“Four from the MM, five locals. TSH out.”
Four from the Mystic Militia and five humans. That was interesting. She was under the impression that Lor only had two other Mystics in his annoying little troupe. Nazerel was right. Lor must have received backup from Ontariese. Damn it.
“Shall I divert, mistress?”
They weren’t being followed and Flynn had insisted neither of her passengers was bugged. Even if Lor had more personnel now, they were all engaged at the Team South house. She was being paranoid.
“No.” She motioned him onward. “I have too much to do back at the Farm. Carry on.”
Chapter Ten
Roxie woke up far less gently than she’d fallen asleep. Pain gripped her muscles, catapulting her from darkness into glaring light. She screamed and sprang up in bed, shaking with confusion and fear. For a muddled moment she’d thought she was in bed, struggling free of a nightmare. No such luck. This nightmare was her life.
“Sorry about the rude awakening.” Sevrin stood beside the hospital-style bed on which Roxie sat, one of her wrists secured to the side rail by a padded restraint. A sheet had been draped over her bare legs and the restraint had an electronic lock rather than a buckle. “You were taking forever. So I had Dr. Utoff help you. The cramps will pass in a moment. Take some deep breaths.”
“Where am I?” She tugged against the restraint. “Why am I locked to this bed? Where’s Elias?” Shit! She shouldn’t have said his name. Her thigh muscles continued to tense and her head was throbbing so badly she could hardly think.
An extremely thin, dour-faced man stood a step back from Sevrin, watching Roxie closely. He didn’t speak. There were five other beds identical to the one on which Roxie sat, but none of them were occupied. The room looked like an urgent care clinic or an emergency room in a really small hospital.
Forcing herself to think, she looked at the equipment surrounding her bed. With strange symbols and three-dimensional displays, it was obvious that the devices hadn’t originated on Earth. They had defiantly arrived at Sevrin’s new lab.
“Hey.” Sevrin snapped her fingers impatiently. “Focus. Who in the five hells are you and what did you do with the battle-born female?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples, buying herself a second or two to puzzle through the question.
“You’re not latent. You have no Mystic abilities of any kind, which means you cannot be the female I’ve been searching for since my father died. What did you do with the other hybrid?” By the time Sevrin worked her way through the explanation, she was shouting.
Slowly, Roxie opened her eyes. Would Sevrin’s inaccurate conclusion defuse the situation or render Roxie expendable? A hostage with no value was usually dead. She hadn’t prepared a lie and her head hurt too much for creativity. “I only know I’m a hybrid because the others told me. I know nothing about anyone else. What led you to me in the first place?”
“Faulty assumptions, apparently.” Sevrin’s gaze lingered on Roxie for a moment longer and then she dismissed the entire incident with a casual shrug. She turned to the tall, thin man hovering at the room’s perimeter. “Have her moved to one of the holding cells as soon as her head clears. I’ll take care of her later.”
Roxie refused to think about what that meant. Lor and the other Mystics should be here any moment with a small army of Morgan’s soldiers. They might be here already. She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious. Knowing it would be better if they found her in this unsecured room than in a holding cell, she lay back and pressed her hands to the sides of her head, moaning softly. Besides, it wasn’t like she had an option until she found a way to free herself from the restraint.
She could still see the thin man out of the corner of her eye. He hesitated a moment, as if deciding what to do, then moved to the workstation tucked in one corner of the room and sat down. Apparently, he was going to wait a little while longer for her head to clear.
Rolling to her side, she took a better look at the locking mechanism on the cuff. It was smooth, with no writing of any kind, no keyhole or release trigger. How the hell did it open?
Are you alone in the room? Lor’s welcome voice pushed into her mind.
No. Sevrin made the doctor stay and monitor me. I don’t think he’s armed, but I’m tethered to the bed.
We’ll be there momentarily. Try not to react to our arrival.
Got it.
Elias had to be in an adjoining room, she could feel the subtle pull of their proximity bond and his smoldering frustration. Good. He was awake and aware. That would make things much easier than dragging around an unconscious body.
