No One (Element Preservers, #3.5) (3 page)

"Watch your mouth." Alan strode over to me, his face a mask of fury. He backhanded me so hard that I tasted blood. I straightened my back and stared at them, not willing to let them subdue me so easily. What did I have to lose? It wasn't like they wouldn't torture me later.

"Your every action has consequences, carrier." Valeria turned her back to me and picked up a phone from a desk in the corner of the room. "Bring them into the yard," she said to someone on the other end of the line. What was she planning to do? A smile spread her lips when she turned around to face me.

"Will you keep him here?" Alan asked, a hint of worry in his voice. If Alan didn't know what she was planning, then it couldn't be anything good. Did they have some special procedure for carriers who tried to run away from their guardians? The world believed Alan was one of the rare guardians, but I knew that wasn't exactly the truth. Would they kill me? But that would ruin their plan to monitor the development of the disease. Besides, Alan certainly didn't want to lose his paycheck. Was that why he was worried? Would Valeria kill me? Could she do it? What kind of power did she have here? The uneasiness was back in the pit of my stomach.

"No. We don't quite need him yet." Valeria chuckled. "I have something else in mind. He needs to be punished for what he's done, and we need to make sure he doesn't try to run away again."

"As you wish," Alan said, leaving my side and finding a spot to stand in the background with the guards. What could they possibly do to me that would prevent me from trying to run away ever again?

"Oh, don't worry, Alan. He'll live." Valeria was amused. "But after this, I bet you'll be able to walk around with him and he won't try anything. He won't even have to be bound."

I was about to tell her where she could shove her plans, but it was better for me to keep quiet until I discovered what her intentions were. A movement in the yard caught my eye and I stared wide-eyed at two tiny figures escorted by mean-looking guards.

"Come closer and take a look," Valeria said, waving toward the glass. Without thinking, I found myself in front of the glass. A blond boy around my age and a slightly older girl stood in the yard, their heads bowed and their bodies shaking. When the girl lifted her head up, I saw tears streaming down her face.

Valeria banged on the glass with her fist, startling me and bringing my attention to her. "They're both children of magic disease carriers. One showed the symptoms, the other didn't. Frankly, it doesn't matter."

"What are you going to do with them?" I tried to keep my emotions off my face, but I didn't think I was successful at masking my dismay and concern.

"I'm going to let them both go. One will have a tracker, the other won't." Valeria lowered her voice, her hazel eyes piercing through me. "I'm going to send my guards after them and kill them. Do you hear that, carrier? They will die because of you."

"No." I shook my head slowly.

"You made a mistake and now you're going to pay for it." She took a small remote control out of her pocket and turned on a TV screen right next to us. I hadn't even noticed the screen, but now I could see the girl and the boy from another angle. "We're going to film everything and you're going to watch them die."

"No, please. Don't do this." If she wanted me to beg, I'd do it. I couldn't let some innocent kids die because of me. "Please. You can do to me whatever you want. I won't try to run away. Please!"

"Of course you won't." She grinned. "If Alan notifies me you even thought about running away, I will kill more carriers. Well, maybe not exactly the carriers we need, but those who prove not to be of any use."

"You can't do this." Thousands of thoughts flashed through my mind, but none of them revealed me a way to save those kids. "How do you plan to find them and execute them in front of everyone? The police won't allow it." Even if no one cared about the carriers, the government liked to pretend from time to time that they protected the carriers' rights simply to lure them out of hiding. Public executions wouldn't help them to gather more carriers for their experiments.

"Oh, it won't be in front of anyone. My men are professionals. No one will know about this little game of ours." Valeria faced the glass, so I looked through it too. The guards were taking the cuffs off the kids' wrists and urging them to run. Shit! The girl looked disoriented at first, but then she broke into a run, glancing back to see if the guards were following her. The boy was faster and had already disappeared from view.

"Pay attention to the screen, carrier," Valeria spat, taking a seat in one of the chairs. She sighed in content and leaned back in the chair, the corners of her lips tilting up as she observed the TV screen. Her attention briefly flickered to me. "If you don't watch every second of this transmission, I'm going to find more carriers to get rid of."

