Terry’s voice was high and cheerful. Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey!

  Ruddy groaned and blinked.

  Hey! Dummy! Get up.

  “Shut up!”

  The sun through the window felt like two daggers stabbing into Ruddy’s eyeballs. He slumped in the kitchen chair where he’d passed out. Loud snores emanated from a lumpy shape under the covers on the couch across the room. That must be George.

  No rest for drunken idiots, Terry said. Sun’s up and you’ve wasted enough time.

  “I can’t move,” Ruddy said.

  You can’t heal from a hangover? Most worthless changeling ever.

  I don’t know how, Ruddy said. Then he realized he did. A few seconds and a brief surge of power and not only was his headache gone, he felt like he’d gotten a good night’s sleep.

  Wow, Terry said. That’s better than I expected.

  “Changeling power!” he shouted.

  George groaned from the couch. “What the hell man, it’s like six in the morning. We just got to sleep!”

  “Wakey wakey!” Ruddy said.

  A shoe picked itself off the floor and launched itself at Ruddy. He swatted it aside.

  “Ha!” Ruddy said. “Denied!”

  “I hate you,” George said, his voice muffled by the pillow over his face.

  “Come on, let’s find Corey,” Ruddy said. “He’ll cure your hangover.”

  George grumbled and threw the covers off. “Fine,” he slurred. “Hold on. I gotta get a few things packed.” He wrinkled his nose. “And you need a shower, man.”

  *

  The sun rose over the mountains. Rodrigues clenched and unclenched the larger muscles in his legs to keep his blood circulating.

  Daniels and the other man sat on the porch drinking coffee. Surges of power from the other cabin told him that Unglesby and the other teke were awake, but there was still no trace of Darby.

  In the daylight Rodrigues could get a much better look at his quarry. Daniels finished his coffee and loaded boxes into a truck while his companion, a heavily tattooed biker type, stood watch with an assault rifle.

  That must be the healer from the briefing. Something nagged at his memory.

  Wait a minute … tattoos, the build … that’s Corey Thorne!

  Rodrigues hadn’t worked on the Thorne case, but every agent knew about it. It was in the days before DSSA, when the FBI oversaw afflicted. They’d captured Thorne and a mentalist named Alexi Hart. The interrogation ended with Hart losing her shit and killing every agent in the building. Corey was the only person who escaped. The incident led to a whole new protocol for dealing with afflicted.

  This was a complication Rodrigues didn’t need. Healers were top priority for DSSA capture, but Rodrigues’ mission from the Eagle was to take out Teri Darby at all costs. Corey Thorne wasn’t just a healer - he was former Special Ops. He’d served in the first Iraq War, earning several medals, and he’d been his unit’s top marksman.

  Fuck me seven ways, Rodrigues thought. He clenched his teeth and centered his scope.

  Something nagged at him. Daniels was hauling boxes one by one from the cabin to the truck, struggling with the heavier ones. He never once reached for his power.

  Tekes just didn’t do that. DSSA was full of low-powered, out-of-shape tekes who wouldn’t deign to lean forward to grab their coffee when they could float it to their hand, but here was a guy who could probably pick up a house and move it across the street doing manual labor.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  He doesn’t have anyone to hide his powers. Maybe Darby is in even worse shape than I thought.

  Rodrigues tracked Corey in his scope as he made his way to the vehicle. Corey pulled something out of the car and he and Daniels both studied it.

  A map, Rodrigues thought. Looks like they’ll be leaving soon.

  He centered his rifle on the map. Where the fuck is Darby?

  “I guess that’s it,” Xeke said. He closed the tailgate.

  Corey let out a string of expletives as he failed to fold the map right for the third time in a row. He jerked the map open again and started over.

  “...and where the hell is Ruddy?” Corey said, still rattling the map.

  “He’s at George’s house,” Xeke said. “They stayed up all night drinking. He needed to blow off some steam.”

  Corey gritted his teeth. “We need to be on the road, right now.”

  “Believe me, it’s for the best,” Xeke said. “The only thing more dangerous than getting caught by DSSA would be getting in a car with Ruddy in the mood he was in last night.”

  Corey muttered something about babysitting and started over with the map folding.

  “You look like shit,” Xeke said. “You’ve been pushing yourself too hard.”

  “That’s funny coming from you,” Corey said. He glared at Xeke for a moment, then dropped his eyes.

