Lethal Engagement (An Unbounded Novella) (17 page)

Jace gave an elaborate shrug. “We’ll be okay. Someone called the police. Hear those sirens?”

I did now, though I hadn’t before. Jace’s combat ability made his senses better than most.

Jace continued with a grin, “Cort made a call to the Secret Service to come as well, just in case the police here have Emporium spies within their department. But we’ve told everyone that Patrick is in a secure location, so I doubt the Emporium will send more men. Cort and I are about to make ourselves scarce. You’d better report in once Patrick really is secure. No doubt they’ll want to bury him under more Secret Service.”

“No way,” I said. “We can’t have more deaths on our hands. Look at those men in there.”

Jace’s levity disappeared. “I agree. I don’t know if they’ll make it.”

The woman Agent Chance had found in the pantry was already dead, but I didn’t know where her body was now or who had killed her. Maybe one of the poisoned agents was working for Hunters or the Emporium. At this point, nothing would surprise me. The Emporium didn’t care about rewarding mortals even for their loyalty, any more than they felt inclined to reward a stray dog they’d sent on a suicide mission.

“Well, have fun,” I said to Jace, mentally pinpointing Patrick’s location.

His grin was back. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing?”

I rolled my eyes. Patrick’s location wasn’t changing, so I hoped that meant they’d gotten Lucinda to a hospital. I fished out my cell and texted him to see if he was alone. No response. “Patrick’s not responding to tell me if it’s safe to shift there. Maybe he’s busy with Lucinda.”

“What about Noah?” Keene said.

I nodded. “She’s nearby. Not with Patrick but close.”

“I have her cell number.” Jace pulled out his phone and texted faster than I could follow with my eyes. After a few seconds, he said, “She’s clear.”

I nodded at Keene, taking his hand, and the increased clarity of my numbers was notable. I might have eventually learned enough to shift someone without Keene’s help, but I wouldn’t be able to do it now, not with how weak I felt.

We appeared close to Noah, almost materializing inside a grouping of chairs, until I changed numbers at the last moment. She blinked at us as we turned up on her other side instead. “Wow, that takes some getting used to.”

“How is she?” We were in a waiting room of some type, with a TV blaring and surveillance cameras whose footage I’d have to ask Patrick or Stella to track down so we could erase evidence of my shift.

Noah frowned. “If all that lovey-dovey jabbering on the way here was any indication, Luce is going to be just fine. She even felt well enough to respond to a few texts.”

“I’d better get to Patrick.” I started for the door.

“They won’t let you.” Noah sank into the chair behind her. “Only family.”

“I’m his fiancée.”

“Actually, he said he was
her
fiancé. It was the only way they’d let him go back with her.”

Right.
Lucinda was the patient not Patrick. “I’ll shift to him then.”

“He should be right back.” Noah glanced at the time on her phone. “She was really worried about going by herself. It’s the only reason he even went with her.”

A tingling of unease hit me. “She’s safe now and feeling better, but she still wanted him to go with her? That’s odd. She’d know it’s safer for him to stay with you.” I glanced at Keene, feeling suddenly nauseated at the suspicion crawling into my mind.

Noah nodded. “Yeah, but no one knows we’re here. I thought it was safe.”

I reached for Patrick’s location as I said, “Susan was firing at the Emporium back at Patrick’s. She didn’t poison anyone. And it certainly wasn’t Agent Chance, and everyone else is unconscious. Something doesn’t add up.”

“Lucinda,” Keene whispered.

My thoughts exactly.

Noah didn’t have much combat practicality, but she understood what we were saying. “No, not her. Luce loves Patrick.”

“Then a tracking device or something. Or maybe Patrick and Lucinda were followed to Europe. We need to get to Patrick now.” Keene took my hand, his synergy pushing me. “Go!”

I shook my head, panic flooding into my speech. “I can’t find Patrick. He’s vanished!” I didn’t see how it was possible. I was the only Unbounded I knew with the ability to shift, much less take someone with me. He couldn’t be gone that fast. I had the horrible feeling that Patrick’s missing signal might mean he was already dead.

