Brrrring, brrrring
“It’s a male and he’s anxious.” Meg said casually, adjusting her skirt demurely.
Everyone’s eyes were wide. Even Alik, who was supposed to be concentrating on the road, stared at his sister for a few extra seconds through the rearview mirror.
Evan fumbled with the ringing phone for a moment before touching the screen to answer the call.
“Evan?”
“Dr. Andrews?”
“Oh for goodness’ sake, son. Call me Theo!”
“Um, right. Sorry Theo.”
“First, is everyone all right?” Theo’s words tumbled from his mouth in an avalanche of excitement.
“More than all right,” Evan glanced at Meg’s bright eyes.
“Put me on speaker,” Theo demanded eagerly.
“Yes, sir.” Evan kept glancing up at Alik, who had pulled the SUV over on the side of the busy highway to focus on the conversation.
“Okay, Theo. You’re on speaker,” Evan said, still trying to figure out a way to explain how they’d rescued Meg, but sensing Theo was about to crawl out of his skin with excitement over something huge.
“Can you hear me?” he called in to the phone on his end causing his words to sound a little forced and distorted.
“Yes.”
“Yes, sir.”
“We can hear you.”
“Loud and clear.”
Creed watched Meg’s face light up with curiosity and a huge smile filled her face.
She already knows what Dr. Andrews is all excited about, Creed thought, amazed at her grasp of her gift after having her memory wiped clean.
“It’s your mom,” he began.
“Is she okay?” Alik flinched at the mention of his mother, always so worried for her safety.
“She’s—don’t know how else to say this but—she’s regained some feeling in her legs.”
Chapter 14 Spin Doctors
The black catsuit Michelle wore hugged every inch of her curves. She walked with assurance even through the ankle-turning rubble that had been her controller’s foyer. The walls were riddled with holes from gunfire. Dust danced like glittering gold in a blade of morning sunlight that cut into the room from a hole in the ornate glass window high above the torn tapestries. The room looked like it had been sliced with a giant’s blade. For the damage it sustained, it may as well have been.
This had been ground zero for the battle between the metamonarchs and the metahumans. The echoes of their gunfire, knife clashes and bone crunching hand-to-hand combat lived and breathed in Arkdone’s inebriated mind.
Arkdone himself was sitting on a torn antique Victorian Louis XV loveseat, circa 1850.
He was staring at the debris-covered Oriental rug at his feet.
He held a bottle of Scotch in his left hand. The bottle’s neck had been broken, and though the sharp edges that remained looked lethal, Michelle watched the Senator put the shards to his lips and toss back the golden fluid. Blood trickled down his chin from where he’d already sliced himself.
“Sir, the compound is cleared of all Williams’ people. Also, I just heard from Kerry and Trent. They claim to have seen Dr. Williams’ aircraft crash into the side of an Appalachian mountain. They went to investigate, but only found the body of the pilot, Miro Reznikov inside. The girl and Williams were nowhere to be found, though they’re still searching the area thinking they must have wandered away from the crash.”
“He’s alive,” Arkdone spat. “It’s going to take a lot more than a helo crash to kill that sick bastard.”
“Yes, sir,” Michelle chimed, accustomed to Arkdone’s uncanny way of knowing more than humanly possible. He was, after all, her controller.
“As for the girl, my beautiful Naya—” his voice drifted off dreamily for a moment as he conjured a picture of her crouched in the cell. Her dark hair spilling over her shoulders like the Madonna wearing a Spanish mantilla. “She’s alive and if my guess is correct, she is even more dangerous now that she has been freed of her moral obligations.”
“Sir?”
“My dear Michelle, don’t you understand? I freed her of all her years of being forced into moral obligation by the woman who raised her. She’s the most powerful metahuman I’ve ever seen. With her untamed gifts, she’s more powerful than I.”
“How?” Michelle was riveted at the thought that someone could possibly surpass her controller’s strength.
Arkdone tapped his temple and looked up at the candidate with sharp, nearly glowing eyes.
“Her power is in her mind. I only had a short time with her before she was whisked away by Williams, but it was just enough time to plant one seed: one beautiful, precious seed.” Arkdone absently pressed the cut-crystal edge of Scotch to his lips and took several deep draws from it. Michelle watched his Adam’s Apple move. She tried not to cringe at the fresh blood that trickled from his bottom lip and splashed unnoticed onto his torn dress shirt.