward Finn, but the moment I was visible, Cooper adjusted his aim on me. Just before another gunshot shattered the quiet, Chloe somehow saw what was going to happen and did what Chloe always seemed to do.

The last thing I expected.

She dove out over my back, wrapping both arms around my neck. I fell forward with the impact and we both sprawled on the ground. The gun went off at the same time and her eyes went wide. Time felt like it was spinning out of control, and I couldn't force it go backward like I wanted. My heart pounded so hard in my chest that I was afraid it might hurt her. How could she do this? I hadn't even told her how sorry I was yet. I hadn't been able to tell her how she'd changed my mind about Takers … about everything, including myself.

I carefully lifted her away from me in slow motion, looking for the blood, trying to find out exactly how much Cooper was going to steal from me in one day. And then Libby made a small, surprised sound and crumpled to the ground behind me.

Chloe ripped her waist free from my fingers before I fully understood what had happened. And then I saw the blood spreading, too fast, across the bottom right of Libby's light green shirt.

My heart felt numb and I leapt to my feet. Chloe helped me ease Libby onto her back behind the protection of the nearest platform. Addie ran past us to help Finn, completely ignoring the bullets Cooper was still trying to hit me with.

He'd completely lost it. The tremors in Cooper's hands had already cost him a couple of his own people. They'd lost whatever faith they had and were now rushing for cover in a mad panic around us. The last I saw of Addie, she'd grabbed Finn's shoulders and was dragging him back behind one of the platforms, out of sight of both me and Cooper.

The shooting stopped temporarily and I heard Joey and Cooper yelling, but every bit of my attention was on Libby.

Libby's hands trembled as she reached for my arm. Chloe handed me her jacket and I pressed it against Libby's already blood-soaked shirt. She'd lost so much blood in seconds. I couldn't look at her. I couldn't let myself feel what it would be to lose her.

Not here. Not like this.

“We have to stop the bleeding,” I said, to myself as much as anyone.

“Jack.” I heard Libby's whisper.

“I know, Lib. It's going to be fine. Just hold on.” I hoped against hope that if I said it out loud, somehow it could be true.

“I'm sorry,” she wheezed, and then coughed.

“Don't talk, Lib.” I squeezed one of her hands in mine as I used the other to press the jacket harder against her wound. She winced.

When I looked at her, her eyes were on Chloe. “She saved your life … ” Her voice sounded shocked.

“I'm so sorry, Libby,” Chloe whispered. “I only thought about moving Jack out of the way … I—I didn't realize you were right behind h—”

“No.” Libby shook her head firmly, her tone leaving no room for argument. “You did the thing I should've done when I saw the gun. You tried to save him.”

“Shh, Libby.” My voice was raw with emotion as I looked at the jacket quickly becoming soaked with her blood.

“Jack.” Libby moved her head a bit to look at me and her coughing turned to a wheezing sound. She lifted my hand up to her lips and kissed it. “I want you to know. You were always my favorite dream … ”

She took one last ragged breath, then went still. Chloe choked out a soft sob and smoothed her hand through Libby's hair.

I squeezed her fingers tight between my hands, afraid to let her go. Another shot was fired and it hit a stranger several feet behind us. I climbed slowly to my feet, meeting my brother's eyes as I stood. For that moment, I wished I could feel empty of emotion and pain—the way his eyes looked right now. Loss was so heavy on my shoulders I had to fight under the weight of it. I'd finally lost too much. Grief coursed through me like a living being.

Chloe started trying to pull me through the crowd.

I watched Cooper yelling at Joey and then kicking Parker's chair. It fell over. I saw my brother's head hit the ground and his eyes closed immediately. Jerking my arm out of Chloe's grasp, I pulled one blade from my boot without even thinking and threw it straight into Cooper's shoulder.

It was a rare miss for me. I'd been aiming for his heart.

Cooper yelled out and pointed his gun at me again. Chloe grabbed my arm again and pulled me forcefully back through the crowd of escaping Takers. She jolted me along in her wake toward the door.

“Stop them!” Cooper yelled to his guards.

A few of the guards ran toward us, but all the Takers in the room were now running around in absolute chaos. Even many of the guards on our side of the room were hiding in an attempt to escape Cooper's mad rage. I saw one guard against the wall behind us. He was bleeding from the stomach.

Cooper didn't even care who he hurt. All he cared about was the power that Eclipse could give him.

I gritted my teeth together and picked up my pace behind Chloe. Right now, no matter how much all my emotions were screaming at me to go back for Parker, to help Finn, to save Addie and the others—to be with Libby—my instincts told me it was no use. The way Cooper was shooting at me with complete disregard for those around me … everyone in that room was safer with me out of there.

I had no choice but to get to a safe place where I could figure out a new plan.

Because I was done trying to convince Cooper to take Spectrum.

Now, my only option was to kill him.

