Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (48 page)

If looks could kill, Kraigan w
ould have murdered her
on the spot
.

“Don’t move,
brother
.
You even twitch and I’ll turn this thing on and fill your fowl mouth with the crap inside.”
She tapped the metal container with
the nozzle head
.
“Trust me
. I
t’ll kill you with or without a tatù.”

“Bitch! Give me back my
tatù.
”
Krai
gan
hissed, but
made no movement.
Beads of sweat glistened
on
his forehead.

“You give me mine first
!
” Rae threatened the fire hose closer to his
nose and mouth
, set the canister down
and
made
to turn the dial
when
his hands moved.

Kraigan
didn’t move
,
leaving his
hands
dangling
midair
.
“I’ve got no bloody clue how to
give you yours.
You stole mine.
” He let out a weird,
crazed
kind of laugh. “
Now th
ey’re all gone.” He twiddled his fingers.
“Vanished into thin air.”
He
snorted
,
but immediately stopped when Rae actually turned the dial and a hissing sound came out of the hose.

She
shoved the nozzle into
his
mouth
, debating if she should turn the
dial on full
.
This ability feels good. To have this power over…over life and death.
Start
l
ed, she almost dropped the handle
when
a noise
sounded
behind her.
She wasn’t sure if her thoughts or the noise scared her more.

Two
low, deep
voices echoed against the walls.
Her heart rate sputtered and the hair on the back of her neck rose.
She
turned towards the sound
, ready to do whatever it took to stay alive.

Two men
strode
down the hall towards them.
Well, one ran and the other seemed
to be walking at an incredible pace
.
She
noticed a long, dark ponytail
.

Julian
.
With
Carter
right behind him
.
Tears of relief flooded her eyes.

“Holy Crap!” Julian
said when he saw her
.
His e
xpression turned to horror as his eyes traveled up and down Rae
.
“
We
saw you guys tumble down the stairs when the alarm went off.
The surveillance room is
completely
on the other side of the underground
.
No one uses this entrance.
”

“
What
?” Rae croaked.

Julian waved a hand
and
then
pulled a weird-looking folded
thick, black wire
from his back pocket
.
“If the door to the Chamber opens, an alarm goes off.”

Rae
stared but
nodded
slightly
.
I have
no idea what
you
’re talking about.
She stepped back when
Carter
pushed by and bent
forward.
He
touch
ed
Kraigan’s wrist.
“Careful!
” she shouted.
“
He
might
take your
tatù
.”
She
brushed against
Carters tall frame
and
shoved the nozzle
back
into Kraigan’s mouth.
His eyes bulged and
his
head thrashed side to side.

“I’ll use it if you
try anything on
these guys.” She glared. “I mean it. I am my father’s daughter.”

Kraigan only thrashed harder and tried to pull away.

“
Relax
,
idiot,”
Julian
said
.

Carter gently touched her
upper arm
. “We’ve got it, Rae.”

She
gasped
and nearly dropped the hose
when a
slightly
familiar hum filled her core.
She
reached behind and she brushed her fi
ngers along her tatù.
It felt like
a little bit of
heaven running through her veins
.
She had
just
mimicked
Carter’s
tatù, and it had never felt so good
.

She felt
its
recognizable
strings and
wondered
if all
her abilities
were back
.
It felt glorious but something
was
still wrong.
She
searched for her healing tatù.
She scowled when she couldn’t find it.
She tried
for another,
again and again.
“So help me, Kraigan. If this –”

Julian
pulled
the
canister
away from her. “Rae, let go. It’s okay.” He
stood over Kraigan
and barked,
“Hold your hands out.
”
He
pushed
the hose close to Kraigan’s face.

Kraigan snorted through his nose
,
now
refusing to move.
Julian reached for the dial and Kraigan
finally stuck his arms
out
.

Julian snapped the black wire so it went straight as a rod.
Then he slapped it on top of Kraigan’s wrists.
It
wrapped itself
again and
again on Kraigan’s lower arms and wrists.

It was over.

