The Forbidden Trilogy (97 page)

They entered the now-empty bunker and descended a set of
stairs to a lower, bigger level, full of steel cabinets and medical supplies.
They tore through drawers and shelves to find the case of drugs.

He hit the jackpot at the very back in a corner cabinet.
"Robyn, check this out!"

She came over and looked over his shoulder. Inside were five
purple vials. He pulled them out, one by one, and clutched them in his hand.

Footsteps approached from outside. Drake opened a vial and
had it ready to swallow if he needed to fight a Grunt. He only had five
vials—no more than five hours worth of powers if not overused—and he didn't
know what else they would face, so he had to use them with caution.

The door opened and....

Sam entered.

Drake nearly dropped his vials, but he closed the one as Sam
approached him. He stood up and walked to her. "Oh my God, Sam, I've found
you. We have to get out of here, now."

She smiled, then slapped his hand.

Stunned, Drake watched as all of the vials fell to the
ground, shattering. His heart and hope shattered with them.

He looked back at Sam, whose eyes looked glossed over and
void of feeling.

"Not yet." She held out her hand. "My father
would like to see you."

The guard who had been assigned to Simmons's detail jumped
up as soon as Beleth landed, and pulled his rifle out. If Lucy had blinked she
would have missed what happened next, but as it was, she couldn't pull her eyes
from the scene. Beleth's hand extended into his deadly black blade and pierced
the guard in the chest, killing him instantly.

Lucy clutched the serum and turned away from Simmons, who
stared at Beleth.

"So you've come. I thought maybe you wouldn't, but I've
been wrong about many things, it seems." Simmons faced Beleth through the
bars. She straightened her back, looking him in the eyes. "Make it
quick."

Beleth placed his hand between the bars, and it turned into
a black claw with three long fingers. They grew apart, and the bars twisted and
bent until she had space to crawl out. "I would, but you know another
moves my hand." The claw retracted and changed back into a blade.

He moved past Simmons and walked toward Lucy, jerking his
body as if fighting himself. Lucy had never seen him so disjointed; usually he
had a grace and fluidness that none could match. Even his face strained against
itself, as if fighting another power inside him—probably Steele's.

"You broke our agreement." He slowed down, but it
evidently cost him as he groaned against the effort.

Lucy faced him, wondering what would happen if she ran.
Would he catch up to her or keep fighting the power in him? "I couldn't
kill an innocent."

Beleth looked sad. "She's not innocent. None of us are.
Not anymore."

A replay of those memories flashed through Lucy's mind: all
the horrible things Simmons had done. "I know, but now she's not a threat.
She can help fight Steele."

"It's too late for that." He shook his head.
"I've been sent...." He gagged as if he couldn't force himself to
finish what he wanted to say. "I've been...." He continued to
approach Lucy, very near her now.

She braced herself, serum ready in hand. If he tried to grab
her, to take her away like before, she would inject him with the syringe and
take away his powers.

He took another step, then extended his blade and aimed it
for Lucy's gut.

She dropped to the ground, dodging his attack by a hair's
breadth.

He then brought his blade down on her, an attack that would
slice her in two, but he bounced off an invisible shield.

The cavalry had arrived. Lucy had planned for this
eventuality and had a team in wait.

Luke stepped out from behind a building, concentrating as he
held the force field to protect Lucy. Agents emerged from behind him,
surrounding Beleth with rifles.

Of course, he could just fly away, but Lucy suspected he
actually couldn't, not until he'd accomplished what he'd been sent here to do.

Hunter joined Luke, sword raised in defense.
"Surrender, Beleth. It's over."

Lucy scrambled to stand next to Hunter, inappropriately
turned on by how hot he looked with sword in hand, taking command.
Bad Lucy!
Focus!

She focused back on the threat. Beleth looked around as if
trying to find a way to leave but knew that he couldn't. He curled in on
himself and a protective ball of black oil grew around him, like a hamster
ball.

Hunter yelled to the agents. "Fire!"

