Chapter Ten
Nick opened his eyes, gasping for air. He could barely see through the flickers of Craft energy hazing across his eyesight, but that didn’t matter. He needed to get up. He didn’t have time for a vision right now. He pushed the energy down, suppressing his gift, but it didn’t help. He still couldn’t move. An overwhelming feeling of doom welled up inside his chest, as if someone had taken a shovel and carved out his heart. How the hell was he still alive? No one could live without their fucking heart.
“Easy.” A hand pressed him down, keeping him immobile.
Nick fought the hand, but his chest was on fire. “Jeff!” He needed to get to his soulmate. He coughed, and immediately regretted it as pain seared him from the inside out. “Where’s Jeff?” he croaked, still fighting the hand pushing him down. He couldn’t feel his soulmate anywhere near.
“I got the bullets out, but I can’t Heal you completely,” a man said. “Take it easy.”
Nick fought harder. He remembered the fire, and the smoke and crowd of people. He remembered seeing Jeff’s face, angry as hell, as someone grabbed his arms and dragged him backwards. “Shit, I need to find him,” Nick said, pushing the pain down into a little box in his mind. He could deal with pain, if only whoever was holding him down would just let him the hell up. Someone took his soulmate and he had to find him.
“Nick! Stop.” The command in Theo’s voice startled Nick. He was the one holding Nick down.
“Theo?” Nick blinked, still fighting the hands on his shoulders. “What the hell is going on?” He could just make out the Craft Council Head’s face through the veil of golden-tinged energy still spotting his vision. He blinked again, willing his power to settle. Jeff’s absence hurt worse than the wounds in his chest. “How did you get here?” He glanced around. “Where the hell am I?”
“I came as soon as I got word you were in the hospital,” Theo said.
Hospital? Nick wondered, staring at Theo.
“Stop fighting me, and we can discuss what happened.” Theo moved his hands to Nick’s wrists. “I know it hurts, but you’re going to be okay.”
“I need to get to Jeff,” Nick said, finally succeeding in sitting up with Theo’s help. His friend was an Empath, so he knew how bad Nick was hurting, but he didn’t protest Nick getting up. The injuries to his chest hurt like a motherfucker, but not as bad as they should, if he’d been shot. “Jesus. What happened?” He put a hand up and probed the bandages over his ribs.
“Easy,” someone said again, pulling his hands away from the wounds.
Nick glared past Theo, then frowned. Jonathan Keaton, the son of Theo’s soulmate and a Healer, glared back at him.
“I healed you enough to get the bullets out and stop the bleeding, but I couldn’t do any more,” Jonathan said. “I’m a vet, not a people doctor.” He glanced around. “I shouldn’t even be in here, but Theo told me he needed you up and moving. He talked the surgeon here into letting me assist.”
“Not many people have the Healing gift as strong as you, Jonathan,” Theo said.
Jeff’s Healing powers are stronger even than that, Nick thought, as panic twisted around his spine. He needed to get to his soulmate before Jeff’s insane ex could do something drastic.
“I’m not a damned surgeon,” Jonathan muttered. “I don’t like people.”
“Shut it, Jonathan,” Theo said, and the man subsided.
“Shit.” Nick controlled his breathing. It helped. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize.” He looked around, and the sterility of his surroundings finally registered. He was in a private room in a hospital. He glanced at the window. Second floor, maybe?
“I know. It’s fine,” Jonathan said. “You’ve been here a couple hours. They had no idea that you worked for the Craft Council, but Theo is your emergency contact on your phone, so they called him.” He ran a hand down Nick’s arm, stopping at the pulse in his wrist. “They let me take the lead on your surgery, which is a good thing. One of the fragments had lodged up against your heart.” He shook his head. “If I hadn’t been here…” He trailed off, then stepped back.
That’s why it hurts so much, Nick thought. “How did you get here so fast?” He looked from Jonathan to Theo.
“Helicopter,” Theo said, smiling wryly. “Being Head of the Council has its perks.”
Nick licked dry lips. “She took Jeff.”
Theo frowned. “Who is she? I got some of your updates, but they were so cryptic I couldn’t figure out the whole picture.”
Nick had been sending brief texts to Theo since meeting Jeff, but he hadn’t had time to explain anything properly. He took a deep breath, ignoring the pain in his chest. “Jeff Wright, the son of the couple whose death you sent me to investigate, is my soulmate, and we bonded.”
