“You have a choice, Jamie,” Stanislav said into the fraught silence. “Your freedom and a new partnership, or his life.”
If he agreed to Stanislav’s terms, then the fighting would stop and the Pavluhkins would clear the path for Jamie’s father to win the presidency. Despite all the barriers between them and that seat of power, in the face of investigations digging deep, Jamie had no doubt that Stanislav could see a way out because he’d seen the way here. All Jamie had to do was say yes. In doing so, the leverage the Pavluhkins and the Presnenskaya Bratva would forever hold over Jamie would be Kyle’s life, because he knew Stanislav wouldn’t leave this place without Kyle.
If he declined, Stanislav would pull the trigger.
Whatever choice Jamie made, people would get hurt, people would die, all over one man’s greed. Stanislav could try to build his way to a stable end—and maybe he had, Jamie didn’t know—but the future was forever fluid.
Jamie just couldn’t see it.
For once in his life, Jamie’s keen mind failed him, as did his body, which still felt far too human to his senses. Blanchett was still alive, despite Katie and Alexei’s best efforts. Without their powers, Jamie’s strength was meaningless and Kyle couldn’t heal.
What’s the status on Blanchett? he asked desperately through the mental link.
Katie didn’t answer.
Jamie swallowed thickly, hoping that her silence meant the elimination of the threat was close. He had to believe that, because this was his team, and they had never let him down before.
Jamie dragged his gaze away from the knowing, expectant look on Stanislav’s face and looked at Kyle. Head tilted hard to the side from the pressure of the gun against his temple, Kyle’s dazed green eyes were locked on Jamie.
“I’m waiting,” Stanislav said. “I won’t wait forever.”
“Do it,” Kyle whispered raggedly.
And Jamie knew—he knew—Kyle wasn’t talking about Stanislav’s offer.
“Kyle…” Jamie got out, voice shaking even if his hands weren’t.
Kyle never blinked, never looked away. “I would.”
The words were permission, an apology, and forgiveness all rolled into one. Jamie’s expression twisted as he let the gun sink down, aiming away from Stanislav’s head, hands still rock-steady. Stanislav smirked at him, the triumph on his face impossible to miss, but all Jamie saw was Kyle’s faint smile, the trust in his eyes, and the map of their lives that had led them to this moment.
“I love you,” Kyle told him softly.
It felt as if Jamie’s world broke apart with those words in a way that could never be fixed. His own lips shaped those same syllables, but the words were locked in his throat.
“I knew you’d see things my way,” Stanislav said as he finally, finally removed the gun from Kyle’s head, angling it toward the ceiling.
That split second chance was all Jamie needed, even though he didn’t want it.
In that moment, Jamie did what Stanislav didn’t think he would do—didn’t precognitively see him do—because it was anathema to everything Jamie stood for and believed in, everything he was at the core of himself.
Jamie shot Stanislav.
Straight through Kyle’s heart.
17
No Man’s Land
Alexei and Matthew’s team infiltrated the Supreme Court Building through the roof, bypassing the locked roof-access door and its bottleneck stairwell in favor of simply carving a hole through the damn thing. Matthew’s demolitions specialist used a laser to cut a circle in the roof wide enough for two people to drop through at the same time. Someone embedded a grappling line to drag the thick slab out of the hole instead of letting it fall.
Two Strike Force operatives covered their entrance into the building, with everyone except Alexei falling straight down into the basketball court on the fifth floor. Alexei borrowed someone’s grappling line to rappel down, trying to offset any injuries he would’ve received from falling nearly two dozen feet to the ground. The “highest court in the land” was empty, but it didn’t remain that way for long.
Alexei was just unhooking the grappling line from his belt when gunfire erupted from beyond the closed door to the basketball court. He dove for the floor to get out of range of the hail of bullets flying through the air, wrenching his AKR-75 around with him to bring it up and take aim.
Whoever was out there wasn’t prepared for the barrage of return fire from Matthew’s team. The wall facing the exit was perforated by far more bullets than had been directed at them.
