Theft of a Life

Ch18

"Anything you get out of her comes straight to me, are we clear?" I ask Ray outside the door of our interrogation room. I don't know what the scientist knows. If they're sending people claiming to be messengers from my brother, I don't know what kind of knowledge is becoming public. I need to minimize the damage. Ray nods stiffly, walking back in. We shouldn't have to do much in the way of forcing cooperation, but she is capable of what needs to be done.

I walk to the kitchen and sit down on a countertop tucked into a corner, tilting my head back against the wall. Exhaustion washes over me, and I try to remember the last time I slept. At this point, I'm running off of caffeine and the unstoppable desire to deal with her. Wrapping an entire building in a force field definitely doesn't help anything. It's like my whole body aches.

"Ross?" Someone calls my name. I hum a response, but don't gather the energy to open my eyes. "Are you okay?"

I manage to peel one eyelid open enough to see Quinn in the entryway, staring at me. I sigh, sitting up and rubbing my eyes.

"What's on fire now?" I mumble.

"Ray sent me to come find you, said that you would want to come down to interrogation,"

I must have fallen asleep. Wasted time. Stupid, ridiculous, useless-

"Yeah, yeah...yeah. Okay," I mumble, forcing myself to stand up so that I can't just go back to sleep. My head aches now, too. I teleport to the door of interrogation, ignoring the unique type of exhaustion that trembles through me, and open the door. Ray beckons for me to come inside, and I shut the door behind myself, crossing my arms over my chest.

"And?" I ask, my eyes barely open but my mouth etched into a permanent frown.

"Why don't you tell her, little Miss Jasmine?" Ray prompts, her voice sickly sweet. Jasmine the scientist, who is sitting in a chair- but not tied to it- swallows hard in the shallow light.

"She's here," Jasmine says quietly. "My boss. She's in the country. She was due at my base a couple hours after you got to us,"

My breath catches in my throat.

"Which boss?" I ask, stalking up to her and bracing myself on the arms of her chair. She shakes, but dutifully mumbles her name. The name. I run my hands down my face and back off. She's here. She's less than a hundred miles from us.

She's here and I'm not ready.

She's here and we can't handle this.

7 of my 16 came back with injuries that needed Grace, and we weren't even fighting anyone with powers.

"Keep her alive and away from everyone else," I tell Ray, my voice lacking its usual edge, and I teleport. I don't really think about where I'm going, I just go. And I end up in my room. I stumble to my bed, grabbing a pillow and forcing it between my legs and chest as I curl up.

She's here, she's here, she's here. And I'm not ready!

This isn't how it's supposed to work! It doesn't go like this! I get ready, I get all of us able to fight, and then we go find her. She isn't supposed to be here. Not yet. Not now.

No, especially not now. I'm barely conscious. I'm exhausted. I'm leading an army of teenagers who don't even like me, and I'm not in control of any of this.

I stand up again. We can deal with one problem- enemy under my roof. I grab my gun off the desk and throw open the door to my room, starting to walk down to interrogation, but I walk straight into James.

He grabs my shoulders, and I weakly try to shove him off, but he doesn't let go.

"Ross- Ross, what's going- where are you going?" He forces me to look at him.