Page 19

Gemma

“I thought you understood what was going on with him,” Hank fussed. “I thought you had better sense!”

“It’s my fault.” I wrapped my arms around my middle and wished I could sink through the floor. “I reacted on emotion and hit him. I wasn’t thinking.”

“Gemma, I know you didn’t mean it to turn out this way.” Hank’s voice was full of false patience. “But it was a mistake that almost cost you your life. And Jax’s. And Gigi’s. And probably those two girls who came in.”

We all avoided looking at Kerry, who lay flat on his back with his limbs thrown out any which way.

The second he had made that low animal growl and raised blue spikes all over his skin, I’d touched his fist, flinching as one of the spikes pierced my finger, and blasted him. Jax had hustled the two girls out of the store with some lame story about needing to close early, and Gigi had called Hank. Then, we’d waited together, silent and shaken.

“Warden,” Jax said now, “we’re trying our best. We want to be his friends and I think he wants to be our friend, too, but he triggers easily over unexpected things.”

“Which is why I was against bringing him out into public so early! Emotionally, he’s nine years old. And what do little kids do when they’re upset or angry or hurt? They throw tantrums. But this kid’s in worse trouble than normal because all of his limiters were turned off, all of his filters destroyed. On top of that, he has an enormous amount of power, and he’s been conditioned to use it recklessly, to wield it at a whim!”

“He hasn’t hurt anyone.” I snapped my head up.

“At this rate, it’s only a matter of time until he does!” Hank thundered. “Don’t you understand? He’s killed people!”

“I know! I was almost one of them! But it wasn’t him . It was the demon. Kerry fought against it each and every day of his life for a decade. Do you think someone so strong can’t be salvaged?”

Why couldn’t others see what I could? He needed guidance, not imprisonment!

“I’m going to keep helping him, keep pushing him along.” I tilted my chin up. “And I’m also going to be there to keep anything bad from happening.”

“Gemma, he’s—” Hank plowed a hand through his hair and sighed heavily. “He’s not safe .”

“I agree with Gems.” Jax tightened his arm around Gigi’s shoulder. “He’s showing so much progress. I don’t want to fail him now.”

“Gemma’s proven she can stop him.” Gigi looked down at Kerry. “Jax can, too, and I think I could at least contain him. I want to help him. He teased me. When he and Jax first came in tonight, he made a joke.”

“He wants to draw again.” I held up the sketchbook.

“He let me comb his hair and dress him,” Jax added.

“He let you dress him?” Hank’s eyebrows flew up.

“Well, I mean, pick out what he’s wearing. He hides when he changes.”

“His scars are bad,” Hank muttered, “especially his back.”

“And Gigi’s right. We can each stop his — S hould we call them tantrums?” Jax smiled. “Yes, we have a long way to go, but we’re never going to get anywhere locking him up again.”

“All right!” Hank caved so quickly, I knew he did not want to see Kerry confined anymore than we did. “But if something happens, if he hurts someone, I won’t have a choice. Do you understand?”

We all nodded.

“Don’t touch him. He doesn’t like it and responds aggressively.” He looked at each of us in turn, glaring at me the longest. “Gemma, when you wake him up, what will he remember?”

“Everything. It should be like waking up from a nap.”

“Then I’ll take my leave first. And I pray you three are right.”

He left, and I drew in a giant breath.

“I owe you both an apology.” I made myself meet their eyes. “I understand if you don’t want to help me with this anymore. Hank’s right. It is dangerous, and someone could get hurt.”

“It could have been any of us.” Jax shrugged. “Apparently, I set him off three times today myself.”

“No. We’re in this together. He needs us.” Gigi hugged me.

“I know I was wary at first, but I want to be his friend.” Jax joined our hug. “I like hanging out with him.”

“Thanks,” I murmured. “Thank you both.”

“Well, let’s wake him up.” Gigi pulled away with a smile.

Biting my lip, I knelt near Kerry’s head.

