I nodded. “With my life.”
“Climb on my back. We’re getting out of here.”
I gripped his forearm tightly. “But what about the girl? What if he breaks in after we leave and attacks her?”
Flint’s eyes softened. “The police are here. They’ll probably be here for a while. She’ll stay safe. Now, come on. We need to go.”
I swung onto his back just as the sound of the policeman’s boots began running up the rickety stairs.
Flint’s hands encircled my thighs. “Hold on.”
The entire world turned into a blur.
I closed my eyes tightly as Flint rocketed us off the roof. For a moment, we were airborne. I kept my arms and legs wrapped tightly around him and didn’t dare breathe. I was too frightened that I would distract him and we’d plummet to our death as he leapt to the next building.
We landed with a thud, but he didn’t stop there. Flint sprinted again, and once again we were airborne. It took me a second to realize what he was doing. He was running and leaping from building to building with me clinging to his back, just like Spider-Man on the big screen.
A shout sounded behind us. I didn’t know if that meant we’d been spotted by the police or that the policemen were shouting to each other.
We didn’t stop to find out.
Nausea rolled through me as Flint landed on another building. When I opened my eyes, I darted a look behind my shoulder. I had no idea which building had been the girl’s. Rows of apartment buildings lined the block behind us.
“How are we going to get down?” I asked him.
“It looks like the building ahead is a story lower than this one. I’ll jump us down there, and then we’ll see if we can climb to the ground.”
A rush of air swept over my face as Flint leaped. The world again became a blur.
I dared to open my eyes. I gulped. In that split second, fifty feet of air separated us from the ground. If Flint missed a step or slipped on the roof, both of us could plummet to the ground below. And regardless of our powers, neither of us would survive a fifty-foot fall to concrete.
My body jolted abruptly when Flint landed on the lower roof. He had just jumped us down fifteen feet, and the sudden landing jarred my shoulders. When I hissed in pain, his grip tightened around my thighs.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
I shook my head even though fire burned my limbs. “I’m fine. Keep going.”
He raced to the edge of the building. That was our last hope for getting down. We’d reached the end of the block. At least the police hadn’t driven this way.
“Do you see anything to hold onto?” Flint leaned over the edge. Shiny black shingles lined the roof’s surface. The moon continued to shine down, and the wind ruffled the hair around my shoulders.
“There’s a gutter system right there.” I pointed to the corner and swallowed a wince as I moved my shoulder. “Do you think that would work?”
“It might for you since you’re so light. I’m not sure if it will hold me. I’m going to set you down. Do you feel steady?”
“I’m fine.” I didn’t tell him that my shoulders hurt so badly I feared I’d torn a muscle. Right now, that didn’t matter. We just needed to get down to the ground safely and get home.
Flint slid me off his back and held onto me until I gained my balance. I crept to the edge of the building and gritted my teeth against the pain in my muscles. Hunkering down, I held on carefully to the edge of the roof before swinging my legs over.
“Lena . . . be careful.” Flint’s chestnut hair waved in the breeze as he stared down at me.
I forced a smile and held tightly to the gutter system. It was smooth and felt flimsy. I swallowed sharply. It didn’t feel sturdy at all, and I could just picture it peeling away from the building with me plummeting to the ground while holding it.
“Here goes nothing.” I loosened my grip on the roof’s edge. The entire gutter system was holding my weight.
Flint’s eyes widened with horror at my next actions. Sliding down the gutter system while using it like a fireman’s pole had seemed like a good idea. That was until the ground rushed up to greet me.
“Lena!”
Swallowing a scream, I tightened my hands around the gutter and squeezed my legs while flinging my cloud off my shoulders and down below my feet. Between my tighter grip and the cushioning cloud, I slowed just enough to keep from plummeting to the ground.
I let out a loud umph anyway when I landed, and the force of it made my jaw snap. I winced when I bit my tongue, but I hadn’t broken anything. Mission accomplished.
