Mind Over Easy (19 page)

Erica felt Redican enter her mind and she put her plan into action. With dozens of lives worth of memories, Erica had access to more storage than most. She jumped from memory to memory and life to life as fast as her brain could handle. Erica watched Redican begin to shake as he tried to process all of Erica's thoughts at once. Redican let out a gasp of pain as he went down to one knee. Erica could feel her legs again and used them to run out the back door.

Erica had gotten about a block down Main Street when she turned back. Redican didn't appear to be in pursuit. She passed by the empty gazebo when a girl a couple of years her junior grabbed Erica from behind.

"You think you can escape?" The girl's eyes looked enraged. "You think you can have the living soul all to yourself?"

Erica looked back toward the coffee shop and saw Redican walking slowly toward her. She pushed the girl away from her and continued to run away.

When she checked on her pursuer, a running stroller crashed into her side and sent her into the pavement. The mother and her child screamed at Erica in unison as they went for another pass. This time, Erica leapt over the stroller and kept going without turning around. She heard a short, repetitive honking noise and tried to outrun it. Two cyclists zipped down the street and closed in on her from either side.

The biker with the longest reach grabbed for Erica. "There's no use."

The other one made like he was preparing to ram her. "You'll suffer. He'll suffer."

Erica jumped and did a split kick in midair. Both bikers hit the pavement hard and Erica grabbed one of their bicycles. She'd made it about a block and a half before she felt her legs fall under Redican's command. She did a U-turn and headed back toward her teacher. Erica attempted to reach into her purse and alert Ted through her phone, but she felt like her hands were glued to the handlebars. As she got closer to her teacher, Erica hopped off the bike and let it careen down the street until it turned sideways and skidded along the blacktop.

As Erica reached the ground, she tried her last ditch effort. With all her effort, she dove toward Redican and sent a bolt of blue electricity between her hands. If she could reach him, perhaps she'd be able to put him under her thrall. Her legs got within two feet, but they never came close enough to his body to do any damage. She was stuck in place, and Redican easily shut her power off like he might fix a leaky faucet.

"All these lifetimes, all these powers." Redican walked up to her frozen body. "Wouldn't it just be easier if you were a regular teenager?"

Erica gasped. "No, please!"

As Redican touched her forehead, Erica could feel the world slip away from her as she collapsed to the ground.

Chapter 31

As Ted crashed through the door to an unknown area of the building, he felt the sting of at least three rubber bullets colliding with his body. The pain was immense, and he was certain his alarming speed toward the shooters had made the impact even worse. Distracted from his flight path, Ted caromed into a wall and crashed to the ground. His shoulder got the worst of the landing, sending even more pain through his body. He felt woozy when he looked up at the guards as they readied their weapons to fire a second volley. He reached back toward them and used his mind to smash the guns into the wall.

His vision wasn't at 100%, but he could still see the three figures coming toward him ready to kill him the old-fashioned way. Ted would have gladly obliged some hand-to-hand combat if he'd had more time. Instead, he pointed at the largest of the three, lifted his body into the air with his powers and swung it around by the legs like a rag doll. The man-turned-weapon screamed as his body smacked into the other two guards. The crack of skull on skull knocked all three of them unconscious. Ted laid them on top of each other and shook off the mental cobwebs. Instead of flying, he went running at super speed down the corridor, willing his legs to move faster than ever before.

Natalie would kill for these legs
.

Ted went through another door, which led to a hallway that resembled a prison. Two guards stood in front of a room that Ted rightly assumed led to his captured friend.

The nervousness he'd previously felt had vanished. Between the pain and the slight dizziness, Ted was running on pure instinct. He put his hands on his hips and puffed up his chest at the guards. "Hey, guys. My friend is in there and the two of us need some private time."

One of the guards took one look at Ted and ran in the opposite direction. Ted couldn't help but laugh, which seemed to demoralize the remaining guard.

"I don't want any trouble." The guard's declaration came out more like a question. "Just stay away, OK?"

Ted continued to walk toward the guard. The man fired a shot. Ted used a flick of his hand to guide the bullet around his body and into the door behind him. Another shot fired out of the guard's gun, and once again Ted moved the projectile around him. His confidence started to grow.

