Lesser Gods (51 page)

“I’m so glad you survived.”

Cat looked like she was about to hug me, but then she hesitated. I felt a bit awkward too, and didn’t move. Cat was no longer a little girl.

“It’s been so long,” I breathed.

“Yeah. Ever since that night...” Cat placed the pistol on the bed. “I’m really happy you came, Adrian. We can be a family again.”

“Yeah, well, it wasn’t easy getting in here,” I said. “And we’d better go soon if we’re going to escape before the Angels get back.”

“Escape?” asked Cat, looking bewildered. “What do you mean? You just did escape.”

I stared at her until I figured out what she meant. “I’m not here to join the Angels, Cat. I’m here to get you out.”

“Get out?” repeated Cat. “And go where?”

“Back to the Guardians, of course!”

Suddenly Cat grabbed her pistol and leveled it on me again.

I jumped back a step, shouting in surprise, “Cat! What the hell are you doing?!”

But Cat was dead serious. “Don’t move, Adrian! I swear I’ll kill you if you move!”

I slowly shook my head and sighed. “So they have converted you after all.”

After everything I had learned about psionic conversion, I should have been psychologically prepared for this, but I wasn’t. Terry had warned me, but I didn’t listen. While I had always known that Cat had been converted by the Angels, it’s one thing to know something and another to actually believe it.

“Converted me?!” asked Cat, her voice rising in fury. “What about you, Adrian?! I thought you had escaped them. But Father was right! You joined them!”

“I had to, Cat! How else could I rescue you from the Angels?”

“I don’t need rescuing!” said Cat, her voice shaking. “The Guardians killed our parents, Adrian! And you – you joined them!”

“Guardians... killed our...” I sputtered, trying to make sense of it. “No, Cat. You’ve got it backwards. It was an Angel berserker that killed Mom and Dad. The Angels lied to you. You have to believe me!”

“No! The Guardians lied to you, Adrian. They changed your memory so that you’d think the Angels were responsible.”

I shook my head, but Cat continued rapidly, “They made you fight for them, didn’t they? That’s how you lost your ear! I’ve heard stories about how the Guardians force people to fight for them. Even children. When Father told me that you were taken by the Guardians, I was afraid for you every day. You’re a destroyer, so of course they’d use you.”

“It wasn’t like that, Cat!”

“You’re lying!”

“Cat, please listen to me,” I begged.

“No, you listen to me!” Cat said furiously. “If you want to join us here, then I’m sure Father will let you stay, but you’re not going to take me away, Adrian. This is my family!”

Family?!

A crack appeared in the wall as I roared, “We had a family, Cat! It was destroyed by the people you call your family now! Don’t you even care?! Don’t you remember who you are?!”

Cat took a step back and shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I’m sorry you’re so confused, Adrian. But I do know who I am. I’m Catherine Divine.”

I looked long and hard at her, and then nodded slowly. “Well, if you’re Catherine Divine, I guess that makes me Adrian Gifford. I have a family too, and I have to get back to them.”

Cat kept the pistol pointed at my heart. “You shouldn’t have come here, Adrian. And now I can’t let you go back.”

“I won’t force you to come with me, Cat,” I said evenly, “but you’re not going to stop me from leaving.”

“You’re a Guardian, Adrian. I can’t just let you go.”

“You’re not going to shoot me,” I said, wondering if I was right. I could finally appreciate the true power of psionic conversion. By the look in Cat’s eyes, I wasn’t about to put it past her to shoot me dead right here.

“You’re not going to kill me, Cat,” I repeated as calmly as I could. “You don’t have it in you.”

“Don’t count on it,” Cat said hoarsely, pulling her pistol’s hammer back. “Times have changed.”

Cat was shaking from head to toe.

“Then let me make it easier for you,” I said quietly, stepping forward and pressing my chest against the barrel of her pistol. “This way you won’t miss.”

I no longer cared if Cat killed me or not. I had imagined many possible reunions with my lost sister, but converted Angel or not, this just wasn’t among them.

Cat shook her head and begged, “Please don’t make me do this.”

“You’ve never killed anyone before, have you, Cat?”

“No,” breathed Cat, “and I don’t want to. I wish Father was here.”

