The Mind Keepers (The Mind Readers) (11 page)

I raced toward the car. Olivia
had watched me and Cameron heal Aunt Lyndsey, so she knew I carried the source.
They were in more danger than even Maddox realized. I rounded the corner and spotted
them. My aunt sat on the sidewalk curb, Lewis stood with his arm around Cameron’s
waist, while Olivia rested on the hood of the car looking uneasily around her.

She’s lying,
I sent the mental message out.

Cameron jerked her gaze toward
me. “What?”

“Olivia is lying.”

Cameron stiffened, pulling away
from Lewis. “What do you mean?”

I didn’t miss the way Olivia lost
all color, the bruises standing out starkly against her pale skin. “She’s
lying. She’s working for them.”

“What the hell are you talking
about?” She slid down the hood, glaring at me. She wasn’t shocked, or
terrified, she wasn’t even nervous. I narrowed my eyes. She was angry that I’d
uncovered the truth.

“Lift up your shirt.”

Her lips curled into a snarl.
“What?”

Okay, yeah, I could admit it was
an odd request. “I’m not asking you to flash me, just let me see your stomach
and back.”

Her hands fisted at her sides. “Why?”

“Do it.”

“Fine.” She lifted her shirt,
revealing her pale stomach. “Like what you see?”

“Turn.”

She sighed and turned. Smooth
back, free of blemishes. Exactly as I’d expected.

Cameron inched her way toward me.
“Uh, Nora, this is fun and all, but what’s the purpose?”
 

I crossed my arms over my chest,
feeling more than vindicated. Maddox had been right. He hadn’t lied, at least
not about Olivia. “No bruises.”

Cameron shook her head, confused.
But then she hadn’t been brought up to look for inconsistencies, to always be
on guard, always be suspicious.
 

“If she had been beaten,” Lewis
added, coming to stand next to us, “they would have hit her everywhere, not
just her face.”

Olivia dropped her shirt,
releasing a wry laugh. “You’re just as insane as S.P.I.”

My anger got the better of me,
and I surged forward, my energy racing ahead. Suddenly she was thrown back against
the car, her legs and arms flopping around her like a ragdoll tossed aside. Her
shocked gaze went to me, true terror there. Gone was that smirk.

With my energy, I held her
against the car, pinned to the bumper without even touching her. “The bruises
are for show. Damn it, S.P.I. could be following us even now. How far away are
they? Tell us the truth, or—”

“What? You’ll kill me?” Her lips
pulled back into a sneer. “Fine, you want the truth? I set you up. What choice
did I have? To have my brain cut open like yours?”

I swallowed hard, resisting the
urge to lash out the one way I felt most comfortable… with my fist. She was
younger, she was scared, she was stupid. She didn’t realize that the moment
they caught up with us, she was dead as well.

“And what good did it do you?”
she continued her rant, pushing away from the bumper and straightening her
shoulders. “You suffered for nothing! Your mom is still dead!”

I could hold back no longer. My
anger flared, the energy bursting from my body, free…free. The energy hit her
hard. Olivia flew back, slamming against the car hood and sliding to the ground
into a lump of pathetic, crying human flesh.
 
 

“Nora, calm down,” my aunt said,
her voice muffled under the roar of blood in my ears. “Get control.”

The anger was still there, but her
words sent a shiver of reality through me. Damn it all. With a sigh of
frustration, I stepped back, putting distance between Olivia and me. Aunt
Lyndsey was right, I needed to retain control. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Where is he?”
 

She sat up. “Screw you. You
think I’ll give up my life for your boyfriend?”

My blood boiled, my hands
fisting. I could kill her so easily now that I held the powers of the entire
freaking universe. So damn easily.

We might be able to break through her wall and get the information,
Cameron
said mentally, her words wading through my anger. I took in a deep breath.
Retain control. Yep, totally Zen. I gave Cameron a stiff nod.

“You’ll kill her, Nora. You
don’t have full use of your powers
,
”
my aunt said, startling me. “If you try
to get the info, she will probably die.”
 

“You can hear us?” Cameron asked,
irate.

She gave us a half-smile. “Not always.
But you two aren’t as clever as you think.”

