“Let him go. Let him go and come with me now.”
“Why, so I can watch you run to Caleb? You lied to me. You never intended to return to me.”
I couldn’t even see Emerick any more and Hayden would soon be lost to that dark place as well. I didn’t want this, I didn’t want him to suffer, to be trapped in some horror that he might never be able to find his way out of. “Hayden,” I took a step towards him. “Let go of him, please. Before it’s too late.”
Hayden looked over his shoulder, stared into the fathomless abyss behind him, then returned his eyes to mine. “You made your choice—it’s already too late. I won’t leave him here.” As the dark pulled him away, his eyes left mine and focused on my sword. “Tell me how!”
My hand gripped the handle of the sword, every muscle in my body fought the urge to rush towards them and strike down every beast clawing and pulling them into oblivion. Hayden’s face fell into the shadow, he was almost gone. “Charlotte! Tell me!” he yelled.
A second later, they were gone.
“Your will!” I screamed into the dark. “Focus your will!” The sound of my own voice echoed all around me. Nothing moved. I was alone in a strange gray void and I had no idea if my words to Hayden had come too late.
If they had, I might never see Hayden again.
And if they hadn’t—then I might not have much time.
I tried to clear my mind and think about what I needed to do next. Concentrating, I focused my attention on seeing the silver life cord that connected me to my body. Like Mohan had shown me, I tried first imagining it there, shimmering behind me, waiting for me to follow it back. But my mind kept returning to Hayden and imagining what horrors he was facing in some other darker corner of this strange place.
Why wouldn’t he listen? I could have saved him, even if I didn’t intend to be with him, he didn’t have to stay trapped in this place. But I needed Emerick lost in this place. I hadn’t been able to think of any other way to keep him away while I tried to save Caleb, Sophie, and now that I knew exactly where she was, my mother.
I couldn’t focus on what I needed to do now because Hayden’s frightened eyes kept appearing in my vision. I doubted my choice.
No. It was his choice. He chose his father when he should have chosen himself. The most awful thing was, had their roles been reversed, Emerick would not have done the same for his son.
If Emerick had had the chance to save himself—he would have left Hayden here to suffer alone.
Why couldn’t Hayden see that?
Time. I was running out of time. I had to stop. Pushing everything else from my mind, I imagined the cord lying on the ground beside me. Whenever another thought threatened to distract me, I focused even harder until, after several minutes, I saw the cord, shining and coiled, waiting to guide me back to the world.
I bent down and collected the coils over my arm, touching it made an electric shiver run up my spine and into the base of my skull. The cord didn’t feel like rope, more like a spongy living conduit. It made me think of an umbilical cord connecting a baby to its mother and I could feel something pulsing through it, as if I were holding a live electric cable in my hands.
The length I wasn’t holding stretched out away from me and disappeared from my sight into the distance. It was as if someone else was holding the other end, but I knew when I followed it back, it would lead me to my body sitting on a couch, seven hundred feet beneath the ground, somewhere in the middle of France.
With one last look at the shadows that had claimed Hayden and his father, I turned and focused my every desire on the silver cord in my hands and the image of moving towards my body as fast as I could.
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
Eyes Everywehere
When I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw was Emerick.
Still sitting in the chair across from me, his face was slack, but his chest rose and fell in a deep and even rhythm. Wherever his mind was, his body was still alive.
A heaviness dragged at my chest, a weight of emotion. Watching Emerick breathe in and out, I realized that what I was feeling was hope.
If Emerick was still alive, still fighting somewhere deep inside the astral, then maybe Hayden was too.
I didn’t move a muscle. As much as I was tempted to leap off the couch and run for the door leading to Caleb and Sophie, I forced my body to remain absolutely still while my eyes inspected every corner available to my immediate field of vision.
Every fiber in me screamed to spring up and run for that door that led to the hallway of cells—but saving them would be a brief victory, or might never even happen, if one of Emerick’s men were to grab us the minute we tried to get to the elevator.
Besides Emerick, there wasn’t anyone in front of me. Slowly, I turned my head so I could see the rest of the room.
Were we still all alone? I was beginning to think so when my eye landed on the tinted half moons evenly spaced along the high ceiling.
We were not alone. Our every movement was being watched—recorded. There was a very good chance that the minute I got off this couch, and Emerick didn’t do the same, a team of thugs would begin moving in.
My heart thumped hard against my chest—how was I going to get Caleb and Sophie out of their cells and to the elevator before Emerick’s men realized what was going on? My blood pumped hard through my body, urging me to move, to take action, to start running—all the things my mind knew I absolutely should not do right now. Anxiety clawed at me while I watched Emerick’s chest rise and fall, rise and fall, realizing that, at any moment, he could open his eyes and my opportunity to save Caleb and Sophie would be lost.
Think Charlotte.
Those cameras lining the ceiling were as good as an iron cage around me right now—my body was trapped on this couch.
My body.
Not my mind.
