Echo Into Darkness: Book 2 in The Echo Saga (Teen Paranormal Romance) (28 page)

Luma was partly responsible for wrecking my life. Now she sniffed at me like I was spoiled meat. I wasn't looking for a reason to despise her more, but there it was.

"I think our new recruit has Class A potential," Keenan said.

"That's a little presumptuous," she huffed.

He turned to me. "Luma is my sole Class A agent."

"It means I'm the best." She pinched her fingers together and blew onto them. A coil of smoke transformed into the image of a cobra. It struck at me and I jumped back before it faded.

"If you can survive me," she said, "you can handle anything Keenan throws at you. Oh, what a great segue into your next test."

She hopped onto a small rectangle arena a few feet above the floor and directed me to the other end.

A hum rose around us. The little hairs on my body rose and stayed there. Static brushed against my skin, and I realized we were surrounded by an invisible electric fence.

High-pitched whining snapped my attention to the opposite end of the arena. Luma held blue, glowing orbs the size of a tennis ball in each hand. She telekinetically lobbed one at my head.

Something told me we weren't playing a game of catch. I dipped to the side to avoid the blue ball.

"Wouldn't take too many steps in that direction if I were you," she warned.

At the same time, the orb ricocheted off the barrier behind me and sunk into my lower back. A cold ache sent the muscles around my spine into spasms. I swiped the orb away. It fizzled when it hit the floor.

"The electric walls teach you to think fast," she said. "And they keep you honest." She whipped the other orb at Keenan. It deflected with a snap and landed on the floor, where it disappeared.

Keenan was not amused.

I guessed this was a defensive test, and raised my hands in front of my face, boxer style. Luma closed her hands into fists and when she opened them, they held two orange orbs. They whizzed at my head. I telekinetically swatted them to the side. That was a mistake. They bounced off the wall and drilled into my legs, like balls of hot lead. My knees gave out.

I got to my feet, fast, and knocked the next two to the floor, where they fizzled out. That was the key to passing this stage, deflecting them downward.

"Jaxon's a piece of work, isn’t he?" She formed, and threw, two more blue orbs.

I tilted an eyebrow. "That's an understatement."

"I heard he attacked you at his apartment. If I'd had the opportunity, I'd have choked him all the way." Her lips twitched. "But you went easy on him. Why?"

I didn't answer. If she thought she could shake my focus by dredging up that battle, good luck to her. I was over it. I batted a metallic orb back at her. They were coming fast, but they were easy to deflect. Too easy. I began to wonder the point of the test.

"Me and you, we're more alike than you want to admit," Luma goaded.

"You might get up in the morning looking for ways to mess up people's lives. I don't."

"Wow, aren't we self-righteous. I've seen where you live." She saw my jaw tense. "Yeah, I know where you go to school, too. Rich and cushy. You don't have anything to fight for. You hide with the ungifted. What a waste."

"That's a twisted philosophy." By that way of thinking, if my life was bad enough, I would be able to destroy without conscience. The idea sickened me.

"At least I'm standing up and taking what's mine," she said.

"And what's that?"

"My place at the top of society. Where the gifted belong. The ones who earn it, anyway." She changed her tactic. Orbs shot at me with machine-gun speed. A blur of orange passed through my pelvis and exited out my back, leaving a hot trail.

I had a fraction of a second to wonder if I'd just suffered internal damage before a metallic ball whistled past my face. I dove onto my hands and knees. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Keenan frown. I was failing.

Luma's eyes glinted. "We've got your boyfriend locked up here, too, don't we?"

I inhaled a tight breath and clambered to my feet.

When I didn't respond, she said, "Connor. That's his name, right? How long have you been together?" Her arm twitched and a metallic orb missed my throat by in inch.

My heart thudded. "We broke up," I said as calmly as possible. Instinct told me not to sound like I cared too much, to steer away from this topic quickly.

The next orb sliced my shirtsleeve, ricocheted off the wall and lodged in my calf.

"Ow!" Little green dots danced across my vision. I grimaced and knocked the orb out of my muscle. Blood soaked my pant leg.

She laughed. "What did I tell you?" she said to Keenan. "Talentless. Just like her boyfriend. Of course, he can't do anything with the chip in him, but if he's as useless as Jaxon says, we should use him as a punching bag for the new recruits. Or perhaps I'll practice on him myself. He's got such pretty green eyes. I think I might like to plant these right between them." Luma made a brood motion and the air in front of her filled with orbs of every color.

Fury gushed to the surface before I could stop it. When the orbs stormed across the arena, I flung them back at Luma with such ferocity, defending herself was out of the question. They halted, inches from her flawless face.

"Don't you dare touch him," I said through gritted teeth. My whole body seemed to swell, a tempest of heat and power.

She pushed against the orbs, but they held. Her disbelief at my boldness reflected in the metallic surfaces. The balls quivered and hummed. If I let them tear into her, she would get the message. Connor was off limits.

Her mouth twisted like she was chewing something sour. "There's your answer, Keenan. Now call her off."

Answer?

Luma's tongue dampened the corner of her mouth. "Pretty green eyes," she whispered.

I unleashed a pair of orange orbs into her belly. She grunted air. "Call. Her. Off."

My forehead throbbed from the strain of maintaining control over so many objects at once. The orbs began to vibrate, and the vibration turned to a metallic hum. The pitch rose to a high, ear-splitting tone. Any moment now, I was going to lose control.

"That's enough, Echo." On the sidelines, Keenan grinned. I realized too late that he had not been testing my ability. Not this time.

He had wanted to know where the real source of my power resided. What it would take to make me turn. What it would take to make me one of them.

I had just told him.