“Here I’ll give you—” More intensity leaked from Keene. I felt dizzy, sick, ready to fly to not one but maybe a billion different locations. At the same time.

I squeezed his hand. “Stop, or you really are going to blow me up.” I tried to keep my voice light, but I felt I was only holding my atoms together through sheer will.

Keene nodded and the pressure backed off. “Keep it ready, though,” I added. Once more, I searched for Patrick’s number among the many that filled my mind. Nothing.

“He’s not here in the hospital. Or anywhere nearby.”

“But he was just here!” Noah catapulted from her chair. Her hand went inside her jacket, reaching for her gun.

“Wait. I see Lucinda.” That white with the dark edges stood out clearly. I pulled her numbers closer. “She’s still in the hospital, I believe. Maybe a different wing. And she’s moving. Or someone’s moving her.”

“Could something be blocking you from Patrick?” Keene said. “Like how the electrical grid at the Fortress prevents you from shifting outside when it’s on?”

“You mean maybe the hospital equipment?” His words gave me hope.

“I was thinking something more along the lines of the Emporium.”

“Either way, he might still be here, and Lucinda should know what happened. We’d better alert Jace and Cort.”

Keene raised the cell phone in his hand. “Just sent the emergency signal. They’ll be tracking us.”

His synergy flared again, and with his help, I pulled Lucinda’s numbers towards us. An image rippled into existence. I blinked to see Lucinda walking alone, if somewhat shakily, down a hallway. Her gray pantsuit was rumpled and her short hair was tangled worse than when I’d seen her last. She looked dazed but determined as she placed one foot in front of the other.

“Let’s go!” Noah urged.

I was tempted to leave Noah behind, but something definitely wasn’t right here, and although she wasn’t good at combat, she was trained. We had no clue if we were going up against just Lucinda, Hunters, or the Emporium, but one more body might mean the difference in a battle for Patrick’s life.

“Okay.” I dipped my head toward Keene, slipping my arm around him, mostly to ease the plastic bacon into his back pocket. We could be facing more than we could handle, and just in case, I wanted him to have it. I hated the possibility of never knowing how our game might end. “I’m ready.”

Power rushed through my body as I folded Lucinda’s location around us.

A GLANCE UP AND DOWN
the hallway told me Lucinda was alone. Yellow caution tape blocked off one end of the hall, but I couldn’t tell if that was to keep people out of this area or from crossing into the next. I still couldn’t see Patrick’s location.

Lucinda’s back was toward us when we appeared, but she rotated unsteadily as she heard our arrival. One hand went out to the wall for support. “How did you get here?” she demanded sharply.

“Where’s Patrick?” Noah asked. “Why are you out of bed?”

Lucinda’s nostrils flared. “He doesn’t need you anymore. Any of you.”

“Who has him?” Noah flew across the ten feet separating us from Lucinda. She placed her hands on the taller woman’s shoulders and looked into her eyes. “Please!”

“Has him?” Lucinda gave an unladylike snort. “Like I’d tell you anything.”

Noah’s arms dropped. “But I’m your friend—and Patrick’s.”

“Patrick’s. Yeah, right.” Lucinda’s jaw thrust out. “I know all about your
friendship.
Mooning over him until I grow old and die and he turns to you for comfort. Tempting him, seducing him, with your voice. Stealing all his attention—and that of everyone else who listens to you sing. Not the kind of friendship I need.”

“You have it all wrong,” Noah said, pain evident in her voice. “I’m the one who urged him to go to you when everyone else said to let you go. Please, Luce, think of Patrick. He loves you.”

“I
am
thinking of Patrick!” Lucinda continued to glare at Noah. “I’m
only
thinking of him! You don’t deny it, do you? That you’re in love with him?”

“Lucinda.” I took several steps toward them, feeling as if my legs weighed seventy pounds each.
Shifting too many people in too short of time.
I should be helping Keene, who was opening doors near us and peering inside, but for now I’d have to leave it to him. Besides, I was sure that Lucinda was the key to everything. “We went back to the house, and Emporium agents were there looking for Patrick. They tried to kill everyone. And there were snipers at the school today. Their guns weren’t something ordinary people can buy. Not even Hunters. Whatever these people told you, that’s their plan—to kill him.”