Lucy wanted to look away, for Beleth hadn't chosen this;
she'd seen it in the memories and on his face. Everything he'd done, he'd been
compelled to do by Steele.

Their bullets dug into the oily shield and it shrunk in on
itself, compressing tighter and tighter. It looked like their bullets might
actually break through. Then they stopped firing to reload, and the ball began
to expand, like a balloon about to pop.

Lucy screamed, "Get down!" and pulled Hunter down
with her.

Beleth's shield exploded outward, throwing all the bullets
back at the agents at high velocity.

Luke managed to erect a shield around himself, Hunter and
Lucy at the last minute, but the other agents got hit with their own arsenal
and collapsed to the ground.

The three of them stood shocked, taking in the carnage: ten
agents dead. Lucy's heart broke when she saw Agent Mark among them. The fire of
hatred burned through her grief. Steele did this. He used Beleth to kill them
and will kill others. They had to stop Beleth so they could deal with Steele,
but stopping him meant killing him, and she hated the idea of another victim of
Steele's madness dying at her hands.

Hunter picked up the sword he'd dropped during the blast.
"Lucy, get back."

His face hardened in rage, and Lucy realized that the fallen
weren't just agents; they were his friends, people he'd trained with and done
assignments with. He too had lost much during this assignment.

In synch for once, Hunter and Luke looked at each other,
nodded, and attacked.

Both of Beleth's hands turned into blades and he countered,
spinning and ripping through the air.

Luke threw up a force-field, deflecting the blades, then
spun out of the way as Hunter lunged from behind.

Beleth blocked, and his spider legs erupted from his back
and wrapped around Luke and Hunter, encasing them.

Oh, my God, no!

Yet something was off, not going the way Beleth had planned.
His eyes bulged as his legs began to spread apart, wider and wider until they
snapped all the way back, forced open by Luke's force-field. Luke's arms
strained from the use of his power, but he pressed on, side-by-side with
Hunter.

Lucy rushed over to one of the dead agents and pulled a
rifle from his hands, trying to ignore the bloody, lifeless bodies everywhere.

Hunter and Luke fought, Luke blocking, Hunter attacking,
just like they had back at the Rent-A-Kid facility, except this time they
worked together, as one.

Lucy aimed at Beleth, but couldn't get a clear shot, not
even close to one. She couldn't help them like this, but there was something
she could do.

She ran as fast as she could to the small tent that housed
the sphere, and retrieved it from the box. It immediately filled her with
warmth, wrapping her body in ecstatic comfort and taking away all her pain.
She'd forgotten how good it felt, but she had no time to waste on reflection.
The sphere pulsed in her hand, like a purring kitten happy to be home again.
She sensed that it wanted to connect with her, to bond with her.

She lowered it and ran back.
Please don't be too late.

She reached the prison area just as Beleth walked toward
her, holding Simmons in his spider legs.
No. Did he kill Hunter and Luke?

Beleth rushed at her, no longer appearing slowed by his
battle against Steele's control. Lucy twisted away, but he grabbed her ankle
with one of his spider legs and threw her against the ground. His eyes flashed
to the sphere in her hand, and he hesitated.

"Lucy, I...." He stopped again, unable to say the
words.

Was he trying to apologize again, this time for killing her?

Instead, he wrapped his tail around Simmons. "Our
agreement."

He still wanted her to kill Simmons. Was it for revenge,
because she'd left him in that warehouse to suffer under the whim of a madman?

"She's not a threat anymore. What does killing her
accomplish? I know she hurt you. I know this isn't your fault, but there has to
be a way to break Steele's hold on you." Could he tell her? Help her to
save him?

"She can't live." Maybe he couldn't respond to the
rest—wasn't allowed to. "I will not allow her to be in a position of power
at IPI, or at Steele's side."

"Why? Because of jealousy? She's no longer in power at
IPI. She's been arrested. She can't hurt anybody now."

Beleth chuckled without humor. "Simmons has been with
IPI a long time. She has deep connections there. Do you really think anyone
here has the authority to overrule her?"

