by Lynn Rush
“Company,” he said.
His jaw clenched and gloved hands fisted at his side. I ripped off my gloves and shoved them in my pockets. “Where?”
“See the roof to the left of the bank?”
Sure as shit, there were two guys holding long rifle-looking things trained on the entrance to the bank. I barely saw them with the reflection of the sun so bright. They wore white, which matched the snow blanketing everything.
Nate looked up and down the street, two times in each direction. “So many people out, I can’t tell who’s Agent and who’s not.”
“It’s broad daylight, how do we fight?”
“Sneaky.”
“Hold on.” He glanced every direction again, then in the next breath I was in his arms and we were zooming toward one of the buildings. He stopped on the far side, in the alley. The building was three stories. Brick. Apartments were on the top level, judging by the heart stickers on one of the windows near the top.
“Can you jump up there and ice the guy?” Nate said.
“Oh boy. Yeah. I can do that.” Well, I hoped I could. I’d done it yesterday and quite a few times training over the last few months, but I was still learning the whole trajectory thing. “What are you going to do?”
“I’ll wait here for you, then we’ll go to the other side.”
“Text them and tell them to stay inside until we clear the way for them. Okay?” I looked upward, mentally preparing for the thrust up there.
“Wow, thinking like a soldier already. That’s exactly what I was going to do.”
“You’re rubbing off on me.” I looked at him. “Oh, and you know what? I think if you threw me up, you know, with your strength, that’d help me get started. Then I could soften my landing.”
“Really?”
“Sure. Why not?”
“Because I could throw you stories higher than you need to be.”
“True. Maybe we should practice that first.” I put my hands out, palms down. “Okay, here goes.”
Two cool hands grabbed my face, but warm lips met mine with a sting. It was way worth it. Nate owned my mouth for a brief second, then he pulled away. “Be safe.”
“Whew.” I nodded. “If there’s more of that once we’re done icing these guys, you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“Lots more,” he whispered as he stepped back.
I turned on the streams of cold. They jolted out from my palms, and up I went. One story. Two stories. Past the red, heart-stickered window and over the edge.
Too bad I landed on some ice, and my feet slipped right out from beneath me.
The noise drew the guy’s attention, along with the barrel of his gun. I iced down just before the bullet bounced off my shoulder.
So they really were done with tranq darts? Not that I loved those things, but they were…less lethal.
I streamed ice at the guy, and his white coat stiffened, along with the rest of him. Another Agent came out from the door and another and another. But these guys were dressed in fatigues. Ready for action.
“Shit.”
I sprayed the ground, but they must have had spikes for shoes, because they kept coming. It wasn’t a gun pointed at me this time, though. Shit. I recognized those miniature cannons.
“Nets,” I yelled. Not sure why I did. No one else was with me.
Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Was all I heard as three nets blasted from the cannons. I streamed ice at two as I backpedaled, knocking them off their path to me. But that third one nailed me square in the chest, knocking the air right out of my lungs.
Felt like a spider had spun its web around my face, neck, shoulders, and arms. It encased me all the way to my knees. I used my strength, but nothing budged. I kept backpedaling. “Nate.”
Then the backs of my knees met the small wall around the top of the building. They buckled. My butt hit the wall, but the momentum was too great and over the top I went.
With my hands bound, I couldn’t get them free to jet out some snow to soften my landing.
Oh yeah, this was going to hurt.
If I lived through it.
My feet went over my head. The back of my skull collided with the brick building, then the falling started. Hands and arms bound, I shimmied my entire body so I’d hopefully land feetfirst.
Then I turned on the ice. I couldn’t even see through it, the ice was so thick. Everything passed by in distorted kaleidoscope images.
I heard tiny pings, bullets, but nothing got through.
Then I landed.
And yeah, it hurt.
I’d tilted in the air so I landed on my right side. Despite the ice covering me, I felt the jolt in every fiber of my being. Snaps and cracks sounded, and no, it wasn’t only the ice shattering into a billion pieces.
They were bones. I felt every excruciating tear in my shoulder muscles, bones slicing through my skin. I let out a roar I thought belonged to a lion instead of a tiny girl like me.
