Haunt (Regenerate #5)

Chapter 15

Cole smirks. "No need to be so shocked. I can't imagine I'm the strangest thing you've seen in the past year."

"You can shift," I say, even though he's already made that plenty clear.

"And regenerate," he says. "And everything else you can do. Which is more than you know."

"We have the exact same powers?" I say. "How do you know that?"

Cole scratches his head. "Hmm. Kind of a long story. Where should I start?"

"I don't know," I say. "You're the one who came here."

"Right," Cole says. "It's just that I'm not really a planner. Okay, here's the thing. Your other friends with superpowers? Those are genetic, I think."

"You think?"

"What I'm trying to say is that they're still human," Cole says.

"Yeah...." I draw the word out, not sure what he's getting out.

"You and I are, um, less human," he says.

I stare. "What do you mean less human?"

Cole considers. "Like, more alien."

"Alien?" I ask. "Like out of this world?"

He smiles. "Aw yeah you are."

"I'm an alien?"

"We are aliens," Cole corrects. "You know, I was a little skeptical about this whole Earth thing. I mean, it's kind of backwater and humans are sort of weaklings. It's sort of grown on me though. Quaint place, you know?"

"I wouldn't know," I say. "I've always lived on Earth."

Cole waves a finger. "You've lived here as long as you can remember. I should know. I brought you here."

I sink onto my bed, trying to process. Cole stares at me.

"So, maybe you can start at the beginning?" I say after awhile. "Explain exactly how it is that I ended up here and what you had to do with it?"

A cloud of uncertainty passes over Cole's face, so fast that I think I must be imagining it.

Then he clears his throat and takes a seat next to me on the bed. "So our planet, Kildar, it's full of people like us. Shifters, regenerates. People who can control their atoms and transmutate them at will. Which is cool. On the other hand, everyone is really back stabby and manipulative. Lots of political upheaval, warring clans. And you were sort of a big deal there."

I flop back on the bed. "Great. So I was like the star of Game of Thrones in space."

"I don't know what that means, but sure," Cole says.

"Why would I not remember any of this?" I ask.

Suddenly Cole doesn't look as chipper as he has every other time I've seen him. "You've already discovered the nasty effects electricity can have on our kind, right? Long story short, you were captured and volted up with enough electricity to kill most Kildari. Didn't kill you, but it wiped your memories. Once I got you out, I brought you here. Got you shifted into a human body."

I stare at my ceiling. Trying to make sense of everything Cole is saying. That I had an entire life before this. A life I can't remember.

Cole waits for a minute before saying, "Honestly, I'm not sure that life means anything to you now. You started from scratch here. From what I've seen you're more human now than Kildari."

It doesn't matter what Cole thinks, though. That other life does matter to me. I want to make sense of it all.

"Why are you telling me this now?" I ask. "Why not five years ago when I was a scared kid wandering the streets?"

Cole frowns. "After I dropped you on Earth I went back to set a trail of distractions so that you didn't just get recaptured. I didn't make it back until about a year ago and by then I had sort of a hard time finding you. Then you showed up on the news. You seemed to be doing fine without me. I wanted to watch for awhile. See how you turned out."

He stands. "Look, I get that it's a lot to process. I guess I'm sorry I wasn't around sooner. But I'm here now. We can talk. I can give you some training, if you want. Teach you more about using your shifting."

I nod. I'm not even convinced I believe him. But I know I need to talk to him again. Because I know there are a million questions I should be asking him, and I can't quite think how to make my tongue form them right now.

Cole hesitates. Then he says, "Right. I'll be seeing you then."

Before I can think to stop him, he's opened my window and jumped right out onto the lawn. I watch him start running only to realize that he's tripped the security system.