by Jenn Nixon
Liam fired the stunner twice, knocking the man back and spun around, telekinetically shoving another female guard against the back of the Phoenix building. Theo came to his side, one hand balled into a fist, the other swirling with energy.
They’re not going down easily this time, he projected as the frown slipped on his face. Sanjeeta and Caelum came around the building, but he didn’t have a chance to acknowledge them as three guards surrounded him and Theo.
A piece of the metal flew through the air, slamming into a guard behind Liam. Theo blasted the second man until he passed out. Duncan rammed into the third man, knocking him to the ground. Liam whipped around and shot his lightning into another guard with more force than he meant. He screamed and collapsed as Duncan and Theo manually knocked out the other men.
Duncan rose to his feet, wiping blood from the cut on his chin. I think this is just the first wave—
The Enhancer appeared in the middle of the group with Sanjeeta at his side, his eyes were glowing silver, and his shield was firmly in place. Every guard lying on the ground vanished.
“What—” Theo blinked.
Caelum turned. “I sent them to the shuttle with the others.”
“Why didn’t you just do that in the first place?” Duncan sighed.
“You seemed to have it under control and—”
“Valtor,” Liam gasped, feeling the elder Shiran’s pain at the same time as Duncan who vanished in a heartbeat.
“Go, we will stand guard,” Caelum said, glancing to Sanjeeta and Theo, both who nodded.
Liam focused on Duncan and appeared behind him in the corridor leading to the medical lab. A man he’d never seen before had his hand on the back of Valtor’s neck, a syringe against his arm, the needle already puncturing skin. Zila and Jazara stood on either side, both with their hands up, holding the man in place.
“Pop!” Duncan’s entire body pulsed with fear.
Valtor looked past the entire group and met Liam’s eyes. Prototype for the virus!
“I am proof, Jones, whatever Gardner told you is a lie,” Zila said, continuing a conversation he missed the beginning of it seemed. “Did he give you blood or are you natural born?”
“It’s not natural,” he growled as his brown eyes began to glow.
Taking the biggest leap of faith, Liam teleported in front of the group, hearing the women gasp and Duncan grunt. “You are a descendant. Shrian. One of the signs is the glowing of your eyes. Gardner has lied to you. We can show you the truth.”
“You lie!”
“Mother, don’t…” Jones cut Jazara’s warning short by jerking Valtor toward the lab, shaking his head as he pushed the needle further into Valtor’s arm.
“Duncan—” Valtor’s eyes rolled back.
“Pop!”
Zila teleported behind Jones and ripped his arm backward. Valtor collapsed to the ground. Duncan rushed to his side.
Jones and Zila reappeared inside the lab. She had the syringe in her grasp and quickly waved her hand to shut the doors.
“No,” Jazara gasped.
“What’s she doing?” Liam asked, rushing to the door and slamming the controls to access the lab.
The doors didn’t open.
“Taking Valtor’s place,” she whispered as her voice cracked. Jazara slammed her hand on the door window. “Mother…”
“You saw what will happen, they need him much more than you need me, my child,” Zila said as she forced Jones to his knees with her telekinetics. “They gave you a chance. I will not.”
“Zila, don’t do this,” Valtor called softly as Duncan helped him toward the door.
“This will never make up for what I’ve done, Jazara, but Hinta and the others will live now, and I am so tired…” Zila said, causing Jones to start laughing.
Liam saw Duncan place his hand on the locking mechanism for the door trying to manipulate it open while Valtor and Jazara shared a worried look.
“You think this is the only serum we have?” Jones shook his head.
“He’s lying,” Valtor said looking at Zila even as he frowned. “It’s the prototype.”
“That is all I needed to hear,” Zila jabbed the syringe into the man’s arm. “Suffer the fate you wished upon this world.”
“No!” Jazara screeched.
Kim ran into the hallway, gasping and coming to a halt at the sight.
Jones coughed and collapsed to the floor. When he glanced up with pale skin and darkening lips, he began laughing again. “He won’t stop until you’re all dead.”
