Spark (25 page)

The cord stretches. Jamie flinches. Barb jerks in her seat. “Excuse me?”

“Miriam!” Leonard says. “You’re out of line.”

Her head swivels towards them. “Someone has to tell this boy ‘no’ for once!”

The cord snaps.

“Not you!” Stars burst before my eyes. “You don’t get a say! You’re not Jamie’s mother and you’re sure as hell not mine!” Miriam flinches and colour leeches from her face. High-pitched ringing fills my ears and I stab my chest. “I’m the one who gets to say ‘no’. Me! But I won’t, because I want to be with Jamie and it’s not just because of some damn science experiment! I felt like this when my DNA was my own and not the property of some bullshit secret organisation!” A tinkling sound precedes an explosion of glass – a vase, lamp and decanter shatter, as well as the four bulbs in the light fixture that hangs above my head. Miriam jumps back and the Gallaghers lean away in their seats. Jamie bolts up from the couch, taking my arms, murmuring my name like he’s persuading me back into my body. Tiny sparkling shards rain onto our hair and shoulders, covering the rug at our feet.

I draw air in ragged gulps, staring at the broken glass. I stumble away from Jamie, recoiling from his eyes, their eyes. I cover my face, unable to fight tears. “Oh, Mr Gallagher. Your things. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

I turn and run to the doors, Leonard and Jamie calling my name. I grab for a handle but it comes off, crushed in my fingers. Waves of humiliation flood through me and my eyes pour.

“Evie, wait.” Barb comes and rests her hand on my heaving back. Even through my tears I can see her blue eyes have welled up. “We’re trying to understand. We want to understand.”

I blurt in a soft rush, “Mrs Gallagher, I’m sorry about everything. I never intended to break my promise. I tried very hard to do what you asked.” I draw a shuddering breath but the tears won’t stop. “I want to be with your son for the sake of your daughter and for my own sake. I need Jamie if I’m going to survive this. I need him and I want him.”

“Evie, stop–” Miriam says, shock in her voice.

Barb frowns. “My son can be very persuasive.”

“It’s not like that. Jamie hasn’t talked me into anything. I choose him.”

“Don’t say those words!” Miriam hisses, almost leaving the ground.

Jamie shoots across the room and grips my arm. “Actually, Everton …”

Blindsided, I swallow, wiping my face on the back of my hand.

His expression seems almost illuminated, his grey eyes storm-tossed and yet thrilled as he searches my face.

“Don’t say, I–?”

He inhales sharply and puts his fingers over my lips. “Careful.”

“They’re binding words, Evangeline,” Miriam says, white-faced, hollow-eyed. “They’re repeated in the binding ceremony for sanctioned affiliations only. Jamie, what have you done? Did you give her those words?”

He shakes his head, lifting his hand from my mouth. “No. We’ve never talked about any of it.”

“I don’t understand.”

Miriam slumps against the edge of Leonard’s desk, her hands against her head. “There are synaptic pathways that determine signal bonds and a process by which permanent bonds are formed between
our kind
. Verbal affirmations and ceremonial actions, among other things, seal those synaptic pathways. Only the
Affinity Project
dictates the sealing of permanent bonds. Not you.”

“I wasn’t trying–” I say, burning with embarrassment.

“Choice is a fantasy,” Miriam says. “
If
the time comes, you will choose whom the
Affinity Project
chooses for you. This little romance with Jamie has a time line and an end point. I’m not trying to ruin your life, Evangeline. I’m trying to save you from a broken heart.”

“Miriam, just stop.” I’m done, emptied out. I reach for the remaining handle and pause, passing the crushed one to Barb. “Could you?”

Barb opens the door and I escape.

I make my way across the foyer on unsteady legs, grateful for open space after the confinement of Leonard’s study. I feel like I’ve been in a fist fight, and I gasp for unpolluted air, free of accusation, threat or bitterness.

“Let her be,” Barb’s voice carries from the study.

I hurry through the dining room, my warped reflection trailing me either side in night-panelled windows and gleaming table polish. I push through the swing door into the kitchen. The black and white tiles swim beneath my feet.
Synaptic pathways, he’ll choose her, time line and end point
. I lurch to the counter, grip the sink and stare out the window. My own face blocks the view.

I want to climb out of my skin, slip through the pane and hide. Instead, I turn the faucet on and place my hands in the flow, staring at the pale length of my fingers, watching the water pool in the porcelain sink before draining in an endless spiral.

