Forbidden Fire (Forbidden #2) (7 page)

I grabbed his arm and shook off Brad, who was trying to lead me back down the stairs.
"Come with us. I don't want you going in there alone, Drake. Please!"

'I'll be fine, but I can't focus if I'm worried about you and our baby.'

Glass shattered in the apartment. I jumped and nearly fell off the stair. My heart beat through my chest, and I wrapped my free hand protectively around my stomach.

Drake needed me, even if he didn't see it. If we combined our powers, we could control whoever was in the apartment without anyone getting hurt. He didn't have to do it alone.

No!
I didn't want to default to using mind control. The ethics may have gotten murky after my fight with Drake, and I wasn't ready to swear it off entirely, but using that power made me feel sick—especially after what had happened at the beach with Kylie.

Instead, I linked to the mind of the person in the apartment.

It was like hitting a brick wall. The impact physically rocked me, causing my foot to slip on the stair behind me.

Brad caught me around the waist. "Careful there."

"Thanks." The handrail became my lifeline as I steadied myself and tried to figure out why my powers weren't working.

Brad stood behind me, his hand still on the small of my back in case I decided to forget how to stand again. His thoughts washed over me.
'Wish I had powers... useless here... can't even help with the story... least she didn't fall....'

My powers weren't the problem; it was the person in the house. Were they immune to me? That had never happened before.

"Drake, I can't read his mind. It's like trying to walk through a wall."

'I can't use my mind control on him either."

My stomach dropped.
"You tried mind control?"

'Of course! I wasn't going to risk anyone's safety if I didn't have to.'

His argument made sense, but still....

"What are we going to do now?"

'
We
aren't going to do anything.
I'm
going to go in there and beat the shit out of this guy while Brad takes you somewhere safe.'

"I'm not loving this plan."

'Can you think of a better one?'

I couldn't and he knew it, so I reluctantly followed Brad down the stairs and watched the apartment swallow Drake.

My resolve to do the smart thing lasted all of sixty seconds. As soon as I heard screams and crashing sounds, I lost it and ran back to the stairs.

Brad chased me. "Hey, Sam, you can't go in there!"

I rushed up the steps. "I can't let him do this alone either. What if there's more than one person? What if they're armed?"

"Yeah, what if? And how will you stop them, especially if your powers don't work?"

"The old fashioned way," I said.

"What's that?"

We stood at the door. I looked at Brad. "I'll throw something at their head."

"Great. And here I thought we were walking into a fight unprepared."

I ignored his sarcasm and peeked into the apartment. Upturned furniture littered the floor like a child's playhouse, but no Drake. Someone grunted, followed by a loud thud.

"They're in your room." I headed down the small hallway. On the way, I picked up an upturned lampstand, minus the lampshade.

"That's your big plan? Hit the bad guy in the head with a lampstand?"

"Yes, this is my big plan. At least I have a plan!"

Brad looked around and found a baseball bat that had fallen out of the closet. "My plan." He swung the bat around.

I nodded, and we approached his bedroom.

"Drake, we're in the hall. Are you okay?"

Nothing.

"Drake?"

"He's not responding to me. What do we do?"

Brad looked at me, then the door. His brown eyes turned to small slits. "Stand back."

He made a loud "Hiya!" sound and crashed through the door swinging his bat.

I flanked his side, straining to see inside the tiny room.

He made contact with something that sounded like a watermelon.

My stomach quivered in protest, given that Brad didn't tend to keep watermelons in his bedroom. I didn't want to see, but had to look.

Drake and Brad stood over a body whose head had seen better days. His face was an unrecognizable mess of purple and blue lumps with a split lip and gash in his cheek oozing blood.

I rushed to Drake, who had a swollen eye and bloody lip, but otherwise looked okay. "Any serious injuries?"

"None for me. He's not so lucky." He wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into him.

"Is he dead?"

Brad checked his pulse. "No. Heart's still working. What do we do with him?"

Drake untangled himself from me and searched the man's body. "We need to figure out who this guy is and who he's working for."

"Is there really any question about who he works for?" Who else but Rent-A-Kid would even have us on their radar, let alone want us dead? "Why didn't our powers work on him?"

The body moved, then groaned. The guys jumped back. Brad raised his bat.

I formed a mental link with his mind again. This time, no brick walls.
'Pain... shit... gonna be busted....'
And more of the same. People in a lot of pain were often hard to read, less coherent and more focused on... well, the pain.

"I'm in his mind. His defenses are down."

Drake made eye contact with me. "We need to find out what he knows, and we need to do it quick. Others might come looking for him."

Crap. How was I supposed to take a moral stand against this power when there were so many exceptions?

Drake and I linked, and our powers amplified. Heat rushed through my body as we slipped into our attacker's mind.

Drake gave the guy a command.
'You will tell us everything you know about who sent you and why.'

The man refused to talk, or even think, about the information we needed. He shouldn't have been able to resist Drake's persuasion.

I pushed my own power into the command, strengthening it.

Still nothing. Drake frowned at me, confused.

I shrugged.
"I have no idea why this isn't working."

A rush of heat exploded in my belly. I cried out and doubled over in pain. Our mental link intensified and the man spasmed, his body arching off the ground. A small glass wall I hadn't known was there cracked in the man's mind.