Without moving anything else, my eyes darted to the nearest half moon hanging from the ceiling. How many of Emerick’s men would actually be watching the surveillance feed? One? Maybe two. The others would be somewhere else, ready to spring with a moment’s notice, but not directly observing what was happening in this room.
I didn’t need to fight off an entire team of Emerick’s men, I only needed to exert enough influence over the thoughts of one man. The one man sitting in a room watching me right this moment. The one man that would call the others if I should make any sudden moves.
I closed my eyes.
Franzen had once explained to me that the power he had, was the power to influence other people. People in powerful positions.
I only needed to influence one man sitting in front of wall of monitors.
It was getting easier for me to slip in and out of the astral plane, after only a couple of minutes, I found myself once again standing inside of it staring down at my own body—but I needed to hurry.
Passing through the door that led to the elevator, I found myself standing in the long hallway I had come through when I’d first arrived here. Where would the surveillance room be? Without my body to slow me down, I passed through several walls and doors, moved up and down floors, and finally found myself standing behind not a man, but a young woman sitting in front of row upon row of monitors that each scrolled through various scenes. She distracted me, with her close cropped, bright red hair, high cheek bones, and muscled biceps—she was definitely not the brute force male thug I had been expecting. This woman looked like she was in her twenties, she was beautiful and somewhat military in her posture and precision of movement. Her attention moved with her head as she glanced from screen to screen and made notes on a tablet in front of her.
Valuable seconds passed as I stared at her back trying to figure out what to do now. Influence her mind, yes—but with what, and how? How exactly was I going to distract someone so single-mindedly focused on the exact thing I didn’t want her to be focused on.
I watched the monitors scroll through their feeds several times. Each monitor seemed to cover four sepa
rate locations for about five seconds each. I found the monitor focused on me and Emerick—we were both still sitting still on the couch. Then, on a separate monitor, I saw the hallway outside the block of cells and then inside the actual cells holding both Caleb and Sophie.
Three monitors patrolling four separate images—she seemed so alert and meticulous in her duties, I had no idea how I could keep her from noticing something was going on in so many different places at once.
Unless?
What I actually needed was for her to get even more focused. She needed to be so focused and so busy, busy with something else, that she would miss what was happening on the three monitors that would be recording my movement.
But what?
My eyes caught sight of the monitor that showed the above ground entrance, the one in the garage with the elevator I had come down—the same one we would need to be going up in order to get out. Two men were standing guard outside that door, I couldn’t be sure but I thought they were two of the same men who had brought me in. Both were armed with military style machine guns. Even if I was able to get Caleb and Sophie out of their cells, these two surely would stop us before we were able to get five steps past those doors.
This was where I needed to focus my attention, something that would occupy the woman and both guards—otherwise Caleb, Sophie, and I wouldn’t be going anywhere.
I watched the monitors cycle through several more times: Caleb in his cell, Sophie lying in her’s, Emerick and me sitting in front of the fire, the two guards posted outside the elevator—time was slipping away from me. Any second Hayden could figure out how to save both himself and his father from the darkness of the astral plane.
Think Charlotte!
On the monitor directly in front of me, the image of the guards standing with their legs wide and their large guns slung over their shoulders popped up again—and this time, a plan came with it. But I had no idea if it was in my power to pull it off. From inside the astral plane, how much could I influence the actions of another person?
I didn’t know, but I was about to find out.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Influence
The two men were standing right in front of me. I focused all my attention on the one standing closest to the half moon surveillance camera watching them and the elevator entrance. If this worked, it would buy me a little time—but not much.
The incisive red headed guard didn’t seem like the type that was likely to get pulled off task for too long.
I focused all my intention on the right index finger of the man. I needed it to move. To slide down a quarter of an inch, hardly any distance at all, and slip into the rounded protection of the gun’s trigger.
At first, it didn’t move at all. Then, after what seemed like an eternity of intense focus, his finger twitched. When it came back to rest against the gun, he slid it onto the trigger.
I couldn’t believe it. I did that…didn’t I? I made another human being do something—with my mind. The realization was intoxicating, and terrifying.
This was exactly what Emerick wanted to be able to do.
Influence.
But I couldn’t worry about that right now because, as amazing as it was to make a full grown man move his finger onto a trigger, in actual fact I needed him to do much more than that. And I had a feeling that getting someone to raise a gun and shoot at something was probably much more difficult than moving a finger.
I concentrated with every fiber of my being, visualized the movement I needed him to make, the actions required for him to turn, raise his gun, and fire at the security camera over his head. Time clawed at my brain, any moment Hayden and Emerick could emerge from the astral plane and my only chance to save Caleb and Sophie would be gone. My only chance to escape Emerick and save my mother.
I pushed my mind towards the man with everything I had until, suddenly, his gun swung round in a fast high arc. He took aim at the half moon hanging from the ceiling, pulled the trigger, and released a rapid burst of fire.
