Succubus Ascendant: An Urban Fantasy (The Telepathic Clans Saga Book 4)

by BR Kingsolver

  Half-blind, she pushed herself onto the rooftop. Hurriedly looking around, she found the bodies of the guards. All were dead, sprawled where the lightning had blasted them.

  Rhiannon cautiously opened the door to descend into the building. Everything inside was pitch black. She felt for minds ahead of her and found a couple of hundred people in the building.

  *Brian,* she sent, *are all of your people on the fifth floor?*

  *I don’t know. Probably. And everything is dark. I think Andrew killed the electricity at the main switch. Rhi, I’m not going to make it out of here. They’re massed for another attack and there are only twenty of us left. I need to tell you something. I love you. I’ve always loved you. I kept pushing you away because I didn’t think Father would approve. Same stupid reason I never killed Andrew. Rhi, the next time you fall in love, don’t let him be a damn fool.*

  *Brian, I’m here. In the building. Just hold on a few more minutes.*

  *Goddess, no! Get out of here!*

  *Just hold on. I’ll be there.*

  Checking her air shield, she plunged down the stairs, broadcasting Neural Disruption ahead of her. At the bottom of the first flight of stairs, she tripped over something and flew into the opposite wall. Sitting up, she created a tiny fireball. A man’s body lay at the bottom of the stairs.

  Maintaining her light, she worked her way down to the fifth floor. The halls were full of the bodies of both sexes, and the walls showed scorch marks and bullet holes. Twice she touched living minds ahead of her and burned them out. Gunshots rang out ahead of her. The shooting went on for some time and then there was silence again.

  *Brian?*

  There was no answer. Reaching the area of Brian’s office, she found more bodies—a lot more bodies, wearing both normal office clothing and black commando gear. She had to step over them, and sometimes on them, to make her way through.

  Up ahead she could see light. From the way it moved, she assumed Andrew’s men had electric torches, or flashlights as Rebecca called them. Entering the reception area of Brian’s office, she found piles of bodies and a dozen men passing around a bottle of whiskey. Without a second thought, she killed them all.

