I pulled away from the doors and looked at the girls.
“What are we going to do?” Rae asked. She was trembling, so I pulled her up against my side, trying to take the tremors into my body.
“We’re going to walk out there with the same game we played earlier. Malcolm, you’re the escort, sent to get Kootch and bring him in. We’ll be there as Soul Suckers or whatever to protect you.”
“You think they’ll buy it?” I asked. It seemed like people guarding the front door ought to know more about who belonged in the place than that.
“I’m open to suggestions,” she said, shrugging, and checking the chamber of the gun she’d taken from me earlier.
“I’ve got nothing,” I said, sighing heavily. “I just don’t want to get shot.”
“Well, we can split you guys up and then you can whammy them like you did that other guy,” Jasmine suggested.
“What’d you do? What other guy?” asked Rae.
“I’ll tell you later,” I said, feeling the shame all over again. My face went red.
“I’d rather stay together,” said Rae. Her ice cold fingers snuck into mine. “As long as we’re together, there are no Influencers around here. If we break apart, everyone gets their powers back.”
“Okay, then, party people. Time to break out of this place in style.” Jasmine shoved the gun into the back of her pants and pushed on the door.
“In style?” I asked.
I didn’t get an answer. I was forced to follow Jasmine through the doors and out into the lobby, trying to put on a mask of authority and confidence I definitely wasn’t feeling.
Chapter Fifty-One: Rae
I WALKED NEXT TO MALCOLM, but let his hand go. It would have been too hard to convince the guards at the front of the building that I was his prisoner if we were cuddling.
I saw Kootch right away. He was standing next to a big truck, talking to a guy about ten feet away from him, near the front doors.
“What’s going on out there?” asked Malcolm, walking across the lobby like he belonged there.
“Hey! What are you doing out here!” said one of the guys, standing up straighter and turning to face us.
“Relax, I have a badge.” Malcolm held it up and then shoved it in his pocket before they could look too closely. “I’ve been recruited. I was taking these girls to a holding room when all the doors locked on me. I got a little lost and ended up here.” He turned to the front doors. “Who’s that?”
The guy looked confused, but he turned to follow Malcolm’s gaze. “That’s some dumbshit that busted through the gate. We’re taking care of him now.”
“Oh yeah? What’s going to happen to him?”
The guard smiled. “Same thing that happens to anyone who wanders in here uninvited.” He went over and sat down next to the other guard. “Go see for yourself. You’re new here, so you haven’t had the pleasure.”
We began to walk to the door. I was freaking out the entire time, wondering how it was possible that they were just going to let us out.
“Not you two,” said the guy, motioning to Jasmine and me.
My heart plummeted.
“Guests stay inside. Badge holders can go outside.”
“They’re with me. My responsibility,” said Malcolm, a note of authority in his voice. “They’re valuable. Influencers. I’m a handler now.”
The second guy finally looked over at us, frowning. “They don’t use Influencers as handlers.”
“I know. I’m not an Influencer. I was just brought in with one.” He gestured at me.
“How’s that work?” asked the second guy, standing up now. Both of the guards had their guns out and they looked twitchy.
I moved closer to Malcolm, thinking I’d shield him if they tried to shoot. And then I pulled out my ace card, the only thing I thought that might scare them. “How about if I ask Helen to fill you in?” I said, overriding whatever Malcolm was going to say. “I’m sure she’d be happy to take time out of her busy schedule to get you up to speed.”
“The Cobra? No thanks,” said the second guy, sitting down and looking the other way. “Go do what you want. I’m not getting involved.”
The Cobra? What the heck does that mean? I walked over to stand next to Jasmine.
“Ready?” she asked very quietly.
“Ready,” I said.
Malcolm nodded.
We moved as a group to the front doors. The entire time we walked across the space to join Kootch and the last man standing between us and freedom, I fully expected to get a bullet in the back.
Chapter Fifty-Two: Malcolm
I WALKED UP TO THE guy facing off against Kootch, leaving the girls slightly behind me.
