Revelations (19 page)

Rae felt the cold metal of the spoon against her teeth. This was it. She closed her eyes, trying to hold on to the
vision of Anthony’s face, not tightened into a grimace, the way it had been as he strained to keep from hurting her,
but smiling, his melted-Hershey eyes bright.

Something hit the floor with a thud. A moment later there was a clatter. Then Rae felt the rope wrapped around her
body loosening. She snapped open her eyes and saw Aiden, Jesse, and Mandy come bursting through the door.

Yana lay on the ground. And Anthony was ripping the rope off her.

“What happened?” she exclaimed.

“Aiden got Yana with a tranquilizer dart,” Jesse exclaimed.

“Is she knocked out?” Anthony demanded.

“Yeah,” Aiden answered.

“We have to keep her that way,” Anthony said. “She can put thoughts in your head. Make you dowhatever she
wants.”

“I’ll take care of it,” Aiden answered.

“How?” Anthony demanded. “How are you going to stop her from coming after Rae?”

“I’ll take her to a safe place and keep her sedated until I find a way to block her power. There are various barrier
substances that could work,” Aiden answered. “When she’s ready, I’ll tell her that Rae’s mother didn’t kill her mother.

Then there’ll be no reason for her to ever go after Rae again.”

“And you think she’ll believe you?” Anthony asked. “You’re going to tell her the lame junk you told me? That Rae’s
mom just didn’t have the personality type to be a killer? ’Cause Yana’s not ever going to buy that.” Anthony strode
up to Aiden. “I think there’s a lot that you’re not telling us. Yana’s going to need to hear the whole story. And so do
we-
now.
”

Rae let out a slow breath, enjoying the feeling of having someone stand up for her. “Do you have some kind of
proof?” she asked Aiden as she pushed herself to her feet. “I know my mom didn’t kill Erika. But do you know what
happened?”

“Tell her now,” Anthony insisted. “Tell her whatever you’re going to tell Yana that’s going to convince her.”

Aiden stared down at Yana’s limp body for along moment, then he raised his eyes to Rae. “I’ll tell you the truth if
you want me to. But it’s dangerous for you to know. Any of you.”

“Tell me,” Rae answered. Aiden, Jesse, and Mandy all nodded. “Tell us,” Rae added.

“I know for an absolute fact that your mother didn’t kill Erika Keaton because Erika was killed by one of the
government agents.”

“Why?” Rae cried.

“She was horrified by what had been done to her and the women in the group-and what could happen to their
children. She decided to go public. And she was stopped.”

“Murdered,” Anthony bit out. “Use the right word. She was murdered.”

“Murdered,” Aiden agreed.

“How did my mother even get connected to Erika’s death, then?” Rae asked. “She was Erika’s best friend.”

Aiden’s eyes skittered away from Rae’s face. “She got connected because the agency wanted her to be
connected.”

“You bastards framed her,” Anthony cried.

Rae reached out and used the kitchen table to steady herself. She knew her legs were too weak to hold her up. “Is
that what happened?” she asked Aiden.

“Yes,” he said, his voice coming out choked.

“The agency planted evidence to implicate your mother. I didn’t know about it at the time. I was very new, just out
of college. But I got the details later. There were fears that Melissa might also try to go public. Framing her took away
any credibility she might have. She did try to tell the truth-and that’s why she was found unfit to stand trial.”

“And that’s why she was put in the mental hospital,” Rae said. The floor felt like it was softening under her feet,
softening and rolling. She’d trusted Aiden. When would she learn to stop trusting people? “I don’t understand why
Steve Mercer killed my mother, then,” she said. “It made sense when he thought what he’d done to her had turned
her into a murderer. He told me he killed her to stop her from killing anyone else. But he must have known the
agency killed Erika and not my mother.”

Aiden shook his head. “No, Rae. Steve Mercer was on the run from the agency himself at that point. He believed
the evidence we-the group,” he quickly corrected himself, “planted. He did kill your mother because he thought
she’d become dangerous.”

