The Cure by Teyla Branton Read Free Book Online

thirty-four. It can occur a few years earlier or later, but there were only a few documented cases.
    One was my ex-boyfriend, Tom Carver.
    “Well?” Jace pressed, one hand flipping back his white blond hair, now a tad too long. “Gaven called to say it was Hunters and to ask Ava what to do with them. Was there a fight?”
    Poor Jace. He was young, full of testosterone, newly Unbounded, and already a better fighter than any of us except Ritter, yet no one dared let him off his chain quite yet. I loved my brother with a full-hearted devotion, but I was glad Ava hadn’t sent him as my backup. Although he probably would have dispatched the Hunters with ease, he’d never been proven in a fight and it was hard to know exactly how he’d react. Even during his time in the army, he’d never encountered live combat, and if I’d been facing Emporium Unbounded, his eagerness and lack of experience might have endangered us both. Losing him to the Emporium wasn’t a risk I ever wanted to take, especially when I still hadn’t discovered the identity of his birth father. I had my suspicions, of course, rooted in the Emporium itself. Every time he smiled at me like he was doing now, it brought another face to mind—the face of a man who would have snuffed either of us out without a second thought.
    I smiled at Jace. “Yes, there was a fight, but a bitty one. Hardly worth the effort.”
    “What?” Mari said next to me where she stood searching the new faces. “It was horrible! There were two guys, and they tried to . . . and then Erin starting punching and kicking . . .” Her voice trailed off.
    Jace’s eyes went past me to Mari. “Rats, I missed all the fun!”
    His grin seemed to put Mari off-balance and she stared at the ground in silence.
    “Mari,” I said, “this is my brother, Jace Radkey. And that’s Ava O’Hare. She’s what we call the boss.”
    “Or mother,” Jace added.
    Ava was standing now. “Welcome, Mari. It’s good to meet you.”
    Mari seemed helpless to answer, but everyone pretended she had.
    “And you know Stella,” I continued, “but she’s rather busy right now. She’s processing too much information at the moment to notice us, but she’ll come around in a minute. Next to her is your cousin, Oliver Parkin.”
    As I spoke, Oliver tossed down his headset with a grunt of disgust. So, not a technopath. Whatever his ability finally turned out to be, I hoped it was something useful. He certainly hadn’t shown much skill during our training sessions since Stella had brought him in. His confession about his Change to his girlfriend hadn’t helped matters, and she’d gone screaming from his apartment, threatening to call the police. Ava and I’d been forced to masquerade as policewomen to get into her apartment so we could drug her and remove the memory from her unconscious mind.
    “Hey, cuz,” Oliver said. “Glad you’re here.”
    Mari gave a nearly imperceptible smile. A good sign, I hoped.
    I looked at Ava, my thoughts turning to Mexico. “Was it the compound?”
    Located in the Mexican rainforest, the compound was where we kept Emporium prisoners, trying to rehabilitate them, if possible, or making them stand trial for their atrocities. Neither the location nor the process was ideal, but we Renegades were forced to do whatever it took to ensure the safety of the mortal population were trying to protect.
    Ava’s gray eyes, so like my own, stared back at me somberly. “Not the compound. They hit the research facility. Two days ago, actually. We only got word this morning.”
    Ice dripped into my veins. No wonder Stella was absorbed by her computers and monitors, in so deep that she couldn’t break away—not even to say hello to her great-niece. She’d pinned all her hopes on the research facility. I glanced at her again and noticed that under the headpiece, her olive skin was more pale than usual, and there was an enhanced tightness around her mouth.
    I shifted my gaze back at Ava.