I worked on getting more ice up and over me, but darkness curved my vision. Heat sliced through my shoulder, then my thigh. I wasn’t sure how, but ice formed again, just over my exposed side and the bullets pinged off once again.
Heal, I told myself.
Where was Nate?
Heal. The healing ice wouldn’t form. More heat ripped through my stomach. My neck.
Oh, God. The darkness seeped in again. Heavy and thick.
I—
“Mandy,” Nate yelled. “Georgia, fry them.”
I drew in a breath, but it was cut short by a stabbing pain in my chest. My mouth instantly filled with warmth. Iron-tasting warmth.
“Mandy,” Nate bellowed, and I didn’t miss the distinct fear crackling his strong voice.
Nate.
“Don’t you dare leave me.” Nate was close, and my body jostled. “Heal, Mandy. Come on.”
Cold fingers grabbed my neck. “Shit. Hold on, Mandy. Please.”
Nate Never swore. This must be bad. I—
Bubbles gurgled in my throat. A cough ripped through me, but all I felt was warmth spilling over my skin. Heal.
“No! No!” Hands gripped my shoulders and shook me, but I barely felt it. Hell, I barely felt anything other than heavy…tired. “Mandy!”
I wanted to respond, to say his name, to kiss him. That’s all I wanted to do. Let all this pain and frustration slide away and get lost in him. His yummy kisses. His tender touches. Nate. He was all I wanted. I loved him so much. Why hadn’t I told him? Why…
Unable to hold onto the ice any longer, it faded.
Heal…
Chapter 19
I always thought Heaven would be filled with clouds, sunshine, and warmth. Maybe even a few harps as stupid as that sounds, but hey, a girl could dream.
I obviously didn’t make it to Heaven, though, because I was cold, everything hurt, and there was no soothing music.
No, there was a constant humming and yelling, incoherent words streaming into a line of nothingness. My body moved, by its own will, not mine. Wait, it wasn’t moving, it was jerking, as in violently. Something was pounding on my chest.
A baseball bat?
No, a bat wouldn’t have hurt as much. I went to take a breath but sucked in burning liquid. I was drowning. It had to be. I’d swallowed water before and it seared my lungs, just like this.
But wait, I hadn’t been swimming. What had I been doing? Where was I and why couldn’t I see anything? I opened my eyes, or at least I thought I had, but only darkness remained. Nate! I wanted to yell his name, but nothing worked.
He was all I wanted to see. Well, and Georgia. But Nate, my Nate…
One more violent thump to my chest, and I finally got air instead of lava. But at least it was oxygen, cool and refreshing. Exactly what I needed to push through the darkness. The edges of my vision lightened.
Muffled voices turned into words, at least some of them did.
“Heal.” I heard. “Hurry.” Was another. “Can’t die.” Those last two really stuck out to m
e. Georgia had said them, I could tell her voice for sure.
“Mandy.” Nate’s voice trickled through. “Come on, Mandy.”
More air entered my lungs. Sweet, cool air with a hint of spice to it. Oh, and something pressed on my mouth. Teeth knocked mine and another rush of cold, yet sweet air entered my mouth.
I gulped for more, leaning toward it.
“There we go,” Nate said. “Come on, turn on the healing again, Mandy. Turn it on.”
Healing?
“Shit. Why isn’t it working?” Georgia said.
The ground shifted beneath me, no, it tilted.
“Slow down, Tim,” Nate said.
I commanded my lungs to work, and they finally drew in another breath. No sweetness and spice this time, only cool air, and it stung. I turned to my side to cough, but two arms stopped me. “No, other side.” They shifted me and let me finish coughing.
“Turn on the healing, Mandy,” Georgia said. “Come on, hon. I can’t do it for you.”
Georgia could heal, but only herself. We hadn’t dared try it with anyone or anything else yet. Couldn’t chance her burning whatever she tried to heal.
Heal. Ice tugged at my skin, but then receded.
