by Eva Chase
Where was Lisa? The guards had hauled her off somewhere. To the lab rooms, maybe?
I raced around one corner and another, my pulse chasing the thumps of my feet. Hollers rang out behind me as some of the guards must have arrived to handle the mass outflowing of subjects.
Another guard charged toward me from up ahead. My eyes focused, and his shoes lit up with a blaze of flame. He stumbled over his feet with a shriek, dropping to the floor and slapping at them.
Lisa’s voice pierced my head. Jason! Jason, I’m locked in here in the lab hall. I got rid of the staff with me, but I don’t know how long I have before they come back.
I’m coming, babe. I’m almost there.
I hurtled around the next bend, into the lab area. Someone was tapping against a door halfway down. I ran toward it, sending a flicker of heat through the wires holding it locked.
The bolt rasped over. Lisa shoved the door open and tumbled out to meet me.
She was okay. Scared and confused, but okay. As our eyes met, her jaw tightened with determination, and I could tell she already knew where we were heading.
This is our one chance. We’ve got to go all the way.
I’ll go anywhere if it’s with you, she said, grasping my hand. And I’ve got a few new tricks up my sleeve.
More shouts were carrying down the hall. We took off in the opposite direction. Lisa’s hand squeezed mine, her eyes fluttering shut for a second.
What are you doing? I asked.
Sending voices into the guards’ heads back there. Making them think they can hear us going in a different direction. She gave me a tight smile. Turns out I can do more than just read minds.
Her effort wasn’t enough to divert all of them. Two more guards barged out into the hall in front of us, batons raised. I narrowed my eyes with a fresh surge of power.
The batons jittered in the guards’ hands, expelling a burst of electricity into their own bodies. Enough of a jolt to make their bodies seize and topple. We raced past them as they groaned and twitched in their struggle to regain control of their muscles.
There. The main doors stood straight ahead of us at the far end of the hall. My heart leapt even as my stomach clenched. We had so much farther to go still.
With a heave of the searing energy inside me, I convinced the first steel door to grate open, and then the second. But the third door that loomed ahead of us, black and solid, had no current running through it. Only a keyhole in a panel by the frame.
Fuck. I’d never found an answer to that problem.
We need a key, I said to Lisa.
Who has one?
I’m not even sure. Some of the guards must. Probably the other staff too. But they’re not going to just let us through.
Her head jerked around. Someone’s coming. I think I can do this. But we have to go back.
What?
Trust me.
She tugged me back past the first two doors I’d forced open and to another door in the side of the hall, into a small room that looked like it was used as a closet. Feet clattered by us a few seconds later.
“Where’ve they gone? They can’t have gotten all the way through—”
Then I heard it. Faintly, because she wasn’t conjuring the sounds for me, but I caught the edge of her projection as it passed from her head into theirs. A banging sound, as if someone was thumping their fists against the other side of that slab of a door. Langdon’s voice, hoarse but faint—They’re getting away! Hurry up and help me stop them, you idiots.
If the people in the hall had been calm and collected, the ruse might not have worked. But they were panicked and uncertain. The call threw them into action.
The figures raced forward. A key clicked into the lock. Lisa grasped my arm. We threw ourselves back into the hall just as the last door swung open.
“What—” the researcher standing there started. That was all he had time for before I lit up his shoes and slacks. As he leapt back with a cry, I zapped the three guards who’d joined him with their own batons the way I had the others.
Lisa and I dashed past their toppling bodies, through that final doorway. A single elevator chamber waited for us. I jabbed at the call button with a shock of sparks. The door slid open to reveal the tiny car. We scrambled inside.
I pressed the button to send us up to the surface. It lit up, but the car didn’t move. No current flowed through its wires. Of course. There must be an option in the security system to cut it off.
My body tensed as I summed another flare of energy. I channeled that stream of sparks into the cables that controlled the elevator.
With a thrum, it started to move. Up, up, up, my head aching more with every foot we rose, until I felt as if I were literally pushing the car up toward the surface with my forehead.
Finally the elevator reached the top. The door whispered open to reveal another hallway almost identical to the ones we’d left behind. But I could taste the difference in the air with my first breath. A hint of earthy scent that hadn’t quite been filtered out reached me.
One door left. The sun called out to me from the other side.
I closed my hand around Lisa’s, and we ran.
We were halfway there when the door swung open of its own accord—and a squad of five guards in full combat gear streamed into the hall. They pointed combat rifles straight at us. My heart lurched.
Fire and ammunition would be an explosive mix. A deadly mix.
“Stop where you are!” the guy in the lead snapped.
No. We couldn’t stop, not when we were this close. Not when we’d come this far.
I’m right here with you, Lisa said.
She was. And I could do this, my way.
I jerked to a halt as if I was obeying the command and whipped a bolt of flame toward the weapons. It melted the barrels so the bullets couldn’t shoot through them and fried the releases. Then it flared up through the handles to light the guards’ jackets on fire.
