Break This! (A 300 Moons Book) (9 page)

A
s the crowd
burst into applause, Thea tugged Chance’s hand. It was time to get to work.

All the chattering and excitement after the demonstration would distract from the fact that the two were slipping away.

He seemed almost startled, but he went with her willingly enough. They wound their way through the crowd, then meandered out past the unattended front desk and got on the elevator.

As soon as the doors shut behind them, Thea tugged Chance close and flowed into his arms.

He seemed surprised at first, but then his big hands were clutching her hips, and he was kissing her with real urgency.

She pressed against him, pinning him to the metal wall, and began to take his clothes off. He let go of her and grasped the railing, allowing her to remove his tie, then push his jacket over his shoulders. His trousers were pulled tight over his obvious erection.

Thea tossed his jacket carelessly aside.

At least she hoped it looked careless.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the jacket snag on something near the elevator ceiling and hang there.

Right over the security camera.

Perfect.

Mission accomplished, she moved away from Chance.

He almost fell over.

“Sorry big boy, playtime’s over,” she told him, moving to the elevator panel and pressing the bottom button.

He shook himself like a wet puppy, making her smile in spite of herself.

“How come the button isn’t working?” He asked over her shoulder.

“Biometrics,” she said.

“What?”

“Like a fingerprint scanner,” she explained. “It’s set up to only work for certain people. And none of them are us.”

“So we’re finished before we even get started?” he asked.

“Nope,” she told him with a wry smile.

“Tell me you pulled some Mission Impossible stuff and got West Worthington’s fingerprint.”

“Not exactly,” she replied. “Although that would have been cool. Especially considering what I would have had to do to get so up close and personal with Mr. Worthington.”

He looked at her, dumbfounded for a second, then she laughed, letting him off the hook.

“Very funny,” he said sternly, but she could see the mirth in his eyes.

Thea turned away before she got too distracted, and held her thumb to the button. She concentrated, letting her power flow.

Thea had no name for her ability, though it had always been a part of her. She could sense energy, feel the gentle vibration of human life, hear the hyper speed hum of manmade electricity in the walls, the whispered potential in a coiled spring.

She could absorb it if she tried, though only for short periods.

And she could manipulate it. The manmade stuff, at least. It wasn’t the easiest thing to harness. Sometimes it even happened by mistake, when she was emotional or excited, like last night.

Last night…

If she hadn’t woken up in his arms, she wouldn’t have believed it had happened at all.

Sure, Thea had lost control a little. She was glad Sharp didn’t have her on an expense budget. That hotel room was pretty trashed.

But Chance… Something had been going on with him too - magic that made Thea’s abilities look like a parlor trick. But what could it be?

She looked up at him.

His handsome face was so close to hers. He looked at her tenderly, as if he were a tree and Thea the sun.

What had happened between them last night? She felt like they were married or something, which was insane.

Wasn’t it?

She turned back to the panel, forcing herself to work instead of dreaming.

As soon as she expanded her senses to it, the panel seemed to vibrate under her hand. Thea sipped its power, carefully. When she had a handle on its flavor, she sucked it in deeply, until the screen went almost dark.

The energy danced through her body, Thea allowed it to swirl and sparkle inside her, showing itself to her until she understood it completely.

Then she released it gently back into the panel, guiding it to where she wanted it.

The panel lit up fully again and the elevator began to move.

“Wow,” Chance said. “That’s neat.”

Thea smiled up at him, encouraged by the genuine admiration in his voice. She was always afraid people would think she was some kind of freak if they found out what she could do.

But Chance seemed to appreciate and respect her for it.

The last time someone had expressed admiration for her abilities, the pleasure had been short-lived. Miss Sharp had helped her get her powers under control when Thea was younger, but it didn’t take long for Thea to realize that the woman was not helping her out of the kindness of her heart. Thea was a tool to her. Something to be wielded for personal gain. And Thea was starting to wonder if Sharp would ever gain enough to cut her loose.

But Chance had expressed simple admiration. He didn’t want to figure out how to use her abilities for his own ends.

At least not yet.

She figured time would tell. But he certainly didn’t seem like the kind of guy who wanted to fix the lottery or topple the stock market, though both were things Thea was sure she could do, given the right access. Even Miss Sharp had never asked her to do something that drastic.

