Equinox
Chapter Twenty Nine
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. At Marian's claim, every pocket of air in my body collapsed as the oxygen rushed from me. My brain shut down entirely. All that echoed through my thoughts were those four words. She is your mother. She is your mother. She is your mother.
How many times had I looked into her kind brown eyes and wished with every fiber of my being that that were true? But Jeb had told me that the maternal side of my heritage had died in childbirth, and until light of recent events, I had never had any reason to mistrust him.
As if his sudden resurrection and the revelation that Ari was my half brother (which I had still not fully addressed) wasn't enough.
Dr. Martinez shot Marian a withering glare, then turned her attention to me. Her eyes softened and she kneeled before me, smoothing a tendril of hair away from my cheek. The Erasers prevented me from jerking away, so I was forced to stand, immobile and stone-faced.
"I didn't know until very recently," she insisted pleadingly, her voice caching slightly. A film stretched over her eyes- the same deep brown as mine. So I had my mother's eyes. "Please, you have to believe me. Things would have been so different had I known. I … I admit I had my suspicions, watching you grow up into such a smart, selfless, fearless woman. But Jeb was gone. At least, I thought he was gone … and there was no one left to confirm or negate whether the glimmers of myself that I saw in you were real or imagined. I wanted to say something, but I couldn't. If I was wrong, then it would crush you. You had already lost the one parent you had ever known."
"I don't understand," I mumbled thickly.
My mind was reeling. I had managed to swallow down all the information Marian so freely supplied, but my thoughts were already brimming. Not to mention the crack to the head I had just received moments prior via mutant mutt. I wasn't sure how many more personal revelations I could stand to take in the span of one day.
And I still hadn't managed to confront Jeb yet.
"A long time ago, I had my own veterinary practice," she explained. "A man named Jeb Batchelder made me an offer. He thought my animal expertise would be useful in his line of work. At the time, I refused. Still, we kept in contact. I acted as consultant a handful of times over the next year. I had no idea what he was doing- what he's done to those children … so when he said he was working on a project that required female ova, I offered my egg and never heard wind of it again. Eventually I found my way here, but I never knew that the beautiful blonde little girl always trailing after Jeb was my daughter, too."
Son of a bitch. I was going to kill Jeb. I was going to wrap my hands around his neck and choke him to death. I wouldn't even give him a second's worth of benefit of the doubt. He had done nothing but lie to me my entire life. I wasn't his daughter.
I was just another experiment in his lab.
"I'm just giddy over this family reunion, but really, we're operating on a tight schedule. Time to go," Marian interrupted with a tight smile.
"Go?" Dr. Martinez echoed. Even if what she was saying was the complete truth, there was no way I was calling her Mom. "Go where?"
The Erasers at my back tightened their grip. I could feel their claws poised just above the exposed flesh at the base of my collar and the curve of my elbow. The third wolf man paced behind them, most likely keeping an eye out for any sudden movements on my behalf. His footfalls were heavy. Two steps to the left, pivot, two to the right. If I allowed my chin to slip further to my chest, then I could peek at his boots through the gaps between the other Erasers' legs.
"To join the others in containment," Marian replied condescendingly. "Yes, imagine my surprise when Max pouted and stomped her feet in order to get permission to induct an entire batch of our successful human-avian hybrids into the CSM. There was no use in returning them to the School when we could simply keep a careful eye on them here, without them ever knowing they had stumbled right back into the hands they so desperately wished to escape from."
It took every ounce of patience I had not to fly off the handle and throw her through the wall. Instead, I focused on regulating my breath. The dull ache in the back of my head had all but disappeared, and with it went the dizzying side effects. I continued to slump against the weight of the Erasers, though. Let them think I was still woozy and weak.
Internally, I reprimanded myself. What had I done? I had led the flock straight into a trap. My sincerity had been the only reason Fang had agreed to stay here. He had been rightfully wary from the start, but Angel had approved my innocent conscience and so they had come willingly, only to be stuffed back in cages.
And it was all my fault.
