Taken by Fire

by Sydney Croft

  Mel was serving him now—sharing her eggs and toast with such concern for his appetite that he ate every bite.

  The smile she gave him afterward was worth it.

  “You know, you’re awfully calm,” she told him when she finally put down her fork. He doubted she was sated, but she was no doubt thinking ahead to the work she needed to do.

  For that, it was better to have a little of that hunger burning inside.

  “Yeah, well, I’ve got as much fear as the next person. It’s healthy. It’s just that I’m pretty good at this helping-to-save-the-world stuff. This frees the world—and you—of Itor. A damned good thing, which makes me more than ready to kick some ass.”

  “Stryker? I’m, ah … scared.” Her admission was shaky, but there wasn’t a doubt in his body that she would never think of backing down.

  “Fear keeps you smart, Mel. You’ve been practicing. You’re getting good at controlling your powers. And you’re not on your own anymore. If something happens, and your power’s depleted, an ACRO agent will cover you, okay?”

  “But—”

  “No buts. You’re with me, dammit. And that’s going to be good enough for all of them.”

  It was a go. His agents were armed and at the ready. But this time, Devlin felt more of a tug of worry than he usually did. Tried to clear his mind so he wasn’t sending out negative messages to his psychic agents—or subliminally to the others.

  A team was only as good as its weakest link and he refused to be that link again.

  He watched Gabriel, suited up and ready to head out on a semi-solo mission of his own—a mission inside the mission, an important task that could get him killed.

  Devlin argued with himself that the boy wasn’t ready. But he knew that was a half-truth—no agent was truly ever prepared and Gabriel had faced a battle already and come back wiser, if not stronger.

  “Let’s roll,” Ender said, leading the excedos out of the house.

  Gabriel was about to head out last when Devlin called him back into the room.

  Words spilled from the younger man before Dev had a chance to speak. “You’re not going to pull me out of this, are you? Because I can finally fucking do something for you, and you can’t stop me.”

  “What makes you think you don’t do anything for me?” Devlin demanded.

  “Yeah, I know—I get you off.”

  “Dammit, Gabriel.” He hauled the man into his arms and kissed him, hard. When he pulled away, Gabe was staring at him. Because he knew something had changed. “I love you, you asshole. I didn’t want to say it until …”

  “Until you knew I survived. Because it would hurt less that way.” There was no rancor or judgment in Gabriel’s voice. Only understanding.

  “How the hell you got so smart is beyond me.” Devlin hung his head. “I know it was foolish. It would hurt just as much whether I said it or not.”

  “I’m just glad you finally copped to it.”

  “You be safe out there, Gabriel. You hear me?”

  “Yeah, I hear you. I think I finally fucking hear you,” Gabe whispered in his ear. “When I finish, I’m going to fuck you into the mattress.”

  Devlin jerked his head up at Gabe’s warning—his cock twitched in response, and Gabe smiled as if he knew.

  Thanks to all the activity and preparations for the attack, Melanie had been forced to stay in control of the body she shared with her sister, and though Melanie kept up on the injections, she got less time now between them. Phoebe had mentioned that issue before, saying that using more than three injections in a row would begin a rapid breakdown of their effectiveness. Worse, by about the sixth shot, chest pains began. Mel had come awake a couple of times after Phoebe’s run of several injections, only to spend the day in pain—once in an Itor medical unit. Mel kept all of this to herself, not wanting to worry Stryker or make Dev see her as a liability.

  But hopefully, today would be the last time she ever had to inject herself more than once in a row anyway. More important, today would be the last time she saw the Itor compound. And her father.

  Half the agents closed in on the ranch in vehicles under the cover of darkness and the severe storm Remy fired up. Others went in on foot, while still others dropped in from aircraft.

  Mel, Dev, Gabe, Stryker, and Ender hung back while the first wave of the assault went down, which happened immediately after Itor’s initial shock from the storm wore off. Zach handled the dogs, but soon gunfire, explosions, and screams coming from all over the property turned the compound into a nightmare.

