Mystics 3-Book Collection (61 page)

Mrs. Dupont’s cat-like eyes settled on
Zoey.

“I’m here for her,” she said, and pointed.
“I want Zoey St. John.”

Z
oey flinched. All
eyes were suddenly on her, and she strained to remain where she
stood, even though a part of her wanted to bolt. She could hear
whispers. She looked over at the faces of the agents and directors.
They were looking at her like she was a common criminal.

Zoey glared at the cat-faced woman with as
much malice as she could. Her own secret would be out soon, and
this wasn’t the way she had planned on telling the Agency.

The lights from the helicopters cast an
eerie glow on Mrs. Dupont’s grotesque features.

“Give her to me willingly and quietly and no
harm will come to you. You have my word.”

Zoey met Director Hick’s gaze, but she
couldn’t tell what he was thinking. She held her breath. Would they
give her up to save themselves?

“And if I disagree?” Director Hicks’ face
was now purple, and he looked as if her were about to explode.

Zoey exhaled.

Mrs. Dupont raised her arms. “Then my family
will destroy yours. And it will be an easy massacre. We outnumber
you ten to one. I’d say your odds are zero. I’ve already destroyed
your precious mirrors and borders with my virus. Yes, that was me.
My family is capable of much, much more devastation.”

Mrs. Dupont looked around confidently.

“Your Agencies have been meddling in our
lives for far too long. It’s time to put a stop to it. Your time is
over. The time of the Originals is about to begin.
We
are
going to rule now.”

Nazar cleared his throat. “Better hand her
over if you want to avoid bloodshed, old man. I think it’s a pretty
good deal, don’t you? One girl for the lives of all these people.
Give us the girl—”

“Over my dead body.” Agent Barnes pushed to
the front of the crowd and stood next to Zoey. He winked at her.
She tried to smile back, but her face was frozen stiff.

Mrs. Dupont removed her gloves. “You are
prepared to let all of your fellow agents die for just one girl?
How pathetic. You agents have always been overly dramatic and
sentimental - another reason why you should be crushed - you’re too
weak to rule.”

She smiled and patted her fur coat as though
it were real.

“You’re the one that’s pathetic, lady.”
Agent Barnes cocked his gun. “You come near her, and I’ll blow your
head off.”

He raised his double-barreled gun and
pointed it at Mrs. Dupont.

Deathray slipped in front of Mrs. Dupont,
covering her with her body. She raised her hand, and her red globe
glowed with fire.

Agent Barnes laughed softly. “What are you -
a circus performer? Get out of the way, lady, or I’ll shoot
through
you to get to your mistress.”

Deathray smiled mischievously. Suddenly, a
ray of red light shot from the globe. It hit Agent Barnes in the
face. He dropped his gun and screamed. Deathray kept the red ray
focused on his face, which was contorted with pain. He couldn’t
look away.

“Stop! Please stop! You’re killing him!”
screamed Zoey.

She ran to Agent Barnes and waved her hands
frantically in front of his face. She put her hands over his eyes
to block the rays, but he kept screaming. Zoey watched his face
twist and warp. Tears welled in her eyes. Agent Barnes was going to
die just like that man back at headquarters. She looked at Agent
Lee for help, but there was nothing he could do.

“Enough!” bellowed Director Hicks. “That’s
enough.”

Mrs. Dupont squeezed Deathray’s
shoulder.

“You can stop now, you’ve had your fun,” she
said lazily.

Deathray lowered her hand, the ray of red
light vanished, and the connection was lost.

Agent Barnes fell to his knees, sobbing. He
rolled into a ball on the ground, and Zoey held one of his hands in
hers. She could scarcely see through her tears.

Zoey got to her feet slowly. She trembled in
absolute anger. The man she almost considered to be her father had
nearly died.

She glowered at Deathray. She hoped the
psychotic woman could read her mind. She was going to pay for what
she’d done.

Director Hicks wiped his face with his
handkerchief and looked from Zoey to Agent Barnes. He turned his
attention back to the cat-faced woman.

“Please, we have lost many lives today. I
don’t want to lose anymore,” he sounded tired.

“Why is Zoey so important to you? She’s just
a child. Has she done something to you? Is this why you are
here?”