"Now I suppose they'll have to be shipped back to the School. Max, however, will of course have to be submitted to rigorous testing. The regenerative properties of a phoenix will prove most useful in the development of my super soldiers." Marian's ensuing grin was placid enough on the surface, but beneath was a hard chunk of ice.
Here was an example of a woman with a great vision. Terrible, but great. Wait. No. That was Voldemort. Still, the sentiment applied.
I raised my vision from the floor and locked my gaze with Dr. M's. Her eyes widened, and with good reason. I could feel the shift in my body temperature and knew heat was flooding my face, triggering the glow of the fire in my veins. With hooded eyes, I whispered with deadly calm: "Get back. Now."
She rocked back onto her haunches and then blundered her way to her feet, stumbling back the way she had come. Once I had determined that she was a safe distance, I targeted the energy roiling through me toward the places where the Erasers were clamped on my skin. I heard the sizzle of their flesh before they could even register the sensation singeing their nerve endings. With twin, guttural yelps, they released their hold in favor of nursing their burns.
I straightened my shoulders and stood tall. I had traded my tattered island shirt for a new, much cleaner one, but I hadn't processed the potentially problematic nature of the fabric effectively trapping my wings. The flock had a system all worked out in which they cut slits in their t-shirts, but I was relatively new to the whole flying thing, so I hadn't thought to mimic them. I would have to make due with my other talents. It wasn't like I would be taking off anytime soon, but the absence of my smoldering feathers did slightly ruin the dramatic effect of the whole 'phoenix' thing.
"You imbeciles," Marian snapped. She flattened herself against the wall, her blonde hair splayed against the white paint. A prick of fear kindled in her eyes. "Get her."
I whirled. The Erasers I had burned were glaring murderously, but they seemed in no hurry to approach me. The third, seeing that his companions were hesitant to make a move, settled his weight and barreled toward me. I stood my ground, but at the last second, I shifted to one side. The Eraser had left himself no room to compensate. He brushed past and skidded to a halt, swinging back around with a growl. He swung a powerful fist toward my jaw. I ducked under his arm and struck him in the gut. He doubled over, gurgling. I fit my fingers around the back of his neck, forcing his head further down.
"If you don't want to be incinerated then you better back off," I hissed through gritted teeth.
He dropped to his knees. The bulk around his shoulders receded and his claws, which had left long gouges in the floor, retracted. When I glanced up, the other two had returned to their, albeit awkward looking, human forms. They were still a little hairier than most.
At some point, Marian had slipped away. Dr. Martinez still stood nearby, peeking nervously around the corner. As I walked toward her, the heat clouding my vision cooled. I left nothing but a few black scorch marks in my wake.
"Find the flock," I ordered tersely. I could barely meet her eyes. This was my mother. "Make sure nothing happens to them. I'll come to the Containment Wing as soon as I'm through with Jeb."
She nodded numbly and tucked a mass of wavy brown hair behind her ear.
I turned away before she could say anything more. The Erasers had disappeared, presumably to either seek out or hide from Marian. If I were them, then I would run away and never look back. But who knows what kind of brainwashing lupine-human hybrids received. They seemed more like guard dogs for the School than tortured experiments. Clearly, they didn't harbor the same ill wishes that the flock did.
As I set my course for Anne's office, I once again noticed the desertion of the corridors. Hunters didn't usually linger for that long in any one place, but as the equinox had just come to a close, a greater abundance of individuals should have been present in the complex for at least the next few days. The presence of Marian's Erasers should have sent them into a frenzy rather than forced them into hiding. Where was everyone? The halls were home only to the hollow sound of my footsteps.
Before I could mull over the quiet anymore, or perhaps delve into the fact that both my mother and my father were suddenly resurrected from the dead, I arrived before Anne's door.
I took only a second to steel myself. I didn't have the kind of time necessary to devote to mentally preparing myself to face my creator. There was no opportunity left to formulate questions or assemble a carefully stoic mask. I just had to go in, relay my disgust and hatred, then get on with my life.
So I did.
