The Ashes of My Soul, page 30
I sighed and flopped down next to her. “I know. I want to do something.”
“I know you do. But you need to respect your mom’s wishes here.” She hesitated before continuing. “She won’t let you do it, either. Don’t even bring it up.”
“Why not?”
“If you wake him up, it means you could also wake Absynthe up. How do you think Alistair and Shade would respond to that?”
I groaned and covered my face. “Badly.”
“Leaving him in a coma is also safer for him. As long as he’s in this state, they’ve made their point and they won’t do anything more. They’ll have other targets, more meaningful targets. I bet I’m next.”
“I don’t like making that assumption.”
“I know.”
“I want him able to defend himself.”
“He wouldn’t be able to, even if he was awake.” My eyes were drifting closed. Star’s voice sounded like it was coming from further and further away. “Let him sleep this through, Kevin. Once everything over, we can wake him up and everything will be fine.”
“I hope so,” I mumbled as sleep took me down into nightmares.
Chapter Twenty
“You two need to learn subtlety.” My mom looked at me over her coffee. There were bags under her eyes and lines on her face I hadn’t noticed before, but there was a little more life in her eyes than last night.
“Subtlety?”
She smiled. “The walls here aren’t thick, dear. And your bed creaks.”
My face burned. Star and I had trouble falling asleep, so we’d decided to tire each other out a bit. “Mom!”
“I understand you need to relieve some stress, Kevin. I’m not upset with you.” Her smile widened. “Though I’m surprised you’re not in the shower with her right now.”
“Mother!” I tried to hide my face. “Let’s get ready to leave when she gets out, all right?”
“No changing the subject,” she said.
“I’m not comfortable talking about my sex life with my mother!”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re my mother!”
She rolled her eyes. “Did he ever give you the talk?”
“Don’t remind me, please!”
“Fine, I’ll let it go.” She put her mug down. “I need to make sure, though. You are being careful. Right?”
“Right.” Star had confirmed what Nikki had once told me, that she could regulate herself with biokinesis. The last time we’d talked around the question, she’d assured me she wasn’t ready yet. I had noted it didn’t involve me being ready, and she had noted I wouldn’t be the pregnant one. We’d left it there.
I dropped my spoon. “Are you all right?” Mom asked.
“Tired,” I said while I made a mental note to chat with Star.
“Are you thinking about revenge?”
I picked my spoon up, but my appetite was gone. “It’s crossed my mind.”
“It’s dangerous. I know you’ve faced him before, but he’s following Alistair’s orders. He’s holding back. He’s strong and well trained. You might be stronger in raw power, but I’m not sure that’d be enough if he went all out.”
I pushed my cereal around. “I do have tricks up my sleeve.” One of those tricks was on my finger. I’d filled the ring to near bursting with power before heading to the kitchen.
“I do hope Sarah isn’t one. I would like grandchildren one day, you know.” I dropped the spoon again. “Oh? Do you have a pleasant surprise for me?”
“It would be as much a surprise to me as it would to you.”
“Too bad.” I glared at her as I picked the spoon back up. “Keep her out of danger if you can.”
“That’s up to her more than me,” I pointed out.
Mom smiled again, but the smile rapidly faded. “Speaking of danger, let’s have a quick chat about Establishment security.”
“Shouldn’t we wait for Star?”
“I’d rather not.” Mom glanced toward the bathroom. “I know you’ll tell her later on, but I want to be able to truthfully say I didn’t reveal anything to a Resistance member.”
I was technically a Resistance member, but she didn’t need to know that. “I get it. Go on.”
“Alistair e-mailed me overnight.” She held her phone up. “As of today, he’s taking a more direct role in our internal security matters. He cited the attack on Absynthe as the reason. I suspect he’s doing it while we’re away so I can’t make a fuss.”
I groaned. “That’ll make it even easier to leak information. Though, I suppose it isn’t a leak if he’s telling Shade directly. Why do you think he’s taking this step?”
My mom shrugged. “Nothing comes to mind aside from the obvious. Absynthe kept security tight. He won’t.”
“And Alistair being in direct charge of security means he’s also in charge of whatever passes for the Establishment’s internal security division. Assuming we have something similar, and if we don’t, it’s a great excuse to create it.”
She winced. “We do, and you’re right. I suspect a purge is coming.”
“And we’ll be caught in it, right?” I didn’t need her to answer. We both knew we’d be against the wall. “We need to take steps to make sure it can’t happen. Or if it does, it’ll be too many people for him to get rid of and keep the Establishment running. Either way, right now, we need to delay.”
The bathroom door opened and Star walked into the living room, toweling her hair dry. “Good morning,” she greeted us.
“Sarah, are you pregnant?” My mom asked.
Star dropped the towel.
Hours later, we were almost back in Troy. Star was asleep in the back seat and I was drifting off. My mother’s voice snapped me out of it almost instantly. “Before we get back, we need to discuss our plans. We’re going to work to delay a purge as long as possible, so that means falling in line with whatever Alistair wants. If that means admitting to smaller things or giving up some privileges, you need to do it.”
“I’m not going to do that,” I said.