“Do it!” Nate yelled and a cool hand cupped my face. “I can’t lose you.” Nate’s voice was closer. “I need you here by my side. Mandy, do this and I’ll take you away from all of this. You’re mine, Mandy. You hear me? Mine.”
Heal. Heal. Heal. I mentally yelled at myself. I wanted that with Nate, too. I loved him. He was mine. I wouldn’t leave him.
Ice crackled and took over the skin on my face. I felt it creep up my hands, arms, and even over my jeans.
“There you go,” Nate said. “There you go, Kelvin. Turn it on.”
“Oh my God,” Lois said.
I finally made out what that humming noise was. We were in the car. I flopped onto my back as the stinging pain of my ice crept into my injuries. Crackling and popping vibrated against the ice capsule, my bones snapping back into place.
As I healed, I remembered all too clearly what had happened.
Agents. Falling. Oh, and the landing.
Then darkness.
What had happened?
The calming coolness started to flow in, soothing all the cuts and bruises like a salve. It was cold, but it felt like a comforting bath to me as it caressed my flesh and massaged my tense neck and shoulders. My aching legs, stomach, and chest. So many injuries. Bullet holes. Fractured bones.
Finally my breathing returned to normal. The darkness completely faded away and Nate’s face came into focus through my ice capsule.
Nate’s sweet face. But red marks blemished it. Blood trickling down the side of his forehead marred his smooth skin. I called the ice back into me and saw him with my own eyes.
Blood ringed the neck of his shirt, slices riddled his arm, and I stopped counting the cuts on his beautiful face. Instead, I slapped my hand against his cheek and pulled him onto me. With a grunt, my body received all of his weight, and I curled my arms around him.
He groaned, but I iced down. “Shhh. I got you,” I said. “I got you.”
His body relaxed against mine, and I rubbed his back as much as the confines of this new ice capsule would allow.
“What is she doing?” Lois asked.
“Healing him,” Georgia said. “Tim, can you pull into that next stop? Is it safe?”
“Yeah. After your firestorm, those Agents are fried.”
The jostling stopped, and I heard car doors click open, talking, then doors slamming shut. More moving and then silence. Sweet, amazing, silence. I held Nate tight to me and called my ice in.
“Nate.”
His brown eyes beamed down at me. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. You?”
“You almost died.” He inched up my body, and the car jostled. “Mandy…I almost lost you.”
“I’m here. You’re stuck with me.” I pushed his hair back, reveling in the weight of his body on mine.
I glanced to the sides of me. I was lying down on the back seat of the Jeep. They’d flattened out the back.
He let out a long breath, watching me with wide, scared eyes. “I’m not sure what I’d do if something ever took you away from me.” He kissed my temple. “Can’t see beyond you, Mandy. I’m not sure there is anything else out there to be honest.” He pressed a tender kiss to my lips and drew in a deep breath. “You’re the air I breathe. For now and always.”
“Nate,” I whispered. “I feel the same way, so let’s never find out, okay?”
“Deal.”
I kissed the tip of his nose, wishing we were alone in a room so I could enjoy him more, but the hard car beneath me wasn’t exactly comfortable. “Did we get the stuff?”
“We got it.” He brushed his lips against mine. “We’re on our way to Colorado.”
“You couldn’t have read it already. How long have I been out?”
“Here. Sit up. I’ll tell you everything in a second. Let’s get you up.” Nate knocked on the back window, and the hatch opened.
There stood Lois, Tim, and Georgia. The daylight had turned to nighttime. Georgia lurched forward and yanked me into a suffocating hug. “Oh my God, Mandy.”
“Okay, G.” I peeled her off me so I could breathe. “I just started breathing on my own again.”
She jerked away. “That’s not funny, Mandy. Not funny at all.” Tears welled.
“Sorry.” I slid over the edge and landed on my feet. The packed snow crunched beneath my weight. I pulled in a nose-hair-freezing breath and blew it out my mouth. “Okay, that feels good.” I glanced at Nate. “Your breath felt good, too.” I wove my arm around his waist. “Thanks.”
He’d breathed for me, I knew that now. It was his breath, his pounding on my chest that kept me alive.