“She knows that.” Keene’s chin lifted in challenge, his hand pausing on the next doorknob. “Don’t you, Lucinda? You didn’t go to the school today because you knew about the attack. When it didn’t succeed, you killed the agent in the kitchen so you could put the poison in the food.”

“Luce?” Noah’s eyes beseeched hers. “It’s not true, is it? You were poisoned yourself.”

“She didn’t think it would happen that fast,” Keene continued. “Not until we all ate it. She didn’t know I planned to check our food.” To Lucinda, he added, “I bet they said they’d give you an antidote.” A flash of something in Lucinda’s face told us he’d guessed right.

Noah’s hand came up over her mouth. “Oh, Luce, no. They weren’t going to. They never do! The Emporium doesn’t care about mortals. What have you done? I know you love Patrick.”

“You know nothing!” Lucinda’s voice rose to a screech.

Noah didn’t back down. “That’s why you ate that chicken. You didn’t want to see what they were going to do to him!”

“Shut up, shut up, shut up!” Lucinda clamped her hands over her ears.

“Where is he?” Noah grabbed Lucinda’s arms and shook her.

Lucinda slumped against Noah as if she needed to lean on her for comfort, but the next instant she was upright again with a knife in her hand. She whirled Noah around and pulled her close, holding the knife against her throat. The quickness of it and her crazed eyes froze me into place. She put her mouth close to Noah’s ear. “Never expected that I’d use your own knife against you. You really shouldn’t be carrying any weapons. You’d never have the stomach to use them.”

“Luce, what are you doing?” Noah was still calm, but fear laced the words. “We’re friends!”

“We were
never
friends. The Hunters are right. We’re nothing but animals to you guys. The only way the world will be safe is if there are no more Unbounded.”

“Including Patrick?” Seconds clicked by in my mind. Each one that passed meant an increasing chance that Patrick would be killed, if he hadn’t been already. But we couldn’t abandon Noah to Lucinda, not if there was any chance she’d end up captured by either the Hunters or the Emporium. Since no hospital employees or security had yet come to investigate our very loud exchange, it wasn’t likely their officers would be any help. I would have shifted to Lucinda then, but Keene’s hand on my arm stopped me. His face was drawn as he stared at something past me down the hall. I risked a quick glance behind but saw no one.

“Please,” Noah said to Lucinda, “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

I’d started wondering why Noah didn’t try to free herself from Lucinda, who still had to be feeling the effects of the poison. Noah wasn’t great at fighting, but she was trained, and we’d certainly jump in to help. Guess that was my answer—she really did love Lucinda.

“I don’t care what happens to me,” Lucinda cried. “Patrick’s different now!”

I shrugged off Keene’s hand and inched closer. This hospital was large and she had information that I was going to get from her one way or another. “He’s who he’s supposed to be.”

“No! He’s not!”

“Changing doesn’t mean you become someone else,” I said. “It’s like growing up or learning a new language. Inside, Patrick’s still who he always was. He still loves you.”

“That’s right!” Noah jumped in. “He still likes Mexican restaurants and long walks on the beach. He still hiccups funny. He buys you flowers and remembers your special dates. He knows you hate chocolate but will eat anything with salt. He’s the same man.”

“No, no,” moaned Lucinda. “He’s different. He’s stronger, more confident. Not afraid of anything.” Her voice began to rise with each point. “He doesn’t get sick. He barely needs sleep. He doesn’t age. He can do a dozen things with his mind at the same time.” She was nearly screaming now. “He never forgets anything because he files it away and can access it with that stupid neural transmitter. So don’t tell me he’s the same. He’s not! And he’s still changing. The Hunters are right. He’ll become a monster just like the one who murdered my baby and destroyed my life.”

“He won’t!” Noah twisted her neck, struggling to look at Lucinda, unheeding of the knife at her throat. “Not Patrick. He’s one of the good guys! All those changes you talk about are good ones. You
know
him. He’s a good man. He’s sacrificed his own goals to help the world. How can you say he’ll become a monster?”