The Takeover

by Teyla Branton

  “I’d bet each of our people against any three of theirs,” Ava said. “Jace is no exception.”

  Ritter and Cort returned with the bags, transferring them to Mari and Keene. Without any signal between them, Mari and Keene nodded at us and shifted, vanishing from sight. They would appear in another safe house and from there make their way to Emporium headquarters.

  I hoped I would see them again.

  Ritter looked at Cort. “Are you and Stella ready to record Jeane’s thoughts?”

  I was still furious at him but also relieved at his suggestion. Working on Jeane’s mind would keep Cort and me from thinking too much, at least tonight, about what we’d lost.

  For the next two hours, I studied Jeane’s mind and passed the patterns to Stella, who recorded them on a computer so she and Cort could decipher them. Jeane wasn’t happy about it, but she didn’t try to null me again or keep me out.

  Afterward, I wandered upstairs to the room I shared with Ritter. He was already there, and for a few torturously long minutes, we didn’t talk except to discuss what we would take with us on the op the next morning. Ritter would bring all his usual accouterments and also my guns and knives and the new sword so he could pass them to me when Mari and I shifted him inside.

  I couldn’t carry any obvious weapons, but since my ultimate cover was that I’d fooled Jeane into thinking she was capturing me, going in with no weapons at all would seem out of place. So I planned to take weapons built into jewelry and hair accessories, things Jeane might overlook. Their people would find them, I was betting, but at least I’d appear to be a real combat Unbounded. If I managed to get something past their security, so much the better.

  Finishing my short list, I dropped to the couch and stared blankly at the wall. Ritter left his weapons and sat next to me. “Jace isn’t so different from you, you know. Remember how you took off to confront Delia alone in Morocco?”

  I brought my gaze back from the nothingness to glare at him. “This is so different. Jace doesn’t have a snake in his head. He wasn’t in danger of killing us all if he stayed.”

  “We only defeated Delia because we were all together. We’ll do that again with the Triad.” He tried to take my hand, but I yanked it away. “Erin, I know you’re not mad at me,” he tried again.

  “You’re right. I’m furious,” I growled. At him and all the Renegades for not fixing the Emporium problem years ago. For waiting until Jace and I were born to finally set it right. For putting my brother’s life in danger. “We don’t have any idea what’s really going to happen tomorrow. We should be rescuing Jace tonight.”

  “And how do you suggest we do that?”

  “We go in. We get a presidential order to search the place. We negotiate. I don’t know!”

  “What about taking over the Triad?”

  A sob escaped my throat. “I don’t care about the Triad!”

  Faster than I could ward him off, Ritter grabbed my hands and pulled me to him. “Stop, Erin. Please. You’re right that we don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We can’t change what Jace has done, so shouldn’t we be making the most of tonight?” His voice spoke of deserted beaches and lazy nights with no thought of the Emporium. Of children’s laughter.

  “Let. Me. Go.”

  “No.”

  In the next instant, we were kissing and tearing our clothes off. There was no time for words. I wanted this man of mine, who made me so furious and happy and right with the world, even when it was falling apart.

  Yes, I was going to hold a grudge at his stubbornness, and because of my own guilt at letting Jace leave, but I was also going to say my goodbyes. Just in case. Our lovemaking was different this time, more urgent, more passionate. I could only pray that wasn’t a sign of something horrible looming in our future.

  It wasn’t until much later when I awoke in the middle of the night, half crushed by Ritter’s weight, that I realized I hadn’t channeled Stella’s ability today—or Patrick’s—to make sure my body allowed the nanites to do their job at preventing ovulation. In fact, my body had probably ejected the nanites altogether. After tomorrow, it wouldn’t matter. One way or the other.

  THE NEXT MORNING, JEANE AND I were our way to Emporium headquarters in a taxi driven by a disguised Cort. Jeane called Ropte, examining her nails with apparent disinterest as Ropte questioned her about leaving his house yesterday. He shut up all too quickly when she told him she was with me and where she was heading. After trying to talk her into taking me to his house instead, he told her he’d see her soon and hung up.