I flushed, annoyed. Why hadn’t
she told us? Hell, what had she overheard?
I
managed to heal you without death on my hands,
I said, sending the mental
message.

Lewis started toward Olivia. “She
might not be able to control her powers yet, but Cameron can control hers.”
 

The younger girl flinched, shuffling
back until she hit the car, trapped. “What are you doing?”

Lewis ignored her. “Cameron?”

Cameron stepped toward her,
determined.

“What are you doing?” Olivia repeated,
as Lewis loomed over her. The fear in her voice made her sound more like the
child she actually was, and I felt sorry for her…sort of. My powers were
obviously making me weak.
 
 

He didn’t respond, just latched
onto her arms and jerked her to her feet.

“What the hell are you doing?”
she demanded, squirming in his grasp. But Lewis was strong, and he wouldn’t let
go no matter how much she kicked.

Cameron moved closer. “I’m
giving you one last chance.”

My aunt crossed her arms over
her chest, looking anything but thrilled. “You sure you won’t kill her?”

Olivia’s eyes went wide.

“No,” Cameron said. “I’m not.”

I almost laughed at her
audacity. Whenever I discounted my sister as an emotional weakling, she always
proved me wrong. Maybe we had more in common than I’d thought.

Cameron leaned toward Olivia.
“You have no idea what power we hold among the four of us. Either tell me the
truth, or you’ll find out.”

Olivia’s lips pressed firmly
together. Good God, she was stubborn.

Cameron glanced back at me.
“Take my hand.”

I shifted closer, uneasy. “Why?”

“Just try it.”

I hadn’t killed Aunt Lyndsey,
but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t kill this kid. Still, I wasn’t one to shy away
from pushing the envelope. There was no other choice. I slid my hand into hers
and waited. Cameron stared hard at Olivia. For a long moment nothing happened.

Concentrate, imagine breaking through her mind.

I’d tried before but had never
been able to. Still, I hadn’t held the source then. I took in a deep breath and
closed my eyes. I felt it almost immediately, as if the power had been waiting
for its chance to escape. My body grew heated as the energy surged up from my
gut and flared through my limbs. Olivia screamed.

I opened my eyes. I swore I
could see a golden glow coming from Cameron and me. Olivia arched back against
Lewis, her face contorted with pain. But her face faded, and instead a variety
of pictures flashed to mind, like someone flipping through a photo album. Flashes
of Olivia as a child being taken from her parents and sent to Aaron’s compound.
Pictures of Olivia leaving the compound with the other children…

Tortured. Olivia crying, begging
them to stop. I didn’t have time to feel any guilt.

“You’re going to keep them occupied while we get him to the train
station. Understand?”

“Train station,” I muttered.

Suddenly the images faded, and I
was back in the parking lot of the motel.

“Train station,” Cameron
repeated weakly, sounding drained. “The town closest was called Covington.”

“Find it on the GPS,” Aunt
Lyndsey demanded.

Lewis released his hold and
moved toward the car.

“I was…” Olivia was breathing
heavily as she leaned against the hood. It had hurt, but not as badly as S.P.I.
had tortured her. “If you won at the compound, I was to be backup. I was
supposed to keep you here, and they would recoup and follow.”

Her eyes fluttered, her body sinking,
sliding down the car to the ground. Between the beating by S.P.I. and our
little mind journey, she was exhausted. “I had no choice.”

But we always had a choice,
didn’t we? They’d tortured me, but I’d refused to speak out. Pain, so much
pain, yet I hadn’t told them anything.

“Some people aren’t as strong as
you,” Aunt Lyndsey said, stepping close to me.

I wasn’t sure if she had read my
mind or could see the look of disgust on my face.

“Is everything okay?” someone called
out hesitantly. We spun around. The manager hovered near the corner of the
building, the same guy who had found me on the ground. Crap, he was definitely
suspicious. “You guys need something?”

“Yeah.” My aunt tossed him two
fifties. “This girl is underage and drinking. Get her to a room. She’s not
feeling well. Hung-over. Her mom will be here to pick her up soon.”

The money had eased his mind. He
was already thinking of the pot he’d buy. He slipped his arm around her waist
and started toward the nearest door. “Okay.”

