The Betrayal of Renegade X (Renegade X, Book 3) (3 page)

He looks at me like I just asked him for a million dollars. “You put a man in the hospital. A
League
member. A
superhero
.”

“So? A murderer who hurts kids doesn’t deserve to be zapped, but you think I deserve to freeze to death for stopping him?”

“You broke the rules.”

I shrug. “Those are your rules, not mine.”

“I didn’t think I even had to talk to you about not using your powers on
people
.”

“Uh, superheroes use their powers on me all the time. But because I’m half villain that makes it wrong when I do it?” Typical.

“They use their powers on you to stop you when you get out of hand. Which shouldn’t even be happening.”

“And that’s what I did to that guy. He was out of hand, so I stopped him. And I was successful. You have to give me that.” Doesn’t anybody appreciate an efficient bad-guy take down these days? And shouldn’t he be relieved that if it had been an actually dangerous situation, I would have come out of it okay?

“You’re not hearing me. I don’t know how to make you...” He runs a hand through his hair, looking annoyingly like me while he does it. And like he might cry. Which is a bit overkill, if you ask me.

“Whoa, Dad. Calm down. I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“The fact that you think that
is
what’s wrong.”

“So just yell at me about it and get it over with.” Not that I really want him to yell at me, but if he’s going to do it, it might as well be now.

“So you can ignore everything I say? So you can get back to doing whatever you want?”

Pretty much, but I don’t tell him that. “Let me help you. You’re very disappointed in me and you don’t know what to do because Amelia would never use her power to the detriment of others. Which is wrong, because she uses her power to steal stuff from me all the time.”

He shakes his head. “This whole semester, since you went back to school, I thought you were following the rules.”

“I wasn’t
not
following them.” I just didn’t have a reason to break them.

“I thought you understood right from wrong.”

“I do. Geez.” I’m not a monster.

But you wouldn’t know that from the way he’s looking at me right now. “We shouldn’t even be having this conversation. Superheroes should never have to use their powers on you, and you shouldn’t have to use yours on them. That makes you sound like a...”

“Villain?”

He winces, which kind of hurts. “You had your chance to go to Vilmore, but you chose Heroesworth. I thought that meant something.”

“It did. It
does
.” Just not what he thinks. Deciding to go to Heroesworth doesn’t mean I suddenly want to join the League or be some kind of Gordon clone or anything. “And if you’re too upset to even start the car, maybe I should drive.” I have my learner’s permit.

“You should be the one who’s upset here. You
hurt
somebody tonight. If you seemed like you cared, like you were at all shaken up by that, then...”

Then what? Then he’d know I’m not evil? He should know that anyway. “You’d rather I regretted it? That I used my power on someone when I
didn’t
feel like it was the right thing to do? Because that sounds pretty reckless.”

“Even if he was a criminal, even if you’d really had to use your power on him, you hurt another human being tonight. That should make you feel something.”

“It’s so cold in here I can’t feel
anything
. Do you want me to drive or not?” And of course I feel something. It’s not like I wanted to zap anyone. Well, maybe Brian. But the fact that I restrained myself from electrocuting my most annoying group member—which I have to do on practically a daily basis—and used my power to stop the bad guy instead should say something about me. Though if I told Gordon that, he’d probably only hear that I think about zapping someone every day, which wouldn’t exactly help my case.

He puts the key in the ignition and looks me over, like he’s still trying to find some sign that I know what I did tonight was wrong. Which it wasn’t. “I don’t know what to say to get through to you.”

“You don’t need to get through to me. We just disagree.” I reach out and turn the heater up to full blast.

“It’s not okay for us to disagree on this.”

I sigh and fold my arms across my chest. “Did you ever think that maybe you’re the one who’s not listening? You’re not open to anything I say, and you won’t even consider the possibility that maybe I have a point. You already decided how wrong I was before you even came down here. So if you won’t change your mind about anything, why should I have to do any different?”

He grips the steering wheel, his jaw clenching in frustration. “Because I’m your
father
and that’s just the way it is.”

