The MORE Trilogy (103 page)

Tiernan scowled. “This guy Evan is really getting on my nerves.”

“Yeah, well, get in line,” Ava muttered. She checked over her shoulder to make sure everyone else was following.

They’d left the rest of the Protectors waiting on the west side of the city, ready for the signal once Evan had been neutralized. Sophie, Isaiah, Caleb, Tiernan, and Ava were nearing the central building from the opposite direction, hopefully drawing Evan’s attention enough that the others wouldn’t be noticed.

Ava felt them before she spotted them—

Three—no, four of the Twelve
.

She couldn’t tell exactly who, not yet at least. She didn’t know the others’ gifts well enough to differentiate exactly what they’d be coming up against. Ava could, however, recognize who
wasn’t
there.

No Emma.

That made sense. Borré would want to have her close by.

Sophie took Isaiah and broke off, moving to the left so they could attack from the other side.

Ava stopped at the corner of a building and pressed her back against the cool stone, taking a moment to center herself as Caleb and Tiernan assumed the same position beside her. Tension radiated between them, zinging along an invisible cord from one to the other and back again.

“Ready?” she asked.

Caleb nodded.

Tiernan glowered, and she took that as a yes.

She spotted Sophie a block away and jerked her chin up in a silent signal. Her sister raised a hand in acknowledgement, and Ava turned to peer around the corner, spotting her siblings moving toward them at a slow—almost mocking—pace.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are!” one called out.

“Whatever you do, don’t hit that one,” Tiernan said.

So that’s Max. The other is Jae, the shifter, and—

A fireball hit the building above Ava’s head, and they jumped back.

Ah, yes. Christopher.

“That’s weird,” Ava murmured.

“That’s an understatement,” Caleb said, eyeing the burning tree branch overhead.

“No, I mean I felt four,” Ava said. “I only see three.”

“Make that two—no one,” Tiernan said, peeking around the building. “Now they’re all gone.”

“But how?” Ava ducked around to see for herself. “Shifting?”

“Maybe, or—”

Max appeared in front of Tiernan, smirking as he reached out to take him by the throat.

Christopher appeared next, his hand raised with a ball of fire in his palm.

“Watch out!” Caleb shouted.

A chunk of ice knocked Christopher to his knees, the melting water sizzling against his skin as he disappeared.

Max released Tiernan suddenly and vanished as well.

“Jae—the blond—is a shifter, but those two aren’t shifting,” Ava said finally. “It’s got to be the one with the super Veil.”

Caleb’s eyes widened. “A super Veil?”

“Yeah. What was his name?” Ava thought for a moment. “
Lucien
. Emma told me he could cover more than one person.” Ava replied. “But if it’s a Veil, I should be able to see through it.”

If I can figure out where to look.

She closed her eyes and reached out with her gift.

One to the right. One straight ahead. Two right there
.

She opened her eyes and looked in the direction she had sensed them, narrowing her eyes to focus . . .
deeper
to see through the shimmering Veil. “Hello there,” she murmured right before she reached out to pluck them up off the ground, smiling at the resulting shout as she threw them down the street and they both blinked into view.

“Nice,” Tiernan said, cracking his neck as he caught his breath.

“We need to stop the shifter,” Ava said, watching as Jae vanished then appeared next to Christopher.

Max stood and dusted off his jeans, a satisfied smile on his face.

“Uh-oh,” Caleb said.

“I told you not to hit him.” Tiernan braced himself against the wall.

“What do you—”

An invisible force blasted them, throwing Ava into the middle of the street.

She rolled to a stop, only to find Caleb lying next to her.

“Kinetic absorption,” Caleb said. “Whatever power is thrown at him, he can throw right back.”

Ava got to her feet and ducked another fireball. “Perfect.”

They ran in a crouch to the other side of the street and under the protective shield of a covered patio.

Sophie and Isaiah joined them a moment later.

“So this is going well,” Sophie said.

Ava let out a shaky laugh and grabbed Isaiah’s arm. “You need to take out Max—the big one,” she said. “Caleb, will he be able to turn that around?”

“I don’t think so. It’s only physical power, not mental.”

“Okay, good.” Ava nodded, turning back to her brother. “So you take out Max. Make him run away, freeze in terror, whatever you can.”

“Be careful,” Caleb warned. “He might try to feed on your gift. You might want to make him scared to do that, too.”

Isaiah nodded, his eyes wide.

“Sophie, you’ve got the fireball guy.” Ava glanced back across the street at Tiernan. “I’ll take the Veil. That leaves the shifter. We don’t want him running back to Borré for reinforcements.”

Caleb peeled off his jacket and threw it to the ground. “I’ve got the shifter,” he said then disappeared.

“I guess that’s means go,” Ava said before joining the fray.

Madeleine Foster paced back and forth from the bed to the sofa and back again, ignoring Kaeden’s irritated huff.