Aiden turned to Mandy. “He killed your mother for the same reason,” he said. “Apparently, she had recently been
involved in an altercation with a coworker who consequently became the victim of a tragic accident on the job.

Steve must have suspected your mother was responsible, despite evidence to the contrary.” He coughed. “Mercer
really lost it,” he said, almost to himself.

A long silence filled the room. There were so many questions fighting for attention inside Rae that she couldn’t
focus on one long enough to ask it.

“What was my mom’s-what could she do?” Mandy finally blurted out. “I mean, why would Steve think she could
have killed that person?”

Rae glanced at her, hearing the tremor in Mandy’s voice. Poor Mandy had found out so much all at once-at least
the truth had come more slowly to Rae. It had been beyond frustrating not to know everything, but still. It was a
whole lot to know.

Aiden cleared his throat. “Amanda-your mother-could draw out people’s deepest fears,” he said. “Before her
involvement in the group, she’d apparently been particularly intuitive in this area. After the, uh, the treatments-she
was quite skilled at picking up on the slightest cues about what most terrified someone. Therefore, the unfortunate
accident at their office must have been particularly suspicious to Mercer.”

“People’s fears,” Mandy breathed, her eyes wide with shock. “She could see people’s fears.”

Rae tried to meet Mandy’s gaze, pass on some kind of support, but Mandy looked away. It was likeshe was lost in
some other place, trying to make this information fit into the memories she had of her mother. And Rae knew just
how personal and private that connection could be.

“I guess I’ll…” Aiden let his words trail off. He knelt down and lifted Yana into his arms, then headed out the door.

Mandy started after him, signaling to Jesse to follow.

Then Rae was alone with Anthony. She took a wobbly step toward him. He rushed to meet her, grabbing her under
both elbows. “Nasty bump you got there,” he said.

“Yeah,” Rae answered. “I guess I can tell my dad it was another volleyball injury. I can say one of the girls on the
other team had a monster spike.” She glanced down at her hands. “At least I can cover the cuts with makeup.”

“Yeah. That should work,” Anthony said.

Why are we having this stupid conversation?
Rae wondered. All she wanted was to feel his arms around her.

Didn’t he know that?

A second after the thought went through her head, her wish was a reality. He felt warm against her-warm and safe.

“Don’t let go, okay?” she murmured against his neck.

“I won’t,” he answered.

That was all she needed to hear.

*

Rae cracked open her fortune cookie. “Serenity is
your special gift,” she read aloud to Mandy. Mandy cracked up. It was good to hear her laugh. God, on the day that
Rae got her powers, she was completely terrified. Although it wasn’t like Mandy’s introduction to the wonderful
world of psi abilities had been a day at the beach.

“I told you thanks, right?” she asked.

“About a million times,” Mandy answered.

“Well, let’s make it a million and one,” Rae said. “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“You’re welcome,” Mandy answered. “You don’t have to stay and baby-sit me, you know. I’m really okay.”

“I’m not baby-sitting you,” Rae insisted. “I want to be here. That was really intense today. It’s good to be with
someone who was there.”

“Wouldn’t you rather be with Anthony?” Mandy asked. She split open a fortune cookie and folded up the fortune
without reading it.

Yeah, I would rather be with Anthony,
Rae thought. But she wasn’t going to tell Mandy that. No matter what Mandy
said, Mandy needed to be with someone who had a clue what she was going through. And that was Rae.

“I can see Anthony at school tomorrow,” Rae said, attempting and, she thought, achieving a sincere tone.

Mandy flopped back on her bed, then sat up and pulled a pizza box out from under her shoulders. She tossed it on
the floor, then stretched back out again. The girl was not a neat freak. That was for sure.

“How weird is it knowing so much about other people?” Mandy asked, staring up at the ceiling.

“Extremely weird,” Rae answered. “It’s enough just to deal with the stuff going on in your own life, you know?”

“Yeah,” Mandy answered.