Her grip tightened on the wheel until her knuckles turned white. “This isn’t the time to argue.”
“I’m not arguing.” I looked to the back seat where Star was still out, a little drool at the corner of her mouth. “I’m telling you, delaying won’t work. He’ll bring Shade back if he needs to, and that’s enough power to take care of everyone short of Professor Burke, as far as I know.”
“Austin is very carefully neutral, though he seems to like you.” Her grip didn’t loosen at all. “Even if it won’t work, what’s the alternative, Kevin? Undermine Alistair so he can’t get away with a purge? I have some pull on the administrative side, but Absynthe’s the one in touch with the agents.”
“There’s another option.”
“You want to stop him directly.”
“Absynthe is a rallying cry,” I said. “I’ve met agents loyal to her. A couple dozen of them, minimum. You have influence. That’s a start.”
“It’s not enough.”
I looked into the back seat once again. She was beautiful, even while drooling in her sleep. “We have two more cards in our hand. The Resistance is one.”
“What’s the other one?”
“Me.” I looked back at my mom. “I don’t have the experience, it’s true, but I’m past the point of being a brute force weapon. I’ve learned finer control. I’ve learned second tier powers. If I counter Shade and Todd counters Alistair, that leaves us with powerhouses like Star and Absynthe. If I can convince Professor Burke to join us, or at least stay out, we have a fighting chance. I also have another couple of secrets to share.”
She sighed. We came up on a sign showing the distance to Albany, only a few more miles to go, and then another handful of minutes to home. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“It’s either fighting back or letting them purge or kill people who’d side with us.”
“Kevin, there is one other option.” She hesitated a long moment before continuing. “I know this will upset you, but please, consider it. Surrendering to Alistair ends it all. I don’t know what his plans are, and I don’t know how you factor into those plans, but is it worse than all the loss of life a civil war will cause? Is risking your life worth stopping him? Risking my life? Risking Sarah’s life?”
I bit my tongue and counted to ten before even beginning to respond. Alistair had lied to me repeatedly. Shade had told me more, but I couldn’t believe everything he said. “What he told me was terrible,” I said. “With the way he lies, the reality could be even worse. Yeah, it’s worth fighting for.”
She nodded and put a finger to her lips. We were close enough to the campus for someone to listen in. I woke Star up when we got to the dorm and we walked in together. She was still wearing the same clothes from three days ago, though she’d washed everything yesterday. I was wearing one of the few shirts from high school that still fit me.
My room was empty, so we headed to Andreas’s room, which seemed to have become our base of operations. I knocked once and then opened the door without waiting. Instead of a cheerful greeting, I was met with two canisters of pepper spray being pointed at me. “Kev?”
I held my hands up to make sure they could get a good look at my face. Kaitlyn and Andreas were the only ones in the room. “Sorry to surprise you.”
“It is good to see you. How is your father?” Andreas sat back down at the table. There was a soldering iron and an array of tiny components in front of him. Kaitlyn sat back down, but she wasn’t making eye contact with either me or Star.
“He’s still in a coma, but stable.” Star poked me from behind, but I didn’t move. “Where’s everyone else?”
“Jess is in our room,” Kaitlyn said. “Doing something on her computer. Max and Drew went to see our sick friend.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. “I thought I said not to go there.”
“Something went wrong,” Andreas said, which didn’t help my nerves. “The medic has not checked in lately and Grace is not available. They went to check in case there was an emergency situation.”
“How long ago did they leave?”
“A half hour, maybe?”
“Those fucking idiots!” I spun around and pushed past Star.
She caught up to me as I reached the stairwell. “Do you think it’s a trap?”
“Yes,” I said. “Can you think of any reason why he’d go silent?”
“A lot of reasons. Compromised. Injured. Turned. Dead.”
We hit the lobby at a run, pushing past a couple of surprised students. “Where’s the car?”
“Downtown.”
“No time. Steal something.”
She picked a nondescript car toward the back of the lot and unlocked it with a quick flick of power. We slid into the seats and another flick of power started the engine. I switched a psionic disruptor on and we took off. She drove slower than normal. Without the ability to divert attention, we didn’t want to risk getting pulled over. We did skip the usual security step of taking a longer route and were at the safehouse in twenty minutes.
Luckily, we pulled into the driveway as Max and Drew were getting out of their car. They had obeyed the rule about taking a longer route. I was glad they’d at least listened to one thing. “Whoa, Kev?” Max said as we jumped out.
“You fucking idiots!” I tried not to shout, but it was hard to stay calm. “Didn’t it cross your mind this could be a trap?”
Max and Drew traded looks, then both reached into their pockets to pull out their own disruptors and pepper sprays. “Dude, we’re not going in blind,” Drew said. “I know it’s a little dumb to do this, but we talked it over and we needed to take the risk.”
“What risk?”
Star trotted around the corner of the house. I hadn’t even noticed her leave. “I did a circuit and peeked in the windows. All clear.”
“Only leaves Shade as a problem.” I led the way to the door. “Sorry. What risk?”
“Last thing the medic said, she was still degrading,” Drew said as we walked in. The safehouse was still the same as the last time I’d been here, furnished but unused. “We put her in the basement. He hooked her up with a basic heart monitor and a saline drip to keep her hydrated but she’s still wasting away.”