“What?” Theo’s eyebrows went up. “Whoa.”
Nick nodded. “Yeah. It was a surprise to us, too. But even more than that, we discovered that his ex-girlfriend, Vivian Griffin, is behind the murder of his parents.”
“She murdered them? Why? Was she after revenge?” Theo asked.
“I wish it were that simple. She and a couple of guys are working together. I think one of the men was the one who killed them, but she was definitely in on it. Whether or not they all agreed about the murder is up for question, because they need someone to deconstruct the research his parents were doing,” Nick said, swinging his legs out of the bed. The IV attached to his arm rattled, and he grabbed the lines so they wouldn’t get tangled.
“Okay, whoa, man. Take it slow,” Jonathan said, rushing to help him. “You can’t just walk out of here.”
“Watch me,” Nick said, pushing through the pain.
“Nick, wait. What happened?” Theo asked, hand on Nick’s arm.
Nick sat there, willing himself to get up, but the pain in his chest stole his energy. “Shit.” He concentrated on breathing. When he felt like he could talk again, he looked at Theo. “Jeff’s ex wanted the research his parents did on genetically altering people with latent Craft power. She wanted to boost her abilities.” He swallowed, grimacing at the soreness in his throat. “She’s been working with that faction that attacked you,” he added, thinking about his visions of her. He didn’t have any evidence, but he knew it was true. All of his instincts screamed it was true.
“Dammit!” Theo exclaimed, anger chasing across his face. “I thought with my father out of the picture things would settle down.”
“They’re not really organized,” Nick said, thinking of what he’d seen of her. “I think she simply stepped into the vacuum it made when your father died, and took control of the loose ends. Basically, that means she got a bunch of thugs to do her dirty work for her.”
“To what end?” Jonathan asked.
“They hate the Council and everything it represents. They just want chaos.” Nick was about to shrug, then thought better of it as the pain in his chest reminded him that he’d almost died. “God, Jeff must think I’m dead.”
“No. He would be able to feel it if you’d died,” Theo reminded him.
Nick grimaced. “She took him, Theo.” He pressed a hand to his chest. Was the pain from the wounds or because of the distance from his soulmate? “She had her men set the building on fire, and she grabbed Jeff in the chaos. I fucking hate fire,” he muttered, remembering the look on Jeff’s face as he was wrenched backwards.
“Do you know where she took him?” Jonathan asked.
Nick shook his head.
“Wait. Back up a moment. What is this research you mentioned?” Theo asked.
“Jeff’s parents developed a formula to trigger latent Craft power. They were bonded, and when Jeff was born, he didn’t develop any power, so he was a latent carrier,” Nick explained.
“A formula? That sounds like a recipe for disaster,” Theo said, eyes shadowed.
“Or a James Bond movie,” Jonathan muttered.
Nick assumed Theo was reading his disgust. What Jeff’s parents did to him verged on abusive. “Yeah. They injected him with their experimental serums for years. Nothing triggered his power until we met and bonded.”
“Rose was latent until we met,” Jonathan said. “It could be the bonding, not the serum.”
“Jeff thinks it was both, at least in his case,” Nick said. “I have no idea if the bonding would have triggered Jeff’s latent power, like it did with your wife. Could be she was simply less latent than Jeff and bonding was enough for her,” he said to Jonathan. “Jeff’s parents injected him with their serum a bunch of times while he was a kid. He thinks it primed his cells to accept the bonding energy, and trigger his Craft power.” He tried to stand up, but couldn’t make it until Theo gave him a hand. The more he talked about Jeff, the more he knew he needed to get out of this damn hospital and find his soulmate. “Not that it matters. His psycho ex thinks the serum works and doesn’t know about the bonding element, and that’s why she targeted him in the first place. She showed up at his job and played a con on him. When she couldn’t get information about the formula from him that way, she escalated matters.” He groaned as he stood. His chest felt like someone had stuck a knife in it. I guess someone has, he thought, grimly amused. I did just have surgery.
“This shit is never going to be resolved,” Theo said, sounding frustrated. “There will always be people who want more power, and who don’t want to follow the Craft Council’s leadership. If the serum really does work, it shouldn’t fall into the hands of some crazy lunatic. God only knows what they’d do with it.”
