The Lost Rainbow Mage: Complete Trilogy Edition, page 16
I fidgeted in the unexpected silence. What the hell had she meant, acquisitioned? It sounded so… impersonal and dehumanizing. Like I was some sort of object. My eyes widened.
For a collection… Shit.
“Who the hell would want a hair colorist from Sweetwater, Florida?” I whispered. It seemed like the more information I knew, the less made sense.
Perhaps some of the others in this area of the building were delusional or insane.
“We all were,” she said eventually. “They hand-picked each of us.”
“Hand-picked?” I’d started just repeating her words back to her, and I considered shimmying back out from under the bed instead of taking part in this ridiculous conversation.
At least I was taking part in a conversation. It had been too long since I talked to anyone.
So I stayed.
“Yes.” She sounded quite serious. “Hand-picked.”
“But what the hell? Why? Why the hell would you even think that?”
She was quiet so long this time I began to wonder if I’d offended her. Maybe my whisper had been a little too cutting this time.
But she laughed, and it was dark. “You really don’t know, do you?”
I shook my head, and my hair caught around the leg of the bed. Know what? “What are you talking about?” She might have been the only person willing to talk to me, but I was growing tired of this game. It seemed like everything she said was riddles or depended on them.
“Do you even know where you are?” She moved from sounding incredulous to curious.
I swallowed. “Some sort of government facility. But it’s a mistake. A case of mistaken identity.”
She laughed again. “Oh, they do many things, but mistaken identity isn’t one of them.”
“What do you mean?” My skin chilled. “What is it they think I can do?”
“What can you do?” Her reply was almost instant.
But I shook my head before I remembered she couldn’t see me. “Nothing. I… I don’t know. What do you mean?” I touched the vent like I could strengthen our connection.
“We’re all supernatural.” Her words were so unexpected that I barked out a laugh.
“Don’t you think I’d know if I was supernatural?” Really. I’d heard and seen a lot of weird shit here, but this was definitely the weirdest. So many weird things… My thoughts churned. Supernatural? No way in hell. Yet… people with fangs?
And it proved my point that she was delusional.
“Of course we are.” She sounded so serious. “How have you been explaining the others to yourself?”
I cast my mind back over the other people I’d met. It was a small group of people. “I haven’t met many of the people here. I’ve spent most of my time by myself.” Self-pity rose within me for a moment. “They keep me in the dark.”
She sighed, and I almost felt the air she released brush over my cheek.
“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” I didn’t understand.
“How long have you got?” Her laugh this time was almost a giggle, and I rolled my eyes.
“I’m lying under a bed in solitary confinement, talking to an air vent. I don’t think I’m particularly in a rush to leave.” I paused and amended my statement. “They’re not in a rush to let me out, anyway.”
“We each have a special talent.” She didn’t directly acknowledge my statement. It seemed like she just continued her story instead. “Okay. So let me give you an example.” She paused like she was thinking before sighing again. “There are vampires here with the ability to teleport. Sometimes they can go great distances. Other times it might only be across the facility.”
I started to laugh before the sound cut off abruptly, surprising even me. “People can teleport?” An unwelcome image of the guy in the blue light who’d appeared outside my cell on the first night took shape in my head. He’d been in his own cell not long before. One moment there, the next beside me.
“Some of them can remote view or influence your thoughts or feelings, too. There are shifters here who can dream walk, and mages and warlocks.”
“Like witches.” I’d been acquisitioned to a school for magical beings? It sounded like she was describing the script of a movie. “I don’t believe in witches.”
She was clearly delusional. That’s why she was here in “the Facility.” Did that make me delusional, too? Was that why I’d been brought here and didn’t understand anything going on? I gritted my teeth from crying out. No, I wouldn’t think like that. Not yet.
Every word my new friend spoke cemented the fact she wasn’t altogether in her head…
Or… I’d tumbled into a life I couldn’t fathom, and my new friend understood way more than I was prepared to give her credit for. Could I really be special?
I considered Adrian. What had happened… what I’d done… I shuddered.
I’d do better not to listen to anything she had to say. I needed to focus on getting out of here, not being drawn deeper into a web of make-believe.
But the image of that guy wouldn’t leave my thoughts. He’d been right outside my cell. I’d seen him. Then he’d helped me sleep.
“They all have a unique spell-binding ability or an unusual enchantment they use. But why are you here, Meira? What’s your talent?” She was insistent and probing, like she wanted me to really think about my answer.
I spread my fingers like she could see the gesture, like she’d know I’d considered her question and come up empty-handed. “I don’t even know what that means.”
She sighed again. “I can’t believe how little you know. Haven’t you tried to find anything out since you’ve been here?”
Her question irritated me, and I nearly shoved my way out from under the bed. “You try getting information out of the stone wall who walked me around the facility.”
Coop had certainly been less than helpful most days. Locke, too.
“I don’t have a talent like you mean,” I said. “I’m not a supernatural anything.” I only murder. I winced as the thought took hold in my head and in my heart. “I destroy,” I murmured. “That’s my talent.”
