Chapter 33
KAYE
“No,” I gasp, choking back nausea.
No one else in my family can do things like me, at least no one that I know of, except maybe my brother, Cooper. He’s never lost a patient, even when all others thought the cause was lost…
“You? You created Rose?” I struggle to push down the emotions that are threatening to overtake me, fighting back tears of anger and actively working to get my breath back.
Was it always so much work just to remember to breathe?
“I’m saving lives. Anyone can see that,” he states, as though betraying everything good and decent in the world is common sense. As if it were the only logical solution.
“Are you using your drug to save lives or are you making a profit from addiction?”
My anger spikes as I think of our father. I feel a thread hanging in my mind and I tug on it, my mind exploding with memory. Peter Grace. The man who sold his daughter and his morality for a lifetime of syringes.
“You knew about Dad’s Rose addiction,” I accuse.
“I found out about it a couple of years ago,” he calmly responds, staring me down with an expression of pure intensity.
“I told you to stay away from him. It’s not my fault that you don’t know how to listen.
And it’s not as though dealing with your little outbursts around town has been fun for me, Kitty.
Do you know how many of your messes I have had to clean up? ”
“Poor baby,” I spit. “Fuck. You. You knew, and you still sent me into that hellhole to die.”
“Imagine my shock,” he continues, as if I hadn’t spoken at all.
“When I got the news that Checkmate had been captured by the CCP. I knew sooner or later you would wise up to what was happening in New Malcolm and look for the responsible party. Knew you’d flip faster than a coin and that Checkmate would have to be dealt with.
I knew how to deal with a stranger that had outlived her usefulness.
Then imagine, if you will, my utter panic when I discovered that the woman who would ruin everything was my little sister. ”
How did I not see it before?
“You are my responsibility,” Cooper says. “So I looked to the one person I knew would be interested in purchasing you, who would actually have the means and wouldn’t look strange at the auction. The one person I trusted to keep you safe.”
“You’re a fucking bastard,” Zane grinds out, muscles straining as he pulls against his restraints.
Cooper ignores him. “It was almost too delicious to contemplate. What would happen if Zane were to find out whose sister you are? He could have killed you simply to spite me. Hell, I would have. You didn’t do that though, did you, Zane? I owe you a great deal of thanks for that.”
“I’ll kill you,” Zane answers.
“And you, dear sister, as ever, disappointed me. You didn’t even attempt to deal with Zane for me.
No, that would have redeemed your position in the city.
The CCP would have labeled you a hero and let you walk away from here without a second thought.
That would be far too easy for the infamous Checkmate. ”
A fresh wave of pain comes over me. It hurts too much to look at Zane. “You knew who my brother was all along. And you still did this to me?”
“I didn’t know until that day when… Kaye, I’m so sorry. I was certain that you knew. That you were playing me. I was so angry and everything was heightened with that last dose of serum. I lost control. I didn’t know what I had done until it was too late.”
“Oh yes.” Cooper snickers. “After years of fighting and failing, I am sure his first reaction was to show mercy to his sworn enemy. No, he hurt you to get back at me.”
Zane shakes his head, pupils blowing wide and wild.
“Kaye, I know I fucked up, but I wouldn’t do that.
What happened between us was real. Genuine.
I haven’t been that happy in… God, maybe I’ve never been that happy before.
You gave that to me. Kaye, I love you. I didn’t think that would ever be possible for me again. ”
There’s a hole in my chest and it’s gnawing, growing with every word. Our eyes finally meet, and I know he sees it. The empty pit where my heart used to be. I know, because I feel its absence too, but it must have gone, like so many pieces of myself. Pieces that may never come back.
Tears gather in the corners of those beautiful, terrifying eyes.
“Please,” he whispers. “Please tell me you remember.”
I wish I did. I can feel those moments skating along the edges of my mind, but each time I think I have a hold on one it slips too quickly away. Instead, I’m left with that emptiness, and the memory of the violence that caused it.
I shake my head, feeling nothing.