Anne looked up from her desk. Her expression betrayed no hint of surprise at my abrupt and unannounced entrance. My attention, however, was quickly captured by the man sitting across from her. At the sound of the door swinging open, he twisted around in his chair, a brilliant smile lighting up his features. The sight of it physically made me sick. The lurch in my stomach had me biting ferociously down on my tongue.
"Max," he breathed, rising quickly. His expression was one of rapture and awe. Oh please, gag me with a spoon.
I rolled my eyes, planting my hands on my hips. "Aright Jeb, don't act so pleased to see me."
His brow furrowed. I'm not sure what disgruntled him more, that for the first time in his presence, I had referred to him by his first name rather than Dad, or that my tone held nothing but biting sarcasm and contempt. The shock of my reaction served him right. What did he expect? That I would positively fall to my knees and worship his return?
As if.
"I can't say I'm surprised that you're angry. However I am … disappointed, nonetheless." He smiled sadly now, his fingers curled around the back of the chair while his other hand rested loosely at his side. I ignored the pain that the mere sound of his voice caused me. He didn't deserve the slightest twinge of sorrow on my behalf.
I regarded him coldly. "The only reason I'm here is so that you can explain why you decided to scar me for life by faking your own death," I replied stiffly.
He sighed and fiddled with a button at the cuff of his dark blue dress shirt. He rolled the material between his fingers, popping it in and out of place. A nervous habit, no doubt. I found satisfaction in that. Good. He should be nervous. I was feet away and for the first time in roughly six or seven years he had to face what he had done.
"Max, you're my only daughter," he began tiredly. The lines in his face were deep gulleys. He had been enduring copious amounts of stress, I'm sure. "I've always loved you."
I guffawed, blowing a disbelieving stream of air between my teeth. Harshly, I retorted, "Like you love Ari, right? He doesn't seem to have much contact with you, either. Why didn't you ever tell me he was my brother? Was he a test tube baby like me, too?"
That bit seemed to throw him. For the first time, he realized that he had no grasp of the magnitude of knowledge that I had. I saw the doubt and anxiety briefly flicker across his face as he wondered what else I knew, what other accusations I could throw his way that he would have no right to disprove. He swapped an uncertain glance with Anne, who was just as taken aback.
"Tell me why you left," I ordered tersely. I had drained the last dregs of patience from my body. My leniency was running on E.
He returned his eyes to me. Those eyes which I had stared sleepily into as he carried me to bed at night, which had been consumed with panic every time I received a bump or bruise, which had watched carefully over me as I learned to kill the terrors of the night, which had twinkled at my every laugh and joy. Now I saw only darkness and pain reflected in their depths. This man was nothing but a stranger, and my father was nothing but a distant memory. I made no connection with the face before me.
"You have a destiny. Since your birth, you have been meant to save the world. The power and skill needed for that doesn't come without certain trials. We had to test you, so that there was no chance for failure," he explained emphatically. Everything about his demeanor was logical and convinced. To him, he had done no wrong.
"I suppose it never occurred to you to give me a say in the matter, right?" I quipped. Slowly building tremors soared from my head to the very tips of my toes. My mind raced. All of this- his death, my training … it had all been a test?
"That's the beauty of your natural leadership," he practically sang. "Tell me, did you question for even a moment if you were the right one for the job? Did you even pause to consider letting someone else chase after the paranormals on that island?"
I pressed my mouth into a hard line. No, I hadn't. And he knew it. There was never a point in which such a thought had occurred to me. Who else was more qualified than I?
"So what?" I snapped. "I'm just supposed to let Marian Janssen and her Eraser cronies run experiments on me for the rest of my life? I don't exactly like the sound of her superior human race project."
"What?"
This time it was Anne who spoke. Her every feature was prickling with alarm. She and Jeb exchanged an uneasy glance. There was something off about the transaction, though. Whatever mention I had made was not news to them. It was more like they had suspected something was happening, and now it had just been proved, but they didn't like it.
"She had Erasers with her?" Anne asked, clutching the edge of her desk. Her expression was grated down to nothing but wariness.
I narrowed my eyes critically. "Uh … yeah. Three. I'm guessing more, considering she's captured the flock and detained them in the containment wing. What's going on? What are you not telling me?"