“Hold fire!” Matthew called out.
Everyone stopped shooting, giving them time to gauge the enemy’s position even though they couldn’t see the people they were fighting against. When no further fire immediately came, everyone advanced toward the exit, staying low to keep clear of any surprise fire.
Alexei reached the door first and was getting into position to open it when a telepathic voice slid through his mind that wasn’t Katie’s.
The hostiles out in the hall are dead, Mercedes told him.
Was it you?
No. I’m working with Viper right now. Get to the third floor.
She dumped a map into his mind harder than Katie would have. Alexei winced as it branded itself in the center of his brain. No need for a HUD when telepathy worked just as well.
“Hostiles in hallway eliminated,” Alexei said as he yanked open the door, following his weapon out into the hallway. “Go to third floor.”
Between the fifth and third floor, Alexei and his fellow Strike Force operatives left carnage behind them. They took no prisoners on their way to the third floor that housed the law clerks’ offices, dining room, and the office of the Reporter of Decisions. So many places for the enemy to hide, but Alexei didn’t let them. He and Matthew’s team waged a vicious, close-quarters fight against Declan’s people—and they were winning.
These were Sons of Adam fighters, with their store-bought gear and playing-at-being-a-soldier mentality. The men and women fighting under Declan’s orders were ex-military, ex-special forces to be precise, but Strike Force was a step above even them.
“Where the fuck is Blanchett?” Matthew snarled over the comms as he took cover in a cleared office so he could reload.
Two rooms away, Katie said into Alexei’s mind so he could hear the exchange as well.
Where is the telepath? Alexei asked.
He’s in the room with her. We can’t break through his shields.
Katie sounded frustrated, almost desperate, something Alexei had rarely encountered from her in the middle of a fight.
“Right. Let’s finish this,” Matthew said.
Alexei let Matthew take the lead, the hard push down the last stretch of the hallway a brutal fight. Close-quarters wasn’t just about the fighting, but the dying. Two of Matthew’s men fell beneath the onslaught of bullets and a bomb thrown their way. Retaliation came with brutal force, and Alexei didn’t pull his punches.
When an enemy soldier ran out of ammunition and closed on Alexei with a yell, he broke the man’s neck rather than risk friendly fire. Nearly two dozen men and women were between them and their targets.
None of those fighters stood a chance.
Despite their lesser numbers, Matthew’s team was ruthlessly efficient in taking them out. Alexei was near the forefront of the fighting as they gained ground meter by meter. Some of the enemy dropped dead not from bullets, but from mental strikes delivered by Mercedes while Katie shielded Alexei and everyone’s minds on their side of the fight.
Kyle is here, Katie told Alexei a minute later. Stanislav has him.
Rage ripped through Alexei’s mind, overriding his fear for his brother. Is he okay?
I’m blocked. Which didn’t answer his question and made Alexei’s heart sink. Mercedes and I are going to try something. I’ll need to stop shielding everyone.
“Take point?” Matthew asked him, obviously hearing Katie’s last order on his end over the comms.
Alexei eyed the doorway of the office they and a couple of other Strike Force operatives were taking cover in.
“Da,” Alexei said.
Katie’s voice echoed in his mind. On my mark.
Alexei took a step forward, sighting down his weapon, ready to move.
Go!
They moved, everyone on their side leaving the safety of cover behind, trusting in Katie and Mercedes to watch their six. The last handful of fighters guarding the door to the office that held Blanchett were frozen where they stood, blood trickling out of their noses and ears.
Something hard raked through Alexei’s mind, and he stumbled, swearing. He wasn’t the only one. Matthew and the others were also affected. Katie’s warning about needing to drop her shields left them momentary targets for Stanislav’s telepath.
Then something else reverberated through his mind.
Like a wave crashing against the shore, Alexei sensed the mental attack only because he was still linked with Katie. It battered at the very edge of his mind, focused on a different target, but the backwash still bled through. The power behind it felt like Katie and Mercedes combined, as if they’d entangled their telepathy together, and Alexei didn’t know what to make of that.