Roxie’s job had been to lead them to the lab. Now that they’d found it, she wasn’t sure what to do. She closed her eyes, fighting back a staggering rush of emotions. She could fall apart later, rage against the injustice and cry for a week. Right now she needed to remain clearheaded and calm.
The thin man’s startled gasp drew Roxie’s attention away from her troubled thoughts. She sat up in time to see Lor lowering the thin man’s now unconscious body to the floor. Two Mystics she’d yet to meet flashed into the room a moment later.
“Can you walk?” Lor asked in a calm yet urgent tone.
“Yes, if you can get me out of this.” She raised her hand, displaying the restraint.
Lor rushed to her side and quickly examined the securement. “Hold very still.”
Roxie rested her hand on top of the side rail and didn’t so much as breathe. Orange-red light erupted in Lor’s palm, making his entire hand glow. Then he formed a fist and condensed the energy into a tiny, ultra-bright flame. The flame spiraled down his index finger and burned into the padded part of the cuff. Roxie’s instinct was to pull away, but she kept her hand in place, watching in rapt amazement as Lor burned a perfect line from top to bottom. He pulled the cuff apart and Roxie pulled her hand free and rubbed her wrist. Her skin was untouched by a fire hot enough to burn through metal.
“That was…” She looked at him with unblinking awe. “You can control fire.”
He just smiled and motioned toward the door, a gentle reminder that the crisis was far from over. “Let’s go.”
Shaking away her amazement, she scooted to the end of the bed and hopped down. “Elias has to be nearby.”
“He’s our next stop,” Lor assured her. “Reinforcements are still ten to fifteen minutes away. We need to prepare as well as we can without alerting them to our presence.”
Lor’s companions dragged the thin man into a storeroom and closed the door. Hopefully he’d remain unconscious until after the others arrived.
“Were you able to flash inside without setting off an alarm?”
Lor nodded as he moved to the doorway and checked the corridor. “We were, but the soldiers won’t have the same luxury. We’ll have to move fast once the others arrive.”
“This access point is live,” one of the new Mystics said as he manipulated the three-dimensional display beside the bed Roxie had just vacated. “I’m inside their primary defenses. Let’s see if I can assess some sort of floor plan.”
Lor stepped past Roxie and looked at the display. “I am so glad you volunteered for this.”
“Few Mystics are literate in Rodyte. I suspected the skill might be useful.”
The other newcomer approached Roxie with compassion in his eyes. “Are you sure you’re unharmed? This must be terrifying for you.”
“It hasn’t been fun, but I’m fine. Really.” She produced an anemic smile before looking around. If they had a few minutes to kill, maybe she could find something to cover her legs. She pulled open cupboards and cabinets, but found nothing useful. Then her gaze landed on the door to the storeroom. “Do you think the doctor’s still out?”
The friendly Mystic joined her as she crossed to the storeroom door. “I hear no movement.” He stepped past her and eased the door open.
Thin man lay exactly as Lor had left
him, unconscious yet breathing steadily. Roxie spotted a stack of neatly folded scrubs, or the Rodyte equivalent of scrubs. She grabbed one of the light blue garments and shook it out, delighted when she saw it was a uniform bottom with a drawstring waist. She moved back into the main room and pulled the pants on while the Mystic secured the storeroom. Shoes, or better yet boots, would have been nice too, but she was glad to be less exposed.
By the time she finished dressing, the other new Mystic had located a three-dimensional floor plan. Everyone gathered around the diagram as he explained, “This is the infirmary. I believe that’s where we are. Elias is most likely in the exam room on the other side of that wall.” He pointed to the wall on Roxie’s right.
“Are these the holding cells?” Lor pointed to a double row of similarly shaped rooms.
“I believe so.”
“Let’s head that direction after we collect Elias,” Lor advised. “Freeing the captives will be a good use of our time if we can do so without revealing our position. Once the fighting starts, it’s going to be chaotic.”
“Understood,” the other two Mystics said in turn.