“What’s up, man?”
He glanced in my direction briefly before going back to staring at Kootch. “Does he look sweaty to you?” he asked.
“Who, that guy near the truck?”
“Yeah, who else would I be talking about?”
I shrugged. “Maybe a little. Why?” This was the weirdest conversation I’d ever had.
“Because. My shit isn’t working. I don’t know what’s wrong. He should be pulling his eyeballs out by now.”
I swallowed hard. Blood boiler! Shit, I’m standing next to the Blood Boiler! “Maybe you should go inside.”
“What for?” He stopped concentrating on Kootch and stared at me instead. “Who are you, anyway?”
“New handler. Watching over those Influencers over there.” I gestured to Jasmine and Rae who looked ready to make a break for the truck. Just wait ten more seconds…
“Huh.” He shifted to get a better look at them. “What’s their damage?”
“What?’’
“What’s their influence, man. Their poison. Their power. Their shit.”
“Oh. Yeah. Um, the one with the brown hair is a Soul Sucker and the one with the green hair is a … uh …” My mind blanked. All I could see was her goofy green hair and the frown on her face. What’s her power? I said the first thing that popped into my head. “She’s a Constipator.”
The guy laughed a little. “A what, now?”
“A Constipator.” Jasmine was going to kill me if she ever found out. “She makes it so people can’t take a shit.”
He looked fascinated and disgusted at the same time. “That’s fucked up.”
“I know, right? People have died from it. With pain. She’s dangerous.”
The Blood Boiler looked at Jasmine with new respect. “Damn. I like dangerous girls. Dangerous is sexy as hell, even when it has green hair.”
“Yeah, well, that’s her boyfriend there by the truck, so I have to go deal with him. I’m going to escort him off the property and then have the Soul Sucker take care of him.”
The guy held up a hand for a high five. “Daaaamn, dude, I like your style.”
I slapped his palm with mine, trying not to cringe over the fact that I was touching a guy who murdered people by making them think they were on fire.
“Need any help?” he asked, taking a step towards the truck.
I grabbed his arm to hold him back. “Nah. Let me do this. She’s gonna get all emotional and shit. You don’t want her thinking you killed her guy. I’ll tell you what, though … go hang out inside and when she comes back in, I’ll send her your way. You can comfort her and stuff.”
“Dude, you are diabolical. I like it. Let’s hang out tonight at dinner.”
I shook his hand and bumped fists. “Yeah, let’s do that. Later.” Never in a million billion years, assmunch.
I gestured to the girls to follow me over to the truck.
Chapter Fifty-Three: Rae
WE SCRAMBLED INTO THE CAR, Malcolm forcing Kootch to take the back seat with Jasmine. I jumped into the front passenger seat.
“Yo! Constipator!” yelled the Blood Boiler. He was standing by the front doors of the compound, getting ready to go in.
“What’d he say?” I asked, pushing the button to roll my window down.
br /> “Just ignore him,” said Malcolm, quickly starting the truck up and shifting into Reverse.
“Hey, guys, what the hell?” asked Kootch, leaning into the front seat from the back. “What’s that guy doing? What’s he yelling? He was freaking me out the way he kept staring at me out there. Thanks for coming to my rescue.”
“Yo, Constipator!” yelled the guy again. His voice carried very clearly across the space between us, even as Malcolm was revving the engine and moving away.
“What’s he saying? Constipator? What’s that?” asked Kootch. “Ow!” he yelled next, twisting around to look at Jasmine. “Hands off, crazy lady!”
“Sit back, Ding Dong! I can’t see.” Jasmine pulled Kootch back and leaned into the front. “What’s that guy saying?”
“Yo, I love your green hair, Constipator! I got you! I got you!” He was holding up his fist in what looked like a sign of triumph or teamwork or something. Maybe, possibly admiration, even.
“What the hell?” she asked, watching him, even as the truck pulled around and faced away from the building. “What’s he calling me?”