My aim wasn’t perfect. One round of ammunition burst in the midst of the squad, hurling that guard backward. The others stumbled toward the walls as the flames licked over their bodies. Lisa and I dove past them, dodging the guy who was lying on the ground groping his blackened face.
Guilt knotted my gut, but we couldn’t stop. If we did, we’d face even worse.
We’d staggered out into a packed dirt yard surrounded by a tall chain-link fence. A few trucks and jeeps were parked to the side of the driveway.
I ran to one of the jeeps and hauled myself over the door through the open window. Leaning over, I unlocked the passenger side for Lisa. As she jumped in, I pressed my fingers to the ignition. Come on, light for me.
The engine sputtered on. I let out a shaky breath of relief.
You had to do it, Lisa said. He would have shot us, just like all the others. It was the only way out.
That didn’t mean I had to like what I’d done.
I gripped the wheel and swung the jeep around toward the gate. A heavy padlock hung on a chain binding it closed. I stared at it, pouring all the heat I could summon into one of those links as I slammed my foot on the gas.
The metal melted and sagged. The jeep crashed into the gate. The chain snapped, and the gate flew open in our wake. The edge of it smacked the windshield, leaving a crack, but we were out.
I kept my foot pressed on the gas as we roared away from the facility. And sent my mind back there one last time, to sweep away any flames still burning.
I was dangerous, and I accepted that, but the deaths already on my hands were enough.
14
Lisa
“I’ll give you three hundred for it. Take it or leave it.”
The scruffy-looking owner of the equally scruffy auto yard folded his arms over his bulky chest and gave me a glower that was meant to look menacing. But a quick dip inside his head told me all I needed to know.
These kids don’t know what they’re doing. Stealing a vehicle like that... Just means more profit for me.
I’ll follow your lead, Jason replied. I was the one who’d picked out this place of business. When you spent a while scrounging to get by on the streets, you got to know the signs of under-the-table or outright illegal activity. One glance, and I’d been sure this yard operated in part as a chop shop.
As we turned, the owner coughed. “All right. I could go a little higher. But five hundred is my limit.”
Okay. I didn’t want to push things too far. We needed the money, but we also needed to put distance between ourselves and the Facility’s jeep ASAP.
“That sounds a little more reasonable,” I said. “Can we get it in cash?”
The second he’d counted out the fifty-dollar bills and handed me the wad, we hustled out of there. My hair felt heavy on my head, all bunched into the hat I’d grabbed to cover it, but I resisted the urge to peel the thing off. The color was too memorable.
We’ll want to change our clothes, I said. Maybe dye our hair too. What else do people do when they’re on the run in movies?
Sunglasses? Jason suggested. A fake moustache?
I elbowed him. Be serious. Well, actually sunglasses is probably a good idea. Let’s buy the clothes and dye, and then hop on the first train out of here. We can change in the restroom. I don’t want to stick around any longer than we have to.
We’d driven for three hours as fast as the jeep would go before stopping to ditch it, but I wasn’t going to feel safe until we were all the way on the other side of the country. Probably not even then.
After that... I’m not sure what we do next.
We’ll figure it out, Jason said. We got this far. I’m not letting anything get in our way now.
His voice was firmly reassuring, but I could still feel the tension in his body next to mine. His knuckles had stayed white through the entire drive. When he felt me looking at him, he shot me a quick grin, but his expression looked a little strained.
I tugged him to the side, into a narrow alley between a dry cleaners and a diner, where we’d have a little privacy. You know you don’t have to feel guilty about what you did to get us out, don’t you? They’d kept you locked up in there for years. They tortured you. You can’t see it as anything but self-defense.
He bowed his head. I promised myself I’d never let my talent hurt anyone again. But maybe that was the wrong promise to make. It’ll just take some time for me to come to grips with it. What I really regret is all the people still locked up. They don’t deserve to be in there anymore than we did.
Oh, my beautiful, compassionate man. How could he ever have thought he was some kind of monster? We couldn’t have gotten everyone out, I said. Hell, that elevator was only big enough for four. If we’d tried to wait, to help everyone, Langdon would have had time to get the upper hand again. We opened up the way. I’d bet anyone with enough initiative did follow us out.
I hope so. Jason grimaced. I wish I’d gotten a chance to throw a few flames at Langdon. That asshole and his “Alpha Project” delusions of grandeurs...
I took his hand and squeezed it. We pissed all over him by getting out of there. It happened on his watch. Maybe the company or whoever owns that place will fire him over it.
I doubt it. He had some kind of special sway. Jason ran his thumb over the back of my hand and then tugged me into his arms. But I don’t want to think about him or the Facility anymore. We’re moving forward now. He paused. God, we really got out. We can have a real life—together.
His tone was so awed it sent a flutter through my chest. There were no words that could describe how much I loved this man. I gazed up at him with a smile. Yeah. And it’s going to be a great one. I can already feel it.
