Hunted Read Free

clench my teeth against the acid rising in my throat.
    I feel Mom’s warm hand on my forehead, hear her voice in the distance, and then feel the car jerk to a stop.
    “No! Keep going!” I mumble.
    The car jerks forward.
    Pain rips through me again with jagged teeth, but it’s lessening the farther away we get. Dad used to worry about how strong my talents are, even though he was proud—and I know he was right to worry. Someday I’m not going to be able to hide my connection well enough, or get away fast enough, and then I’ll be like that poor Para-slave getting tortured.
    I rub my face with my hands. I can’t feel guilty for what happened to her. I have the right to stay free. Me and my mom both do. But guilt twists through my stomach.
    I stare out the window. We drive past nightclubs, liquor stores, tattoo parlors. A storefront church crouches next to an exotic dance club, and more than one store advertises
    “free” payday loans. Some of the stores have anti-Para flags in their windows.
    Mom flexes and unflexes her fingers against the steering wheel, a sheen of sweat on her forehead. She glances over at me. “You doing okay, hon?”
    I nod.
    She reaches past me and pops open the glove compartment, grabs a bottle of painkillers, and hands it to me without taking her gaze off the road. “Take two,” she orders.
    I swallow them dry.
    19
    Cheryl Rainfield
    I don’t hear sirens behind us. The Government Para is faint now. I think we’ve lost them.
    “They knew you were coming!” John sends, his mind-voice rough with emotion. “I don’t know how they could, but— Are you safe?”
    “For now.” I rake my fingers through my hair. I don’t want to think about it. It has to mean that one of the Underground Normals betrayed us. It hurts to think that, though. They may be Normals, but they’re part of our cause. Part of our safety net. “Someone must have tipped them off.”
    “I know,” John sends. “We’ve got a rat in the system.
    I’ll hunt down whoever did this and fix them good—I promise.” His sadness rises up over his fear, washing through me like a wave. “It’s hard to believe anyone we know could do this. Even a Normal. Listen, don’t go to the safe house; it might be watched.”
    Du-uh. “I know how to do this.”
    “I know; you’ve eluded them for years. But be careful anyway. There’s a lot of weirdness going on.” I grunt. “You’re right.”
    “And don’t reach out to any of your contacts until I find out who the rat is, okay?” I want to snap at him that I’ve been managing just fine for years—but the fear in his mind-voice grips me tight.
    “Okay.”
    “Promise me. You know what those Para-hunters are like. Once they’re on your trail, they’ll never give up.”
    “I promise.”
    “Keep safe,” John sends.
    20
    HUNTED
    “Keep strong,” I reply, the formal closing coming easily to me. We disconnect.
    Mom’s edging our car slowly down the road, craning her neck to peer out at the shabby buildings. “I take it our plans fell through.”
    I nod, lock my fingers together. “They were waiting for us.”
    “Waiting.” Mom’s voice is weary, an old woman’s.
    “Caitlyn—can you hear me? Let me know if you be okay. You should have checked in by now,” Netta thinks at me worriedly, loud for a Normal. She’s the contact John found me in this city, one that will lead us to a safe house.
    I grip my hands between my knees and block her out, forcing myself not to respond. It could have been Netta, even though we only just connected. Or someone else she works with. I don’t know who betrayed us, but it had to be a Normal. No Para could have done this without my knowing. The thoughts and emotions would have leaked through.
    Mom turns the corner, our old car rattling. The houses and buildings on this street all look dingy, with peeling paint, shingles missing from the rooftops, fences leaning sideways. A motel hunches on the corner, half the lights are burned out on