Rae bit her lower lip.
She
squinted at an ancient crack on the wall
and concentrated on trying
to find a
nother
tatù.
“May I?”
She reached out and touched Julian’s elbow
before he could answer
.
His
tatù flowed through her, running alongside
Carter’s memory tatù.

Carter
swung around, his
hair
wild
for the first time Rae had ever seen
.
“What
the hell
happened?”

“Kraigan’s
tatù
is
like mine.”
Once Rae spoke
, she realized how much she needed to
explain.
“He’s my brother…
Half-brother
…F
rom my dad.
He’s got the same
ability
.
But different.” She
took a deep, shuddering breath.
“
I mimic, but…but h
e
’s a thief… T
akes tatùs away from people
…
leaves them powerless.
Until he touches
someone else
or someone touches him.
He screwed with my tatù.
”
She shot Kraigan a dirty look
, then turned back to Carter. “But you already knew about his ability, right?”

Carter blinked in surprise. “I knew very little. I assumed Kraigan knew as much
as I did, certainly no more
.
If he could hide things from me, it s
eems he’s got a few other abilities.”

As do I.
Or I hope I still do.
Had
Kraigan actually told her the truth about hiding things from Carter? Maybe it had been an attempt to win her trust. She was such an idiot.

Julian
pulled Kraigan
a few feet
away with the black wire-thing
.

Rae
leaned against the wall.
She
dropped her
hands
against her knee
s.
“He’s somehow taken my tatù.
I
t’s
kinda
back, but something’s wrong.
It’s
—
like,
busted
.”
She blew on her
broken
, swollen wrist.
The pain seemed to be getting worse
by the millisecond
.
Must be my adrenalin
e wearing off
. The need for fight or flight’s over now
.

Carter
ran his fingers through his hair,
which refused
to go back into its usually perfect style
. He
patted her
shoulder, but the concern didn’t leave his face
.
“Don’t worry
. W
e’ll get you check
ed
out.”

A sudden, horrifying thought occurred to her. She had Carter’s tatù and Kraigan’s but nothing else that she could feel.
What if? Oh no
—
She
rocked herself off the wall
and wobbled towards Carter
.
“I’ve
got
your tatù.
Did
I steal it?
”

Using his hand, he
knelt down and touched Kraigan.
“There’s nothing.” He held up his free arm when Rae stepped toward him. “Wait.”
A minute later his eyebrows shot up and he shook his head
.
“
He’s able to block me, but I still have it
.
Though I fear if we remove the
stalling bar
from Kraigan,
it could be dangerous
.”
Carter
looked at Julian.
“
Call for the others to get him
.
Don’t let him touch anyone with his hands.
Better to be safe than sorry.
”

Julian nodded and pulled a
walkie-
talkie
off the back of his belt.

Rae inched
closer
to Kraigan, planning on asking him one more question before
they dragged
him away.

Before speaking into
the device
,
Julian turned to Rae.
“What
did Kraigan do to your
tatù
?”

“
I think
I’ve still got my
tatù ability
,
but
he took all
the
powers
I had
gathered up
to this point
.
They’re
gone.
Erased
.”
Guess she wasn’t
as
all powerful as Kraigan
had
said.
She stared at
his
brooding eyes, seeing her father
’s
face.
As Julian began shouting orders into the walkie-talkie, s
he leaned close to
Kraigan’s
ear.
“Where’s my journal, loser?”

He
snorted and when she pulled back, he
spit in her face.

Rae gagged but swallowed
her own
bile back down.
Wiping her cheek with the sleeve of her shirt, she tried to control the anger boiling inside. Ticked, s
he
grabbed his
shirt, forced him to sit,
and in doing so, used Carter’s tatù to find where
he had
hidden the book.
It has to be on him, he showed it to me upstairs in the Oratory.
Whether he didn’t have the ability to block her, or he showed her the location because he would rather she have it than to let it be taken by the Privy Council, she didn’t know
– she saw the image of him slipping the journal in the back of his jeans. S
he
stood
,
scooted
behind him.
Rae glanced down
and grinned. She made a show of looking down
the hall.
“
Is that
the cavalry?”