The Forbidden Trilogy (52 page)

Before Lucy could register the movement, Beleth raised his
gun and shot Morrison in the head, silencing him. Lucy choked back a sob.
"No. What did you do?"

Beleth spoke as if she hadn't said anything, as if he hadn't
just killed a man. "What is your answer?"

Seriously? He thinks we'll go with him now?

Luke had the same idea. "We're not going anywhere with
you scumbags. Ever."

Beleth sighed without any melodrama, then nodded once.
Robert lifted his hand. The sphere thrummed again and Luke flew through the air
and was pushed into the airplane wall. His limbs spread apart and Lucy could
hear cracking.

"Leave my brother alone!" She looked to Beleth,
then Robert, but they did nothing to stop.

She looked back to her brother. His mouth opened in a scream
of pure agony, but no sound emerged.

Beleth gestured to Luke. "Your brother's lungs are
collapsing. If Robert releases him soon, he will not suffer permanent damage,
but wait too long and he won't recover. Consider your choices carefully,
Lucy."

His fingers bent back, pushed to near breaking by the
invisible force that controlled him. His limbs twisted in unnatural ways. Lucy
tried to run to him, to help him, but a force stopped her, paralyzing her and
forcing her to watch her brother be tortured to death.

She couldn't move toward Luke, so she moved to the side,
grabbing Morrison's gun from his detached hand, fingers slipping on the blood.
She lifted it, aimed and shot Robert in the chest.

Luke collapsed to the ground and groaned in pain.

Lucy shook and dropped the gun as her body went into shock.
The plane shifted down, and Lucy slid across the floor.

Robert was dying and could no longer suspend the plane in
the sky.

Beleth and his men grabbed onto seats to steady themselves.
Soldiers and IPI Agents fell. Everyone drew guns, shooting at each other. Lucy
knew Luke was too exhausted to stop the bullets. More people died as the plane
tilted in the sky, suspended by metal cables attached to the helicopter above.

Robert writhed on the floor, the bullet to his chest killing
him slowly. Lucy didn't want to watch, but couldn't seem to pull her eyes from
the scene.

Beleth knelt next to his dying friend, his voice low but
still commanding. "Robert, you have served us well and now, your mission
has come to an end. Rest assured, your family will be well cared for, and you
will be missed."

Robert grunted, unable to speak, but nodded his consent to a
fast death.

Beleth placed his gun under his friend's chin. A tear, shiny
and black, leaked from Beleth's eye as he pulled the trigger, and that one
bullet sounded louder than the hundreds that had come before.

Lucy's stomach lodged in her throat as the plane plunged
forward more, the cables attaching it to the helicopter above stretched beyond
capacity. Bethel looked at her, not with anger or despair, as she'd expected,
but with that same stillness that so aggravated her.

His voice boomed in the cabin. "You've made your
decision."

A flicker of doubt plagued her. Had it been the right one?
She looked around at the dead men, agents and soldiers piling up at the back of
the plane as it hung from the sky. How could this have been the right choice?
But giving in, going with them, that wouldn't have been right either.

Bethel's words from earlier haunted her.
"Sometimes
there are no right decisions."

The plane shook and strained against the cables, until one
snapped, jerking the plane into a twisted limbo in the sky.

Bethel let go of his seat and allowed himself to fall toward
Lucy, grabbing her. He yelled to the only soldier who survived the massacre.
"Get the boy."

Lucy shoved against his rock hard chest. She might as well
have pushed against a brick wall. He wrapped his arms around her and locked her
in a death-like grip, a mockery of a loving embrace. She couldn't move,
couldn't fight him, couldn't escape. He pulled her to the hatch, presumably
trying to get her onto the helicopter above them before this plane crashed and
burned.

Luke struggled with his own captor. He made more headway
than her, marginally. Their circumstances didn't allow for much in the way of
true fighting, and Luke remained exhausted after his torture.

The men made it to the hatch, cables hanging and waiting for
them to attach themselves so they could be pulled to the helicopter.

