In the corner of her eye, she saw Winter rushing out the door too, her wounds ‘present’ but already not bleeding, just as Freya’s third eye focused intently on the terrified woman staring up at her.
However, what Freya saw was worse than she anticipated.
Suddenly, the monster was horrified by the atrocities residing within the mind of a true monster, disguised as a terrified young woman.
❖ ❖ ❖
Sam Archer
April 27, 2735 – Current Day – Late Morning
Today was the day, and I’d never been so impatient in my entire life. I was doing my best to get some reports read, since apparently it was actually possible to fall behind and end up with a backlog of required reading, but I was finding it difficult to focus. It was one of those things where Jackie might send me a message at any time, though I was also fully aware they might be assholes and wait until midnight or something stupid like that.
I was also nervous about them finding some way to screw me over, but at this point I was desperate for almost anything – even just a confirmation of my current suspicions about what I was capable of.
I looked up at Lexi when she set her own tablet down with a heavy sigh, realizing my thoughts had been on Freya without me realizing it, only for her to look at me with a mischievous grin.
“Need some stress relief?” she wondered seductively with a wink.
I thought about that. Honestly, kind of did, but also…
Lexi leaned forward, resting her hand on my knee. “I’d like to go to lunch in just a few minutes, so I don’t want to take the time to get there myself,” she rubbed her hand firmly up my thigh. “But I wouldn’t mind a little taste of dessert first, if you’ll let me take care of you.”
Ah shit.
She definitely knew how to make an offer I couldn’t refuse.
I smirked. “Sure,” I agreed.
She giggled. “I like you so much.”
“I like you too,” I agreed, knowing there was something almost more significant and meaningful about saying it in that manner. Because we might love someone we didn’t particularly like, and while I did love Lexi, I also really liked her too. I mean, I liked all the women in my life, but Lexi made a point to emphasize that.
She didn’t just love me. She also really liked me, a lot.
I gently ran my fingers through her hair as she unbuttoned my pants and went to work, deciding to focus on the intimacy of this form of affection, as opposed to just getting there.
“I love you,” I whispered as she worked me closer and closer.
Once she was done, she gave me a kiss, said she loved me too, and then sat back down at her desk, focusing on her monitors so I’d have time to cool off a little. A few minutes later and we were walking out of her office to head to lunch.
When we got into the massive lounge, I discovered that a ton of people were already there, including Nick, Tyrone, Benjamin, and Max, as well as a handful of other people who I hadn’t taken the time to meet yet – too much time spent hanging out in Lexi’s office to really socialize.
I greeted the few who said hi, including Nick, and then walked over to the fancy vending machines that would prepare a wide selection of hot meals right before your eyes. Making my selection, I noticed Lexi looking over at Vivian, sitting in one of the armchairs, a book in hand as she took bites from a salad sitting on the low coffee table in front of her.
Lexi looked up at me then, her voice low. “You don’t mind if I say hi, do you? I haven’t talked to her in a while.”
I was surprised she’d even ask. “Yeah, of course Lexi. You don’t have to ask me for permission for something like that.”
She smiled warmly at me. “I really like you,” she commented again, giving my arm a gentle squeeze before walking away. I knew she wanted to give me a peck on the lips instead, but we had appearances to maintain while at work.
Grabbing my sizzling fajita, which I realized I’d selected because I had Winter in the back of my mind for some reason – a very brief and faint sensation of aggression washing over me – I made my way to the table and sat down next to Benjamin – the Rockstar hornet guy, boasting unnaturally red hair – in response to him pulling out the chair next to him.
Nick was across the table, two chairs down. He grinned at me when I sat.
“How’s it going, Sam?” he asked cheerfully, working on a slice of supreme pizza.
“Pretty good,” I replied. “I didn’t realize you worked on Saturdays.”
He shrugged. “I actually don’t. But Zoey’s got a girl’s day with some of her friends from college, so I figured I’d come in.”
Damn, you knew work was a fun place to be when people came in on their days off. And honestly, since we were all paid salary, it kind of gave it that extra feel of being able to come in without feeling pressured to actually work a ton. Nick didn’t have to be here, didn’t technically have to do any work even though he was here, and could leave at any time. Combined with the chill and relaxed, college-like, feeling of the environment here, and I could understand how he felt.
“Cool,” I replied. “We’ll have to hang out together sometime too. Although, probably not in the next month. Too much going on.” Or two months , I amended in my thoughts, since I had two women I was trying to date in addition to my fiancés, and might not have the time for a while.
“Actually,” Nick replied, giving me an odd look. “We should probably hang out real soon.” He cleared his throat. “If you know what I mean.”
Shit, Nick! Way to be awkward! Suddenly everyone was looking at the two of us questioningly. But did that mean someone from the shadow organization had contacted him finally? I assumed it must.
I did my best to remain composed, acting like the suggestive comment wasn’t weird at all, as I attempted to play along. “Oh, shit. I’m sorry Nick, I completely forgot about that thing you wanted to work on. Yeah, definitely.”
Benjamin laughed, making some remark that probably only someone like Nick could appreciate, but I wasn’t focused anymore. Suddenly a weird sensation hit me, the pit of my stomach feeling uncomfortable, as I randomly thought of Freya.
Pulling out my phone, I went ahead and sent her a quick message, just to check up on her, though I knew she should be doing perfectly fine.
Looking up again to try to get back into the conversation, hoping no one realized I’d stopped paying attention, I unexpectedly noticed that Radley had just come in from the other door and walked up to Lexi and Vivian socializing. My first impulse was to jump up and get in his face – to finally mark my territory and stake my claim – but I knew only Lexi could truly shut the guy down.
However, as I focused on her, it was almost as if I could imagine what Radley was saying, even though I couldn’t clearly hear their conversation from this distance.