Jeb rubbed a hand across the scruffy patch of hair littering his jaw. He appeared to be deep in thought, so after a few moments, Anne finally replied. She seemed averse to doing so, having gotten in the habit of keeping secrets from me, but with Jeb present, the game had changed.
"Marian is undeniably brilliant," Anne began, tugging at her blazer and the hem of her matching skirt. "But that kind of brilliance, coupled with her previous position within Itex, makes her adherence to authority a bit … fickle. She's always had an agenda of her own, and most notably that agenda has included research into creating a being superior to the present human biology. I thought she had moved past it, but then …" she trailed off.
Jeb picked the story up from there, his voice grim. "But then a few months ago I began to hear some rumors. More and more, Marian's name was being thrown in alongside an organization called the Doomsday Group. The more I delved in, the clearer it became. She had an arrangement with them. Once she successfully manufactured a formula for the creation of her superior race, then the Doomsday Group would launch a genocide totally exterminating the human population. Excluding, of course, a few key members, including Ms. Janssen herself. Then they would repopulate Earth."
I leaned heavily on the wall. As much as I absolutely hated Jeb and Anne for their deception, this was taking center stage for most whacked out, messed up, evil plan. I could ignore my distaste in light of more pressing matters.
But what I couldn't do was wait for my brain to process. I pushed from the wall, eyes going wide. "I have to go. She's got the flock, I have to get them out of containment."
"Max, wait," Jeb called, lurching toward me. He grabbed my arm. I froze immediately, unable to do anything but glare at his fingers wrapped around my wrist. "Maybe we should talk this through a little more."
I jerked away, stepping into the hall. "I'm done talking."
-o-o-o-
I encountered no problems as I sprinted through the corridors toward the Containment Wing. I should probably have been more concerned about Marian's whereabouts, but all I could really think about was freeing the flock. I had to take things one step at a time.
As I skidded to a halt in the familiarly glass-cased hall, I found that the cells lining the left-hand side were occupied by dejected looking birdkids. Angel and Nudge were crouched in the corner of the first, their heads tucked between their knees. Iggy was in the second, his eyes stationary as he stared blindly ahead. Fang was in the third. He paced the small area afforded to him, alternating between drumming against his leg and raking a hand through his hair. The black strands were haphazard and unkempt. The red slashes and purple bruises around his knuckles conveyed that he had already made an attempt to escape, but these cells were made to hold much stronger than he.
I rushed to him. Upon catching sight of me, his shoulders sagged in relief. He slammed a fist against the glass. It didn't so much as shiver. I placed my palm over the area where he had made impact. He stared back at me. For the first time, his obsidian eyes were unrestrained. I could see every pulsing wave of emotion coursing through him: anxiety and fear and wild panic and the need to be freed from his prison.
He wouldn't be able to hear me through the partition. I held up a finger and ran back the way I had come. Before the first cell, a narrow crevice led to the back of the small chambers. I flashed Angel and Nudge a smile. They had raised their heads, and now grinned at the sight of me come to rescue them.
I should have paid more attention. I should have noticed Dr. Martinez's absence despite the fact that I had strictly told her to come here and make sure nothing happened until I arrived. But I was too concerned with freeing my friends. I let my guard down, and that was a huge mistake.
I rounded the corner and practically placed myself right into the hands of the awaiting Erasers. Before I could react, they had lugged me up by my hands and feet and tossed me into the empty cell beside Fang. I landed on the ground in a crumpled heap, my head cracking painfully against the concrete. Blearily, I rolled over on my other side, cradling my throbbing skull. Fang was crouching on the other side of the glass. Through slitted eyes, I could see his mouth moving, but I couldn't hear a sound.
Shaking myself to bring back my senses, I flipped to my stomach and then pushed myself to a stand. Unlike the other three walls of my cage, the back barrier was solid metal, with an almost indistinguishable door as the only form of exit or entry. I reached to where I knew the lock was on the other side, thinking I could burn my way through. The second my flesh came in contact, I hissed and ripped my hand away. A black mark stretched along the edge of my palm.
