No Peace for the Damned

did.
    Thirteen got in the car, and I followed without argument. I closed the door and turned to check on Heather. She’d stopped crying and was just lying on her side on the backseat. Her thoughts were swirling, but always came back to Jon. The very thought of his arms around her calmed her somehow.
    I thought of Theo. A warmth filled me as I pictured his five o’clock shadow, the masculine tendons of his neck and the way they flexed. Was this comfort? Probably not. I doubted I’d be blushing this much if it were comfort.
    It didn’t really matter anyway. However intense this thing between us was, he would never feel that all-encompassing love like Jon felt for Heather. At least not for me.
    “Why does your family do such terrible things?”
    Heather’s voice was quiet. I started to turn away.
    “I’m serious,” she said a little louder. “I want to know because, truly, I don’t understand it. Why do they hurt people so badly?”
    I looked in her eyes and saw the scope of her naïveté.
    “Because we’re evil, Heather.”
    From the corner of my eye I saw Thirteen flinch. Heather sniffed, but she nodded for me to continue.
    “None of us ever met Grandfather, but Grandmother said that’s where the power came from. She was the drive behind theKelch empire from day one. I’m pretty sure Grandmother was a sociopath. She wanted everyone to either fear her or desire her. She took Grandfather’s powers to a whole new level of malevolence with her sons. She trained them, pounded into their heads that they were superior because of their
gifts
. And pain? That was her way to both punish and reward: if Uncle Max did something wrong, he was tortured. If he did something right, Father was.
    “She might not have had any powers of her own, but I can tell you that she was the worst of any of us. Couple that with Grandfather’s powers and what else can you expect? Pain and torture is all we’ve ever known.”
    Heather’s eyes were blank, just staring at me. Part of me wanted to peek in her mind again and see her real reaction. But I didn’t. Truth was, I didn’t want to know how different I looked to her now.
    I turned back in my seat and put in my iPod earplugs. Somehow, the sun’s uncomfortable glare felt very appropriate for the drive home.

The double beep of the alarm pulled me awake. It had been one month and one day since I’d moved into my little farmhouse, and my dreams were worse than ever. Exhausting. So intense with the reds and golds. Much more of this and I’d have to start adding coffee to my morning whiskey.
    I stretched my neck and peered at the bedside clock: 4:30 a.m. Yesterday’s training had gone long, so waking up now meant I’d had about five hours of fitful sleep. Not bad, but definitely not enough.
    I dragged myself out of bed and stumbled my way to the kitchen. I was dropping ice in my whiskey when Jon and Theo rushed through the front door, Shane and Thirteen right on their heels. Instantly I tensed. Theo and Jon had made copies of their old house keys. Well, wasn’t that nice to know.
    “What’s going on?” I asked.
    No one answered. They didn’t even acknowledge my presence. They were too busy pushing on floorboards and moving around paintings. Thirteen even removed the sill from under one of the large windows.
    I threw back another drink and let the burn wake me up. As each man rummaged through the room, serious weapons were exposed. Guns, ammo, knives, and that was just what I could make out from the kitchen. I’d wondered why a Network Headquarters didn’t actually have any Network stuff in it. Apparently, artillery storage had been this place’s primary purpose before I showed up. I peered around the kitchen. What else was hidden in my small house?
    “Hey!” I shouted. “What the hell is going on?”
    Theo looked up at me while he loaded a long-barreled shotgun. Thirteen stepped in front of him, his own large gun held in both hands.
    “Banks is gone,” he said. “He didn’t call in for the three thirty check, and when Chang tried to contact him at home the line had been disconnected.” Thirteen cocked his rifle with a loud, terrifying sound. “I went by there personally and found his door completely splintered. Only the doorknob’s brass was left. The rest of his house was in order, but there was blood in his bedroom.”
    My stomach dropped. My family had Banks. Suddenly all the other Network abductions seemed much more real. Thirteen turned back to the