Jason leaned in to kiss me. His lips brushed mine lightly at first and then deeper as I pulled myself closer to him. The feel of the fire in him under that gentle exterior sent a rush of desire through me. Suddenly I was thinking of all the other things we could get up to behind the closed door of a restroom. And later, on proper beds and wherever else we wanted, with all the time in the world.
We were in this together, the two of us, all the way. And that was exactly where I wanted to be. I’d never been more sure of anything in my life.
My body protested when Jason eased back, even though he didn’t go far, even though I knew we had to get going. I traced my fingers over his cheek. “Getting out of there... You were amazing, you know.”
The grin he gave me then held all the warmth I’d wanted. “So were you, babe. Whatever comes, we’ve got this.”
* * *
30 years after Burning Hearts, Jason and Lisa’s oldest son has been living life on the run, keeping his telekinetic power hidden. When an act of kindness draws Alpha Project’s attention to him, can Jeremy both protect his family and hold onto the woman he’s falling for? Find out in Alpha Project Psychic Romance #1, Colliding Hearts. Pre-order it now!
If you enjoy paranormal romance, why not give my first series, the Demons of Fame Romances, a try? You can grab the first book free here!
Next in the Alpha Project Psychic Romance series
Colliding Hearts (Alpha Project Psychic Romance #1)
He can move anything with his mind. Only she has ever moved his heart.
Jeremy Keane never lets himself get too attached to anything. After all, a single slip of his telekinetic ability can send him on the run. So when he uses his power to save a stranger's life, he knows better than to stick around, even if one look into her big brown eyes makes his defenses melt. If only she weren't so damned persistent.
Grace Trevell knows she's spent too long reeling from her mother's abandonment and her grandmother's death. It's time to make new friends, fall in love, and build a true home for herself. So when a gorgeous guy risks his life saving hers, she's not letting him just walk away. But Jeremy is keeping secrets beyond anything she could imagine.
Then a group of sadistic researchers starts sniffing around town. Leaving is the only way Jeremy can keep his family safe, but that means leaving behind the woman who's stolen his heart. And Grace has already become a target in the battle to exploit his talents...
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Colliding Hearts excerpt
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COLLIDING HEARTS
1
Jeremy
You wouldn’t think that saving one person could put seven others on the line, but hey, welcome to my life.
It seemed like a normal enough day to begin with. Late spring, crisply warm, brilliant sun chasing a few clouds from the sky. I was wandering through one of my favorite haunts, a state park near the city. Insects trilled and birds chattered, but I hadn’t seen or heard another human being in at least an hour. And that was exactly the way I liked it.
I raised my camera to take a shot of the forested landscape. The redwoods were always a big hit on the stock photo sites, especially if I got the lighting perfect. Desert-y panoramas brought in a good amount of cash too. Lucky for me, this place offered both. If I could get some close-ups on the local wildlife, I’d be doing even better.
Treading a little farther into the forest, I came across a sapling hunched over—probably bowed by the big storm we’d had a few days ago and too weak to stretch itself back up. But it’d make an eerie photo for someone’s ad or book cover.
I framed the tree in the lens and frowned. The branches brushed just a little too close to the ground to make for a solid composition.
Well, I could fix that easily enough. That was one more benefit to doing my work out here, completely by myself. I glanced around, confirming that I still had no company except the birds and the bees. Perfect. Anticipation was already rippling through me. I’d learned it was a good idea to find outlets for my talent where I could. Otherwise the power would start itching at me until it bled out into the world when I least wa
nted it to.
I brought the camera back to my eye and raised my other hand. Energy tickled down my spine and through my muscles. I focused on the tree, the curve of the branches, the angle of the trunk.
With a twist of my fingers, the energy in me pushed out. It pushed the branches up, just a few inches higher off the ground.
Now we were talking. I snapped a few shots before I released my distant hold on the tree. The branches sagged back down. The sight of that crumpled form made my stomach twist, just a little.
If I’d been capable of it, I’d have straightened the tree up permanently. But my ability only let me move things around, not completely change their shape in any functional way. Useful for some situations, not so much for others.
My camera caught a squirrel perched on a stump and a butterfly fluttering over a flowering shrub. Then I broke off a clump of those flowers. With a flick of my hand and a pulse of my talent, I propelled the clump up through the air toward a crook between a tree branch and its trunk. I was just settling the flowers into that spot, picturing the images I’d capture, when voices carried through the forest.
My hand jerked down. The clump of flowers thumped to the ground. The tingling energy that had been streaming through my body fled me. I spun around, my pulse hiccupping.
The people I’d heard weren’t even in sight yet. I could hardly make out any of the words they were saying.
I exhaled slowly, willing myself to relax. If I couldn’t see them, these hikers couldn’t have seen me—couldn’t have witnessed me moving things with my mind. That was exactly why I let myself exercise my ability out here, where I could notice anyone approaching well before they caught up with me.
Still, my hand dropped to the lump in my pocket—the worn shard of glass I always kept on me. My thumb traced its outline through the fabric. I could still see exactly how it had cracked out of the windshield...