“You don’t remember?” The anguish in his voice is clear. I squeeze my eyes closed against the sound of it. Instead, he turns to Cooper. “You said you’d heal her. That it was the only way to make things right. I held up my end of the deal.”
“Clarify,” I demand, cutting my gaze to my brother.
“Zane,” he tsks. “There’s nothing on this planet that could heal the damage you did so quickly. I’ve seen extinction events with less human casualties.”
“Leave it to a psychopath to say something like that.”
“I am NOT a psychopath.” Cooper grinds his teeth so hard I hear them pop.
“What did you give him?” I ask.
Cooper cuts in before Zane can answer, suddenly full of glee. “The remnants of your power mixed with his. And it created such a powerful tonic, Kitty. Can’t you feel it coursing through you?”
He’s right. I felt different as soon as I woke up. Flush with power, like a switched flipped inside, a bulb glowing with light. It pulsed with every beat of my heart, pounding through my bloodstream almost painfully. I feel invincible.
“I perfected it, of course. Made the reaction more stable,” Cooper brags. His gaze roves over me with pride. I was the ideal guinea pig, nothing more than a thing to alter at his whim. “We couldn’t have any more outbursts like what Zane did to you, could we? Not so close to my work.”
I’d like to say that it made me feel better to know that it was only the over-abundance of our powers mixed together that made Zane do what he did, but that doesn’t quite fit.
He’d promised to erase my memory once before.
The memory rises fresh and new from the ashes.
His hand crushing into my skin over cold granite.
Who is Checkmate?
My eyes sting, tears flowing freely down my face. God, I’m such an idiot. How could I have trusted this man enough to do that to me? I was so desperate that I forgot the most important rule of life as a Super: we are all on our own.
Then Cooper is there, solid and warm as he always has been. The big brother that helped me face my bullies. I know now that version of him is a mask. When his palms cradle my face, thumbs wiping my tears, I flinch. And watch the humanity drain like dirty bath water from his face.
“You made Kitty cry, Zane.” It’s like watching a corpse talk, so little emotion shows in his expression and tone.
His palm slams down on Zane’s wrist, pinning it to the chair cuffing him in place.
“Didn’t learn the lesson the first time, hmm?
Don’t worry. We’ve got five more fingers to educate you. ”
My attention falls on the polished silver tray beside them, filled with an assortment of tools: a large old wrench, needle-nose pliers, and—my stomach lurches at the sight—a steel mallet.
“No.” I step into Cooper’s line of vision.
Intentionally place my hand over his, curl my fingers under his palm.
So I have leverage. Just in case. “He doesn’t matter anymore.
We’re together now, right? We can—we can leave all this behind us.
We can be a family again. Start over. Don’t you want that, Coop? ”
When I look at my brother, I don’t recognize the boy I grew up with, don’t see the young man who used to walk with me to school. He’s no longer the person who made sure to text me every day after he left for medical school.
Who is this man? Another track of wetness drops down my cheek.
“Don’t cry.” He wipes the drop away with a brush of his thumb. “He doesn’t deserve your tears. And we don’t need to leave either. I’ve got everything all worked out.”
I let him hold me, and for a moment I allow myself to feel safe in his arms for the last time before I start gathering power into my body.
“What are we going to do?” I force my voice to take on a solid, bright quality. Nothing like I feel inside.
Cooper’s bright smile lights up his face, and he appears almost child-like again in his joy. “You are going to kill Charade.”
“What?” I choke.
A dreamy look takes over his face. He clasps my hands, tugging me to him. I should feel warmth in them. In him. But all I feel is cold.
“It’s perfect in its simplicity.” He grins. “End Charade once and for all, and all will be forgiven. Vanall will clear your name. Hell, he’ll be so happy I’d be surprised if he didn’t throw a parade in your honor.”
Cooper’s hip hits the tray of torture devices when I push him away. There’s a clatter as something heavy-sounding hits the cement at our feet.
“I don’t want a parade, Cooper.” I seethe. “I want my brother not to be the psychotic kingpin responsible for poisoning our city.”