So instead, he cut down the enemy.
Alexei wasn’t the only one carving his way through the men and women standing docilely in the way. He didn’t feel guilty for killing them, not after what they’d helped endorse against his country and his brother.
Fuck them, they’d hurt Kyle.
Alexei reached the office door with blood on his hands, finding the old-style door locked. Alexei shot out the manual lock and kicked the door in before twisting to the side to retain cover. Bullets peppered the air where he’d stood, the sound of the gun going off lighter than that of a rifle.
Matthew tossed a flash-bang grenade into the office that went off two seconds later. A woman screamed, and Alexei took that as his cue to move in. Leading with his weapon, he entered the office.
Inside, a young man sat slouched in a chair, head lolling against his shoulder. Blood flowed from his nose and ears, gaze blank with no hint of awareness in his eyes. He was still alive, but that wasn’t saying much. Alexei’s attention moved from the probably brain-dead telepath to the woman standing behind the desk.
Ella Blanchett didn’t look nearly as put-together as she had in the holopics he’d seen during the team’s briefing. She’d stumbled into a bookcase in her attempt to escape the flash-bang grenade, makeup running down her face from the tears caused by pain and sensory overload.
Take her out, a strange amalgamation of Katie and Mercedes’ exhausted voices said into Alexei’s mind.
Alexei didn’t question why they hadn’t done so first, and merely followed his orders. This close to his target, Alexei wasn’t going to miss. Between himself and Matthew, they made a bloody mess of Blanchett’s chest. While her power could interfere with metahuman powers, it couldn’t stop bullets from taking her life. Seconds later, warmth started to filter back through Alexei’s nerves as whatever neural block Blanchett’s nullification power had created disappeared at her death.
He thought they were in the clear.
Then Alexei heard a scream echo from a lower floor, filled with such wretched grief and rage it didn’t sound human.
Alexei’s heart practically stopped in his chest, because he knew that voice, torn as it was. He knew it could only mean one thing.
“Nyet,” he choked out.
Alexei had only a vague recollection of making it down to the second floor. The fuzziness in his brain disappeared when he made it to the Great Hall and nearly got his head shot off by Declan. Matthew yanked Alexei back inside the stairwell, likely saving his life, and slammed him up against the wall.
“Get your head in the fucking game, Inferno!” Matthew snarled.
In response, Alexei formed a fireball with his pyrokinesis and threw it into the Great Hall. He wielded it without care, let the flames scorch the marble and the delicate coffered ceiling with its ancient red and gold tiles. Nothing mattered to Alexei but getting to his brother.
Matthew peered out at the Great Hall after a moment, sweat sliding down his cheeks, before he looked at Alexei. “Put it out so we can get through.”
Alexei called his fire to heel and was the first one out of the stairwell, the weapon in his hands a negligible weight compared to the fire he could feel burning at his fingertips. Declan was gone, no body left behind in the form of charred remains. It made Alexei believe he’d once again escaped death. He’d be angry about that, later perhaps, but every last shred of his emotional capacity was taken up by the sight of what greeted him when he entered the courtroom.
For once in his life, Alexei didn’t know what to do.
The bodies of Stanislav’s guards lay sprawled on the floor of the courtroom: two by the entrance and the other two farther inside. Alexei walked over the dead in his haste to get to where Jamie knelt on the courtroom floor, holding Kyle’s limp, bleeding body in his arms.
Kyle wasn’t moving, wasn’t breathing, green eyes open and staring sightlessly up at the ceiling as Jamie held him and sobbed.
Alexei’s hands went numb, his weapon falling from loose fingers. It banged heavily against his bruised side, the strap connecting it to his tactical vest keeping it within reach. Alexei barely felt the blow.
“Kilyusha,” he said, or tried to. He couldn’t seem to form his brother’s name, all the air in his lungs trapped behind a building scream he wanted to release, but couldn’t.
