Leena and one of the other thugs cut us off. I was so sick and tired of this. Just like at the mall, it was as though we couldn’t get away from these people.
Chairs and tables started vibrating. People yelped and stood, some of them backing away. A few of them pushed themselves together as though there were a giant magnet at the center of the room drawing them together.
“Are you doing this?” Sean asked.
“Not by choice.” I nodded, a lump thickening in my throat. “I don’t want to hurt anybody, but they’re making me do it because I’m afraid of them. I can’t control it.”
Sean yanked me to the side to hide behind a counter. The tables and chairs flew outward in various directions, slamming into anyone within their vicinity. Wherever they landed, that’s who got clobbered by a piece of furniture.
“Gotta get you out of here.” He took my head and we ran back toward the alley toward his friends.
More lights exploded as we got closer to them. The running and screaming hordes grew in size. It wasn’t long before chaos broke out and dozens of people were darting out of any door marked exit. Bowling balls fell off the racks, some of them going after whoever bowled them.
When we got to our group, they had their stuff and were ready to go.
“What the heck is going on?” Natalie asked.
“Later.” Sean grabbed my purse and jacket and handed them to me. “We have to get out of here. This place is going to blow itself up.”
At the far end of the alley, one person had been yanked three-quarters of the way down the oily lane by the ankles. The same thing happened to someone in the next lane and the next. When it finally got to our lane, I shoved everyone else aside and let the force snatch me. I flew down the alley, coming up about five short of the pins. When I looked toward the others, Sean and Lincoln were making their way toward me. Others were helping their friends off the waxed lanes. One of the attendants hurried down the side of the lanes and tried to flag those of us stuck out there to come toward him where it was safer.
I grabbed Sean’s hand when he arrived and he helped me to my feet.
“I have to keep my eyes closed.” I latched onto him with my other hand, too. “It’s the only way I know how to regain some control. It’s not perfect but—”
“Do it,” he shouted as pins shot out of the pit where they had fallen and soared back up the lanes like missiles. “I’ll guide you.”
Holding onto Sean as though he were my only lifeline, I closed my eyes and relied on him as though my life depended upon it. It wasn’t easy and with all of the explosions and things flying by, I wasn’t sure if it was working either. I clung to Sean trying to follow his lead. Since I had nothing to blindfold myself with, I pressed my face into what felt like his shoulder. His laundry detergent smelled like flowers meaning his mom probably did his laundry. I smiled at that if nothing else.
A snap and several short pops dropped my momentary comfort levels. Our feet slid along the alley, but when we made it to the walkway on the side, I opened my eyes and ran with the others. My psychokinesis calmed down, but there were still things crackling and showering people with sparks and small fires throughout. The staff was quick to pounce on what they could with extinguishers, but I couldn’t tell if it was enough.
The rest of Sean’s friends met up with us near the bowling entrance. Leena approached, her face etched with concern as she ran up to Lincoln’s side and took his hand in hers.
That no good, bitch. I let go of Sean, yanked her around, and clubbed her with a right cross. She stumbled backward against a nearby table. Sean rushed forward to stop me before I hit her with another one. Others stepped in to break us up.
“Are you going to tell them or should I?” I yelled. “I’ve got nothing to lose.”
“You’re insane.” She touched her angry red cheek, tears dripping down her face.
“And you’re as fake as the sex you had with Lincoln the night I showed up at my grandfather’s house.” I looked at him. “Ask her how I know about that? Go ahead.”
He glanced at Leena. “What’s she talking about? How does she know?”
Leena’s demeanor went from hurt puppy to Machine Gun Sally. She reached inside her jacket and pulled her gun on us.
Instinct jerked my hand up as if to stop her.
She fired a bullet at me.
My power stopped it in mid-air. The bullet hung a few inches from my flattened palm. I didn’t know what to do next. My powers have never done anything like this before. They never worked to my advantage or did what I told them to do. Not that this was something I wanted them to do. I wanted to fire the bullet back at her but didn’t know how to direct my powers to do that. So the bullet just hung there with everyone watching in stunned disbelief.
I raised my other hand, hoping to redirect the explosive energy still backing the bullet. All of that stuff my grandfather had said about equal and opposite reactions floated back to my thoughts. I knew what he was talking about, but trying to manipulate it was another ball of wax altogether. I focused again on the bullet, using my mind to will it backward and away from me.
Leena flew over a railing and landed hard on her back. Nobody moved despite the smoke filling the air and sparks raining down in the background. Lincoln was the only one who unstuck his brain and ran to Leena’s side.
“Did anyone else see that?” Natalie asked, her fingernails digging into the first arm she could find, which happened to be Xander’s. “I—uh—I think…”
“We need to go.” Sean snatched me out of the path of the bullet. Thankfully, it dropped to the floor. “Guys. Now.”
Everyone grabbed their stuff and we hurried with the rest of the fleeing masses toward the door. I had no idea if Lincoln followed, but he was a bigger idiot than I thought if he stayed behind to help that sell-out tramp of his.
First responders were on the scene as we exited the building. They were heading in as we headed out, some of them assisting those who had either been hurt or overcome by the fumes.