“What’s that?”
“Nothing.”
“Listen. They don’t make mistakes here. If they’re interested in you, it’s what you can do for them.” She’d stopped whispering as low, urgent words seemed to spill out of her instead. “The government is building an army capable of spying on enemies and taking down terrorists or neutralizing their threats without the need to deploy actual troops. You must have a talent. You wouldn’t be here otherwise. Hasn’t anyone told you what it is? Have you been taken for tests yet?”
She was mad as a box of frogs, but there was still something oddly comforting about the idea that another person wanted to spend time talking to me—even though we both probably had nothing but time at the moment. Maybe this was as important to her for the same reasons. There was definitely irony in the fact that one of my longest conversations in this place was taking place in solitary confinement.
“Meira?” she prompted. “What’s your talent?”
I shrugged, the movement halfhearted and constricted by the small space beneath the bed and the handcuffs I still wore. “I saw Dr. Anderson. He mentioned light magic, I suppose.”
Dr. Anderson was mad as a box of frogs, too.
“Fuck.” Her curse was quiet but clear, but she didn’t say anything else.
“Hello?” I whispered. “Are you still there?”
She stayed silent, and I touched the air vent again.
“Hello?” Despair crept into my chest at the continued silence, and I strained to hear even soft breathing. But nothing came through. She’d gone.
I shifted my position again, trying to find something more comfortable so I’d hear if she came back. I didn’t want to lose the voice. It was all I had.
But there was a different sound. Almost a vibration, and I turned my head to try to look through the gaps in the vent. It was dark in there, but a tiny shape came into view.
What the actual fuck? How had…
My hummingbird. I could barely see her, but she was hovering on the other side of the metal grid. She came closer, the noise of her vibrations intensifying as she hung, almost still in front of me, one beady eye seeming to be trained directly on me.
My heart slammed in my chest, and a thrum filled me. Elation coursed through my veins, pushing the adrenaline aside. Tears leaked from the corners of my eyes. I wasn’t alone. I hadn’t been forgotten. Home had followed me into the darkest place I’d ever been.
Home… warmth… sunlight… I took a deep and calming breath. As I breathed out slowly, whatever had been wound tight in me uncoiled. I trembled but not from fear.
Her presence reassured me, and my eyes fluttered closed before I jerked back awake. The bird was still there, and my eyes closed again when I saw her. She was there a third time when I checked again before I gave in to the sleep trying to claim me.
twenty-two
Acrash sounded in the room, and I startled awake, bumping my forehead against the bottom of the cot. What was it with this place? I was sick of being woken by someone bursting in and throwing the nearest door against the wall.
I opened my eyes. Well, shit. The metal bed frame above me nearly touched my nose, and I still had to shimmy out from underneath. While handcuffed. They could have at least removed those when they tossed me in here. But I didn’t have time to ponder.
There’d be questions if they found me under here. I turned my head in time to watch two pairs of feet enter the room. One pair was clad in heavy boots that looked like they could kick the shit out of a lot of people and the other pair of feet wore something more akin to business attire. I recognized the color of the looser pants, too.
Both a guard and an agent had just entered my cell. And I was still trapped underneath the cot. So much for avoiding questions.
“Fuck.” One of them ground out a curse. Sounded a lot like the guard from yesterday, but I couldn’t be sure. “I thought you said she couldn’t use her powers.” He sounded accusatory. “How did she disappear?”
There was a familiar answering sigh. Coop. “She hasn’t disappeared.”
“Do you see her?”
I imagined him gesturing impatiently around the room as he took his step forward.
“Because I certainly don’t see her. I’m going to raise the alarm. If I’d known she could escape, I would have used the magical restraints. But you said…” He grew more accusatory.
“Wait.” Coop issued a sharp command.
Then suddenly, his bright blue eyes peered into mine as he lay flat on the floor alongside me. He held his sunglasses in his hand. “Hi,” he said softly. He beckoned for me to come out.
My thoughts were unexpectedly consumed with how dusty his clothes would be when he stood back up, and I’d never seen him with so much as a stray hair on his pristine black slacks.
I stretched my back as much as I could, working out the kinks and aches from lying on the cold floor. Damp had seeped into my limbs while I’d been asleep. I glanced at the vent. Had I imagined the hummingbird? Probably. Did I care? Not a chance. Her arrival had helped me calm the fuck down and not feel so alone. I’d been pretty damned stressed lately. Hallucinations were a side effect of stress, right?
“Meira.” Coop murmured my name. It wasn’t an instruction or a command, but it wasn’t a question, either.
I turned my head back to face him, and he held his arm part way out in invitation. I couldn’t take his hand, though. I couldn’t imagine those fingers entwined with mine. Not to mention the cuffs.
Instead, I sighed and began to shimmy awkwardly out from beneath the bed.
The guard snorted when he saw me. “What the hell were you doing under there?”
I remained silent, but Coop shrugged.
“I’ve often thought the floor looks more comfortable than the beds in this place.” He handed me some sunglasses as he spoke, and I knew the drill now.