“I don’t know if this would work for you ’cause I don’t know if you’re getting your info through your hands, but I
keep a wax coating on my fingers pretty much all the time. That way I only get junk on other people when
I
decide I
want to,” Rae explained. “It helps to find a way to be in control like that. If you want, the two of us can work on
figuring out a system for you.”

“That would be great,” Mandy answered. “But not tonight.” She yawned. “I’m dead.” She gave an embarrassed
giggle. “Sorry.”

“No worries,” Rae said.

“I guess it’s different for Yana.” Mandy rolled onto her side and looked at Rae. “She always has control. Nothing’s
getting zapped into her head.

She’s the one that does the zapping.”

“Yeah. God, I don’t even know what to think about Yana,” Rae admitted. “She tried to kill me. But she’s spent years
believing my mom killed her mom. That’s enough to warp anyone.”

“My mom was murdered, too. So was yours,” Mandy reminded her.

“Yeah, but I’ve only known that for a little while,” Rae answered. “And you… Well, did you ever feel like you wanted
to track down the carjacker-the supposed carjacker-who killed your mom?”

“It seemed pretty impossible,” Mandy said. “But… yeah. I guess I wanted him to pay somehow. A couple of times
the cops thought they’d found the guy, and-” Mandy stopped. She shook her head. “Now I know who killed her, and
I also know he’s dead. It’s like too much information in one day.”

“You gone all numb?” Rae asked.

“Yeah.” Mandy started to nibble on one of her fortune cookie halves, getting crumbs all over the bed. “You think
Aiden will be able to convince Yana that the government guys killed her mother and that your mom had nothing to
do with it?”

Rae let out a long sigh that felt like it started all the way down in her stomach. “I hope so. But it’skind of hard to
believe. The whole thing is hard to believe.”

Mandy sighed, too, a deep sigh that sounded a lot like Rae’s. “I guess there’s no point in telling my sister or my dad
the truth about what happened to my mom.”

“It’s up to you,” Rae answered. “I didn’t tell my dad. I… it’s a pretty hard thing for people to handle. And…” Rae
hesitated, but she wanted to be honest with Mandy. “And I thought if I told him about my powers, he’d want to get
me some kind of help. I was afraid I’d end up in the hospital again or some kind of research facility. That’s not where
I want to spend my life.”

“Me either.” Mandy tossed her partially eaten cookie in the trash. Or toward the trash. She missed, but she didn’t
seem to care. “It’s like our whole lives got stolen. Yours, mine. Even Yana’s.”

Rae reached over and squeezed her shoulder. “Not our whole lives. And even though it’s all kind of twisted,
Mercer did give us something, too. Not that we should be grateful,” she rushed to add. “But there are some things
I’ve done with my fingerprint thing that I feel pretty good about. That’s something, I guess.”

“Yeah.” Mandy yawned again.

“I should call my dad to come pick me up,” Rae said. “You’re falling asleep on me.”

“No, I’m not,” Mandy protested. Then she yawned so wide, her jaw cracked.

“Yes, you are. I’m going to go. But you’re not going to get rid of me for long,” Rae promised. “It’s like, I don’t know,
you’re my honorary little sister now.”

Mandy smiled back at her, and Rae felt some warm fuzzies inside her. And she didn’t even feel the least bit dorky
for it.

Anthony checked the clock in the Hyundai’s dash. “Almost time for the first bell,” he told Rae. He wished there
were hours to go. Days. Sitting here in the private world of the car, breathing in the warm citrusy smell that was part
perfume and part pure Rae, was all he needed to be happy. “You okay with going in there?”

“Because of the mom thing?” Rae asked. Anthony nodded. “After almost eating rat poison, facing down a little
high school gossip is no biggie.”

Anthony suddenly felt like
he’d
been eating rat poison, like it had eaten through his stomach-hot and acidic-and
was starting to work on the rest of his body. “I should have been able to hold out against her,” he muttered. “I
should have-”

“Shut up,” Rae said, her voice gentle. “Nobody could have held up against Yana. Even Aiden isn’t going to let her
regain consciousness until he figuresout some kind of barrier that will keep her from inputting thoughts into his
head.”