Freeze

by Kaitlyn Davis

  Soon, she thought as the shadows billowed around her. Soon.

  With the vampires creating a protective ring, Pandora and Naya found their way to the next staircase with little delay. Two of the vamps were lost in the fray, but eight climbed with them to the fifth floor.

  The laboratories had less security, so they plowed through the fifth and fourth levels quickly, shoving open doors that still remained unlocked from the damage Pandora had wreaked in the control room.

  Up another set of steps, they found themselves on the third underground level, only a few flights away from freedom. But this floor was chaos, just as the sixth floor had been. Fights were everywhere. Hunters threw creatures across the room, rubber bullets bounced off the walls, and from the agonized cries echoing down the halls, Pandora suspected that some of the humans had turned to deadlier weapons.

  Hunters attempted to close in on Naya, but wherever one turned, a vampire greeted them, knocking them back, keeping them occupied. Slowly, they went from eight guards, to seven, to five. But as long as they were moving forward, as long as they kept progressing, it didn’t matter.

  When they reached the second floor, nearly at the top and closer to the barracks, more titan forces were fighting. Alchemists were twisting metal bars and crafting new locks, using their powers to keep recaptured inmates in their cages. Mindbenders were stalking the halls, pressing their hands to various foreheads, rendering prisoners unconscious with every touch. Healers knelt over human soldiers, fixing supernaturally inflicted wounds as quickly as possible so the injured could get back up and fight. Tridents sent buckets of water flying through the air, molding the liquid into bubbles that wrapped around the faces of anyone trying to escape and drowned them slowly, cutting off enough oxygen to knock them unconscious.

  Through the pandemonium, Pandora was having trouble telling one titan from the next. But it didn’t matter much anyway. Because she knew another titan weakness, another tidbit of information they tried to keep close—there weren’t that many titans in the world. Three dozen or so enclaves spotted the globe, and that was it. So even though the prison had a massive concentration of titans, with so many inmates on the loose, they were outnumbered just enough for two prisoners to sneak free. At least, she hoped they were.

  And at first, it seemed that way.

  Until water slammed into Naya’s face, enveloping her skin, cutting off the air. Pandora didn’t even realize what had happened until the hand she was holding, tugging, guiding, grew limp. When she turned, her friend was drowning. Those amber eyes were wide open, no longer controlling any vampires, no longer doing anything as she clawed at her throat. But her fingers slid right through the liquid, not budging anything. That normally serene gaze grew pleading.

  Pandora spun, still wrapped in the shadows, searching, searching—

  There.

  A trident with his hands outstretched, molding and shaping, as he stared straight at Naya, utterly focused, utterly determined.

  Without thinking, Pandora fled into the shadows, using her power to sail across the room, beside her friend one moment, beside the trident the next. Invisible to the world, she wrapped her hands around his throat and squeezed tight.

  His power dropped immediately.

  Across the room, Naya gasped, stumbling on unsteady feet.

  The trident reached up and ripped Pandora’s hands from his throat easily—too easily. She’d forgotten she no longer possessed the impossible strength of a vampire. Sure, a human she could easily take down. But another titan fighter? If her childhood lessons had taught her anything, it was that as far as titans went, she was weak. Always beaten. Always broken. Always on the outside. Her strength came in slipping away, not in facing her opponents head-on.

  The trident spun, still clutching her fingers in his hand. Deep brown eyes widened in surprise to find he was holding air, holding something he couldn’t see, holding the one prize he knew they needed most. His gaze narrowed, sharp, deadly, completely aware.

  “She’s here!” he shouted.

  Pandora fled.

  Though she hated it, though it went against every instinct screaming fight, fight, fight, she melted into the smoke, returning fully to the darkness. His hand squeezed tighter, desperately grabbing for the woman turning to mist between his fingers. But he couldn’t hold on to someone who wasn’t there.

  Pandora reappeared beside Naya, who’d managed to regain control of three vampires and was using them to fight off the mindbender reaching for her head.