I was about to reach out and take the gun from Cat’s hands, but suddenly I had no control over my body. My legs, my arms, even my ability to blink had been taken over by what I instantly recognized as the psionic control of a puppeteer.

My legs took two steps back, and my mouth opened, saying soothingly, “It’s alright, Cathy, you can put the gun down now. I have control. Put the pistol on safety. We’re coming in.”

The last time an Angel puppeteer had taken over my body, it had been to use me as a weapon. This time, it was merely to prevent my escape. I desperately willed my body to obey my commands, but it was utterly useless.

Cat lowered her pistol and called out, “The door’s unlocked!”

I heard the side door open, and in stepped two men. The first was a rather tall, lanky man with short, gray hair. He looked about fifty or so, and reminded me a little of Riles. The other was younger, shorter, and appeared to be his bodyguard. I couldn’t sense their psionic powers, so whatever they were, they weren’t destroyers.

“Father!” cried Cat.

The older man smiled at her, asking, “Are you alright, Cathy?”

Cat nodded, and then the man she had just called Father turned to his partner and said politely, “Kindly release the visitor’s head and lungs so that we may speak with him.”

The younger man nodded, and I found I could move everything but my arms and legs.

Ignoring the puppeteer, I shouted at the gray-haired man, “Who the hell are you?!”

“My name is Randal Divine,” he replied calmly. “I would welcome you to my temporary home, but it seems you are threatening my daughter.”

“Maybe you haven’t noticed who’s holding the gun!” I shot back savagely.

“Which in turn begs the question as to why you are still alive,” said Randal Divine as he carefully took the pistol out of Cat’s hands.

Cat looked up at him, saying, “Father, this is my brother.”

“Adrian?” said Randal, looking at me in surprise. “My God, it really is Adrian Howell, isn’t it? I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you. You look very different from our somewhat dated records.”

“Let me go!” I shouted, struggling futilely to regain control of my limbs.

Randal turned to his puppeteer and said, “Do as he asks, please.”

The puppeteer raised an eyebrow. “Sir?”

“Adrian will not harm us,” replied Randal, putting the pistol on safety and slipping it under his belt. “He didn’t come here to fight.”

As the puppeteer released my arms and legs, my first thought was to blast a hole through Randal Divine’s head. This was the man who had lied to Cat about how our parents died. I kept my anger in check, though. Randal Divine was also the man that Cat now called Father.

Randal said to me, “In case you are wondering, Adrian, the second battle has just ended. Your champion, Ms. Henderson, has lost the match, putting us at one to one.”

I didn’t reply. I fleetingly wondered if Terry was okay, but I was more concerned for myself at the moment.

Randal continued, “I also hope that by now my daughter has convinced you of the futility of trying to take her back to the Guardians with you.”

I shouted furiously, “She’s not your daughter, Angel!”

“I love Cathy as my daughter, and she loves me as her father.”

It was all I could do to keep myself from attacking him. “She’d love you if you were a pile of dead snakes! Your queen converted her!”

Randal chuckled, saying, “We never converted Cathy, Adrian. We
convinced
her to stay with us.”

“You lie!”

He merely smiled. “Why would I lie?”

I turned to Cat, who nodded and said, “I was never converted, Adrian. I’ve talked with Queen Divine many times, but she never converted me.”

That wasn’t possible. “They wiped your memory, Cat,” I told her. “You don’t remember that you were converted.”

Cat shook her head. “The Angels would never do that to someone my age, Adrian.”

“I love Cathy very much,” Randal said to me. “If we were to put her through conversion, what reason would we have to erase her memory of it?”

I felt sick to my stomach as I realized that they spoke the truth. Memory alteration could cause permanent brain damage for anyone younger than eighteen years old, and even the Angels wouldn’t risk that without very good reason.

Randal smiled at me and said, “I honor your courage, young Knight. Not many people could have gotten past our Seraphim so easily. Won’t you consider joining us here? Cathy would be delighted, I’m sure, and I would be quite happy to welcome you into our family. Considering your history with the Guardians, I believe that conversion is unavoidable at this point, but I would rather that you underwent it willingly. I’m sure Cathy feels the same way.”

I stared down at the floor.

Stay here with the Angels? Willingly be converted by Larissa Divine? After the Angels killed my parents and took my sister? After they kidnapped Cindy and tortured Terry’s brother to death?