“That’s the trouble with fanatical ideology. There doesn’t need to be a leader for random nut jobs to keep escalating matters,” Jonathan said.
“True story,” Nick said.
Theo nodded. “Even if Jeff’s ex could use the serum on herself to boost her abilities, that would get her exactly what? Some minor power? What did she think she was going to do with it?”
“My theory? She doesn’t want just the serum. She wants the formula. She wants to create a group of people with Craft power who owe her—money, favors, whatever,” Nick said, taking a step. “It’s organized crime mentality.” His energy felt a little better, but he still wasn’t exactly steady. “You owe me, I owe you, et cetera, et cetera.” He ran a hand over his face, grimacing. “They’ve been trying to grab Jeff, and they’re not particular about whether he comes in alive or dead, as far as I can tell. He’s the one who knows about the formula and the serum. They want me out of the fucking picture, so they’ve definitely been trying to kill me.” He looked at Theo in despair. “Because I was in the way.” The sympathy in Theo’s gaze told Nick his friend agreed with his assessment.
“So, they shot you, and took Jeff,” Jonathan said, nodding. “Makes sense.”
If I could go back in time and kick myself in the ass for being so careless with Jeff, I would, Nick thought, trying again to walk. I should’ve been assessing the situation like a bodyguard from the very beginning.
“I don’t know what you think you can do in this state,” Theo said worriedly, steadying him.
Nick grimaced. “Get my pants. I need to find him.”
Theo and Jonathan exchanged looks. “The only reason we’re helping you is because we know what it’s like to be bonded,” Jonathan said as he opened the cabinet next to the bed. When he pulled out the bag of Nick’s clothes, a flash drive fell to the floor.
“Oh my God,” Nick breathed, staring at it.
Jonathan picked it up. “Is this what I think it is?”
Theo reached for it, clearly sensing Nick’s shock. “This is the formula?”
Nick nodded. “Jeff must have slipped it to me in the stairwell as we tried to get away from the fire. It was total chaos. I don’t know how he did it.”
Theo looked at the drive, and then at Nick.
“Keep it. Put it in the Council vault,” Nick said, thinking fast. “If it was up to me, I’d destroy it right now. It’s caused nothing but trouble.”
“You know it’s never good to destroy knowledge,” Theo said, slipping it into his pocket. “It always comes back to haunt you.”
“What if that serum could help someone?” Jonathan said. “As a Healer, I know of cases where people have died when their Craft power goes wrong.”
Nick sighed. “Exactly.” He thought about his gift, and the lack of documentation in the Council Archives about his abilities. He looked at Theo. Theo looked back steadily, as if he knew that Nick had something to say. Nick kept his mouth shut. No one had ever believed him in the past.
“I understand you needing to go after Jeff, but I don’t know how you’ll find him, unless you know something we don’t,” Jonathan said, helping him with his clothes.
Nick grunted as Jonathan eased off the hospital gown. He rummaged in the cabinet near the bed and found some medical tape and gauze. He carefully removed his IV line and slapped the gauze on his arm, taping it firmly. His chest felt better still, as if he were healing faster than normal, and he looked at Theo’s son-in-law.
Jonathan nodded. “Yeah, I’m boosting you a bit with more Healing.”
“Thank you,” Nick said, relieved. He grabbed his shirt and put it on.
“I think Nick knows a lot of things we don’t,” Theo said softly, after they’d gotten Nick’s pants on. “Don’t you?”
Nick frowned at his friend.
Theo lifted an eyebrow. “I know you have enough Craft power to specialize in something.”
Nick went still. “What are you saying?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying,” Theo replied. “I’m an Empath. You can’t hide your power from me.”
Nick’s heart gave a hard thump as adrenaline shot through him, and it fucking hurt.
“If you tell me, you know I wouldn’t breathe a word of it to anyone,” Theo said.
Nick almost laughed. If only it were that simple. “It’s not that.”
“Then what is it?” Jonathan asked, looking from Theo to Nick, and then back again.
Nick thought about his power, and as if that was enough to loosen his newfound control, golden-tinged energy suddenly hazed his vision. “Oh, no,” he whispered, flexing mental muscles. The energy faded, but he could feel it pushing just below the surface of his thoughts. He’d need to use it to find Jeff, but could he trust Theo and Jonathan to help him? Or would they think he’d lost his mind?
