by Anna Durand
He had a point. She was helpless.
Like hell.
She commanded more psychic power than anyone Tesler or her parents or David had ever seen. But she lay here like a salmon caught on a lure. Flopping. Suffocating. Nkosi had commandeered her psychic faculties, right? That's why she was helpless.
No. She'd lost control of her own abilities for one reason, and it had nothing to do with the strength of Nkosi's will. He hadn't defeated her. She was helpless because she gave up. She would never free her mind and body as long as she feared her own power. David was right.
It was time to stop being afraid.
David beckoned her, his voice a whisper in the darkness.
Let him in.
So she did. Without understanding how, she flung the doors of her mind open and he rushed in, a hot wind blustering through her. The exhilaration of melding with him again swept into the depths of her being, and she couldn't contain the laughter that bubbled out of her. Oh David. Nkosi had disrupted their connection, but he hadn't broken it.
David's love cascaded into her. No one could sever this bond. No one.
Tesler stabbed a needle into her arm, and the world spiraled into emptiness. His voice growled from far away.
"Hand me the saw."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
David crouched among the trees, the fingers of one hand resting on the ground. In his other hand, he grasped the big gun Sean had given him. His eyes were locked on the structure thirty feet ahead. The metal shed that concealed the underground facility.
Grace was in there. Alone.
His fingers tightened around the gun's grip. Metal dug into him, and his knuckles ached from the effort. This was his fault. He suggested Grace join her powers with his, and he had talked her into a joint traveling session that put them both at risk. How could he be so stupid? Of course their psychic journey into the facility left their bodies vulnerable and exposed. Of course Tesler and Nkosi took advantage of the opening to capture Grace. Of course he failed her again.
Christ. One night of amazing sex drained the blood from his brain and rendered him useless.
Rustling to his left drew his attention to Sean, who huddled an arm's length away. The boy's eyebrows lifted in the middle, and his lips rounded into a closed-mouth O. Waiting for David to formulate a plan. So he could screw up and get them all killed. No wonder Grace had to rescue him all the time. He was incompetent.
Fingers lighted on his shoulder. He threw a sideways glare at Amador. The other man withdrew his hand, but still knelt too close to David. The bastard had no sense of boundaries.
Amador bent his head close to David. "What is our plan?"
Good question. "Rescue Grace."
"That's a goal, not a plan."
The acid boiling in David's gut swelled up into his throat. He hissed a breath out his nose, narrowing his gaze on Amador. "Unless you have a brilliant idea, shut the hell up."
The sulfurous glow from the floodlight on the shed transformed the self-satisfied look on Amador's face into a devilish gleam. Or maybe David just really, really hated the man.
The doors of his mind flew open. He swayed on the balls of his feet and sank his fingers into the ground. Energy poured into him in a sweet, steamy torrent that inundated his psyche, his heart, his soul, and…
His libido.
Memories of sensations flashed through him. Grace's body beneath his, warm and supple. Her breasts mashed into his chest. Her panting breaths scorching his skin. Her fingers clutching his shoulders, raking down his back.
"Are you okay, man?"
"Fine," he growled, though he dared not look at Sean. The naked hunger overpowering him would expose itself on his face for sure. He battled with his willpower, but the memories kept pummeling him.
"You don't look fine," Sean said. "I've never seen anybody look like that. It's — " He repressed a laugh, which came out as a series of snorts punctuated by a hiccup. "Are you seriously thinking about what I think you're thinking about?"
David shoved a hand through his hair and focused all his attention on the shed. And on structuring a plan. And most of all, on quashing his out-of-control libido. He ignored Sean's question, because he'd vowed to never lie to the boy and telling the truth was out of the question.
The desire burned off quickly, reduced to glowing embers. The smoke left behind clouded his mind for a moment, but as the psychic air cleared, a familiar and wonderful presence rained over him. Grace. Their minds had reconnected, bolstering their bond and reinforcing their joined powers. Nkosi hadn't torn her away from him forever. She found a way back. Yes.
