Page 23 of Blood Brother Cursed

“Good luck, sir,” one of the soldiers offered.

Phoenix reached her but didn’t say anything as she fell in step beside him. Something about his demeanor told Astrid to keep her mouth shut. He unlocked a truck with a W in a circle, and that’s when it clicked.

Phoenix opened her door, and Astrid couldn’t have felt more foolish as she slid into the seat. He closed the door, then walked around and got into the driver’s seat. They remained silent as Phoenix drove off the base.

It was disappearing in the side mirror when he finally spoke. “You really messed up my day.”

Astrid’s initial reaction was to point out that she didn’t ask for his help. However, she knew that was entirely the wrong reaction. “I’m very sorry, Phoenix. And thank you.”

He looked over at her. “Well, I couldn’t just let you get taken. As I told you, they are working with people who use women like you. If they get their hands on you, you will loathe the rest of your short life.”

“What do you mean by my short life?”

“They push women to use their abilities until they die.”

Astrid balled up her hands. “What do they get out of it?”

“The Mora family used Alina to grow their company and to successfully start their illegal operations. After they fell—"

“Because they killed her?”

“No, because she escaped. She’s Cooper Sexton’s wife.”

“S … why would talking about her bother Elliott?”

“Not my story to tell. Anyway, the Mora family lost her, their work was exposed, and some of their competitors tried to pick up where they left off. Granted, they weren’t the only family working on it, but they were the ones with the most influence and worst disregard for their test subjects to the point where their facility was destroyed.”

“Oh, she was the one who saw the future. Ok. Right. I can see how that would be helpful. But how would anyone use my abilities to control water?”

He gave her an incredulous look, then turned back to watch the road. “As I pointed out, people are made mostly of water. You already have a pretty good understanding of how to manipulate water thatisn’tin a human container, and you can control small areas of the ocean. Do you really need me to point out how that can be dangerous? And the fact that we did just leave a military base?”

Astrid thought about it for a moment. “You think they might weaponize my abilities against other people? Like, on a battle level?”

“They would do it in a heartbeat. And their preference would be that it’s your last heartbeat so that they don’t get caught for using you for experiments.”

Astrid sank down in her seat, causing the badge she had attached to her pants to poke her. She pulled it away from her, glancing at it. Then she looked at it again. “Why did I think that this was an actual badge?” She pulled the badge up, the lanyard stretching as she did. All that she had was a blank badge, no image or words.

“You aren’t the only person with abilities.”

She stared at the blank badge, then looked at him. “What did you do?”

“Power of suggestion. I can make people see what I want them to see. When we reached you, the soldiers thought you were dressed like a lab tech, not some woman roaming the base.”

“You changed my outfit?”

“I changed how theyperceivedyour outfit. It would have been a lot harder to explain a woman roaming around in civilian clothing trying to enter a classified area.”

“Oh.” There were so many questions going through her head. None of them seemed to matter in that moment. “I’m really sorry, Phoenix. Thanks again. And thanks for taking my stuff home. Do I want to know how you figured out where I lived?”

“I did my research.”

“You mean you looked me up? Exactly how deep did that go?”

“Don’t worry, I didn’t do a background check or anything. Just some basic info, like where you live and what you do for a living.”

She took a deep breath. “Was it necessary?”

“I thought so. And you’ve already benefited from it.”

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