“If he’s still alive,” Zila replied as she moved toward the door and met eyes with her daughter. “You must go, you know what’s next.”
A shudder ran up Liam’s back as Jazara glanced to Valtor. “What did you see?”
“The fight isn’t over, more powered humans are coming,” she replied without taking her eyes off Zila, who began coughing violently. “Mother…I’m sorry.”
“As am I, for all the pain, Jazara.”
“We’ll stay, go, help the others,” Valtor said, wrapping an arm around Jazara’s shoulder as Kim approached with a frown on her face.
Liam’s heart dropped when he gazed at Zila. “Thank you.”
“Keep my daughter safe, Liam of Shria, and my choice will not be in vain.”
Nodding, Liam rubbed Jazara’s shoulder before glancing over to Duncan who seemed equally overwhelmed and lost in thought.
“We should help Theo,” he said softly, stepping away from the door as Duncan blinked back to reality. Just as he was about to teleport, Dina’s anger, fear, and pain seared his mind. Her twin winced as well, causing his eyes to glow a dark green.
“Go, Liam, she needs you.” Duncan balled his fists and vanished.
Unsure he should leave Valtor in case something else happened, he glanced back and met the elder Shrian’s eyes.
I am safe now, you have my word. Valtor’s strong voice filled Liam’s mind.
Knowing it would only delay him further to argue, he opened his thoughts and centered his focus on Dina. Although the distance made it more difficult, Liam’s need to be at her side easily fueled the teleport.
What he landed in the middle of shocked him in place. Even his voice refused to work. With his mind so open and vulnerable, he heard and felt every emotion running through the entire group. One of them was out for blood and Liam had to stop them.
Chapter Thirty-five
The first wave of emotions to hit her confirmed more than psychics were coming down the alley, heading straight for the riverbank where she, Lexa, and Hinta were standing. Dina rubbed her thumb and finger together, strengthening the kinetic energy blast she’d used on Caelum a few times, knowing it more powerful than simply pushing someone around telekinetically.
Lexa, already protected by her silver sheen, tilted her head to the side as her eyes glowed brighter.
“How many,” Hinta said, moving ahead of their location, closer to the edge of the building.
“Five,” Lexa replied.
“Six,” Dina corrected, as her body shuddered without cause and the blue barrier slipped over her skin. Expecting flashes of memory next, she turned to Lexa with worried eyes and then furrowed her brow when nothing happened.
Lexa’s mouth twisted. “You’re sure? Six?”
“Yes…and one of them—”
“Gardner,” Hinta barked.
The overweight man, dressed in military fatigues with a smarmy smile on his face, appeared in front of four men and a woman dressed head to toe in gray. “Once upon a time, yes. So you are the ones causing me so much trouble.”
“Yeah, and you’re in way over your head, dude,” Lexa said, lifting her hand.
A cloud of smoke exploded into the air.
“Hinta get back,” Dina said, teleporting in front of him to block the smoke and strengthening her shield at the same time making it glow brighter. When she tried to move through it, she felt the similar sensation she got when trying to teleport through barainum. Lexa, you�
��re the only one who can move through it.
The Enhancer nodded and vanished.
Chaos erupted.
In the next second, Gardner’s hand was around Dina’s neck, sizzling against her shield. He didn’t seem in pain and his hold froze her in place. He was a psychic.
The side of his mouth lifted. “And a mixture of alien blood has made me more powerful than any of you.”
“Then why are you trying to kill us all?” she wheezed. “You’ll run out of blood.”
“Who said you need to be alive?” Gardner grinned as his fingers tightened around the shield, and consequently her throat, making it harder to breathe. “You seem stronger than most…”
Dina pushed all her energy to the shield as she called out to Hinta and Lexa, unable to get a sense of either of them nearby. With her mind so open, Gardner’s truth, his plans for the virus filled her thoughts and constricted her heart. When she touched on the prototype he had at Phoenix, she balled her fists and rammed her energy into the shield with enough force to knock him back.