“Nope, not good enough. I’m going to need a better reason than that.”

His eyebrows come together and his mouth twitches, like he really wants to argue. But in the end I guess he
doesn’t
have a better reason than that, because he lets out a deep breath, his shoulders slumping in defeat, and eases the car into drive without saying anything.

“W
HAT TIME DO YOU get in on Saturday?” I ask Kat on the phone Tuesday afternoon. I’m lying on my bed with my feet pressed against the slanting wall—the one I’ve banged my head on about five million times since Gordon forced me to move up to the attic a few months ago. I can hear clonking noises coming from Amelia’s room next door, and she keeps stomping from her bed to her closet. It’s probably wishful thinking, but it sounds like she’s moving out.

“About two. But you can’t come over right away because you have to give me a chance to hide your Christmas present.”

“Or you could drop off your stuff and come over here, and I’ll hide
your
Christmas present. In my bed, with no clothes on. If you know what I mean.”

“Uh-huh. Isn’t that what you got me for my birthday?”

Her birthday was last month. We hadn’t gotten to see each other in weeks, and I stayed over at her dorm, even though it was a weeknight. Needless to say, neither of us got to class on time, plus I had a forty-five minute train ride back to Golden City. I ended up missing a surprise group project in Intro to Heroism, which I suspect Miss Monk only assigned because I wasn’t there. “You’re forgetting First Mate Suckers.” First Mate Suckers is the stuffed octopus pirate I got her. He has an eye patch and a peg leg and is really badass while also being soft and cuddly. And I know Kat didn’t really forget about him because she posts pictures of him all the time, doing very non-piratey things like drinking coffee and taking tests.

“I didn’t forget him,” Kat says, pretending to sound offended. “I’m just pointing out that half your present is a repeat.”

“It might be a repeat, but I don’t expect any complaints. Plus, this time is different, because neither of us has anything we have to do the next day.”

She clears her throat. “Actually... that’s not quite true. Don’t hate me, but I’m leaving again on Sunday.”

I’m silent at first, the words not quite registering. “You’re leaving.”

“Only for a week. Everyone’s going to this ski resort—”

“Everyone?”

“Liv’s going, and Tasha was going to, but then her grandma got sick and she had to cancel. But Jordan and his new boyfriend are coming, plus his old boyfriend, Lucas, which is going to be
drama
. And June and Kelly and Cameron are going, too. And a couple other people, I think. My dad said I could go, and I know we haven’t gotten to see each other much lately, but it’s only for a week. That still leaves us two weeks of winter break.”

But it was supposed to be three. We used to see each other every day, and even that didn’t feel like enough. Now she’d rather spend some of her time off with her new friends, who she sees
all the freaking time
, instead of me? “That wasn’t the plan.”

“I know. But
everyone’s
going, and they’re going to be talking about this for forever, and I don’t want to miss out. And we don’t really have to be apart because you could come, too.”

“It’s a ski trip.” That involves ski lifts and mountains and other high up places. Not to mention all her friends, judging me.

“You wouldn’t have to ski. Not everyone’s going to. Cameron’s not. His power is making things warm, and he can’t always control it. He said if he went skiing, everything would end up a big pile of slush. So you guys could hang out—I know you’d like him. And it’s not like I’ll be skiing the whole time. There’s a lodge. There’ll be snow and hot chocolate and a hot tub.”

And feeling left out, and not knowing anybody, and listening to all her friends call her Katie, like she’s a different person to them than she is to me. “What about the wedding?” My mom’s getting married next week. And, despite hardly being invited, I’m going to be there. Kat’s supposed to be my date, or at least she was, before something better came up.

She lets out a deep breath. “You don’t have to go to the wedding.”

“If I’m not there, then Mom gets to pretend I don’t exist.” And she can act like Xavier, my perfect all-villain replacement, is her only kid. Like she has the perfect family she always wanted, that doesn’t include me. And I was really looking forward to very publicly making out with Kat the whole time and offending all of Mom’s guests. Which includes Kat’s parents, so maybe that dream was never really going to come true, but it definitely won’t if Kat doesn’t even show up.

