The lady blinks but nods.He lets her shut her door and turns to catch the rest of us staring at him.
“What?”he shrugs.
“Aren’t you just a good boy?”Victor purrs.“By all means, let’s take out the trash.”
The men close around me as we head downstairs.Each step I take jostles my sore muscles, but the pain carries me forward, singing sweetly with every step, and it’s like Rex is with me.
Then we hit the bottom of the stairs, and it’s like I’ve stepped into a cloud of black, acrid smoke.I hold my breath, trying not to cough out the stinking miasma stinging my eyes.It feels like ashes are coating my throat.
“He’s here,” I whisper.
The twins box me in.Twin Two must have set down the trash bag because he’s got his gun out.I draw my weapon and flick the safety off.Victor goes first, a long knife glittering in his hand.We all move quietly into the basement.
We pass several wire cages containing dusty furniture and long-forgotten exercise equipment.My helmet shifts to night vision, and I can see the shapes outlined in green.
Victor stops, and we stop with him.He crouches down to pick something up.When he rises, he holds it out for us to see.
It’s a black feather.
We’ve found Ted’s lair.But where is he?And where is Rex?
Victor points out a room in the corner.The closer we get, the louder someone speaking gets.
Ted.
I reaffirm my grip on my gun and move closer.
“—never respected me.”He’s raving.“He was obsessed with her.”
In my mind’s eye, I can see the room through the dark haze.The walls are covered in faded photographs.Rex is there, sitting restrained on a hospital gurney, his clothes gone, his arms pinioned with cords.
He’s straining against his bonds, his muscles bulging until blood runs down his bare chest.
Ted hovers close, livid and holding a knife.“I’m going to carve you up.Then I’ll call her down here and kill her, too.”
Ted wants me?I’m here, and I’m pissed.
I signal to the men surrounding me.“I’m going in.”
One of the twins puts out a hand to stop me, and I shake my head at him.I’m wearing a helmet and armor.I’m as protected as I can be.Plus, I’m armed.Ted won’t know what hit him.
Before Rex, justice was an abstract concept, but now, faced with a threat to the man I love, I’m not waiting to do things the right way.There’s no justice on a battlefield.If saving Rex means spilling the blood of my enemy, I’m not just willing to spill blood; I’m willing to bathe in it.
When you love someone, you don’t hold back.Rex taught me that.
The guys pause in silent deliberation.I make a move toward the door, and Victor signals his surrender.He crouches by the door and pulls out a pick for the lock.I let him break in for me.
I raise my gun.I don’t need the door to open to know where Ted will be.I can sense him.My gifts crystalize the scene, and I know just where to aim.
Victor stands to the side, his hand on the doorknob.He counts me down—three, two, one—and throws the door open.
I step forward, and the scene I saw in my mind is there, laid out in shapes of black and green.
Ted turns toward me, his mouth falling slack in surprise.
And I blow him away.
***
