The Initiative (A Sleeping Beauty Remix)

Twenty-Seven

Twenty-Seven

"Come closer, child. Let me show you your greatest wish...and your greatest fears."

-Fortune Teller, from the LaTourn Traveling Circus, stationed outside Pellora

"Don't touch her!'

Zeke shot backward as if he were on fire, his elbow catching on the tray of instruments on the crash cart next to me. They scattered to the ground, crashing against the concrete floor.

Brayden stormed closer and shoved him by the shoulders, "Are you an idiot?"

"What? Why—"

I stared at Brayden through half-lidded eyes. I was awake and alert—and had been for the last half hour or so. The feeling of the air moving around me had had my body jumping to immediate attention and I'd peeked through barely open lids to find Zeke close enough to touch.

And damn Brayden, I'd been so close. "I just wanted to feel his hair."

Brayden ignored me, "she copies abilities through touch."

"He's just afraid I think you're cooler than him," I whispered to Zeke.

"Not true."

I made a sound at the back of my throat, "you're right. We both know I could do Zeke's ability better."

Zeke shook his head at me and then kicked one of the scalpels with the toe of his combat boot. It skidded across the ground and stopped somewhere behind me.

I rolled my head lazily to the side. The needles were gone along with the blood collections and the doctor. He must've taken the collections and went off to go do...whatever it was he does with stolen blood.

Based on my alertness right now, he must've removed the needles at least an hour ago. That'd given Wes' passive ability plenty of time to restore my blood.

Now if only I could get out of these damn restraints. I stared hard at Brayden. "I hope when Wes finds you he puts a bullet in you."

Brayden tilted his head to the side, his mouth ticking up slightly. "I'd love him to try." He said playfully. But I clearly heard the warning behind it.

He'd managed to finagle his way into the Initiative, a top-secret government group. I didn't know anything about his background other than a rudimentary file I'd been given after I woke. And who's to say that information—age, date of birth, family, etc—wasn't fabricated for this mission of his.

No, he clearly had a few tricks up his sleeve.

I would have to watch closely and discover what I could about him before Wes arrived to kick his ass. Or better yet, when I got free and kicked his ass myself.

☙♡❧

"We did a blood analysis of Cindy Cartwright upon her detainment," Dr. MacMaster said over the phone line, "this is standard procedure. However, in doing a finer examination we've found a few interesting...elements. Ones that I've only seen once before."

Heavy silence pressed over them like a weighted blanket.

"Are you going to tell us?" Eva snapped, "or just pause dramatically like this is some fucking movie?"

Wes should have snapped at her. Or reminded her who she was talking to. But his patience had long since disappeared and he'd been half a millisecond from snapping himself.