“Dina!” Lexa screamed her warning as two powered humans shot fire toward her.
Hinta’s hand wrapped around her wrist, and he teleported them to the smoke free side of the alley now standing behind Gardner and his three remaining goons.
Lexa appeared beside them, shield flickering as her silver eyes darkened. He’s strong.
You two concentrate on Gardner, I’ll take the others, Hinta said before disappearing.
Hint— Lexa grunted and lifted her hand toward Gardner.
Dina was done dicking around and blasted her energy at the man. She missed. He appeared behind her and Lexa. Again, he reached for Dina, a sick look in his eyes. Lexa slammed him into the back of the building.
“We’ve already got most of your guys locked up, it’s over Gardner,” she said, keeping him pinned.
“Someone will always continue when others fail,” he replied, licking his bottom lip. “Your kind will never win.”
“Win? This isn’t a game,” Dina said, shaking as she neared him, delving into his mind deeper to see what he knew, who he told. Image after image bombarded her mind in a deluge of information she wasn’t prepared to see. Then he began laughing again, his thoughts turning to the virus prototype again. He hid it at Phoenix lab and sent a descendant to retrieve it. Her father was there…
The future memories in her mind flashed in her head. Dead faces of everyone she loved flooded her thoughts. Then she saw one of the earliest, most haunting memories.
“We have to turn him over,” Theo said, pacing the length of the cargo hold of Rivia’s ship.
“No, we keep him or kill him,” Dina sniffled while Lexa nodded wiping her own tears away. “If he won’t help us with an antidote to save the others, then he’s going to die the same way.”
“Everyone is looking for him,” Jazara said with a frown. “They’ll never believe us if we don’t hand him to the authorities. They’ll keep coming after us.”
Dina’s eyes flashed. She wrapped both hands around Gardner’s neck as the power of Caelum’s energy invigorated her body. “You’re not getting away this time.”
“Dina, stop,” Hinta said, rushing to her side. “The others are all down. We take him in, see what he knows.”
“I already know. He’s a coward, full of lies and deception. He’ll never stop. He wants us all dead,” Dina snapped, tightening her hands around his throat. “I’m not handing him over again.”
Gardner smirked. “You don’t have it in you, girl.”
“Again?” Lexa approached.
“He deserves to die!” The glow of her eyes reflected back from the man’s face. She felt Liam’s presence instantly, which only confused her because she knew he was already dead.
“Because I seek to protect myself and the humans from your kind?”
“I was born here,” Dina screeched, lifting her hand and feeling the power build between her fingertips.
“I’m curing Earth from your infestation!”
“I saved this world more times than you even know and you killed everyone I love!”
The man’s eyes widened.
“Dina,” Liam’s voice echoed through the air.
“Lexa, we have to…” Dina said, ignoring the hallucination approaching her from the side.
“That’s not how we operate, gorgeous,” he said softly, coming closer.
Her head swirled. “I don’t understand…”
Liam smiled and lifted his hand. “Let him go, Dina. Lower your shield and all will become clear.”
She shook her head. “He has the formula in his mind, he’ll never stop—”
Gardner laughed.
Dina choked him.
“No!” Liam screamed and wrenched her back while Lexa maintained her telekinetic hold on Gardner.
“The uprising will continue!” he cackled.
Dina’s barrier dropped and her head swirled.
“No, it won’t,” Hinta said, teleporting closer and placing his palm on Gardner’s forehead.
The power spilling off Hinta was something she’d never felt from him before and it knocked the cloudy thoughts from her mind.
Gardner screamed and dropped to his knees.
“You do deserve death,” Hinta barked as his shoulders shook and his balled fist trembled.
“That’s enough,” Liam said, tightening his grip around Dina’s hand.
“It’s not.”
“Hinta…” Lexa tried, but the Vepsatian-hybrid shook his head as he glanced back to the group.