  “We’ve got to get out of here, now,” Pandora muttered, yanking on Naya’s hand.

  “You don’t say,” her partner snapped back, milky eyes focused as she commanded the vampires to block the titans racing their way.

  Step by step, Pandora led them through the madness, guiding them down the path she’d memorized, working closer and closer to the top.

  One vampire was pulled away by a hunter.

  Another dropped to the ground when his brain was wiped clear by a mindbender.

  Two more returned, called by Naya’s power from the fights they’d been waging, only to turn around and engage two titans who’d gotten too close for comfort.

  They were down to one guard as they rounded the last corner.

  But Pandora grinned.

  The exit.

  It had to be.

  On the map, Pandora had thought it was a long central hallway cutting through the middle of the first floor, but now she realized it was a ramp, starting on the second floor and leading all the way up to the door that led outside.

  She broke into a sprint.

  Naya dropped control of the vampire, amber irises returning to their natural spot, focused on what she knew must be the end of the road.

  They raced up.

  Thighs burning.

  Breath heavy.

  Hearts pounding.

  Together, they slammed into the door at full force, titan strength and whatever secret power Naya hadn’t yet revealed combining to create a living, breathing battering ram.

  The metal didn’t budge.

  Didn’t even move.

  They bounced back, crying out as their bodies took the brunt of the hit. Pandora flew forward and pounded her fists against the door, searching for any crack, anything to hold on to. But there was no knob, nothing to grab, only smooth metal.

  The end of the road.

  No, she growled silently. It can’t end like this. It won’t.

  But it was.

  The keycard didn’t work. There was no control pad they could find, nowhere to scan. They ran the little magnetic strip along the entire length of the door, over the walls, even along the floor, waiting, hoping it would swing free of the lock.

  It didn’t.

  And they were out of time.

  “She’s here, somewhere. I know she is.”

  Pandora spun at the sound of a voice. The trident from before had followed them, bringing two hunters, a mindbender, and a tracker with him.

  “That’s the one she was protecting, the one she kept me from incapacitating,” he said, signaling to Naya, who froze by her side, face blank. “Notify the director. We have her cornered.”

  Oh no you don’t, Pandora retorted silently, tugging the shadows close.

  Sure, the odds weren’t great. In fact, they were pretty dismal.

  But when had that ever stopped her before?

  Maybe if I move fast, I can take them down. Maybe I can jump from spot to spot, staying invisible, never keeping in one place too long. Maybe I can make the jump through the door and open it from the other side. I know Sam told me not to try to teleport to a place I haven’t seen, but how different could this door look on the other side? What’s the worst that could happen?

  Well, I could die.

  If I reappear in the middle of a wall I didn’t know was there, I could accidently crush my body to smithereens.

  No big deal, right?

  I have to try.

  I have to do something.

/>   But she was stuck. Unsure.

  “Use Jackson as your anchor,” a silky, deep voice whispered in her ear.

  Pandora jumped in surprise. But for the first time, Sam’s sudden appearance didn’t piss her off. In fact, it did quite the opposite. “You’re here!” she gasped into the shadows, smiling for a moment, before remembering she had about, oh, negative ten seconds to get out alive. “What do you mean?”

  “He’s outside helping to track down the few prisoners who managed to escape while the door was unlocked. He’s aboveground.” Sam paused his hurried words, swallowing once, then forced the rest out. “He’s the strongest anchor you have in this world, so use him to make the jump. Use him, and you’ll be free.”

  Pandora’s gaze slipped to the side, to Naya, who’d deepened into a fighting crouch, ready and waiting to take on the titans who were slowly advancing. Their arms were linked as they stalked inch-by-inch forward, carefully making sure not to leave enough space for an invisible girl to slip through.

  “Can I take her with me?” Pandora asked, eyes finding Sam again.

