The Escape

by Teyla Branton

  “An honest mistake, I’m sure.” I was trying to decide how to handle this. A fist to his jaw would be my preferred manner, but that would blow our cover entirely. For now we appeared safe, his thoughts revealing his desire to signal his Emporium cronies to come deal with us. Either we kept him from doing that with conversation or we made a run for it, which might be impossible given our place in line and the presence of so many Secret Service agents—even we could be temporarily incapacitated by their guns.

  An idea occurred to me. “I know how you can make it up to us, Mr. Mann, and I’m sure Mrs. Brinker here will agree. Will you stand in my picture with me and your parents? My friends will never believe that I met the entire family if you don’t.” I tried to force enough enthusiasm into my voice to make the request sound real, but Keene’s pained look told me I fell short.

  Mrs. Brinker’s nose twitched. “What a wonderful idea! Would you stand in ours, too? I would love to send a copy to Finley.”

  Patrick took a step back. “Well, I was about to—”

  “Please, I insist.” Mrs. Brinker put her arm through the hook made by his elbow. “We are one of your father’s largest contributors, you know, and I anticipate that we will support you as well when it’s your turn.” She patted his arm. “Oh, it is good to see you. I don’t spend enough time with Finley these days. We were all so worried when we heard about your skydiving accident. What a miracle you survived.”

  A rush of anger from Patrick jabbed into my mind, and I rubbed the base of my skull to relieve the throbbing. Yet now that I’d backed away from the thoughts and emotions in his sand stream, something else was bothering me about him, something familiar. I could almost hear a mental humming speeding through his synapses. Was this another side effect of my breakthrough in Mexico? I couldn’t be sure. But there was a clear pattern to the humming.

  Could I follow it? The impulses were going far too fast for me to trace without inserting my thoughts into them. Maybe if I just reached out and—a bright flash momentarily blinded me, and suddenly I felt connected to Patrick’s entire body, as if I’d sprouted a million arms and legs that connected everything together. Then just as suddenly, it was gone, and I was outside Patrick’s shield again, with no little hole in sight.

  “You okay?” Keene touched my elbow, his voice soft.

  “Yes.”

  “Do we need to come in?” Ritter’s voice sounded tense coming from my earbud, but the reminder of his presence made me relax, and my confidence reasserted itself. If it came to it, I was sure I could disable most of the Secret Service agents with my mind, and while that would seriously deplete my energy, Keene could wipe up any that were left. Afterwards, Ritter and the others would do their best to see that we got out.

  “Just think,” I murmured to Keene, “a picture with the whole family. What luck.”

  Mr. and Mrs. Brinker were lining up for their picture now. The vice president slapped Patrick on the back and the men smiled but I was sure I didn’t imagine the flicker of pure hatred in Patrick’s eyes. Or did I? My head was pounding now with the effort of having broken into his mind, but it was a small price to pay for having glimpsed the information there, as well as that black cord. I hoped Ava would be able to explain its purpose.

  Mrs. Mann and Mrs. Brinker had their arms around each other like old friends, though the thoughts radiating brightly from both clearly denied that premise. This was all for show. Smile for the camera.

  They smiled, the lights flashed, and it was finally our turn. I stood between Patrick and his father, while Keene slipped between the vice president and his wife. Vice President Mann beamed and worried, Mrs. Mann wilted, and Patrick stood like a board, his mind dark to me except for the irritation pouring off him like water. This close it was easy to delve into the mortals’ minds and see no knowledge of the Emporium. There was also no sign of any shiny black cord in the stream of their thoughts, which gave me a moment of relief.

  So why had Patrick thought we’d come to remove his father? That he thought we had, probably meant it was a good idea, but for all my dislike of the vice president and his policies, he seemed to be innocent—or at least innocent of Emporium conspiracy.

  “Thank you,” I said to the vice president after the flash.

  “No, thank you for coming.” Vice President Mann patted my hand, already turning to greet the next people in line.

  Patrick spoke as we left the lights and the backdrop together, heading for the exit. “You’re not staying?”

  “Not this time,” I said.

  His eyes met mine. “That’s too bad.”