“That was close,” Tim said. He reached into the back and opened the small cooler. “Here. Drink some water. You okay?”
“I’m fine.” I took the water. “What happened?”
“I heard you yell, ‘nets’. I texted Tim to get Georgia out there.” Nate shook his head. “They were shooting bullets. Not darts.”
“Tell me about it.” I rubbed my shoulder. “A few hit me.”
“I came around the corner and sent up a wall of fire between them. Tim and Nate picked them off. There were, like, fifteen of them, Mandy. Fifteen.”
“Shit.”
“Had to be Bev. The Center Agents use dart guns. They can’t afford for us to die without knowing the whereabouts of the book, I guess. Bev’s Agents seem to have the order to kill on sight.” Nate squeezed me harder, then looked over the dim parking lot of the rest area.
A single building off to my left was where the bathrooms were. There were only two cars in the lot along with a few semi-trucks, but they were dark.
“I fell. The nets wouldn’t allow me to float down.”
“You fell all right. The ice around you shattered into a million pieces. I couldn’t get to you because of the bullets.” Nate’s bottom lip quivered. “I couldn’t get to you.”
“I did, though and sheltered you with my fire, but you were unconscious. Couldn’t throw the healing on,” Georgia said. “But your healing turned on by itself then flickered off. It was the strangest thing.”
“I remember, before I lost consciousness, telling myself to heal.” I drained the rest of the bottle. “But I couldn’t stay awake.”
“Nate carried you to the car and it went on like that for a couple of hours. Healing flickered on and off as we drove west.” Georgia shook her head. “You stopped breathing a few times, Mandy. Stopped breathing.”
“That’s where you came in.” I looked at Nate. “I remember some. Felt it.” I leaned my head against his chest, tears stinging my eyes. “Thank you.”
“As long as I have breath, you will have breath. I promise, Mandy. I’ll never stop protecting you. Never.”
“Your dream,” I whispered. “Was it this?”
&
nbsp; “No the dream was different, but the fact that you were hurt is bad enough.” He sighed. “And we’re going to Colorado. I’ve skimmed some of the paperwork Lois printed and so far it’s similar to what Tim and I saw.”
“And the missing links?”
“After the power we saw today at the bank, we’re in trouble, Mandy. Maybe what I know about The Center’s bases can help this GEM place destroy them.” He looked down at me. “Right now, I can’t see an alternative.”
“Then we’ll go to Colorado and find this Dustin.”
“Well, he’s in Wynot, Arizona. The GEM base is in Colorado,” Lois said. “Do we dare split up?”
“No.” I shook my head. “No splitting up. That’s not good.”
“Can’t just show up at the place, we don’t know where it is. We need to contact him,” Nate said. “Phone would be best.” He glanced at Tim. “No emails.”
“If he’s into something big, his phones would be safe. We know ours are secure, so let’s try it. It’s barely nine in Arizona.”
“Do it,” Nate said. “Then let’s find a place to rest. We’ll hit the road hard tomorrow and drive until we get where we need to be.”
Lois reached into the car and pulled out a black bag, where I assumed she had the papers. I sagged onto the bumper and leaned against the spare tire propped inside. I needed food. Guess that healing shell took it out of me.
Tim, Lois, and Georgia huddled together pointing at papers, looking for the number. I glanced at Nate. He stood tall watching the surroundings.
“You check in with Martin lately? Is the gang back home safe?”
Nate’s eyebrow quirked up. That sent a zinger of fear up my spine. “They’re fine,” he said.
“What?” I straightened.
“You amaze me, that’s all.”
“I do?” Okay that surprised me. I thought something was wrong.
“Near death, just recovered, you heal me, expending more energy, and now you’re focused on people back in Trifle.” He smiled. “And you say I have an old soul.”
“Well, you do, literally,” I said. “I’m a freak of nature.”
“We’re a perfect pair then, because I happen to be a freak of nature as well.” He reached out with his bare hand and combed his fingers through my hair. Then his warm palm cupped the side of my face. “That’s why I—” He cleared his throat. “I—”