“Honey?” my mom immediately said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, are you still tracking the energy?”
“Of course, but there isn’t anything significant.” Her voice sounded worried.
“Okay, keep watching and stay safe. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I ended the call just in time to see a shimmering cloud blasting through the door. Kenna materialized in the middle of the room, her long dark hair flying around her shoulders, her hazel eyes narrowed.
“Where’s my brother?” she yelled.
“We don’t know,” Marissa said. “But we’ll find him.”
“It’s all your fault!” She glared at Jaiden and me. “You let him come with you and you knew how dangerous that was!”
“Kenna...” I said, getting to my feet. “Nick made his decision and he wanted to help. We have to focus on finding him instead of laying blame on someone.”
“And you’re doing a great job, I see.” She crossed her arms. “You just sit here and wait for a miracle!”
“That’s not true. We’ve been looking everywhere all week,” Sam said, and he was right. Jaiden had even contacted his father about the satellite, but we hadn’t gotten any images of the house when Nick had been taken.
“Obviously not everywhere because you would’ve already found him!” she screeched.
“Kenna, please...” Jaiden started to say and was thrown back by her air.
“Oh, no, don’t talk to me! You keep ruining my life, you...”
“Kenna!” I stepped in her way so she couldn’t go for Jaiden. “We’re all worried about your brother, and we’ll find him. I promise.”
“Yeah, you keep saying that.” She scowled. “Empty promises don’t mean a thing to me. I’m going to go find him myself.”
She turned on her heel and made a step toward the door when a beep made all of us look at the computer. Something was flashing on the screen. It was a red line with two words written across it: play me.
“What’s that?” Marissa asked, staring at the computer in shock. “I didn’t press anything, did I?”
“Looks like someone’s hacked into our system,” Sam said. “Should we play it?”
“I... I don’t know.” I looked at Jaiden, who just shrugged.
“Play it,” Kenna said.
“Weren’t you leaving?” Ashley asked.
“No. Maybe it’s about my brother. Play it already!”
“Okay.” Marissa’s finger hovered over the keyboard and we all inched closer, our eyes focused on the screen. An image of Sophia’s face came into view.
“Hello, tainteds,” she said. “Oh, don’t be so surprised. It wasn’t that hard to reach you. I have something of yours.”
We exchanged glances, and I wondered if Sophia could watch us somehow, but she was probably just guessing our reaction. Marissa gasped and Kenna cried out as the camera focused on Nick and Noah. They were tied to metal beds, their eyes closed. The camera returned to Sophia.
“If you want to see your friends alive, you will come to Fortery Bridge... number one... in three hours. I’ll meet you there and then we can negotiate. I want all of you to come... all of you. If one tainted is missing, I just might do something...” She glanced over her shoulder and the camera lifted to show Nick and Noah behind her. “...to your precious friends. And don’t even think about showing this video to anyone because it will self-destruct in twenty seconds and no one will be able to recover it. If I see anyone else, any regulars, the cops, or anyone who doesn’t belong to your little group, your friends will suffer the consequences.”
The video froze and then vanished from the screen.
“She has them!” Marissa stated the obvious, her face pale. “We have to...”
For a change, Kenna was quiet, her gaze still glued to the part of the screen where the video had been.
“What are we going to do?” Sam asked. “What does she want with all of us?”
“We can’t go,” Ashley said. “If we do, she’s just going to kill us all. It’s a trap. It has to be.”
“But we can’t just let her kill them!” Marissa’s eyes were wide. “Maybe she doesn’t want to kill us. Maybe she really wants to talk.”
“Talk?” Ashley said. “Yeah, right. And tell us what? To hand over Jaiden and Moira to her in exchange?”
“Maybe,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck. It made sense. If Sophia got us and turned us over to the cops or even just caught us, her supporters would be happier than ever and maybe she’d gain even more of them.
“We’re not doing that,” Sam said determinedly.
“We don’t know what she wants!” Kenna said. “But if she wants the two of them, let her have them!”
I went over to Jaiden, placing my hand on his chest. “What are we going to do? We can’t not go, but we can’t put everyone else at risk.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” he said. “If she wanted only us, she would’ve told us to come alone.”
“Yeah, it’s a trap. We just don’t know what kind of a trap.” I sighed.
“Can’t we just do something? Alert someone?” Ashley asked.
“Are you insane?” Marissa shot her a glare. “Sophia will know and hurt Noah and Nick!”
Sam worried his lower lip between his teeth. “So we’re going? And whatever happens, happens?”
“It looks like we don’t have a choice.” I clenched my jaw. There was no way I’d let Sophia hurt my friends.
“But if she catches us all?” Ashley clutched her arms to her stomach as if she were in pain.
“She could have done it already. There has to be something else she wants.” I frowned. “She might want us to do something for her.”
“And what is it that we could do that she can’t?” Sam asked.
“Make us look bad in the press,” I said.
“Oh, shit,” Sam said. “If she’s such a powerful mind controller, she’ll force us to do things we don’t want to and unleash us on the city! We’ll be the monsters she wants everyone to believe we are!”
“Where is this Fortery Bridge?” Kenna asked. “We only have three hours!”