Chance smiled and ran his hand down her back. The sensation was comforting and dizzyingly sexy at once.

Thea felt her nipples graze the dress through her lace bra and wondered at herself. Why was she suddenly a raving nymphomaniac?

Before she could figure it out, the elevator stopped.

The doors slid open to reveal the Medical Prosthetics laboratory.

The lights were off in the massive space, but the screen glow from the various workstations and equipment were enough for them to navigate the room.

Thea began to move, Chance following closely.

She almost jumped at the sight of a human arm on the first table they passed. It took a second to register that it was just a very realistic prosthetic, the dim light setting off the detailed veins and knuckles.

The next few stations had more body parts, but now she was prepared. They passed a couple of tables with limbs that were more robotic - hundreds of wire tendons glowing in the blue light of the computer screens, like something out of The Terminator.

Another table had a giant eyeball, bisected to show the inner workings. And then there were many things that Thea couldn’t begin to recognize.

When they reached the far side of the room, Thea found the door she was looking for.

She placed her hand against the cool metal, trying to speak with the electronic locking system.

The energy was sweet and clear like a stream, and much simpler that the elevator. In no time, Thea had the gears sliding pleasantly, and the door clicked open.

As she was about to step into the room to finish the job, the overhead lights flicked on in the lab.

“Stop right there,” a deep voiced boomed and echoed across the soapstone tables.

She turned to see the big man from the demonstration, Dalton, heading toward them.

“You get the package,” Chance said quickly. “I’ll handle this.”

C
hance’s instincts
kicked into high gear.

He remembered how casually this guy had sliced his own arm open upstairs. Dalton was no joke.

Thinking that surprise would give him an edge, Chance charged immediately.

Chance was right. He caught Dalton off guard and slammed into the big man, knocking him back.

They hit one of the lab tables, careening off it to the tinkling of a thousand pieces of expensive glassware shattering on the marble floor.

Chance used his size and training to his advantage, pinning Dalton against the wall. He couldn’t help but notice the scent of the man, it was… familiar somehow.

But Dalton was strong, stronger than even his size would indicate. He pushed Chance back, then slid out with a slick reversal. Chance obviously wasn’t the only one with training.

As the fight progressed, Chance’s training began to be his undoing.

Chance was a good fighter. Hell, he was a great fighter. But he trained for the cage - for sport.

Dalton delivered a blinding nerve strike that told Chance he had trained for a very different type of fighting. The edges of his vision began to blur with the pain.

While Chance was stunned, Dalton stepped back and reached into his jacket.

What was he reaching for? A gun? A phone?

Chance couldn’t allow either.

Calling on all his strength, Chance leapt over the table to attack Dalton and they crashed to the floor.

Now they were in Chance’s world. Wrestling had always been his strong suit. Slipping into the warm pool of submission fighting, Chance began to control Dalton on the ground.

He was just beginning to feel like he had things under control, when Dalton reached up and gouged his eye, creating enough space to wriggle free.

The world turned red as Chance remembered with a cold chill that Dalton was not following the rules he was used to.

He got to his feet and faced him again. He would not let Thea down.

“I got it.” Her voice carried to him as if he had summoned her with his very thoughts. “Let’s go.”

Dalton used the split second of Chance’s distraction to pull a small pistol from his jacket and fire it.

Chance looked down to see a tiny dart protruding from his chest. He tried not to freak out at the idea of being stuck with a needle.

This was no time to be squeamish. And it wouldn’t be a problem.

One of the benefits of being a shifter was having a super high metabolism. It made it really hard to get drunk, but at least he knew it would take a hell of a lot more than a tranq dart designed to stop a human to slow him down.

He took a step to put himself between Thea and Dalton, but his legs went out from under him.

Confused, he tried to get up.

No luck. Everything was going gray.

With the last of his strength he pulled out the dart. It blurred and then multiplied before his fading vision.

Chance looked up to see Dalton pointing the gun at Thea.

If it could stop him, it would kill her.

T
hea stared
down the barrel of the dart gun.

There was no way he’d miss her at this range. It was over.

