Your One & Only(55)

“She does care,” Jack said, though his voice didn’t rise above a whisper.

Jonah contemplated Jack for several moments.

Lying in bed and seeing his own eyes squinting back at him, evaluating him, Jack felt as if his brother knew all his doubts, hopes, and fears.

“At the barn, I heard the old Carson talking to you about how there was something wrong with you. They think we’re defective, but they’re the ones that are defective. We’re better than them.”

“I am defective,” Jack said. “In that field, I almost died because I couldn’t breathe. I’d call that a defect.” Something occurred to Jack. “Do you have asthma?”

Jonah shook his head. “Genes are complicated. The clones think it’s all so simple, that they can manipulate everything until it’s exactly how they want it. But maybe there’s a reason you have asthma and I don’t.”

“That makes no sense.”

“It’s evolution, Jack. Back when there were humans everywhere, a lot of them had diseases. And sometimes, with certain diseases, those who had them were the only people in the whole world immune from things that could maybe kill everyone else. I read about it.”

“Yeah, well. The humans are all dead now.”

“Listen, it wasn’t asthma that almost got you killed. It was the clones. Come with me, Jack. We’ll get them back for what they did to you, what they’ve done to us.”

“What are we supposed to do? There are only two of us, and hundreds of them.”

“Try telling that to Copan,” Jonah said. He settled himself on the edge of Jack’s bed and pulled from his pocket a little feather. It was bright and iridescent, with streaks of turquoise, green, and orange. He handed the feather to Jack. “There’s this bird that lives in the jungle, a kind of bird of paradise. You’ve probably seen it. It lays these eggs on heliconia plants. The eggs are really small and sort of purple, and the thing is, they have these shells like paper. They’re thin, like they could break if you just breathe on them. No kidding, I once saw a butterfly put its leg through a shell.” He leaned toward Jack to make his point, and his eyes narrowed. “Vispera is like that. Strike the clones in the right way, and they’ll fracture as easy as those bird eggs.”

Jack dropped his head into his hands.

“You okay?” Jonah asked. “You don’t look so good.”

When Jack looked up, he found Jonah watching him, worry in his face, and then voices came from the hallway. Jonah leaned over the bed. He grabbed Jack’s good hand and thumped it against his own chest.

“You feel that, Jack? It’s blood, mine and yours.” He bent down and pressed his lips roughly to Jack’s forehead. Pulling his bag onto his shoulder, he went to the window. “Blood doesn’t lie. You’ll change your mind. And believe me”—he winked—“they’ll pay for what they did to you.”

Jack swung his legs over the side of the bed, forgetting to be careful of his arm. “Don’t hurt them, Jonah,” he said.

“Oh, I’m not going to hurt them, brother.” He looked at Jack over his shoulder. “I’m going to kill them.” Jonah sprang outside and disappeared into the dark.

The air coming through the window, thick and wet, blanketed the room with an oppressive heat. Jack’s fist crumpled the sheet. He wondered if his brother might be crazy.

Yet still . . . Jack lay back, the room spinning around him. He breathed in, trying to calm his racing pulse, and fought the call in his blood, vast and deafening, to follow Jonah into the night.



By the time Althea came into the room, Jack had already hauled himself from bed and was struggling to tie his shoelaces one-handed.

“You shouldn’t be up, Jack,” she said.

“I’m fine,” he said, though when he straightened, he gasped with the pain. “I have to go.”

“What’s happened?”

“Jonah was here. He’s plotting something.”

Althea took his arm and turned him to face her. “Jack, slow down. What’s he going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Jack said. “He wanted me to come with him, to help do . . . whatever he’s going to do. Maybe the same thing he did in Copan.”

“Why would he do that?” Althea paled.

“Why do you think?” Jack ran his hand through his hair, a rush of resentment building in him. “Look what happened to me. They were going to kill me. And I don’t mean the Carsons, I mean the Council.”

“Calm down, Jack,” she said, trying to make him sit. “Even if you can find him, you’re in no condition to stop him. We need help.”

“Anyone who helps us will kill him.”

“Maybe you should consider what—”

“Don’t,” Jack said, turning on her. “Don’t say it.”

He wouldn’t let them kill Jonah, not when they’d only just found each other. He’d be damned if he’d let the clones take his own brother from him. If Althea said Jonah should die, Jack didn’t know if he could take it.

“I was just going to say, maybe you should consider what you plan to do before running off.”

What was he planning to do? Jack had no idea. He sat on the bed, his body shuddering with frustration and pain.