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  I jumped to my feet and was out the door, locking it behind me before she came to. Even if she yelled and pounded on the door for the rest of the night, the chances of someone hearing her over the music were slim.

  With Mercy out of the way, I had to figure out how to find Kale and my mom. I also needed to find Fin. I had no clue what his gift was, but he was obviously important. I debated shifting back to myself, but for the moment, I was less noticeable as Alex.

  With the dance floor full now, crammed like veal into a small wooden box, it was hard to see across the room. I pushed and shoved my way through, trying to see over the crowd. No sign of Alex. I hoped he’d tucked himself away somewhere—or better yet, left—but knowing him, the chances were slim.

  “Dude, that’s not a costume,” a voice said from behind me. I turned to see Dax smiling, thrusting a beer into my hands. “I’ve been looking for you for days. Dez said you’d gone to Denazen?”

  I smiled and shrugged, trying to walk away. The jig was up as soon as I opened my mouth.

  Dax wasn’t having it. He grabbed my arm and spun me to face him. “What were you thinking, running off to Denazen? You did it for her, didn’t you?” Dax groaned and pulled me off the dance floor. I may have had Alex’s body but not his coordination. “I thought you were over her.”

  I shook him off. “I don’t have time for this now.”

  Dax hesitated for a moment, but let go of my arm. “It won’t work,” he called.

  I didn’t look back.

  I searched the entire first floor and didn’t see any sign of Kale. By the time I’d reached the second floor, I starting to get worried. I found a dark corner and shook off the mimic. If Alex didn’t know what my mom looked like, the chances of her seeking him out were probably nil.

  People yelled and hooted as I passed in my skimpy white tank top and tan short shorts, trying to get my attention. Want to dance? Need a drink? Head to the back room with me! I ignored them all.

  When rounding the back corner on the second level, I caught site of Kale making his way out of the crowd. I was relieved to see he hadn’t been picked off by one of my dad’s goons. Calling out to him would be pointless. I didn’t want to draw attention to myself, and he wouldn’t have heard me above the music anyway, so I simply followed. I got right about to the edge of the crowd when I realized there was someone else following him. The blonde girl stayed far enough back not to be noticed, but she was definitely following. Kale veered off into a hallway past the restrooms. The girl followed. I brought up the rear.

  Kale neared the end of the hall.

  And just as he lifted his hand to open a door at the other end, the girl must have called out to him, because he stopped and turned. I sped up.

  The two, lost in conversation, didn’t see me approaching. “Kale, don’t move.” I called, starting to run. He didn’t hear me. Arm extended, he reached for her and it was at that moment she looked up.

  Or rather, I looked up.

  I forced my feet to move faster, trying to drive my voice above the music the entire way. “Kale! Stop!” Inches. That’s all that separated their hands. Inches. And the distance was closing fast. “She’s not me!”

  “Stay where you are. I don’t want to hurt you,” my imposter said, turning to me.

  I laughed—I couldn’t help it. “You don’t want to hurt me? Do you have any idea who I—”

  “Dez?” Kale looked from her to me, understanding flashing in his eyes. Then horror. He’d almost accidentally killed my Mom.

  “What happened? Where’s Fin?” I asked, while at the same time, the other me said in a truly horrified voice, “Kale? It’s really you?”

  Kale took another step away from her. “Who did you think I was?”

  She was pale and her voice shook a little when she spoke. “They told me there was another shifter here—a traitor. They brought him here for termination. I was told they’d instructed him to look like you. They gave me a picture of her”—she pointed to me—“and said to engage you in conversation. That the shifter knew this face.” She looked around. “There was supposed to be someone here to apprehend you. They—”

  She was speaking fast, not coming up for air, but Kale interrupted her. “It’s okay Sue, this is—”

  “Cross is here to capture two new Sixes. If he finds you, you’ll never get another chance at freedom.”

  He stepped back, giving her an impossibly wide berth, and grabbed my hand. Her jaw—well mine—fell open. “Sue, this is Deznee Cross. Your daughter.”

