"My daughter." He raised his arms. "The time has come for you to complete your purpose."
Sam flashed her one hundred-watt smile and walked over to Ana. Steele couldn't stop shaking from anticipation as she reached for the baby and held her. Power thrummed around her, and her head snapped back, eyes going wide.
Steele licked his lips, ready to receive the power. Simmons vibrated next to him, desperate to finally live her dreams. His drug-induced power was nothing compared to this perfection.
After several moments of hushed silence, broken only by Drake's groans, Sam relaxed, looked at her baby, and put her down.
Unable to contain himself any longer, Steele rubbed his hands together. "Come, hurry my daughter."
She walked forward with slow, measured steps.
He grew impatient but forced himself to maintain his calm.
Sam stopped in front of them. "Lock hands."
He grabbed Simmons's hands tightly and smiled at her.
Sam moved close to him, closer than he would have liked, but this was too important to quibble over personal space. She leaned in. "I'm happy for you, Father. You're getting what you deserve."
"Yes." An unexpected tear welled up in his eye, and even more unexpected, he didn't care.
For once, the emotion of a moment didn't disgust him. He'd been nothing without these powers. He couldn't keep his wife. He couldn't keep his son's love. Nothing—not the man they wanted, nor the man they needed—but now he would be. He would have all the powers he needed. He would be a husband, and a father.
"Do it."
Sam smiled, and plunged a syringe into his neck.
Chapter 132 - Sam
My hand shook as I pulled away from Steele, who howled in anger and reached for the needle in his neck.
He threw himself at me, but I kicked him, pushing him back.
Simmons stood in shock, but not for long. She bared her teeth at me like a feral dog. "You bitch!"
Her screech sent spittle running down her chin as she attacked me. She'd had training, but so had I, and her emotions made her clumsy. I pulled her to the side, kneed her in the gut, then chopped the side of my hand into her neck and knocked her out.
Steele crouched on his knees near a ledge. Lava bubbled up around him, but despite the heat, he shivered. "I don't understand. My plan was perfect. Perfect!"
The slimy residue of him lingered in my mind, and it made me sick. "It had one flaw. You should never have messed with my baby."
His face filled with rage, and he clutched the needle in his hand and lunged at me.
I dodged him, and as he regrouped for another attack, he tripped backward and fell over the edge.
His fingers grasped the ledge, turning red, then white as he hung on for his life. He tried to pull himself up but fell back. "I'm too weak. Help me. I can't without my powers. I can't."
I hesitated. What kind of person would I choose to be? Would I let him fall into the lava, to die by his own machinations, or would I save him? I took a step forward. He deserved to die, but he was powerless now, and I couldn't turn away. He would pay for his crimes, but not this way.
I reached for his hand, but it slipped away before I could grasp it.
My father fell into the bulging cauldron his own hate had created.
The lava consumed him into its burning center, cooling and hardening even as it did, as Steele's powers vanished along with his life. The red heat blackened into obsidian swirls that looked like melted black crayon. Throughout the crater, the volcanic activity shifted, hardening and going dormant once again.
Steele had died, but my heart had no place for sorrow. He'd never been my father, only the genetic blueprint for part of me.
I ran back to Drake, my true family.
He groaned in pain and bled all over me as I shushed him and combed his hair out of his face. "It'll be okay." I pulled out the sphere that he'd saved me with, the sphere that, according to his thoughts, could also heal.
"I'm so sorry I hurt you, Drake. So sorry." I held it to him, and an electric shock ran through me as energy poured into him. I choked on my tears. "Drake, stay with me."
He smiled. "I'm here. I said I'd never leave you again. Even if you stab me, you can't get rid of me that easily." He tried to laugh at his own lame joke and coughed up blood.
I willed the sphere to work faster. "You didn't leave me, you're right. You came for me." I couldn't believe it—the man he'd become in such a short time.
Even after everything I'd said and done, he'd stayed. He'd been willing to die for me in order to save me. His thoughts and memories flowed into my mind as I held him, playing a movie of everything that happened while I'd been under Steele's control—how he'd put aside his fight with Darren to help me; how he'd just wanted the best for me, even if that meant letting me go; how he'd still be the man he needed to be, even if I didn't choose to stay with him.
Susie had been right: trust could be earned back.
I just wished he hadn't had to almost die so many times for me to see it. "I trust you, Drake. I trust you with my life, and with Ana's."