I am such a beast right now.

When the guard fired a third time, Ted stopped the rubber bullet in midair, turned it back around and placed it against the guard's forehead. He dropped his gun.

"You say you don't want trouble." Ted floated the man up in the air. "Then you shoot at me. With a gun. It's kind of a mixed message."

The man whimpered. "I'm realizing that now."

Ted shook his head. "Stay up there for a while, will ya? Shout if any more guards come in."

"No promises." The man's legs flailed as Ted opened the door to Natalie's cell.

The room was dim, but once Ted's eyes adjusted, he could see Natalie right away. She was chained to the wall and had red-stained gauze wrapped around her hands. Ted used his mind to rip the chain off the wall and unlatch Natalie's wrists and ankles.

Natalie looked up at him with a sly smile. "I thought I heard some idiot running in here."

"Are you alright?" Ted ran over to Natalie and put his arm over her shoulder. They hugged.

"Not anything a little choking won't solve." Natalie flexed her free arms and legs. "I'm sorry about your mom."

Ted felt the anger tie in with his adrenaline. The GHAers had injured him mom and chained his ex-girlfriend to a wall. Somebody would have to pay for this.

"Thanks. She'll be okay." Ted gripped Natalie's waist with his arms. "But we're gonna need to move fast to do the same."

Natalie nodded. As Ted was about to take back off, he heard the floating guard's shout echoing through the hallway.

"He's in here with the girl!"

Ted grinned.

"What are you so happy about?" Natalie asked.

Ted pulled away from Natalie and used his powers to shut the door to the room before twisting the handle and lock all out of shape. "The guy actually did what I asked him to do."

Several of the guards attempted to enter the room, but Ted had broken the handle and fixed the lock in place. They pounded on the door with no chance of getting in.

Ted felt a sense of pride. "And now the guards are trapped."

"So are we." Natalie let out her trademark growl. "Was this all part of your plan?"

Ted's excitement sunk. "Um." He looked around. "It was part one?"

Natalie shook her head. "Come over here. I've got an idea."

Ted followed Natalie to a part of the wall that sported a six-inch crack.

She gestured to it. "Well? Do your thing."

Ted cocked his head sideways. "What's my thing?"

"Ugh!" Natalie put her hand over her face. "It's so hard to find good heroes these days." She moved Ted's shoulders until he directly faced the crack. "Use your powers to grow the crack until it busts a hole through the wall. Do you think you can do that?" Natalie looked back at the door as one of the four hinges holding it snapped off and fell to the ground. "And quickly?"

"Alright, alright. I'm not a mind reader." Ted did as he was told. As soon as he started to concentrate on the crack, it doubled in size. The crack spread throughout the wall and Ted could hear the sounds of breaking wood and ripping insulation. When the crack had gotten large enough, he made a pushing motion and a hole the size of a garage door smashed through the side of the building.

Light streamed into the room and Natalie shook her head. "See, now was that so hard?"

Ted felt like he'd just bench-pressed a Buick, but he didn't want to share that with the strongest girl in town. "Easy-peasy. Let's fly."

Ted put his arms around Natalie's waist. She tightly gripped him back, and they flew out of the building.

"Where are we going? The lair?" Natalie had to speak loudly to get over the sound of the air whipping past them.

Ted did the same. "No. We're going to turn ourselves in."

"Seems counterproductive."

Ted laughed. "I've got the first half of another plan."

They circled the building and landed in the parking lot. As they did, Ted and Natalie came face to face with the DHS agents, Cobblestone's security detail and the GHA leader himself. Ted didn't enjoy having a dozen guns trained on him, but he figured it was better to face the music now than to attempt to be a celebrity fugitive.

"I want this criminal arrested for assault and causing massive damage to my property." Cobblestone stomped around, but Ted imagined this was exactly how he wanted things to shake out. It amazed him how some of the most terrible people in the world were killer actors.

"Do what you want with me." Ted looked toward Agents Vott and Harding, who had joined the rest of the agents in the gun-pointing party. "Natalie was here all night, chained to a wall. The evidence is pretty compelling that the GHA framed her for trying to kill my family."

