No Peace for the Damned

Carter, he’d interrogated him. He’d held Carter for hours, launching question after question about a meeting Uncle Max had with some Egyptian diplomat. Then about the newest Kelch Inc. product launch. Then about my family’s supernatural abilities. Who the hell was this guy?
    Every time Carter had balked in responding, this man had hurt him. Badly. But Carter worked for my family. He knew what would happen if he talked. The man had turned his back for a second when Carter pulled a knife from the guy’s back pocket and slit his own throat
.
    The guy had been horrified, but frustration had surpassed any other thought. He’d left Carter dead on a cement floor. Five minutes later, he had plowed into me
.
    I pulled out of his mind. He trembled beneath me. Slowly he opened his eyes. He looked familiar. Had he been to the estate? My hands still choked him, but he did nothing to fight me off. His eyes stared up into mine and I knew that he recognized me
.
    “Who are you?” I shouted
.
    He opened his mouth but only a gurgle escaped his bruised throat. I loosened my grip. “Thirteen,” he muttered after a moment. I recognized the number as a name; one from my father’s thoughts. No wonder he knew our secrets—this was an enemy
.
    But wait—was he my enemy?
    I let him go and he fell back against the pavement. Now what? Steal his car? I couldn’t drive. Run some more? I had nowhere to go. Warily, I eyed him. He was shocked to actually meet me. He hadn’t been sure my brothers and I really existed outside of files. His thoughts were so honest, I didn’t understand them. I kept waiting for a plot to use or hurt me. Or an intention to return me to the estate. But there was only curiosity and concern. And amazement
.
    I knew the evil inside him would come out eventually, but I would see it before it surfaced. So when he suggested driving me to one of his safe houses, I let him. He couldn’t hurt me the way Father could. And after a few hours in a warm place, I could come up with a plan
.
    He never tried to hurt me. Not once. Instead he had offered me shelter, food, and the first kindness that I had ever experienced.
    But when Theo touched me…it was so much more than kindness. It was peace. And that peace was so unbelievable that I knew it had to be just that: something not to believe in.

I opened my eyes, my back still against the bedroom door, my legs still folded in front of me. Voices carried from the other rooms. How long had I been back here?
    Slowly I stood and wiped a hand over my face. I tried to take in the room around me, but all I saw was the dirt of the shed floor, the pavement as Thirteen’s car crushed me. The look in Theo’s eyes.
    “…nobody cares about that, Heather.” Marie’s shrill voice brought me back. “Whether she was
really
attacking Theo or not doesn’t matter.”
    Nice
. I’d had worse wake-ups, but still. Whispering about me from the next room over? Did they seriously think I couldn’t hear them?
    “Look, I know we all agreed to work with her and listen to her,” Marie continued. “But I’ve been thinking about this lately. Network members didn’t start disappearing until after she wasalready living at Thirteen’s safe house. How would the Kelches know who was even in the Network?
We
don’t even know who’s in the Network, but suddenly the Kelch family has the inside track on how to capture any one of us? She’s a plant, Thirteen. I’m sorry, but she is. And I for one am done getting all chummy with her and making her job that much easier.”
    The bulb in my bedside lamp shattered. It should have been Marie’s head.
    “I understand your concerns,” Thirteen said, not whispering at all. “She’s powerful. She’s a Kelch. It makes sense that you would be wary.” His voice got hard. “But the fact remains that she is a part of this team now.
My
team. She has trained you, provided crucial information to you. And this morning, she even saved some of you. If you still do not feel comfortable working alongside her, then by all means, let me know. There are plenty of other missions I can assign you.”
    I brushed the hair out of my eyes. After everything that had happened these last couple of weeks—my rage at being asked to train, disobeying his orders—he still took my side.
    In her mind, Marie fumed. Being picked for Thirteen’s team had been a privilege. Reassignment, even requested reassignment, would be a total slap in the face. And it would be all my