“Lena?” Flint’s voice carried from above. “Are you okay?”
I gave him the thumbs-up sign since a trickle of blood filled my mouth. I had definitely bitten my tongue.
With a pounding heart, I watched as Flint swung over the ledge of the roof. Unlike the apartment building that the girl had lived in, this building was sided. It had no brick to hold onto or any kind of architecture that would help someone scale its side. All that it had was the gutter system for gripping.
Holding my breath, I watched as Flint carefully clung to the side of the gutter. It squeaked menacingly.
Oh crap.
Seeming to sense that it was about to snap, Flint loosened his grip. He slid down it at an alarming speed.
My eyes widened with terror since he wasn’t slowing and would hit the ground in seconds.
Instinctively, I gathered a large energy ball and blasted it beneath his feet.
His sliding slowed, thanks to my ball, but the gutter system squeaked more loudly. When he was ten feet above the ground, Flint launched himself into the air and flipped into a backwards somersault before landing on the ground. He bounced on the balls of his feet before standing to his full height.
My heart pounded. Breathing heavily, I said, “How is it that I’m still not used to how you can move? I thought for sure you were going to break a leg!”
He chuckled and walked gracefully toward me. “Thanks for slowing me down. That helped.”
His words made me smile despite the metallic taste of blood in my mouth. I scanned the road. It was dark and quiet. No cops.
“I’m not sure how we’ll get back home,” I said quietly, “but we better get moving. Who knows if the police caught a glimpse of us or not. They could be looking for us.”
Flint grabbed my hand and pulled me into a jog. “You’re right. Let’s go.”
Pain cut into my shoulder at his pull, but I took off at his side. Our feet tapped on the pavement as our pace increased.
Despite the burning that had set into my shoulder muscles, I kept up with him, only because he kept his speed to that of a normal human’s. At the next block, he pulled out his cell phone and called Jet.
“We’re two blocks south from the building.” His words were even and cool despite the fact that we were sprinting. “The police officer started climbing the fire escape. We had no choice but to go from building to building until we could find a way down.”
I grinned as air flowed steadily in and out of my lungs. I could just imagine Jet’s envious expression as he imagined Flint and me leaping across buildings. The twin hadn’t made it a secret that he would have preferred Flint’s powers over his own.
Flint was silent for a second before he said, “Yeah. That sounds good. Meet us there in a couple of minutes.”
Flint shoved his phone back into his pocket and gripped my hand more tightly. “They’ll pick us up at the next block. This way.”
He led me down the next street. A few dogs barked in yards that we passed. Since we were farther away from campus, the apartment buildings had fallen behind us, and we were in a residential neighborhood. Most of the houses were dark, but a few had lights on. I could only hope that if anyone peeked out their living-room window, they would assume we were a couple of college students going for a late-night run.
A few cars drove by at the next block, and I let out a sigh of relief when I saw a
familiar vehicle waiting on the side of the road.
Flint and I slid into the back of the SUV with a grinning Raven and Jasper. “How the hell did you get away?” the twin asked.
Jet pulled away from the curb and started driving toward home. Mica turned in her seat to listen from the front.
“Have you ever seen the movie Spider-Man?” I smiled.
Jasper’s eyes widened. “No way! Did you seriously leap from building to building?”
I laughed when Jet mumbled something under his breath from the front.
“That would pretty much describe how we got away,” I replied.
Raven’s eyes swirled orange embers as he smirked at his brother. “Nice one, Flint.”
Flint just shrugged. “Desperate times . . .”
Jet flashed us a look in the rearview mirror as we passed under a streetlight. “Don’t rub it in.”
CHAPTER NINE
Back at our apartment, Di was still awake. Black yoga pants and a black T-shirt covered her tall frame. She waited in the living room. A single lamp illuminated the space by casting a golden glow over the ceiling. The clock in the hall had just struck two in the morning.
She crossed her arms when the six of us pushed through the front door. “I’m glad to see you all arrived safely. I tried to warn you about the cops in the vision I received, but none of you answered your phones when I called.”