  Peeking around the edge of the doorway into Brian’s office, she saw Andrew sitting in Brian’s chair with another bottle of whiskey. Six men were with him and they were all laughing. Among the bodies, Brian lay on the floor, staring at her. His upper body was drenched in blood and there was a single bullet hole in his forehead.

  ~~~

  Chapter 23

  I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past. - Thomas Jefferson

  When Brenna teleported out of the command center, she reappeared in her room. Quickly stripping out of her clothes, she put on the bulletproof corset and the Protector clothes she had worn when she confronted Hugh.

  *Rebecca, I need a landing spot.*

  *No, you’re not coming to Paris.*

  *Rhiannon is in Paris and she needs backup.*

  *She asked you for backup?* Rebecca’s mental voice dripped with skepticism.

  *Of course not. Neither would you. That doesn’t mean she doesn’t need it.*

  *I’ll do it.*

  *Neither of you is a teleport. I don’t plan on assaulting Andrew’s forces, just pulling her out of there.*

  Rebecca was silent for so long that Brenna checked if the link still was active.

  *Rebecca?*

  An image of an empty stretch of floor appeared in Brenna’s mind, and she immediately teleported to it.

  “I’m going with you,” Rebecca said.

  Brenna glanced at Carlos. He stood with his eyes closed, shaking his head, an agonized expression on his face.

  “I’m not sure where, or if, I’m going,” Brenna said. “Rhiannon is blocking me.”

  “Then how do you know she’s in Paris?” Rebecca asked. “And how did she supposedly get here?”

  “Fergus is blocking me, too.”

  Teleportation is one of the extremely rare Gifts. Brenna and both of her grandfathers had it, but only a few other teleports were known to the Irish Clans.

  “Do you have any contacts with the Protectors on the scene?” Brenna asked. She gestured at the TV across the room. “I’d like to get a better idea as to what’s going on there.”

  “I’ve been getting updates from Edwin,” Rebecca said, referring to one of her friends among the O’Byrne Protectors. “I have him on speed dial.” She held up her phone.

  “Can you use my Distance Communication Gift to contact him?”

  “Sure,” Rebecca said, taking the invitation to slide into Brenna’s mind and trigger that Gift. She reached out to Edwin.

  *Edwin, this is Brenna,* Brenna sent. *The only visuals we have are from the damn TV cameras. Can you please let me see through your eyes and scan the scene?*

  *Certainly, Brenna,* Edwin replied. He let her into his mind and obligingly turned his head side-to-side so she could see the crowd beyond the gendarmes’ perimeter, the helicopters overhead, and the building across the boulevard.

  *Thank you,* Brenna sent.

  *RB is here,* Edwin told her. *I saw her in the ally next to the building. Davin followed her.*

  Rebecca was a bit disoriented with two people in her head. In addition, she was seeing through Edwin’s eyes at the O’Byrne building, as well as with her own eyes in the hotel room. As a result, her reactions were slower than usual. When Brenna’s hair turned the exact shade of burnished copper as Rhiannon’s, Rebecca realized she’d been scammed.

  “Brenna! Nooo!”

  Brenna disappeared.

  Through Edwin’s eyes, Rebecca saw a redheaded woman appear in front of the O’Byrne building. A bright flash of lightning split the night and the lights trained on the building dimmed.

  “Rebecca,” Carlos said, grabbing her by the arm and spinning her around, “the television.”

  For a brief moment, the TV showed a redheaded woman floating above the building and another, almost a twin, standing in front of it. The scene on the TV screen dimmed. The woman on the ground waved to the camera, then turned and raced toward the entrance. But what the voice on the television was saying riveted Rebecca’s interest.

  “We don’t know where the helicopters are going, but it appears as though a woman is floating above the building,” the reporter on the scene said. The camera panned up and zoomed in on Rhiannon floating in the air.

  Through Edwin’s eyes, a bolt of lightning lit the whole scene brighter than day. On the TV, with the camera pointing straight at the lightning, it was so bright that nothing but white registered. Then a second lightning bolt struck, hitting the roof. All the lights in the building went out.

  Both through Edwin’s eyes and the TV camera, the two women disappeared.

  ~~~

  Brenna landed a bit roughly, stumbling over the rubble from the explosions. Righting herself, she looked back at where Edwin was standing and waved. She drew electricity from the surrounding area into her, seeing the lights trained on her dim. Then she sprinted for the entrance to the building.

  A crash of thunder caused her involuntarily to look up. Rhiannon was silhouetted against the sky. A bolt of lightning leapt from her hand toward the building, and another deafening explosion of thunder echoed amongst the buildings. All the lights in the O’Byrne building went out.

  Locking down her mental shields to the point she was practically invisible and covering herself with an air shield, she cautiously peered inside. It was totally dark. Sending her mind ahead, she felt her way toward a stairwell and started climbing.

  She could feel other minds throughout the building, but the largest concentration was on one of the upper floors. Casting her mind ahead, she could tell the lights going out had caused a lot of confusion.

  “Halt! Who are you?” a tall man said, shining his flashlight in Brenna’s face.

  “Your worst nightmare, asshole,” Brenna responded, smashing his shields and those of the three men w
ith him, and capturing their minds. None of them was very bright, but they had the layout of the building memorized and knew where the current fighting was. She drained their life energy, stopped their hearts, and then picked her way past their bodies.

  She encountered more men in the halls as she worked her way through the building and dealt with them the same way. Reaching the fourth floor, she felt the last of the O’Byrne defenders die. Leaning back against the wall, she took several deep breaths. The pain she felt made her want to just sit down and cry.

  Shaking off her emotions, she pushed on, reaching the executive suites. Only one mind remained in front of her, so she lit a flame on her palm and held it ahead of her.

  Rhiannon sat on the floor of Brian’s office, cradling him in her lap and sobbing as if her heart would never mend. They were both drenched in blood, but his torn body gave Brenna hope that all the blood was his. His blank stare told her he was dead. Looking around, she saw a couple of dozen bodies. Andrew sat in the chair behind the desk with a single hole in the middle of his forehead.

