Why hadn’t I? “Just how many of these skills do you have?”
“A handful of others. And no, I wasn’t born with all of them. I used to...steal from slayers.”
In other words, she’d tormented and killed to get what she wanted.
“Stealing is teachable.” She reached out her hand. “I would allow you to practice on me, but time isn’t on your side. Let me give you the ability to cover memories. That way, you can rest assured I’ll never use it again.”
You can’t trust her, Cole had said.
After everything Helen had just told me, I shouldn’t trust her.
And yet, I stretched out my hand, letting it hover under hers. I wished I could tell myself it was because we were at war with Anima and we needed all the weapons we could get, but that would have been a lie. Bottom line, I was overcome by a desire to connect with this woman on any level.
“I’d give you everything all at once, but I fear it would be overwhelming.” She closed her eyes. A stream of warmth hit my palms, seeped past my skin and zinged through the rest of me.
The transfer was easy, no burning pain, no urge to scream the roof down, and in seconds we were done, our arms returning to our sides.
“There,” she said. “Just swipe the hand of your spirit through a person’s mind. The only drawback is you will cover all of their memories. There isn’t any selecting or picking and choosing this one but not that one. Everything is hidden.”
I couldn’t imagine needing the ability. Or allowing myself to use it.
“I didn’t want to screw up your life all over again,” she said, “and I would have continued to remain in the shadows, but Anima killed your friends, and I realized they were going to come after you hard. I knew I had to act. For you. I will do anything for you, Sami.”
I was quick to snap, “That’s not my name.”
“Ali,” she corrected softly.
Deep breath in...out. “Why did you help Anima kill Cole’s mom? By that time, you knew how corrupt they were and planned to leave.”
She whipped around, giving me her back. “I had a choice. I made it.”
When she said no more, I asked, “What choice?”
“After I gave you to your dad, I went a little crazy. Anima assumed I was in mourning over your death and gave me time. I could have left. I should have left. But I opted to stay for two reasons. I thought I could destroy them, and if that proved futile, I wanted to know if any suspicions about you arose. Because I stayed, I had to obey orders or come under suspicion myself. It was as simple as that.”
Something Veronica said niggled at the back of my mind. “What about Veronica’s mom? Did you wipe her memory?”
“Yes.”
No remorse. Only cold, hard facts.
Was it bad that I thought, At least she didn’t kill the woman?
The door swung open, and Cole strode inside. Panic instantly chilled me. He would see her; he would know what I’d been doing.
But he stopped and casually said, “Just heard from my dad. He did a little digging into the life of the mysterious Ms. Smith and discovered that outside the boardroom, she is most well-known for her interrogation techniques. Anyone who ends up strapped to her table dies. If they tell her what she wants to know, they die quickly. If not, slowly.”
I looked to Helen—gone. The panic eased, leaving room for frustration. I wanted so badly to tell Cole what I’d learned, what I’d been given.
I couldn’t.
“Tell me about the safe houses,” I said.
“We now have one right by River’s place.”
“That’s good.” But my frustration wasn’t going away. “You and I haven’t gone head-to-head in a while,” I said and punched him in the shoulder. The one that had taken the bullet. When we sparred, we sparred. There were no rules. No holding back or going easy.
“In need of practice, Ali-gator?” He liked to be on the receiving end of our scuffles and didn’t flinch, didn’t miss a beat...just grabbed my arm when I made to punch him again, twisted me around and pushed me to my knees.
Actually, I needed an outlet.
I kicked back and out, knocking his feet together. His hold loosened and I swung around, punching with my other arm. But he knew me and expected the sucker move; he managed to block.
“You can do better than this, love,” he said with a grin.
Yeah. I could. I latched on to his arm to spin him away from me, but he held on tight, taking me with him. We ended up turning in circles before he purposely tripped me. Down we fell. On impact, we rolled. When we stopped, he was on top of me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck and lifted my hips, rubbing against him. Instantly improving my mood.
He hissed in a breath. “You’re fighting dirty now.”
“That’s the only way to fight, Coleslaw.”
He positioned his knees outside my hips, straddling me. Meaning to take control and turn the wrestling into a make-out session? I cupped the side of his neck and shoved, sending him to his back. Then I straddled him.