The Mind Keepers (The Mind Readers)

by Lori Brighton

  No one responded. Aunt Lyndsey watched as if finding mild amusement in our silly, human emotions, and it was then that I realized how stupid I’d been.

  Cameron released a wry laugh. “I thought we were beyond this. I thought you trusted me.”

  Okay, yeah, I felt sort of guilty when she said it that way. “You can’t deny you’re interested in him,” I argued. “More than most people would be.”

  “No, I wasn’t. Not until I had the dream that he was going to be shipped out. In fact, I feel damn guilty for not thinking about him at all when he saved me more than once.”

  So, she was saying she owed him, nothing more? Truth was she had seemed overly happy these last few months. Yeah, she’d mourned our mother’s death, but she practically glowed around Lewis. They were obviously in love. God, I was being an idiot and ruining the only decent relationship I had. Or maybe my emotions were whack since I’d inherited my powers. Whatever it was, I didn’t like it.

  “And yeah,” she snapped. “You know what? I do like him because he’s fun, and he’s a good guy and he doesn’t deserve to be tortured. He doesn’t deserve to be forgotten like we did, while only God knew what happened to him.”

  But I hadn’t forgotten him. No, I’d thought about him every damn day. Every damn night. Even my dreams were muddled memories of him. He had burrowed inside of me and wouldn’t let go.

  “Ladies, can we save this cat fight for another, more convenient time?” Aunt Lyndsey asked.

  “And you,” Cameron said, ignoring our aunt and turning her anger toward Lewis. “How can you doubt me? I left this place, risked my life to escape this compound, left Maddox and the man I thought was my father so that I could find you.”

  Score one for Cameron. Truth was, I believed her. It might have taken me awhile, but I did. I’d been a complete ass. I couldn’t explain it. My powers? No, more like unresolved issues. Hell, maybe Maddox was right after all, we did need closure. The problem was, now that I was in the process of obtaining that closure, I wasn’t sure if I wanted it.

  Lewis sighed. “Cameron—”

  “And you didn’t even remember me! But still I stayed with you!”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He reached for her, but she ignored him, brushing past all of us and heading farther into the compound. “Just don’t.”

  It was their first real fight, and I’d started it. “Sorry,” I muttered, but Lewis merely shook his head, obviously not in the mood for my apologies.

  I sighed, pushing aside my guilt. I’d have time later to make peace. Instead, I focused on my surroundings. Maddox was gone, I had to accept the facts. But there had to be something here to indicate his whereabouts. The place was creepily silent, way too quiet. Something didn’t make sense. It was abandoned, empty, yet there was something off.

  “There are three buildings,” Cameron stated, back to business.

  I shoved the backpack into Lewis’ hands and started after her, determined to uncover some fraction of the truth.

  “Offices.” She pointed toward the first building. “Then interrogation rooms, then the prison ward. Spread out or stay together?”

  “Together,” Aunt Lyndsey said. “I’m still not quite sure we’re alone.”

  “Wouldn’t they have attacked by now?” I asked as we moved across the large, overgrown lawn.

  She shrugged but still looked uneasy. “Probably.”

  “Did you have any clue he wasn’t here?” Cameron asked me as I fell into step beside her. I didn’t miss the suspicion in her voice. I might trust Cameron, but she didn’t trust me, and it was my own fault.

  “If I had, don’t you think I would have mentioned it?” Damn, why hadn’t I asked him when I’d traveled? “We didn’t meet here when I mind traveled, we met at the college locker room where…”

  I didn’t dare go on.

  Where we’d first kissed.

  But they didn’t notice my lapse because the sudden sound of a soft cough coming from building three had us pausing in surprise. “What the hell was that?”

  Cameron shook her head. Aunt Lyndsey nodded toward Lewis, who moved stealthily toward the building. At the door, he paused, his back to the cement.

  Surprise attack it was then. I should’ve freaking known we weren’t alone. I’d sensed it, hadn’t I? Why hadn’t I trusted my instincts?

  Aunt Lyndsey nodded toward Cameron. She moved forward, latched onto the doorknob and pulled. None of us expected it to open, but it easily glided free. The hinges screeched, rusty with disuse. The cough sounded again, louder this time.