  Jeane’s brow furrowed. “He’s never offered to send a helicopter for me. And that was before I said you had a message from the Renegades. Apparently, David is very interested in you.”

  The idea worried me more than I wanted to admit. “Are you sure you didn’t tell him about my ability?”

  She gave me a flat stare. “I think I’d remember.”

  Cort dropped us in front of the Emporium building, and Jeane preened in the mirrored surfaces of the double glass doors as we waited to be let inside. Despite my lack of sleep, I looked rested, thanks to my increased absorption. Jeane looked stunning, even for an Unbounded, and I wondered if she’d taken such care of her appearance because of Lew or if she still had some other plan involving Stefan Carrington.

  My hands were zip-tied in front of me, and Jeane carried a gun, which she was serious enough about keeping on me that if I’d really been a captive, I might have had a problem getting away.

  I felt a momentary panic and an urge to flee. I hadn’t told Ritter I loved him after our fight, not even after our night together. When I’d awakened, he’d been downstairs discussing last-minute details with Ava and Dimitri, and all I’d done was scowl at him and everyone else. I hadn’t hugged him goodbye, and he hadn’t pushed me. His Deathliness knew me too well.

  I regretted all of it now, especially the shuttered look in his eyes.

  One of the doors opened, not by a secretary but by four guards armed with multiple guns and swords in back sheaths. One of them I recognized: Jonny Carrington, Stefan’s son and my supposed half brother. I’d had two run-ins with Jonny, and I liked him despite his blind loyalty and the fact that he’d once shot Ritter. He had a lesser variation of the combat ability that allowed him to move faster than even Ritter, but without the other advantages. Because of his forced Change at eighteen, ten years ago, his projected life span was only four hundred years, something he was privately bitter about. Even so, he was always grinning, and today was no exception.

  “Hey, Erin,” he said. “Good to see you again.”

  I nodded. “Jonny.”

  The guards patted us down, stripping us of all jewelry and anything else that was suspicious, including a hairpin that had no value even as a lockpick, much less as a weapon. After we were deemed weaponless, they marched us to a room where they cut my bonds and made me lie down on a padded surface, which slowly fed into a circular machine.

  “She’s clean,” announced the female technician a short time later.

  “Of course she is,” Jeane said. “You think I’d bring her here with a Renegade tracker still inside her?”

  “You’re next,” said the technician.

  Jeane rolled her eyes and sauntered to the padded surface, stretching luxuriously as if lying down on a massage table. She was completely dark to me at the moment—no life force at all—so her ability was active, though she wasn’t trying to null our guards. That told me she was out of her comfort zone; she’d been far more relaxed back at our safe house.

  While she was sucked inside the machine, I studied the three guards with Jonny. All of them were Unbounded, probably gifted with combat, and physically in their mid- to late-thirties, which meant they had several centuries of experience—far more than Jonny’s hundred-plus years. One woman and two men. I reached out to their minds and found strong shields, but nothing like Lew’s or Ropte’s. Or Jace’s, for that matter. I was sure I could get inside.

  On the
other hand, the technician was mortal, though young enough that she might still Change. Her surreptitious glances at the female guard and her occasional surface thoughts told me she longed to be just like her.

  From there, I sent out my thoughts farther into the building. There were hundreds of life forms, some actively moving and others seated closely together as if working in cubicles. As I did more tallying, I realized there were not just hundreds but over a thousand, nearly every one of them dimmer than usual, which meant their minds were shielded, be they mortal or Unbounded. I was glad we hadn’t gone through with the frontal assault because even the mortal technician was armed with a gun at her hip and the bulk of a sword under her white jacket.

  I wondered if they had a nursery here like in the LA safe house. Probably. I checked to make sure that none of the few unshielded minds belonged to Mari, and I was glad not to find her because it wouldn’t be safe to go unshielded here. I could still find her; it would just take longer.

  And Jace. I couldn’t think about him without a pain in my chest.