  He frowned, blue eyes darkening, intense and demanding. “Leave her and save yourself. I told you before that this plan was madness.”

  Pandora shook her head, putting more force behind her words. “Can I take her with me?”

  He sighed, a heavy breath that rippled through the darkness, rumbling through her, and held her gaze for a moment longer. Then the smoke wrapped around him, and he disappeared, leaving her with nothing but disappointed silence.

  I’ll take that as a yes, Pandora quipped.

  At the same moment, Naya muttered, “That doesn’t look good.”

  “What doesn’t…” Pandora trailed off as she finally noticed the wall of water building at the base of the ramp. There was a hole in the concrete floor. A busted pipe poked through, spewing gallon after gallon of liquid. The trident held his hands before his face, molding the water, building it higher and higher, letting the pressure mount, letting the swell grow and grow and grow.

  “It’s okay, I have an idea,” Pandora said, yanking on Naya’s hand and pulling her close. “Hold on tight and close your eyes.”

  “What are you doing?” Naya asked into Pandora’s shoulder, gripping her fiercely.

  “I’m getting us out of here.”

  “How are you getting us out of here?”

  “Oh, just be quiet,” Pandora snapped, watching the mass of water swell.

  Naya pulled back, looking toward the spot she assumed held Pandora’s invisible face before muttering, “Have you ever done this before?”

  “No.”

  “That’s what I was afraid of.”

  “It’s okay—”

  Pandora was cut off by the crash of water against stone as the wave broke and shot toward them like a tsunami, defying gravity as it rolled up the ramp, racing closer.

  “Impossible odds and near-death experiences are my specialty,” she said, finishing her thought. “Now, don’t you dare let go.”

  Pandora closed her eyes, heart pounding as the sound of rushing water thundered in her ears, growing louder, moving closer. The shadows clung to her, winding tighter and tighter, binding Naya’s body to her, carrying them both deeper and deeper into the darkness.

  Mist sprinkled her cheeks.

  Droplets splashed her arms.

  Cold air sent her hair flying.

  But the water never struck.

  They disappeared.

  Jax. Jax. Jax.

  Pandora repeated his name over and over, letting every emotion she normally pushed down rise to full force, fusing the feelings to her power, using her love and her hate to carry them forward, to carry them to freedom.

  Chapter Seven

  When Pandora opened her eyes, Jax was standing two feet away, stock-still. The only thing moving was his ebony hair, blowing wild in the breeze, while the rest of his body was on high alert. His green eyes were laser focused on the horizon, brows drawn together as he scanned the desert scene splayed out before him, searching between the handful of inmates growing smaller and smaller in the distance.

  He’s tracking someone, she thought, having seen him use his power before—enhanced smell, enhanced sight, enhanced speed, and gut instincts that always pointed his feet in the right direction. But he’s not tracking me.

  If he were, he’d have flinched, turned, recognized some little part of her standing by his side. She was sure of it. In actuality, the fact that every one of his innately heightened senses was searching for someone else was probably the only reason he hadn’t felt her sudden appearance by his side.

  “He’s that one over there,” Jax muttered, jutting out his chin.

  “Got it,” a female voice said from behind. Pandora swiveled and was surprised to find she recognized the brunette hunter who was working with Jax. It was Rachel—a girl she’d gone to school with, just another titan she’d known since birth who was plotting to kill her. Same old, same old. And there was a third man next to her, someone Pandora didn’t know—a titan for sure, but she couldn’t discern which kind.

  That was until he knelt on the ground, dug his fists into the dirt, and pressed against the tightly packed sand, hands shaking as the muscles in his arms bulged.

  “Hold on,” Pandora whispered to Naya, who was still clutching her in a tight embrace.

  A moment later, the earth trembled, the lid of a pot about to boil over as it shook, vibrations mounting, growing stronger. The quaker punched his fists against the ground in one hard, swift move, gaze concentrated on the small figure running away in the distance. A shock wave pulsed beneath the sand, rippling across the desert, shooting like a torpedo toward its target. Moments later, the barely visible man in the distance went down, tripping as the ground gave way beneath him.