“Nick?” Theo was right there, hands on his arms. “Are you okay?”
Nick exhaled sharply. “It’s not that I’m trying to hide. It’s that no one has ever believed me.” He gave them both a hard stare. “No one.”
“I can leave,” Jonathan said after a long pause. He turned and headed for the door.
Do I want that? Going it alone when his visions showed him the bad shit that was going to happen had never worked in the past. “No.” Nick swallowed hard against his fear. “I need your help.”
Jonathan paused, hand on the door. He looked at Theo. Theo nodded, and Jonathan walked back over. “Do you know what he’s going to say?” he asked Theo.
“I have a very good idea,” Theo said.
“No, you don’t,” Nick said, anger trickling through him. He’d spent his entire life hiding what he could do because he didn’t want to end up institutionalized, or worse, stripped of his power. “You swear to me that you won’t try to strip me?” he asked Theo.
Jonathan looked at him in shock. “No one with Craft power has been stripped in years! It’s barbaric.”
“Promise me,” Nick said, staring hard at his friend. He ignored Jonathan’s outrage. He couldn’t afford to deal with it right now. All of his energy had to go to finding Jeff before Vivian hurt him, or worse, killed him when she realized that he didn’t have what she wanted. Because somehow, he slipped me the formula, and that’s what she really wants. She might have the serum sample, but the formula is the goal.
Theo’s expression didn’t change. “I promise, Nick. I will help you. And I won’t ever recommend that you be stripped of your power. That kind of thinking doesn’t work, and my Council knows it. And if they do believe otherwise, they will learn quickly or they will be dismissed. You have my word on that.”
Nick took a deep breath, pleased when his lungs and chest cooperated. The pain was still there, but it didn’t hinder him anymore. Time to face the music. If I can’t trust my friends, who can I trust? he asked himself as he nodded at Theo. “I’m not going to have any trouble finding Jeff because I’m a Seer.”
****
Jeff struggled, wincing when the hard, plastic zip ties cut into his wrists. He could heal himself, but doing so used energy that he knew he needed to conserve for escape. For survival.
“You can’t get out of the ties. I don’t know why you keep trying, but then, you were never the sharpest knife in the drawer,” Vivian drawled, standing over him. She’d scraped her long hair back into a high ponytail, and that plus the fanatical look on her face gave her an air of sinister craziness that Jeff couldn’t believe he’d missed when they were dating. She’d brought him to some house in the middle of the suburbs, and immediately strapped him to a chair in the basement. “Go on, rip your wrists to shreds. I don’t care,” Vivian added, smirking.
This is just like being on a creepy serial killer television show, he thought, not sure if he was more angry or disgusted with his ex. “I don’t know what you think you’re going to get from me, Vivian. I don’t know anything.”
“This serum says otherwise,” she said, dangling the tube she’d taken from his pocket. She held it under his nose as if that would convince him to talk.
“It’s not worth much without the formula, and my parents never gave their research to me,” Jeff said, hoping she’d buy his lie.
“I don’t believe you.” Vivian gripped the serum tightly, squeezing bony fingers around it.
Jeff couldn’t imagine how he’d ever been attracted to her. Talk about years of my life wasted. “Why would I lie? It’s not like I’m happy to be here,” he said, trying to sound reasonable. “If I knew something, I’d tell you. Believe me.”
Vivian snorted. “You lied to me the entire time we dated.”
“What?” Jeff didn’t know what she was talking about. “That’s absurd.”
“You told me you had no Craft power! You lied,” Vivian snarled.
Jeff shook his head. “I never lied about that. I was born human. And I didn’t talk about my parents much, so I don’t know how you found out about their research.” He knew that she’d probably gone snooping through his things at some point when they’d been dating.
“Richard says you’re powerful,” she said, gesturing. “And he would know.” One of the goons who’d grabbed Jeff walked over and looked down at Jeff, eyes flat and contemptuous.
“And how would he know if I have power or not? Only Empaths can sense power, and they’re so rare as to be nonexistent,” Jeff said, knowing even as he argued that it was futile. And I’ll probably get another slap for my trouble.
