Forbidden Fire (Forbidden #2) (15 page)

The email had been sent fourteen minutes ago from an account I'd never seen before.

This message is for Sam and Drake. You aren't alone in your fight against the organization you call Rent-A-Kid. We can help. We will be in touch.

No signature.

"Can you trace where this came from or who sent it?"

He looked at me as if I'd asked him to make his computer float. "Um, no. I'm a writer, not a computer hacker. I know how to type. That's about it."

"We need Lucy. I haven't talked to them since they left on assignment. I hope they're okay. Have you received anything from them yet? She was supposed to email us information about the school and security?"

"Not yet. I'll let you know as soon as I get something."

"What do you make of this email? Who could it be?"

"I really have no idea. In the morning, we can ask the professor. Maybe he'll know something from his research days." He shrugged and gave me a lopsided grin. "For now, we should go to bed. I didn't realize it's nearly 1 a.m."

"Yeah, I'm wiped. Hey, have you seen Drake? He's not home yet and I can't reach him by cell."

Brad dropped his eyes. "No, no idea."

He was hiding something from me, but his mind opened up at the slightest touch:
'Can't believe he actually did it. Left without telling anyone. Where the hell does he think he's going?'

My body coiled tighter than a snake ready to strike. "Drake
left
? What are you talking about? Where did he go?"

Brad closed his laptop and turned to face me. "I'm sure it's nothing. It's just... earlier today he was worried and upset. He wanted to do something, to track the Seeker, but he didn't want to hurt you. He made an offhand remark that he should leave without telling you, but I didn't think he was serious."

I balled my fists and paced the floor. "Oh my God. No, he wouldn't do this. He wouldn't go off on his own, would he?"

Brad shrugged. "I honestly don't know. He's used to being a lone ranger. He might have."

My stomach hit the floor. Rabbit-like palpitations clutched my heart.
He can't be gone. It's just... no... not possible.

Something pushed at my mind—an aggressive presence whose signature I recognized from the mind-jacking. I'd vowed not to be caught unaware again, and had wired my mind with a booby-trap I'd taught myself a long time ago. When anyone tried to connect with my mind, it triggered a wall that crashed down to protect me.

I sent out tendrils of thought to explore the presence lurking just outside my mind. Emotions and impressions swam through me.

Vast. Powerful. Lonely. And... illness… death.

A small surge of sympathy tempered my anger for a moment, but then the presence crashed into me again, cracking my walls and sending me to my knees. I used every ounce of power I had to fight it, and sent out a plea to Drake.

A moment—or maybe an eternity—later, his strength flooded me.
'I'm here. I'll help.'

Together, we sent a full frontal assault on my attacker. The pressure abated for a moment, but came back stronger, more powerful than ever. I grabbed my head and screamed.

An unfamiliar voice swam in my mind, calling to me. '
Sam. Sam!'

His voice trickled into my soul, seducing me.

Drake howled.
'Leave her alone!'

His
power,
his
strength, surrounded me and protected me. I dug into the recesses of my powers and pulled out more, letting it build inside me until I had enough. With Drake's support I slammed into the Seeker's mind and pushed him out.

Relief filled me.

And Drake was gone.

"Sam. Sam!" Brad's panic subsided. "Are you okay? What happened? That mind-jacking thing again?"

"Yes. It's gone now, but it got through my walls. Just a bit, but... I don't know, he might have seen something. We should warn the professor."

Brad ran to Bernard's room to wake him.

I stumbled to the kitchen for a glass of water, and rested my head on the cool kitchen counter.
"Drake, we need you. Come back."

No answer.

Loneliness swept through me, filling up every part of me with a wretched hopelessness. I couldn't do this without him. My ever-growing child kicked against my ribs and reminded me of how powerless I really was. I couldn't fight anyone alone, couldn't risk the baby.

Fat, hot tears fell from my eyes and formed a puddle on the counter.
Why keep fighting when I can never win?

I searched my mind for what the Seeker might have siphoned from me. Did he know where we were now? Would he track us?

Brad and the professor might be in danger because of me, and I didn't have time to wallow in my own grief.

Bernard put his arms around me and guided me to the living room couch. "Sit. Rest. We'll figure out what to do."

Both he and Brad were dressed. I looked down at my flannel pajamas and sighed. My head hurt so badly.

Bernard checked the windows. The only interruption to the silence of night was a chorus of crickets singing to the moon. He sat down next to me and held my hands. "How much do you think they saw?"

"I really have no idea. My defenses were good, but the Seeker is very strong. I couldn't push him all the way out until Drake helped. Now Drake is gone again and I don't know what to do."

Bernard looked to Brad. "Make sure all the doors are locked and the alarms are set. When Drake comes back we'll make a plan."

I closed my eyes against more tears. "What if he doesn't come back?"

The professor squeezed my hand. "He'll come back. Trust me."

The couch cushioned my aching body, and my exhaustion caught up with me. I closed my eyes.

***

A scream.

I jolted awake. Was I dreaming? A nightmare?

I sat alone in the living room. Something crashed in the kitchen, and another scream rang out.

Not a nightmare.

We were under attack.

What could I do? For all of my martial arts training, I'd never been especially good at it. Lucy always kicked my butt. Add to that my pregnancy, and the fact I'd used up all my strength earlier, and I was pretty useless in a fight—at least physically.