The glass and camera exploded into a million shards along with chunks of the ceiling that came raining down. Stunned, the man lowered his gun just as the guard next to him sprang into a defensive stance, pointed his gun, and began yelling at the shooter, “What the hell Murphy? Lower your weapon—right now goddammit, lower your goddamn gun!”
A female voice began yelling over the radios attached to both men’s hips—I could guess it was the red headed guard sitting in the surveillance room, but I didn’t wait to find out.
This was my chance.
Like lightning, I grabbed hold of my silver cord and raced back to my body. The speed of my return was confusing as images and rooms blurred past me and seemed to merge into one. With a sudden jolt, I was back in my body and a sickening wave of nausea washed through me and threatened to make me sick right there on Emerick’s floor—but I didn’t stop. Once I was back in my body, back in the room with Emerick, I jumped up and ran for the door leading to the cells. This was it, my opportunity, and I wasn’t about to waste it by throwing up.
My only hope was that Red was too focused on the shooting upstairs to notice me racing across her screens. I grabbed the door handle, swung it towards me, and ran as fast as I could down the stark white halls.
The code to the doors, I had seen Emerick use the keypad to Caleb’s door and had memorized it. Hunched over, breathing hard, I tried to make my hand stop shaking long enough to get the keys punched in. I hit the last number.
Red light.
No.
I glanced at the hallway door, my whole body shook with fear—any minute now, they would come for us.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. Try again Charlotte. I forced myself to go slower, 7, 9, 2, and this time, when I hit the last number, 7, a second ticked and I held my breath.
Green light.
I grabbed the long metal handle and pushed hard, down and in, until the door swung open.
Caleb sat against the opposite wall, his hands dangling between his knees.
“Caleb!”
He blinked and squinted his eyes—Emerick had been keeping him in complete darkness. “Charlotte?” he tried to stand up but his balance was off.
I rushed into the room, terrified that someone would come and shut the door on both of us at any moment, and helped him to his feet. “We have to hurry,” I pleaded. “They could be here any second.”
“How did you—”
“There isn’t time,” I hissed at him. “We have to get Sophie and get out of here.”
By the time we reached the door, Caleb had released my shoulders and was managing to support himself as we both hurried across the hall to the cell that held Sophie. I grasped the keypad with both hands and began typing in the code.
Red light.
My body trembled. I clenched and unclenched my hands, dropped my shoulders—think Charlotte! With a forced slowness that made my heart hammer like a drum, I carefully entered the code again. One second, two seconds—
Red light.
My hands gripped my head and squeezed. I hadn’t typed the code wrong, I knew it.
“The code is different,” I said.
“What?” Caleb asked.
“The codes,” my voice caught in my throat. “They’re different for every door. I saw Emerick type in yours, but not Sophie’s.”
Caleb stared blankly at the padded numbers holding his little sister prisoner and shook his head. “No,” he pushed me out of the way. “What’s the code?” he asked.
“It’s wrong.”
“What’s the code Charlotte!”
I told him the first numbers as he punched them in, “…7, 9, 2, 7.”
Red light. “Damn it,” he said clenching his fist and his eyes. He pounded his fist on the door.
“They’ll be here any minute,” I said.
He turned on me, “I’m not leaving my little sister here, Charlotte.”
I shook my head, I didn’t mean he should, “No…I didn’
t—”
He was staring at the other doors then suddenly turned back to the lock, “Tell me the code again.”
There was no point, but I didn’t argue with him. We had already lost, and neither of us was going to leave Sophie here alone. Caleb might as well punch the numbers in a hundred more times while we waited for either Emerick or his men to come and lock us back up. I told him the numbers again, but this time, when he got to the last number, he typed the 6 instead of the 7.
“I said seven—”
Green light.
The shock hit me so hard, at first I only stared at the light, certain it would change at any moment back to red. I couldn’t believe it.
Caleb shoved the handle and the door and shouted, “Sophie!” The lights came on, stark white florescent light—flooded an empty room.
My heart, for a beat, it throbbed in my throat.
Someone screamed, then flew from behind the door and attacked Caleb’s head in front of me. Confused at first, I didn’t realize what was happening as he crouched and tried to defend himself.
Then it hit me.
“Sophie!” I moved in and tried to grab hold of her wild, swinging arms. “Sophie, it’s us. It’s us.” Her movement slowed and Caleb took hold of her elbows, pushing her off of him. He held her in front of him. “Are you all right?” a desperation pulled at his words and I realized he was terrified she might say no.
Thunderstruck, Sophie at first only stared at her brother, and then me.
“Sophie!” Caleb shook her slightly and she swayed on her feet. “Answer me,” his voice caught on the last syllable—it would kill him if she was hurt.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, I’m all right. I thought you were them…I was going to try and escape.”
Caleb stood up straight and let go of her arms.
Time, we were running out of it. “We have to go,” I interrupted.
They both looked at me, there were so many questions on all of our minds and no time for any of them. Caleb nodded his head and took Sophie’s hand, “Let’s go.”
Midheaven (Ascendant Trilogy Book 2) Page 25