Scarred

The entire eastern end of the asylum had been crushed. Pulverized, like an enormous bare foot had descended from on high and stamped the concrete under its massive heel. All that remained of the last twenty feet of the building was crushed concrete, splintered wood and twisted steel reinforcers, with a garnish of shatter-bright glass.

My stomach tightened. Jesus on a jet ski. Could've been people in there. Maybe had been. Maybe Mike and Jem… but my concern was eclipsed by a guilty flush of relief.

At least it wasn't burning.

Disembodied laughter echoed from trees dappled in shadow. Shrill, hollow laughter, straight from an evil fairytale. I shivered. Villains. Nothing if not theatrical.

I spotted Adonis crouched by the kitchen, and he beckoned to me. "Verity!"

I scuttled over to hunker beside him. "What's that God-awful noise? Who does this idiot think they are, the Joker?"

Swiftly, Glimmer checked around the corner, leading with his weapon. He dropped down beside us. "No one. Whoever it is, they're not keen on being seen."

After the museum, and Vincent, and Adonis' implied scolding, I was itching for a fight. "Damn coward. Why are they hiding? Why don't you come out and face us, you lunatic?" I yelled the last part, bristling inside.

"Maybe they're shy." Glimmer checked his pistol, a snap of metal slide. "A hit and run, just to piss us off. Make us jumpy."

"Or lure us out," I added. "Do we even know anyone who could do this? Besides, y'know, me on steroids?"

Adonis grimaced. "We need Jem to do a recce."

"He's in no shape."

"Agreed. Glimmer?"

Glimmer tucked his pistol away. "I can give it a shot. Can't guarantee they won't blast my head off. As if you'd be sorry, you heartbreaker."

"And just when we were falling in love." Adonis clapped Glimmer's shoulder and gave me a chilly stare of command. "Vee, stay here."

"But I can help…" I protested weakly, trailing off. Why did I even bother? Adonis could've just unleashed on me, bent me to his will with a wink and a smile. At least he was giving me that much credit.

Like that's supposed to make my house arrest any less frustrating.

Glimmer flicked me an apologetic glance and crept along to the corner, footprints light in the dust. My heart clenched in trepidation, but I resisted the temptation to go all Peg on him. Be careful, honey. Don't be out too late.

Glimmer can't make himself invisible, not the way Jem can, by bending light. Glimmer just makes you think he's invisible. Which makes him one dangerous mindfuck dude, but it also means he needs to catch your attention first. I've seen him hurl his illusions across a room, a shimmering shockwave of huh?—but that was hit-and-miss. His mojo worked best when he gazed into your eyes. Watch me, he'd whisper, and next thing you knew…

Not that I'd ever let him unleash on me, not like that. No way. Sad fact is, Glimmer's too much a saint to make me cluck like a chicken, or shave my own eyebrows off, or any of that bad-taste stuff the rest of us would do if we got the chance to hypnotize someone. More likely, he'd pull some do-gooder hypnotherapy moves to suggest I quit drinking, clean up my act and get a steady boyfriend who isn't a power-mad pyromaniac.

Not for the first time, I wondered how far into your brain Glimmer's augment could dig. Could he, for instance, erase memories? Implant new ones? Break my conditioning? Do a bit of sly Vincent aversion therapy?

But the idea of stripping my failings bare like that just lined my guts with cold grease. Glimmer didn't need to see the slimy things that wallowed in the cesspit of my mind. It'd… dirty him. Smear him unclean. Tarnish him, somehow.

And that I would not have. Not on my watch, sister.

Glimmer eased his lean frame around the corner. Can't see 'em, he murmured in my head. Just wait…

Grrrr-ack! The monstrous groan of timber splitting. Leaves rustled en masse… and Glimmer dived back around the corner and thudded into the dust.

A massive tree trunk speared into the brick wall six feet away from us. Boom! The earth shook. Leaves and sticks flew, a cloud of dirt and ripped bark.

Adonis and I scrambled backwards as one. "Creeping Jesus," I panted as the dust settled. "Who throws a tree at people?"

"It's Blue Dreads." Glimmer coughed, spitting dust. "Sophron. Saw her in the forest."

"What about the other one?"

"Flash? No, I didn't—"

That laughter snaked out again, coiling around us. "Now we're getting someplace," the girl called. Her hollow, high-pitched voice rasped, alien. "Miss me, Verity Fortune? Come out and show yourselves, you—"

The rest was obliterated by another tree crashing into the building. Glass exploded, windows shattering.

"How the hell did she find us?" Ad glanced my way, suspicious.

"I wasn't followed," I insisted. "Sewers and shadows, all the way." It hurt that he suspected me, though he'd every right. But a chill clawed beneath my skin, one of Eb's hungry corpse rats chewing on my flesh.

What if Vincent lied? What if Sophron truly was his creature, and in my rank stupidity, I'd led her straight to us?

That's ridiculous, Common-Sense Verity scolded in my head. If Vincent knows where you're hiding, why doesn't he just burn the lot of you to ash? Why construct this elaborate deception?

I snorted. Right. You're talking about a man who left me trapped in a lunatic asylum for nine months to get my memory wiped, then pretended not to know me while I fell for him all over again, then tricked me into not only exposing my own augmented family in front of the entire world, but also convincing the city to overlook the fact that he's a hate-drenched maniac and elect him mayor.

Such a man would surely never construct an elaborate deception. What a ludicrous notion. Shut the fuck up, Common-Sense. You know nothing.

But on the heels of that thought nipped another, a rabid little rodent with sharp teeth: it's because he doesn't want to kill you.

So what did he want?

But I knew, of course. And it sickened my stomach and tingled my thighs at the same time. You belong to me, he'd whispered. Come back to me. You know you want to…

"Vee, you with us?" Adonis tugged my arm, yanking me back to reality. Sticks and branches rained on our heads, and we ducked under the cover of the narrow eaves. "Go fetch Michael, tell him we've got a situation here. Ebenezer, too…"

But lightning forked, a rich-smelling boommm! of thunder. Mike was already here. Standing by the crushed brickwork, wrapped in an aura of crackling white fire.

Just a small old guy, but he sure looked bad-ass. He wasn't wearing his reflective Illuminatus suit—the one that really made him light up like a blowtorch—but he could've been naked and wrapped in adult diapers and you still didn't fuck with Uncle Mike.

I shook my head like a wet dog to dislodge the clanging in my ears. And that was just a little one.

Razorfire has the flashiest augment in town, naturally. He wouldn't allow it any other way, and until you've watched him slice an office complex in two with a flick of his wrist, leaving a smoking crater of scorched earth and corpses, you ain't seen weapon of mass destruction.

But for sheer coolness factor? Mike's gotta run a close second. Lightning bolts, people. Fuck, yeah.

Sophron's cackle danced from the forest's shadows. "Come over here and say that, electric. Bring that thing closer and see what happens."

Mike let rip with another bolt. Ker-ackk!! A tree split in half and erupted into flame. The stink of smoke and ozone and wet wood showered, and while the explosion still rang, Glimmer dashed over to Adonis and me, and the three of us crouched together. Adonis glanced at me. I glanced at Glimmer. Glimmer nodded. I nodded too.

And as one, we leapt up and sprinted for Mike.