I shut the door behind me and looked around. We were in a long, dark hall, which led to three different doors. It took me a moment to remember the plan Lily had sent us. The door in front of us led to the living room and the kitchen, while the door to our left would take us to the basement. The door to the right led to the rooms, and perhaps Anton’s office.
“Where do we go first?” I said, my voice trembling. The guards were yelling outside, and I wanted to get out of the hall before they decided to come inside.
“Upstairs,” Adrian said, letting go of my hand. I nearly tripped as we ran upstairs, but we made it to the hall with the rooms. The room at the end of the hall was supposed to be Anton’s office, or so Lily had concluded based on some satellite images she had.
As we went closer, my breath left my lungs and my whole body trembled. I reached for Adrian’s hand and the elements disappeared. Gasping for breath, I clung to Adrian. “What happened?” I glanced at my watch. “That was only three minutes, tops.”
“I don’t know.” He frowned. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah.” I was slightly nauseated, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. “Go ahead.” I let go of his hand and sighed in relief when the elements didn’t rush back at me.
There was another keypad in front of the door, but the light on it was green, which meant Lily had unlocked it already. Adrian turned the knob and went inside. Glancing behind me, I tiptoed inside. We had to be careful not to make any noise or the guards might hear us. Hopefully, Lily’s men were keeping them busy.
“Do you see anything?” I asked. The office was completely in the dark, so I was blinded for a moment when Adrian found the light switch. The brown desk in the middle of the room was completely clean. There wasn’t even a computer in sight.
“No. Nothing.” He picked up a couple of books from the shelf in the corner and lifted a painting, but the safe wasn’t hidden there. I walked across the dark red carpet, trying to find a weak spot. Maybe the safe was built into the floor.
“What if this room is only for meetings?” Adrian knelt near the desk and tapped on the wood, seeking a hidden compartment. “Doesn’t everything look a bit too pristine and fake?”
“You think he uses this room to impress his associates?” I felt the wall for any switches or buttons, but I couldn’t find anything. What if Adrian was right? The office was nice enough, but the shelf and the desk didn’t look like they were used daily. They were clean, but that didn’t mean anything.
“Yeah.” Adrian pressed his lips together.
“Do we go to his room?” If he didn’t keep his private files in the office, then maybe he was hiding them in his room. It would make sense. The files would be close enough for him to reach at any time.
“Yeah, although I’m not sure he’d keep the files there. Doesn’t he share the room with his wife?” He headed for the door.
The world tilted around me. “Adrian!”
He quickly grabbed my hand and the world stopped spinning.
“This is not good,” he said. “Is our control getting worse or are we just under too much pressure to do it right?”
“I don’t know.” I shook my head. We didn’t have time to think about the disease. Not now. “I think we counted enough rooms for each member of the family. The wife must be sleeping in her own room. I mean, he’s a carrier and she’s not. She might wear the element-blocking jewelry and spend some time with him, but sleeping near him would be dangerous. Just imagine if she dropped the jewelry. He could kill her.”
“Okay. Let’s go to his room, then. Which one is it?” Adrian’s fingers slipped out of mine and he switched off the lights.
“First door to the left.”
We rushed outside and slipped into Anton’s room. It had to be the biggest room in the whole house because even the huge double bed looked small. The windows were wide open, letting fresh air and light inside. We could hear the police sirens outside. Lily’s explosion must have brought the attention of the cops and not just of the guards. I hoped that whoever Lily had sent to set up the bomb couldn’t be tracked back to her, but she must have thought of that.
Adrian was going through the drawers as I checked out the nightstand and the shelf. Nothing in the room resembled a safe or looked out of the ordinary. “I don’t think it’s here,” I said in a huff, pushing my hair out of my face. “We’ve searched everything in here, but I think we’ve got the wrong place.”
“What about Ethan’s old room?” Adrian scratched his head. “Maybe he changed the location of the files after Ethan died.”
“I don’t think so.” I was starting to lose hope. What if the files weren’t here at all? All of this might be for nothing. “But we can check.”
Adrian took a quick look at the watch on my wrist. “We don’t have time.”
“Lily? Can you hear me?” I pressed the com-link again and again, but there was no sound. She hadn’t said anything ever since we got in the house, but I assumed she didn’t want to distract us. I looked at Adrian. “Can you talk to her?”
“No.” He took out the com-link and put it back in his ear. “Still nothing. I guess we’re on our own.”
I didn’t dare to think what could have happened to Lily’s connection. She was probably afraid the cops or the guards would discover her intrusion or overhear us, so she didn’t want to answer. “What about the ground floor? Or the basement?”
“I guess we’ll have to check. It would be the best if we could split up, but…”
My head pounded as elements slammed into me.
Adrian swore and pulled me to him. “This keeps happening. You can’t go anywhere on your own.”
“I know.” I’d never thought I could hate the disease more than I already did, but yep, I could. We’d been fine for the last couple of days, and now we couldn’t even hold it for three minutes? Damn everything!
“Let’s go.” Adrian tentatively released me. I was fine enough to walk, so we headed for the door. I turned the knob, pulling the door open, and found myself face to face with a gun.