Iron. So apparently I was now susceptible to certain weaknesses on behalf of my shiny new paranormality. That included an aversion to iron.
My attention was diverted by movement out of my peripheral vision. Two Erasers were entering Fang's cell. He crouched defensively. There was nowhere for him to run. He aimed a punch toward the nearest Eraser, who dodged and snatched him up by the collar. I screamed as Fang was smashed against the glass. The second Eraser clobbered him in the nose. Bright scarlet spewed across the first Eraser's chin, but he didn't seem to mind. He just aimed a kick to Fang's shin, and then proceeded to knee him in the stomach. Fang struggled, but they had him pinned.
I hurled the entire weight of my body against the glass. My shoulder twinged in pain, but I didn't care. They were hurting Fang. His right eye was growing heavy lidded as he took another punch and another and another. His lip was swollen and dribbled blood, and still the Erasers beat him with little mercy. I barely noticed my own hysterical and jumbled screams. White hot lava coursed through my veins.
I was the phoenix. This stupid cell couldn't hold me.
Calm restored my thought process. I ceased my bodily attempts at breaking the barrier between us and instead laid a single palm on the glass. At first I thought the surface was reflecting the red glow of my hand, but then I realized that it was the glass that was turning red. I was super heating it. Just before it reached melting point, I stepped back and threw a kick. The wall shattered and rained molten shards.
The Erasers released Fang and whirled to take stock of what had happened. With one glance, they scampered over one another and fled, the iron door swinging open behind them. I fell to my knees beside Fang, who had slumped nearly to the ground. His right leg stuck straight out in front of him, while the other was bent at the knee. His torso was half propped against the wall, with his chin resting on his chest. Dark spots peppered the black fabric of his t-shirt. I took the hem and dabbed at the blood smeared on his mouth.
"That was fun," he muttered, eyes flickering in and out of focus as he stared up at me. Thankfully, his nose had stopped bleeding.
I cradled his head in my palm, wrapping strands of his hair around my fingers. His right eye was nearly swelled shut, and bruises blossomed across his jaw even as I examined him for injury. After carefully poking and prodding virtually every part of his body (but not every part, ahem) I decreed that he had been spared any broken bones or serious damage.
"You're really pretty," he mumbled thickly. The gaze out of his left eye, at least, was penetrating. His hand gripped my elbow tightly.
I blushed, coughing to hide my laugh. "You've got brain damage."
He shook his head, but groaned at the sudden movement. I reprimanded him and insisted he stay still. Once he had complied, I helped him to sit up. He ran his fingertips over the purple bulge that used to be his eye and winced. Carefully, I removed his hand and brushed my mouth lightly against the soft space just below his eyelid. As I was pulling away, he tilted his head and captured my lips with his own. This kiss was much gentler than our previous, owing to the fact that his lower lip had just been split open. I could still taste lingering tinges of his blood.
"We'll have plenty opportunity for that later," I whispered against his mouth, as he rested his forehead on mine. "Right now we really have to get out of here."
"Promise?" he murmured, sneaking another nip at my bottom lip.
"Promise," I agreed, mirroring the shape of his smile.
I helped him to his feet. He limped beside me as we exited the cell, his arm around my shoulders for support. I had to have him open Iggy and the girls' units, as I could touch neither the door nor the ancient iron set of rings. After a bit of fumbling, everyone had been freed from their brief imprisonment … just in time for Dylan to come steam rolling around the corner.
"What the hell is going on around here?" he blustered. His breathing was labored and his turquoise eyes were wide with panic. He put his hands on his knees and bent over slightly, sucking in gulps of oxygen. His beseeching gaze found mine.
I allowed myself a small, smug moment of triumph. I had been right. Here was Dylan, come crawling back and pretending like nothing had ever happened between us.
"I don't know, you tell me," I replied, assessing his frenzied appearance.
"Well," he flourished, "all I know is that all the hunters -including Gazzy- have been locked in the cafeteria and Marian Janssen has an army-sized group of paranormals assembling in the weapons room."
That certainly was a new development.