I looked up at Randal and said slowly, “I want to speak with Cat alone.”

“Very well, Adrian,” said Randal. “If it is okay with Cathy, that is.”

Cat nodded, and Randal took his puppeteer and stepped out of the motorhome.

After a short but very awkward silence, I asked Cat, “So he calls you Cathy, huh?”

Cat smiled embarrassedly. “Yeah. No one has called me Cat in a long time.”

“This guy that you call Father... does he treat you well?”

“Yes, Adrian, he does. He’s not like our dad, but he’s a good father. I love him.”

I sighed. “Cat, when you were taken by the Angels, I feared for you every day too. I thought they had converted you and forced you to become one of their servants. That’s why I came here today.”

“I am not a servant,” said Cat, looking me in the eyes. “I have a good life here.”

“I can see that,” I said quietly.

“I had to beg Father to let me come with him to this gathering. He didn’t want to risk me getting hurt.” Cat gently fingered my hair. “Look at you, Adrian. It’s amazing you’re even alive. You can’t go back.”

I gave her a wry smile and said, “Whatever you may think of them, Cat, my family is with the Guardians, and I have to return to them.”

Cat slowly shook her head. “No, Adrian. Father is right. You will have to be converted. There’s no way around that. But I don’t want you to have to go through it feeling angry. Conversion can be very painful that way, and it can damage your mind. It’s better if you’re already willing to join us. That way, conversion is more like a reassurance of trust than brainwashing.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing this from you, Cat,” I said sadly. “But I promise you one thing: No matter how painful it is, I won’t stop fighting it. I’d rather have my mind completely destroyed than be converted by your queen.”

Cat looked horrified. “I can’t let you do that, Adrian! You’re my brother. Even if you’re a Guardian, you’re still my family.”

With any luck, Mr. Baker would send his team in to come get me and kill Number Two well before I was converted. Terry’s battle was already over. Had Alia read my fake Braille message to the Knights? Where was the Guardian attack team?

Cat gazed at me for a moment longer, and suddenly said determinedly, “You’re not going to be converted, Adrian. I’ll find a way to help you escape before you’re taken to the queen.”

I shook my head. “I don’t want to get you into trouble, Cat.”

“Father will understand.”

The door opened and Randal Divine stepped back inside, faithfully followed by his puppeteer sidekick.

“Indeed I will,” said Randal.

Cat and I said in unison, “You were listening to us?”

“I’m sorry,” said Randal. “I overheard. But I believe that it will be for the best. Did you mean what you just said, Cathy?”

Cat faced Randal and said resolutely, “He is my brother. I don’t agree with him, but if I can’t convince him to stay, I don’t want him converted. Please, Father.”

Randal smiled. “If you feel that strongly, Cathy, I will allow Adrian to return to the Guardians, as my gift to you.”

“Thank you, Father.”

“I’m not leaving without her,” I said, suddenly having an idea.

If I stalled here with Cat until the Guardians attacked the camp, I could get her out with me whether she liked it or not. Since Cat hadn’t been converted, I wouldn’t be risking her mind by forcing her to come with me. Cat might resist, but I would blast her unconscious if that’s what it took. Once she learned the truth behind the Angels’ lies about our parents, she would thank me for saving her.

Randal said to me, “I believe Cathy has already made it perfectly clear that she will not return to the Guardians with you, Adrian.”

I glared at him, but he remained relaxed as he continued, “While I was waiting outside, one of our runners told me that the Guardians have demanded your swift and safe return. I will personally escort you back to the Guardian side of the arena now.”

Mr. Baker had demanded my return. That meant things were moving along on the Guardian side, but not quickly enough as far as I was concerned. How much longer would it take before they raided the camp?

Randal said to Cat, “You may walk with us, Cathy, but only to the edge of our camp. It’s dangerous outside, you know.” He gave Cat a wink and added, “But if your brother can convince you to join him, you are, of course, welcome to leave us and go live with the Guardians.”

The puppeteer looked aghast. “You can’t be serious, Mr. Divine!”

Randal turned to him and said lightly, “Don’t I sound serious?”

“But the queen’s orders, sir!”

“I will take full responsibility if Cathy chooses to leave us,” said Randal. “She is, after all, my child.”