  “Yes, isn’t it?”

  A few more strides and we were through the door, leaving Patrick behind.

  “That was close,” Keene said.

  “We’re not in the clear yet. From what I saw in his mind, he’ll be talking to his Emporium cronies. We need to get out of here.”

  “Not the front,” Ritter said in my earbud. “They’re out here already. Have been for some time. Though they don’t seem to know—wait, scratch that. They’re heading inside.”

  I walked faster, swaying ridiculously in the high heels. “Heading to the parking garage.”

  “No!” Ritter barked. “They’ll be there already. Too easy to trap you.”

  “Try the exit on the opposite side of the hotel,” Cort said. “If you go through the courtyard, it’s almost as close as the side exit we discussed earlier, and it might throw them off. You may have to get through them, but at least you’ll have an avenue of escape. With Secret Service watching every entrance, they may wait until you clear the hotel to attack.”

  “Heading there now.” Ritter again. “Marco, Jace, you copy?”

  Brief static, and then Marco’s voice. “On our way.”

  “Save some for me,” Jace added.

  I smiled. “We’ll see.”

  Welcome excitement thrummed through my veins as I anticipated the coming battle, blotting out my earlier unease. While we had hoped to get in and out without attracting undue attention from the Emporium or Hunters, I was itching for a fight. After the frustrating weeks of watching the Emporium compound, unable to do anything to help our captive people, I finally had a chance to strike back.

  Slipping off my heels, I discarded them in a garbage container. Next, I unfastened the long skirt under the first ruffle at mid-thigh, throwing it into a planter.

  Keene smirked. “Nice.”

  “Stella’s design.” I retrieved my knives, one in each hand.

  “So you were able to get into his mind,” Keene mused as we entered the courtyard. “I’d think he’d be trained enough to keep up a shield. They know you have at least two sensing Unbounded.”

  The icy cold of the pavement stung my bare feet, but I ignored the discomfort and hurried forward. “They know we have Ava,” I corrected. “Don’t talk like you aren’t a part of us.”

  He shrugged. “Delia knows about you, too.”

  As far as we could figure, Delia still hadn’t told anyone at the Emporium about my real ability. I believed she planned to take control of my mind and use me to tighten her reign over the Emporium and control her partners, so it made sense on some level, but not knowing also weakened them as a group.

  I grabbed his hand and held it next to my earring so the others couldn’t hear. “He did have a shield. I got through it.”

  Keene’s step faltered. “You got through it?” Mixed feelings of horror and admiration came from him as I dropped his hand. Since I wasn’t making an effort to probe his mind, I knew he’d purposely allowed his own barrier to fade. Or had he? I reached out, but his shield was solid. Only his surface emotions seeped through. I didn’t push further. I didn’t want to know what kind of a monster he thought I was becoming. Being mortal, he could never understand. I picked up the pace, sprinting to the far side of the courtyard and yanking open the door to the hotel. Keene kept up.

  “You’re close,” Cort said in my ear, and I knew he was following the tracking chip e
mbedded in my arm. “Turn left at the next hallway and then right at the end of the corridor. There’ll be an emergency exit to the street midway down that hallway on your left.”

  The carpet was warm on my feet after the icy courtyard, and incredibly soft. It felt wrong to hurry across such luxury. We rounded the bend but had only gone a few feet when two men appeared at the end of the corridor, one a big man with blond hair and the other a compact Asian.

  “Unbounded,” I whispered. I couldn’t tell their abilities but given the years of battle, the odds were that both were gifted in combat. Only in the past fifty or so years had the Emporium begun to recognize that brute force wasn’t always the answer.

  Should we fight here or try to find another way out?

  The decision became moot as two more Unbounded appeared in the hallway behind us. One I recognized, though even after all our encounters, I still didn’t know his last name. “Hey, Edgel,” I called. “What are you doing here? And your three friends. Nice hotel, isn’t it?”

  “We copy,” Cort said. “Four attackers. We’re en route now to your location.”