They’d been unceremoniously dumped in the Half-Breed cell and left to fend for themselves. She had no idea what Borré was doing—how her people were faring—and the not knowing was driving her crazy.

Is Gideon all right? Caleb?

She chewed on her thumbnail and turned on another circuit to the bed and back again.

“I’m going to kill that bastard Andreas with my bare hands,” Kaeden said for the hundredth time. “We were so close.”

“Not close enough,” Rafe said with a sigh.

They had come to Madeleine with their suspicions about Andreas—the unexplained phone calls out of the city, the holes in his story about Evan—but she’d been too late to react. They’d confronted him moments before Borré launched his attack, and Andreas had smiled as his minions escorted them to their new accommodations, his laugh echoing behind them all the way down the hall.

“I’m going to kill him,” Kaeden muttered again.

“I’ll hold your jacket.” Rafe stood up from the sofa to stretch. “But I’d say getting out of this room should be first on the agenda.”

“There is no getting out of this room,” Madeleine said shortly. “You as well as I know that they’re designed to be escape proof.”

“They’ll have to open that door sometime,” Kaeden said through gritted teeth.

Madeleine resisted an urge to tear at her hair. “Do they? It would be just like Borré to leave us here to starve to—”

The tumbler scraping in the lock caused them all to start, and Kaeden shot across the room, behind the door, ready to attack. Madeleine stood in plain sight to draw their captor’s attention as Rafe and Naomi got to their feet, braced for a fight.

With a loud click, the door swung open, and the tension thickened in the room, hot and electric.

Kaeden drew back a fist, letting it fly as someone walked through the doorway and stopping just short of punching a young, blond woman in the face.

The girl stumbled back against the wall and threw her hands up to protect her face, a cluster of wires clutched in her fist.

Kaeden stepped forward to wrap his fingers around the woman’s throat.

“No wait!” Madeleine grabbed his arm. “I know her.”

Kaeden froze, his arm still extended and fingers twitching a hairsbreadth from her neck.

“She’s Ava’s friend. The human.”

“Human?” Kaeden turned in surprise, his hand slowly lowering to his side. “What are you doing here?”

The girl straightened, her chin jutting out as she waved the wires at him. “We’re here to rescue you, actually.”

“We?”

She pushed the door open a little wider, and Madeleine gaped at the group in the hallway. Ava Michaels’ parents stood smiling at her with a half dozen angry Half-Breeds behind them.

“Come on, then,” Joe Michaels said with a nod. “We need to get moving.”

Madeleine was still a little stunned. “Moving?”

“We need to rendezvous with Gideon. Ava’s got a plan.”

Madeleine’s heart quickened. “Gideon? Is he all right?”

“For now,” Joe said, leading them down a hallway and checking a hand-drawn map. “But we need to get into position.”

Madeleine glanced nervously back at the Half-Breeds. “What about them?”

“They’re here to help.”

“Why would they help us?” Madeleine blurted out.

Joe stopped and turned to face her. “Because it’s the right thing to do.” He tilted his head, a slight smile on his face. “Humans and Half-Breeds coming together to help you out. I bet this is blowing your mind, isn’t it?”

Madeleine let out a shaky laugh. “You have no idea.”

Sarah stepped forward. “Can we focus on the problem at hand, please? There will be time enough for revelations and epiphanies when this is all over.”

Madeleine was pretty sure she heard Rafe snort somewhere behind her, but she ignored it and followed the human, Joe, and hoped for the best.

Gideon checked his watch, his phone, and then his watch again. “Where are they?” he hissed.

“They’ll be here,” Tyra whispered. “It’s only been a few minutes.”

Gideon checked his watch once more and adjusted his stance.

They were waiting behind a door in the service tunnel, and he wasn’t sure Madeleine and the others were even coming.

Maybe they’ve been caught trying to escape. Maybe they were hurt or—

“I hear something,” Tyra said.

Sure enough, there was a knock on the door, and he opened it to find the Council and a ragtag group of humans and Half-Breeds waiting expectantly. “Stay behind me,” he said, pushing his way through the group and pausing only long enough to brush his fingers against Madeleine’s as he passed. It helped. Maybe it was selfish, but it helped.

They took the stairs and climbed quickly but quietly.

He paused at the door at the landing and peered through the little window, spotting two of the Twelve stationed outside the surveillance room, and smiled when they took off toward the elevator.

It’s working.

“Can you block him yet?” he asked Adam.

The dampener tensed beside him. “Not enough to do any good. He’s pretty powerful. I need to be closer. Even then, I don’t know if I’ll be able to dampen his gift completely.”

“Well, you’ll just have to try,” Gideon said, reaching for the door. “Let’s go.”

Chapter 18

Ava took the R-cube Caleb offered her and wiped her nose with the back of her hand as she chewed and swallowed, the metallic taste of blood sliding down her throat. “Here come two more.”