"I will admit to kicking one guy in the junk, though. " Natalie frown turned upward for a moment. "As long as we're being honest."

Ted looked for a reaction from Vott. He put down his weapon and walked over to Ted.

"You shouldn't have done that." He looked over at Natalie and back at Cobblestone. "Now it's your word against his. There's no way any of his guards will back up your story."

"I have proof!" The voice that echoed through the parking lot surprised Ted more than the rubber bullets had. It was none other than GHA bully Travis Conner. "We had a security feed on Natalie all night. She couldn't have done it."

Ted looked at Natalie. "But why would he...?"

Natalie touched his arm. "And the truth shall set you free."

Travis held a flash drive in his hand, which Ted snatched using his mind and guided to Vott's hands. "There's your evidence."

As Travis passed by Cobblestone's security detail, the GHA leader lunged forward and slapped the boy in the face. Travis fell to the ground, and the DHS agents pointed their guns at Cobblestone.

"Tell your men to holster their weapons, Cobblestone." Agent Harding's voice seemed to go down an octave when he made the command. "You're coming with us."

After the DHS had gathered up Cobblestone and his guards, an EMT tended to Natalie's wounds at the back of an ambulance.

"I thought you'd really turned to the dark side." Ted examined one of the welts from his rubber bullet wounds. "It was scary."

Natalie grimaced as the EMT put some iodine on her cuts. "It had to be convincing or else they weren't going to buy it. Some good it did."

Ted put his hand on Natalie's face. "My mom is going to be fine. Besides, Vott said that Cobblestone is bound to get some jail time for this. You did good, Nat."

Ted wanted to kiss Natalie right then. He had a feeling she felt the same way. Ted reached up and kissed her on the forehead instead.

After Natalie was all patched up, Ted turned down a ride from the agents and hitched one with her instead.

When the car pulled into Ted's driveway, someone on Ted's front porch came into sight. At first, neither of them could make out who the figure was. Natalie turned off the engine and walked by Ted's side of the car as he flipped on the porch light with his mind.

"Hey, baby." The familiar voice was slurred. "I was wondering if you'd ever get home."

Erica took a swig from a clear bottle until she'd sucked out the last drop. She let the bottle fall down the stairs and land in the grass of the front yard.

Ted moved with alarming speed to the base of the porch. "Erica?"

Erica stumbled when she tried to get up. When she found her footing, she put her arms around Ted, paying no mind to Natalie standing to their right.

"I know you missed me so much." Erica blew her vodka-laden breath onto Ted's face. "But don't you worry. I'm back."

PART FOUR

Chapter 32

Jennifer inspected the gun to ensure it could be used if needed. Being a sheriff's only child came with weapon-related perks. She'd grown up on firing ranges and even spent one of her birthday parties shooting targets and plastic milk jugs with her best friends. She knew her way around a handgun better than most suburban teens, but Jennifer could tell that Dhiraj didn't care about any of that. His skin had grown several shades paler since the reveal of the weapon.

"If we're going up there, I don't think you should bring that with you." Beads of sweat rolled down Dhiraj's forehead.

Jennifer reached over her friend to pull a holster out of the compartment as well. "It's for self-defense. This guy is a murderer."

Dhiraj took Jennifer's wrist in a tight grip. "I understand that. There's just a lot of emotion tied up in this. It's better to let people who aren't involved handle things."

Jennifer mulled over Dhiraj's argument. It was sound, but she needed to see Daly squirm. She had to be the one to make him pay.

Dhiraj could tell his words weren't hitting home. "You've tried to kiss me twice this week, and the only reason I didn't reciprocate is because I love you."

Jennifer's train of thought halted. She looked straight into Dhiraj's eyes as if he were some kind of curiosity. That's when things all started to line up for her. Dhiraj had always been flirty, though she'd chalked that up to his personality. But when you combined the flirtation with the 7th grade field hockey fundraiser, the years of awkward conversations, Dhiraj's relationship with her father and his efforts to save her on the auditorium stage, it was pretty obvious.