“Just ignore him and help me get out of this place.” Malcolm moved the gear shift lever into Drive. “How do I do this?”
“Just bust through, man. That’s what I did,” said Kootch.
Malcolm pulled forward, and the closer we got to the entrance, the clearer things became. The chain link fence that had looked so intimidating before was hanging all lopsided, the gate totally smashed and on the ground.
“Where the hell is everyone?” Malcolm asked, the engine roaring as he gave it some gas.
I tightened my seatbelt down until it was as tight as I could make it. “Hang on you guys! I hope you have your belts on!” I yelled.
The tires bumped over the gate, throwing Jasmine and Kootch around in the back.
“Slow down!” shouted Jasmine. “Make sure you don’t hit any barbed wire!”
Malcolm blasted past the empty guard shack and tore off down the street, sending dust and gravel up to the sides of and behind us. He swerved and slid around corners, looking like a racecar driver as he leaned into the turns.
“Did you call my parents?” Jasmine asked Kootch.
“Yeah. They’re coming, but I couldn’t wait. I was too worried.”
I could see what looked like a main thoroughfare ahead and pointed it out to Malcolm. “There!”
“You had your phone, didn’t you?” asked Jasmine. She sounded thrilled.
“Hell yeah, I had my phone. No dickwad’s gonna smash my shit into the dust.”
Jasmine threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “You are my hero, Caden Kucharski!”
I watched his face turn hot pink and for the first time in his life, he was speechless.
Jasmine let him go and then leaned into the front seat again. “Keep driving until you see a mall or big shopping area. Pull in and we’ll get out and blend. We can wait there for my parents to pick us up.”
A buzzing came from somewhere. “What’s that?” I asked, panicking that we were being tracked or that a missile was coming for us.
“That’s my phone.” Kootch pulled out his cell and put it to his ear. “Yo, this is Kootch.” He paused. “Oh, hi, Mr. Butts. Yeah, she’s here, you wanna talk to her? Okay, hold on.” He handed the phone to Jasmine. “It’s your dad.”
Jasmine talked to him for a few seconds, giving him our location from some roads we passed, and then tapped Malcolm on the shoulder, pointing to a side street. He took the turn and then followed her instructions for five minutes until we were turning into a public parking garage. “Okay. See you soon. Love you, Dad. Tell Mom I love her too.” She hung up the phone and put it in her bra.
“Hey!” protested Kootch.
She put her hand over his mouth to shut him up. “Shoosh, Ninja Boy. Malcolm, go up to the second floor and pull into the first available space. My parents will be there to transfer us to another car.”
Kootch pulled her hand away from his mouth, but didn’t let it go. They held hands all the way there, and didn’t stop until we parked. It warmed my heart to see both of them so embarrassed over it but still not giving up on the feeling they so desperately wanted to share.
Life is too short to play games with love. A person has to grab it and hold on, and just hope that no one comes around to suck out their souls or boil their blood in the meantime.
Chapter Fifty-Four: Malcolm
WE STOOD OUTSIDE THE CARS in the parking garage for a good half hour getting a debriefing and directions for our next trip. Rae and I were almost done with our adventure, but there was just one more piece left. Thank God the Butts family was working so hard to help us.
“Why was it so easy for us to get away?” Rae asked. “I mean, it wasn’t nothing, but I was so sure I was going to get shot in the back when we were leaving.”
“We were able to pick up a lot of chatter over the last couple days, once we knew who was involved and where they were located,” said Mrs. Butts. “Apparently their system wasn’t running on regular power or had some odd components that didn’t hold up like they expected.”
“They were using Influencers,” said Jasmine. “I don’t know who or how, but they had Influencers working as part of the security system. The geek we talked to seemed pretty proud of it.” She leaned against the back bumper of the car, next to Kootch.
“That makes sense, then,” said Mr. Butts. “If Rae and Malcolm were there canceling out all their power, it would have completely failed.”
“Zane told me that they weren’t allowed to have electronic devices of any kind there. That they kept their place secret that way.”
