know what time it was, that I realized no one else had a watch or cell phone.
We were well and truly cut off.
Bethany and Rick went upstairs, probably to have sex again, and the rest of us migrated to our respective sleeping places. I hoped Sasha brought good news with her tomorrow—like news that I was going home. The kids were pretty cool, and roughing it was an experience all its own, but I was bored out of my fucking skull.
Boredom I wasn’t prepared to alleviate with the fight that landed in our laps when—just as I was dozing off—Sledgehammer burst through the tenement’s front door.
Nineteen
Thanks to Tate’s choice to claim the area near the front door as his sleeping spot, Sledgehammer tripped over the blanket-wrapped boy and face-planted in the middle of his own small pile of wood shards and debris. The bottles of water on the stairs cracked and exploded. Balls of ice shot around the room like marbles, slamming into the plaster and wood molding. Nicolas shouted. Tate rolled out of the doorway as a blur burst inside and made invisible tracks upstairs.
Bethany was up there.
“Everyone outside!” I yelled. At least three of the four identified clones were here, and close quarters for a fight was a bad idea. We hadn’t seen her since the fight in Los Angeles, but the ice balls suggested the clone of Black Ice was out and about, and Jasper had already raced upstairs.
Glass shattered above us, followed by a heavy thud. Bethany screamed. A man, probably Rick, shouted for help.
Barry grew to about eight feet, the maximum he could manage indoors without stooping. With a snarl, he charged Sledgehammer and sent them both through the thin wall into the kitchen. More ice balls flew around. I ducked one that was on a collision course with my face. Three slammed into Tate’s shoulder with enough force to knock him down. Blood streamed from the wounds, and he stared at them, so stunned that I stumbled across the room to help him before he got killed.
Nicolas charged through the front door, carrying a blast of wind from his wings outside with him. A woman screamed, and I hoped it was Black Ice getting her ass hammered by a pissed-off teenager with wings. The building creaked and groaned. Rick stumbled down the stairs, blood leaking from the side of his face. He tripped halfway down.
“Where’s Bethany?” I asked as I gave Tate a shove toward the front door. We had to get our asses outdoors before our powers collapsed the house on top of us.
Rick shook his head—either he didn’t know or he didn’t understand the question. I caught him before he fell off the bottom step. He twisted hard and we hit the floor anyway. In time for a big wad of ice to crash into the banister where my head had been. He raised his right hand and threw a blue firework out into the front yard.
“Where’s Bethany?” I asked again. She was the only one I’d lost track of. They weren’t mine, but I was the oldest and the most experienced. I had to keep them safe and I couldn’t do that if I didn’t know where the hell they were.
“Outside,” Rick replied. The horror in his eyes told me enough about how she’d ended up outside— unwillingly.
“Front or back?”
“Back.”
“Come on.”
We got to our feet and stumbled through the destroyed kitchen. Barry and Sledgehammer weren’t there, but a huge hole next to the back door was better than a flashing neon arrow. The tall grass in the backyard was nearly flattened, and Barry lay near the steps in a pile of debris. He’d shrunk back to normal size and wasn’t moving. Sledgehammer’s back was to us, his massive body bent over something that he was pounding away at with his fists.
Rick snarled and sent three fireworks that hit between his shoulder blades. Sledgehammer hollered and cursed, and then Rick went flying sideways. The blur of color and snap of wind said Jasper even before the clone slowed enough for me to make him out.
I had no weapons. I had no plan. But I did have five kids who, despite my better judgment, I kind of liked and wanted to protect from these bastards of science trying to hurt them.
My Flex powers still worked somewhat in my left hand, and without really thinking about it I reached for Jasper. He was close enough for me to wrap my wrist around his neck twice and squeeze the fuck out of him. He jerked and tried to dislodge, but I held on like a fucking tick, fast and hard, and he dropped to his knees, his cheeks going bright red.
“You son of a bitch,” I said. The house rattled behind me, and more shouting came from out front.
“Let him go, Flex.”
The voice startled me. I hadn’t heard it since last month on the roof of our old HQ, and before that, it had been fifteen years. The clone of Hinder, Teresa’s father, stepped through the bent gate into the backyard. He stopped next to Sledgehammer, who was stunned from Rick’s shots.
Instead of complying, I yanked Jasper closer to me, reveling in Flex powers being useful in a fight for a change. I tried to take in my surroundings without actually breaking eye contact—a trick Teresa was really good at and I was still practicing. Rick and Barry were both down. Jasper was on his knees now, his face going purple. Somewhere in the house or out front, Tate and Nicolas were occupied with Black Ice.
“We aren’t here to kill you, Flex, or the two boys at your feet,” Hinder said. “Don’t force me to go against my orders.”
“Like the orders you assholes were following on the turnpike on Sunday?” I shot back.
“That was a message. This is the follow-through. Let him go.”
“I think I want to keep him.”
“You know I won’t allow that.”
Damn, he’d moved closer without my even realizing it. He was in the middle of the yard now, halfway between me and Sledgehammer. Hinder was strong, with a nearly invulnerable exterior and incredibly good reflexes. A hit from him would seriously hurt.
“Another step, and we see if purple is the only color your boy here can turn,” I said.
Hinder’s face went deadly furious, almost feral. “Make me count to three and I will ensure every person you care about dies slowly and painfully, preferably at the mercy of my bare hands.”
He wasn’t kidding, and that fact tore through me like a ripple of ice water. I hated letting the clones go, but we were outmatched tonight. The kids I’d spent the day with had incredible powers but no real training to use them in a fight, or as a group. We all had to live for them to get that training so they could kick serious ass next time.
We’d encounter the clones again, I had no doubt.
“I let him go and you guys leave,” I said. “No more hits, no more powers, you just leave.”
“We leave,” Hinder said.
I unwrapped my wrist from Jasper’s neck. He pitched forward with a raspy wheeze. Then Hinder—the deceiving bastard—was in my face. Rather, his fist was in my face and I was eating grass.
The world spun around a little. Voices helped me focus. Someone shook my shoulder and I blinked up at Nicolas. His nose was bleeding and he had a couple of bruises forming on his face and throat. “How’d we do?” I asked.
He shook his head, a little glassy-eyed, shock starting to set in. “Everyone’s right here except Bethany.”
I sat up and blinked at the shadowed yard. Tate was helping Rick and Barry. My heart seized when I remembered Sledgehammer pounding something I couldn’t see. I looked up, and sure enough a window on the second floor was busted out completely. I lurched to my feet and stumbled across the yard.
“Oh, shit.”
Bethany’s eyes were open, but I wasn’t immediately sure she was still alive. Her face was coated with blood
