“He could be shielded.” Tiernan said, as if she needed the reminder. He scanned the area around them and pointed to a high outcropping of rocks. “That might give us a better vantage point. We can’t get too close without tipping them off, but maybe we can get a better idea of what we’re dealing with up there.”
They circled around and up the rocks, Ava guiding them along the way. The Rogues were still on the edges of her intuition, so she knew they probably couldn’t feel her yet, but they climbed in silence anyway, unwilling to take any chances. When they reached the top of the outcropping, they slid to the edge, flat on their stomachs, and searched the area below.
Ava closed her eyes for a moment and pointed off to the left. “That way.”
Tiernan squinted, and she knew he was trying to focus through the trees. “Ah,” he said after a moment. “That explains it.”
“What?” Ava peered through the trees, focusing her own vision. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s there, hidden behind some brush,” he whispered. “Between those two big trees.”
Ava stared for a long moment, then a breeze blew at the branches, and she spotted a dark opening. “Is that a cave?” she asked.
“They’re underground,” Tiernan replied. “That would explain why the sensor had so much trouble and why even you couldn’t feel them until we were almost right on top of them.”
Ava bristled slightly, but there was no accusation behind his words.
“Fortunately, they’re in the same boat,” he said. “Let’s hope they don’t sense us.” He glanced at her. “You sure Caleb isn’t in there?”
Ava frowned. “I don’t feel him. But if he’s shielded underground, maybe there’s too much interference.” She wasn’t sure if she should hope he was inside or not.
Tiernan slid back from the edge of the cliff and leaned against a rock. “We need to lure them outside,” he said. “Get them away from the cave so we can search it and see if we can find him. Even if he’s gone, there could be intel that would be valuable to the Council.” He eyed her carefully. “We’re going to need a distraction.”
Ava felt a slow smile tug at her lips and let it develop into a full-blown grin. “Well, that is something I can definitely provide.”
Tiernan left Ava on the rock outcropping and climbed back down to the edge of a clearing. He could make out the entrance to the cave from where he was but was far enough away that the occupants wouldn’t notice him unless they were looking.
He sincerely hoped they weren’t looking.
He slid his bag off his shoulder, removed his pistol, and tucked it into his waistband before hiding the bag under some leaves. He checked the knives sheathed at his ankles and waited for Ava to make her move. He’d told her to count to a hundred, but he had no idea how fast she counted.
Is she a ‘one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two’ counter . . . or maybe an ‘and-one, and-two’ counter?
A large rock flew across the clearing and smashed into the brush covering the cave opening.
Apparently, she’s a straight ‘one-two-three’ counter.
Tiernan breathed steadily, every muscle tensed as he waited to see what would happen. After a few moments, another rock flew into the cave, and then a larger one smashed into a tree to the side of it. He heard a shout from inside the cave and stiffened, fists clenched and eyes focused on that sliver of cave opening.
A man emerged—not one Tiernan recognized, but definitely Race—and Tiernan ducked behind a tree out of reflex, and peered around the edge. The man walked hesitantly, firmly gripping a rifle as he scanned the surrounding trees.
A crash sounded in the distance, and the man whirled about, aiming into the forest.
Tiernan smirked. Ava was good at distractions.
“There’s someone out there!” the man shouted back into the cave. “Come on, and bring Christopher!”
Another man and a blond woman emerged from the cave, both holding weapons, followed by a slight, dark-haired man Tiernan recognized from the fight at the Rogue lair when they’d rescued Ava.
The pyrokinetic.
He winced. That wasn’t good.
Ava continued to throw rocks and branches through the forest, luring the little group away from the cave.
Tiernan slipped closer. He could feel one more person inside. He glanced up at Ava, hoping she felt the same thing. It felt strange to rely on someone else after so many years working on his own. The only person he truly trusted in the world was Katherine, and even with her, he preferred to call the shots. Not that she didn’t push it. Frequently.