“I never should’ve come,” I whispered. A lump tightened my throat as I forced unspilled tears to keep their place. “This is all on me.”
“No, it’s not.” Sean hustled us toward his car. His friends weren’t parked very far away. Once we got a moment to catch our breath, he stopped. “I got a message from Howard that you needed help. That something was wrong. I told him to stay home with your sister while I went to find you. I said if I didn’t call him in twenty minutes then he should worry.”
“Did you tell him I was okay?”
“Are we?”
That was a loaded question. I looked around the parking lot. There were so many vehicles, it was hard to tell. Too many places for the rest of Leena’s thugs to hide.
Chapter Twenty-three
Sean excused himself so he could call my grandfather. That left me standing in the crosshairs of a swarm of unanswered questions and innuendos. I wanted to crawl under the SUV next to me.
“Can somebody please tell me what the hell just happened back there?” Natalie had this look on her face like she was mad, terrified, and uncertain of what to do.
“It was her.” Willa, an electrical engineering senior who had already been scouted by four major companies in Silicon Valley for internships, pointed at me.
“That’s crazy. She can’t do those things. There had to be some weird electrical interference or geological anomaly.”
“Then how did she stop a bullet?” Though both hesitant and fascinated at the same time, Xander approached me. “That’s why Howard was asking those questions about whether we believed telekinesis was real last night, wasn’t he? Everything Sean said he saw was true. There aren’t any ghosts in that house. It was you.”
“It’s called psychokinesis.” I gulped. Rather than go for the weak and timid voice, I lifted my head and met his gaze. I wanted to own up to my powers and not let them own me. I had been afraid of them for too long. “Telekinesis is when you can control the things you
move with your mind. With psychokinesis, you can’t. My mother has it and so does my brother, though he’s not as powerful as my mother and me.”
“And your little sister?” Lincoln slowly approached us, shivering a tad because he probably left his jacket back in there. Leena wasn’t with him.
I shook my head. “She doesn’t have it. Lucky her.”
“What about Howard?” Xander asked.
“Not him either. It only runs on my mother’s side of the family. Not my father’s.”
“Holy shit.” Willa grinned, excitement piercing her eyes. “That’s incredible. I mean—it’s terrible, but you have to understand that none of us have ever seen anything like that before.”
I wasn’t sure how to take that. Part of me wanted to yank her around and show her the level of destruction I caused while another part wanted to thank her for not being afraid of me. Still, I had to remind myself that her enthusiasm was the reason why we had drawn the attention of the wrong people. If others weren’t as interested as she was, Nadia and I wouldn’t be in his mess.
“Leena said some things.” Lincoln, still shivering, shoved his hands in his pockets.
Even though I thought Lincoln was going to be more of a threat to his patients than a help, I sympathized with him. Whatever Leena did, I had a feeling she played his emotions like a guitarist in a rock band.
“I’m sorry, but what I said was the truth. When I went to make a phone call, she cornered me and told me she worked for the same people who had kidnapped my sister and me back in Chicago. Her job was to infiltrate your group. Maybe to keep tabs on you, but eventually to make contact with me through Howard. I got scared when I first saw her gun and my powers got away from me. It sort of went sideways from there.”
“But why would she shoot you?” Natalie almost sounded ticked at herself for believing some of the stuff I said. “Isn’t that like killing the golden goose?”
“Who said she meant to kill her?” Xander asked. “A bullet to the arm or leg would be enough to prove her point and scare the crap out of us. Besides, it wasn’t like she raised the gun at Phaedra’s head.”
“Okay, guys.” Sean shoved his phone in his pocket and rejoined us. “Everyone at the house is fine, but we need to go.”
“Should’ve left sooner.” One of Leena’s guys came up behind Xander and pointed a gun at the back of his head. “Get in the car, Ms. Thorne. No more games.”
An SUV pulled up in the aisle behind us and the back passenger door opened. One of Leena’s other henchmen sat in the seat, motioning for me to enter.
I turned around to see the man with the gun pointed at Xander’s head. Everyone remained frozen, too afraid to move or say anything. I gulped as my heart started trying to beat its way out of my chest.
“Why would you want to do that?” I asked. “The only reason why that building is still standing is because I’m not in it. I’m out here with you.”
“That’s why I have this.” The man reached inside his pocket and tossed a blindfold to my feet. “Put it on. While it might not be the best, it does tend to mute out your power to some degree. It’s either that or a sedative, Ms. Thorne.”
“Don’t.” Sean eased in front of me, his hand held out as if that was enough to ward the man off. “She’s not going anywhere with you. And if you fire that gun, the cops will pounce on you before you can close that back door.”
“It’s a risk we’re willing to take.” He pulled back the hammer. “We’re tired of this stupid running around.”
“Keep it cool, Phaedra.”
Fear of something bad happening to Xander filled me. My power had caused so many problems and too many injuries in one night. I didn’t want to take the chance that someone might get hurt or die because of me. If I had stayed home, none of this would’ve happened.
I looked down at the blindfold.
