Chapter Nineteen
If it hadn’t been for the smell, I’d swear I was stuck inside a video game. Beeping and blipping and funny sounds. A few deep breaths. There was someone else in the room with me—wherever I was. I could hear them breathing. Possibly two someones.
It took me a few tries, but when I finally opened my eyes, I saw him standing over my bed. Scowl firmly in place, Anderson looked down on me with clinical interest. “Awake now?”
Beside him was a tall brunette woman with a deceptively warm grin and long nails. Nails, I’d joked, that reminded me of cat claws.
Donna winked at me then leaned closer to Anderson, wrapping an arm around his waist in a disturbingly possessive fashion. Little pieces fell into place. Someone let Henley into Dromere. Donna had keys and wouldn’t arouse suspicion if seen there working late. And the restaurant. That’s how Anderson knew where we’d be. She’d told him.
It’d been her. She was the third person Anderson had sent in. I felt bad for Wentz. He’d been crazy about her, and the entire time she was there to spy on him. “The nurse said they gave him some pretty hefty drugs. He might not be completely lucid just yet.”
I moved my fingers and toes and tilted my head from side-to-side. Yep. We had movement. I was awake. I was alive! “What—how long have I been here?”
He stepped back and pulled up a chair. “It’s been a few days. What do you remember, Henley?”
Henley had survived the fall from the window. Cain’s body was gone.
I took a deep breath, not answering right away. My head felt remarkably clear. If a few days passed, then any lingering side effects from the jump must have dissipated while I was out. “I went to Dromere to get the formula from Wentz…” A bubble of anger—remnants of Henley—surfaced. “That a*shole, Cain, followed me. He—he pushed me out the frigging window.” I glared. “Please tell me the bastard isn’t dead. I wanna do it myself.”
“Cain is dead.” Anderson leaned back in the chair, face impassive. “Apparently Devin Glen was concerned about her father’s well being. She was there that night, too. She claims she broke in to get the files.”
Crap. There was no telling what he’d do to Devin if he thought she was lying. He couldn’t find out she’d gone there with Cain. Then I had an idea. “She’s telling the truth.”
Anderson’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”
“She came with me. Wentz is too valuable to lose.” I pushed myself up so I was seated in a more dignified position. “Say I got the formula from him as he died—then what? There’s no guarantee we would find someone able to make it work. Wentz is brilliant. I took Devin in a last ditch attempt to find the formula without killing him. I thought if I could force him to at least tell us which computer it was on, she could find it.”
Anderson wasn’t convinced. “She said she searched all the computers in the facility and found nothing. Besides, it would have been pointless. Cain informed me earlier that night that the information was in Franklin Wentz’s mind.”
“Cain was a liar. He was too close to Wentz. And Devin did search the computers, but she was looking for a file called Dromin12. We thought maybe it was called something else. It would have been easier to overlook.”
“I see.” He stood. “Well, it paid off. We have the formula. I’ve already got the lab working on it. They’re combining it with the component we already have and I hope to have a test serum within a week. I have a good feeling about this. Domination will be a success.”
“Domination?”
Anderson smiled. The expression chilled me to the bone. He turned on his heel and started for the door, Donna wrapped around him like a boa constrictor. When he reached it, he glanced over his shoulder and grinned. “The new version of the Supremacy trial.”
And then I remembered something. Something bad. I was in a body that officially had a time limit. “Wait! The cure. Cross promised me the cure.”
“Ah, yes. Well, you can try, but seeing how you failed him…” Both eyebrows rose with amusement. “I don’t think he’ll be very eager to help you. And, well, I have no desire to see you healthy. After all, you were plotting against me to give Cross the upper hand in our little rivalry.” Anderson paused in the doorway, a look of mock disappointment on his face. “Pity. I truly liked you.”
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. He disappeared around the corner without another word, leaving me feeling hollow and empty.
I sat there for the longest time, wracking my brain to come up with a way to fix this. I’d screwed the pooch big time. Denazen had gotten its hands on possibly the single most dangerous thing imaginable and I’d allowed it to happen. I was balls deep in a proper mental flogging when the door squeaked and someone else slipped into the room.
An angel with green eyes and wild, chestnut-colored hair.
Devin.
“You’re awake,” she said. There was a coolness to her voice and her expression didn’t exactly scream happy to see you. “It’s about time.”
I didn’t respond. Of course she’d look at me like that. I was wearing Henley’s face. She didn’t know it was me in here.
She paused at my bedside and leaned against the railing. “Look at me.”
I tried to move my head to see her better, but everything was stiff. “I can see you,” I replied weakly.
“Good for you. But I can’t see you. Look at me.”