  But Jax wasn’t watching him.

  Jax had turned his head, peering over his shoulder, brows pulled together. His gaze, eyes narrow, roved over the empty space where Pandora and Naya stood invisible.

  “Let’s go,” a gruff voice ordered. The quaker.

  He and the girl took off at a run.

  Jax held his gaze for one moment longer.

  A nervous tingle shot down Pandora’s spine.

  Turn around, Jax. Please, just turn around.

  He did.

  Because he had a job to do? Because he didn’t actually sense her but was picking up on something else? Because he knew she was there and didn’t have the heart to stop her?

  Pandora would never know.

  Jax launched into a sprint, enhanced tracker speed allowing him to close the gap quickly as he rejoined his group, chasing a different target.

  And thank god for that. Pandora sighed, relieved to watch his supernatural speed carry him away, far enough that he wouldn’t sense her.

  “That was close,” Pandora muttered.

  Naya finally released her nearly suffocating hold on Pandora’s body and stepped back, but not too far.

  “I never doubted you for a second,” the medium said. Pandora’s brows practically flew off her face. “Okay, maybe for a second.” And then Naya’s face brightened with surprise. “Wait, I can see you. I mean, I can actually see you. Huh, you’re blonde. I didn’t expect that.” And then her gaze turned inquisitive, taking in the ebony smoke swirling all around them. “What is this?”

  “Welcome to my world.” Pandora shrugged. “I call them my shadows, but really it’s just my power. It’s how I slip out of the light to become invisible. And it’s how we got away. But I’m not sure how much longer I can keep you here. I’ve never tried to run with someone by my side, never tried to carry another moving body through the shadows with me.”

  “What about that thing you just did? Can we keep doing that?”

  Pandora snorted. “Frankly, I’m pretty impressed with myself for pulling it off the one time. Desperation is a miracle worker. But if we can find a place to hide until dark, I think I can keep us out of sight until then,” Pandora murmured. She twis
ted her head, searching the grounds. Her gaze landed on the looming prison building behind her, and she smirked. “How high can you jump?”

  “Why?” Naya asked, suspicious.

  Pandora lifted her gaze back to the building. The thing was massive, stretching from one end of her vision to the other, but not that tall. Thirty, maybe forty feet to the roof. Tops.

  The medium followed her eyes. “No. Are you insane? We just escaped.”

  “Yeah, so?” Pandora countered. “What better place to hide? They’ll never expect it.”

  “Because it’s lunacy.”

  “It’s genius.”

  “It’s foolhardy.”

  “That’s my middle name,” Pandora replied smoothly, grinning. “Besides, my escape plan got us out of that place. Don’t you trust me?”

  Naya tossed her a pointed stare, ever challenging. “I’m pretty sure my army of vampires is what got us out.”

  “Potayto, potahto.” Pandora shrugged. “Either way, I’m the one with the power of invisibility, and I’m taking my disappearing act to the roof. If you’d like to stay out of sight, I suggest you stay close, and don’t let go of my hand. Unless, of course, you’re afraid of heights or something.”

  “I’m not afraid of heights,” she growled, eyes flashing.

  “Prove it.”

  Pandora ran toward the building, tugging on Naya’s hand to drag her along. All her effort was on keeping the shadows close, keeping the darkness wrapped around both of their moving bodies, keeping two targets hidden.

  For that short distance, it seemed to work.

  One hundred yards later, they were pressed with their backs against the wall, searching for any titans who might have seen them, but no one came running.

  “You go first,” Pandora said quickly, alert now that they were on the move. “If somebody sees you, I’ll take them out before they have a chance to notify anyone else.”

  Naya nodded, glancing up warily.

  “Do you need a boost?” Pandora taunted, smirking.

  Naya wrinkled her nose. “You are playing with fire, my friend.”