“Well, maybe that’s what they told Zane, but we found plenty of signals coming out of there,” said Mrs. Butts. “And the person in charge, I’m not sure what his actual name is, he was the worst offender with the chatter and talking too much about what was going on with outside sources.”
“I wonder if it was that man I saw in the meeting room,” said Rae, looking up at me.
I shrugged, not having any idea who she was talking about. We hadn’t yet had time to talk about what happened when we were apart in the compound.
“His code name was Cobra.” Mr. Butts laughed. “Very spicy for a brain trust, but whatever. It probably intimidated some of the people involved.”
“Did you say Cobra?” I asked.
“Yes. Do you know who it is?”
“It’s Helen,” I said. “She’s the Cobra. And I don’t think it’s just a … spicy nickname or whatever. She was very slithery. I’ll bet she’s an Influencer herself.”
“You don’t mean shape shifter, I hope,” said Jasmine. She pushed off the back of the car and looked into the tinted window to the trunk area. “Maybe she shifted and slithered into the car.”
“No, don’t be silly. I mean she was sneaky and she had this face like a serpent. And she would just stare at you and … well, it was creepy. Just trust me on that.”
Mr. and Mrs. Butts looked at each other, a silent message passing between them.
“So where are we going?” asked Jasmine.
“You are going home, young lady. And you can look forward to fifty hours of additional training that starts at oh-six-hundred tomorrow morning,” said her father.
“What? Why? What’d I do?”
“You took too many risks. We just need to work on your tactical training, that’s all.”
“Tactical training?” I asked, not sure I completely understood what I was hearing.
“Yeah, you know. So I can become a certified badass,” Jasmine said, smiling. She didn’t seem too upset about the training, really.
“I want in on this training,” said Kootch. “I was totally fucked when those guys hit us up. I didn’t know my butthole from a hole in the ground.”
Mrs. Butts laughed, putting her hand on Kootch’s shoulder. “We’d be happy to include you, if Jasmine’s okay with it and your father is too.”
 
; “My father’s not even going to know. I’ll tell him I’m doing extra hours of phys ed. He’ll be fine as long as I’m out of the house.” He looked down at Jasmine who’d settled in next to him again. Elbowing her, he said, “You mind if I join the fun? Show you a thing or two about being a badass?”
She snorted. “Huh. Yeah, right. You can come, but be prepared to be schooled, not be giving lessons.” She looked over at Rae, shaking her head. “Stupid guys.”
Rae stepped a little closer and put her arm around my waist. “I just want to know what you think Malcolm and I should do. I don’t want to go back home. I can’t. Not with a handler there waiting to brainwash me or whatever.”
“No, you can’t go home,” agreed Mr. Butts. “We’re hoping you’ll take us up on our offer of shelter. We can’t risk getting you involved in what we’re doing now … not until we take care of the Greater Good problem, anyway.”
Mrs. Butts snorted in disgust. “Greater Good. How obnoxious can anyone be? As if they know what’s good for all of us.”
“Seriously,” I agreed. “Those people in there … I want nothing to do with them.”
“There are other influencers in there,” said Rae. “A boy who can make people think they’re on fire…”
“A guy who’s apparently so gorgeous you ask him to take his clothes off,” said Jasmine, winking at Rae.
“Stop, that’s not what happened.” Rae put her head down. Even in the meager parking garage lights I could see her face was red.
“What did happen?” I asked. I didn’t mean to put her on the spot, but I had a feeling the Butts group should know. If they were going to deal with the Greater Good team, they needed to be totally updated on the Influencers they might go head-to-head with.
“He was the most gorgeous man you could ever imagine.”
“Did we see him before he got all ass-ugly?” asked Jasmine.
“Yes. But I think because Malcolm was close to me, you just saw what he really looks like, not what he influences people to see. And I’m not even sure we’d see the same person if we both looked at him without Malcolm around. Maybe he was just my version of gorgeous, I don’t know.”