I feel Miriam before I hear her quiet steps or the swing of the kitchen door. I bend and splash a shock of cold water on my swollen eyes, patting the counter for a towel. Miriam presses a cloth into my hand. I keep it to my face and straighten up, water dripping in rivulets behind the collar of my dress. When I finally lower the towel, I see myself reflected twice. The other shorter me stands behind my left shoulder with plaintive eyes. I wish it were Mom. “Please, Miriam.” I hang my head. “I’m done.”

“Evie–”

“We have Richard’s DNA.” I say it to shut her up. “His blood on my gym shirt.”

“You – you read his signal?”

I grit my teeth. “I reacted to him. I don’t know if it was a signal. But it’s worth testing, isn’t it?”

“Of course,” she says. “Yes, of course it is. Why didn’t you say?”

“It was a little difficult to get a word in.”

“Evie, I–”

A pulse in the bandwidth rocks through me, loud in my ears, painful in my head, blurring my vision. I give a small cry and swing around, grabbing the counter behind me. Miriam buckles forwards, bringing her hand to her head. “No,” she whispers.

“What the hell was that?”

“You felt it?” Her lips pale. “The Warden’s coming.”

“Now? Here?” Terror like a siren fills my head. They’re coming for me. It’s over.
Kitty!
“I won’t go, Miriam. I’ll fight. They’ll have to drag me out.”

“Let me think, damn it!” Miriam’s eyes dart from side to side as though she’s calculating frenetic equations at high speed.

The kitchen door bursts open. Jamie skids into the room. “The Warden–”

“We felt it,” I say, dizzy with the let-down of adrenaline.

“
You
did?” Jamie says. “You couldn’t possibly–”

“Shut up!” Miriam grabs her head, turning in a slow circle, muttering.

“You have to go, Everton.” Jamie pats his pockets for keys. “Take Kitty, take my car and go now.”

“It’s too late.” Miriam straightens. “They will have registered our signals.”

“But they can’t track Everton. She hasn’t been marked.”

“They’d catch her eventually, Jamie. She could only ever stay a day ahead of them at the most. But,” she fixes him with a piercing look, “if we could mask her signal she wouldn’t have to run and she’d be clear until the next sweep.”

“Mask it?” Jamie says, the tangle of his thoughts catching behind his eyes until his frown unknots. “Miriam, we haven’t even been together for twenty-four hours.”

Leonard, Barb and Kitty come through the door. “Jamie?” Leonard says, taking in the spectacle of the three of us panicking. “What on earth?”

Miriam ignores him, her eyes on Jamie. “You’ve been living in the same house for days. Your signals will have started to sync whether you’re conscious of it or not. If we hide Evie somewhere close to you, while they’re here – if you can stay connected – using KMH, KMT, whatever you can manage – it could blur the reading enough to appear like one signal.”

My mind scrambles to keep up with Miriam’s plan. “Hide me? I don’t understand. How does it work? Will they come in the house?”

“I’m the only registered Shield in the district. They’ll expect me and therefore they will expect to come in the house.”

“Demerits,” Jamie warns.

“Screw demerits,” she says. “They’re on their way anyway.”

“What if they thermal scan?” Jamie says, his expression clouding.

“It’s not an extraction,” Miriam says. “They’d only call in an extraction team if they identified a newly transitioned Shield. It’ll just be the Warden and one other agent. Is your tracker up to date?”

“No.” He reaches his hand to the back of his neck. “It’s almost dissolved.”

Miriam nods. “Good.”

“What’s happening, Miriam?” Leonard demands.

She looks Leonard up and down, a measuring appraisal. “Barb,” she says. “You have to leave.”

Barb clings to Leonard’s arm with her diamond-dressed fingers to her mouth. “Leave? Why?”

Miriam squares her shoulders. “Because I will be posing as Leonard’s girlfriend and it’s probably better if his wife isn’t still in the house. We’ll call you as soon as they’ve gone.”

Barb blinks like she’s been poked in the eye and Leonard opens his mouth but nothing comes out.

Another pulse in the bandwidth sweeps in. I groan and sway and Jamie steadies me. Miriam holds her head. “We are running out of time!” She slices her hand through the air. “This is what’s going to happen. Kitty, you’ll wait in the panic room because Evie won’t be able to guard you while they’re here. Leonard, you will answer the door. They will ask for me and you’ll bring them into the living room and then go and wait in the study. I will present myself as Kitty’s Shield.”

“They won’t believe you’ve Sparked so soon,” I say, seeing holes in everything.