I glanced at Alan's expressionless face and knew he wouldn't do anything to stop the killings. Reluctantly, I looked up at the screen and couldn't look away, even when bile rose in my throat.

Chapter 09

Now

Alan was sitting on the couch, and he smiled at me when I entered the living room. "I didn't think you'd come. It must be something important that you need from me."

"Don't get your hopes up."

Alan got up and took a step toward me. "How can I be of assistance?"

I took in my surroundings and found only two plants, one in each corner of the room, that Alan could use against me. "I need one of your experts for training magic disease carriers." There was no reason to avoid the main point. The sooner I got out of this place, the better.

"Hmm." Alan tilted his head, his brow furrowing in thought. "You have a new carrier."

It wasn't a question, but I nodded. If I played this right, Alan would give me all the information I wanted.

"Who is it? Is it someone you care about?" Alan's curiosity usually got better of him, and this time was no different.

"It doesn't matter. I need your help. Will you take me to one of the scientists?"

"And why would I do that?" Alan crossed his arms. "What are you offering in exchange?"

"I'll tell you what you want to know so badly." I concentrated on my element, which some people preferred to call a sub-element, and felt the coldness seep out of my skin. "And you'll get to live another day."

Alan chuckled. "Would you kill me like you killed Valeria? Did ending her life make you happy?"

"I won't do anything unless you force me to." Handing Alan's words back to him was hilarious, but I couldn't feel satisfied about it. "And I'm not like you. I don't celebrate anyone's death. How did you find out she was dead?" I had frozen Valeria to death in her office during the action to overtake the Element Preservers. Seeing her glassy eyes under all the ice should have made me feel better. I should have felt relieved that a woman responsible for so many deaths found her end, but all I felt was emptiness. Nothing I did to Valeria would have brought those people back to life. It didn't stop her from plaguing my nightmares either.

"You forget who I am. I have many sources. And I should thank you for killing her. I wasn't very fond of her. She had her eyes on the vice presidency." Alan's loyalty usually lay with those who were of use to him, but when you got in the way of something he wanted, you became disposable. Except for me. For some reason, Alan didn't consider me disposable. At least not yet.

"I can freeze this house in ten seconds. Will you do what I ask of you or not?"

"Would you really kill me?" Alan was either waiting for backup or he was stalling for no other reason than to annoy me. Ria thought that Alan cared about me somewhere deep inside, but if he did, he had a twisted way of showing it.

"Not unless I have to." And that was the truth. Damn, even though we had lived together for years, our relationship was seriously fucked up.

"Fine. I'll take you with me so you can talk with my acquaintance," he finally said.

"How about you tell me the name and I'll go by myself?" Preferably with a whole team of people accompanying me.

"No. You are coming with me. People need to see that I'm still your guardian."

I rolled my eyes. Alan could find benefits for himself in any situation. "All right." The gleam in his eyes proved that he'd enjoy taking me to the lab like in old good times. "But if you try to trick me and capture me, I'm going to kill you and anyone who tries to help you."

"Believe it or not, you're more worth to me walking around freely this time." Alan smirked. "Now tell me. Who is your new carrier?"

I took a deep breath and released it slowly. Most of the times, Alan could tell if I was lying, but I hoped this time would be different. No matter what, I couldn't tell him that Ria had the disease because that would be far too dangerous information to give. It was a wonder he hadn't figured it out already. "Paula." My voice was steady when I said it, and I didn't flinch under Alan's scrutinizing gaze.

"Paula?" Surprise was etched into his face. "Your ex-girlfriend?"

"Yes." I lowered my eyes, praying that Alan would buy my act.

"Ria's best friend?"

I nodded, and Alan burst out laughing. "I didn't think you'd find it so amusing," I said dryly.