Katie wouldn’t let him.
I need your eyes, she said, sounding more like herself and less like Mercedes with every word she spoke into his mind.
Alexei’s vision blurred. It felt as if someone else were looking through his eyes, focusing on the empty space near Jamie and Kyle. Between one heartbeat and the next, Tessa teleported in with a crack of displaced air.
“I need to take him, Apollo,” Tessa pleaded, reaching for Kyle.
Jamie didn’t seem to hear her or see her. He still held tight to Kyle’s lifeless body, blood leaking out of the bullet wound Alexei could see near the center of Kyle’s back.
Alexei wavered on his feet, a dull roaring sound filling his ears. It threatened to overwhelm him before Katie’s telepathy dug down deep into his mind, wrenching his thoughts away from a dangerous spiral.
Don’t you fucking dare check out on me, she told him.
Kyle—
I know. I know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, but we still need you.
Alexei’s vision wavered again, but this time it wasn’t from Katie’s power, just his own tears. He watched mutely as Tessa got hands on Kyle and teleported out with him before Jamie could react. Jamie’s arms closed on empty air, his hands stained red with Kyle’s blood. The twisted expression on his face was of a man not in his right mind.
“Fuck, fuck,” Matthew swore from behind Alexei. “Viper, I need orders!”
Stay with Apollo until I get there. Bones and I are on our way now that the nullification field is down.
“You can’t possibly think Apollo is in the right frame of mind to continue to fight? You need to take Apollo off the goddamn field. Send your teleporter back for him!”
He might not be in his right mind, but I am. I’m in his thoughts as deep as I can get and I’ll keep him on an even keel as best I can. But there’s only so much I can do.
Matthew dragged a hand down his face. “Reaper heals. He can heal from this, right?”
Alexei’s nascent hope at those words died with Katie’s answer.
Blanchett’s nullification field was still active when he took the hit.
Which meant Kyle had been, for all intents and purposes, human.
“Fucking hell, if that Russian bastard wasn’t already dead, I’d kill him myself.”
“It wasn’t Stanislav.” Jamie’s raw voice broke Alexei out of his stupor and he looked at where his captain knelt on the bloodstained floor, s
taring unseeingly into the distance. “It wasn’t…”
His voice trailed off, and Alexei didn’t want him to finish his sentence. Swallowing thickly, Alexei went to Jamie and knelt, feeling his brother’s blood soak into his pants. He tried not to look at how much had stained the carpet and Jamie’s evening dress uniform. The white dress-shirt he wore was more crimson than anything else on the front.
Alexei grabbed Jamie by the shoulder, squeezing carefully. “Still have fight going on.”
Shattered blue eyes finally, finally focused on something other than whatever horror was replaying in Jamie’s mind. “I’m sorry.”
Alexei squeezed his eyes shut, violently shaking his head. “Nyet.”
He didn’t want to hear it—couldn’t hear it—not right now. What he’d seen of Kyle had been enough for Alexei to know that if he dwelled on what his brother had gone through any more than he already had, he’d do something he’d regret.
“I can’t…do this without him.”
Jamie sounded so lost, so grief-stricken, that Alexei had to bite his tongue until it bled to keep from screaming.
Then do it with us, Katie said softly, bringing with her the rest of the team, their presence filling Alexei’s mind as they all reached for Jamie. You’re our captain. You’ve led us this far, but let me help you lead us the rest of the way, Jamie. Lean on me. On us. We’ll carry you home.
Alexei opened his eyes, staring at Jamie, watching how the devastating grief eased in his eyes and on his face. He didn’t know what Katie was doing, but whatever it was, Jamie was looking less like a man standing at the edge of a dark abyss and far more present in his body.
“Do I give him a gun?” Matthew wondered out loud.
Alexei grunted as he got to his feet, pulling Jamie with him, needing all his strength to do so. His body screamed from dull pains and aches, but none of it touched the tight knot of agony in the center of his chest.
In the Requiem (Metahuman Files Book 5) Page 27