Naturals (16 page)

Chapter 20

James.

I must have misheard him. They were going to kill James? How was that even possible? I opened my mouth, then closed it. A thousand different thoughts, questions, and emotions overtook me, leaving me dizzy. Hope that it was true. Anger that it was kept from me. Fear as to what it all meant. Determination that no matter what—I would never let anyone kill him.

“We have to hurry,” Lockwood urged, moving toward me and taking me by the shoulders.

I shook him off and backed away. “You’re crazy. Why would you say something like that?”

If this was one of his jokes, I would never forgive him for it. I had talked to him a little about James while we worked, and even if I hadn’t shared every single detail of our relationship, Lockwood knew how important James was to me. He may have liked to laugh his way through life, but I would never find teasing me about something I had lost amusing.

“I’ll take you there. We’ll force them to listen to you. I thought they were just going to make him return, but they think he knows too much, and if there’s one thing the people hate around here it’s an abnor—a chosen one. In their eyes, it’s the damn council personified. They voted, and it didn’t go as I expected. I thought if he just left, you could continue making a life here. I knew they would never let him stay, and I didn’t think you’d want to go through that again,” Lockwood tried to explain, his voice desperate, rushed.

No. James was here? He had come for me? What had they done to him while I sat there and kissed Henry over and over again?

Henry. My heart beat so wildly in my chest that I wondered it if was about to give out. I couldn’t even look at him. Because if it was true, then he’d known. He’d known the whole damn time. Every kiss and caress was tainted with his deceit. Was he so determined to keep me that he would act like a monster?

“Henry?” I asked, staring straight ahead. I couldn’t look at him. I just couldn’t. I knew if I did, I would see every intimate moment we had shared, all the kisses that now left me feeling nauseous.

“I’m not sorry.”

Despite my resolve, those words pulled my gaze up. I had to see him. Angry tears filled my eyes. Betrayal. He had betrayed me in the worst possible way.

“Tess…I did what I needed to do,” Henry said. “You were dying, and he showed up like some fucking messiah. He had what you needed, so I begged, begged on my knees, for the leaders to allow him to see you. They wanted to shoot him on the spot.”

“So they let him in and then what?” I asked, my voice dead. Cold. Empty.

“As soon as you started to show signs of improving, they took him,” Lockwood said. “He didn’t even put up a fight. Robert told him to go without a fuss—we both thought it would buy him some points, validate that the only reason he was here was to save you.”

“And then what?” I snarled. My eyes were still focused on Henry, trapped in some silent battle. There wasn’t a single trace of regret to be found in him. I remembered how frenzied and crazed he was during our talk back at the compound.

I’ve been so lonely without you. Did you know that?

I’m going to show them they can’t keep me quiet.

They are nothing, Tess. They aren’t even human.

Did you ever wonder what makes someone a terrorist?

I would give anything for things to be different.

No, of course he didn’t feel bad for what he’d done. For someone who claimed he couldn’t connect with the heathens who made up the community, he sure did share their ideologies. He’d lost his family and Julia and made me his whole new life. And that was a dangerous way to live, because when someone did that, he’d do anything to keep it. Anything. Especially with a person like Henry, who had so much anger inside of him that he wanted to annihilate the council, and he didn’t care if he annihilated himself in the process.

So if keeping me meant that James had to die, so be it. He probably even convinced himself that he was doing me a favor, saving me from loving something he could only see as inhuman, freakish, immoral.

“They want him dead,” Lockwood said, returning my attention to him. “They think he’s here to steal information to take back to the council. The fact that he so easily found us is freaking everyone out. To be honest, it doesn’t shed a good light on any of you. You come here, and now we have
two
chosen ones in our community? Logical or not, some will blame this on you. So that’s why I agreed with Henry to keep it secret. I figured if you didn’t know, you wouldn’t go running in there like some lovesick teenager, and they would think you were innocent.”

His gift. That was how James had found me. I remembered him telling me that he could sense when something terrible was going to happen to someone he cared for.

The later versions of the chosen ones had been enhanced with certain abilities that the creators felt would be useful during the war. James and I had figured that he was created to be a bodyguard to some higher-ranked member of the council. But when, during his interview, James failed to give the answers the council spent years training him to memorize, he had been demoted to guarding a compound. James had seen the council coming for me after my inspection, and he was able to rally Robert, Henry, and the Isolationists together to extract me from their clutches.

His ability explained how he’d known I was sick, but I still couldn’t figure out how he had found the community.

“They’re going to kill him in the morning,” Lockwood finished.