“And pass the floor plan to the others. Everything will run more smoothly if we know where things are.”
“Already done.” The Rodyte-speaking Mystic assured.
Lor looked at her and paused for a reassuring smile. “You did really well. Ready for a little more excitement.”
His tone was playful rather than condescending, so Roxie nodded. “Can you guarantee ‘a little more excitement’ is all we’ll see?”
“Sorry. Mystics try to speak only truth.”
Lor led their small group into the hallway after checking to make sure it was clear. Roxie stood anxiously between the two newcomers as Lor flashed inside the locked exam room and returned with Elias.
Still shirtless, Elias swept her into a quick hug as soon as Lor released him. “Are you okay?” He kept her face between his palms as he quickly looked her over.
“I’m fine.”
“This way,” Lor urged.
They reached a corridor adjacent to the holding cells without incident, but the entire area was well guarded. Roxie could feel ripples of energy flowing around her, but she couldn’t hear what Lor and the other Mystics were saying. They must be using a different frequency than the one created by her telepathic link to Lor. Or he was shielding the conversation in some way. She still wasn’t sure how it all worked.
Lor’s intense turquoise gaze shifted toward her and their link vibrated as his voice sounded inside her mind. The others have arrived. Stay down as much as possible.
It was a diplomatic way of telling her and Elias to keep out of their way. She had no problem with the order, but Elias tensed beside her, clearly insulted by the dictate. The Rodyte-speaking Mystic shifted quickly to the other side of the hall and Elias moved closer to her. He held a pulse pistol in his right hand, but she had no idea where he’d gotten it. From one of the Mystics probably. Nothing else made sense.
“Stay behind me,” Elias said softly and Roxie couldn’t help but smile. He hadn’t liked being told to stay back, yet he had no problem reinforcing Lor’s position. It didn’t seem quite fair.
Yeah well, she wasn’t an Army Ranger nor had she received training from the FBI. Immediately regretting the moment of brutal honesty, she looked around to see if anyone had overheard her pessimistic thought. Everyone else was anxiously waiting for Lor to determine it was time to begin. She needed to get her head in the game and keep it there.
Setting things in motion with a sharp hand gesture, Lor flashed from his position at the intersecting corridors and materialized behind the largest of four guards. The other two Mystics followed his lead, teleporting to their targets to maximize the element of surprise. Lor had engaged the last guard by the time his companions flashed into position and all three worked with focused precision, incapacitating the guards before anyone had time to trigger an alarm. They moved with a fluid grace Roxie found mesmerizing and incredibly efficient.
Elias rushed down the now secure corridor and stopped in front of the door to the first holding cell. He fired a quick blast into the scanner panel. Sparks erupted and the circuitry hissed. Elias tucked the pistol into the back of his pants and flattened his palms on the smooth metal, heaving the uncooperative door aside.
A frightened young woman rushed out of the cell and started to throw herself into his arms. When she saw his state of undress, her eyes rounded and she shied away.
Roxie hurried forward, her welcoming smile meant to ease the captive’s fear. “We’ve come to get you out of here.”
The captive rushed toward Roxie then clung to her arm as they followed Elias toward the next holding cell.
The Mystics worked to free captives as well and soon they were surrounded by a small crowd of terrified females. Flynn had warned of six test subjects, but they found a total of eight, several so ill they had to be assisted by others just to walk.
The Rodyte-speaking Mystic was about to open last holding cell when he motioned to Lor instead. “Commander, there are four men in this cell. Are they captives or Shadow Assassins?”
“Why would she have them locked up?” the friendly Mystic asked.
“Leave them for now. It’s more important that we get these women out of here.” Then he seemed to reconsider. “Do they all look healthy and unharmed?”
“Yes, just angry that I’m not opening the door.”
“Tell them we’ll return for them in a few minutes and to be quiet until we do.”
Once again speaking in Rodyte, the Mystic quickly explained what was going on. Roxie couldn’t hear what the male captives said in return, but the Mystic lingered by the door way a few minutes longer.