He cried out in pain, "The Seeker. He wants you. Tracks you, using us. Not safe."

We tried to coerce more information out of him, but he collapsed into unconsciousness. His mind reeled with wild images I couldn't make any sense of.

"Guys, I think that's all we're going to get from him."

Brad and Drake nodded, but didn't relax.

I stared at the body. "It's hard to tell with his face so…you know…but this looks like one of the guys who asked Rick about you, Drake. He has a partner somewhere. So... what do we do with him?"

Drake moved around the room. "We have to pack and find someplace safe. We'll leave him here. Someone will eventually find him, or he'll regain consciousness and make his way back to his boss."

"Dude," Brad said, "my name is on this lease. I'm in so much trouble."

"For what?" Drake asked. "He broke into your house. You didn't do anything wrong. Besides, we have to get out of here. We're all in danger now. I need to get you two to a safe place so I can go after the Seeker."

"Wait, what?" My head popped up. "Do you intend to go after the Seeker alone? No way. Unless by 'alone' you really mean with me, then yeah."

"Sam, we have to find out who this guy is and what he knows. It's the only way we can stop these assholes from taking kids like us, and from doing genetic experiments and God knows what else. Plus, you're sick and pregnant. It's too dangerous."

"I'm stronger than I look. What makes you think you can do this by yourself? You wouldn't have been able to crack this guy's mind without me. These are just henchmen. You're going to need me when we meet their boss. The Rent-A-Kids are my friends, the only family I've ever known. I'm going, and you can't stop me."

Brad stepped in between us. "Sam, he's right. You're in no condition to go chasing after these guys, alone or with Drake. You could get yourself or your baby killed."

Drake nodded. "Then we're agreed—"

"And Drake, she's right. You can't go running off like the Lone Ranger either. We need a plan. We need to regroup and figure out the next step. But first, we need to pack and get the hell out of here before my neighbors call the cops, or this guy's partner shows up."

Drake frowned, then gave a curt nod. It wasn't exactly a gracious concession, but it would have to do.

I wasn't feeling too gracious myself, but it was hard to argue with Brad's logic. It wouldn't hurt to get somewhere safe and at least talk about the options.

The three of us scurried around the apartment packing computers, medication, clothes, money, all the supplies and information Ana had given us.

When we had finished, we stepped out onto the porch.

"Should I lock it?" Brad asked.

"No," Drake said. "Close the door, but don't lock it. We can call the police to report a break-in. Say we're the neighbor or something."

Brad nodded and closed the door.

I scanned the area around us as we walked to the car, worried someone else might be stalking us. "We still have his partner to worry about, and the guy I saw at Venice Beach."

"I know," Drake said.

Brad sighed. "Great, more people to run from, or attack."

Drake chuckled. "Nobody said we'd be boring houseguests."

Brad groaned and tried to flip him the finger while carrying several bags. It looked painful.

I almost cracked a smile.

We loaded up the car and got in. I took the front seat while Brad drove.

Drake sat in the back. "So where now?"

Brad revved the car and pulled out of the driveway. He merged into traffic on the busy street and headed to the nearest freeway entrance. "I know a place we can go. It's out of the way and can't be traced back to me if anyone starts digging."

"Sounds perfect," I said.

"Well, almost. Just one problem."

Drake leaned forward. "What's that?"

"It's a cabin in the woods. My old journalism professor retired there. We'd have to let him in on your secret."

"You're asking the wrong questions," Lucy said to the crowd of Rent-A-Kids huddled around her in an unused classroom. She stared at a poster of Einstein to collect her thoughts, and hid her nervous hands under the teacher's desk she sat behind. "It's not just a question of whether we can break through the guards and high-voltage gates. The real question is what are we going to do once we're out? We're in the middle of nowhere. None of us have any forms of identification. We don't have cars, money, or contacts on the outside. How the hell are we supposed to survive out there?"

Dozens of hopeless eyes stared up at her. She hated to burst their bubble, but they had to face reality. She looked to Luke for support, but even he frowned in disappointment. Did he really think they had any chance at all of escaping? That the "Freedom Fighters" would survive?

Gary, the boy who had recruited Lucy and Luke, and the apparent leader of the rag-tag team, stared down at the ground. He flicked a coin up into the air and used his power over metal to spin it in hypnotic circles.

Lucy held in another outburst. The kid had never even gone on an assignment. He'd only arrived from the elementary ward at the sister facility a few weeks ago. She looked at Luke again, begging him with her eyes to make some sense. What was he thinking, going along with all this?

Gary cleared his throat and attempted eye contact with the wall behind Lucy. "We have to do something. Sitting here waiting for them to decide our fates isn't a plan."

She'd have agreed if a plan wasn't already in place: Sam would get help. But she couldn't tell this group that—no one but she and Luke could know Sam's plans—so how could she convince them this was a fool's errand?

"Okay, how would you do it?" she asked.

The other teens perked up.

Wally spoke first, "We'll use our powers to create diversions. If we organize our whole team, we can do this. We may not have as many people as they have soldiers, but we have para-powers. That should count for something, right?"

Lucy looked around the classroom. She knew some of the teens by name, others by sight. Laura, a girl from her calculus class, smiled at her. They'd been friends in the lower grades, but had since grown apart. Still, she liked Laura and didn't want to see her get hurt in this stupid plan that wasn't even a plan.