  Squatting next to Rhiannon, Brenna reached out with her Healing Gift and touched her cousin’s face, reading her body. Rhiannon wasn’t physically injured, but the emotional pain that flooded through the link sat Brenna back on her heels. Sudden tears sprang to her eyes and ran down her cheeks.

  As gently as she could, Brenna entered Rhiannon’s mind and laid a mild Comfort on her. The gut-wrenching sobbing slowed, and Rhiannon turned a tear-stained face toward her.

  “He loved me, Brenna. He told me at the last. Goddess, it hurts so bad. It hurts so damned bad.”

  “We have to go, Rhiannon. We can’t stay here,” Brenna said.

  She had to repeat herself before Rhiannon seemed to hear her. “Rhiannon, we have to get out of here. There are a hundred of Andrew’s men still in the building, and the police are getting ready to storm the place.”

  “We can’t leave him here,” Rhiannon said. “We have to take him with us.”

  Brenna nodded. “Can you wrap him in an air shield and bring him? I can if you want me to.”

  Rhiannon shook her head. “I can do it.”

  “We have to hurry,” Brenna said, rising to her feet and tugging on Rhiannon’s arm.

  Rhiannon still had Brian in her lap, her arms wrapped around him. Brenna reached out with Telekinesis and floated his body enough for Rhiannon to stand.

  Rhiannon staggered, and Brenna fed her some of the energy she had drained from Andrew’s men. Wrapping Brian’s body in an air shield, Rhiannon lifted it with her Telekinesis. Brenna picked up two of the flashlights and the two women ventured out into the halls.

  *Can’t we just teleport out?* Rhiannon asked.

  *We can’t leave the building the way it is. We can’t let any of Andrew’s men fall into the hands of the authorities,* Brenna answered. *You know they won’t go easy. They’ll fight and there will be more casualties. Besides, this is my mess. I need to clean it up.*

  *So where are we going?*

  *To the basement.*

  When they reached the third floor landing, a group of Andrew’s men opened the door on the floor below them and started up the stairs. Brenna released the electrical energy she had been holding and followed it with a fireball. Bullets from a burst of automatic weapons fire rattled against the stairs beneath their feet, and she dropped another fireball. Screams of pain and horror echoed up to them.

  *Into the hall,* Rhiannon sent. *We’ll use different stairs.*

  Brenna pushed the door open and let Rhiannon go past her, pulling her grisly burden behind her. Brenna loosed another fireball down the stairs and followed.

  It seemed to take a long time to reach the basement, cautiously threading their way through the dark and trying to avoid the bodies they found on every floor. They came out into a large room near the front of the building.

  “Now what?” Rhiannon asked.

  “Do you think we can flood the building with Neural Disruption and keep it all in the building?” Brenna asked. Rhiannon was twelve years older and had more experience in using her Gifts.

  “The whole building?”

  “Yes. The floors won’t stop it. I’m just worried about it bleeding out the walls and harming innocents.”

  Rhiannon thought for a moment.

  “If we stand opposite each other at the outer walls,” she said slowly, “and aim straight up, then gradually shift our aim toward the center, we should be able to cover the whole building. There shouldn’t be any bleed out behind us.”

  Brenna nodded. “Sounds good to me.” She handed Rhiannon a flashlight and headed down a hallway toward the other end of the basement.

  *I’ve reached the back wall,* Brenna sent.

  *Okay. Just be sure of where you’re aiming,* Rhiannon answered. *It’s better to be too narrow. If we miss anyone, we’ll know it and we can do a second sweep.*

  *I’ve never killed this many people at once,* Brenna said. *I won’t even see their faces.*

  *Just think of the people they’ve killed tonight,* Rhiannon sent. *There are no innocents here, only cold-blooded murderers.*

  Brenna raised her hands into the air and prepared to trigger her Gift. Then a thought struck her.

  *Wait! Are there any helicopters above us?*

  Both women probed with their minds, seeking minds above the building.

  *No. No one is above the building. Now!* Rhiannon sent.