  Mel wasn’t sure what Dev was waiting for, but he finally nodded, and then they were all off like a shot from the ridge where they’d been waiting. Stryker kept Itor men at bay by opening up rifts in the earth beneath them, and if the situation hadn’t been so dire, she’d have gotten seriously turned on. His confidence, the gleam in his eyes, the dangerous expression on his face as he wielded a power so mighty … she couldn’t contain a shiver of appreciation.

  The ground shook all around them, and enemies tumbled into fissures that closed up as quickly as they’d opened. Any who managed to escape were taken out by Ender so fast Melanie missed it if she blinked.

  It was all so horrible, and she had to keep repeating to herself that these people had hurt her. Had hurt a lot of innocents.

  As Mel and Stryker mounted the steps to the main ranch house, a whistling sound brought Mel around. Her adrenaline was already a hot flame in her veins, but she screamed, dove for Stryker, and took him down on the deck as a pitchfork impaled itself in the wood slats right where his head would have been. That made her feel a little less sorry for all the dead Itor agents.

  “Nice call, babe,” he breathed, as he helped her up.

  “You said not to use my power.” Not that freezing the thing would have helped. But yeah, she was saving it all up for an emergency.

  Or for Alek.

  Ender zipped away, and for a few agonizing moments fought with the telekinetic who had launched the pitchfork. The sound of a spine snapping cut through the other sounds of battle, and then Ender was back, looking pleased as could be.

  Melanie would never understand warrior types. And where was Gabe? She looked around, but the man was gone. No one seemed concerned, so apparently that was part of a plan she didn’t know about, but … damn.

  Pistols drawn, the men entered the house, took down two Itor agents immediately, and then Melanie darted for the door to the right, the one that looked like a closet. The men guarded her while she stood for a retina scan, and then the hidden rear panel slid open, leading to a well-lit staircase that would take them into the underground facility.

  As planned, Ender and Stryker remained behind to signal a false retreat. Dev handed Melanie his weapon, put up his hands, and moved ahead of her. Before she kicked into fake-Phoebe mode, she turned to Stryker.

  “Be careful.”

  Though they scarcely had the time for it, he framed her face in his hands, bent his head, and kissed her. “You too.”

  Ender pushed a button on his watch. “We’ll bring a team in ten minutes, unless the doors don’t open or Sam tells us different. You in contact?”

  Dev gave a sharp nod. “She’s with me for now.”

  The facility was shielded against psychic interference, so there was a good chance that once Dev was belowground, his connection with Samantha would fail—which was why they’d had to set a time for the underground assault to begin. If all went well, Mel would deliver Dev to Alek and then sneak away to shut down the psychic shield and open all the doors around the ranch that led to the various underground buildings.

  “Mel,” Dev said, “Alek’s been in my mind before, and he can probably do it again. Which means that once we meet up with him, you’ll need to get away quickly and carry out your part of the plan before he gets inside my mind and finds out you aren’t Phoebe.”

  She nodded. “Got it.” She paused. “If he gets in your head and then somehow gets away, could he use the informati
on to—”

  “It would take weeks to get everything from me,” Dev assured her. “And there are some things I trust other agents with, so no one person, including me, has all of ACRO’s secrets.”

  Made sense, and Mel wondered if Alek did the same.

  They moved down the staircase, with Mel pretending to be holding Dev captive. They made it past the first three people they encountered—all it took was for Melanie to bark out, “I have ACRO’s boss. The assholes are falling back—go help! Now!”

  The three tore up the stairs, where Ender and Stryker would take them down.

  The fourth, fifth, and sixth people were where the trouble started.

  Ian, a wall of muscle who was one of the few people who knew about Phoebe’s relationship to Alek, rounded a corner. A man Mel didn’t know came up behind Ian, and both drew down on Dev with their pistols.

  “I’m taking him to Alek,” she snapped. “Move aside.”

  “Alek gave orders that no one passes this point,” Ian said.

  Mel snorted. God, she hoped Phoebe snorted. “That order never includes me, and you know it.”

