Slamming up my shield, I pushed on through, my determination to reach Zed far stronger than this counter-instinct. When I broke free, I sensed that I’d tripped some kind of alarm. Lights went on in the house ahead, first upstairs in the bedrooms, then down on the porch.
What was I thinking? I was planning to go knocking on their door in the middle of the night?
This was gun-toting America, not England: I’d probably get shot before they realized who it was.
My certainty that this was a good idea evaporated. I stood irresolutely on the path, considering if I had the energy to turn round and go home.
‘Stop right there. Put your hands up where we can see them.’ A man’s voice—one I didn’t recognize.
I was frozen to the spot—too cold to move, to think.
There came the unmistakable sound of a rifle bolt being slid—something I’d only ever heard in the movies. Images spun: Bugsy Malone—‘come out with your hands up’. I swal owed a hysterical gulp of laughter.
‘Step into the light so we can see you.’
I forced myself to move.
‘And I said ‘‘hands up’’!’
I raised my hands shakily.
‘Trace, it’s Sky!’ Zed burst from the house only to be pul ed back by his arm. His oldest brother, Trace, the policeman from Denver, wasn’t letting him go.
‘It might be a trap,’ Trace warned.
Victor stepped out of the darkness behind me.
He’d circled round to cut me off, gun trained on my back.
‘Let go of me!’ Zed struggled, but Saul joined the blockade.
‘Why aren’t you using telepathy, Sky?’ Saul spoke calmly, for al the world as if it were natural to have a girl turn up in her dressing gown at three in the morning.
I swal owed. There were too many voices in my head already. ‘Can I come in? You said I could come.’
‘Is she alone?’ Trace asked Victor.
‘Seems so.’
‘You ask her, just to make sure.’ Trace lowered the gun. ‘We can’t risk a mistake.’
‘Don’t you touch her, Vick! Leave her alone!’ Zed burst from his brother’s grasp and jumped the steps.
‘Zed!’ shouted Saul.
But too late. Zed reached me and folded me in his arms. ‘Oh baby, you’re freezing!’
‘I … I’m sorry to come like this,’ I murmured.
‘Stop being so damn British about it—you don’t need to apologize. Ssh, it’s fine.’
Saul reached us but didn’t have the heart to separate me from his son. ‘It’s not fine, not until we know why she’s here. She walked right through our security perimeter. She can’t have done that without help. Her powers aren’t that strong.’
Victor eased me away from Zed’s chest and held my eyes with his steely gaze. ‘Tell us why you’re here. Did someone send you?’ He was using his gift, layering his words with a compulsion to answer. I could hear it like a harmony running under the melody. It hurt. ‘Sky, you must tell me.’
‘Stop it, stop it!’ I sobbed, pul ing away from them, stumbling backwards. ‘Get out of my brain, al of you!’ I tripped over, ending up sitting in the snow, head squeezed between my hands.
Zed shoved Victor out of the way and scooped me up in his arms. He was furious. ‘I’m taking her inside and I don’t care what you say. She’s mine—my soulfinder—and you’d better not try and stop me.’
This announcement was met with shock from his brothers, resignation from Saul.
‘Look at her—she’s blue with cold.’ Zed shouldered his way past his family and took me into the kitchen. Xav was there, along with Wil , one of the brothers I was yet to meet properly; they were checking a monitor that had been set up on the kitchen counter.
‘She walked in,’ Wil said. He was running some CCTV coverage of the gate to the cable car compound. ‘No sign of anyone else.’
‘Sky, what are you playing at?’ Xav moved towards me, then spotted my feet. ‘Sheesh, Zed, didn’t you notice she’s bleeding? Put her on the counter.’
Zed held me to him as Xav eased off what was left of my shoes. He closed his eyes and placed his palms on the soles of my feet. I immediately felt a tingling sensation like pins-and-needles and then pain as sensation flowed back into my toes.
Victor dropped his gun on the counter and took out the magazine. ‘Wil , Xav, there’s something little brother’s forgotten to mention.’
Trace shook his head. ‘Yeah, meet his soulfinder.’
Xav’s touch pinched for a second, a jolt in the flow of energy, then he went back to healing.
Wil whistled. ‘No kidding?’
‘That’s what he says.’ Trace glanced at his father, seeking confirmation. Saul nodded.
‘Wel , wha’d’ya know.’ Wil grinned at me, his happiness genuine. ‘Got any older sisters, Sky?’
Zed smiled at him grateful y. ‘Not that she knows—
but we’l try and find out for you.’
‘Don’t forget the rest of us,’ said Trace, his smile a little forced. ‘Some of us are running out of time.’
Saul clasped his son’s shoulder briefly. ‘Patience, son. You’l find her.’
‘You walked here al on your own?’ Zed asked gently while the healing was progressing. ‘Why?’
‘I need help,’ I whispered, wishing I could burrow into his chest and disappear. He was so warm and I was so cold. ‘I needed you.’
Trace and Victor were stil suspicious about my strange arrival. I could feel the waves of emotion flowing off them. Oh God, my gift had switched on again. I’d read the emotions in the warehouse but deadened myself to them ever since; here, in this house of savants, the ability to see people from their feelings came rushing back.
‘I want your brothers to know I’m tel ing the truth.’ I didn’t need to open my eyes to be aware where everyone was. The two older Benedicts hovered protectively by the door into the rest of the house.
Their father’s emotions were mixed—fear, concern for me, and puzzlement. Wil leaned on the counter, glowing with a cheerful spring green. Xav was concentrating on healing my feet, his presence a cool blue of concentration. And Zed, he was glowing with golden love and a purple edge of desperation to do something to help me.
‘You don’t think I’m here because someone sent me to hurt you, do you?’ I murmured, rubbing my cheek against his sweatshirt.
‘No, baby,’ he replied, nuzzling my hair.
‘Your dad said I could come.’
‘I know.’
Saul picked up the phone lying on the table.
‘What’s her number?’ he asked.
I’d forgotten al about my parents. ‘They don’t know I’m gone.’
‘Better to wake them up to tel them you’re safe than to let them discover your empty bed and worry.’
Zed reeled off the number and Saul had a quick conversation with Simon. I knew they would want to jump in the car and fetch me, but I didn’t want that after having come al this way.
‘I want to stay,’ I whispered. Then I found a stronger voice. ‘I want to stay.’
Saul glanced at me and nodded. ‘Yes, Simon, she’s OK, a little cold but we’re looking after her.
She’s sure she wants to stay. Why not come and col ect her after breakfast? No point turning out in the middle of the night when there’s no need. Yep, wil do.’ He put the phone down. ‘He’l drive over in the morning. He says that you were to get some rest and not worry.’
‘Am I grounded again?’
Zed ruffled the hair at the back of my neck.
‘He didn’t mention that.’ Saul smiled.
‘I bet I am.’
‘Until you’re fifty,’ said Zed.
‘I thought as much.’
Xav let go of my feet. ‘I’ve done what I can for your soulfinder.’ He used the term with relish. ‘She needs to keep warm and sleep it off now. The cuts are pretty much healed.’