“Don’t make me do this, Kaye. And for what?
Him? He could have killed you. It’s bad enough he destroyed everything you are.
Broke you like a man in an old children’s rhyme.
I stitched you back together. I did. But I guess that doesn’t mean anything.
You get a little dick and suddenly you’re Charade’s whore for life? Is that it?”
My vision goes red. His head snaps back with the force of my blow. SLAP.
For a second, the only sound to be heard is the agitated huff of my labored breath, and the distant moans of Cooper’s “patients.”
“How dare you?” I gesture to the lab around us, to my one-time rescuer strapped in his chair. “You have no right to judge me or anyone else. You’re not God.”
Click. Cooper turns back with a handgun in his fist, cocked and presumably loaded.
The skin on the left side of his face shines a satisfying pink, but it’s impossible to enjoy that moment with the trill of fear shooting down my spine.
My hands raise automatically, though in the end the barrel doesn’t point in my direction.
“I’m done playing nice,” he hisses, spittle flying from his mouth. The corner of his lip has torn, a small bead of blood welling up at the motion. “So I’ll put it this way: either you kill him, Kitty, or I will.”
I jump as something lightly brushes my thumb. Then I look down and see Zane’s pleading eyes, and allow the contact. Just this once.
Do it, Kaye. Please. Zane’s smooth timbre sounds in my mind, rich and warm, unaffected by the tortures his body endured.
It calls to me like a siren song, but I don’t detect any threads of his power within it.
This message is for me, and me alone. He’ll draw it out, make it as painful as he can before he lets me go.
With you, it’ll be just like falling asleep.
I can’t.
It’s as though the essence of him is rubbing against my mind.
I can smell the spice of his body wash, feel the stubble of his chin against mine.
His breath whispering against my ear. Please, Kaye, let me do this.
After what I did… this is how I can make it right. You need to live to fight another day.
Zane…
You’ll never know how truly sorry I am. How grateful I am to have gotten to know you, love you. I wish I had been worthy of your trust. Your love. It’s my biggest regret in this life, Kaye.
“Don’t touch her.”
The contact breaks, and he’s gone from my mind. I glance at Cooper, waiting. The conversation must have only taken a couple of seconds.
“I’ll do it.” I lock eyes with Zane’s and an almost-peace passes over his face. There’s so much that could go wrong, and even if everything goes according to plan we could still end up at the business-end of Cooper’s semi-automatic. It would be worth it, dying a hero’s death.
It’s effortless to gather my power to me, light in a way that it never has been before. It felt so out of touch before, but with Cooper’s serum coursing through my veins, I am unstoppable. A battery charged all on my own.
New light pricks at the deep wells of my pupils.
I’m amazed to find that it’s coming from me, my body—palm, specifically.
I have to squint my eyes against the brightness as I bring it to my face for a closer look.
An intense heat builds under the skin, licking along my nerve endings without ever fully touching them.
This, I know, is true destructive power.
“You might want to take a step back,” I warn. Away from Zane.
Shadows move in the dark pits of Cooper’s eyes, a hardness that I’ll never be able to un-see. “I’m just fine where I am, thank you. Say goodbye, Zane.”
I keep the power focused in my hands, both palms now glowing with furious golden light, the heat so penetrating that my fingers are beginning to feel cold instead. This is it. I can’t hold on any longer.
“I’ll see you in hell.” Zane’s eyes close against the blaze.
I spin on my heel, firing the inferno of my power directly at my brother’s outstretched arms. The blast is like nothing I ever expected to see in real life, like my body has become a living, breathing Death Star and my skin the conductor for its murderous ray.
Cooper falls away with a curse, the melted gun dropping from his grasp and puddling onto the floor in a mass of steel and brass.
The problem is that wasn’t the only thing hit.
I stare in horror as the cement blocks char around us, all other material turning molten in the face of that heat.
All down the tunnel, pipes turn red and burst, spraying steam and chemicals into the air, fanning the building flames.