"Of course they do. She was about to kill a whole
building of innocent children and she'd gone crazy. She was going to kill me
and Luke. We have witnesses, agents who will testify."

"Most of whom are dead. The others... they will not
matter. Steele is rising in power. He has taken down billions of dollars in
military aircrafts and cost the lives of many. Do you think IPI will think what
you did was noble? You think any government agency wouldn't choose the lives of
the world over a building full of kids? You need to wake up to reality. Even
the U.S. Government, the supposed leader in human rights, would sacrifice the
innocent for the bigger picture."

No. That can't be right. I don't believe that.

Beleth shook his head. "For all your skills, you are
still so naive."

In a very cruel and twisted way, his logic made sense.
Simmons would use her clout, and the events that occurred after she was taken
in, to prove that she'd been right all along, and that we'd screwed up. She'd
win, and then she'd use her power to end paranormals—out of jealousy, out of
fear—when she had no more use of them.

Lucy remembered Simmons's words from the vision.
"As
for the ones left... you can burn in hell for all I care."

She understood now why Beleth had wanted Simmons dead all
along. How much of this could she have avoided by killing Simmons earlier? But
what kind of person would she have become if she had?

"She'd never join Steele. I can use her and
then...."
And then what? Kill her?

Beleth walked towards Lucy. "Like I said, it's too
late."

Then his tale whipped back around a tent and dragged Hunter
out. He pulled Hunter against his chest, blade to neck. "Kill her, or
watch him die."

Lucy hesitated. The choice between Hunter and Simmons would
be an easy one, even if that act did send her down a dark road. But that wasn't
the choice she was forced to consider.

Without Simmons, Lucy had no way of getting close enough to
Steele to stop him. He wanted Simmons, and she could strip him of power and end
this all. If Lucy saved Hunter, how many more would die for her choice? If she
saved him, and they lost their only chance to take Steele down, would
any
of
them survive?

"You've been commanded to kill us, haven't you? To kill
us and bring Simmons back."

He couldn't answer her, but his eyes could not hide the
truth. He was about to snap. He couldn't resist his compulsion much longer, but
he at least wanted Simmons dead first—a small victory, maybe his last.

"This should be an easy choice for you," he said.
"The man you love or the woman you hate."

She did love Hunter.
Oh, my God, I love him so much.
Even when he'd kept her sphere without telling her, she loved him. He'd fought
to save her life, willing to give up his life to the sphere to do it. He'd
saved her so many times, and more than that, he'd filled her with something
she'd never had before, something pure and beautiful.

She pointed the gun at Simmons, finger on the trigger.

Simmons raised her hands and backed away. "Lucy, please
don't do it. I can help you. I can help those kids. Your best friend and her
baby—they'll die without me."

Bitch. Stop talking.
Her hand shook from the stress.
What should she do? There were no right choices here. None.

"Lucy." Hunter's eyes pleaded with her. "We
need her. Both of you, run now!"

Sam. Ana. All those kids.
She looked at Hunter, his
green eyes glowing with his power, slitted like a cat. She needed him, wanted
him, couldn't be the reason he died.

Her gun shook again, and she steadied it and pulled the
trigger a fraction, staring into Simmons's eyes. They filled with tears and her
lip trembled. To kill someone in cold blood, even to save another.... Could she
do it? Could she risk what that would mean to her friends and to the world?

There had to be another way.

She locked eyes with Hunter, and he nodded.

She said a quick, silent prayer... and threw the pulsing
sphere at him.

Drake stared at the broken vials on the floor as they leaked
purple fluids in the hairline cracks in the cement floor. His entire plan
depended on those drugs. He stuck his hand in the liquid and sucked it off his
fingers, hoping even a small bit would give him some powers. A spark moved
through him, looking for a foothold, but died out before it could flare to
life.

The emptiness returned, and with it, hopelessness.

Sam.
What had Steele done to her? He'd clearly taken
control of her mind, made her his puppet. With this drug Drake could've
mind-controlled her, tried to save her and Ana. Now he had nothing. No hope of
saving them.