Ava nodded and held up one finger in agreement, then went back to distracting the others as Tiernan moved silently toward the cave.
The crash of rocks and branches in the distance covered his movements, and he reached for the knife at his ankle when he got to the entrance, his back pressed against the cold rock as he took a quick, assessing glance inside. With a sharp breath, he descended into the darkness, waiting a moment for his eyes to adjust before he proceeded, his fingers trailing along the chilled walls of the cave.
It was larger than Tiernan had expected, tall enough for him to stand upright, and extended down and back to where it disappeared around a sharp corner. He proceeded through the tunnel around several twists and turns until he came to a large, well-lit cavern that apparently served as some kind of command center. A bank of computers was set up against one wall, the rest of the room filled with stacked crates and boxes. He started toward the computers to take a closer look, but as he rounded a large crate, he noticed another smaller tunnel branching off from the cavern. He could tell that whoever was still in the cave was somewhere in that direction.
Just as he was about to head down the tunnel, he felt another presence approaching quickly from the opposite direction. He turned and ducked behind the crate, only to see Ava appear from the main tunnel, headed straight for him.
Perfect.
“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be the distraction.”
She waved a hand. “They’re chasing rocks all over the place out there. We have time.” When he continued to glare at her, she cocked a brow. “Not enough to sit here and argue about it, but—”
“All right.” He relented, albeit reluctantly. “Let’s go, but stay behind me.”
“My hero,” she said, batting her eyelashes.
Tiernan ignored her and set off through the tunnel. It wasn’t long before they came to a dead end, a stone wall facing them, and two openings on either side blocked by makeshift metal doors.
“This one,” Ava whispered, touching to the door to the right.
Tiernan nodded and pressed his ear to the door, listening for a moment before giving it a tentative shove. It stood firm, somehow wedged into the thick rock.
“Stand back,” he told Ava as he drew his pistol. He took a deep breath and kicked the door.
With a crash and a shower of dirt and rocks, it collapsed forward onto the dirt floor, revealing a small room carved into the rock. A young woman sat curled up on a cot in the corner, watching him with wide and frightened eyes. Tiernan held the gun pointed at her as he advanced into the room, but the girl didn’t move. She sat, paralyzed, not even blinking, until Ava reached out and touched his arm. He’d been so intent on the girl that he hadn’t even realized Ava had followed him into the room.
“I think you can put that away.” Ava started to step around Tiernan, but he threw out an arm to stop her.
“She’s just a girl,” Ava said.
“Looks can be deceiving.” He’d seen it too many times. Deadly purpose wrapped up in innocent packaging. For all he knew, this girl could burst their internal organs with a thought.
“She was locked in this room,” Ava said slowly, as if explaining to a small child. “Which means she needs our help.”
Tiernan eyed the girl for a long moment. “She was locked in this room for a reason. Maybe we need protection from her.”
The girl swallowed nervous
ly, watching him like a skittish colt, her legs twitching with what he suspected was an instinct to run. With a resigned sigh, he lowered the weapon to his side.
Ava moved around Tiernan, ignoring his warning grumble. The girl swiveled her anxious gaze to Ava, watching as she came closer until her knees finally bumped the edge of the cot. The girl was young—maybe fourteen or fifteen—her dark hair chopped at odd angles, the chin-length strands streaked with blue and purple. Cheekbones carved sharp shadows on her face, echoed by the straight lines and corners of her thin limbs and joints. She wore no contact lenses, so her eyes were her most compelling feature—almond-shaped, one almost black, the other pale green. She stared at Ava without blinking, giving the impression she saw much more than most.
“We won’t hurt you,” Ava said quietly, feeling the tension in the room. “We can help you get out of here. Who are you?”
The girl swallowed nervously. “Emma.”
“Emma? That’s your name?”
She nodded. “Emma Reiko.”
Ava smiled encouragingly and sat down next to her, smoothing her hand over the rough woolen blanket. “I’m Ava. This is Tiernan.”
Tiernan peered back out into the tunnel. “We don’t have time for this.”