  “We’ve never been under attack by an enemy agency.”

  “ACRO is in retreat, and I hope you enjoy sunburns.” She kept her gun hand steady between Dev’s shoulder blades and threw out her other hand, praying these idiots would back down in the face of Phoebe’s power.

  “Phoebe.” The voice from her flank filled her with dread. “Stand down.”

  She turned slowly to see Alek in the doorway to his personal chambers. This was what they’d come here for, but suddenly, she was wishing they’d gone with another plan.

  “Dev.” Alek smiled, the wolfish one that sent shivers down her spine. “So good to finally meet you. Nice work, Phoebe. Where the hell have you been?”

  Phoebe would probably have rolled her eyes at the combination praise and spank. Mel just hoped her voice would work. “I was captured by Maurice,” she said, remembering what Stryker had told her about the man who had captured them in Rome. “I escaped, but he got away before I could kill him. He’s a traitor. I think he’s the one who brought in ACRO.”

  Alek snarled. “If you have proof of his treachery, I’ll make sure he drowns in his own blood.” He gestured to Ian. “Bind Devlin’s wrists and take him to my office.”

  So far, so good. Everything was going according to plan. Alek would take Dev, and she would find the control room, where she would open up the entire facility to psychics, satellites, and every ACRO agent. At that point, the second wave would arrive, and Itor would go down.

  Dev put his hands behind his back, and Ian cuffed him with wrist ties that he’d plucked from his pocket.

  “Got anything to say, Dev?” Alek asked.

  “I have a lot to say. In private.”

  Alek cocked an eyebrow. “We do have a lot of catching up to do. We can go through my old photos. I believe I have a picture of your mother somewhere.”

  Why would Alek have a picture of Dev’s mother? Mel made a mental note to ask Stryker later.

  Dev’s brown eyes narrowed. “Are we going, or are you planning to bore me to death here in the hallway?”

  “I’m planning something involving your death, but you definitely won’t be bored.” Alek smiled at Mel. “Phoebe, handle the destruction of ACRO’s forces, and then join me.”

  “Of course.” She smiled confidently, relieved that this was all going so freaking well.

  Alek grabbed Dev by the arm. “Come. We’re long overdue for our father-son talk.”

  Mel gasped. Son? Staring in shock at Dev, she felt the ground shift beneath her. Her pistol fell from her numb fingers and clattered on the floor. Shit! Phoebe would never react like that, but before Mel could recover, Alek cursed. He knew.

  “Stop her!”

  She lurched to the side, summoning her power. But even as the tingle spread through her arm, a fist slammed into the side of her head, and it was game over.

  Gabriel had been using his invisibility with greater ease over the past months. All the practice and training had paid off in spades and, thanks to the adrenaline rush, he was moving like a bat out of hell, taking out snipers and generally anyone else from Itor who got in any ACRO agent’s way.

  It meant dodging some bullets—literally. Because when Gabe was invisible, he wasn’t bulletproof. He wore the vest so he didn’t have to watch his back as carefully, but even so …

  He still had to split his energy between concentrating on not dematerializing at an inopportune time and using his strength to kick some ass, but he finally felt part of ACRO. He had a purpose.

  He’d been built for this.

  A single beep from his watch told him that Mel’s ten minutes were up. Her job should be done by now. Dodging debris flying through the air from Remy’s storms, he headed back to the meeting point to be apprised of his next moves.

  As he approached the main ranch house, his gut twisted at the sight of Ender and Stryker behind the shelter of a brick wall, barking out orders to bleeding and beaten ACRO agents. Something had gone terribly wrong—the agents should be gathering to enter the facility by now.

  Ender looked grim as he told Gabe, “The psychic shield hasn’t been shut off and none of the entrances except the one inside the house have been opened—Mel didn’t hold up her end of the bargain and we don’t know where she and Devlin are. It’s your job to find them—we’ll go in through the only entrance and take out as many I-Agents as we can.”

  Emotions rocketed through Gabe—no doubt, they showed on his face but, for the first time, Ender didn’t call him on it.