“Who sent you?” one of the female captives asked. She seemed less agitated than the others. “How did you know we were here?”
“What’s your name?” Roxie asked, careful to keep her tone light.
“Emily.”
“I’m Roxie and we’ll answer all your questions as soon as we’re in a safe location.”
Emily nodded then went to help one of the sick ones as they started down the corridor.
Suddenly Lor spun toward Elias and said, “One of the other teams is in trouble. Can you get the women out of here?”
“Of course. Go.”
“Two rights then a left,” Lor told him. “If you see the elevators, you’ve gone too far.”
“Got it.”
Without further ado, the three Mystics flashed out of sight.
The captives gasped at the abrupt departure then looked to Elias for instructions. The pulse pistol was back in his right hand and determination hardened his expression. “I’ll lead, Roxie bring up the rear.”
Roxie nodded, happy to follow any directive that took her out of this place as quickly as possible. Elias stayed close to the wall and halted the line at each intersection or open doorway. They came to a lab with the lights on. No one was in sight, but Elias wasn’t taking any chances. He motioned for the women to crouch beneath the level of the windows and keep moving. Roxie urged them along as quickly as possible.
They reached the final corner and Elias had just deemed it safe when a shrill alarm echoed down the corridors. “We have to hurry,” he warned, forced to yell above the pulsing alarm. “Intruder protocols often lock down the entire building.”
He rounded the final corner and someone ordered him to stop in Rodyte. Several resounding blasts followed, but Roxie couldn’t see who’d discharged their weapon. Crying out and huddling together, the frightened women pressed against the wall, staying out of sight of the guard or guards who had engaged Elias. Roxie hurried past her terrified companions and peered around the corner. One of the guards was sprawled on the floor, likely the victim of one of the blasts. Elias was trying to physically subdue the final guard, but Rodytes were fast and brutal.
The fallen guard’s rifle lay on the floor not far from where Roxie stood. Unwilling to stand th
ere helplessly while Elias fought for his life, she reached down and picked up the rifle. Surprisingly light yet well balanced, the weapon seemed pretty straight forward. She’d shot all sorts of guns during her youth, so she knew better than attempting to fire it until she knew what she was doing. With the barrel pointed at the floor, she depressed what she thought was the trigger. A thin red light drew a perfect line from the barrel to the floor. Laser targeting. Cool. That made things easier. She hoped the thing was set on stun, but she sure as hell wasn’t’ going to mess with the settings. The soldier was about to get whatever his companion had intended for them.
With the rifle braced firmly against her shoulder, she identified her target with the laser and then smoothly pulled the trigger. A shimmering stream of energy, or maybe plasma, arced from the gun and blasted straight through the guard’s thigh. He screamed, shuddered violently, then collapsed, losing his hold on Elias.
Elias glanced at her with pleased surprise shining in his eyes, but she wasn’t able to bask in his approval. Sevrin flew around the corner behind him, gun aimed at Elias’ head. Without conscious thought or hesitation, Roxie activated the laser and targeted Sevrin’s hand. Roxie’s shot flew fast and true, but the stream passed through Sevrin’s hand and drilled into the middle of her chest.
The world slowed and Roxie’s perception narrowed to Sevrin’s reaction. Sevrin’s eyes flew open wide as disbelief and pain contorted her features. Her pistol slipped from her mangled hand and her knees buckled. She clutched her chest with both hands, making it hard to tell if the blood rapidly saturating her blouse was coming from her chest or her shredded fingers.
Elias was suddenly beside Roxie and he slipped his arm around her waist.
“I didn’t mean to kill her.”
“She’s not dead yet,” Elias pointed out. “Let me see if I can get her some help.” He closed his eyes and called out to Lor. The Mystic would only be able to hear him if he’d left the link open, but it was worth a try.
The distinct ringing of boot heels grew closer and closer. Roxie looked down the corridor to their left and saw nothing, but when she turned and looked behind her, uniformed soldiers moved into view, approaching at a brisk run.
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