I hid behind the couch and peeked around the side, mentally scanning the house. The professor and Brad fought someone in the kitchen. Their thoughts spun wildly through my mind: pain, fear, anger, protectiveness towards me and my baby.

I tried to push into the attacker's mind, but he forced me away like bug repellent.

Another scream.

I pushed harder. Bright red light shot through my mind as pain swirled in and out. My head spun, held together only by sheer will and the hands I pressed to it.

A splinter of an opening grazed my mind. Little by little, I wiggled my way through the enemy's defenses until I found the pulsing center that protected him. With one great heave of energy, I attacked.

His thoughts rushed into me in such a jumble that I couldn't understand anything, but I could feel the kill instinct and knew my friends didn't have much time. It would be so easy to wrap my will around his and force him to stop.

I hated my hypocrisy even as I forced him to his knees and pried his fingers off the bloody knife in his hand.

It was too easy.

The man sucked up my energy like a dry sponge in water. I'd never felt anything like it. Something fed on my power. I tried to pull out, to release his mind, but a sticky coil had wrapped itself around my mind. I was stuck.

This connection would kill me if someone didn't beat him or knock him unconscious.

My feet carried me to the kitchen. Everything around me took on a blurry, Monet-like quality—not my favorite artist.
But wouldn't it be fun to paint the house with all the swirls I see right now? What? I'm losing it. I need to stay focused.

Brad lay on the floor, covered in blood and bruises. A large knife stuck out of the professor's chest. The world felt far away; even my emotions hovered just out of reach.

A void grew in me, a dimness that brushed away the colors of life in small strokes, leaving only grey.

The man in black looked at me. His eyes bugged out as though something pushed at them from the inside.

He fought my control with a power not his own. The Seeker.

I blasted questions into his mind.
"Where is he? Where is the Seeker? How do we find him and destroy him?"

'I can't tell you.'

"Then I'll find out for myself."

I dug—past his recent memories, past his thoughts, into the locked doors in the creepy corners of his mind.

There, as from a disorganized filing system, I extracted bits and pieces of what I needed.

It helps to have a superhero boyfriend when your own super powers die.

Drake smashed through the kitchen door just as the man in black picked his knife up off the floor and raised it above my chest.

Drake crashed into him.

I sat paralyzed while my boyfriend unleashed a rage unlike anything I'd ever seen.

A fist into the man's skull, crashing through bone and brain.

A foot through his guts, splashing intestines onto the tile floor.

Bloody shreds of body parts, no longer human, covering the kitchen.

Bile rose in my gut, and vomit forced itself out to mix with the gore.

Brad stirred, and relief filled up the parts of me not mesmerized by the horror.

He was alive.

I crawled over to him, puddles of blood staining my pajama knees. "How badly are you hurt?"

"I don't think anything's broken."

The professor still hadn't moved. His chest rose in shallow, rapid hiccups, and blood pooled around the knife stuck in his chest. "Brad, you have to call 911. Now!"

Brad pulled a cell phone from his pocket and dialed.

The blows of Drake's fists slowed and finally stopped, and the man with more power than any one person should have, slumped to the floor. "I should've been here. I thought I could protect you better if I left. I'm so sorry, Sam."

An instinct to comfort him warred with the revulsion I felt for what he'd just done.

The bloody kitchen and dead man on the floor overwhelmed my emotions, however. "The cops and ambulance will be here soon. What do we do with the body... what's left of it?"

Drake stood, walked to the sink and ran water over his hands. "We need to get out of here, before they come."

I looked up in surprise. "No! I'm not leaving Bernard until we know he's okay. He risked his life to save me tonight."

Drake dried his hands. "Then don't make his sacrifice worthless by staying and getting caught. He'd want us to leave."

Brad closed the cell phone and stared at us, his pale face lined with tears. "I can't stand the thought of leaving him, but I have to agree with Drake. Sam, I knew him best. He would want you to be somewhere safe. We need to leave, now."

I glared at Drake. "Are you going to use mind control on me if I don't?"

He dropped his head. "No. I'll stay with you, and we'll both get taken in. We won't be able to go after the Seeker. We won't be able to free your friends or the other kids. But I'll stay with you if you want."

My heart cracked into a million tiny pieces. How could I choose between them and our dear professor, the man who'd spent countless hours discussing philosophy and morality with me? I felt his pulse. His heart still beat, rapid but strong. The knife appeared to be closer to his shoulder than chest, nowhere near his heart.

My mind flashed to Ana, to her still, dead form.

Too many people had died for this. I had to stop Rent-A-Kid, once and for all.

Mr. Black threw Lucy against the white brick wall in an interrogation room. Before she could clear her ears of the buzzing, his fist crashed into her cheek and sent an explosion of pain through her head.

She raised her leg to kick him, but fell back, too dizzy and disoriented to stay on her feet.

He yelled, but it took a moment for Lucy to make sense of the words. "You little piece of shit. You put this whole operation at risk by disobeying orders!"

Another fist. A kick. Every part of her body swelled under the torment.

"You also put my job at risk, and that is not tolerable. They have let you little shits run around doing what you want for too long. Well, not under my watch."

Blood filled her mouth. Tears streaked her face. Her lungs expanded and collapsed only with an effort that took all her strength.