In a normal battle, it would be near impossible to take down a chosen one. While a shot to the head would do, most anyone who tried would be taken out before they could even aim their gun. Especially those gifted chosen ones.

But James had surrendered willingly. For me.

I felt faint. Dizzy. Like my whole world was no longer my own. It must have been another nightmare brought on by the fever, because there was no way in hell this was happening. If so, that meant I had James back only to lose him again. It meant that the people closest to me had been keeping secrets. It meant Henry had destroyed everything.

Everything.

“Where is he?” I asked, turning on him.

“Don’t know. Don’t care. Because you’re not going anywhere,” Henry insisted. He took a shaky breath, his eyes softening. “I don’t want to be the jackass here, Tess. But somebody has to watch over you. This is a dangerous situation, and you’ve never been able to think straight around him. There are people here who don’t want us to stay, and you running after James to save him is just what they would need to convince the others to kick you out.” He sighed again. “I will do anything to protect you. Even if you hate me for it.”

“You’re deranged if you think you can keep her trapped in this room!” Lockwood yelled, appearing next to me.

“
You
’re going to stop me? I’d like to see you try. The leaders aren’t going to change their minds, Tess. And Lockwood is right; it’ll only make you look suspicious. You think these people are civilized because they don’t wear their overbearing authority around like a badge of honor? They aren’t that far off from the council, trust me. And now that they’ve started to figure out you aren’t going to repopulate the world for them, they won’t hesitate in standing you right next to that thing when they shoot him down!”

“He isn’t a thing—he’s a person! I’m sorry I love him, I am!” I screamed, not caring who heard me. “But how could you keep this from me? You really thought I would never find out? That I wouldn’t hate you when I did?”

“I didn’t care if you hated me. All I have ever cared about is keeping you safe,” he yelled back. “You can sit here and fight and scream all you want, but you’re not leaving this room.”

The
click
of the gun made all of us freeze. I spun around to find Sharon in the doorway.

“You might want to rethink that statement there, son,” she said, pointing the gun directly at Henry. “Besides, I don’t really think you get to make that choice for her.”

“I think you need to stay out of this,” Henry replied, suddenly shaky. The weapon scared him as much as it did me. “Please, Sharon. I’m begging you. She is everything. I need her.
You
need her. Let her stay here. Help me keep her safe.”

I clutched my fist, pulled back my arm, and let it fly right into Henry’s face.

He grabbed his nose and bent forward. I’d worry about my hand later. Right now, only one thing mattered—saving James.

I nodded at Sharon. I had no idea why she was there or would even think about helping me, but I was grateful.

“Take me to him.”

Chapter 21

“Can’t let you in,” Eric said.

The leaders were keeping James in a cell they created in another random room of the dining hall. I wondered how many uses they got out of that building.

“They have a right to see each other,” Sharon said. “The boy came all this way to save her. The least we can do is let them have some time together before he dies.” Sharon’s gun rested casually against her shoulder. I didn’t blame her. There was no way she could have come up here and treated Eric with the same force she used on Henry. Eric was one of her people, and Henry had never been that.

I wanted to scream at them both that no one would be dying, but I knew that battle would come later. The only thing I could think about was seeing James. We could figure out a way to save him once I got in there.

That was something we had always been good at—saving each other.

“I don’t really think that thing has any rights at all. Last time I checked, he was part of the group that liked to take
away
personal rights. So excuse me if I don’t feel particularly bad about not granting him one more night of defiling nice girls who don’t know any better,” barked Eric.

“Don’t be an ass,” Lockwood said.

“If I wanted your opinion, Lock, I would have asked for it. Don’t you have some cows to milk?” Eric snapped back.

“Nope. All my cow-milking duties have been halted so the people I’ve spent my whole life looking up to can unfairly murder someone,” he said.

“I don’t expect you to understand. Tess here is a pretty girl, and I’m sure she spends all day whispering to you how they are so misunderstood. And since you’ve never watched your friends literally being pulled apart by one of these creatures, or seen the things they have done to naturals, you probably believe her. But I’m here to tell you that abnorn is gonna die tomorrow, and he doesn’t get any last requests,” said Eric, looking directly at Lockwood.

Eric couldn’t look at me, and that’s the hope I had to go on. We had shared a conversation about our mothers, and maybe that connected us in some way. Maybe he didn’t like that he was hurting me.