It flew straight up in the air. The guy holding Xander stared. Both Sean and Lincoln took the chance and rushed him.
I turned my focus to the car. Before the guy in the back could get out, the door slammed shut and the metal punched inward near the handle. The windows blew inward along with a half dozen other cars sitting behind it. More metal bent inward, triggering alarms across every vehicle touched by my powers.
Someone covered my eyes from behind. I yelped and tried to tear them off.
“Stop, Phaedra,” Natalie said clutching me tight. “I’ve got you. You’re fine.”
“What about that guy?” Willa said.
“He’ll be out for a while,” another guy said, whose voice I didn’t recognize.
“You’re never going to get drinks without me again.”
The new guy must have been Willa’s boyfriend, Alastair. Other than Natalie, he was also a graduate student with a major in Math. He wasn’t at the house the other night because he was busy grading homework.
Natalie kept her hands on my eyes until we got into Sean’s car. It took some convincing before she’d finally let me go. By then, we were on the thruway and heading back toward the university. As much as I wanted to go home, we had to drop off both Natalie and Xander. Willa and Alastair dropped off Lincoln since Leena was his ride.
#
I was never so happy to see Howard and Connie. They did an amazing job keeping Nadia out of the loop in terms of everything that happened tonight. They even managed to read her a story that put her to sleep. Unfortunately for Sean, his mother was the last person I thought would tear him a new one. I had to convince her that none of it was his fault as much as it was mine. Thank goodness Sean and I agreed beforehand to leave out the part about guns being involved or both of our loved ones would’ve really freaked out.
While Sean dished out the details to his mother and my grandfather, I went upstairs to kiss my little sister as she slept. I wanted to stay with her, but Kurt had sent several messages wanting to hear from me. So, I called him with all of the details.
“I don’t know anyone named Crothers,” Kurt said. “I’ll pass the name onto Mason. Maybe he knows something. Of course, that could be a fake name, too. The part that keeps messing me up and why they would be so quick to do away with you. A gun seems a little ridiculous this late in the game.”
“Something made them stop caring so much about me and my well-being.” I kicked off my shoes and slumped onto my bed, wishing this night had never happened. A thought hit me hard like a train crashed into a vehicle stuck on the tracks. Kurt was talking about something, but I wasn’t paying any attention. My hunch consumed me. I went into another room so as not to wake Nadia. “All this time, they kept emphasizing how everyone in our family rated on their scale of importance. Mom and I were tied for the top.”
“Okay, but where are you going with this?”
“Supposed things have changed. The only reason why I would be second best is that they already have access to a number one.”
Kurt let a few seconds of silence hang in the air. “You think they have mom.”
“Even if they don’t, for some reason, she’s more readily available to them now. Why waste more time with a pain in the butt who's nice-to-have? They can risk putting a hole in me to make me more compliant now because they have the other one who’s just as good.”
“You have to put it that way, don’t you?”
Howard passed by the door but backed up when he saw me. I waved him inside. Howard came in and turned on the light. Until now, I had been using the light from the hall. I put the phone on speaker so he could listen, too.
Kurt continued. “Mom has schizophrenia. What makes you think she’s the better choice when she’s off her meds and has no bittersweet leaves? She’s been in full-blown bedlam for a while now.”
“That’s just it—she’s not. Not according to their preternatural index. She’s on the same level as me. I’m an out of control teen and she’s an out of control schizophrenic. The only difference is I have Nadia with me, which is a bonus in their book.”
“Why hasn’t anyone come after me, then
?”
“Well…” Oh man. Did he really want to go there? I gulped. “When was the last time you moved anything heavier than Nadia’s doll?”
Howard chuckled. “She’s got a point. Besides if it weren’t for your buddy Mason’s magic, you’d be more schizophrenic than psychokinetic anyway. Last I heard, these guys aren’t looking for predominantly crazy people unless they come with some fantastic incentives like your mom.”
“Thanks,” Kurt said, smoldering. “I get the point.”
“So let me make sure I have this straight since I’m coming in at the tail end.” Howard sat on the end of the bed. “You think you’re more expendable than you used to be because there were more people coming after you tonight than before? Tell me how that makes sense?”
I closed my eyes. Son of a… I was going to have to go where I didn’t want to because I wasn’t sure how Howard would take the news. He didn’t react so well the last time guns came into the conversation, let alone pointed at his granddaughter. Everything inside me searched for a way to get out of it, but nothing emerged from that empty side of my brain.
The top drawer yanked open and linens spilled over the sides like boiling bubbles. Howard stared at it. Had it not been for it being bracketed into the wall, the whole chest of drawers might have toppled over.
“Wow.” He thumbed over his shoulder. “In addition to being a pervert deterrent, that power you have is a fabulous lie detector.”
There was no getting out of it. I confessed. “Leena and her thugs had guns and they weren’t of the sedation type if you know what I mean.”
“Oh.” Howard shrugged. “Well...I sort of assumed they had them the whole time while you guys were on the run. Knowing what you can do, if I were them, I’d dare my boss to pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
Silent Scream (Bittersweet Series, Book 2) Page 19