Aunt Lyndsey glanced at me, then
Cameron. “You ready?”
 

“Yeah.”

She started for the car. Cameron
glanced back at Olivia, and I could see the worry in her eyes. A year ago I
wouldn’t have looked back. I wanted to leave without conscience, didn’t want to
care. Maybe it was my mom’s death, or the powers coursing through me, but I couldn’t
help myself. Slowly, I glanced over my shoulder. The manager had settled her on
a bed and was leaving the room. He was more interested in calling his dealer
than the fact that my aunt was covered in blood and Olivia was unconscious.

“She’ll heal,” Cameron said.

Yeah, but would she escape
S.P.I.?

Lewis started the car.

I pushed Olivia from my mind and
settled in the back seat with Aunt Lyndsey, trying not to dwell on the blood staining
the leather, a harsh reminder of how close we’d come to losing our aunt. Funny,
only a few days ago when I’d imagined seeing Maddox again I had pictured us
locked in battle. It sure as heck had never crossed my mind that I might be saving
him. But things had changed.
I
had
changed.

I tapped on the roof of the car.
“Let’s go kick some S.P.I. ass.”

Chapter
8

Two hours. For two hours we’d
been sitting on a stump in a small patch of woods along a railroad track just
waiting for the right time. For two hours I’d been swatting at mosquitos, listening
for the sound of a train whistle on this barely used track. And for those two
hours I’d been thinking about Maddox.

I tried to ignore the pounding
of my heart, knowing that at any moment that train would arrive, and we would
know for sure if Maddox was there or if finding him was a lost cause. I tried
but failed. I scraped my hair back, putting it into a quick ponytail. He’d insisted
I not save him, he’d told me to try and have a normal life. But what sort of
life could I have if he died? Especially knowing what I now knew? With a sigh,
I rested my face in my hands. I’d been taught to be a warrior and not let my
emotions get the best of me. Where was that warrior now when I needed her most?

When the shrill whistle finally pierced
the evening sky, it startled me so much that I jumped to my feet. Cameron jumped
up beside me. Lewis stood much more slowly, reluctantly almost, his gaze pinned
to the tracks. The only one who didn’t seem all that interested was Aunt
Lyndsey.

“I’d say they’re about a mile
away,” she said. She’d changed into a clean shirt and looked the female version
of Rambo again instead of the zombie she’d resembled after the compound attack.

We had dumped the car on a side
road about a fourth of a mile north. A year ago, this little excursion would
have been considered pointless. Putting our lives in danger for someone who
wouldn’t benefit the team in some way? Not a chance. Mom never would have given
permission. I wouldn’t have wasted my time or energy, yet here I was. How
things had changed.

“We’ll need to pool our
resources and get the hell out of here before Olivia wakes up or they find her,”
Lewis whispered.
 

“Should have just killed her,” I
muttered, although I didn’t really mean it. Maybe I would have a year ago. But unfortunately
my new powers, or maybe it was the past year, came with a conscience. S.P.I. certainly
would’ve killed her. But we weren’t S.P.I., or so I was continuously trying to
prove to myself.
 

Cameron sent me a glare. “You
don’t mean that.”

Yeah, I got it. Olivia had been
tortured. People did crazy things when someone was threatening to drill into
your brain. I could admit to myself that if I’d been with S.P.I. even another
day, I might have folded, too.

“If they haven’t already found
her.” I knew what she was saying: this could be a trap. Aunt Lyndsey started
toward the tracks, her steps carefully placed and silent. “7:30, right on time.”

Lewis and Cameron followed, but
I glanced back, making sure we were still alone. The town—if you could call it
that, as it contained one bar and one gas station—was empty and quiet. We
followed the woods alongside the road and shifted into the trees, hidden within
the shadows. We all knew how to blend in with our surroundings. Half an hour
ago, when a group of teenage boys had walked by not twenty feet away joking
about their hot substitute teacher, they hadn’t even noticed us. I could only
hope the boys and anyone else in town were safely inside their homes.

“You’re sure you can stop the
train?” I heard my aunt ask Lewis as I caught up to them.