Chapter 32
“Who are you?” An elderly woman pointed the gun in my face, her hand steady. “What are you doing here?”
I froze, unsure what to do. If I reached for my gun or my knife, she’d shoot me in the face. I couldn’t see Adrian because he was behind me, but I doubted he could do anything either.
“Put your hands up where I can see them,” the woman said. Her whitish blond hair was tied in a bun, her blue eyes narrowed. I put my hands up, eyeing her carefully, but I couldn’t figure out how to disarm her. Even if I managed to get hold of the gun, she might end up shooting Adrian or me. The woman might be old, but she held her shoulders straight, her head up. She wasn’t some frail old lady. “How did you get in here?”
I didn’t know whether the woman had alerted the guards, but they could be coming at any moment. Did she have an element? Because my control could slip at any second and then I’d be unable to stop myself. “We don’t mean you any harm.”
The woman’s laugh echoed through the hall. “I’m the one with the gun, little girl. Of course you don’t pose a threat to me. I just want to know what two carriers are doing in Anton’s home.”
My eyes widened. She’d been in the house the whole time, but no wonder we couldn’t have felt her. She was a carrier. Maybe she hadn’t had time to alert the guards. “Oh, we just… We came to ask if we could come to Sebastian’s funeral, but I guess we were late.” I gave her a sheepish smile and prayed she’d believe me.
“I know all of Sebastian’s friends and you’re not one of them,” she said, her hand tightening on the trigger. Who the fuck was she? How could she know anything about Sebastian’s friends?
“Oh, we weren’t his friends,” Adrian said, taking a step forward.
“Don’t move!” the woman yelled, and Adrian had no other choice but to do what she asked. “Not friends, you say? Enemies, then?”
“He tried to kill us,” I said. “In
the lab.”
The woman’s grip on the gun faltered, but she caught herself and steadied her hand. “What do you know about the lab?”
I tried to decide what to tell her. Would she just shoot me if I told her Adrian and I had been in the lab? If she was working for or was close to Anton Marlau, then she’d want to protect his secret. I just didn’t understand why she wasn’t at the funeral if she was so close to Sebastian. “Maybe something. Maybe nothing. Who are you, anyway?”
“Isidora,” she said, a smile curving her lips. “Sebastian’s grandmother.”
“Why aren’t you at the funeral?” I couldn’t help but ask, even though I didn’t expect her to answer. Why would she? She was the one with the gun.
“Because the boy they are burying is not my grandson,” she said bitterly.
“What?” If she thought Sebastian had somehow survived the explosion, then she was in denial. I’d killed her grandson with my bare hands. Who would have thought Sebastian’s grandmother was a carrier too? I didn’t know enough about his family tree to be able to tell whether she belonged to the Marlau family or her son or daughter married a Marlau.
“Anton turned my grandson into someone else,” she said. “Just like he did with his eldest son.”
I gaped at her. What was she talking about? Maybe she’d stayed behind because she was insane. “Turned him into who?”
Adrian stumbled next to me, his forehead beaded with sweat. Isidora immediately aimed her gun at him.
“No, please!” I yelled. Adrian must have tried to use his element while still protecting me, but failed. We’d never even tried that because he’d been using his element only when he was holding my hand, not while his cloud of magic was all over me.
“What’s wrong with him?” Suspicion filled her eyes. “Is he one of Anton’s experiments?”
Maybe Isidora wasn’t crazy after all. She knew something about Anton’s experiments.
“Adrian, don’t,” I said before he could try to reach for me. I had no doubt she’d shoot us both if we tried to touch. Hell, using his element even while he was touching me seemed like a bad idea.
His gray-blue eyes were filled with pain when they met mine. “I can’t keep it up.”
“Isidora, please, you have to let us touch. My boyfriend… is not well,” I said, unwilling to explain what was really going on. “His disease is getting worse.”
A vein pulsed in her neck as she considered giving in to my request. “You can touch, but only one hand. And keep your hands up.”
I intertwined my fingers with Adrian’s and gave him a concerned look. “Better?”
He nodded, but he didn’t use his element, which meant things weren’t so great. Had I drained him too much?
“So where were we?” Isidora tilted her head. “Oh, right. At the part where you tell me why I shouldn’t kill you both.”
Actually, we hadn’t been at that part. Damn it.
“You don’t like what Anton does, do you?” Adrian said, his hand trembling in mine, his eyes focused on Isidora.
She scrunched her nose. “Of course not. He’s a monster.”
Adrian and I looked at each other. That was an interesting piece of information. We just had to use it right. “Then we have something in common,” I said.
“If you came here to kill him, you’re wasting your time. He’s always well-protected,” she said. “Believe me. I’ve seen people try and fail.”
There was a chance she was trying to fool us so she could find out what we intended to do, but maybe she was telling the truth. “If you want Anton to pay for what he did to your grandson, you have to let us go.”
“And what would you do if I let you go?” She snorted. “Laugh about how you tricked a poor old lady?”
