The Cure by Teyla Branton

online where they sometimes talked in the past. Cort told me he’s been keeping an eye out there, and Keene posted there last week.”
    I glanced at Ava to see if she’d known about this. Though each of us had our private lives, anything that might endanger the group had to be cleared through her.
    She nodded. “I knew about it. They’ve been exchanging emails and talking on the phone. Cort’s been trying to get him to work with us.”
    I was going to kill Cort for not telling me. “What does Keene want?”
    “He wants to meet Cort—here in Portland. Tonight. With Cort in Mexico, that’s impossible, but with everything that’s going on, we feel we should meet him.”
    “Keene knows we’re in Portland?” My eyes went from Ava to Stella and back.
    Again Ava nodded, her lips tight with disapproval. “Apparently.”
    Not good. Our location was the one thing we and other groups of Renegades guarded with our lives. Not doing so always ended in a blood bath.
    “We don’t know how he knows,” Stella said, always ready to give each of us a fair chance. “But the fact that he requested a meeting here is significant.”
    “Exactly.” Ava’s eyes still rested on my face. “We have to meet him. Or rather, you do, since Stella and I feel that you’re the only one he’d talk to in Cort’s absence. But keep in mind, it could be a trap.”
    “I’ll go with her,” Jace said.
    I rolled my eyes. “No. I’ll be fine.” My brother had embraced near immortality with a passion that often overruled good sense, and I didn’t want to have to worry about him.
    “He should go,” Ava countered. When I didn’t reply, she added, “It’s either him or Ritter. We have no idea if Keene’s still working for his father and the Emporium. I expect you to be careful, but you can’t go in without backup.”
    Unlike Ava, I trusted Keene—at least as much as you could trust anyone who knew about the Unbounded. He’d always told me the truth as he’d known it—even if it wasn’t the entire truth, which was more than I could say about most men in my life, especially Ritter.
    Who should be here any moment.
    My traitorous body began to grow warm just thinking about him. Not good at all, especially in light of the Unbounded fertility rate and high probability of non-Unbounded offspring. Maybe after I’d lived a century or two, I’d learn to control my impulses. Besides, like many other Renegade Unbounded, Ritter had old-fashioned ideas about morality and family. It was all or nothing, and I didn’t know if I was ready for two thousand years of commitment.
    “Okay, Jace can come,” I said. “Where does Keene want to meet? And when?”
    Stella frowned, and even that didn’t mar her beauty. “Eight o’clock. At a Chinese restaurant. I looked it up. It’s reputable and in a good part of town. In fact, it’s not too far from my apartment.” Her apartment meant where Bronson lay dying, tended by either Stella or her live-in nurse twenty-four hours a day.
    “Bronson’s your husband, isn’t he?” Mari asked hesitantly, her face pale and drawn.
    Stella’s frown disappeared, and I knew she was reminding herself that she had Mari and Oliver now, her beloved younger sister’s Unbounded progeny to focus on—even if one day her own child didn’t develop the active gene.
    “He is, and you’ll meet him soon.” Stella looked over her shoulder where Oliver still sat at the table, leaning back, his long fingers tented over his stomach. “Meanwhile, Oliver can show you where you’ll be sleeping. You’ll be staying in my room here. I’m not usually there anyway. There’s clothing in the closet. Feel free to use whatever you need. We’ll get you more as soon as we can.”
    Mari’s eyes widened. “But . . . I . . . all my things are at home . . . and I need to talk to Trevor.”
    Had I been this dense? “Listen, Mari,” I said, stifling a sigh. “I told you at the park. You can’t go home. Not ever again. Those people