Cursed (11 page)

“Has anything stayed the same?”

“I’m sure you’d recognize some things from the right angle.” Julius studied me for a moment. “Feel like getting out of here for a while?” He must have been reading me because he sent me an easy smile. “You’ll be safe. I’ll be with you. I won’t leave you. Promise.”

He left the room and came back a minute later with some shoes. We headed out of his apartment into a corridor. It was a familiar layout with other apartments on either side of the hallway. Julius directed me down a little way to an elevator. A female voice asked us to state our destination. “Sky-garden,” Julius replied.

The lift dropped, and moments later, the doors opened. We stepped into an open area directly from the elevator. The P.A. drifted out with us, but I soon forgot it as I looked about. A few people milled in groups and sat on benches, and none looked our way. Their own P.A. s hovered silently behind them. The P.A. behind us was just one in many. As were we. I felt brilliantly inconspicuous. The atmosphere was peaceful. No one looked my way. He squeezed my shoulder. “They’re just regular people. Relax.”

A woman jogged past us, her P.A. keeping pace behind her shoulder. She was dressed in a figure-hugging bodysuit that had trails of light tracking up her legs and arms. They met at a small square where a number flashed, and I realized as she passed, it was her heart rate.

A garden filled with shrubs and trees of different hues of greens had been planted with perfect symmetry. A gravel path wound through flower beds and below the canopy of tall trees. A slight breeze made leaves rustle. Julius pointed out various plants, telling me a little story about their variety or species of flower and why they’d been chosen for this garden. I recognized most of the names and even the species of flowers, but there were varieties of plants there, grafts between roses and tiger lilies, lilacs and wattle, each wondrous and beautiful in its own right. I bent to inhale their perfume, delighting in the new fragrances I’d never even dreamed could be possible. As we wandered along the path, we came to a grassy section where there were chairs, tables, and benches. A couple sat next to a particularly laden flower bush and had set breakfast on their little table. The woman reached to touch a flower. The man said something to her, and they both laughed.

“People come here for breakfast?”

He nodded. “And exercise. All of the parks and gardens have now been designed within the buildings, especially apartments. That was one the rules for buildings that were slated to be built over park lands.”

I guessed space was at a premium, but at least they had created new gardens and not just built over them leaving nothing but dust and concrete. “It’s beautiful.”

I walked down the gravel path, listening to the sound of the small stones crunch beneath my feet. The garden was quite large, and soon, we’d left other people behind walls of shrubs. I walked to a balustrade, scanning to horizon and what lay spread before me. “I can see half of Melbourne! The Melbourne I recognize!” I turned to him to find he watched me. “Is that why you brought me here?”

Julius leaned his arms on the balustrade, looking out over the view. “I thought I could point out some features you’d identify.”

“The Yarra!”

The Yarra River swirled like a giant brown snake through towering buildings on either side. It was full of life. I saw a variety of boats and even rowers. My heart beat a little faster as I recognized signs of life that stood the test of time. Technology might have changed, but maybe people hadn’t that much.

I saw a large building with a spotted crown blinking somewhere above the building. A car drove right through the hologram. “Crown Casino! Don’t tell me that’s still going.” I looked beyond. The Exhibition Building had been greatly extended, but I knew what it was. When food events were on, I used to hide in the loading bays and steal whatever I could find.

Kings Bridge still stood, carrying a tide of cars over its arch. There was Melbourne Aquarium, although it had gained some stories. “I went there and saw King Penguins.” I remembered the icy enclosure and the beautiful, stoic penguins on show. Somehow I’d managed to sneak through their security. I’d spent the entire day there, engrossed as much by the parents taking their children out as by the beautiful sea life.

“They hold all of the endangered sea life in the Southern Hemisphere now,” Julius said. “It also goes below the water level where you can see into the Yarra through giant windows.”

“You can see into the Yarra?” I asked.

“It’s been cleaned of fuels and litter. It took a decade or so, but fish eventually came back into the river. It’s quite busy down there.”

I shook my head, trying to take all the information in. Melbourne had come so far, grown, and shone. I watched lines of cars heading in all directions through the sky. “How many people live here?”