I shook my head. “That’s not what we’d do. Trust me. We have many reasons to hate Anton. We want him exposed for what he is, but we need evidence. Can you tell us where to find it?”
Her gaze traveled from me to Adrian and back to me. “Don’t you think that if I had the evidence, I would have already gone to the police?”
“Not necessarily,” Adrian said. “You don’t want to be exposed as a carrier and you might be afraid Anton will retaliate against you or the people you care about.”
“Well.” She waved with the gun and my pulse sped up. “I know where the evidence is, but Anton keeps it under lock. He’s the only one who has the key. Never lets it out of his sight.”
“We can deal with that,” I said. “I promise. All you have to do is tell us where the evidence is.”
“There’s a secret passage in the basement. It will lead you to the room where Anton keeps his important things.” She lowered the gun and stepped aside. “If you manage to get inside, take whatever you can. And if you go to the police, don’t you dare ever mention me or I will hunt you down.”
“Thank you,” I said. “You won’t regret this.”
“I better not,” she said, and Adrian and I ran down the hall. My heart was still thudding loudly in my chest. I could barely see where I was going from the excitement because we had gotten away from Isidora. But we weren’t done yet. We had to find the evidence before the guards found us.
“What happened upstairs?” I asked as we descended into the basement. I didn’t dare to let go of Adrian’s hand. Not after what I’d seen.
“I’m not sure. I tried to use my element while I was connected to you, but I couldn’t do it.”
“But you can still feel your element, right?” I didn’t know what I’d do if Adrian had lost his element because of me.
“Yes, I’m just… I don’t know,” he said, frustrated.
“Okay, we’ll deal with that when we get out of here.” I hopped over the last flight of stairs and opened the door. We entered a dark room, which was completely empty. I turned around, staring at the dark blue walls. The only light was coming from a row of small windows on one of the walls.
“She mentioned a secret passage. How are we supposed to find it?” I said, feeling the nearest wall for the hidden door.
“I have no idea. Maybe we should have asked.” Adrian pressed his free hand against the wall.
“Yeah, and risk getting shot.” Isidora could have changed her mind at any moment. Actually, she could be calling the guards at this very moment, although she didn’t look like a woman who’d scream for help if she could do everything by herself.
“There must be a way to open the door. It can’t go farther into the ground, so it has to be somewhere here.” He looked around and pointed at the wall with the windows. “The door can’t be there, which leaves us three walls to check.”
“Right.” I knocked on the wall, but I didn’t hear anything that might indicate there was something behind it or that the wall could move. “And we still have to blow up whatever door we find after this.”
“It’s not here,” Adrian said, pushing at the wall with his shoulder.
“Then let’s try the other wall.”
As we made our way across the room, a soft click echoed through the room. Adrian pulled me to a stop. We retraced our steps and heard the click again.
“There’s something right under us,” he said.
“But nothing is happening. I don’t see a door.” I let out a frustrated breath. “Maybe we triggered an alarm. Let’s hope Lily turned it off.”
“Can you put your hand on my shoulder?”
“Sure.”
Adrian crouched and pushed at the laminate. When that didn’t work, he punched at it. The laminate popped out and I heard myself gasp. A smile spread on Adrian’s lips. A button was hidden in the opening and Adrian pressed it. The wall in front of us started to move and shake until it parted enough to form a passage.
We squeezed through the passage and followed the dark hall that led to a blue door. Two lights were above the door, illuminating the keypad next to it. But the tiny light on the keypad was flashing green, just like any other keypad we’d seen in the house.
I opened the d
oor and realized it led to yet another door. This one appeared to have a normal lock. Isidora must have been talking about it when she mentioned that Anton carried the key with him everywhere, but luckily for us, we didn’t need a key. I found the mini bombs in my pocket and attached them around the lock.
After I pressed the right buttons to activate the bombs, Adrian and I went back to the first door and waited for the explosion. Lily had been right when she said the bombs were quiet. The door was ajar, the part around the lock gone. We hurried into the tiny room with no windows. The bluish lights were already turned on, so we went to the first cabinet.
“There are many papers in here,” I said, going through the first drawer.
“Find the ones we need and we’ll put them in this.” Adrian took the empty bag he’d found in the other drawer. I stuffed into the bag any paper and file that seemed business-related. We didn’t have time to look through each one of them carefully, but if they were in this room, then it meant they were important to Anton.
“He has files with Ethan’s and Sebastian’s name.” Adrian’s eyebrows shot upward.
“Take them. We need that. I want to know more about those experiments Sebastian and Isidora mentioned.” I took a couple of more files, careful not to move too far away because we were standing close enough that our shoulders were touching. We needed both of our hands to go through the files, but our movements were still too limited.
“We should start planning how to get out of here. Lily is not answering. We don’t know where the guards are and I don’t even know if my element will work,” Adrian said, zipping the bag.
“Wait, you think you won’t be able to use your element at all? I thought that you couldn’t use it because you’d been shielding me for too long.” I supposed we could always come out shooting at anything that moved, but we’d get shot too, so that wasn’t such a good idea.
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