  No, all the men were close to Devlin—if he was killed, it would be too great a loss for ACRO to bear.

  It can’t end like this.

  He choked everything back and said, “Let’s roll.”

  “Stryker and I will go in first and make a path. You need to open up the facility and shut down the psychic shield. Fast.” Ender took off for the house, with Stryker right behind him, both ducking low and firing shots as they ran.

  Gabe concentrated, felt the cloak of invisibility cover him like a stinging rain.

  This time, he welcomed the slight pain that came with the changing.

  Heart racing, he followed the two ACRO agents into the house and into the closet where the hidden entrance to the underground facility was located. They moved silently down the stairs, the passageway growing wider every ten steps, where narrow landings with blind corners made for potentially dangerous ambushes by Itor assholes. Three-quarters of the way down, Gabe’s impatience got the better of him, and he slipped between Ender and Stryker.

  At the bottom, an I-Agent waited in ambush. Snarling, Gabe slammed the man’s head against the wall, and he went down. Fucker. These guys had Dev, and Gabe wasn’t going to show any mercy. Crouching, he snapped the enemy’s neck, looking behind him as Ender nodded his approval in Gabe’s general direction.

  Gabe went down farther into the compound, descending into the depths with relative ease, since most of the security was on the first floor. Alek probably assumed no one could get past them.

  Alek didn’t count on him.

  This place had an underground underground, it seemed. He stopped, listened. Tried to hear Dev, but he possessed no damned psychic ability at all.

  Yet he could feel the man vibrating all around him. They were bonding on some level—and that was enough for Gabe to keep pushing forward. Yeah, he needed to open the facility and shut down the psychic shield, but if he found Dev first …

  He stopped at a door and put his hand through. Then slid halfway in and saw Devlin and Mel … and Alek.

  The room was solid stone and metal-encased. Fire- and bombproof. Maybe it could even withstand the entire compound falling on it when Stryker did his earthquake thing.

  But it couldn’t withstand him.

  Dev wasn’t so much at a disadvantage because his hands were bound but rather because his psychic connection with Sam didn’t work in this u
nderground fortress, leaving him vulnerable to Alek’s mind-reading ability.

  “This is nice—we’ll have a chance to bond, like a normal, happy family.” Alek pyramided his fingers together as he glanced between Devlin and Mel, who had been seated on the floor next to him in Alek’s luxurious office.

  Dev snorted. “There’s nothing nice about you, asshole.” For that, he was cracked across the side of the face. He spat blood out of his mouth and met Alek’s eyes. “Ah, Dad, I didn’t think you cared.”

  “I care very much. You’re about to find out just how much, when your precious ACRO—and a portion of the free world—dies.”

  A small gasp from Mel switched Alek’s attention to her.

  Mel, who’d just discovered that she had a brother. Devlin had been careful not to look at her, even though he felt her trying to catch his eye.

  She was stunned. No doubt scared … and hopefully worthy of having his trust.

  “Where is Phoebe?” Alek demanded from her. “This is your betrayal.”

  “How do you know it’s mine?” Mel asked, her voice sweet as apple pie, making Dev proud as hell. “Maybe your precious Phoebe felt she could run the place better than you ever could. Maybe she and I kissed and made up and we’re trying to take over the world … or Itor, at the very least.”

  “Don’t fuck with me, daughter dear. You’re going to wish you were dead when I’m done with you.” The sinister smile on Alek’s lips as he glared at Mel made Dev sick. “Remember that time in the lab? The four days you spent with my favorite psychic torturer and his lecherous assistant?”

  Mel swallowed hard enough for Dev to hear. “I have information on ACRO,” she blurted, and so much for being on ACRO’s side. She crumbled faster than a goddamned cookie. “Stuff you can’t get from Dev because he assigns others to keep some things safe in the event that you get into his head again. I know what some of those things are, because I got real close to one of his agents.”

  Dammit. It was as he’d thought—Mel could not be trusted, should not have been. She might have information that could hurt his agents … Stryker had been too unguarded.