“My reasons are my own,” answered Mrs.
Dupont with a dry smile. “It’s simple. Give her to me, and you
live. Don’t - and you
all
die. It makes no difference to me,
really.”

Directors Campbell and Martin exchanged dark
looks. Then Director Martin moved towards Director Hicks and spoke
to him. They turned and looked at her.

For a horrible moment, she thought they were
going to give her to the Alphas. A warm hand wrapped around hers.
She and Tristan didn’t need to share words - she knew what he was
thinking. She squeezed his hand back.

“I’m getting real tired of waiting,” said
Mrs. Dupont, sounding bored. “I haven’t come all this way in my
favorite outfit for nothing. I’m giving you twenty seconds to
decide. Zoey,” she pointed a thin finger, “…or we will kill every
last one of you. You choose.”

Director Hicks was sweating profusely. “This
is a very serious matter; we need time to discuss it. We won’t give
you one of our own without knowing all the facts.”

“She’s
not
one of our own,”
interjected Director Campbell. She looked at Zoey contemptuously.
“She’s a Drifter. We hardly even
know
her. How do we even
know she’s not working with them right now? They’ve just told us
that they poisoned our mirrors.”

Her dark eyes settled on Zoey. “And by the
looks of it,
she
helped them. They’re in this together. This
is a trap—she is one of
them
!”

Zoey lost her voice in her throat for a
moment, and then she found it.

“No, I’m not. I didn’t poison the mirrors. I
would never do something like that. I’m
not
with
them
.”

She glared at Director Campbell. She knew
the woman had never liked her, but she had no idea that she hated
her so much.

“She’s a liar,” spat Director Martin. He
turned towards Director Hicks. “She’s not worth all our lives. This
woman is right. There are too many of them. We wouldn’t survive
another fight. I say we give her to them.”

Zoey heard mutters of agreement amongst some
of the other agents. A terrible feeling stirred in the pit of her
stomach.

“Martin, you’re a coward.” Agent Lee aimed
his gun right in Director Martin’s face.

“I hate cowards.”

Director Martin stepped back, trembling.
“How dare you point your gun at me? I’m a
Director!
”

Agent Lee shrugged. “And I’m directing my
gun in your face.”

“Enough!” Director Hicks pushed Agent Lee’s
gun from Director Martin’s face. “There must be a way to settle
things without any bloodshed.”

“Yes, and that’s by handing over the girl,”
said Director Martin. “Don’t be a fool, Hicks.” He gestured to
Zoey, “Her—for all of us.”

Director Hicks hesitated, and Zoey’s face
slackened.

“Just a second,” said Tristan, loudly. “Zoey
just risked her life to steal the cure from this freak show.” He
looked at Mrs. Dupont. “You all should be thanking Zoey, not
feeding her to the wolves.”

“Thank her?” laughed Director Martin, “She
just
led
them straight to us. She’s with them!”

“I’m not,” said Zoey, but her voice was
drowned in the angry shouts from the crowd. “I’m not!”

Director Hicks’ red face had turned to a
sickly green. He looked as though he had made his decision. Just as
he started to speak, Agent Barnes grabbed his ankle.

“Don’t!” Agent Barnes voice rasped, and his
bloody eyes looked like someone had thrown salt in them.

“This is wrong. You know it is. Zoey needs
our protection. We can’t let them have her.”

“Time’s up!” declared Mrs. Dupont with a
smile. The Alphas prepared to attack.

Directors Campbell and Martin grabbed Zoey
and pushed her towards Mrs. Dupont and Nazar. It took her a few
seconds to realize what they were doing, and then she kicked and
screamed as hard as she could.

Tristan’s skin suddenly shone blue, and he
hurled both the astonished directors to the ground.

“Thanks,” said Zoey.

“No problem.” Tristan’s dark eyes met hers
for a second, and Zoey felt her face burn.

“You do realize that you might get expelled
for this?” she said, a little out of breath.

“It was worth it. They were getting on my
nerves.”

Zoey suddenly looked concerned. “Tristan -
where’s Simon?”

Tristan glanced over his shoulder. “He was
standing next to me a second ago—”

“KILL THEM ALL!” roared Mrs. Dupont, “And
get the girl!”

