"Hell, I can change. I hope so, anyway. But honestly, if I were to see Bill again, I wouldn't just kill him. I'd hold him down with my roots, drive a sharp stick in him every night, and say, 'Hello, Bill. Good job, Bill'—and I'd enjoy it."
Lucy shivered at the cold, hard rage in Mr. K's voice, made so much worse by the fact that she identified with it. Those bastards had tortured him beyond imagining, and instead of helping him, she'd used her powers against him too. What kind of person did that make her?
She walked up to him and hesitated. Finally, she put a hand on Mr. K's trunk, touching him for the first time. Then she leaned in closer and hugged him.
Branches wrapped around her as he did his best to hug her back. "You can change, Lucy, but never pretend you're not yourself. When you pretend, your actions will always be for someone else's benefit, and change will never come."
Chapter 95 – Sam
I sit in the backseat of a car, strapped in tight, and play with my Transformer. It's me, but it's not. The body I wear belongs to the Seeker. Steele sits at the steering wheel, hands clenched tight as he drives.
The boy I embody clutches his—my—blankie close, tears in my eyes. "Daddy, where are we going?"
"To our new home, Son."
"Isn't Mommy coming?" Sadness fills me.
"No."
"Why not? She didn't do anything, Daddy. Is this about the broken vase? I'm the one who did that, not Mommy. Don't blame her."
"No, it's not that. Your mother betrayed me. Betrayed us both."
"How?" I'm confused.
"She had another child, another son." I feel Steele's rage.
"I don't understand, Daddy."
"She had another baby with another man. She loved them more than us."
Stunned, my eyes leak, I—the young Seeker—cry and cry, inconsolable.
"Don't worry, Son. I swear one day I'll get her back."
***
I woke with a start, again unnerved by the Seeker's memories. Steele had been talking about the Seeker's mother... and Drake's mother. He said he'd get her back. Did he find her and kill her? The Seeker had told us that his father killed his mother for betraying him.
And now he wanted Ana. Would he kill her too, after he'd gotten what he wanted? Both Drake and the Seeker had grown up without their mother. Of course, I had too, but then I didn't have a mother at all, only a test tube. That thought made me sick to my stomach, as if I were missing a vital cord to humanity.
Now a mother myself, and I had to protect my baby.
My anger once again flared at having to wait to start the mental interrogations of the mansion's residents, but I had no choice. I tried to sleep, but the green glow of the clock kept me awake.
Finally, morning arrived, and I could begin. Bernard had offered to call everyone into the gym, so I could scan them all at once, but that wouldn't have worked for me. A large group of people in close proximity produced a lot of white noise. Better to hunt them down one by one, when they were less likely to be on guard, which would help me to access what I needed.
Besides, I already knew who was guilty: Mary. I clutched the list of names that Bernard had given me, and went off in search of the bitch who'd made my life hell since that first day of kindergarten, when she dipped my pigtails in green paint and ruined my new dress. She'd denied any involvement last night, but I hadn't scanned her. Now was my chance to prove that she'd taken my daughter, and to find out why and where.
Halfway down the hall, it occurred to me that I had no idea where Mary was staying. She'd arrived during the delivery, and I hadn't seen her since that day she came to my room and held Ana.
Norm darted around the corner, and I flagged him down. "Hey!"
He stopped, shuffled his feet and avoided eye contact. "Hey, Sam, you doing the mind scanning now?"
"Yeah, starting with Mary. Do you know where I can find her?"
"Um, not really. She keeps to herself mostly. Pretty quiet, these days."
"That's a change. Okay, thanks. Where are you heading?"
He perked up. "The new gym. They finally finished it, and it's awesome. It's indoors and attached to the mansion. I'm playing basketball with some of the guys."
"That's cool."
My thoughts stuck on what he'd said about Mary. Back at Rent-A-Kid, she'd roamed the halls looking for prey, and cementing her place as Queen Bee. One time, I'd sat in her seat in the cafeteria by mistake, and she showed up with her posse and bullied me out of it. I didn't do a great job standing up for myself back then, so I'd fled like a scared mouse.
What change had caused Mary to go into hiding, rather than re-establish herself as Her Royal Bitchiness?
Norm cleared his throat nervously. "Um, so, can I go now?"