  An animal?

  Cameron shook her head.

  Careful. My aunt’s voice whispered through my mind. Her mental message surprised me, and reminded me of the fact that Mom and I used to always speak telepathically. But I didn’t have time to dwell on the past. Someone coughed again, a dry, hacking sound. Definitely human.

  “That can’t be good,” I muttered.

  Cameron stiffened. “Olivia?”

  I frowned, trying to remember where I’d heard that name. I’d met her once, a long time ago. Another mind reader. Cameron obviously knew her a little better. “How do you know?”

  “I recognize her energy.”

  “Go,” Aunt Lyndsey said. “We’ve got your back.”

  Cameron moved slowly into the foyer, her body tense, ready for attack. She had a right to be suspicious. The gate that separated the guards from the cells was open, rusted and broken. No one stood guard.

  “Here. She’s in here!” Cameron raced into the first cell. I gave them only a cursory glance but didn’t watch their reunion. My instincts were suddenly kicking me in the ass. The hall was narrow, dark, abandoned. I looked left but could see only about twenty feet or so before it faded into darkness. To the right the door stood open, allowing light into the building. Why would Olivia be left behind? Lewis followed Cameron into the cell while Aunt Lyndsey and I remained in the hall.

  “Something’s wrong,” I whispered.

  Lyndsey nodded, her gaze flicking left and right.

  So, I wasn’t the only one feeling it. I glanced over my shoulder. Cameron knelt next to a dark form huddled in the corner. I knew Olivia was one of us, and that she was on the list of those unaccounted for. I didn’t know much else about the girl other than she seemed to be in her teens.

  “Is anything broken?” Cameron asked. “Can you stand?”

  Olivia shook her head, her raspy gasps speaking of pain and illness.

  Cameron and Lewis slid their arms around the girl’s waist and helped her to her feet. “What happened?”

  It was only as they shuffled out of the corner and into the weak light coming from the open door that I got a look at her face. Dark bruises marred her cheeks and forehead, while her lips were crusted with blood. My stomach clenched, anger heated and pulsing. She was seventeen, maybe eighteen. But then again I shouldn’t have been surprised; after all, they’d tortured kids younger than her.

  “Where is everyone?” I asked.

  “You…need…” she grimaced, her eyes filling with tears. “To leave.”

  No kidding. Hell, she was in bad shape and was going to slow us down, but what choice did we have? We had to get her to a hospital. “Come on.”

  “No,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Leave…now!”

  I had started toward the door, but her comment caught me off guard—and suddenly I knew. My body went cold, the world pausing in a long, suspenseful moment.

  Set up, I sent the mental message to Cameron just as five dark forms rushed through the open door. The shiver of awareness coming from behind me sent me off balance. I spun around. Not five. Crap, at least ten men dressed in fatigues with ski masks covering their faces arrived from both directions.

  “On the ground!” one of them cried out.

  Divide and conquer, Aunt Lyndsey sent the mental message.

  Hell, could we get out of this alive? Then again, we’d won at the farmhouse in Pennsylvania, and now we had L
yndsey to add to our team. I focused, refusing to give into my fears, attempting to find that trained soldier I’d been before Mom died.

  “Drop to the ground!” the man barked again, pointing a rifle at us. As if on cue, the others in the group followed suit and lifted their guns, surrounding us. We were peppered with glowing red dots.

  “Shit,” Lewis muttered.

  “We can take ‘em,” I said. “We’ve dealt with worse.”

  Well then, Aunt Lyndsey said mentally. Let’s see what we can do. Cameron, take the left? I’ll take the right. Lewis, get whoever manages to evade our powers.

  I didn’t miss the fact that she’d left me out, and she’d obviously done it on purpose. When had I become the helpless bimbo? Damn it all, I’d always only relied upon myself.

  “Men, prepare!” The wall of agents lifted their guns so their scopes were at eye level.

  “Oh my God,” Cameron whispered. “They don’t want to capture us, they want to kill us.”

  “Markers ready!” the man yelled.

  “If we’ve got a plan, we better act now,” Lewis warned.

