Tessa's house wasn't far from Sean's—both were in the same neighborhood, owned by the same real estate development company. Abel watched from the street as she unlocked the door and stepped inside, Kane following behind like a shadow with no will of his own.
The house was empty. Parents probably out somewhere. Which meant Tessa was completely alone with her captive audience and no one to interrupt her control.
Abel waited a few seconds, then pushed the door open and stepped inside, wrapping his form in darkness as he moved. Not a full Phantom Shift—he didn't have the magical reserves for that yet—but enough of a visual distortion that anyone glancing at him would see nothing but shadow and smoke.
Tessa was in the living room, still giving Kane orders, when she suddenly went very still. She could feel something in the house. Something was wrong.
She turned slowly, and that's when she saw him.
Abel let the darkness drop away from his form, revealing the contour of his body. His wand was already in his hand.
Tessa's face went pale. She stepped back, positioning herself behind Kane instinctively.
"You," she said, her voice shaking. "Who are you? How did you—"
"Your ability," Abel cut her off. His voice was calm, but there was an edge to it. "I need to know where it comes from. And I need the truth."
Tessa's expression shifted from fear to denial. "I don't know what you're talking about. If you don't leave my house right now, I'm calling the police."
Abel didn't bother with more words. He pointed his wand at Kane and spoke clearly: "Petrificus Totalus."
White light shot out and caught Kane mid-step. The boy froze instantly, his body locking in place like a marble statue.
Tessa screamed. "What did you do?! What did you do to him?!"
She turned to face Abel fully, and her fear shifted into something else. Her hands came up, her breathing changed, and Abel felt it immediately—that distinctive presence in the air. The pheromones.
They washed over him like a wave, trying to find cracks in his mental defenses, trying to force their way into his thoughts and make him obey.
Abel immediately dropped into Occlumency.
Tessa's eyes went wide. She tried again, harder this time, concentrating, pushing more of the pheromone cloud at him. And when that didn't work, she tried verbal commands.
"Leave me! Get out of my house! I order you to leave!"
Her voice cracked with desperation, but the commands simply bounced off his Occlumency barriers like water off glass.
Abel watched as realization dawned on her face. She'd encountered someone she couldn't control. For the first time since getting these powers, Tessa was facing an enemy she couldn't just bend to her will.
She backed away step by step, her bravado crumbling.
"Please," she whispered. "Please, don't hurt me."
"Tell me where your ability comes from," Abel said, advancing slowly. "That's all. Give me the truth and you walk away from this."
"I... I..." Tessa looked like she wanted to run, but there was nowhere to go.
Abel raised his wand and blasted a vase on the side table. It exploded into pieces, and some of the shrapnel hit Tessa's arm. She screamed.
"Last chance," Abel said, and his voice was cold. "Tell me how you got these powers. The truth. Now. Or we find out what happens when I stop being nice."
Tessa sobbed. "I stole it! I stole a serum from my father's laboratory! He's a researcher at Technology Pioneer, and I found a file on his computer—the password was my mother's birthday—and I found records of a serum that could give people... abilities. Mind control. I took it because I just wanted him to notice me. My father never pays attention to me, and I thought if I had something special, maybe he would..."
She was rambling now, fear making her voice shaky and incoherent. But Abel understood enough.
"Your father's company. I need the address."
"No, no, please don't hurt him!" Tessa backed into the corner, nowhere left to go. "Please, he didn't do anything wrong!"
"If I wanted to hurt your father, you wouldn't be spared either," Abel said flatly. "The fact that I'm letting you live at all means I have no interest in your family. I only care about the serum. Where is Technology Pioneer? Tell me now, or I wait here for your father to come home."
Tessa's face went even whiter. "You'd... you'd kill him?"
"If necessary, yes. Don't test me."
"My father... my father is the chief researcher at Technology Pioneer. It's a medium-sized tech company, but they do biotech research and..." She trailed off, realizing she was talking too much.
Abel's mind was already spinning. Technology Pioneer. He'd heard of them vaguely—a moderately successful biotech firm. But for them to develop a serum that could replicate Kilgrave's powers? That suggested either someone had given them the formula, or they'd somehow managed to reverse-engineer it from a sample.
And if they had a sample, that meant either Kilgrave was still alive somewhere, or someone had collected biological material from his body.
Neither option was acceptable.
"I hope you're telling me the truth," Abel said coldly. "If you're lying, I'll come back. And I'll be much less patient next time. Also, not a word about what happened here. To anyone. Do you understand what I mean?"
Tessa nodded frantically, tears streaming down her face.
Abel floated upward and through the open door, disappearing into the night before Tessa could even process what had just happened.
It was inevitable that Tessa would panic and contact her father. Abel expected as much. He stopped at a convenience store to look up the address of Technology Pioneer on his phone, then caught a taxi.
The building was impressive—modern, well-maintained, the kind of corporate structure that screamed "we're doing legitimate biotech research." Abel paid the taxi driver and got out a block away, standing on the sidewalk and looking up at the building.
None of that mattered. Not the professional appearance, not the legitimate-seeming company structure. What mattered was the question that burned in Abel's mind.
If Kilgrave was dead—and Abel was certain he was—then how did anyone have a serum that replicated his powers?
Either someone had a sample of his biological material. Or someone had figured out how to synthesize pheromones with mind-control properties without ever having met Kilgrave.
Either way, it was a problem that needed solving. Immediately.
And if, by some impossible chance, Kilgrave had survived his fall...
Abel looked up at the Technology Pioneer building and made a decision. He was going inside. Tonight. And he was going to find answers, one way or another.
Whatever it took.
END CHAPTER 18