I stepped in front of Lockwood so Eric would have to acknowledge me. I opened and closed my fist to keep anyone from noticing how my hands shook. “I’m sorry about what happened to Jones. I know I’ve never said that, and I should have. You all risked your lives to save me, and I never quite understood what that meant until now. You didn’t even know me, and—”

“Don’t,” Eric interrupted, choosing to look over my head instead of at me. “Did you know Jones had a wife? Maybe you should go thank
her
. And I’m sorry, but saying thank you now won’t save your abnorm.”

“I’m not asking to save him,” I corrected. At least not yet. “I’m just asking to see him.”

“Not going to happen,” he said.

That was the last straw. I decided to ignore how my stomach churned at the thought of taking these people on. These people were always talking about how different they were from the council, but they weren’t. That was the one thing Henry got right.

I didn’t run from one place of suffocating imprisonment only to live in another. I had made myself a part of this community, and it was time they started treating me like it.

I wasn’t a child anymore.

I knew it was insane before I even did it, but I also knew this knowledge wouldn’t stop me. Eric would have every right to shoot me, but it would be worth it. I’d die knowing I did everything I could to fix this. I twisted around and latched onto the strap of Sharon’s gun, snatching it from her shoulder. Before anyone could react, I had it pointed straight at Eric.

“Whoa,” said Lockwood, taking a step away from me.

Eric lifted his gun and pointed it at me.

“Tess, I think we might want to rethink this,” said Sharon.

“No. I don’t think
we
need to do anything.
I
need Eric to let me see James. That’s what
I
need,” I declared.

“Do you even know how to use one of those?” Sharon asked, slipping back into her maternal role.

“I guess we’ll find out,” I said. I was grateful for how steady my hands remained as I held the gun on Eric. Of course I didn’t know how to use one. The council forbade the use of guns. But this was the only language these people seemed to know, and it was about time I started speaking it, too.

“Grab her,” a voice called out from behind us.

Before I knew it, someone barreled into me, knocking me to the ground, where I landed heavily on my back. The assailant was on top of me in an instant, snatching the gun and tossing it aside. I couldn’t see his identity, as both my eyes and mouth were full of dirt. I turned my head to the side and tried to spit out as much of it as I could, but it made its way between my teeth, grinding and scraping. I couldn’t reach my eyes, because once the gun was gone, my hands were pinned to my side.

“Get her up,” the man’s voice ordered.

The body on top of me lifted as someone behind me grabbed my elbows and pulled me to my feet. Despite the hold on me, I managed to reach a hand up to my eyes in an attempt to clear them of dirt. When I finally was able to see, I saw the man who demanded my capture.

Balding.

Horrid scar.

Look of complete and utter repugnance.

Al.

“Want to tell me what the hell is going on here?” he asked Eric.

Eric gulped. “It’s nothing. A misunderstanding. Isn’t that right, Tess?”

I was thankful for what Eric was trying to do for me, but I couldn’t back down. Not now. Not ever again. “I was holding a gun on Eric until he took me to James.”

“Is that so?” Al asked, scratching the back of his head.

I lifted my chin defiantly. “Yep, that about sums it up.”

“You want to see your boyfriend?” he asked, examining his fingernails. I wanted to slap him. I saw all his little actions for what they were. He was showing me how little power I had.

“Yeah, I want to see my boyfriend,” I said.

“The only way to spend time with a criminal is to become one. I see you were smart enough to figure that one out on your own—or maybe just really, really stupid.” He assumed an air of disinterest.

“She’s fine, Al. Just a little hot tempered. Lock will take her back, and we can just forget this happened,” Eric said.

“That’s where you’ve been wrong from the start. This girl is an egotistical, maniacal child who has played all of you for far too long. It’s about time she was put in her place.”

“That’s not your decision to make,” warned Sharon.

“Right now, I think it is,” Al said.

“Lock, you come with me. We have some people to talk to,” Sharon said. Lockwood turned to me and mouthed two words:
Be smart
.

“What exactly is it that you plan on doing to me?” I asked, ashamed that I was actually scared.

That was the thing about heroes—they never thought about consequences. And today, James needed me to be a hero.

But after everything I had seen in life, I couldn’t help but think of them.

“We’re going to put you right where you belong: behind bars. I don’t trust you. Not one bit, and until I can convince them you don’t belong here, that’s where you’ll stay,” Al hissed.

On cue, the two men with Al flanked me, each one grabbing an arm. Al was going to lock me away, convince the community I was a danger to them and everyone they loved, and get rid of me in any way he could. But suddenly my fear was gone.

I was even thankful.

I was getting exactly what I wanted.

I was going to see James.