“It’s on the outskirts of the city,” Jaiden said.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Kenna’s eyebrows shot up.
“No, we can’t just go there and...” Marissa started.
“Sure we can. We’re powerful, and together we can make those people pay for taking my brother!” Kenna interrupted. “If Jaiden could fight off Sophia’s supporters with one air shield, imagine what we could do!”
“Sophia probably wasn’t among them, and neither was her friend Terry,” I said. “She could’ve gotten other elementals or even tainteds to work for her in the meantime.”
“She better not mind-control my brother to go against me,” Kenna said. “I’ve had it with that mind-controlling bullshit!”
“We need to be ready for a fight,” Sam said. “Should we take weapons? Element-blockers that we could maybe use on Sophia’s men?”
“Yes to all of that,” I said, taking my phone out and typing a quick text to my mom so she’d know where we were going and so she could send help if we didn’t come back in a few hours. No matter what Sophia planned, she couldn’t blame us for calling backup if she tried anything other than talking to us.
“How does she even know about all of us?” Sam asked.
“She could’ve forced it out of Nick and Noah, or maybe she found us in some old Elemontera files.” I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. Everyone, grab any weapon you can find. We’ll need it.” If Sophia wanted a fight, she would get one.
Chapter 19
I materialized as soon as I landed in front of a big panel with a number one written on it. It was right in front of a huge mansion surrounded by tall trees and a high, black fence. Letting go of Marissa, who I’d been carrying with me, I looked around, but I couldn’t see anything. Was Sophia waiting for us inside?
“This is..
. weird,” Ashley said. “Are we sure this is the right place?”
“Yeah, this is it,” Jaiden said. Sam approached the fence, reaching out toward it. As his finger was about to touch it, the whole fence shuddered and opened, letting us pass into a big garden. A stone pathway was leading straight to the mansion, and on each side of it were perfectly round green bushes and flowers.
“Whoa, I wonder who Sophia had to mind-control to get her hands on this,” Sam said, his mouth hanging open as he twirled around to see every part of the garden.
“Do you see any guards?” I asked Jaiden, who shook his head. Where was everyone? I expected Sophia would greet us with her guards or that someone would be watching us, but we couldn’t see anyone, which didn’t mean there wasn’t a hidden camera or that an invisible elemental wasn’t hiding somewhere.
But as Kenna stepped on one of the stones, a wall of green light appeared out of nowhere, and she jumped back. “What the hell?”
Sam slowly put out his hand toward where the light had been, and as his fingers glided through what seemed to be empty air, the green light flashed again. “What is that?” He pulled back, staring at his fingers in wonder.
“It looks like some kind of a force field,” Jaiden said, taking a step toward it. The glowing, green, see-through wall appeared again, but Jaiden didn’t stop moving. He went right through it, and the wall disappeared again.
Ashley crouched and peeked at the bushes. “I don’t see the power source.”
“It could be some kind of mix of magic and technology,” Jaiden said. “It doesn’t hurt. Just feels a bit strange, as if you were submerging yourself in water.”
“Should we go through?” Ashley gave me a hesitant look.
“I guess.” I started forward. The wall didn’t seem to be harming anyone, so I went through. My whole body felt heavy for a moment, and the green light appeared again. An idea sprung into my mind. “It’s protection.”
“What?” Sam asked as he gingerly stepped through.
“I think it can tell if we’re tainted elementals. Maybe it detects if there are two types of elemental energy present and that’s why it’s green.” It would explain why Sophia didn’t need guards here to check who was coming. This wall could immediately alert her if someone else tried to pass.
The scary thought was that Sophia had gotten her hands on such a device, but maybe it had been here with the house. She could’ve tweaked it to fit her desires, because the original owner might have used it to keep magic disease carriers away by not letting anyone without an element pass, or maybe to let in only people of a certain element. It seemed like a nice anti-theft protection if only family members were allowed in.
“This better not mess me up,” Kenna said. When we were all on the other side of the wall, we strode toward the mansion. As we climbed the stairs that led to the entrance, I kept expecting someone to pop up, but there wasn’t anyone.
Jaiden stopped in front of the door, eyeing it suspiciously. “Should we knock or what?”
I was about to open my mouth to answer when the door simply slid open.
“Creepy,” Ashley said.
We poked our heads inside, and when we were sure no one was there to attack us, we went in. The foyer was huge, and there was a long hallway in front of us that led to multiple doors and a stairway. The modernly designed furniture was in vivid blue and red colors, and everything was neat and perfectly clean, as if it were just for an exhibition and not for use.
“Sophia! We’re here!” Kenna yelled. “Show yourself. I want my brother back!”
“Yeah, I think she knows we’re here,” Marissa said.
“Then where the fuck is she?” Kenna huffed.
“She’s going to let us wait. Wonderful,” Ashley said, checking her watch. “Our three hours are up, so I don’t know why she isn’t...”
The door closed behind us, and before we could react, a gray metal panel slid over every window and over the door.
“Shit! What’s going on?” Sam nearly bumped into me.
“The house is in lockdown,” Jaiden said. “She trapped us inside.”