  Xeke shook his head. “I could have made it another couple of days without you healing me. You need rest.”

  “No.” Corey crumpled the map in his fist. “I’m the one who decided to play country doctor to this whole goddamned town. I shouldn’t have expended all my energy healing people who don’t matter to the mission. I couldn’t see the forest for the trees, and now Teri or Teresa or whoever the fuck she is, is gone. Goddammit, I should have been smarter. I need to be smarter.”

  “You wouldn’t be the person you are if you let people suffer,” Xeke said. “Here. Let me help you.” He took the map from Corey, folded it, and handed it back. “I really appreciate what you did for me, now let me help you. We can get Ruddy through this. And maybe Ruddy’s right - once Teresa’s had a chance to cool down, she’ll be more forgiving.”

  “I doubt it,” Corey said. “She’s not the Teri we knew. This new dominant personality is nothing but anger and survival.”

  “I don’t think that’s true,” Xeke said. “I can still feel her through this link we have. Parts of Teri are still there, or at least the friendship she had with us. It’s going to take a while for her to forgive us - it may be even longer before she forgives Ruddy - but it’s not hopeless. We’ll be fine once we get to … where are we going again?”

  Corey gave him a look as he put the map into a bag, along with a wad of cash. He reached through the open window and put the bag into the glove box. “Nice try. I’m not telling you where we’re going.”

  Is Darby already in the truck? Rodrigues thought. Could I have missed her in the dark?

  He had to know one way or the other if Darby was in Cloudcroft before they were gone. If Unglesby and the other teke joined them, he’d be even more outnumbered than he already was.

  Rodrigues adjusted his scope one last time. Fuck it, he thought. Time to kick the anthill.

  Xeke leaned against the truck. “If I’m going to drive, you’re going to have to tell me where we’re going sooner or later.”

  “Turn north when we get to 54.” Corey said. “I’ll tell you which way to go when we hit the interstate.”

  “I don’t like not knowing where we’re going. You need to be sleeping, not navigating.”

  “I’ll be fine, Xeke.”

  “What if something happens to you?”

  “Goddammit, nothing’s going to happen to me.”

  Xeke shook his head. “Jesus. I thought Ruddy was the stubborn one.”

  “If you want to argue, let’s do it on the road.”

  “Fine.”

  Ruddy, Xeke said. Come on. We have to go.

  Give us ten minutes, Ruddy said. I’m in the shower.

  Corey reached for the door handle. “I’ll …”

  A rifle shot rang out. The side window turned into a broken glass mosaic. Corey’s head ripped sideways. His body went limp.

  Xeke felt moisture on his face. He looked down. He was covered in blood spatter.

  He tried to put a shield around himself. Nothing happened. Something blocked his power.

  Xeke went cold. It’s DSSA. They’ve found us.

  Xeke kept his body low and opened the door. He reached across to put the key in the ignition. The truck started. He reached up to put it in drive.

  Pop. The front passenger tire exploded.

  Bullets whacked into the hood. Pop pop pop! The sporadic thumps switched to short bursts of machine-gun patter.

  Ruddy! There was no answer.

  More windows exploded. Glass rained down. The engine shrieked and died.

  Xeke huddled down and tried to focus. He reached through his link with Ruddy and Teresa. It was a dead end.

  He recognized the feeling. It was exactly like when Richard had Teri. A damper, he thought. His heart pounded and his hands shook.

  He couldn’t even warn Ruddy.

  Get it together, Xeke thought. He slammed his palm into the release for the glove box and grabbed Corey’s bag. Another window exploded. The bullet came so close it yanked at the sleeve of his coat.

  Xeke yelled and crawled backwards as fast as he could until he was out of the truck. He crouched behind it. He tried his powers again, but nothing happened. Corey’s rifle lay in the open just a few feet away, but it might as well be on the moon.

  The shots were coming from the tower atop The Lodge. Xeke half crawled, half rolled away, keeping the truck between him and the building. If he could just get to the side of the road, there was a steep downward slope with tree cover. He pushed himself to his feet, zigging and zagging as much as he dared.

  *

  Rodrigues centered his scope as Daniels left cover at a sprint. The teke tried to put a shield around himself as he ran.

  Bad call, kid, Rodrigues thought. He damped the shield and fired.

  Daniels went down.