Ava tipped her head slightly in acknowledgement. “We’re looking for someone,” she told Emma, trying to rein in her anxiety with steady breaths and gentling tones. “Was there . . . someone else here? A man with dark hair and blue eyes? He might have been wearing glasses.”
Emma licked her lips, swallowed hard again, and darted a glance at Tiernan. Turning back to Ava, she nodded, whispering, “You mean Caleb.”
Ava tensed. “You know Caleb? You saw him?”
Emma nodded again, loosening the hold on her knees so she could slide off the cot. She pointed out the door to the other room across the tunnel. “They kept him in there, I think.”
Without another word, Ava shot to her feet, racing out into the tunnel and pounding on the metal door as she shouted Caleb’s name. Tiernan touched her shoulder, but she shrugged him off and reached down for her gift. Instead of a slow build, it shot forward in a burst of power, the metal door buckling in the center before slamming into the wall, all but folded in half. She rushed into the room, coming to an abrupt stop in the center of the dirt floor. A cot similar to Emma’s sat folded against the wall, but other than that, the room was empty.
Tiernan walked in behind her, staying close to the wall as he watched her carefully. Ava sighed, her power settling as quickly as it had surged.
“He’s gone,” she said, almost mystified by the overwhelming sense of loss. “I didn’t feel him, but I hoped . . .”
Tiernan bent over to touch the cot and closed his eyes a moment. “He was here, though. Not too long ago. An hour. Maybe two.”
Ava’s senses tingled, pushing her anxiety and despair aside with a rush of fear. “They’re coming back.” She left the room with one last longing glance and found Emma waiting for them in the doorway to her own cell. Tiernan passed them, heading down the tunnel, his gun held at the ready.
“Emma. We can take you away from these people. To someplace safe,” she said, tentatively reaching out to touch her shoulder. “But we have to go now. Before they come back.”
The girl paled, eyes wide with undisguised terror as she scrambled away from Ava and backed up against the wall. “No. If I run, they’ll come after me.” She shook her head slowly and took gasping breaths between panicked words. “It’ll be worse. It’s always worse if I try and run—”
Ava worried the girl was going to hyperventilate. “It’s okay,” she said, keeping her voice low and soothing.
“You don’t understand—”
Tiernan’s hissed voice echoed down the tunnel. “Ava! Now!”
She approached Emma with outstretched hands, compassion overriding the urgency of the moment. “I know you’re scared,” she said. “But I’m telling you, we can keep you safe.”
“You can’t—”
“We can.” Ava gripped the girl’s shoulders gently and looked into her eyes with reassurance. “I know you don’t know us and this is all scary, but time is running out. If we’re going to go, we need to go now.
“You need to trust us. Let us help you.” Ava squeezed her shoulders. “Please.”
Emma stared into Ava’s eyes for a long moment, then let out a shaky breath and nodded once. She cast a worried glance toward the door before ducking to grab a coat and a small bag and slipping it over her head and one shoulder. She took Ava’s hand and allowed herself to be led through the tunnel after Tiernan.
They found him huddled behind the crate by the tunnel entrance, peering around the corner.
He didn’t look back as Ava came up behind him. “How far?” he asked. “Do we have time to get out?”
Ava reached out with her gift, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach. “No. They’re too close. Probably already at the cave entrance.”
Tiernan’s jaw flexed as he looked around the cavern, trying to come up with a plan of action. He signaled for them to follow him as he crossed the room, taking up a spot against the wall next to the opening leading to the tunnel going outside. He flexed his fingers around the gun, and said in a low voice, “You’ll have to create a distraction again. With any luck, we can get them headed down that other tunnel before they realize we’re here. Maybe with so many Race imprints, it will be hard for them to pinpoint our exact location.”
“You think that will really work?” Ava asked.
“Probably not.” He shrugged. “So you might have to reenact that trick with the door—maybe with that crate over there.” He gestured with the gun across the room, looking at her sideways. “Do you think you can do that?”