Sure enough, Vivian stepped forward and smacked him in the face. “Liar.” She smacked him again. “I can sense just enough to tell that you’re lying.” She glanced at her thug. “And Richard might’ve been a Healer if he’d been born just a little bit stronger. You know what that means.”
A chill swept through Jeff. Most people were born with either enough Craft power to use it, or only just enough power to sense the flow of energy that tied all things together but with no ability to use it, like his parents. However, on rare occasions, people were born stuck in between the two extremes. That never went well. If Vivian said Richard was almost a Healer, that meant he had enough power to injure, but not to heal. And he’d definitely be able to sense Jeff’s Craft. I forgot about Healers sensing power, he thought, angry with himself, but angrier with Vivian.
“He killed my parents, didn’t he?” he asked. Only a Healer could kill and leave no trace. Jeff glared at the man until Vivian hit him again.
“Your parents didn’t want to talk to me. You didn’t want to talk to me,” Vivian said angrily. “Now, here we are, doing things the hard way.”
Jeff licked over the lip that had split when she hit him. “You realize that I never talked about Craft power at all when we dated because I didn’t have any,” he pointed out. He hadn’t, because it had been a sore point between him and his parents for most of his life, and the last thing he wanted to talk about was his lack of the thing they valued so much. He’d moved to Virginia after college to get away from his parents and their obsession with Craft power. It wasn’t until later that they’d mended their relationship. After they’d realized how much their expectations and disappointment hurt me. Vivian raised her hand again. Jeff held her gaze. He wasn’t lying this time, and she knew it.
“Where is the formula?” she asked.
Richard moved closer, and Jeff glanced at him, then froze when he realized the other man held a knife in his hand. The man smiled, eyes cold and indifferent. “I can cut you in places that will hurt like hell, but won’t kill you for a long, long time. My power lets me see what I’m doing, even if I can’t fix it afterwards.”
Jeff stared at him. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
Vivian laughed. “If you had been born a null, like me, you’d understand.”
A null? What the hell is that? His ex must have understood the confusion on his face, because she explained.
“I was born with Craft power enough to feel energy, but not enough to do anything with it,” she said, mouth twisting. “I deserved better. Those elitists on the Craft Council don’t care about us, and we have to struggle along, hoping for fucking crumbs when we should be the ones in charge.”
Jeff swallowed. She’d clearly lost it years ago. Resentment and bitterness were not a good combination. “Your lack of power has nothing to do with me. You can’t change what gifts you are born with. My parents were just like you, but they never tried to hurt anyone.” Well, no one except him, but he wasn’t going to get into that with her.
“Lies! It has everything to do with you,” she spat. “If you’d introduced me to your parents when we dated, it wouldn’t have come to this.”
“That makes no sense.” Jeff couldn’t imagine what she thought she’d gain by schmoozing his parents. They weren’t going to share their research with her, or anyone else. And she’d killed them, anyway. “You killed my parents. If you’d wanted to work with them, why would you murder them?”
Vivian made a disparaging noise. “They said their serum didn’t work. They lied to me.” She stared down at him, eyes burning. “Obviously, since here you are, suddenly full of power.” She glanced at her goon. “And you weren’t, when we were together.”
Jeff couldn’t really argue with that. He’d been fully human until a day ago. “So you killed my parents out of revenge?”
She tossed her head. “Richard killed them, not me. They wouldn’t talk, so what good are they? And Richard likes to practice his skills. Since your parents wouldn’t tell me the truth, what else did you expect of me?”
“You killed them for sport?” Jeff glared at Vivian, and then looked at the man holding the knife in horror. “You’re a sociopath.”
“Takes one to know one.” Richard licked his lips. “Took me years to figure it out, but once I did…” He shrugged. “Why shouldn’t I get to play with my abilities?”
This is why the Craft Council exists, Jeff thought, deeply disturbed. To stop people like this.
“Where is the formula for the serum?” Vivian asked, for what felt like the thousandth time.
Jeff shook his head, but didn’t reply. What did it matter? They’d believe nothing he said. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to tell them that he’d given the flash drive to Nick. He remembered the blood blooming on his soulmate’s chest. The only reason he wasn’t breaking down in hysterics was the fact that he was alive and therefore Nick couldn’t be dead. He could sense the tiny thread of soulmate energy that remained strong and steady in the center of his soul. He knew Nick was out there somewhere, and while he was, Jeff would never give these monsters anything.