drake

I can't live without the sun shining down on my face, and I can't dream without the stars kissing me goodnight.

More than two dozen kids lined a low railing around the gazebo. They were all tied to it by a rope leash that gave them no more than a few feet of movement. Neck to rail, like tethered horses. Each of the kids was weighed down by a concrete block that encased their hands. Their eyes were hollow, their cheeks caved in.Astrid used a word that Sam had never imagined coming from her.__ice language,_ Drake said with a smirk. __nd in front of the Pe-tard, too.__ cafeteria tray had been placed in front of each of the prisoners. It must have been a very recent delivery because some were still licking their trays, hunched over, faces down, tongues out, licking like dogs.__t__ the circle of freaks,_ Drake said proudly, waving a hand like a showman.In a crusty old wheelbarrow to one side, three kids were using a short-handled shovel to mix cement. It made a heavy sloshing sound. They dumped a shovelful of gravel into the mix and stirred it like lumpy gravy.__h, no,_ Lana said, backing away, but one of the Coates kids smashed her behind the knee with his baseball bat, and she crumpled.__otta do something with unhelpful freaks,_ Drake said. __an__ have you people running around loose._ He must have seen Sam start to react because he stuck his gun against Astrid__ head. __our call, Sam. You so much as flinch and we__l get to see what a genius brain really looks like.___ey, I got no powers, man,_ Quinn said.__his is sick, Drake. Like you__e sick,_ Astrid said. __ can__ even reason with you because you__e just too damaged, too hopelessly messed up.___hut up.

He didn__ mind Drake so much. Drake was a creep.It was the girl who made Orc want to cry.She was a monster. Like Orc. Begging for death. Begging for someone to let her go to her Jesus.Kill me, kill me, kill me, she begged every day and every night.Orc took a deep swig.Tears seeped from his human eyes and fell into the rocky crevices of his face.

Has Orc shown up here?_ But neither Caine nor Diana answered. Both were staring at Drake, who sauntered toward them, all his cockiness restored, no longer the ragged scarecrow who had wept when he saw the melted stump of his hand lying on the tile floor. __rake,_ Caine said. __e thought you were dead._____ back,_ Drake said. __nd better than ever.__he red tentacle unwrapped itself from around his waist, like a python releasing its victim.__ike it, Diana?_ Drake asked.The arm, that impossible bloodred snake, coiled above Drake__ head, swirled, writhed. And then, so fast that the human eye could barely register the movement, it snapped like a bullwhip.The sound was a loud crack. A mini__onic boom.Diana cried out in pain. Stunned, she stared at the cut in her blouse and the trickle of red from her shoulder.__orry,_ Drake said with no attempt at sincerity. ____ still working on my aim.___rake,_ Caine said and, despite the blood, despite Diana__ wound, he grinned. __elcome back.___ brought some help,_ Drake said. He extended his left hand, and Caine shook it awkwardly with his right. __o. When do we go take down Sam Temple?

Rolling flat onto his back, Drake shuddered. Then he inhaled deeply. He stared up at the night sky. "We're going to win," he said, his voice calmer, less strained. "This is nothing. Keep going. They can't stop us. Jason, give Rachel the necklace. Tell her . . . tell her I'm sorry. Tell her . . . I wanted . . . to show her . . . my little valley. Tell her I tried."His voice was growing weak. Farfalee smoothed a hand over his brow. "Shhh," she whispered. "Be still, Drake. You can rest now. You did it. Rest. We'll take it from here.""Failie," he whispered, his hand twitching toward the back of his neck with little jerks. "Where's my seed?" His head tipped sideways. The breath went out of him.

Drake's whip hand spun Diana like a top.She cried out. That sound, her cry, pierced Caine like an arrow.Diana staggered and almost righted herself, but Drake was too quick, too ready.His second strike yanked her through the air. She flew and then fell.__atch her!_ Caine was yelling to himself. Seeing her arc as she fell. Seeing where she would hit. His hands came up, he could use his power, he could catch her, save her. But too slow.Diana fell. Her head smashed against a jutting point of rock. She made a sound like a dropped pumpkin.Caine froze.The fuel rod, forgotten, fell from the air with a shattering crash.It fell within ten feet of the mine shaft opening. It landed atop a boulder shaped like the prow of a ship.It bent, cracked, rolled off the boulder, and crashed heavily in the dirt.Drake ran straight at Caine, his whip snapping. But Jack stumbled in between them, yelling, __he uranium! The uranium!__he radiation meter in his pocket was counting clicks so fast, it became a scream.Drake piled into Jack, and the two of them went tumbling.Caine stood, staring in horror at Diana. Diana did not move. Did not move. No snarky remark. No smart-ass joke.__o!_ Caine cried.__o!__rake was up, disentangling himself with an angry curse from Jack.__iana,_ Caine sobbed.Drake didn__ rely on his whip hand now, too far away to use it before Caine could take him down. He raised his gun. The barrel shot flame and slugs, BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM.Inaccurate, but on full automatic, Drake had time. He swung the gun to his right and the bullets swooped toward where Caine stood like he was made of stone.Then the muzzle flash disappeared in an explosion of green-white light that turned night into day. The shaft of light missed its target. But it was close enough that the muzzle of Drake__ gun wilted and drooped and the rocks behind Drake cracked from the blast of heat.Drake dropped the gun. And now it was Drake__ turn to stare in stark amazement. __ou!__am wobbled atop the rise. Quinn caught him as he staggered.Now Caine snapped back to the present, seeing his brother, seeing the killing light.__o,_ Caine said. __o, Sam: He__ mine.__e raised a hand, and Sam went flying backward along with Quinn.__he fuel rod!_ Jack was yelling, over and over. __t__ going to kill us all. Oh, God, we may already be dead!__rake rushed at Caine. His eyes were wide with fear. Knowing he wouldn__ make it. Knowing he was not fast enough.Caine raised his hand, and the fuel rod seemed to jump off the ground.A javelin.A spear. He held it poised. Pointed straight at Drake.Caine reached with his other hand, extending the telekinetic power to hold Drake immobilized.Drake held up his human hand, a placating gesture. __aine_you don__ want to_not over some girl. She was a witch, she was__rake, unable to run, a human target. The fuel rod aimed at him like a Spartan__ spear.Caine threw the fuel rod. Tons of steel and lead and uranium.Straight at Drake.

Find Sam Temple. Tell him you escaped.__ack gulped and bobbed his head.__etter yet, find that girl, Astrid._ Diana recovered some of her mocking attitude. __strid the Genius. She__l be desperate to save Sam.___kay. Okay._ He steeled himself. __ better go.__iana touched his arm. __ell them about Andrew.__ack froze with his hand on the key. __hat__ what you want me to do?___ack, if Sam blinks out, Drake will turn on me, and Caine won__ be able to stop him. Drake is stronger than before. I need Sam alive. I need someone for Drake to hate. I need balance. Tell Sam about the temptation. Warn him that he__l be tempted to surrender to the big jump, but maybe, maybe, if he says no_ She sighed. It was not a hopeful sound. __ow: go.

Very possibly this was the night my white-knight complex, as Solange put it, would get me killed. Someone had better write a poem about it. It was only fair.