Altered Read online

  “Yes. That’s fine.” His whisper swept over her, and she closed her eyes. He didn’t say any more, but he didn’t have to, it seemed. She felt like he got it, her loss and heartache. Everything.

  He wasn’t the enemy, after all. He’d seen all the bodies, too. He’d had the flu, too.

  He’d had the flu…

  Her brows dropped, and she looked him over. He didn’t look any different. But she and Kitty didn’t look different, either. “So what are your new superpowers?”

  “What?” He stiffened. That obviously hadn’t been what he’d expected her to say.

  “If you had the flu that caused this, then why aren’t you moving things with your mind or hearing thoughts?”

  His eyebrows dropped. “You think I lied?”

  She shook her head quickly. “No. I didn’t say that.” And she didn’t mean that, either. She didn’t have any reason to believe him, but she realized that she did. The thought terrified her. “I only mean, have you tried?”

  “Tried what?”

  “To touch your nose with your tongue.” She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest. “What do you think? To move things with your mind.”

  “No. I haven’t.”

  “Maybe you should.”

  Seth stared at her, then at Kitty, studying them, a crinkle forming in his forehead. Then he nodded, as if he convinced himself. “You know, you’re right. Maybe something is different about me, too.” He squared his shoulders and scanned the room, his brow furrowing. Then he took a deep breath. “So, how do I do it?”

  Blue considered. “I don’t really know.”

  “Helpful.”

  “I focus on something and…ask it to move.” Really. That sounded ridiculous. It was ridiculous. Ask it to move. Lovely.

  Seth’s look told her he agreed. “Right. Ask it to move.” He turned to the desk chair. He squinted and grimaced. He moved his hand.

  Nothing.

  In the awkward silence afterward, Blue couldn’t help herself. She mentally picked the chair up and twisted it in the air.

  Seth spun, his eyes widened in horror and awe. “My God. Did I do that?”

  She set the chair back down, immediately feeling bad. “No. That was me.”

  His face stormed over, and he stalked to the doorway. “This is stupid.”

  He slammed the door behind him. Blue listened to him go before meeting Kitty’s eyes.

  “That wasn’t nice,” Kitty said as she flitted around, picking up things Blue had sent flying. The room looked like there’d been a burglary. Guilt swept through her. It hadn’t been cool to wreck Kitty’s room like this. She’d lost her stuff there for a minute. No need to take it out on Kitty.

  She focused on the contents, trying to remember where she’d gotten all the pieces. As she recalled, she sent them back with her mind. Strange as it was, this gift could definitely come in handy.

  “Sorry about your room,” she offered.

  Kitty shrugged. “It’s fine.”

  No, it wasn’t, but it was nice of her to say so. “And you’re right. That wasn’t nice.”

  “But you were feeling a bit self-conscious and lashed out.”

  That deserved a scowl. “Yes, Kitty. I was. Thank you for reminding me.”

  “Sorry.” Kitty looked much younger than eighteen in her long nightgown. “But I’ve known you for years, Blue. It didn’t take mind reading to know that.”

  Blue sighed, feeling bad for snapping at Kitty. She was winning friends and influencing people left and right around here.

  She watched Kitty tidy. She understood the need to do this, but they didn’t really have time for cleanup. “We should go, Kit.”

  Kitty’s hands paused. “What do you mean?”

  Instead of explaining, Blue allowed her memories of the helicopter to play across her mind along with Seth’s explanation about Goldstone.

  “He thinks they did this to us?” Kitty’s eyes widened. Her hands shook as she clutched her elbows, seeming to fold in on herself.

  “Yes. But we can’t figure out how.” It didn’t make sense. None of it.

  “We’re far from town. At least ten miles. I can’t imagine they’d look here.”

  “I don’t think we should chance it.” Blue motioned to the other girl’s nightgown. “You might want to put something else on.”

  Kitty looked down. “Right. Can’t be running around in my nightgown, can I?” She opened her dresser and sifted through again, pulling out a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She seemed so casual. Maybe she was in shock. Losing her parents, reading minds… It might be too much for her.