  Without pause, Aunt Lyndsey swiped her hand through the air, sending her energy toward the group. The three closest men stumbled back, their rifles flying across the room. Cameron did the same to the group behind us. Guns skittered across the cement, hitting the walls. Instinct told me to duck.

  “Crap!” I dove to the floor.

  One of the guns went off just as I fell, the bullet hitting the wall behind me, sparking against the cement. Lewis tackled two men while I huddled on the floor like an idiot. They wouldn’t dare shoot now that we were mingled together with their own soldiers, at least I hoped they wouldn’t. Then again S.P.I. probably didn’t care about sacrificing a few for the greater good.

  I jumped to my feet, eager for a fight, ready to expend the energy coursing through me, burning in my veins. Two guards sensed me and turned my way.

  “Bring it on.” I concentrated, throwing my power at them. I could feel the energy leave my body, felt it expand in my chest and burn down my limbs before exploding into the world. It hit them hard, making them waver on their feet like toy spinning tops, swiveling off balance before falling to the ground.

  Two down, but five more emerged from the shadows headed straight toward us. Like ants coming out of a damaged hill, they were erupting from the bowels of the prison. The urge to kill them all overwhelmed me, but I managed to retain a tiny bit of sanity. If I threw my full power out, I had a feeling the soldiers wouldn’t be the only ones injured. The room before me wavered, my contained powers too much. I needed help.

  “Cameron!”

  She spun around to face me only to see the men headed toward us. We threw our energy at the same time. The entire room quivered, the very air shimmering as somehow our energy connected. The wave hit the men, toppling them over like bowling pins, the sick sound of bodies hitting cement thumping down the hall.

  I met Cameron’s startled gaze. We’d done that together, destroyed a group of eight within moments. Somehow our powers had combined, something that had never happened to me before.

  “Nora! Cameron!” Aunt Lyndsey called out, but her voice was muffled. “He’s not here. Let’s go!”

  The world came into brilliant focus. It was as if everything was moving in slow, completely detailed motion. Men lay upon the floor around us. Some moaned, writhing in pain, others were still and unconscious, possibly dead. We had destroyed so many. But I knew I could take them all if I released my full potential. The realization that my powers flowed from the universe, and that they were unlimited now struck me hard.

  “Go!” My aunt grabbed my arm, dragging me down the hall and out of my stupor. Lewis had already wrapped his arm around Olivia’s waist, and Cameron was following them out of the building.

  But something made me look back.

  “Come on.” Aunt Lyndsey shoved me toward them just as I noticed the man reaching for his rifle.

  “No!” I lifted my hand to throw my energy, but I was too late.

  The gun went off. Aunt Lyndsey stumbled into me, her weight sending me off balance. I fell against the bars of a cell. Instinct had me reacting. I threw my energy without thinking. The man holding the gun flew backward, hitting the wall and slumping unconscious to the floor.

  “Hurry.” I spun back around, preparing to flee with my aunt and that’s when I spotted the dark stain spreading across the stomach of her shirt. She stood still, silent, in shock. “Lyndsey?”

  Her face was pale, as if all the blood had drained to that wound and was leaking from her body. “Go, just go!”

  The panic weaving its way through my gut would not take root. I swallowed hard, refusing to give in. “Not without you.” I slid my arm around her waist, cringing over the feel of her damp blood, and together we stumbled toward the door. “Cameron! Lewis! Help!”

  Lewis pressed Olivia into Cameron’s capable hands then raced to our side. “How bad?”

  “I’m fine,” Lyndsey hissed through clenched teeth, but we knew that was a lie. “You have to go. Leave me behind, or we’ll all be caught.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Lewis said.

  The sudden sound of shouting drew our attention back to the compound. Those who had survived were regaining consciousness. Lewis shoved his backpack into my hands, and that’s when I noticed the grenade. “Go!”

  Cameron helped Olivia while I guided Lyndsey toward the fence. Lewis pulled the pin and chucked the grenade behind us. Without pause, he scooped Lyndsey up into his arms. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  The explosion had us stumbling forward, but we didn’t dare look back. Hell, we might have discovered Olivia, but we hadn’t found Maddox, and Aunt Lyndsey was slowly bleeding to death.