I rushed down the stairs, almost tripping on the way. Absynthe lay on a couch with a blanket draped over her. Nothing looked out of place, but her cheeks were sunken and her arms were noticeably thinner. Drew rushed to her side to check on her while I stood in the middle of the room doing nothing. Max put his hand on my shoulder, making me jump. “Chill. It’s not an emergency yet.”
“Dude, she’s in serious danger territory,” Drew said. “Pulse is weak, her extremities are cold. She’s eating herself to stay alive. This isn’t like any sort of malnutrition, it’s like her body thinks she’s starving and the signal she has enough nutrients isn’t there.”
“Ok, so I was wrong,” Max said.
I turned to Star, who was already on her phone. “No contact with the medic, not that he’d do any good.” She blinked as she flicked a finger across the screen. “Holy shit, Todd made it. He just got off the train and Grace is bringing him here right now. Half hour, he says.”
“I don’t know if she’s going to last that long,” Drew said.
“Can’t you do anything?” I asked.
He spread his hands wide. “Sorry, I don’t have any magic pills or shots. What about you? Can’t you do anything?”
His words pushed me to action. I tapped my power and probed her mind. Oddly, with the deterioration of her condition, the twists were getting stronger. It was like they were feeding off of her. I pressed through the same nexus I had before, holding everything else back from sealing off my intrusion. It was easier than last time. I knew where to reinforce my threads without tapping into my ring’s power.
My thread touched the core of her mind and I tried to make contact. Unlike last time, she didn’t react, not even to slap me away. I couldn’t tell if she was even partially conscious anymore. If she was, she was concentrating on staying alive. I reeled my threads back in. “No good. I can’t wake her up.”
“Don’t wake her up, dumbass,” Drew said. “Can’t you give her some nutrients or something?”
I looked at Star. She knew more about biokinesis than I did. My heart sank as she shook her head. “We can only work with what we have. If she’s burning muscle, I can’t do anything except make her do it faster.”
“Could I create some nutrients for her?” I asked. “Create something edible in her stomach?”
“Ever made something edible before?” Star asked. I shook my head. “Don’t try, then. Too many variables. All it would take is one toxin and she’d be dead.”
We all looked around the room as if a solution would pop out of the wall. “Shit,” Max said. “Shit, shit, shit! Is there some way to transfer life energy or something?”
“It’s not really a transfer,” Star said. “It’s complicated to explain, but it’s basically using our metabolism to boost someone else’s. That won’t help here, she’s eating herself, that’s the entire fucking problem. Shit. Grace might know something, but I don’t know what to do. Can we feed her anything? Does she have a swallow reflex?”
Drew nodded. “I’ve tested with a little water, but it wasn’t strong. Like you said, one thing goes wrong, and she’s gone. Aspirate a little bit of food and she might not be able to take the strain of coughing.”
“What about putting another blanket on her?” Max asked.
“No point,” Drew replied.
“Can you get a hold of Grace and ask her what we should do?” I asked Star.
She nodded and tapped at her phone. A few moments later, I heard a male voice echo through the speaker. “Sarah? Grace is driving.”
“Absynthe’s degrading fast. Is there anything we can do?”
I heard Grace’s voice in the background. “She’s asking if there’s a feeding tube. How long does she have?”
“No feeding tube, just an IV.” Drew held up one finger and waved it back and forth. “An hour, tops.”
“Is it a saline or nutrient solution?”
“Saline,” Drew said, then swore under his breath. “Talk about missing the fucking obvious. It’s not like we carry those in the ambulance. Could we walk into a hospital and ask for one?”
“You can’t,” Star said. “But I can.”
“I think there’s a hospital like 10 minutes away.” Drew jumped to his feet. “You and me go there, Kev and Max hold the fort?”
Max tapped his foot on the floor. “What do we do if something happens?”
“CPR?” Drew asked. “Shit, I don’t know. Keep her breathing until we get back and we can figure it out from there.”
Star tossed me her phone and they took the stairs two at a time. “Todd?” I asked. “Still there?”
“Still here. Kevin?”
“Yeah. Star and Drew are going to go borrow a nutrient bag from the local hospital. Do you have any ideas?”
“Tell me her condition.”
“Her mind’s intact, but she’s wasting away like she’s starving to death.”
“It’s been a week or so since she was attacked. Nowhere near enough time to actually starve. Have you been able to repair any of the mental damage?”
“She’s a mess. Too many twists for me to handle by myself, they loop back on themselves and there’s even some way they’re replicating. That’s just the outermost layer. There’s two more under it. I was barely able to get anything through to see if she was conscious after the attack. She responded then, but not today.”
Todd grunted. “Got it. There’s something in the twists doing this.”
“Drew said it was like her body thinks it’s starving, like the signal to stop isn’t working.”
“That makes sense.”
“Kev?” Max called from Absynthe’s side. “Uh, problem?”
I stepped over to her side. Her breathing was getting shallower and slower. The heart rate monitor was flashing red warnings. “Shit. All of you need to hurry up. She’s fading faster than we thought.”