  30

  She said nothing at first, only stood there, blinking. When she did speak, it wasn’t what I’d hoped to hear.

  “You’re—a Six?” she asked, horrified.

  “I’m a Six. I can mimic, like you—only a little different.”

  If possible, she turned even whiter. “He told me you were a Nix—that you had no abilities,” she breathed, turning away. “I thought you were safe!”

  Not quite the heartwarming, long-lost-daughter welcome I’d hoped for. “He didn’t know. I’ve kept it a secret.” I let go of Kale’s hand and took a step forward. “I only told him after I found out you were alive and trapped at Denazen. I did it so I could get you out of there.”

  “I can’t believe this is happening!” she cried. “You kids have to leave this building now!”

  “I agree,” Dad said from the doorway. “Why don’t we all leave together?”

  “Dammit,” Mom cursed, and with an eerie shimmer, mimicked. She was no longer me, but a beautiful, tall blonde woman with a pixie-like face and long, flowing hair. Her eyes, the exact same shade of honey-brown as my own, darted from me to Dad. “Please Marshall, if you ever loved me, let our daughter go.”

  For a second, he hesitated. I had the insane notion that he might actually step aside and let us leave. Silly, I know, but there was something there. Something I couldn’t remember ever seeing before. A flicker of emotion—a small twitch of his right cheek and the subtle flexing of his fingers. The equivalent of an emotional breakdown, considering the source.

  “Please,” Mom urged.

  More hesitation. He’d taken several steps into the room and was watching her with a mix of annoyance and something else. Regret? For a moment it was as though he’d forgotten all about me and Kale. He opened his mouth, then closed it again. A sharp intake of breath and a step back. Then, as suddenly as it appeared, it was gone.

  The little cracks in his armor, giving me a glimpse that there might be an actual person inside, vanished, and he was his old self again. A cold, clinical, Denazen monkey. “You were an experiment. An enjoyable one, but still, one of many.” He grinned, but something about it seemed a bit forced. Or maybe I simply wanted it to be.

  Mom sighed and shook her head. When she spoke, her voice was like a soft, barely there brush of a feather. “Does that make it easier? Telling yourself it was all about the job?

  He ignored her, but I swore he flinched. “We found a way to enhance the abilities of Six offspring. The chemical boosted the abnormality of the sixth chromosome, making it, in ninety-nine percent of the trials, ten times stronger. While not every gift manifests exactly the same from parent to child, there’s always a similarity. The project was called Supremacy.”

  Supremacy. That’s what Dad and that Vincent guy mentioned in the emails. “Deznee is the result of that project. As is Fin.”

  Experiment? Like mold in a Petri dish? And one of many? That meant there were more than me and Fin? How many had Dad… conducted personally? God. I might have siblings out there somewhere. Maybe stuck inside Denazen.

  He pointed from Mom to me. “Sueshanna’s ability to mimic someone else was highly useful, but sadly limited. Nothing more than a simple illusion. Deznee, on the other hand, has far greater range. I imagine with age it will continue to increase unless…”r />
  “Unless what?” I whispered, sick.

  Dad sighed. He avoided making eye contact with Mom. “You’re second generation. Your predecessors were amazing. The perfect employees with abilities greater than we had ever imagined. They didn’t need to be coerced or lied to. They didn’t need to be motivated or threatened. They were raised to be the perfect Denazen soldiers. They knew how special they were and that there were great things in store for them. But we must have made a mistake with the chemical composition. One by one, as the children turned eighteen, they became irrational. Impossible to control. All remnants of the first phase of the experiment were retired.”

  “Retired? You killed them?”

  He glared at me like I was an idiot. “They were uncontrollable. In the end, nothing more than animals. We did them a favor.”

  “So you’re telling me I might lose my shit when I hit eighteen? Go bonkers?” Really, it was the least of my problems at the moment, but if I made it out of this alive—and free—it’d be a major concern sooner rather than later. I’d be turning eighteen in eight months.