  Jeane had no tracking devices either, but that was quickly remedied when the tech injected us both in the arm with what I assumed was their own tracking device.

  “Are we done yet?” Jeane drawled. She was making eyes at one of the guards, who ignored her steadfastly, though I sensed an interest. She should be careful because I didn’t think Lew would appreciate the competition. Providing he was still alive.

  “Come,” said the oldest-looking guard, who seemed to be in charge. He was Asian and shorter than the other three men but wider. Jonny showed the way while the other three took up positions behind us. I had a déjà vu feeling as they marched us across a foyer to an elevator where two more Unbounded stood guard. This building was eerily similar to their old headquarters in LA, from the guards and cameras to the classy paintings and gray color of the walls.

  To my surprise, we didn’t go up to the twentieth floor, where Jeane told me Stefan should be waiting, but stopped on the thirteenth. I arched a brow at Jeane, who misunderstood my signal. “It’s just another floor. We don’t believe in superstitious nonsense here.” To the guards, she added, “I’m supposed to take her to Triad Carrington. He knows we’re coming. We have no reason to cool our heels here.”

  The Asian inclined his head. “This is where Triad Carrington told us to take you.” Next to me, Jonny smirked.

  Once more, they took up formation around us. Here the decor had changed from upscale business to professional killer. Weapons of all sorts were embedded into the walls, protected by glass coverings, interspersed by violent, bloody paintings depicting Unbounded Renegades being sliced into three. Both the weapons and the paintings spanned the epochs, from warriors on horseback to men in business suits. Mortals were portrayed as servants who knelt to worship their Emporium gods.

  Rage built inside me. So many lives lost.

  Finally, we came to a set of nondescript double doors that were open wide. Two additional guards stood to either side and motioned for us to enter. We did, but the guards accompanying us remained outside. Through the doors, we found a vast gym, half of which was covered in mats and the other half with exercise machines. Mirrors covered several walls, but on the others hung more scenes of decapitation and body-severing.

  Despite all the space and the hundreds of people in the building, the room held only two life forces. As we walked over the wood floor along the edge of the mat, my eyes went to Stefan Carrington, my supposed father, who stood barefoot, a black bo staff in his hands. He was tall and well-built, and his hair so blond it masked any gray. His face was tanned, with fine lines around magnetizing eyes the color of the sky on a hot, brilliant day—Jace’s eyes. Instead of the suit he’d worn on our previous meetings, his chest and six-pack abs were shirtless, and his workout shorts emphasized the muscles in his thighs. The hair on his chest was also blond and again showed no gray. I couldn’t pinpoint a physical age for him, but he’d lived at least a half century.

  “There you are,” he said, passing his staff to his companion and striding over the mat. It was only then I recognized the other occupant of the gym. The tall man with ebony skin and ultra-short black hair was Edgel, an Unbounded soldier who had loyally served the Emporium his entire life. He’d worked under Keene when he’d been a team leader, and then became his own team leader under Delia. Now he was with Stefan.

  As Jace had so recently reminded me, Edgel blamed us for his daughter’s death. I was betting Stefan had never discovered that Edgel had hidden a mortal daughter from the Emporium and had once come to us to save her life. It was something I might be able to use against Edgel, if I had to.

  Edgel met my stare without sign of recognition, zero surface feelings registering on my awareness. I was tempted to break through his shield. I’d done it before.

  I turned my attention back to Stefan, who was the more dangerous man, even if only because he commanded Edgel and others just like him. Killing machines. Unlike Edgel, surface feelings radiated from Stefan, including a real pleasure at seeing me—or more likely at having me under his control—but nothing important escaped past the black walls encasing his mind. The last time we’d been together, I’d felt more of his inner thoughts, and I bet I had Delia’s betrayals to thank for his added strength.

  “Triad Carrington,” I said.

  He laughed, the lines on his face giving him more character than age. “Oh, that’s priceless. Though I suppose the formality is in keeping with the choice you made the last time you left.”

  “People change.”

  Stefan chuckled. “Oh? Are you the prodigal daughter, hoping for forgiveness?”