“You don’t look so confident anymore, Gems.” Jax sat on Kerry’s other side and pulled Gigi down next to him. “You have done this before, right?”

“Well, yes. Once. On a rabbit.”

“Once?” Gigi squeaked.

“On a rabbit?” Jax asked at the same time.

“It’ll be fine.” I touched an index finger to Kerry’s cheek.

His breathing changed right away, and his powder-blue eyes blinked open, zipping around frantically until he found me.

“Did I hurt you?”

“No. You didn’t hurt me.”

“Did I hurt anyone else?”

“No. Everyone’s okay.”

He looked at Gigi and Jax for a moment, then raised both hands and covered his face.

“Call Warden to come get me and put me back in my prison where I belong.” His voice was muffled, but I heard the pain in it. “You need to stay away from me. I don’t wanna hurt any of you.”

“We’re right here beside you and that’s how we’re going to stay.” I drew in a deep breath. “I am so sorry I hit you. I — ”

“Shut up, idiot! If anyone needs to apologize, it’s me!”

“But — ”

“Don’t!” He pulled his hands away from his face, and his eyes bore into mine. “How did you take me down, anyway?”

“I put you to sleep. A light coma.”

“Okay. All right. Yeah. You’ve done that before. That’s a good defense for you. But what if you hadn’t been here? Jax, Gigi, could you have stopped me?” “I’m an animal handler.” Jax grinned. “People are animals. I can get you to sit and stay, boy.”

He ignored Jax’s humor—or it passed him by—and turned to Gigi as she answered him.

“While it’s true my power is not as strong as theirs, it would be effective.”

“What is your power?”

“I’m a watcher. I can stop time and speed it up, but only for a few minutes. And I can teleport, but only up to twenty or thirty miles per jump.” She turned to look at me. “Do you think it would work if I stopped time and ’ported him somewhere safe? I could drop him, ’port back, and let time run loose again.”

Gigi had told me that watchers were an odd class of nephilim. If your power manifested as black and you could teleport, you were labeled a watcher—and that was about the only qualification. No two watchers seemed to have the exact same skill set, and Gigi had grinned as she’d told me they were the mutts of the neph world.

“You can ’port twenty to thirty miles ?” Kerry sat up at last and scooted next to Gigi in one of his super-fast moves that always startled me. I exchanged a concerned look with Jax, but neither of us interrupted. “That’s pretty good for a Third. Show me sometime?”

“Sure.” She gave him a small smile.

“I think that’s a brilliant idea.” Jax beamed at her. “You’re a mistress of time and space!”

“We should practice,” I suggested. “What about on a Saturday? He won’t be raw from a day at school then.”

They agreed, so we stood up and waited to see what Kerry would do.

#

Kerry

Seeing everyone stand woke me up from my calculations on how many jumps Gigi would need to reach New York City from here.

The girls shut the store down, and I left with the sketchbook tucked under my arm and Jax’s promise to get the phone another day. Then we walked the girls back to their dorm, said goodnight, and watched them go into their building.

“Where do you live?” I asked Jax as we walked away.

“There.” He pointed to a building on the other side of the street. “I’m on the fifth floor. You want to come up?”

“Maybe another time.” The sketchbook called to me. “Do all the guys at school live there, too?”

“No. A lot live with their families in town, but see the building over there? It’s another male dorm. And over there,” he pointed again, “is the other female dorm.”

I didn’t say anything, too busy turning plans over in my mind.

“What are you thinking?” He sounded suspicious. “You have that look in your eyes again.”

“Where does Argaud live?”

“No.” He shook his head and crossed his arms.

“Look, I promised her I wouldn’t kill him, but he needs the piss scared outta him.”

“I’m not arguing that, but I’m worried about you . I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to try that just yet, Kerry.”

“I don’t have to touch him.” I raised both hands, palms out. “I don’t have to be near him. I don’t even need him in my line of sight. I only need to be in front of his door for five seconds. You gonna help me or not?”

“Yeah, I’m in. I don’t know how you’re holding back as it is. If it were Gigi, I’d — “ He sucked in a long breath. “Anyway, what’re you planning to do?”