  Brenna discharged a full-strength stream of Neural Disruption and then slowly swept her hands forward until they pointed at the center of the ceiling.

  *Hold!* Rhiannon sent. Both of them probed the building, but it was silent of any mental activity.

  Brenna trotted back to where Rhiannon stood.

  “Now what?” Rhiannon asked.

  “We set the building on fire,” Brenna answered, sending a sheet of flame at the ceiling. The walls were stone, but the floors were wood. She was pretty sure that setting the first floor ablaze would ignite the floors above.

  Rhiannon added her own steady stream of flame, and the beams above them began to burn.

  “Rhiannon, you need to dissolve the air shield,” Brenna said, gesturing toward Brian.

  “Why?”

  “Because I need to touch both of you to transport us. If he’s separated from me, I’ll leave him behind.”

  Rhiannon lowered Brian’s body to the floor and knelt by him. Tears began running down her cheeks again.

  “I murdered Andrew,” Rhiannon whispered. “I pinned him to the chair using Telekinesis, then I smashed his shields and captured his mind. I felt his terror as I pressed the pistol to his forehead and I enjoyed it. Goddess help me, I reveled in it.”

  *Jared?* Brenna sent.

  *Brenna! Where are you?*

  *Is there anyone in my room? In Lord O’Byrne’s room?*

  *No.*

  *Then look for me there.*

  Brenna knelt and put her hand on Brian’s leg. Taking hold of Rhiannon’s thigh with her other hand, she teleported.

  ~~~

  Rebecca pelted out of the hotel room with Carlos hot on her heels. Two blocks to the Metro and then waiting for the next train strained her patience to the limit. When a train finally came, she climbed onto the first car and took control of the operator’s mind. The train pulled out of the station and then raced through the next three stops without slowing. Carlos watched as passengers became increasingly anxious. After a while, he decided he needed to do something and used Empathic Projection to broadcast a calming feeling over the people in their car.

  When they reached the station where they had to transfer trains, they sprinted to the platform they needed, blurring everyone’s minds to their presence. Rebecca repeated her performance on the next driver.

  Emerging from the Arts et Metiers station, they ran until they encountered streets blocked by gendarmes, ambulances and television news crews. It took them some time after that to reach the O’Byrne offices and find Edwin.

  *What�
�s going on?* Rebecca sent.

  *There was a lot of gunfire right after RB and her clone entered the building, but we haven’t heard anything for the last five minutes,* Edwin replied. *Your range is better than mine. Can you contact anyone in there?*

  Rebecca reached out with her mind, searching for the spark of living minds in the building. She found over a hundred men but only two women. She breathed a sigh of relief as she recognized them.

  Edwin turned to her. “The gendarmes are getting ready to storm the building. I wonder if I can find a uniform that fits.”

  Looking up at his six-feet-seven-inch height, Rebecca doubted it.

  *Brenna, what’s going on? Are you okay?* she sent.

  *I’m a little busy right now,* Brenna answered.

  *What are you doing?*

  *Setting up a mass execution.*

  *The gendarmes are getting ready to storm the building,* Rebecca sent.

  *Have the Protectors influence them to wait fifteen minutes.* Brenna broke the connection.

  Rebecca looked at her watch. It was a little more than an hour since the first bomb had gone off.

  “We need to give RB and Brenna time. Can we influence the gendarmes to wait fifteen minutes?”

  Edwin nodded. “Taken care of.” He gestured toward the gendarme command post fifty feet away.

  “Casualties?” she asked Edwin.

  “One hundred forty-two dead, thirteen wounded,” he answered. “The norms took some casualties, too. Thirty-two dead and over a hundred wounded. That’s assuming all of our people in the building are dead.”

  She shot him a look. “Why are you assuming that?”

  “Because the last communication I received from Brian was that they were losing. Then he cut off and I can’t reach him.”

  Edwin’s face was stony, but the emotions pouring from him were so painful that Rebecca wanted to break into tears.

  “You and Brian are close?” she asked.

  “He was my half-brother. I felt him die. If RB doesn’t kill Andrew, Davin and I will.”