“To keep her from following,” Ariane said, her words thick, and tears rolled down her cheeks, leaving shiny white tracks. “They are a unit. We couldn’t risk that the network between them would pull her along.”
She and Ford switched places, their security shuffling around them, and I stumbled back a step, my stomach pitching violently, hot acid rising in my throat. I’d done this. Oh my God. It was even worse than I’d thought.
“Yes, it is,” Ford hissed. “Thank you for that, human.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake,” Laughlin said in exasperation, as Ford and Ariane cleared the center of the open space. “The fault lies with all of you for even trying. You should have known better.”
Then, in a smooth motion that I didn’t see coming, he removed the sidearm from the security member nearest him and fired it at Nixon’s head.
I jerked at the noise, instinctively hunching against it.
The hybrid stiffened and fell to the ground, followed immediately by Carter and Ford.
Ariane froze, and my mom gave a barely muffled scream. Chaos erupted then, guards rushing in on all sides and everyone yelling.
“Stand back! Nobody move!” That seemed to come from one of the guards, but I couldn’t tell which one, or even which side he was on.
“Welcome back, Ford,” Laughlin said in a bitter but triumphant tone. But Ford, lying on the asphalt, gave no sign of consciousness, let alone hearing him, and Ariane remained locked in place, the shock holding her still.
“Is that really necessary, David?” Dr. Jacobs shouted. “We’re trying not to attract attention—”
“What kind of game are you people running?” my dad demanded, his voice booming above the fray.
“Showmanship is part of it. You’ve never understood that,” Laughlin snapped, handing the weapon back to his guard.
“—but you always have to have the big dramatic moment,” Jacobs continued.
“Form a perimeter, maintain visual contact on the subjects,” another security team member barked.
Ariane gave a low, keening cry, swaying where she stood.
A strange electrified feeling slid over my skin, and the hair on my arms stood on end. Then the headlights on all the assorted vehicles began to flicker.
Oh shit.
“Ariane?” I ventured, moving closer. But she didn’t seem to hear me, her head cocked to one side as she took in the sight before her. I could see only bits and pieces between all the security team members as they moved.
A flash of white and blue that was Ford, still in her school uniform, on the ground. The red that was slowly spreading from around Nixon’s collapsed form. Carter’s pale hand flung forward, as if he’d tried to reach out for Nixon even as he fell.
“Stay back!” one of Laughlin’s guards shouted at me, aiming his weapon my way.
My heart leaped into my throat, almost choking me as I raised my hands instinctively.
“Leave him alone,” Ariane said, without even looking back.
A series of loud pops sounded, followed by the delicate rain of glass on the ground. All the windows breaking out.
“Zane!” my mom shrieked, and through the crowd I could see her waving me forward even as she shoved Quinn toward my dad’s vehicle.
But I couldn’t move, frozen in place by the sight of Ariane. Small and vulnerable, even though she was powerful beyond measure, being surrounded by the black-clad security forces from both companies.
This was it. I was going to watch Ariane die from a hundred different wounds, shot by those who were too afraid to understand. She couldn’t stop all of them. There was no way.
“Wait, please,” I shouted at the guards.
“Stand down,” Jacobs screamed at them, his face turning a dangerous shade of reddish purple.
Just outside the circle of guards surrounding Ariane, Ford pushed herself to her feet, unnoticed by everyone but me, it seemed. They were all too busy focusing on Ariane.
I held my breath, not sure whether to shout a warning or to keep my mouth shut.
Ford reached out with her bound hands and flicked the closest clump of guards away from Ariane with an easy gesture. It seemed at first that she was trying to help Ariane, but as soon as she started toward Laughlin, her steps slow and shuffling at first, then growing stronger, her intent became clear.
The SUV closest to me suddenly rocked on its wheels and then flew backward, end over end into the lake, as if it had been flicked away by a giant invisible hand. I stared at the sudden waves lapping at the shore and making the fishing piers shudder, as the SUV slowly took on water.
Ford or Ariane? Which one of them was responsible? I wasn’t sure. Nobody else seemed to be either, the security personnel shifting their attention back and forth between the two hybrids.
Then I watched as Ariane took a step after Ford, and a new idea occurred to me. Maybe it was both of them, working together. I couldn’t see Ariane’s expression with her back to me, but I recognized the stiff set of her shoulders, the tilt of her head. She’d shut out everything else, drawing deep into herself, into that distant mode where she was both more and less Ariane. She was, in that moment, exactly what they’d created her to be.
Hope flickered inside me. With the two of them together, maybe Ariane would have a chance. Maybe she could get away.…
“Stop her. But don’t kill her,” Laughlin ordered, sounding a little nervous as he backed out of sight behind the first SUV. Like that would be any protection. It wasn’t even clear who he was talking about, Ariane or Ford.
“I said, stand down,” Jacobs shouted.
But one of Laughlin’s jittery guards had had enough, it seemed. The one closest to Ford aimed at her, his finger on the trigger.
And then everything happened so fast, too fast.
Ford lifted her bound hands, her gaze suddenly a lot sharper, and shoved at him. His weapon arm swung wide, in my direction, and my mom screamed again.
A second shot echoed loudly, and at almost the same time I was knocked to the ground with bone-jarring force.
Ford, throwing me around again. That’s what I thought at first.
I tried to sit up and found it hurt more than it should have. A white-hot pain shot up my middle. Ford had probably broken something, damn her.
Then I looked down.
Oh.
It seemed like there should have been more to say or think in that moment, a rush of curses, a wave of panic and pleading and prayer. But that was it: Oh. A single word in silence, like a drop of water into ocean.
There was just so much blood, more than I’d ever seen in real life, bright, slippery, and spilling warm across my hand, where I’d pressed it instinctively against my stomach. A loud buzzing started in my ears, and my lips went numb.
Whether that guard had intended to shoot Ford or not, I didn’t know. Maybe when she’d used her power to shove his arm away, she’d squeezed too hard and he’d pulled the trigger inadvertently.
Or maybe Ford had done it deliberately, shifting his weapon to aim at me. The one she blamed for all of this. I couldn’t argue with that. I blamed myself too.
Regardless, one thing was inescapable: all bullets, even ones released accidentally, have to go somewhere, and this one had found its final destination.
I coughed, choking on a sudden flood of liquid warmth that I suspected was more blood, more life pouring away. I’d been so worried about Ariane’s survival, it had honestly never occurred to me to consider my own.
Too late now.
23
ARIANE. It started off small, a distant whisper in the back of my brain, a tiny flare of fear and regret. I barely registered it over the buzz and warmth of the power building up inside me and fighting against the drugs they’d pumped into me at Laughlin’s facility.