With a wild chorus of war cries, and then
the clash of metal against metal and fists against flesh, the Alpha
army attacked.

The onslaught exploded onto the grounds with
such ferocity and speed that Zoey was stunned. The Alphas fought
like machines, as if they were powered by some invisible force.
They looked like they would never tire.

She saw Director Hicks go down under a wave
of Alphas. Agent Vargas looked like a medieval warrior as he swung
a giant club and sent three Alphas flying across the grounds. Even
Agent Ward fought like a champion as he thrust his long silver
sword into the gut of an Alpha man with two heads. For a second
Zoey thought she saw Aria swinging two large pots, but she
disappeared in the chaos, too. Even though the agents and directors
were fighting two or three opponents at the same time and doing
their best to stay alive, Zoey could see that the Alphas were going
to overpower them quickly. Could they beat such foes?

Zoey tried not to show her panic.

Agent Lee shot an Alpha man that looked like
a human refrigerator. But just as he was reloading his gun, another
Alpha with giant bat wings launched itself onto his back and began
tearing at his flesh. He spun and hit it repeatedly with the end of
his gun, but the Alpha clung on, biting and slashing.

“Zoey, Agent Lee needs help,” said Tristan
as he brandished two daggers. “Stay close, and be careful.”

“I will.” Zoey watched Tristan charge at the
giant bat, slash its wings, and finally pull it off Agent Lee. Then
they stood together, back-to-back, and deflected more attacks, just
like she and Tristan used to do.

Zoey saw Agent Barnes try to get up, falter
and fall back down. His face was riddled with pain. Zoey rushed
over to his aid.

“Stay down,” she said and looked over her
shoulder to see if any Alphas were coming their way. “You’re not
well enough to fight.”

“They need my help,” rasped Agent
Barnes.

“You can’t do anything to help them like
this. You’ll get killed. Here, lean on me.”

Zoey pulled Agent Barnes to his feet. “I’ll
get you to a safe place for now, until your strength returns.”

With strength she didn’t know she possessed,
she hauled Agent Barnes over to the side of the Hive.

Agent Barnes slipped to the ground. “Thank
you, Zoey. I wish…I wish I could help. I feel so useless.”

“Just stay here,” she ordered, “and don’t
try to get up. Not yet. I’ll see you later.”

“Be careful, Little Red.”

Zoey turned and faced the battle. She could
see Mrs. Dupont and Nazar watching the battle eagerly. She decided
to deal with the cat-lady later.

With adrenaline filling her with savage
fearlessness, she grabbed her boomerang and then charged into the
mayhem.

Tristan was fighting the bear-man in
hand-to-hand combat. They were perfectly matched, and Zoey wasn’t
sure who would win. She ran across the blood-covered snow of the
central yard.

Crack!

Something latched itself around her
neck.

Zoey flew backwards into the air and landed
hard on the ground. Something was choking her. She tried to pull it
off her windpipe and winced as it burned her fingers. Green energy
from the whip danced around her head. She used her boomerang to pry
off the burning rope, took in a shaky breath, and rose to her feet
again.

An Alpha man advanced slowly towards her. An
electrical green whip dangled at his side like a twelve-foot snake.
He curled his lip. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Even though blood roared in Zoey’s ears, she
waved her boomerang at him.

“You know, Indiana Jones already did the
whip thing. You just look stupid. Come on, cowboy,” she said.

The man gritted his teeth. “We’re not
supposed to
kill
you, but no one said we couldn’t hurt you.
I’m going to whip you real good, girl.”

With a crack like thunder, he swung the whip
at her.

The tip of the whip grazed her cheek, and
she felt it burn. The man lashed three more times. She avoided the
first two and parried the third with the end of her boomerang. She
flinched at the sting of electricity that twisted around the
boomerang’s metal surface.

“You’re good,” said the man.

“You’re too kind,” responded Zoey.

“
Anyone who hasn’t got a
little bit of talent is not worth killing.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

He raised his eyebrows and pulled another
whip from the folds of his red uniform. Only this one shone with
red energy. He lashed the two whips like a circus performer about
to discipline a tiger.

“You’re not really playing fair,” remarked
Zoey. “You’re already
twice
my size. I’m just a
fourteen-and-a-half-year-old girl. Give a kid a break.”