  He shrugged like it didn’t matter. “It’s a very real possibility, yes. The first of the second trial Supremacy group turns eighteen next month. It will be exciting to see how it turns out.”

  Exciting? Not quite the word I was thinking.

  “We started over again. Picking those we found most useful, and injected the improved chemical into the amniotic fluid. Once the babies were born, they were placed with Denazen employees. Most showed signs of their gift before the end of their first year. They were the easy ones. A generation brought up to believe in what we stood for right from the start.”

  I thought about Flip, the guy I’d met in the cafeteria on my first day. The things he said. The total and complete conviction that he was a good guy. That Denazen was out there making the world a better place. He was devoted, and he hadn’t been raised there. Imagine what lifers would be like.

  Dad’s expression twisted into some horrible, distorted version of the controlled, blank one I’d known my entire life. “Two never developed gifts—unfortunate, but it does happen. When, by the age of five, you showed no signs, I chalked it up to a loss. You and Fin were our only failures. But you were sneaky, weren’t you? You developed abilities and kept yourself well hidden. Tell me—when did you first get them?”

  “I was seven when it happened the first time.” Not like telling him mattered. It actually made me feel warm and fuzzy. He’d obviously been watching for it and I’d still managed to keep it a secret. Score one for me.

  “All the other subjects in Supremacy showed early signs. Fin, we believe, only developed his abilities a few months ago. We found him purely by accident last week. He’s quite remarkable. Most element throwers can only manipulate their element. Fin can actually create it. Because of his advanced age, bringing him in willingly was questionable. Especially with Ginger and her people spreading the word through the Six community. We didn’t know if her people had gotten to him. Until we know the success rate of Supremacy past the age of eighteen, we still need to obtain and retain employees the old-fashioned way.”

  “You mean kidnapping,” Mom spat. “Ripping families apart and forcing them to steal and kill for you.”

  Dad ignored her, laughing. “You never wondered? Denazen? Deznee? I named you for the company you’d one day serve.”

  Kale took a step forward.

  “Stop right there, 98.” Dad’s smile got wider as he pulled out a small pistol from the folds of his jacket. “To prove to you I’m not quite the bastard you think I am, I’ll give you a choice.”

  Kale froze. Maybe he knew what Dad was going to say, maybe he didn’t, but when he turned to me, the terror in his eyes made the tiny hairs on the back of my neck jump up.

  “Give me Ginger’s location, and I’ll let you pick one.”

  Kale looked from me to Dad, confused. “Pick one?”

  “By having Sue mimic Deznee, I hoped to kill two birds with one stone. You see, Sue was the one who instigated this entire mess. She was the traitor I brought here to be retired. She had every comfort at Denazen and she abused it. She began feeding our residents ideas and dangerous thoughts. She told them we were using them. Keeping them locked away as prisoners.”

  “Um, you are keeping them locked away,” I said.

  He slapped me. It wasn’t hard, but the blow surprised me. I stumbled back and Kale caught me before I could topple over. He didn’t dare make a move on Dad while the gun was still in his hands. Instead, he stayed at my side, clutching me almost painfully close.

  “We had an increasing level of problems stemming from disobedience that all came to a head when 98 managed to escape. The news traveled fast, causing further problems.” He waved the gun in a small circle, then pointed it at Mom. “I discovered Sue was the root of the issue, and then this little party came together so nicely, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to take care of the situation.” He turned to me and frowned. “Unfortunately, as usual, Deznee ruined my plans by getting in the way.”

  “Me?” I hadn’t managed to accomplish anything. Mom and Kale were, as of that moment, still prisoners of Denazen, and I was about to join them.

  Dad turned to Mom, who stared at him with pure, unadulterated hate in her eyes. “98 was compromised when he took off with our tramp of a daughter. I didn’t want to destroy him, but the board already put in the order. They gave me one last chance to fix things, and this was supposed to be the perfect plan.”

  “This?” I asked.