Lucy couldn't let them capture her and her brother. This
could be the only chance they had to escape; once they were onboard the
helicopter, it would be near impossible with the level of para-power and
manpower Beleth controlled. She thought fast, assessing her tools. Their
parachutes were still attached, as were their tank-less breathing systems and
backpacks. Below them, the ocean swirled and consumed the world. The dark sky
beckoned like a black hole into nothing.

Still, better than the alternative. With her
crazy-suicidal-probably-will-die-trying plan in place, Lucy waited until Bethel
released her in order to hook her to the cables. When his partner did the same
with Luke, Lucy tackled her brother... and pushed him out of the plane.

She held him tightly as they dropped into the night. Luke
returned her grip and smiled.
Such a guy!

"Hope you have a plan here, Luce. Not that I don't love
a good adrenaline high," he said through the rush of wind and the sting of
rain.

Breaths came in small, shallow pulses, but at least they
were free.

"Um, Sis, we've got company."

Lucy looked up, and nearly choked on the rain when her mouth
fell open in shock. Bethel had jumped out of the plane in pursuit. Head first
like a rocket, and gaining ground.
What the hell? He isn't wearing a
parachute. Is he insane?

He sliced through the sky as fluidly as his sword had sliced
through Morrison's hand. How could he catch up so fast?

Lucy's heart raced as she tried to think of something,
anything to slow his pursuit. She caught Luke's eyes, and he nodded,
understanding.

Lucy counted. "One...."

She could see Bethel's face, but not his eyes. Something
black, like small wings, sprouted from his back.

"Two...."

Closer.

And... when the whites of his eyes came into view....

"Three!" Lucy clutched Luke tighter.

Luke's body stiffened as he focused his power. The sphere
pulsed frenetically. Luke put up one hand and....

Beleth slammed into the field Luke had created, and
ricocheted off it like a bouncy ball against a wall.

Luke and Lucy continued to fall. If they hadn't been in a
race for their lives, Lucy would have enjoyed the descent. She loved skydiving
and parachuting, but this was not for sport. Still, she couldn't help but
embrace the freedom of soaring through the sky, unfettered from reality. She'd
have given anything to have this para-power: the power of flight.

Lightning flashed, tearing Lucy from her joy and
illuminating the bright sky with another vision: one of a black silhouette with
wings.

She acted fast, flipping downwards while Luke helped open
her parachute. It slowed them down, temporarily.

A current of wind drove through them, sending the parachute
in conflicting directions. They began to fall too fast. The water beneath them
rose up like a giant mouth. If they hit it going this fast, they would drown,
pulled down by the ocean and their parachute.

"Luke, make a wall of air beneath us, but not thick. To
slow us, not stop us."

Luke nodded and held out his hand. He looked so tried, so
weak, but he raised his hand and focused his power.

Panic filled her even as she pushed it away.
Oh-my-God-oh-my-God-oh-my-God
....
The ocean rushed up to them, water sprayed them, and Lucy prepared for what
could be the end.

It all came down to him.

When his son had died he knew he'd have to finish the plan
alone. But then his son, the Seeker, had been weak, unable to go the distance.

Mr. Steele could—and would.

He looked down at the body lying on the bed. They were all
just bodies to be used and tested. They meant nothing except for what they
could give him. This body had been badly damaged, but there was one who could
fix it.

He motioned to the guards standing by the door of the
hospital room. "Send her in."

A petite ten-year-old with long auburn hair glared at him
with fire in her green eyes, and stroked the snow white cat in her arms.

The room crowded around him with so many people, but he
ignored the sensation. Soon enough he'd be alone in his cavernous rooms, after
he handled this.

He pointed a long finger at the cat. "What is that
thing doing here?"

The guard on the right stepped forward. "She wouldn't
leave it. Said she couldn't heal without it. You told us not to hurt her, so it
seemed the easiest way to get her here."

"And the mother?"

