* * *
Breakingthe news to Tatum was the hardest. We were going away for a while and she couldn’t come. The truth was she was better off not going into the Dream Wars with me. Not now, not after all of this and Damien’s crazy sentry attraction. I paid her mom the month in advance and told her to train Annie to be my new waker. Then I called the cadet academy and got Tatum to be bunk mates with Santiago’s sister, Emilia. Even though Emilia was older, they were starting her with the new recruits, most of whom were twelve and thirteen years old. I thought they would make a good team, and I wanted Tatum to have one person she knew there. She started in two days. She’d train to be a badass lethal killing machine, and hopefully meet a group of lifelong friends she could sleep next to forever. That was what I did,anyway.
Master Aki had called while I was in surgery and wanted to be apprised of my condition the moment I woke. When I’d called him, I told him what happened in the Dream Wars but left out all the government stuff when we’d woken. He’d told me to meditate more and think less, then hung up on me. TypicalAki.
The one good thing that had come out of the last few hours was that Ronnie had gotten a call from the owner of the pregnant cat. He was in New Mexico and wanted Ronnie to deliver the kittens in three weeks when they were due. In return, he would give her a kitten once it weaned from its mom. I’d never seen Ronnie so happy in all mylife.
“I can’t believe they bugged our shit. That’s messed up.” Maxine’s voice brought me back to our not-so-rosy reality, while she spoke from the back seat. We were just pulling into Damien’sdriveway.
Maxine was super offended that the government had been listening in on us. We hadn’t really spoken much about it because I was pretty sure my place was bugged too. As we crossed through the guard gate, I saw two large black SUVs in the driveway, Mr. Hansen and Damien loading luggage into one of them. They still had paper dealer plates, the sticker price on the frontwindshield.
Brisk popped the car into Park and I opened the door, struggling to get out with my crutch. The nerve block had died out, and the ibuprofen wasn’t doing shit for me. Pain was an old friend though, and I would getthrough.
“You bought new cars?” I askedDamien.
He smiled, and looked up at me hobbling toward him. I’d taken a bath, my arm wrapped in plastic and my leg hanging out of the tub. I’d finally brushed my teeth, and I may have done myself up a little more than I usually did, with my Blue hair in a high topknot, black mascara, and red lipstick. I was wearing cutoff jean shorts and a soft vintage Van Halen T-shirt.
“Yep. Paid cash. Only way to assure they aren’t bugged or riddled with tracking devices.” His eyes fell to my leanlegs.
Jesus, that was a scary thought. Our cars were bugged too? I decided to ignore the fact that he was totally checking me out and that I was totally getting butterflies overit.
He tossed a set of keys at Brisk, who caught them midair. “One is for youguys.”
“Damn, being a billionaire must be nice.” Brisk chuckled and started to transfer our gear to the newcar.
Damien ignored the comment and rattled off a few things to Mr.Hansen.
“How’s Jeremy?” I asked him now that we werealone.
A pained look crossed his face. “He’ll be okay. Josephine had to give him a mild anti-anxietypill.”
Poor thing. You couldn’t even move houses without setting him off. It was so terribly tear-jerking, and my heart went out to him. Taking care of a sibling like that, it must’ve beenhard.
“We’re all set. Last thing is you need to all ditch your phones. I got everyone new ones.” Damien pulled out a small backpack and handed it tome.
This was like one of those movies where you were running from the cops, trashing phones, and switching cars. But it wasn’t a movie; I was living it. I peeked in the bag and saw a stack of newphones.
Josephine stepped out of the house then, her arm linked into Jeremy’s. He was walking slowly, scuffing his feet on the ground in a lazy manner. Whatever he’d taken I probably needed; I’d broken out in a bit of a sweat from the pain of standing solong.
“Take these.” Ronnie came up beside me, startling me. I saw three pills in herhand.
“What arethey?”
She gave me that “don’t you dare question me” look. “Antibiotic, mild pain pill, and a caffeinepill.”
Ugh. I hated pills. If I had it my way, I’d never see another pill or doctor in mylife.
“You’ve just had major surgery and are moving around a lot today. I need you to take the pills.” She handed me a waterbottle.
I hated caffeine pills—they made my heart race—but there was no way in hell I was getting through the next six days withoutthem.
“All right, Doc.” I downed thepills.
She leaned in closely to whisper in my ear, never taking her eyes off Damien, who was bending over and securing something in the back seat of his car. “In case you were wondering, you’re cleared for sexual intercourse aswell.”
I spat the water out of my mouth and it sprayed in a huge gush. Everyone spun around to look at me, including Damien, and I smiled nervously, sure my cheeks matched mylipstick.
“Iwasn’twondering that,” I told Ronnie and quickly shoved myself into the back seat, slamming thedoor.