Impatient with my slowness, she bent over me and tilted my head toward hers. I bit back a yelp—yelping was uncool, not to mention unmanly—and watched her. For the longest moment, all she did was stare. No talking. No flinching. Just staring. With each second that ticked by, the expression on her face grew less and less stony. It was like watching something defrost. When she finally released my face and moved back a few steps she wasn’t smiling, but she was happy.
She sighed, taking the chair Anderson had vacated. “They have Dromin12.”
“I heard. Why? He said you gave it to him.”
Her expression turned sad. “Wentz and I didn’t have a lot of time. We figured the only way to get them off his back would be to give them the formula.”
“But now they have it. They’re gonna try the experiment again—and this time it’ll work. They’ve got some super-secret component they believe will fix the flaw in his formula. You don’t want that, trust me. I’ve seen some of their handiwork. It’s not pretty.”
She looked away. “I’m not strong like you. I kept thinking about my father. It wasn’t the best choice, but by handing the formula over, Wentz was able to slip away, my father will get the help Anderson promised, and you and I can stay here undercover. Henley’s sick like the others, right? That means you need the cure now that you’re in his body? At least you can get that here.”
“No,” I said. “I can’t. Anderson was here earlier. He won his little pissing match against Cross—and he found out I was working for his rival. I don’t get the cure.”
Her face paled. “I—”
I pushed forward. There was no point in crying over spilled milk—or, in this case, lost cure. If I died, I’d end up jumping into another body, so technically I wasn’t in any real danger. But the idea of taking someone else’s life so I could keep truckin’ didn’t exactly give me the happies. “Wentz really agreed to all this? Where is he?”
“He’s in Parkview with that woman you mentioned. Ginger Midlen?”
A spark of hope sparked.
“So he’s safe?”
Devin nodded. “He called me. It was the weirdest thing. He said he went home to pack a bag and there was this blond-haired Billy Idol type with a smiley-face labret bead waiting for him. They helped him get away.”
Alex. I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “Thank God.”
“He’s going to find the cure for them. For your cousin and the others. Wentz is a genius. He’ll figure out a way to help all of you—even without that component.”
“I hope to God you’re right…” I sucked in a deep breath. “How did you know? That it was me. In here. How did you know?”
She ran the tip of her finger in a barely-there line just above my eyes. “That’s how I knew that it was you.” She pushed down the railing and settled on the bed beside me. The flimsy hospital mattress dipped under her weight. “Your eyes. I could see you.”
“See me?”
She shook her head. “Right before things went down in there, you asked me how I knew you were different. I didn’t notice it when I looked at Cain in the beginning. I only saw something that reminded me of my past. Of bad things… Then, when I met you—the real you…” Fidgeting with the ring on her finger, she sighed. “It was there the whole time, I just didn’t see it. But I see it now, the spark. I can look into your eyes—Henley’s eyes—and know that it’s you in there because I can see it.”
Something lodged in my throat. A lump. They’d been shoving food down my throat while I was asleep. Yeah. That was what it was. “You can really see me…”
She smiled. Leaning close, warm strawberry breath tickling the sides of my cheek, she whispered, “I see you, Brandt Cross. I see you perfectly.” Leaning back, she reached over the edge of the bed and dug into her purse. When she returned, she held her hand out to me, the skate wheel in her small palm. “I took this from Cain’s room.”
I hesitated, almost afraid to take it in fear that it, she, and the entire room would burst like a flimsy bubble in a dream. “How—how did you know to bring it?”
She smiled. The sight was like a thousand fireworks shooting across the clear night sky. “It seemed important. You had it every time I saw you in my dreams. I decided to take a chance and check Cain’s room.”
I took the wheel. “Thank you.” There was a peaceful edge to everything in that moment. She could see me. Me. Brandt. I wasn’t lost. I drifted back into oblivion, happier than I’d been in a long time. She was right. Wentz was brilliant. If anyone could find a cure for the Supremacy kids it’d be him. Dez and I were as good as gold with him on the case.
My name is Brandt Cross, and I’m not faceless anymore. I’m still alive…
Acknowledgments
As always, I owe much love and eternal thanks to my ever-supportive parents and computer genius brother. And to my husband, Kevin, who has my back no matter what—even when I forget to feed him…
To my editors, Erica, who is always there when I need her, and Liz, who continues to take chances on me—you guys rock my world. Really.
My beta readers, Amber, Mary, Conny, and Gigs, I owe you all a drink. Or, at the very least, your very own Wolpertinger.
To my publicity team, Dani and Anjana… You’re excitement and enthusiasm never fail to blow my mind. You guys make it easy to do what I do.
And to everyone that’s come along on the journey so far with Dez and Kale, and all their friends from Parkview…thank you. I hope you’ll continue to stick around. Things are about to get bumpy…
Cue evil laughter.