And suddenly, he knew how to save her.
"I have an idea," he said to Sean. "Do you have enough energy to RV the facility and locate Grace?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Good. What I'm about to do may knock me unconscious — or kill me." He clapped a hand on Sean's shoulder and squeezed. "I'm relying on you to free her."
The boy's face blanched, but then he rolled back his shoulders, straightened his spine, and set his jaw. "I won't let you down."
"I know you won't." David switched his attention to Amador, and fought back the urge to slug him. "You're going with Sean."
"But I have no powers."
"You have a gun — and a brain, allegedly. That's enough." He glared at Amador until the other man cringed ever so slightly. "If anything happens to Grace, I'm blaming you. If I die, I'll come back from the grave to haunt you for the rest of your pathetic life. Understand?"
"Yes."
"Don't forget it." David handed Sean the big gun. "You may need this."
Sean accepted it without comment, though his lips twitched downward and drew together in the middle.
David aimed his gaze at the metal-shed facade. Gathering in all the power he dared from Grace, and tapping into the crossroads for an added boost, he fired everything he had at the facility. But not at the shed. Not at the structure beneath it. He shot a wave of psychic fire into the air within the building and watched it race through the corridors, slap each person it met with a burst of energy so intense it shut down their minds. One by one, like flesh-and-blood dominoes, every human being in the facility fell to the floor, unconscious.
The wave shot back into him in a feedback loop that fried his nerves. Agony scoured him from the inside out, contracted his muscles, and he swallowed a cry, desperate to not give away their position. But there was no one left awake in the facility to hear it. As the feedback convulsed his body, wrenched his gut, and exploded in his brain, he glimpsed Sean and Amador dashing toward the shed. Grace would be okay. He hadn't failed her this time. With his last ounce of mental acuity, he prayed she would forgive him for abandoning her again.
Then he collapsed into blackness.
Gunfire shocked Grace back to wakefulness. The bright lights above her, where she lay strapped to the metal table, stung her eyes and she winced. More gunshots detonated in the corridor, louder, closer. Her heart raced, though not because of the melee outside this room. Adrenaline burned in her veins, consuming her breaths, because of what she saw inches from her face.
Tesler poised a scalpel over her head. Its blade glistened as he turned it side to side, his lips pursed, his eyes blurry behind his glasses. His gaze lowered to hers, and his eyes sprang wide. "How are you awake?"
Hell if she knew.
But she did know. David's power, hot and anxious, lingered inside her. He had joined with her again. His will jostled her awake her just in time. But what could she do? Tesler had her restrained, and though whatever drug he'd given her had waned, its aftereffects made her fuzzy in the head.
Stop whining. Start acting.
Nkosi stepped out from behind Tesler. He grasped a saw in one hand. "Are you ready for this yet?"
"No," Tesler snapped. "I have to peel back the scalp first."
A gunshot exploded.
"Shut the door," Tesler hissed, and Nkosi waved a hand. The door banged shut.
Grace shifted in her restraints, hunting for a weakness. "Who's out there?"
Please let it be David.
"I don't know," Tesler said. "Our surveillance cameras are still offline, thanks to whatever you did to them."
She'd done more damage than she realized. Celebration seemed a bit premature, though.
It must've been David out there. Who else would shoot up the place to reach her? Sean might, especially if David instructed him to, and Amador… well, he might. If it benefited him in some way. Or if his guilt proved stronger than she estimated.
Tesler laid a hand on her head. "Perhaps I should shave the scalp, though we're in a bit of a rush. It would make for a cleaner — "
Nkosi clobbered the table with his trembling fist. The concussive waves rattled her bones. "Quit talking and just do it, Tesler. No more stalling."
The scientist was stalling. Why?
Grace fidgeted some more, but the bindings held. This was the wrong tactic. She lacked the physical strength to snap her bonds, but she wielded another kind of strength too.