  “I haven’t done anything that needs forgiveness.”

  His smile faded. “Neither have I.”

  “Oh, Stefan, give her a hug,” Jeane said with a laugh. “She is your daughter after all.”

  Stefan’s face froze as he turned to her. “Hello, Jeane. I hope you’ll excuse us. Erin and I have a lot to talk about.” He rotated in Edgel’s direction. “See that she’s secured in her old quarters.”

  Edgel nodded and stepped forward, laying Stefan’s black bo staff and his own red one on the mat and taking Jeane by the arm. “Really?” she asked Stefan. “You said I would be rewarded for bringing her. Is this about me leaving before without your permission? I did come back. I just needed time to think.”

  “I just want to have a private reunion with my daughter. We won’t need your ability here.”

  Jeane drew her lips into a sexy pout and stared over my right shoulder. “You’re not even going to allow me a moment to say hello to Lew?”

  Her statement sent a blast of fear coiling through my gut. Of course Stefan would have the Emporium’s pet sensing Unbounded here to probe me, just as Stefan had used Delia the first time we’d met. Lew couldn’t enter my mind without alerting me, and even then that wasn’t a fight I’d lose easily, but what Lew might have told Stefan was another thing altogether.

  Lew stepped partially from behind a weight machine, releasing the power that had masked his life force. He was as thin and curly-haired and feminine as ever, his young-looking face slightly crunched. He appeared to be in his late teens, which put him at around a century or so old, but beside Delia and me, he was the strongest sensing Unbounded I’d ever heard of, his shield nearly impenetrable, even for me. I was grateful Jeane had seen him, though I wasn’t sure how she had. I wondered if Stefan’s other sensing Unbounded was here, or if he felt one was enough.

  Lew and Jeane regarded one another without any sign of the emotional connection between them. I couldn’t help but think of my last moment with Ritter because on the outside we would have appeared exactly the same.

  “You can catch up later,” Stefan said.

  Jeane regarded him through slitted eyes. “We’ll do that.”

  Not wanting to give Stefan any kind of satisfaction, I gave Lew only one glance before refocusing on Stefan. “He isn’t needed here,” I said, tilting my head in Lew’
s direction.

  “Maybe not.” Stefan wasn’t convinced, and I hadn’t expected him to be.

  Without so much as a wave at Lew or me, Jeane turned and let Edgel lead her across the gym, walking with her hands clasped on his black-clad arm as if leaving had been her idea. Stefan and I watched her in silence. When she reached the double doors, she looked over her shoulder and said, “Please let me know when my brother arrives.”

  “I wasn’t aware that David was coming.” Stefan’s frown seemed to indicate the news wasn’t welcome. Apparently, Jeane hadn’t been lying about the tension between Stefan and Ropte.

  “Oh, I’m sure he’s just concerned about me. We are very close.” Jeane stepped through the doors.

  It was just us now, Stefan and I. Well, and Lew, who didn’t count. I wished I could ask about Jace.

  “My technician says you came in with eleven potential weapons,” Stefan said, his gaze lingering on the door where Jeane had disappeared.

  “Twelve.” I reached into my mouth and removed the tiny plastic envelope I had under my tongue.

  “Let me guess—acid.”

  “Poison,” I corrected, cracking an insincere grin. “You need to hire better people. Or buy a bigger machine.”

  Stefan’s only response was to pick up the staffs from the floor and toss the red one to me. It felt smooth in my hands and perfectly balanced. “We missed this the last time you were here. I thought we’d start with it in case we’re interrupted again.” His tone promised there would be no interruption.

  He’d know in a minute that I wasn’t a combat Unbounded unless I channeled him or one of the guards outside the door. Breaking through his shield might take more time than I had right now, so the guards were a more promising choice, but the guards might not have personal knowledge of Stefan’s strengths and weaknesses. With my smaller size, I’d need that to impress him.

  “I’ve heard rumors about you, Erin Radkey.” Stefan spun his staff above his head in a series of complicated drills. “I want to know if they’re true.”