Chapter 33

I released my telekinetic grip. The orbs clattered to the floor and disintegrated.

Luma hopped off the platform, rubbing her stomach. "You're going to pay for that."

My legs went weak at the thought of what I may have done. Keenan's eyes passed over the arena, calculating.

"Call the others," he finally said.

"It's about time." Luma left the room with a spring in her step.

"What happens now?" I asked.

"On to the next test." Keenan removed my metal cuff and left me with a box of gauze and tape. I cleaned and bandaged the gash on my calf. The room was eerily silent with nobody else around, but my brain was a hurricane of frightening thoughts. I had exposed how important Connor was to me. This kind of slip-up did not go unnoticed in the Mutila.

The soldiers came in a few at a time. Ivan and Luma got off the elevator together. Jaxon and Roth joined in from down the hall. They greeted each other with hugs, shoulder punches, and jabs to the ribs.

They ambled to the other end of the room where a pair of couches, a side table, and a lamp clustered together in a cozy arrangement. A long black window ran the length of one wall. When I first saw it, I had assumed it was one-way glass that allowed agents or soldiers to watch us run through the tests without being seen. That theory blew to pieces when I spotted two chest-high consoles positioned in front of the mirror.

The soldiers tumbled onto the couches like kids getting ready for movie night. Roth's arm snaked around Luma.

"What's up?" Jaxon asked. Green marks along his windpipe reminded me of the damage I'd caused. I found no satisfaction in this.

Luma cracked her knuckles. "It's game time, boys."

Keenan signaled to Ivan. "Throw a light on cell B43."

Everyone on the couch stirred. Luma took her place in front of a console. She placed her palms on the metallic surface and put her full attention on the glass. One leg bounced, conveying her eagerness.

The lights dimmed around us and the room on the other side of the one-way glass lit up. The space was little more than a jail cell, with a sink in one corner and a metal-frame bed along the wall.

Connor sat on the bed with his elbows sunk into his knees, his eyes trained on the floor. He raised his head slowly, blinking rapidly as if he'd been sitting in the dark for a long time.

I raced to the window.

"Connor!" I pounded on the glass. "Connor!"

The tinted window meant he could not see us. He gave no indication that he heard me, either. His lip was swollen and dried blood clotted over the gash. Purple bruises blossomed on his cheek.

He glared with unabated hatred at whoever watched from our side. He bounded off the bed and charged at the window. I jumped back, sure he would crash through. He rammed his body against the thick glass, but it didn't even shake.

The back of his wrist was scabbed over. Knowing Connor, he had tried to dig the chip out. His arms were chained to a belt around his waist, probably to keep him from inflicting damage to himself and others.

He yelled and kicked at the window. The chains prevented him from exerting any real power, but I had no doubt that the cell was meant to contain far larger threats than a pair of fists.

I placed my hand on the glass, as close to his face as I could.

"I'm right here, Connor," I said, willing him to feel my presence. His expression piqued slightly, as though he heard my voice echoing from a great distance. Behind me, the others snickered.

"Can we start already?" Luma asked.

"Your opponent is ready," Keenan replied by clipping the cuff over my wrist.

She pressed a button on her console. A digital clock above the mirror blinked at ten seconds.

"Mr. McCabe will make you pay for this! Let us go or you'll regret every minute you keep us here!" My rage bubbled over, and every small object that wasn't nailed down took flight. Couch pillows, vases, small barbells by the weight set all spiraled in a torrential whirlwind and sent people ducking.

"Girl unleashed!" Roth laughed.

"Yeah, baby, let 'er rip!" Jaxon shouted.

"Connor's dad will get all of you!" I nailed Keenan with a death glare. "Let him out of there right now. Until you do, I'm not doing another thing for you."

Keenan's face was steady. "That's good, Echo. Anger is your best friend right now. Let it build. Funnel it into this test. You'll need it."

On the couch, the guys pulled wads of cash from their pockets.

Roth threw fifty-dollar bills on the table
.
"Two hundred on Luma."

Jaxon hedged.

"Really, Jaxon? This should be a no brainer," Luma spat.

"Three hundred on Luma." Jaxon glared at me and added his money.

Ivan counted out a handful of bills. "The girl must be good if Keenan let her in. Two hundred on the new girl." He added to the growing pile. "What about you, Keenan?"

Keenan watched my tele-chaosing with commanding silence. "One thousand on Echo."

Luma curled her full lip into a sneer. "Your loss." She smacked a red button on her console and the digital clock began counting backward from ten.

The seconds ticked away and I slipped into panic. What did they want me to do?

The clock ticked to zero and a buzzer sounded. Luma's attention shifted to Connor's cell. My brain fired hysterically as I watched the ceiling drop.

"Get in the game, Echo," Ivan said. Roth stabbed him with an elbow.

"She doesn't know what to do." Ivan returned the jab.

Luma planted her palms on the console, all her concentration on the ceiling. With the metal cuff on, I was able to read her aura and from that, her intent. Fear cut jagged against my windpipe when I understood the game.

I slapped my palms onto the handprints on my console and sent my intention for the ceiling to stop moving. It continued to drop. What little composure I had began to fray like twine that had been rubbed the wrong way. Little threads peeled away, and with it, my strength.

"I can't do it!" I grabbed a fistful of Luma's shirt and tried to drag her away from the console. "Leave him alone!"

Keenan yanked me back to my side. "Put your hands on the pads and control it with your mind."

"But I—"

"Channel your rage. Let it consume you and drive it into the console. Push the ceiling back to its rightful place at the top and you will win. If the cell goes dark, Luma wins."

"I told you, she's too soft," my opponent said. "She's got nothing to work with."