The Forbidden Trilogy (38 page)

She yelled at Luke and pushed him. "No, he needs us. We
have to help him."

"We can't, Luce. We'll all die if we go back."

Adam's voice shook the field. "Go, Girl. Must go."

A guard charged Adam and he tossed him aside like a ragdoll.
They emptied their guns into him, to no avail. He ripped through their
defensive lines, knocked them unconscious, twisted their guns like a clown with
a balloon animal.

His roar filled the dark night—part human, part beast.

Lucy couldn't pull her eyes from the amazing creature.

Finally, Luke's arm tugged at her, and she allowed him to lead
her to the landing pad outside the facility. She barely noticed the bullets
still whizzing past their heads.

The helicopter rested on an empty field over a hill.

Luke buckled them both in. As the chopper lifted off, Lucy
sobbed until she hiccupped, unable to stop.

A few minutes later, the pilot handed Lucy a phone. She took
a few deep breaths before answering. "Hello."

"Did you get it?" Mr. Black growled.

"Yes. But Dr. Koslov was killed. The data is
useless."

"You little bitch. You have no idea how royally you've
messed up. I'll deal with you and your brother when you get back."

Lucy handed the phone back to the pilot and slumped against
Luke, who put his arm around her. "It's going to be all right, Sis. We'll
figure it out."

She slipped her hand into her jacket pocket and rubbed the
smooth contours of the strange sphere. Another wave of tingling heat coursed
through her.

Maybe it would be all right after all.

My thoughts had finally calmed and my eyes had just closed,
when Brad called to me from the living room. "Sam, check this out!"

I sighed, pulled myself out of bed and went to him.
"What's up?"

He looked up at me from his computer at the dining room
table. "Sorry, were you sleeping?"

"Almost."

He pointed to his computer screen. "I thought you'd
want to see this right away."

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 toward
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.

Then my powers failed completely.

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.