“Got a little present for him. Nothing that’ll kill him. Like I said, I promised.”

“All right. We’ll talk to John Morgen tomorrow in the locker room. He’s in Reilly’s dorm. We can get intel and make a plan.”

“Good. Thanks. Oh, and, Jax? I’m sorry for all the times I wanted to kill you today.”

“Thanks. I’m glad you didn’t.” He grinned. “You know, I was thinking. After lunch tomorrow, if you feel up to another class, come with me to my power focus. You won’t like Gemma’s poli-dip teacher, anyway.”

I thought about it. Would I get in trouble for going to a different class than I was supposed to? What if it upset Gemma? But I didn’t wanna sit through another hour-long lecture on a subject I knew nothing about and didn’t care to learn.

“Come on!” he nagged. “Animals are fun.”

“If you think it’s okay, and if Gemma won’t be mad.”

“It’ll be fine. You’ll love it.”

“Where should I meet you?” “Are you eating lunch with us tomorrow?”

“No.” I was definite on that. Tonight had proven I could not be trusted around too many people. “I’ll eat at home.”

“Then I’ll swing by and pick you up there.” Jax trotted across the street, turned when he made it to the other side, and waved.

I raised my fingers in a little salute and walked away.

#

Later that night, I was so into my sketch I didn’t hear Hank knocking on the door. It wasn’t until he let himself in that I realized he was there at all.

“You asleep, Kerry?” he called.

“Nah, I’m in the kitchen,” I called back and kept working.

“How’s it going?”

“Well, there was some trouble earlier,” I started slowly, then let it all spill out in a rush. As I finished up the story, I felt a tiny flash of pride. “But I almost did it. Calmed down, I mean. I was so close!”

“Thank you for telling me what happened.” He tilted his head at the table. “Is that the sketchbook?”

“Yeah. Gemma made me take it.”

“If you had mentioned it, I would have provided it for you. You know you only have to ask.”

I shrugged. I thumbed through my old notebook every now and then, but it hurt too much to remember some of that stuff, and I always tossed it back in my desk drawer without sketching a thing.

“Do you think you could draw a picture of the man who killed your mother? It may help us find him faster.”

White-hot anger fired through my bones, but I nodded.

“The piece you’re working on right now is incredible, by the way. You’re very gifted.”

“Thanks. Something else came up tonight, too. You ever hear about this group, Firsts First?”

“Oh, yes. I’ve heard about it. It’s gaining momentum and that’s just plain sad, isn’t it?”

“You mean it’s getting popular? Why?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have the mind of a racist. I guess they think they’re special because Firsts always have more power and are directly sired by one of the Fallen.”

“I like having a lotta power.” I met his eyes with a frown. “But I sure ain’t proud of who my father was.”

“Nor am I.” His half-smile was grim. “There are a lot of reasons people are drawn to groups like Firsts First. Perhaps they don’t feel good about themselves, or they’re natural followers. Maybe they’ve had a few nasty run-ins with Seconds or Thirds or Fourths. A few may have never been outside the Sanctuary, so they really have no idea what the rest of the world is like, so they go around with blinders on and believe what others tell them rather than find out the truth for themselves. Too lazy or self-absorbed or gullible, perhaps. A psychologist would have better answers for you. I can only tell you what I’ve learned over the past two hundred years.”

“Nah, I seen the truth of it with my own eyes.”

“Yeah. I guess you have.” He stood and got ready to go. “All right, kiddo. Let’s call it a day. And I suggest you not stay up all night to draw. You do have school in the morning.”

“Sure, Warden.” I fiddled with my pencil as he walked toward the door, then called over my shoulder, “Hey, is, um, a sketch an okay thing to give as a gift? For, uh, a girl. From a guy, I mean.”

“Yes, Kerry. Gemma will love your drawing.”

“How did you know it was for her?” I swiveled around in surprise and caught him grinning.

“Just a lucky guess.”