“Yeah, and that sounds like
such
a great reason to be there. Damien, you don’t have to put up with her crap. You deserve better. And this ski trip is the perfect excuse to not go.”

“She’ll think it’s because I know I’m not really wanted. Like I’m giving her space for her stupid big day that’s all about her.”

“So what if she does? Is it really worth putting yourself through all that? You could come on vacation with me. It’ll be super romantic and Christmassy and stuff. We’ll have our own room. For a
week
. My dad’s paying for it, and he doesn’t know you’re going.”

“That’s because I’m not.”

There are some angry noises coming from Amelia’s room—an outraged squeak, followed by muttering—and then the whole attic shakes as she gets up from her bed and stomps her way to the door.

I turn over onto my stomach, in case that was the last straw and the rickety attic floor finally gives way. Because if I’m going to fall to my doom, I don’t want to be taken unawares.

“Damien,” Kat says, half scolding, half pleading.

“I don’t know your friends. Not really.” Though I hear enough about them.

“You could
get
to know them.”

The stomping continues into the hallway, and then Amelia bangs on my door.

“They still call you Katie.” I’m never going to get used to that.

“Damien!” Amelia calls, as if I couldn’t hear her knocking.

“Go away!” I shout back.

“I know you’re in there!”

So perceptive.

“Look, Kat,” I tell her, “at least if I go to the wedding, I’m only going to feel left out for one day. Not for a whole week.”

Amelia bangs on the door again. “I need to talk to you!”

“You’ll like my friends,” Kat says. “It’s not like you haven’t met most of them already. And they’ll like you. I know they—”

The sound cuts off as the phone disappears out of my hand. As if some really awful person with the power to teleport things to herself just stole it from me.

I’m going to kill Amelia.

I get up from the bed and cringe as the floorboards creak and wobble beneath me. I’m currently trying to convince Gordon that the value of the house would increase significantly if he added on another room to the ground floor. I don’t think he’s buying it, even though I made graphs that chart how a modest investment now would result in lots of profit later. And by “made graphs,” I mean I got my friend Sarah to make them, but still. The facts are there.

I fling open my door and glare at Amelia, who’s standing in the hallway with my phone and her pink laptop.

“Give me that.” I hold out my hand for my phone. “Now.”

She sniffs, acting all offended, like she isn’t the one who just stole something. “Not until you explain
this
.” She points her laptop screen at me.

It’s open to a picture of me and Zach that I posted on Facebook. We’re waiting in line to get into
Heroes on Ice
. It’s where superheroes reenact famous battles with supervillains to classical music, while ice skating. I wondered when she would notice it. “Oh,
that
.” I ever-so-casually inspect the back of my hand. “Obviously Zach and I are dating behind your back. I knew you’d find out about our love eventually, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.”

Amelia scowls at me. “
I
was supposed to go with him. That was my ticket!”

“That he paid for. And you were sick. You couldn’t go.”

“So he took
you
? That was my birthday present! He bought them for us months ago, before they sold out.”

I shrug. “The tickets were only good for that night. What did you want him to do, go alone?”

“Maybe. And you don’t even
like Heroes on Ice
.”

“I like things that are free. Well, almost free. I did have to put out.”

Her mouth drops open at that. My phone rings and I grab it from her while she’s still too stunned to notice. “Hey, Kat. I was just telling Amelia what an awesome boyfriend I am.”

“Damien?” Crap. It’s not Kat, it’s my mom. “I’m so glad I finally reached you. You haven’t been avoiding my calls, have you? Did you get my texts?! The supplies for the party favors aren’t arriving for another
week
.”

“Mom, this isn’t a—”

“And there’s no way we’re going to be able to put them all together on our own in time, especially with all the million things I have left to do before my big day. I need volunteers, and I know you’re on break from school soon. So I don’t know why you didn’t respond to my texts, unless you didn’t get them.”