Tremble (Denazen #3)(81)
Vince smoothed the bedspread, pulling the corner up and around the edge. “What question would that be?”
“Whether or not I was crazy.”
“I take it you saw the painting,” he said with a sad smile.
“W.V.K?”
“Winston Vincent Kale—or, as my current driver’s license says, Vincent Winstead.” He extended his hand. “Very pleased to meet you.”
I took his hand, realizing how incredibly surreal the whole thing was, and shook my head. “Winston Kale. As in, a descendant of Miranda Kale’s?”
“Winston Kale, as in, the one and only. Ginger has her facts confused. Both she and Kale are relatives of mine, not Miranda’s. Miranda had no living descendants. She and my son died from the black plague not long after I drove them away.”
“Let’s forget a ton of things—mainly that if you’re who you say you are, you’re, like, ancient—and focus on the big issue. You’re saying that you’re Miranda Kale’s husband? You’re the sonofabitch who started Denazen?”
He sighed and stood. “There is so much you all don’t understand. About me, about Miranda—about Denazen. Things are not what you think. Denazen is not what you think.” He frowned. “At least, it wasn’t.”
“I can’t tell if the pain meds are sending me on one hell of a trip or if you’re really standing here.”
“I reacted badly to Miranda’s confession about being a Six—not that we called them Sixes in my day. In those times, things like that were considered dark. Evil. I treated her horribly and not a day goes by that I don’t regret it.”
I still couldn’t wrap my brain around it. “But you’d have to be hundreds of years old. No one lives that long.”
“I’m a Six, Dez. I devoted a lot of time, after losing my wife and child to ignorance, to research, and I believe that I’m the first Six. I traced lineage on hundreds of different lines and from what I can tell, my body was the first born with the genetic abnormality. I was born in Virginia in 1810. My mother died in childbirth—as so many did back then—but it was because of a strange infection affecting pregnant women. Between June and December of that year, twelve women contracted the infection—all dying in childbirth. Neighboring towns panicked. They crept in one winter’s night and burned the town and all its inhabitants to the ground.”
I let my head fall into my hands and squeezed my eyes closed. “This isn’t really happening.”
Vince grabbed my hands and pulled them away. “It is, and you need to listen because I’m afraid I don’t have a lot of time. All modern-day Sixes are descended from one of the children born in Tunstal between June and December of 1810. There were twelve of us. Ten survived the town fire. After Miranda and my son died, it brought the number to nine. Nine people survived to produce offspring and carry on the abnormality. Nine of us: the mothers and fathers of the Six race.”
A thought turned my stomach and kicked up a heap of bile. “All related. Oh, God. Is there any chance Kale and I—”
“Are not related. Kale is from my line. You are from another. But I digress. I created Denazen as a haven for people like us. A place we could always go and be ourselves.”
I couldn’t help laughing. “Well then you failed, man. In case you hadn’t noticed, Denazen is kind of the polar opposite.”
“Again, you think you know what’s going on, but you haven’t even scratched the surface. Cross? The other heads of division? They’re nothing more than worker drones.” He stepped away from the bed. “I turned my back on Denazen some time ago, and because I chose to walk away instead of fight, it has become what it is today. You and Kale made me see my error. By risking yourselves to warn me—warn the others—you renewed my faith.”
“It was you!” I exclaimed, recalling our visit to Ben Simmons’s apartment. “Ben’s roommate said three people came looking for him. Kale and me, Aubrey and Able—and you.”
“I feared he wouldn’t be found in time. He was essential to my plan…”
“You’re talking in circles. Plan?”
He smiled. It was weak and full of unspoken sadness. “I have to leave. There are things to do and further information to gather. I don’t expect you not to tell the others who I am, but I beg you to please give me a full day’s grace.” He backed toward the door, eyes never leaving mine. “Please believe that I am on your side and truly wish to right the wrongs I’ve committed. We will see Denazen fall.”
“And that’s it? That’s all you’re going to tell me? Not what information or who’s really in charge—not to mention what the hell they’re really doing?” I slapped a hand down against the bed. “And more specifically, why tell me? There’s, like, a crapload of other, more powerful Sixes out there. Why do the big reveal to me?”
“Ginger has seen Kale’s destiny. Fated to become the Reaper, he will be crucial to bringing down those who wish to enslave us all. But he’s not the only one. There are others. Others like you. You are also crucial.”
Crucial? Nothing like dumping a twenty-ton weight on a girl’s shoulders. “So then what exactly are they doing?”
“What they’re doing, Deznee, is readying for war. Think about the limitless power that comes with limitless resources. Control the governments, the economy—the people—and you control the world. The people behind Denazen, the real puppet masters, want nothing short of that.” He opened the door, pausing. “Take care of Kale. He is, after all, my own flesh and blood.” Vince winked. “And the fabled Reaper.”