Jasper shrugged off his coat. “You were a little late on the warning, Di. We were already running away when I missed your call.”
She shook her head sharply. “I should have concentrated harder, but I was distracted by this little one.” She pointedly looked at Susannah, who was seated on the couch.
Susannah’s knees were drawn to her chest, and her large, luminous blue eyes were wide. “Sorry, Di. I didn’t mean to get back so late.”
Jet groaned and kicked off his boots before strolling into the living room. His curly dark hair was disheveled from our nighttime excursion. “Please tell me that guilty look isn’t from ruining my car.”
Raven’s eyes swirled brighter. “I have a feeling he’s not going to like the news,” he said under his breath to me.
Flint chuckled. I knew he’d heard Raven too.
Susannah shook her head at Jet, her long hair swaying around her shoulders. “It’s still in one piece . . . mostly.”
Jet collapsed onto the couch across from her. “Seriously? Okay, spill it. What did you do?”
Susannah wrung her hands and looked at the seven of us. Di stood near the corner of the room with her arms crossed. From the looks of it, Susannah had already received an earful from Di.
“I may have . . . um, hit a tree.”
“But you’re okay?” I peeled off my coat and sat on the chair by the couch. My shoulders still hurt, but after I rolled them a few times, they felt a little better. I no longer thought I’d torn muscles, but I’d probably be sore the next day.
I tucked my hands under my thighs to warm them up. Our apartment was cool. Someone had left a window cracked open. Flint came up behind me. I felt his presence as Mica, Jasper, and Raven joined us too.
“I’m fine. But the back door of your car . . .” Susannah eyed Jet. “May have a dent in it.”
Jet dropped his head into his hands and moaned. “Ah, man!”
Jasper laughed. “Glad you made it back in one piece, Suze.”
Mica plopped down beside Susannah. “No kidding.” She turned to face her. “So why didn’t you come back earlier? We were hoping you could tell us what you saw.”
Susannah ducked her head again. “I knew Jet would be mad at me.”
Mica raised her eyebrows. “So you were avoiding us?”
Jasper clapped his brother on the back. “Don’t worry about it, Susannah. He’ll get over it. Serves him right for loaning you his new car when you’re still learning how to drive.”
Jet glared at his brother.
“I’ll pay to have it fixed.” Susannah peeked up at Jet.
Raven gave her a sympathetic look. “Your trust fund can certainly handle it since you never use it.”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t worry about the money.” Jet lifted his head. “Is it at least drivable?”
Susannah nodded vigorously. “Oh, yes. Definitely. It’s just a small dent. Really, I swear.”
Turning away from Jet, Susannah addressed the rest of us. “So what did you all find? I saw you all around her apartment building earlier in the evening when I was circling it. It didn’t seem to be very exciting. None of you moved, and I never saw anyone else lurking around there.”
I summed up the evening for her as succinctly as possible.
Susannah’s eyes widened. “I left before all of that began. So with you on his back, Flint really jumped from building to building to get away from the police?”
“Yep.” I eyed my boyfriend. “It was pretty exhilarating.”
Excitement danced in Susannah’s eyes. “Sounds like fun.”
Heavy footsteps sounded from the back of our apartment. Luke appeared at the room’s edge, standing in the dim hallway. He was bare chested and wore only a pair of shorts. Shoulders three feet wide brushed against the walls as taut muscles rippled in his abdomen. “How were your adventures?” He yawned loudly and scratched his belly.
Di gave him a heated look. “You could have been more help, you know.”
Luke shuffled into the living room and sat at Susannah’s free side. The cushion sank so deeply in his direction when he plopped down that Susannah fell into him.
He merely pushed her upright before raising his eyebrows at the rest of us. “Had a little run-in with the cops, huh?”
Di crossed her arms. “I take it you knew earlier than I did?”
“Uh-huh.” Luke tapped his head. “Saw it all up here a few hours ago.”