"Oh, I'm sorry, but this is hilarious. You infect someone, and it's your lover's best friend. Ria will never forgive you for that." Alan sobered almost instantly and frowned. "How did that happen exactly? Did you forget all the necessary precautions for sleeping with a normal person?"

"I have my doubts about that. Paula has been friendly with another carrier, but Ria doesn't want to hear about it." I let annoyance show in my voice.

"We'll talk about this in the car. I'll be right back." With a broad smile, Alan practically waltzed out of the room. This was making him way too happy. He had to have some crazy plan in mind. Now that I was alone in the room, it was impossible to ignore how familiar it was.

Chapter 10

4 years ago

The symptoms of my disease had become worse, so Alan took me to the lab every day. The scientists did various checkups on me and monitored my progress, which was extremely tiring. After being hooked up to numerous machines and resisting the seductive call of elements for the whole fucking day, I was dead on my feet. I barely had enough strength to take a shower and get ready for bed.

I was about to enter my room when Alan called my name from the downstairs. While I was contemplating whether to pretend I didn't hear him, he yelled my name again, louder this time. What had I done now? Sighing, I went downstairs, my bare feet making no sound on the soft red carpet. Alan was sitting on the couch and watching some lame-ass action movie. He turned his head as he sensed me approaching, and I leaned on the doorframe, reluctant to go any closer to him.

"Come," he said, his voice full of authority. A shiver ran down my spine because he only used that tone when he was angry or had something serious in mind. Something I wasn't going to like.

"Can't whatever you want wait for tomorrow? I'm really tired." I wasn't sure I could keep myself upright for much longer.

Alan gave me a long, hard look. "I said, come here."

"Please." My puppy-eyed look never worked on Alan - or anyone -  but I didn't know what he wanted and that unnerved the hell out of me.

"Adrian! Now!" He patted the couch for the emphasis. Shit. I padded over to him, chewing on the insides of my mouth.

Alan relaxed a bit and looked up at me. "We need to find out if you can control yourself subconsciously, and I think this is the right moment to do it."

"What?" I gaped at him, but tension seeped out of my shoulders. At least he wasn't angry at me.

"I want to test you myself because I don't want you to spend a night in the lab yet." His tone of voice indicated that I should be grateful for his decision. "Lie down next to me."

I settled myself on the couch next to him, pulling my feet up. Alan draped his arm around my shoulders and I unintentionally flinched, which made him frown.

"Relax," Alan whispered, caressing my hair as I laid my head on his leg. "Just close your eyes and try to sleep. I'll use my element while you're asleep and we'll see how you'll react."

"Can't we do this another time? I don't think I can control myself." Alan's element slightly bothered me, even when it was locked deep inside of him, so I wasn't sure what I would do if he started using it, especially if I wasn't conscious.

"That's exactly the point," he said, spreading a warm blanket over me. "Don't worry. You'll be fine. I'll make sure of it. You can't hurt me."

I glanced at the plants that were on each side of the couch. If things went wrong, he'd restrain me by using his element on the plants. Awesome. Alan was lucky that I was exhausted, or I would never be able to fall asleep with him touching me. Feeling as if I was floating, I drifted off to sleep.

Chapter 11

Now

"So, Paula met another carrier," Alan said as he drove us to the lab where his acquaintance supposedly worked. "I didn't think she'd sleep with him immediately."

Now it was the time to convince Alan that what I was saying was the truth. "She's very dedicated to her research. I don't think she has time to wait. The only problem is that no one believes she'd do such a thing, so everyone is blaming me."

"And by everyone you mean Ria." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. Oh, yeah, I thought it was safe to say that he believed my story. Even he had to know that Paula would do anything to prove or disprove her theories. He'd spent hours talking to her back at the university, and that was partly the reason I chose to tell him she was the one with the disease.

"Maybe."

"You've fallen really hard for that girl." Alan glanced at me. "Why?"

"Ria is different."

"I still don't understand how the two of you got together. What do you see in that self-centered, immature, spoiled little girl? She's the president of the Element Preservers now, so I see the appeal of staying with her, but she wasn't the president back when you two slept together."