“Like Graham?” Kendra smiled. “He’ll be fine. He thinks he’s all cool and hiding things from me, but I know he’s passed up a lot of better-paying jobs because he’s too loyal to me and the show, and he’s already been trying to push me to move on for my own good. It’ll be the best for both of us to move on. I can take a step back from the fame and concentrate on the athletics. Once you all finish off Ouroboros, if I want to go back to the show I can, but a break for now.” She rubbed her hands together and grinned. “I look forward to thinking up crazy obstacles that can challenge hybrids.”
CJ leaned in and kissed her forehead. “All my life I’ve been searching for you.”
“Me, too.”
“I never want to let you go.”
Kendra wrapped her arms around his neck. “Then don’t.” She kissed him again. “You went through all the trouble of developing a superpower to save me. It’d be dumb to let me go now.”
* * *
Two days later, CJ and Julius stood in Maximus’s office on Port Winter Island. Kendra had accompanied them back to the island, and a squad including CJ, planned to accompany her when they packed up her things at her place in a few weeks. Maximus had already set up arrangements to move around her cargo after that without too much trouble.
CJ could scarcely believe his luck. His Vestal would soon live with him, though he also kept worrying about what insane obstacles she’d inflict on the men.
Maximus cleared his throat. “I just wanted to key you into the aftermath in case you missed in on the news. Ouroboros is now a national name.”
The news surprised CJ. He hadn’t been paying attention to anything but Kendra since coming back.
Julius’s brow lifted. “It is?”
Maximus nodded. “The feds are taking control of the investigation. The guards were hired muscle, paid well to look the other way, but the survivors don’t know anything useful, and the government isn’t messing around. They’re describing Ouroboros as a terrorist organization. I don’t think they were happy with them poking around thousands of people at a major public event.”
CJ shrugged. “Then we don’t have to do much, right? Let the government clean it up, and we can live our lives.”
Maximus shook his head. “They’ll help more on the back end of things, but I think it’s still best we take primary point on this. All it takes is one government official who decides Ouroboros has the right idea to make our lives hell.”
“We lost a Vestal,” Julius said with a frown.
CJ looked his way, surprised he cared given how much he’d mocked the idea of Vestals. “Could they at least ID her?”
“We have a name, Sophia Winston,” Maximus replied. “But she fell off the radar after the event. The government is looking for her, but there’s not much we can do on that front that they can’t do better. Just because she’s a Vestal doesn’t mean she’s going to live with hybrids either.”
“But I think she was being mind-controlled just like Kendra,” CJ said with a shrug. “I talked a lot about it with Kendra on the way back. The only hope it sounds like for a Vestal to break the mind control is to be bonded, and there’s no way they’re going to let us get closer to her.”
Maximus looked down with a frown. “The feds are looking into the collar they found in the gym, but they don’t understand much about the technology. It’s more complicated and targeted than some of what the Group pulled off. The other devices you spotted were mostly just sensor and camera packages to record data about the obstacle runs, but a few of them have the government stumped. For now, the only thing we can do is hope we find her again and free her from their control.”
“That Helen woman also claimed to be a Vestal.” CJ sucked in a breath. “Sophia could end up like her.”
“If they’re mind-controlling her, that means they don’t think she’ll buy what they’re selling,” Julius said. “Helen wasn’t under control. She was calling the shots.”
“Exactly.” Maximus gave a nod. “We’ll do the same thing we always do, look for the enemy, and save people from them. I don’t care what crazy plan Ouroboros has and what weird agents they send after us. We’ll win as long as we watch each other’s backs.”
CJ rubbed his chin. “These NextGens are a headache. I hoped they’d all be like Quinen, but if they’re all unique, it’s going to make it harder to deal with them. We never know what we might be facing. How do you kill someone you can’t shoot?”
Julius shrugged. “Probably the same way you beat Michael, by distracting them.”
“I’m just lucky I had my VPA,” CJ replied.
Julius and Maximus both stared at him, but it was the former who voiced their mutual question. “What’s a VPA?”
CJ grinned. “Vestal Protection Ability. Just thought of it.”
Maximus chuckled. “Funny.” He nodded toward the door. “Julius, I’d like to speak with CJ alone for a bit. I’ve shared everything else you both needed to know for the moment.”
“No problem.” Julius nodded to both men. “Just so you know, I’m considering this a win. We stopped them from capturing another Vestal, and we took down one of their NextGens, and they told us they don’t have a lot. Plus, we know more about them now. The more we learn, the easier the final battle will be.” With that, he stepped out of the room and closed the door behind him.
CJ turned back to Maximus. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Is Kendra sure about living on the island?” Maximus asked. “I’d authorize visits if she didn’t want to and preferred to stay