Tesler lowered the scalpel toward her head, then hesitated. His lips parted, as if he wanted to speak. His dark eyes stared into her, and he mouthed words that she swore were —
Help me. That's what he'd mouthed. Tesler was begging for her help?
The world had just flipped upside-down and inside out.
No time to consider the change. She relaxed onto the table, letting every muscle slacken and soften. The release of tension freed her mind. Energy from David plowed into her with tsunami force, and she funneled all of it into the straps pinning her down. The metal buckles split apart. The leather bands sailed across the room to bounce off the walls and splat onto the floor.
She leaped up and flung her legs over the table's edge. Her boots clapped onto the floor. She snatched the scalpel from Tesler's hand. Spun toward Nkosi. Rammed the blade into his chest.
He shimmered and vanished.
A manifested body. Shit, shit, shit.
Grace whirled on Tesler, seizing his shirt, and raised the scalpel to the hollow of his throat. His Adam's apple bobbed. The whites of his eyes gleamed in the murky light. She thrust her face close to his, and spittle peppered him as she spoke. "Where is he? Nkosi is hiding somewhere. Is he in this facility?"
"I — I don't know. I had no idea he was manifesting."
By the shock on his face, she figured he was telling the truth. She needed other answers from Tesler, but another volley of gunfire boomed in the corridor, so close her eardrums vibrated.
The door burst inward.
Sean Vandenbrook leveled a huge semiautomatic gun at her. His mouth dropped open, his eyes bulging, and he lowered the gun to his side. "Grace. Are you okay?"
"Yes. What's going on out there? Where's David?"
"Me and Gabriel came to get you. Everybody's asleep out there, except us." He glanced over his shoulder, and Amador shuffled up behind him, his clothes disheveled and his face darkened by shadows of exhaustion. Sean faced her again, but kept his focus on the metal table in front of her.
A chill rippled through her. "Where's David?"
"He, um, stayed outside." Sean meandered into the room, to the table. "He said what he had to do might knock him out or… "
Kill him. That's what Sean couldn't say. David had drawn on both his power and hers to accomplish some feat that rendered everyone in the facility unconscious. It must've required a huge effort, and exacted an unknown toll. No. He wasn't gone. No, no, no, she refused to accept that.
Besides, his presence flickered inside her. His energy. His life.
Tesler shifted, grunting as the scalpel pinched his flesh.
"Wait a minute," Grace said, eying Sean. "If David knocked everybody out, then why are Tesler and I still awake?"
Sean shrugged.
Footsteps clomped in the corridor, and a figure pushed past Amador to stride into the room. "Because I excluded this room, to keep you awake."
Her knees buckled at the sight of David. The scalpel tumbled from her grasp, clacking on the floor. She barreled into him, flung her arms around his neck, and lavished him with kiss after torrid kiss. When she let him catch his breath, he brushed his knuckles across her cheek.
"Don't," Sean said.
She twisted her head around to see Tesler bent over scrabbling for the scalpel, and Sean targeting his gun on the scientist's head. Tesler stood up, hands raised.
Grace stunned David with one more molten kiss, then turned toward Tesler. David's body buttressed her from behind, his hands on her upper arms, his muscular frame hard against her backside. She asked Tesler, "Nkosi isn't the embodiment of the Golden Power, is he?"
"No. But he is infested with it."
"How?"
Tesler gritted his teeth, curled his lip, and gazed longingly at the scalpel on the floor.
She shook her head. "You begged me to help you. And I did. Now you're in our custody. Don't you think cooperating might benefit you at this particular moment?"
David tensed against her. His fingers tightened on her arm for a second, but loosened when she reached up to close her hand over his.
Groaning, Tesler rolled his eyes. "If it will keep me from having to watch the two of you nuzzling each other, I'll tell you anything you want to know."