Ava knew what he was asking. Could she hurt someone? Could she possibly kill someone? She’d done it before, with Arthur, but that was spur-of-the-moment, unplanned—a them-or-us situation where she didn’t have time to think about it beforehand. This was different. She looked at Emma, clutching her hand, innocent and scared, and thought of Caleb.
Caleb.
Somewhere out there. And once the Council learned Caleb was still on the run, they’d most likely take matters into their own hands. In other words, hunt Caleb down. She couldn’t let that happen. They had to find him first.
With grim determination, she nodded sharply. “I can do it.”
They waited in silence, and Ava could feel each step as the group got closer. She could tell when Tiernan felt them as well. He squared his shoulders, clenched his fists, and braced his feet in a wide stance, preparing for a fight. She turned to the tunnel across the room and readied her own weapons, calling on her gift as the first footsteps echoed through the cavern. She reached out for the metal door she’d knocked down, picking it up and letting it clatter against the stone floor. The sound amplified in the tunnel, and it wasn’t long before their pursuers ran into the cavern. They huddled in the shadows as the four Rogues scanned the room, but to Ava’s surprise, they didn’t even seem to notice them.
Then she realized it wasn’t only her own gift she was feeling. Where she held Emma’s hand, she felt the tingle of unfamiliar power running along her skin. She gaped at the girl, whose eyes were closed and brow creased in concentration, and watched as the Rogues took off down the far tunnel.
Tiernan tugged on Ava’s sleeve, and she stumbled after him.
The three of them ran down the tunnel in the opposite direction, and Ava felt a rush of hope as the light of the entrance finally showed ahead.
They raced out into the sunshine, and Ava stopped and turned around.
“What are you doing?” Tiernan snapped, tucking his gun back into his pants. “Let’s go.”
“Just buying us some time,” Ava said, calling on her gift again.
With a low rumble, the front of the cave shuddered and collapsed in on itself, kicking up a cloud of dust. When it finally cleared, a pile of dirt and rocks lay where the entrance had been.
<
br /> “Nice,” Tiernan said with an appreciative grin. “Remind me never to tick you off.”
They turned and headed toward the car at a slightly slower pace, knowing their pursuers would have to do some digging before they could take up the chase. Emma kept eyeing Tiernan with something between awe and fear, and Ava finally nudged her shoulder lightly.
“He’s big and scary looking, but he’s not so bad,” she said, earning an irritated glare from Tiernan. She ignored him and asked, “Was Caleb all right? Did you see . . . did they hurt him?”
Emma shook her head, but she wouldn’t meet Ava’s eyes.
“Did they hurt you?”
Emma didn’t answer; instead she bit her lip and reached up to tuck a lock of purple hair behind her ear. “Are you a friend of Caleb’s?” she asked.
“Yes. I think he’s in trouble. I need to find him.” She glanced at Tiernan. “We need to find him.”
Emma nodded, her pale skin seeming even more translucent in the bright sunlight. “Can I come with you? To find him?”
“Absolutely not,” Tiernan snarled as he topped a hill and stomped heavily down the other side.
“What Tiernan means,” Ava said pointedly, “is it’s probably going to be pretty dangerous. It’s better if we take you somewhere where you’ll be safe.”
“But I . . . I need to go with you,” Emma said, her voice taking on a pleading tone. “I need to fix him.”
Ava’s skin chilled and she stopped in her tracks. “What do you mean, ‘fix him’?”
Emma wrapped her arms around her stomach, her fingers digging into the puffy red coat she wore. “I did something . . . they made me do . . . something to him.”
Ava felt her gift flare in a rush of possessive alarm, remembering the feel of Emma’s power in the cave. “What did you do to him?” she asked, fighting to keep control. Her power pushed against that control, poking at it angrily.
“They made me do it,” Emma said, eyes wide as her voice wavered. “They said it would be worse for both of us if I didn’t.”
The MORE Trilogy Page 35