Gone (Gone #1)(114)

She supposed she liked him. They had been attracted to each other almost from the start. They had been friends . -. no, that wasn't quite the word. Accomplices. Yes> that would do: accomplices. They had been accomplices since Caine first discovered his powers.

She had been the first person he showed. He had knocked a book off the table from across the room.

She'd been the one who encouraged him to work at it, develop it, practice it in secret. Each time he reached some new level, he would show it off for her. And when she showed even the slightest kindness toward him, a word of praise, an admiring nod,even,he wou!d puff up and seem to shine with some reflected light.

It took so little to manipulate him, It didn't require real affection, just the hint of it.

Diana would task Caine to use his power to trip some snob she didn't like, or humiliate some teacher who had come down on her. And when she reported to Caine that the science teacher had cornered her in an empty lab and tried to (eel her up, Caine sent him sprawling down a set of steps and into the hospital

Diana enjoyed that time. She had a protector who would do her bidding and ask nothing in return. Caine, despite his oversized ego, his looks, his charm, was terribly awkward with girls. He had never even tried to kiss her

But then he had attracted the attention of Drake Merwin, who had already acquired a reputation as the most dangerous bully in a school with plenty of bullies to go around. And from that point on, Caine had played them off against each other, doing a little for Diana when she asked, and alitile with Drake.

As Caine's powers grew, both relationships changed.

And then the school nurse, Sam's mother—Caine's mother too, though none of them knew that then—started to figure out that something was very, very strange about her long-lost little boy.

The bricks collapsed suddenly, a series of thuds as they hit the lawn, and a series of groans aid curses from Chaz and Mallet,

Caine seemed almost not to notice. "What do you think it was, Diana?" he said, almost as if he'd read her thoughts.

"I think they didn't set them straight enough, she replied, knowing that wasn't what he meant.

"Not that. Her. Nurse Temple* He repeated the name, drawing it out to get the feel of it. 'Nurse. Connie. Temple."

Diana sighed. This was not a conversation she wanted to have. "I didn't really know the woman."

"She has two sons. One she keeps. The other she gives up for adoption, I was a baby"

"Pm not a shrink" Diana said

"I always had the feeling, you know? That my family wasn't my real family. They never said I was adopted, but my mother—well, the woman I thought was my mother, I don't know what to call her now. Anyway, her, she never talked about having me. You know, you hear moms talking about going into labor and all. She never talked about that"

"Too bad Dr. Phil's not arovnd. You could tell him all about it,"

"I think she must have been pretty cold. Nurse Temple. My so-called mother" He was looking at Diana now, head cocked, frowning, skeptical. "Kind of like you, Diana."

Diana made a rude sound, "Don't try to get deep, Caine. She was probably just a screwed-up teenager at the time. Maybe she figured she could handle one kid but not two. Or maybe she tried to adopt both of you out. but no one would take Sam."

Caine was taken aback. "Are you sucking up to me with that?"

"I'm trying to get you to move on. Who cares about your mommy issues? We have enough food for two, maybe three weeks. Then we're down to beans"

"See what i mean? I'll bet she was just like you, Diana. Cold and selfish."

Diana was about to answer when she heard a rushing sound behind hen She spun and saw a wave, a swarm of rough, shaggy yellow beasts. The coyotes seemed to come from everywhere al once, a disciplined, purposeful invasion that would quickly overwhelm her and Caine.

Caine raised his hands, palms out, armed and ready.

"No," a voice yelled. "Don't hurt them, they're friends."

It was Howard, marching up toward them, waving his hands. Behind him came the healer girl, Una, looking shell-shocked.

And behind them, Drake.

Diana cursed. He was still alive.

And then she saw Drake's arm.

The burned slump, the remains of the arm she had sawed off while Drake screamed and cried and threatened, had been altered.

It was stretched, like it had been turned into dark, bloodred taffy. It wrapped twice around his body. No.

Impossible.

Howard came rushing up first."Has Ore shown up here?" Bui 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,

"Drake" Caine said. "We thought you were dead "

"Tin back," Drake said. "And better than ever."

The red tentacle unwrapped itself from around his waist, like a python releasing its victim.

"Like it, Diana?" Drake asked.

The arm, that impossible bloodred snake, coiled above Drake's head, swirled, writhed. And then, so last that the human eye could barely register the movement, it snapped like a bullwhip.

The sound was a loud crack. A mini—sonic boom.

Diana cried out in pain. Stunned, she stared at the cut in her blouse and the trickle of red from her shoulder.