“It can happen. Anyway, there are ways I can increase my signal before they get here.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense if Jamie–” I begin.

“Siblings can’t Spark each other!” Miriam snaps. “And even if they could, it wouldn’t explain my presence in the house. Shields are not permitted to fraternise. So, I’m either Leonard’s girlfriend or I’m breaking protocol by hanging out with Jamie.”

“They’ll buy the idea that you’re Leonard’s girlfriend? Wouldn’t they question …”

Miriam growls in exasperation. “Of course they’ll buy it, Evie. Relationship protocol is one of the most common tactics among Shields. We’re a whole damn secret society of home wreckers! Trust me.”

Barb makes a sound like she’s half-choked.

Jamie grimaces. “Miriam’s right, Evie. It happens all the time.”

“This doesn’t make sense!” Barb cries. “Why must Evie hide at all? Won’t these people help?”

Jamie, Miriam and I produce matching looks of incredulity. “No,” Miriam says. “They will order an extraction team and take her, and Kitty will be left without her protector. Do you understand? We’re going to try to buy Evie some time. If we can pull it off, we won’t have to worry about Affinity until this is all over.”

Barb’s eyes move to her daughter, to me and back to Miriam. “Do what you have to.” She kisses Leonard on the mouth, grabs keys from the counter and walks out the door.

“Jamie,” Miriam says. “Can you fetch me the first-aid kit?”

He nods and bolts into the butler’s pantry.

Miriam looks to Kitty, who raises her hands. “I know. Panic room.” She throws her arm around my neck, her foam support rubbing against my chin. “I bloody hate the panic room.”

“It’ll be okay.” I clasp her back, infusing my voice with more certainty than I feel. “Miriam knows what she’s doing.”

Kitty releases me, tears tracking her checks. Leonard squeezes her hand and she crosses to the butler’s pantry, stopping to make room for Jamie who comes out carrying a large red box.

“It’s going to work.” He kisses her cheek and she sniffs, stepping past him to punch the access code to the wine cellar. The door clicks and I have one final glimpse of her anxious face.

Jamie deposits the kit on the bench. Miriam strips her shirt off and stands there in her bra, digging through the medical supplies. Leonard swivels away and Jamie turns his back. I stare at my aunt in disbelief – she is so focused and unflinching, taking command of an impossible situation.

“Jamie,” she says. “Come here and take your shirt off.”

Jamie swallows but doesn’t hesitate, shucking his shirt over his head, revealing a white fitted singlet that amplifies his gold skin. He joins Miriam at the counter and her hand blurs. Jamie grunts and a vivid red slash opens on his bicep just beneath the band of his tattoo.

“Miriam!” I want to lunge at her. Leonard spins around, nearly losing his glasses.

“It’s okay.” Jamie grits his teeth. “It’ll spike my signal and help mask yours.”

Miriam presses a cloth to Jamie’s wound and hands him a bandage. “Go into the living room, close the curtains to the conservatory, find somewhere in there for Evie to hide.”

“I can do that,” Leonard says, moving towards the door.

“No, Leonard, I need you and Evie.”

Jamie rushes out, holding his bleeding arm. Miriam quickly sets about repeating the procedure. Leonard forgets to turn his back, watching as Miriam opens her bicep with the emergency kit scalpel. She hisses. Leonard and I wince at the welling of blood. She staunches the flow, unwinds a bandage one-handed and binds her arm with quick neat loops, reminding me it isn’t the first time she’s doctored her own wounds. In less than thirty seconds she’s back in her shirt. She rounds on Leonard and grimaces. “Try not to freak out but I need you to kiss me.”

“What?” He stares like she’s lost her mind and takes a step back.

“If we have any hope of pulling this off, I need to spike my frequency. Conflict or arousal is the fastest way to do it. So either punch me or kiss me!”

He gapes at her, more flustered than I’ve ever seen him, clearly as blindsided as I feel.

“I guess you’re going with option B.” She doesn’t hesitate but steps forwards and pulls him down to her lips. He freezes, eyes still open in shock. She tries to force a response from him but poor Leonard doesn’t seem to know what to do with his hands. She presses against him, kissing him with desperate fervour. “Come on.” She pounds her hand on his chest. “Work with me!”

Then she gets what she wants. His eyes close and his hands come suddenly around her back, almost lifting her from the ground. Miriam clasps one arm around his neck and with the other she grips his bicep, digging her nails in. Leonard grunts, knotting his fingers in her hair and tips her head back, devouring her kiss.