  Edgel glared at me as he approached, the whites of his eyes bright against his black face. In his muscled hand he held a weapon, but it wasn’t a gun. Apparently they hadn’t been successful at sneaking one inside the hotel any more than we had. At least that evened the odds slightly.

  “You killed my daughter,” he accused.

  I found his barrier and pushed at it. It appeared strong and solid, but like with Keene, I could feel his surface emotions—mostly anger, which would make him more dangerous. Outside his barrier, I wouldn’t be able to use his combat ability. I had to get inside. We couldn’t take all four men, but if I was successful, we could stand long enough for our people to get inside the hotel. Maybe.

  Edgel’s barrier felt familiar because I’d been inside it before, but pushing against it bore no result. Probably because of the energy I’d wasted on Patrick Mann. I needed to distract him.

  “Your daughter’s dead?” I asked.

  His jaw clenched and unclenched. “You knew it would happen. All of you did.”

  “We didn’t have the information you wanted. Your people erased it, not us. We would have given it to you.” I didn’t want to feel sorry for him, but I knew what it was like to worry about mortal family members.

  Edgel didn’t speak, but disbelief radiated from him.

  Keene shifted his weight, getting ready to act. “She’s right. They didn’t have the information.”

  Edgel had served under Keene and knew his distaste for untruths. Would it make a difference? I didn’t think so. He was a soldier who always followed orders, except for the one time when he had asked for our help and Keene had brought him to our safe house.

  Edgel dipped his head, a signal to his men. Showtime. I slung one of my knives at Edgel’s face. He anticipated the move, as I knew he would, but I accompanied it with a mental assault. There, I was in. For a moment, I considered sending a pulse of light to try to disable him, but that meant expending strength that would leave me vulnerable to the others and prevent me from utilizing his gift. Instead, I channeled his combat ability and hurled my remaining knife at the big blond behind me. To my surprise, the knife embedded deeply in his eye and he crumpled to the carpet. Not dead, but out for now. No combat ability there, or he’d have moved aside.

  As Edgel flung a knife in my direction, I ducked and used my momentum to push off the wall and deliver a kick to the Asian, striking a knife from his hand. He countered with a jab to my face that sent pain reverberating throughout my entire head. My earbud fell to the ground. Instinctively, I rewarded him with a kick to the knee, followed by a punch to the gut and another to his jaw. He blocked these with lightning speed.

  Edgel was coming at me from behind with another knife in his hands. I retreated past the Asian, darting a glimpse at Keene. He’d dispatched the fourth Unbounded and now lunged at Edgel.

  A fist hurtled in my direction, and I barely managed to dodge. It was odd exchanging blows with the Asian, while the part of my mind connected to Edgel followed his fight with Keene. If I didn’t concentrate, I was going to lose. Unlike Edgel, the Asian was closer to my size, so if I kept my wits, I had a shot at besting him. While Edgel had several inches on Keene, Keene was larger than me and better trained, and he’d fought with Edgel and would know his weaknesses. Keene had also spent years trying to prove to his father that he was good enough. I believed he could keep Edgel occupied until I finished with the Asian.

  But where was our backup?

  The Asian scooped up his knife from the floor and rewarded my distraction with a vicious slash on my upper left arm. Pain turned the world red.

  That was when I felt Edgel sink his knife deep into Keene’s belly.

  No!

  Reaching deeply for reserves of energy I didn’t know I possessed, I pushed outward. Edgel grabbed at his head as my flash seared his mind.

  THE NEXT INSTANT I WAS down on the carpet as my attacker slammed his fist into my temple. I tried to get up, but my strength was depleted from my mental effort. Even if I could find the strength to move, with Edgel incapacitated, I could no longer channel his ability. The Asian cracked me in the face again. Blackness nibbled away my sight.

  I reached for the Asian’s mind, finding a barrier there and flinging myself against it. No luck. The pounding in my head was growing, though my sight was stabilizing. I tried to move away, but the Asian grabbed my wounded arm and yanked me to my feet, spinning me around until he had an arm around me and his knife at my throat. His breath was hot on my ear.

  “Edgel?” he asked, pulling me several steps toward where Edgel knelt on the floor.

  Edgel shook his head. “I’m okay. Just give me a moment.”