  Score one point for us.

  Two for S.P.I.

  Chapter 7

  “Here,” Cameron said. “Pull in here.”

  Lewis eased the car into the parking lot of a motel. We’d been driving north for an hour now, an hour in which Aunt Lyndsey had been slowly bleeding to death in the back seat as Cameron sat helplessly at her side. My aunt had hardly made a sound, barely moved, just lay there growing paler, the blood and life fading from her body with each mile we traveled.

  Unable to stop myself from looking, from caring, I glanced back. Her eyes were closed, and her breathing had slowed to shallow pants that spoke of pain. Yet she looked calm, so damn calm in the face of death. Cameron, on the other hand, sat wide-eyed and panicked beside her, pressing a red-soaked T-shirt to her wound. I kept telling myself she wouldn’t die, but she’d lost so much blood. So much.

  Still, it wasn’t the blood that frightened me. No, I could feel her energy waning. I wondered if Cameron could as well and that was why she looked so terrified. Or maybe her terror stemmed from the fact that if Aunt Lyndsey died, I would carry the source completely. The idea sure as heck scared me. I wasn’t ready, not yet, maybe not ever.

  My gaze shifted to Olivia as Lewis found a parking spot toward the back of the motel, far away from any prying eyes that might be watching from the office. Olivia hadn’t said a word; she’d merely pressed up into the corner, huddled as far away from Aunt Lyndsey and Cameron as she could get. As if distance would keep the death and pain from coming after her next.

  Good God, we were pathetic. I turned back around and slumped into the seat. The urge to save Maddox warred with the need to save Aunt Lyndsey. My body buzzed with the need to do something, anything. We were a wreck, how would we check into a motel without being noticed? Lewis put the car in park. The place was a freaking dump. If the bullet wound didn’t get her, Aunt Lyndsey would end up dying from a staph infection. And Maddox...hell, Maddox might not even be in the country anymore. Aunt Lyndsey needed a hospital, and we needed to find Maddox.

  “We have to keep going,” I demanded. “Between the three of us, we can drive all night.”

  “No, we need to recoup,” Cameron said. “Figure out what to do.” Aunt Lynd
sey is in no shape to keep traveling. I’m worried about her, Cameron’s voice whispered through my mind.

  She needs a hospital—

  You know we can’t take her to a hospital, Cameron interrupted.

  She was right. I had to reluctantly accept that for now—and maybe forever—Maddox was lost to me. Aunt Lyndsey came first. “Okay, stop then.”

  Lewis turned off the car. “You’re sure?”

  As if he would argue with Cameron. If she wanted him to camp out here for the next month eating meals from a vending machine, he would. Still, I nodded just to make him feel better. I started to recommend calling on Sierra or Father Myron, when I felt Cameron’s frantic energy from the back seat.

  “Lewis, Nora,” she called out sharply. “We need to do something and fast.”

  I jumped out of the car and tore open the back door. “Out!”

  Olivia stumbled from her seat, and I dove inside, taking her place. Lyndsey’s eyes had closed, her face so pale she was almost transparent, while her lips…her lips had turned blue. She was dying. I slapped the sides of her cold face. “Lyndsey? Aunt Lyndsey?”

  “Her energy is fading,” Cameron rushed out. “I can feel it. We’re losing her. What should we do?”

  Lewis shoved open his door and came around to Cameron’s side. “Heal her,” he said, pulling open her door. “Use your energy, your powers, to heal her.”

  Cameron’s startled gaze went to me, as if expecting my help. I’d heard rumors before of people who could use their energy to heal, but I’d never done it. “How?”

  “There was a man at the compound when I worked for S.P.I.,” Cameron said. “He was able to reattach his own finger when it was shot off.”

  I looked down at Lyndsey. I didn’t need to be a doctor to know she wouldn’t last more than a few minutes. “We can’t make her heal herself, she’s almost dead!”

  Lewis knelt by the side of the car, his gaze direct and determined. “You two can heal her.”

  I shook my head, slightly horrified. They expected too much. Hell, just a few hours ago they’d wanted to leave me behind because my new powers were a liability. “I can’t.”