"Then spill." She leaned into David just to annoy Tesler, and as if he'd read her mind, David circled his arms around her waist to link his fingers over her belly. She reveled in the warmth of him, the vitality resonating from him into her.
"After JT destroyed the California facility," Tesler said, "and you escaped with David and Sean, I sent another traveler to find you."
"Nkosi was that traveler," Grace said.
"He couldn't track you, but in the process of trying to, he encountered something unexpected. When you rejected the Golden Power, it was released into this physical plane, orphaned from its home in the metaphysical realm. It was adrift."
"I didn't set the Golden Power free. A piece of it stayed inside me."
"A piece, yes. But the bulk of it roamed free, like a toxic cloud floating across the ocean on the jet stream. That cloud met Nkosi. He wasn't as strong as you." Tesler sneered at her. "It swallowed him whole. Well, his mind anyway. You are to blame for his condition. You made him what he is."
David lunged toward Tesler, but froze mere feet from the man. His voice was harsh and rife with pent-up contempt. "Bullshit. Grace has never hurt anyone." He jabbed a finger into Tesler's chest. The scientist grimaced. "You created this problem, with your experiments and your insane quest to control psychic abilities. You're even worse than JT was. If anyone is to blame for Nkosi, it's you."
Tesler lifted one shoulder, his expression blasé. "He's your problem now."
A bolt of white-hot rage shot down their connection. Grace clutched her stomach, the breath vacuumed out of her. She stumbled backward a step. The muscles in David's arms went taut, jumping under his skin. She raced to his side and grasped his arm. Hard as a marble statue, he moved only his eyes to look at her. His hands hung suspended between him and Tesler, the fingers clawing at the air, sinews rigid and ready to strike. He itched to strangle the scientist. His black hatred seethed inside her too, and whipped a frigid current through her soul.
This wasn't him. David did not want to hurt anyone.
But Tesler blamed her for Nkosi's condition. David had withstood unspeakable abuse from this man, but he would not stand for anyone — especially Tesler — harming her in any way. He understood the guilt would gnaw away at her if she were responsible, and she understood he would go to any lengths to shield her from it.
"Let it go," she murmured to him, stroking his arm with her fingertips. "He's not worth it. A
nd we don't know whether to believe him or not anyway."
"He's blaming you."
"I don't care." She flattened her palm on his cheek and rotated his head toward her. Those blue eyes glowed with a secret fire, and she dived into their depths, welcomed him into her at the deepest level, accepting his fear, his anger, his wrath, and most of all his commitment to her. "You have nothing to prove to me, David. You saved me. I'd be missing a jarful of brain cells if you hadn't attacked the facility."
The fire in his eyes softened, and his body followed suit.
She pulled him to her. "You saved me."
A smile trembled on his lips, strengthening with each passing second, bolstered by the love she pumped into him. He accepted all that she offered him, which was everything.
"How sweet."
The accented voice rumbled behind her. David stiffened, his face hardening. Grace confronted the man who loomed between them and the concrete wall.
Nkosi chuckled. "You have renewed your love, but I have something far more impressive. Tesler's crowning achievement, at my beck and call. I will return for you, Grace, and the entirety of your power will be mine."
The image of him snuffed out.
Grace scuffled backward until David's body halted her. She looked at Tesler. "What did he mean by your crowning achievement?"
His lips curved into a rueful smile. "I figured out how to transfer psychic abilities into subjects of my choosing. None of them are as strong as you or even David, but they have enough juice to do considerable damage out in the world. They were chosen based on their malleability, and programmed to respond to specific visual and auditory cues."
"You brainwashed them."
"To put it crudely, yes." He glowered at the spot where Nkosi had been a moment earlier. "He stole my army."
Her gut clenched. Amador's intel had been spot on. "What will he do with this army?"
"The man is insane, and infected with a power beyond imagining. Now he commands a small army of psychics programmed to do his bidding." Tesler barked out a hollow laugh. "What do you think he'll do, start a knitting circle?"