  Blue stepped toward the other girl, thinking she should say something. “Kitty, you know…”

  Without turning, Kitty answered. “Blue. I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Whatever you say.” All righty, then. No talking about it. That was fine by her. Changing the subject, she motioned at her ruined work clothes. “Hey, could I borrow something clean, too? I haven’t changed since…” Her throat tightened, and she couldn’t seem to continue.

  “Sure. Here.” The other girl tossed her another pair of jeans and a tee.

  “Thanks.” Blue turned away to give them both some privacy. She kicked off her Converse and stripped out of her dirty clothes. The jeans were a size or two too big, but Kitty tossed her a belt without a word and Blue cinched them closed, folding the bottoms up once. She yanked the clean tee over her head, feeling almost human again.

  She gathered her dirty things and left. Kitty deserved a moment to collect her thoughts and finish up in her room, alone. Blue would have liked the same before she had to run. It hadn’t happened like that.

  Besides, she should find Seth. Apologize. That had been a pretty cruddy thing to do.

  But Kitty had been right about her being self-conscious, as much as she hated to admit it. She’d always been the weird kid. The kid whose father committed suicide to avoid jail time for tax evasion. The kid whose mom left her behind.

  Growing up like that in a small town hadn’t been easy. Over the years, she’d convinced herself she didn’t care what anyone else thought. She’d had Gran, and Gran loved her. But now Gran was gone. And this—being different, being strange again—brought all those elementary school feelings back. She’d stopped being the confident girl she’d grown into and gone back to the days when she’d punched Jack Barnett in the nose when he said her parents had left because of her.

  That was her baggage. It wasn’t fair to take it out on Seth.

  She scurried past the bathroom, not looking at Mr. Laughton. There’d been too much death today. She couldn’t deal with it all right now. She took the steps down two at a time, calling out, “Hey, Seth,” as she went, trying to figure out how to patch things up with him.

  But a rhythmic beating, like a swarm of bees, filled the air, becoming louder.

  The helicopter. Goldstone.

  “Kitty! Now!” she yelled up the stairs, panic making her voice higher. Her heart picked up as she dashed through the hallway, scanning the little downstairs for Seth. Nausea swept through her. He’d probably been pissed and gone out to the car.

  “No.” It came out on a whisper. She didn’t know when in the past few hours he’d become so important to her, but he had. Maybe because they were in this together. Maybe because he seemed to get how she felt about losing Gran. She didn’t know. But she sure as hell knew she didn’t want Goldstone to get him.

  Kitty joined her. “Seth’s outside.”

  Blue nodded. One benefit of having Kitty around: no need for chatter.

  She slid the door open, peeking out. The steady beat of the helicopter’s propellers sounded above them. It must be directly overhead. “They found us.”

  Kitty shook her. “No. They don’t know we’re here.”

  “You can hear them?” From so far?

  Kitty wasn’t listening to her, her eyes closed and her mind in the sky. “They know my house is supplied by well water. There was somet
hing in the water in town. A chemical, a drug. Something to change us. They think our house is safe because we don’t get water from town.” She opened her eyes, pain naked on her face. “That’s true. But my father insisted on dessert at Murphy’s last night. He wanted Mrs. Murphy’s pie.”

  Blue didn’t have time to soothe her. “What else?”

  She looked back at the sky. “They need to catch whoever’s left. To contain us, keep us quiet.” Their eyes met again. Kitty’s brow dropped. “They’re looking for someone else, too. The doctor who did this. He’s on the run.”

  What? She didn’t have time to think about that. “Where is Seth?”

  She followed Kitty’s eyes across the porch, out into the middle of the driveway. What she saw chilled her.

  The helicopter became deafening. Seth, in his camo pants, black T-shirt, and shorn hair, stood squinting up at the sky, a glare on his handsome face. His legs were apart, his hands at his sides clenched into fists. Even from the porch, Blue could tell every muscle was tensed, as if ready to fight.

  Which was crazy. Just nuts.

  “My God,” Blue breathed.