“Twenty million.”

“I’m used to four million.”

“It’s around the same size and width as it was a century ago, but with the invention of magnetic-gravity, it meant the people could live in taller buildings and still be able to drive around. Most apartment buildings have their own garages so that people can park their cars no matter how high up they are.”

I studied the huge buildings surrounding us. As he spoke, I noticed cars slowing and entering sections in buildings. Garages. It reminded me of bees coming into the hive.

A gentle breeze plucked at a wave in his hair. His features had relaxed since we’d been talking. His shoulders had rounded from the tight, straight line they’d been in. He seemed calmer. Less the doctor trying to keep me alive and more the man who’d let his defenses down a little. I liked watching the man. I found myself staring at him.

“You like it here.”

“This has always been my favorite place,” he admitted softly.

The sun was beginning to set over the tops of the buildings. The light blue of the sky merged with iridescent pinks and oranges.

“How high are we?”

“Only about fifty stories.”

I peered over the balustrade, looking at the street below. Still high enough to kill you if you fell.

As though reading my thoughts, Julius said, “You can’t fall.”

I frowned at him.

“There’s an invisible force field about a meter out and beneath the ledge. It’s standard on any direct-to-air opening. If you fell, you’d only suffer a bruise or two. Only the elements like the wind, sunshine, and rain can penetrate. Natural things. We’re safe here.”

“Safe. That sounds nice.” I sighed and folded my arms on the railing, resting my chin to watch the sunset. For the moment, I could relax. I was safe. For now. I felt tension slide from my limbs. I angled my head to look at him.

“Thank you, Julius,” I whispered.

A frown pulled at his brow. “What for?”

“For helping me. For bringing me here and sharing this place with me. For ... liking me.”

He watched me with a mix of amazement and shock. “You don’t have to thank me for liking you.”

I uttered a self-recriminating sound. “I do when everyone else wants me for their own purposes. I know the difference. I appreciate it. You like me just because you do. You don’t even need a reason.”

For a moment he watched me, an indefinable expression clouded his eyes. I knew he was seeing a bony woman with horrible sunken eyes and sallow skin. Although the protein enhancers he’d put into my food were working at an incredible rate, I was still too skinny, too gaunt. I’d never cared what I looked like, but I didn’t want him to see me like this. I looked out over the Yarra. I lost myself in the peace the garden brought me. It was a precious reprieve.

As I rested, dark thoughts invaded my mind. More unanswered questions. The man who’d assaulted me in the alley. Seth, one of the men had called him. He’d been too calm when I’d used my thought-energy on him. As though he’d expected me to use it. Had known that I possessed it. And that was a problem.

But how? I’d always kept it a closely guarded secret. It had taken me months to be able to work up the courage to even tell Heather, and that was only after a close call when Victor had nearly found me. I’d told her for her own safety.

Seth had gone easy on me. He’d only been in that alley to give me a message. Be ready to fight. I stifled an internal chill and swallowed the helplessness that engulfed me. Although I knew it was a complete illusion, I coveted the small amount of comfort I’d found here. I watched as cars passed below me.

From the corner of my vision, a flying car peeled from the line of traffic. It sped toward us, coming way too fast. An arrow streaking toward its target. Too obvious for my mind to be playing tricks. I pointed, “That car!”

It turned sideways, sliding through the air until it stopped suspended in midair directly in front of us. The side door lifted. My heart pounded. All I could do was stare, my breath hard in my lungs. “What the fuck ... !”

Seth looked straight at me, baring his teeth. Maybe he thought it was a grin, but it was more a movement that contorted his face into something demonic. In the wind, his hoodie whipped off his head, revealing a tattoo that covered half of his bald skull.

My mind spun. Logical thought beyond me. Seth tugged a black, heavy looking device into his hands and aimed it toward us. Fingers dug into my shoulders. Julius tugged me down a millisecond before buzzing tore through my skull. I cried out. Felt my voice in my throat, but heard no sound.