Di muttered a sound of disgust and rolled her eyes. Luke just laughed, the sound rumbling deep in his chest.
I wasn’t surprised that Luke knew our evening had gone sour. He, Edgar, and Susannah all had extra abilities that the original eight of us didn’t. Since the three of them had been drugged more heavily than we had, and survived it, they were truly superhumans. That also wasn’t the first glimpse we’d had of Luke’s psychic abilities. When we first met him, he’d intrinsically known what all of us were capable of before we’d told him.
“A heads-up would have been nice.” Flint came around the chair from behind me and hunkered down at my side. He eyed the werewolf. “Or did you not see it in time?”
Luke shrugged. “Yeah, I saw it an hour or so before it happened, but I also knew none of you were going to get arrested, so I didn’t worry too much about it.”
Mica and I both laughed simultaneously at his nonchalant attitude.
“Thanks for your concern, as always, dearest Luke,” Mica said sweetly after she wiped the tears from her eyes.
Luke’s caramel-colored eyes twinkled before his expression turned serious. “I have bigger things to worry about right now. My mate isn’t sleeping well, and our little pup is really causing her worry. My energies seemed better spent in that department tonight.”
His words wiped the smile from my face. Frowning, I replied, “I couldn’t agree more.”
Jet still grumbled. “You could have at least warned me that Susannah was going to wreck my car.”
Luke grinned, revealing a mouth full of straight white teeth. “Now where would the fun be in that?”
Jasper laughed before stretching and yawning loudly. “So what are we going to do now?”
I straightened in my seat. “Flint found her name—A. Jonas. We’ll need you hackers to find her class schedule in the school system database. Tomorrow, we can start following her. With any luck, the dark-clouded man will show up on his own, and Susannah can watch from above and tell us where he lives, or Luke can track him with his weird psychic thing, or if Amber gets close enough, she can use her scenting ability to track him. Either way, we’ll find where he lives. Then we can start wa
tching him.”
Jasper rubbed his hands together in anticipation and eyed the clock. Despite the time, he suddenly looked wide-awake. “Come to think of it, I’m not that tired. Flint, where’s your laptop?”
~ ~ ~
The next morning, we set out early despite only getting a few hours of sleep. Scents of coffee hung in the air. All of us had chugged a few cups before getting dressed.
Flint and Jasper had been able to uncover the woman’s class schedule and information the night before.
Her name was Abigail Jonas, and she was a junior at the university. She was twenty-one years old, originally from Phoenix, and had been attending college in Colorado for the past three years.
After hacking into the university’s database, Flint and Jasper had then tackled the DMV’s. According to their records, Abigail was of medium build, weighed around one hundred thirty pounds, and had run a stoplight when she was nineteen. Beyond that, she didn’t have a very interesting record.
Our plan that morning was to drive Susannah to a remote location so she could transform before taking to the skies. From there, seven of us would venture to campus while two would return to Abigail’s apartment.
Since we’d made so much progress with finding information, our original plan to continue watching her had changed. Now that we knew her schedule and exactly who she was, everyone was helping—except Amber. Amber’s cold had grown worse, which meant her sense of smell was compromised. Everyone agreed she should stay back to get better.
“Does everybody have Abigail’s schedule in their phone?” Di slipped into her black two-inch-heeled boots. After that, she pulled on a black fleece jacket before zipping it up. The day was cool. According to the weatherman, the temperature would only reach the low sixties.
Mica nodded before pulling up the hoodie on her university sweatshirt. The black-and-gold clothing practically swallowed her. I had a feeling it was Jasper’s sweatshirt.
“Yeah, we’ve got everything we need, Di. Don’t sweat it.” Mica winked.
Di eyed her coolly.
“Are you ready to go, Jet?” Raven asked. He and Jet had volunteered to be the two who hung around Abigail’s building in case the dark-clouded man tried to break in while she was in class.
Retribution: The Lost Children World Book 1 Page 7