  “He’s angry. So angry,” Kitty said. She sank to the porch floor. “I can’t…there’s too much…so violent…” She covered her ears.

  But Blue didn’t check on her. She stumbled forward, tripping down the steps. “Seth, you have to move!”

  The helicopter dropped, getting closer to the ground, and the buzzing of the rotors intensified. She froze. The wind picked up, stealing her breath, and she braced herself against it. A man hung from each side of the black helicopter. The way they held their assault rifles spoke to an intimate familiarity with the weapons.

  The men moved, working quickly, and a rope dropped from each side of the aircraft. If she wasn’t so terrified, she’d admire their efficiency.

  “Seth! Get away from it!” The first man rappelled down, right above Seth, but he didn’t move. If anything, he braced his legs apart, as if he planned to take the guy on.

  Why wasn’t he listening? He’d lost it. No other explanation. “Christ, Seth! Go!”

  She stepped toward him. He was going to get himself killed.

  No more death today, she decided. And definitely not Seth.

  But before she managed more than a step to help him, he exploded into the air, soaring toward the helicopter, at least three stories high.

  Seth couldn’t hear thoughts or move things with his mind. But he could fly.

  He didn’t know how he did it.

  One moment he was paralyzed with fury. He’d watched the Little Bird crest the trees and felt pursued. Hunted.

  Since joining the military, he hadn’t felt so helpless. It was one of the reasons he’d joined up. Even in Afghanistan, he hadn’t felt outgamed. They’d always had the upper hand. They were better trained, better equipped.

  Just better.

  But now? Seth had no weapons, nothing to protect himself. These guys were tracking them like criminals. And worse? It wasn’t only him. Inside, there were those two unarmed girls. Two civilians, like Bobby.

  They would be killed. Like the people in Glory.

  Like Bobby.

  As the Goldstone soldier rappelled down that rope, his rage became unbearable. These guys couldn’t come in here and take them out. He wasn’t a victim, and he sure as hell wouldn’t let Kitty and Blue be victims either. He would save them all, if it was the last thing he did. This time, he wouldn’t let anyone down.

  He didn’t know what he planned. But his body needed to do something.

  And like that, his brain supplied that something to him.

  It played out like a movie. He’d jump above the incoming soldier, drop down with one arm, secure the other man’s knife, and cut the line. The guy would drop like a stone. Then Seth could shimmy up and take out the pilots. The helicopter would fall. And he would jump away to safety before it hit the ground.

  Except no one could do that.

  Even so, he sprang up, jumping higher than humanly possible. As the distance between him and the soldier closed, time slowed. No, that wasn’t right. Time didn’t slow, but his mind ran through the possibilities so quickly that he could make the minutest movements necessary to adjust his trajectory with no difficulty. A tiny shift of his hip to account for wind, considering the downdraft from the propellers. He landed exactly where he planned, gripping the rope right above the mercenary’s head.

  He used the momentum from his body—about thirty miles per hour, if he had to guess—to swing around the rope and kick with his legs. While he moved, he snagged the knife out of the other man’s holster and cut the rope directly beneath him, above the soldier’s head.

  He didn’t watch the other man fall. Instead he overhanded it up the rope.

  Why was he so strong? He’d been in great shape before, but this? This was sick.

  He pushed that aside as he shimmied up. One of the pilots leaned over, working the line, probably trying to unlatch it. Why didn’t the guy shoot him? Would be much more effective. Didn’t make sense. But his unusually adept mind seamlessly worked through the possible implications of the detaching rope. As the rope dropped, Seth lunged, grabbing the skid with both hands. He hoisted himself in an effortless pull-up and swung into the helicopter in one fluid movement, facing the stunned pilot.

  He punched the guy in the face.

  The pilot lifted off his feet and slammed into the back of the helicopter, sliding down into an unconscious heap.

  Two steps brought him to the other pilot. Pilot number two had more time to prepare for the attack, and he dived at him with knife at the ready. As Seth grappled with him, the helicopter lurched, dropping fast.

  In a far recess of his mind, he wondered why he wasn’t freaking out. But the logic made so much sense. He could do this. It was irrefutable.