Moments of her life flashed before her, but not the moments she would have thought: a dropped ice cream cone melting on the sidewalk, her mom braiding her hair and humming as she looked out the window on a winter afternoon, the electric whisper of the first bank vault she ever opened for Sharp, the beautiful agony of Chance’s bite…

“
Nooooo
,” a deep yell came from behind Dalton.

Oh, god, it was Chance. He was still fighting.

She had to give him credit. He had heart. But he needed to learn when to throw in the towel.

Chance’s guttural scream started as human, but it quickly built into something far more powerful. The sound raised the tiny hairs on Thea’s arms.

She tore her eyes from the gun. She had to blink and look again before she believed what she was seeing.

Dalton still stood before her, an enormous man with bright blue eyes. But he was dwarfed by the enormous figure rising behind him.

Over seven feet tall, with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth, an immense grizzly bear towered over Dalton on its back legs, its glossy pelt gleaming in the overhead lights.

The vision from the night before slammed into Thea’s mind. Chance’s energy had made her think of a bear… He… he was a
bear
.

Dalton turned, but he was too late.

The bear was already crashing through the lab table that separated them.

It swung back and swiped him with one mighty paw, sending Dalton sprawling into the wall, where he slumped down, unconscious.

The enraged bear wheeled on Thea, his claws skidding across the marble, and roared, showing her all his teeth.

She had a moment of panic at the sheer power of the thing.

Then a little voice in the back of her head told her with quiet certainty that Chance would never hurt her.

“Easy there, big guy,” she said, showing him her empty hands.

The bear cocked his head, his dark eyes studying her quizzically.

Without warning, the lights went out.

Thea’s first thought was that maybe she’d done it accidentally in all the excitement.

Then she spotted the glowing face moving toward them through the darkness. Definitely not her doing…

Whatever it was, it was fast as hell. Before Thea could register its presence completely, it was on them.

First it slammed into the bear, impossibly pushing him back, his claws screaming against the marble floor.

There was the sound of it striking Chance, but it was too dark for Thea to really see what was going on. She could only make out the ghost-like visage as it dodged and darted around Chance.

She thought of the shadow thing from the hotel, but this was different. The shadow was the absence of energy, and this thing was overflowing with it.

And it was getting the better of Chance.

She put her hands on the wall, moving along until she sensed an electrical current inside.

Following the weblike pathways of the wiring, she explored until she found what she wanted and sent a pulse of energy along that channel.

There was a buzz then a loud click. Then the emergency lights came on, illuminating the scene.

Chance’s opponent wasn’t a ghost at all, but a man, his face obscured by a dark mask, wearing a suit with a glowing specter on the chest. The effect must have been done with lights behind the fabric.

Neat trick.

The bear swiped at the man and Thea braced to see the blood spray out from those claws.

Instead, the man blocked it effortlessly.

Thea watched, incredulous. No one could be that strong.

Then it clicked.

When Thea had been researching this job, she’d read several accounts of a new player in the Glacier City crime scene - A vigilante known simply as The Ghost. Eye-witnesses told tales of the vigilante appearing out of nowhere, defeating criminals with super strength and high tech gadgets. Thea had glossed over most of it, assuming it was no more than some trumped up urban legend invented by someone who’d read too many comic books. But here he was.

The Glacier City Ghost.

The bear charged, and the man in the suit used the force of the assault to send Chance crashing through another lab table. Bear or not, Chance wasn’t going to win this one on his own.

Thinking quickly, Thea retrieved the dart gun from the floor next to the still unconscious Dalton and aimed it at the attacker. His suit seemed to be constantly shifting color to match the surroundings, making it hard to get a bead on him.

The Ghost slammed the bear to the floor again.

Chance shifted back into his human form.

Thea took a breath to steady her hands, and fired.

The dart scored a solid hit to the man’s shoulder, but she heard an unexpected clink of metal on metal.

A man with metal arms?

That was so cool. Disastrous for them, but still cool.

Or maybe they weren’t really dealing with a man at all…

Thea thought of the artificial limbs that covered the tables of the lab.

The Ghost headed for her as Chance untangled himself from the clutter of equipment.

Thea was frozen in place, trying to figure out what her next move could be, when the masked man reached for her, dart still protruding from his outstretched arm.

She took a gamble, and reached back.