  “98 grew very attached to Sue. So attached that we were able to use her to control him in the beginning. My plan was to let that work in my favor one last time.”

  And then I got it. With a horrifying chill, I understood. She’d seen Kale, thinking he was the shifter she was there to target, and followed him down the hall. Kale thinking it was me, would reach out to take her hand… “You wanted Kale to kill her.”

  Dad nodded. “It would have been perfect. He would have been so destroyed by what he’d done, he’d be pliable again.”

  Mom laughed. “You’re underestimating him as usual, Marshall. He’s stronger than that.”

  “Unfortunately, I did underestimate him. I also underestimated the hold our daughter had on him.”

  Kale’s mouth hung open in horror. “How did you know I would touch her?”

  He gave a chuckle and nodded toward Mom. “It was a safe bet. One I’m sure would have worked if you hadn’t been interrupted.” He sighed. “I’m giving you a choice. If you tell me where Ginger is, I’ll let you keep one of them. Sue or Deznee.”

  “No,” Mom cried.

  “Ticktock, 98. Choose quickly or I’ll choose for you.”

  “Don’t listen to him, Kale,” I said. “He’s not going to shoot me. I’m too important.”

  Kale looked from me to Mom, eyes wide. He stood between us, frozen.

  “Kale,” Mom said, voice sharp. “There is no choice here. Do not let this bastard hurt my daughter.”

  She reached out and pulled me close, wrapping her arms around my shoulders. Kale came with me, stepping dangerously close to mom. She smelled like lavender and cigarettes. I breathed in, committing the scent to memory.

  “You are beautiful,” she whispered into my hair as her arms tightened. “I am so glad I got to see for myself what an amazing young woman you’ve become.”

  I opened my mouth to respond, but I couldn’t. This sounded like good-bye. I pulled away and turned to Kale. “Don’t…”

  Fists clenched at his sides, Kale let out an anguished howl. The muscles in his jaw twitched and his fingers flexed. In and out. In and out. He stared at us, clinging together like the world was about to come to an end. Shaking, he took a small step closer to my mom. “Dez, I can’t lose you…”

  Dad raised the gun and rel
eased the safety.

  I spread my arms wide, standing in Kale’s way. “You can’t do this. It will make you no better than them. And you are better than them, Kale. You are.” I reached out and took his face in my hands. Tears welled in his eyes. “They do not control you. You don’t kill for them anymore.”

  His voice came in soft, cracked rasps. “No, I don’t. But I would kill for you. Only you.”

  Seconds ticked away in silence.

  Finally Kale spoke. His voice had turned icy—the same cold, dead tone he’d used the night we met. When he told Dad he would kill me. “I’ve made my choice, Cross.”

  “Who will it be?”

  Kale stepped away and turned to him. I could see the wicked smile spread across his face. “It will be you.”

  Kale shot forward, fingers curled for Dad’s throat. Almost as if he’d anticipated it, Dad wrenched himself to the side. Kale sailed past, but managed to jump to his feet before I could call out a warning. The gun was pointed at him now.

  He didn’t seem to notice. A shot rang out as he rounded for another pass. Kale’s body was a blur of motion as he pivoted and ducked. The bullet ricocheted harmlessly off the wall, sending plaster and debris exploding all over the hallway. I rushed forward to tackle my dad, but stopped short when I caught sight of the other end of the hall. A dozen or so Denazen suits gathered, watching us.

  I turned back to Dad, who was now pinned and fighting hard to keep Kale’s hands away from his face. Kale struggled but was having no luck connecting with skin. His fingers, straining inches away from Dad’s face, hovered, frozen. After a few seconds, Kale’s fingers advanced an inch. Then two. Just when it looked like Kale might be gaining the upper hand, I saw Dad’s lips move. Something he’d said caused Kale to hesitate. He scanned the room until he found me, eyes wide. Dad used this to his advantage. He kicked up, knee connecting with Kale’s gut. As Kale curled from the blow, Dad followed it with an elbow to his throat. Kale choked and gasped, trying to catch his breath.