  As they tilted, and he gained control of the remaining pilot’s knife, a bright pink blur caught his eye.

  Blue.

  She stood in front of Kitty’s house, staring up at him, and the starkness of her face registered even from this height.

  As the helicopter lurched and dropped, it took only a split second to realize she would be hurt when the helicopter went down. Maybe even killed. The cockpit would land safely in front of her, but the propellers would break. He knew it, the events so certain it was as if they’d already happened. Fear twisted everything in his head.

  His priorities realigned.

  That wasn’t acceptable. He knew it with an unfamiliar fierceness. Blue, with her sassy mouth and unpredictable vulnerability, could not be hurt. Definitely not because of him.

  His brain supplied what he would have to do, almost without him thinking.

  He followed the instructions.

  Relieve pilot of his knife: check. Smash his nose with heel of hand: check.

  Jump from helicopter, now thirty-two and a half feet from the ground, give or take an inch or so. Check. Bend knees at an exact forty-five-degree angle to absorb the majority of the weight from his fall, tilt to roll to the left and tumble into somersault to distribute his velocity.

  That part hurt worse than he’d expected. He knew he’d sprained his left ankle. He’d chosen the left, because he wouldn’t need his left foot to drive them out of here.

  But it still hurt like a mother.

  It wasn’t the first time he’d felt pain, though, so he rolled to his feet in one smooth motion and was running instantly. He tore off toward Blue, who stood staring at him as if he was some sort of circus freak show.

  Which, he admitted, he was.

  He scooped her up without breaking stride. She seriously was a scrap of a thing, and her added weight did nothing to his speed. He tried not to think how good she felt against him or how much his ankle hurt. He picked up the pace and hauled ass away from the helicopter crashing behind him.

  As he rounded the house with Blue in tow, the aircraft hit the ground with a deafening crunch, kicking up dust and knocking him off balance. He pitche
d forward, falling to his knees and dumping Blue unceremoniously onto the ground. He managed to roll to the side, but he couldn’t halt his momentum completely.

  She grunted as he landed half on top of her.

  She was okay. His relief was overwhelming.

  He shifted off her, wincing when he put weight on his ankle. Shit, that hurt. Something tickled his upper lip. He swiped at it, coming away with blood.

  A nosebleed?

  Blue rolled away to cough on her knees.

  He crawled to her side, checking her over gently, looking for bruising and blood. “Are you all right?”

  “Christ, Seth,” she answered through a sputter, shifting away from him. He’d never been happier to hear someone growl at him. “Why’d you let them see you? Why didn’t you hide?”

  Why didn’t he hide? Not feeling like answering that, he scowled at her. “I saved your life.”

  “No, you almost killed yourself.” She got to her feet, glaring at him. Her blond hair stuck up in every direction, and this close he couldn’t help but notice how blue her eyes were. The sun was hitting them just right. He could make out the darker blue circle around the outside. They were gorgeous.

  Distracted, he missed what she was saying. “Sorry?”

  “How’d you do that?”

  “Do what?”

  She smirked and waited. Right. He’d dived into a helicopter. From the ground. “I don’t know?” It sounded like a question. Because he wasn’t sure it was a good enough excuse or that he had a good answer. He tried again. “I just knew I could, all right? I knew the helicopter was right there. I knew I could stop it.”

  “You knew you could stop a helicopter.”

  “Yes.” He ran a hand over his head. “Hey, you move things with your mind. Don’t be so judgy.”

  She snorted.

  “I watched it arrive, and suddenly, I knew I could do all those things.” He glanced over at the now destroyed helicopter, where it smoked and creaked behind them. “Listen, we don’t have time for this. I took out the helicopter. That makes you happy, doesn’t it?”

  “Are any of them…dead?” She gazed at the wreckage, her back straight and her lips tight.

  He followed her gaze. At the time, all he could think about was saving Blue and Kitty and himself. This helicopter was against them, so he was against it. It was that simple. He fought people for a living, protected people with his hands and his skills. It was what he was trained to do. Them or us. And he preferred to be the last one standing.