The diameter of a glowing blue circle emanated from the end of the device. A heat shimmer distorted everything around me. Electricity pulsed, and a deep reverberating sound penetrated my ears. Spidery cracks appeared in the force field that protected the garden from the outside elements, starting at the base and quickly climbing upward. It was going to shatter. Julius pulled me to the ground, covering my body with his.

An explosion boomed all around me. Silvery shards rained around us. One sliced my leg. The force field had been destroyed, and we were going to be cut to shreds.

Protect. Live. I cocooned our bodies with the thought-energy, willing it to be strong with every ounce of concentration I possessed. Shards hit the energy bubble and slid harmlessly to the grass.

Silence screamed. I took my hands from my head, visually going over my body. No pain. No blood. Julius hunkered over me.

“Are you hurt?” he yelled.

I shook my head.

Seth stepped onto the balustrade and leapt over a bush, aiming the device straight at us, black eyes glinting with lust. Julius grabbed my arm, tugged me to my feet, screaming, “Run! Run! Run!”

Somehow, we managed to stagger through the garden together. Every cell in my body prickled with the knowledge that Seth was behind us, aiming that gun right at our backs. If it managed to shatter a force field made to withstand the weather a kilometer high, then it would pulverize our bodies in half that time.

We bolted down a path as a blast hit the ground next to me. Dirt and grass exploded over us. I staggered, but Julius kept me upright and running. We reeled into the first garden we’d entered from the elevator. So many people here. Innocents who didn’t know a thing about Seth or myself.

“Get out of here! Move! Run!” I screamed to shocked faces.

Julius put a hand on my arm, and together we ran toward the elevator, yelling at people to escape. I saw the female jogger crouching behind a bush and shouted at her to get the hell out of here. I glimpsed behind me and saw Seth step around a shrub, the sneer locked on his face. Somewhere in the background, I registered a siren wailing. People screaming, running. Commotion all around.

There was a scream and I slipped to a halt, spinning around. Seth had his fingers wrapped around a little girl’s neck, the gun pointed at her temple. She could have been ten or eleven. Her face was pale. She shook all over, her mouth pulled in a grimace. She looked down at a man lying sprawled unmoving at her feet. Her father taken down by Seth.

Rage ripped through me. He was not going to hurt that child. I screamed as a surge of power left my body. The gun exploded in Seth’s hands. Crumbled into a million pieces, flew through the air and scattered over the ground. Seth dropped his hold of the girl. She scrambled over to her father and lay over his prone body.

Seth looked at his empty hands, bloody and cut, and then right at me. He didn’t seem to feel any pain! Julius tugged my arm, and we staggered away.

“Run, little rabbit! I’m enjoying this game,” he called in a singsong voice.

Half of me wanted to stay and fight and work the anger out of my system. The other half—the terrified half—kept on tripping, locking arms with Julius, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

We reached the elevator, and Julius stabbed the button. The doors opened, and we bolted inside. The emotionless female voice asked us where we wanted to go. “Basement,” Julius said.

In a second, the doors closed, and my stomach was somewhere in my throat as we descended. I sank to the floor, hunched over, hands on knees, dragging breath into my lungs. I heard Julius breathing as hard as I was. I looked through my hair, saw him place a shaking hand on the wall of the lift.

Next to him, my image was reflected back. Dark wide eyes, long black hair dangling in strands about my shoulders. My face, pale and shell-shocked. Contorted with a pain that seared me on the inside.

The lift settled to a stop, and the doors opened into a garage. I guessed apartment complex car parks hadn’t changed in the last century. Julius grabbed my hand, stalking through the cars.

My toothpick legs refused to take my weight, and I wobbled against him. He put his arm around my shoulders. I let myself lean against his stable warm body. I put my hand onto his chest and felt his heart thundering inside him.

The vast car park didn’t fill me with any sense of safety. The stark light created harsh shadows that anyone could hide in. Seth could be here at any moment, and we would be sitting ducks with little protection.

“Let’s get out of here,” I whispered.

Julius picked me up, as my legs refused to move. We rounded a corner, and I stumbled from his arms to collapse against his car, out of breath and dizzy from the aftereffects of the energy dump.