"Dead."

The scowl on the girl's face collapsed into tears.

Mr. Steele knew what grief looked like on others, and found
the expressions to be clichéd and useless. He prided himself on his control,
and counted his blessings that he didn't have to suffer in the sludge of human
emotional excrement.

Before Mr. Steele could order the cat's execution—both to
rid himself of the nuisance, and to punish the girl for her display of
tears—the body on the bed convulsed. A fly buzzed around its head, as if
waiting for a decomposing treat.

He gestured with impatience. "Never mind about the damn
cat. Girl, use your para-powers to fix this." He spat the last word out as
a curse.

When the girl didn't move, the guard shoved her forward. She
dropped her cat, which landed on all fours, the demon that it was, and hissed
at him.

He kicked at the cat, but it avoided his black boot and
scurried under the bed.

The girl trembled and looked even smaller without the white
fluffy buffer. "I... I can't. I'm not strong enough."

Mr. Steele kept his voice calm and even when he responded.
Anger was just another emotion, after all. "You haven't even tried. I
think you're much stronger than you give yourself credit for. Besides, if you
don't, I'll rip your kitty apart with my nails and eat its heart while you
watch. Then, I'll do the same to you."

An idle threat, as he cared nothing for the heart. No, what
he wanted—what he needed—existed solely in the brain. That's where the real
treasure awaited him—the real power.

***

Cerebrospinal fluid: the key to all his research. Located in
the subarachnoid space and the ventricular system around and inside the brain
and spinal cord, this fluid contained something very special in those with
active and dormant para-powers—the blueprint for specific powers and the code
to activate them.

With the right cocktail of drugs, he could forcibly activate
dormant powers in a subject.

And with the right procedure, he could syphon that fluid
from a paranormal and use it to enhance another person's para-power.

He almost had it, but he needed to do a few more experiments
before he became his own patient, and the most powerful paranormal to ever
live.

The girl who stood before him would make an excellent test
subject, but he needed her to do this first.

Snot and tears leaked down her puffy red face.

Disgusting.

Another convulsion from the body.

"Do it. Now."

The girl nodded and sobbed again, but did as she was told.

Serena tried to swallow her tears and keep her sobs buried
deep in her chest, but her heart hurt so bad.

Angel hid under the bed, but Serena knew her cat wouldn't
leave her. That was the only thing that kept her from falling to the ground in
a heap of sadness.

The bad men had taken her from her new home, the place her
mom had taken her to when her dad disappeared.

Serena knew her dad's job was dangerous, but she never
thought he would die and not come back to her. She missed her dad so much, and
now her mom....

***

"Serena, run!" Mom screamed as the bad men
grabbed her.

It happened so fast, it didn't seem real. One loud bang
and her mom slumped on the floor like a doll.

Serena cried and ran to her. "Mom, Mom, get
up!" She banged on her chest and covered the hole in it with her hand to
stop the blood.

"No, Mom, don't leave me. Come back. No!"

But she didn't come back. She stared at Serena with big
dead doll eyes.

Serena opened herself to her power and let the white
light flow into her. She would save her mom. She would bring her back.

Then the bad men grabbed Serena and said she couldn't use
her power. They took her away from her mom, too far away. Her power couldn't
work that far.

Angel ran up to her and meowed in sadness. Serena lifted
her up, staining the cat's white fur red. She pretended it was marker, and that
her mom would come in and get mad at her for making a mess, and Serena would
clean it up and be so happy.

But it wasn't marker, and her mom didn't come.

The bad men... they would hurt Angel, she knew. So she
lied. "I can only use my powers with my cat. If you take her, my powers
won't work."

They were stupid. They didn't know, so they let her keep her
Angel.

Of course, they wanted her powers. Mom and Dad had said
she could never ever tell anyone about what she could do, because then someone
might try to hurt her.

Someone must have told.

Mom and Dad were dead, and she'd be dead soon too. Would
they wait for her in Heaven? Would Angel come too?