Kenna used her water against the metallic protection, but her element was simply absorbed into it.
“What’s that?” Marissa stammered, and we all looked in the direction she was pointing. A robot resembling a human glided toward us, raising its arms. Snowballs started to shoot out of its arms, and I called to my fire, melting the snowballs before they could reach us. The robot continued firing, and I kept catching the balls. Gritting my teeth, I sent a big blast of fire at it and toppled it over.
“Watch out!” Marissa yelled as a bunch of fireballs came out of nowhere. I ducked, pulling Sam with me, and we hit the floor. Marissa created a wall of water and shoved the fireballs back to the holes in the wall from which they were coming from. Just as the assault ended, Ashley rolled over to avoid the branches that had shot out of the ground and wrapped themselves around her legs. She tried to use her element on them, but the branches wouldn’t bend to her will.
Sam scrambled to his feet and used his own earth on the branches, and together the two of them managed to cut them. As I raised my head to see where the others were, Jaiden’s air encircled me just in time to protect me from a gush of water that surged from another hole in the wall that I could’ve sworn hadn’t been there a moment earlier.
“What is this place?” Kenna yelled as she fought a burst of water with her own, trying to hold it back. The ground started to shake, and I had to jump up so I wouldn’t fall into the hole that had formed.
“No idea!” I said. Fire burst through the opening, almost as if it were a volcano, and I directed my own fire at it. My hands were shaking as I pushed against the force of the fire, and I had a feeling we were fighting against real elements somehow. I just wasn’t sure how that was possible.
Soon everyone was trying to fight off the elemental attacks. Jaiden was shooting fire at the snowballs. Marissa was facing a water spurt. Kenna was huddled in a corner, trying to avoid a strong gust of air. Ashley was attempting to gain control over leaves and branches that were constantly shooting out of the ground, and Sam was doing his best to help.
“I can’t hold it anymore!” Marissa said. “It’s not stopping!”
The fire volcano was still strongly pushing against me, no matter how hard I tried to turn it off. Its energy seemed never-ending. “We have to find a way to shut it down!” We couldn’t fight these things forever. Sooner or later our energy would give out, and these things didn’t look like they were about to slow down.
“Look for a switch! It has to be somewhere! Or its power source!” Jaiden said. Doing my best to keep the fire in check, I slowly made my way around it and tried to find its source. But it was hard to see anything through the flames. Suddenly the fire changed direction and surged right toward me, shoving me back.
“I don’t think this can be shut down from in here,” Sam yelled. “There are no switches or buttons or anything!”
“There has to be something!” Jaiden beat down an avalanche of snowballs and turned into air, but as he flew up, he collided with a yellow net that became visible only after he touched it. A cry escaped his lips and he tumbled to the ground. Forgetting the fire for a moment, I used my air to catch him before he hit the ground. Laying him gently onto the floor, I glanced at the fire, which seemed to have ceased for a moment.
“Guys, did you try not fighting it?” I asked, and Sam looked at me as if I were crazy.
“That would be a terrible idea,” Marissa said. “These things would... kill us.”
“The fire stopped blasting me while I...” Another surge of fire made me yelp, and I quickly used my own element against it. “Scratch that, I was wrong.”
“Someone is controlling it,” Jaiden said through his teeth as he got up. The snowballs had stopped, but only until Jaiden regained his balance. Then he had to fight them off again.
“She’s toying with us!” Kenna yelled.
“That’s why there are no switches. She has to be controlling this from another room,” Marissa said.
“But why?” I couldn’t understand Sophia’s actions. If she wanted us dead, she wouldn’t have stopped the attack until we regained our strength or composure, or would she?
“I don’t know,” Marissa said, struggling against the water. “But I can’t...”
The wave of water became too much and it slammed into Marissa, washing her down the hallway, toward one of the rooms.
“Marissa!” I yelled, but before I could use my air to try and catch her, a blast of wind made me press myself against the floor and cover my head. As the wind died down, I lifted my eyes and saw Sam being dragged away by a long vine. Ashley screamed as branches wrapped around her wrists and ankles and tossed her aside.
I lifted myself up, avoiding the fire, but a surge of water slammed into me. Pain erupted through my body, black spots dancing in my vision as I fought to breathe. My back hit the wall, and I could hear Jaiden yelling my name. The sounds were muffled as something picked me up and threw me through a door. I slid across the hard floor, my wet hair plastered to my forehead.
Blinking, I tried to clear my vision. When I was sure the strange force that had carried me wasn’t around anymore, I took a slow breath and pushed myself up. The door closed with a thud, some kind of a yellowish glow appearing over it for a moment and then vanishing. I was sure that if I touched it, it would turn yellow again.
The room I was in was small and completely empty. There weren’t any windows or exits. The walls were painted with colorful lines, stylish swirls, and unidentifiable shapes. Even the floor was ornamented with black circles and flowery symbols.
Suddenly the whole room started to shake, and I stopped in the center of it, standing right over a black circle. Something was going to come out of the wall. I was sure of it. The only thing I didn’t know was if I could survive and defeat it.
Chapter 20
Hunted (Tainted Elements, #5) Page 11