“I’ve read his mind, I know what he’s done, what he plans—”
“He’ll tell the first person who’ll listen,” Dina said meeting Hinta’s eyes.
His gaze narrowed. In a blink, he was behind Gardner. In the next second, Hinta snapped Gardner’s neck.
Lexa gasped and stepped back.
Liam’s hand fell away.
Every memory that didn’t belong to her present mind rushed to the forefront of Dina’s brain paralyzing her. They played in a loop, from the first day when Kim and Valtor contracted the virus, to the following weeks as everyone got sick, showing her each death, which resulted in her spiral into madness and depression. Theo had held it together long enough to pull her back then fell into a similar abyss of guilt and anger. Jazara gave them hope. During a fight with the humans and psychics, Dina touched Jazara accidentally and had a vision about how to fix everything, save everyone. Dina survived, barely, for forty years, until she and Lexa were strong enough. Warn the past, change the future.
The loop repeated, forcing her to watch everyone dying over and over. Seeing Liam in the sphere, hearing him promise to stop Gardner as her energy slipped away. Dina grabbed her head and crashed to her knees.
This was it.
Dina’s sacrifice meant the others would live, she understood. She was going to die.
***
Caelum easily subdued the next wave of Phoenix guards while Sanjeeta, Duncan, and Theo guarded the entrances to the building.
When the final dozen appeared on the roof of the building, dressed like military ninja all in black, with masks covering their faces, he brushed his thoughts against the nearby MIND team to warn them, sensing the distress inside the building between Liam and the others.
The guards reappeared scattered around the field in play, followed by two smoke bomb explosions near Theo and Duncan’s location.
Sanjeeta came around her side of the building firing a stunner gun. Caelum’s pulse rose for a variety of reasons as he lifted his hand, sending two more guards back into the trees, easily knocking them out. Duncan and Theo, fighting physically now, easily battled three more guards on their own.
Caelum turned to the three largest men of the group. One fired a projectile in his direction. Caelum shifted to the right and caught it between his fingers. When it exploded and he inhaled the barainum mixture, he activated his shield and stumbled backward, trying to shake it off.
Guard n
umber two blasted his chest with a powerful telekinetic shove. Caelum crashed to the ground. Number three surprised him with a sharp kick to the shoulder.
Flat on his back, Caelum gasped for breath, only able to keep his shield powered by singularly focusing on it, nothing else he did seemed to respond. The mixture was affecting him too.
A fat fist collided with his jaw, shooting pain through his entire body unlike anything he’d experienced in his long life.
Caelum clasped the man’s wrist. The guard’s thoughts spilled into his mind. He witnessed every torturous, evil, and twisted thing he’d done to humans, psychics, and visitors. The conversations he had with his compatriots and superior boiled Caelum’s blood. Hundreds of people suffered at the hands of Project Phoenix.
As the barainum mixture wore off, Caelum rose to his feet, dragging the man to his knees, enraged by the images bombarding his head. With a simple thought, he activated the implants in the guards’ necks. All but the one he held howled and crumpled to the ground, littering the field.
“Caelum?” Theo called, running over with Duncan at his side; both held a look of concern.
“Where is Gardner?” he asked the final man, trying to focus his thoughts on the task and filter through all the chaos he received in response.
Hey. Sanjeeta’s voice filled his mind. He sensed her trying to strengthen the link, his shield made it impossible.
“He will tell me,” Caelum said, shaking off her energy and empowering his shield. “We must—”Dina’s emotions hijacked his thoughts. He shifted his focus to her. The fractured memories punctured his mind. Forty years of memories scorched through his head. The depth of Dina’s anger and despair broke his heart and shattered his spirit. The reality of the original future the MIND team faced destroyed him.
None of these men deserved to live.
Caelum! Sanjeeta called more forcefully, trying to gain his attention. This pain, however, made it impossible. He released his hold on the guard, but kept him frozen in place with a thought as his hands started to shake. It’s over, you can stop.
I’ve seen their deeds—
“Sandee?” Lexa called from behind his location. “Shit.”