Thirty-Two
Parker

Everything that was happening around me felt like it should matter. I knew that it did … but at the same time it felt too far away to worry about it. Since Darkness and I had woken up back in my exhausted body, I wasn't in charge anymore. I'd given that responsibility to Darkness and it felt great. It was oddly relaxing, especially if I tried not to pay attention to everything outside my head. It was better that way.

When the guards came to drag me into this large room, Darkness had actually seen an opening and head-butted the first guard. My head ached, but the guard's nose had bled enough that he'd been replaced by a different guard. I knew right then that I'd made the right choice. I didn't have any fight left in me. Fight was all Darkness was made of.

Fight was what we needed right now.

They pulled me onto a chair. I knew they were setting up chairs next to me, and I could hear someone making noise to my left, but Darkness had his attention focused on the rope that was securing our wrists. He was bent forward, eyes closed, as he wiggled one hand and then the other, trying to find the weakness that might allow him to slip one hand free.

A whimper came from my left and I wondered if something important was happening, but Darkness didn't care. From far away I heard my brother's voice. Even Darkness couldn't ignore that. He barely moved, but he peeked out through the curtain of dirty hair and we saw Jack, Chloe, Finn, Libby, and Addie standing about fifteen feet in front of us.

Darkness felt like snarling at Addie until her worried eyes met mine and I saw the fear in them. This wasn't the nightmarish hallucination that had been making our life hell. This was my
Addie
… it was really her. She was here.

But Darkness didn't care. All he cared about was that no one was watching me. The doorway to the outside was only twenty feet away. He moved his attention back to the ropes on our wrists, no matter how much I wanted to watch my friends and brother—to make sure they were okay.

A glass vial of blue liquid exploded a few feet in front of us and brought our attention back into focus. Darkness let out a low growl around the gag in our mouth and started working on freeing our hands again, his motions growing more frantic.

Then Cooper had a gun in his hands. Darkness's rage bubbled up inside and his focus on freeing our hands was lost. He just wanted to kill Cooper. His attention shifted to seeing which weapons were within reach and imagining how he could use them to make Cooper bleed.

But I saw Cooper point the gun at everyone I loved, and my entire world stopped.

I fought wildly to wrestle control back from Darkness, but he was in full-on adrenaline-driven panic mode and didn't budge. His eyes settled on a knife in Cooper's boot just a couple of feet in front of us. If he could reach it, he could cut the ropes.

I couldn't force him to listen to me—or maybe I was too weak now to fight hard enough.

A gunshot went off and Darkness jerked back before finally taking a good look around. I was brought back to complete awareness as I got my first view of the whole picture. Mom and Mia were tied up next to me, and on the other side of the room, Finn had just been shot in the leg. My heart pounded hard against the wall of my chest.

Darkness looked up into Cooper's hard, cold eyes. The madman smiled and the message was clear. Cooper liked what he'd just done. The killing wasn't over.

Then I felt something coming from Darkness that I'd never expected. He felt remorse.

It only lasted an instant and then it passed, but it was something. He'd experienced one of
my
emotions without me trying to push it on him. He was changing … and if it could happen once, maybe it could happen again.

Cooper started shooting again. Darkness watched as chaos spread across the room. For an instant, we made eye contact with Jack. I saw pure fear in his eyes. And then he started to run.

This, for some reason, kicked Darkness back into action. He started working on freeing our hands from the ropes again, but I didn't want to run anymore. I wanted to help. Jack needed me, and I wanted to help my brother finish this—for him, for me, for Dad.

Joey was so quiet beside me he almost seemed to be holding his breath. Finally, he stepped forward and spoke soft enough that I only just barely heard him.

“Enough,” Joey said, putting his hand on Cooper's shoulder. “This has to stop, Cooper.”

Cooper jerked out of his grip and kept shooting. I saw Libby fall down, over by Jack, and my heart ached for my brother. Darkness kept working on the ropes and I just tried to stay out of his way. If he could get our hands free, then we could take the gun away from Cooper. That was the only thing that mattered right now.

Across the room, I saw Chloe trying to pull Jack to safety. His eyes rested on mine, and even from here I could see how badly he wanted to stay, to fight. But instead he backed away, following Chloe slowly toward the crowd of terrified people.

Was this it? Was this where he left me … again?

Joey put his hand on top of Cooper's gun and forcefully pushed it down. “You have to stop. You're putting your own people at risk. Don't you see how crazy this is?”

“Get out of my way. You've never belonged here. You don't have a clue what it's like to be this way,” Cooper growled, jerking the gun out of Joey's reach. “You've been going soft ever since we captured Parker. If you're too weak to help me, just stay out of my way.”

In a rage, Cooper screamed. Darkness lifted my head and Cooper met my eyes, stepped toward me, and kicked over my chair. The world tilted and then my head exploded with pain as everything went dark and silent.