But I shrugged. “Cuffed.”
Coop glared at the guard. “You left her cuffed?”
He shrugged, too.
Coop retrieved the key from his pocket and immediately removed the restraints. He tucked the offending shackles in his pocket.
My chin quivered, but I didn’t cry as my arms were able to swing freely. Coop wasn’t afraid of me, and he wasn’t terrified of whatever power I had. I needed someone to not be frightened of me.
Coop offered the sunglasses once more, and I slipped them into place and almost sighed with relief as the world took on a familiar gray overtone.
“You need a hood if you’re transporting her. She’s dangerous.” The guard held out a piece of fabric, and I withdrew by one large pace.
Coop glanced at me. “No, I don’t think so. I never have before.”
The guard laughed. “And she ain’t never killed anyone before yesterday, neither.” He jabbed a thick finger in my direction.
“Are you going to come with me to Dr. Anderson’s lab, Meira?” Coop asked the question like he needed confirmation in front of the guard, and I nodded, using my finger to keep the sunglasses up on the bridge of my nose as I moved.
“I think we’ll be okay.” Coop looked at the guard again. “I’ve got it.”
The guard shook his head. “Well, like I said, you didn’t got it yesterday.” He offered the hood again, but Coop ignored it and stepped around the guard to exit my cell.
“What about the cuffs?” the guard said after him.
“We won’t need them.”
“Magical restraints?” the guard pressed.
“No,” Coop answered, his tone stopping any argument. Maybe Coop hadn’t liberated me, but he treated me differently than anyone else in the place. He made me feel like I could understand what had happened.
I swallowed. And maybe learn how to keep it from happening again.
The guard cursed under his breath.
So I glanced at the guard, and the guard drew his eyebrows down to glare at me. I stared back at him, defiant behind the sunglasses. I wanted to flip him off, but he’d see that, so I just tightened my hands by my sides instead. He’d keep.
Coop came back into the cell and stood beside me, his stance expectant as he waited. He didn’t say a word.
“Hey, it’s your funeral, man.” The guard raised his hands in surrender.
“Don’t feel obligated to come,” Coop growled. Then he stiffened as the guard laughed and walked away. Without a word, Coop exited the cell, and I fell into my familiar position at his heels. I stopped outside, though.
“What the…?” I looked up. Everywhere was so industrial. It was like being in a warehouse or some sort of engineering room.
Coop turned and stood beside me as I gazed around, giving me the space to take it all in for a moment.
Huge pipes ran up the walls and across the ceiling, and everywhere consisted of gridded walkways and staircases. I looked over one of the railings edging the walkway, and the building fell away for more floors than I could count.
Patches of rust clung to the metal, and green colored the damp on the walls. Solitary was a neglected place. I seemed to be in the very bowels of the building. Or I would have thought so if I hadn’t just seen it went deeper still.
I shivered, and Coop placed his hand on the small of my back, but the fleeting touch wasn’t aggressive like the guard’s the previous night. It wasn’t to push me forward or make me turn at his unspoken direction. But before I could fully explore how it did feel, his hand was gone, although a sense of protection remained.
At his urging, we resumed walking.
That kind of body language was pretty out of character, but when I glanced at him, his face was completely expressionless, his jaw tense—so tense a muscle worked in his cheek—and his mouth was thin and flat.
He was so hard to read. Locke always had been too, but less so. At least he’d sometimes spoken to me. If nothing else, the short conversations had usually given me a sense of where we stood or the kinds of things he might have been thinking. He’d taken his sunglasses off more often than Coop, too.
Or it had seemed like it.
I could better remember Coop’s eyes, but that was because his gaze had always seemed to bore right through me on the occasions he’d had reason to be without his shades.
“What’s going to happen today?” I spoke at a normal volume and the sound bounced off the walls and metal surrounding us, echoing in the large space. “How will they make me use my powers now?”
“Tests.” He seemed to speak through his closed lips. Maybe even gritted teeth, too. “More tests.”
“With Dr. Anderson again?” I pitched my voice quieter, and for a moment it was like he hadn’t heard because his stride didn’t falter and the set of his back didn’t change. “Coop?”
Even his name had no effect on him. But it still felt almost forbidden to say it aloud.
We were headed back up the stairs, at least, so leaving solitary, hopefully. It would have been just my luck if they had some sort of testing facility down here, too, and I’d never get to see the sun again. I assumed I was pretty far underground, anyway.
The air down here was on the stale side, and the lighting didn’t make me feel anything at all. The sunglasses weren’t necessary down here.
We climbed up so many floors I lost count and couldn’t tell where we’d originated. I tried to look for distinguishing features, but the patches of damp and rust started to look the same after a while. Initially, I’d spotted shapes or patterns in them, and I’d tried to identify differences in shade, but that had been truly fruitless.
Surely, we hadn’t descended this many floors when the guard brought me down? I was a rag doll as he half carried me down here like a sack full of his own personal garbage, though. I missed the elevator for sure, but I could only guess Coop was keeping me off the main floors. This place really was a labyrinth.