  Twisting my head to look for Keene, I found him lying beyond Edgel, blood welling through the hands he clenched to his stomach. His eyes closed. It didn’t look good. I had to get him out of here to Dimitri, our healer.

  I began absorbing consciously, pulling more sustenance from the air. I couldn’t give up, not when Keene looked close to death.

  The Asian turned me around and shoved me against the wall. His mental barrier was black and thick, and though it was hard to tell his age, I knew he’d practiced shielding for hundreds of years. “It’d be easier if we took her unconscious.” Sweat beaded on his forehead.

  Edgel stood up, his blunt features looking haggard. “Too hard to explain to Secret Service.” Frantically, I tried his shield, but it was over his mind again, tight and unyielding.

  “We could take her upstairs to the room. Give her some drugs.”

  “No. She’s wired and probably has a tracking device. They’ll come for her soon.” Edgel strode over to me and pushed back the curls Stella had so artfully arranged in my hair. He removed both earrings, twisting them in his hands before tossing them to the ground. My bracelet followed. He did a thorough search of my body, his hands rough over my flesh. “That’ll have to do for now. If we can get her back to headquarters, we can disable the tracking device there.” He gave me a flat grin. “Delia will be happy to see you. So will your father.”

  By father he meant Stefan Carrington, the third Triad member. Except Stefan wasn’t really my father, and I suspected Delia knew the truth about that, too, but if so, she’d kept silent to further her agenda.

  “Let’s go.” Edgel started down the hall, but I resisted the Asian’s pull.

  “I’m not going anywhere without him.” I pointed at Keene.

  Edgel turned. “Don’t you think your people will get to him faster if we leave?”

  I wasn’t sure of that. After all, they hadn’t arrived yet. Secret Service must have the place locked down even tighter than we’d thought. Without my earbud, I had no way of knowing if they were close or if they’d run into trouble of their own.

  I tried another approach. “He’s Tihalt’s son. Doesn’t that mean anything?”

  Edgel was back at my side in an insta
nt, his movement a blur. He brought his face close to mine. “He’s mortal and a traitor. The only reason I don’t bring his head to Tihalt myself to collect the reward is because he never once lied to me. He can keep his head. For now.”

  “And if he dies?”

  “If he dies, it will go a tiny bit toward avenging my daughter’s death.”

  “I told you that wasn’t our fault!”

  Edgel’s big hand wrapped around my left arm just below the knife wound, uncaring of the blood running down my arm, and squeezed hard. “Shut up and move!”

  I could hardly breathe through the agony. “Over. My. Dead. Body.” It wasn’t so much that I was brave, but I felt him coming: Ritter. I’d always been able to feel glimpses of his emotions, but since Mexico I had become more aware of him than ever. He was close. Very close. Anger preceded him, a burning for revenge.

  I needed a distraction so the others would be caught completely off balance at his arrival. Arching my body forward, I slammed my head into Edgel’s with a satisfying crack. The Asian pulled back his fist, readying for a blow that would probably knock me unconscious, but abruptly his face went slack and he pitched forward to the carpet, his raised fist thudding against the wall. A kitchen knife sprouted from his back.

  Edgel whirled to face Ritter who had appeared behind him, breathing hard, his black hair falling forward on his face. He looked big and strong and sexy and completely in control—or would have if he hadn’t been wearing a silly burgundy hotel uniform that was obviously two sizes too small. I reached for his mind and found it without barriers, a dangerous thing with Emporium agents nearby, but I knew he’d left it that way for me.

  Channeling Ritter’s speed, I ran toward him. Edgel anticipated the move and lunged, probably hoping to use me as a shield, but I evaded him. Then Ritter was between us and they began exchanging blows, both of them beauty in motion. Strange how such a deadly ability could also be so magnificent.

  Keene groaned from his place on the ground, and I knelt next to him. I had nothing to stem the blood, so I picked up one of the fallen knives and began cutting off his jacket, balling the material and placing it under his hands. His eyes flickered as I pushed down, adding pressure. His life force still seemed strong, but I wasn’t sure how long that would last.