Read Online Fractured by Teri Terry - Free Book Online

if he knows there is more than the official story.
    ‘It was all my fault. I did it.’ I say out loud, at last, what has been haunting, festering, inside.
    ‘What did you do? Tell me.’
    ‘I cut his Levo off. With a grinder.’
    And as I tell him the facts, the events, Nico shifts his chair around next to mine, slips a warm arm over my shoulders. And the images fill my mind. Ben’s agony. Me running away, leaving him to his fate. And what was that, exactly? What became of him? Did he die because of what I did, or later? With the Lorders.
    ‘What happened to him?’ I ask, my eyes pleading for a chance, a hope.
    ‘You know the ultimate answer to that question,’ Nico says. ‘You know what the Lorders will have done to him if there was any life left.’
    I nod through the tears.
    ‘And you know what they did to his parents.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Do you feel it, Rain? Inside. The anger.’
    And it springs to life, a fire, as if Nico had tossed a match of his own. The bonfire burns in my mind, hotter and angrier than the blaze that consumed their house. Than all the fires Lorders set that night combined.
    ‘Now, listen to me, Rain. This doesn’t mean you have to forget about Ben, or what he meant to you, or what the Lorders did to his parents. Any of it. Just use it; use it the right way.’
    Use the rage .
    And it rolls through me, like a wave – a searing heat that ripples through every muscle, every bone. Every drop of blood that burns in my veins.
    I grip the arms of the chair. ‘We must make the Lorders pay for what they’ve done. They must be stopped!’
    Nico cups his hands around my face, tilts it up. His eyes study mine, searching, assessing. At last, he nods. His eyes are warm. A flush on my skin tingles, travels up my body.
    ‘Yes, Rain.’ He smiles, leans down. His lips lightly brush my forehead. ‘But there is one question you still haven’t answered. When did you get your memories back?’
    The attack in the woods. Wayne. The words are working their way up my throat to tell him what happened, but I stop. He’ll deal with Wayne if he knows. But why am I protecting Wayne? Isn’t that what he deserves?
    ‘It really should have been when you left Ben, and the Lorders took him. That should have done it; it is exactly the right sort of trauma to break through. So why didn’t it happen then?’ Nico says the words almost like he is talking to himself, as if he has forgotten I am there.
    I squirm, uncomfortable with his analysis, his sifting through my ‘trauma’ to evaluate its effects. But if my memories didn’t return that day, why didn’t I black out and die? I look at my useless Levo.
    Then I remember. ‘I know,’ I say. ‘It was the pills.’
    ‘What pills?’
    ‘Happy Pills. Ben got them from someplace,’ I say. Holding back just where he got them, and unsure why. They came from Aiden, who is in MIA: they run the Missing in Action website I saw at Jazz’s cousin’s place.
    Nico nods. ‘That makes sense. They’d block the full experience. Then, when they wore off, Rain made an appearance.’
    He grins widely. Laughs. ‘Rain!’ He hugs me. ‘You were always my favourite, you know.’
    My heart sings. Nico never had relationships with girls in training camps – not that I saw. His power was absolute, but we all wanted him.
    He pulls back. ‘Now, listen. There is something you can do for me. You’re still going to hospital appointments in London, aren’t you?’
    I nod. ‘Every Saturday.’ New London Hospital where I was Slated is a symbol of Lorder control, and a frequent Free UK target; it is where they took me, and countless others like me, and deliberately erased our memories.
    ‘I want plans. As accurate as possible, of every bit of the hospital you know. Inside and out. Can you do that for me?’
    ‘Of course,’ I say, eager to help strike against the Lorders, even in such a small way. I can see the layout in my mind without trying, my memory and map ability so