“What do you want?” Lexi snapped, obviously annoyed.
“Your little boyfriend or whatever, you realize he’s with that goth chick, right? Fowler or whatever her name is? She read my mind, and basically said she belonged to him.”
Lexi unexpectedly glanced over at me, before she focused on Radley, her eyes narrow.
“Yeah, I’m aware,” she snapped, sounding even more aggravated. “What of it?”
Radley just gawked at her, as if this particular outcome wasn’t something he imagined happening.
“W-Well, isn’t he like engaged or something too? To someone else?”
Lexi rolled her eyes. “Radley, it’s none of your damn business. Not his life. Not my life. I dumped you years ago, and I have no intentions on ever dating you again. So move on already. You and I are never going to be a thing ever again.”
It was obvious he was pissed now. “Well, you should probably know the guy you’re letting hang onto you so much is cheating on a ton of women.”
Lexi glared at him. “Actually, no he’s not,” she snapped back, only to look concerned, like she’d said too much. She tried to recover. “And you’re one to talk,” sh
e hissed.
“Don’t change the subject,” he snarled, his fists clenched. “That’s a bunch of bullshit and you know it. Obviously, he’s got multiple women he’s screwing around with, and the only way that wouldn’t be cheating, would be if…” Suddenly his voice trailed off, his green eyes widening in shock.
“It’s none of your business,” Lexi repeated, only to give Vivian an apologetic look. “I’ll let you get back to your book. Just wanted to say hi.”
“Sure,” Vivian said simply, holding her book up again, ignoring them both now.
Lexi began walking away, only for him to reach out to grab her arm.
An astral limb shot out of my body when I saw Radley reach for Lexi, but then I hesitated, already feeling like I knew what was going to happen. And sure enough, the moment his fingers just barely touched her, an arc of electricity shot into his body and blew him off his feet, causing him to fly halfway across the room before he landed hard on his ass.
Someone at the table whistled appreciatively, with it having drawn everyone’s attention.
Crackles of energy rippled around her for half a second, while she glared back at him, before she straightened her shoulders and moved over to the vending machine to grab herself a meal. All the while, Vivian kept her nose in her book, occasionally stabbing her fork into her salad, as if everything was business-as-usual.
I decided to get up and walk over to Lexi, suddenly feeling like I had to make sure we were okay.
“Hey,” I whispered when I got next to her side. “You know Winter and I aren’t really together, right?”
Lexi looked up at me in surprise. “Well, yeah,” she replied just as quietly. “But I know you might eventually. Which is fine,” she added, focusing on her meal. Her brow then furrowed. “But how did you know that’s what we were arguing about? Were we really that loud?”
I thought about that.
“It’s one of those things again, isn’t it?” she assumed. “Where you just kind of knew what was going on.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I guess it must be.” I sighed. “I can’t wait to see my evaluation. I really hope there’s an explanation on there for what’s going on. Maybe even some guidance on how to control it too.”
Lexi nodded, lifting the glass flap to grab her meal – just a sizzling chicken salad with Italian dressing.
Unexpectedly, someone burst through the door behind us, with it slamming against the wall. Lexi and I both looked automatically – her from irritation, likely assuming it was Radley, whereas I was focused in alarm , seeing the person in my second-sight first.
Jackie looked panicked as she focused on me.
“Sam, we just got a call to your house for an arrest. The local police are already on their way.”
The blood immediately drained from my face, having no idea what she meant by that. Arresting someone from my family? Or had someone attacked our home?
“Come on,” she continued before I could respond. “They’re already warming up one of the company helicopters. I’ll go with you.”
I immediately pulled out my phone as I took off to follow her back through the door, with Lexi just putting her salad down right on the floor and running to catch up. I was already calling Freya when I finally was close enough to probe for more information, keeping up with Jackie’s quick pace as we raced through the office.
“Do you know anything more about what’s going on?” I asked urgently, feeling more panicked when Freya’s phone went to voicemail.
“Only that Winter Fowler called in the arrest. That’s all I’ve got right now.”
Shit. I wasn’t sure if I was relieved or more worried, because that meant they weren’t trying to arrest someone I cared about, but also meant they were arresting someone else . Shit! And worse, I knew Nancy was supposed to be visiting, which meant she probably got mixed up in the mess too.
As Jackie, Lexi, and I got onto an elevator that would take us directly to the roof, my phone call finally went through, with me about to try everyone else’s phones if this second attempt didn’t work.
“Is everyone safe?” I asked right away, hearing Eden crying in the background.
“Sam, it’s me,” Lily replied. “We’re okay.”
“What’s going on?”
“I don’t know. Everything just happened so fast and…” She paused, only to sound overwhelmed. “Sam, I’m too hot right now. I had to put Eden down, and Heidi’s trying to comfort Rose, and–” She sucked in a breath, like she was hyperventilating, probably from the realization that she couldn’t be there for Eden because she might hurt her.
I took a deep breath of my own, knowing that my panicked questions weren’t helping. Everyone was safe. Winter and Freya were probably taking care of the situation. I just had to go from there.
“Okay, Lily, deep breath.” I paused to give her a chance to listen. “Now, have Heidi take care of Eden, and you take care of Rose. She like’s your warm hugs, remember? I’m on my way, okay?”
Lily sucked in another deep breath. “Okay. Please hurry. Freya, she’s, she’s, I don’t know. She’s just sitting outside, holding her head. Sam, I don’t know what to do.”
“Focus on Rose,” I repeated. “Just focus on that. Have Heidi take care of Eden. Okay? That’s all you have to do for right now. I’m on my way.”
“Okay,” she repeated simply, only to hang up.
I sucked in another shaky breath as I tried to get ahold of myself. I didn’t even realize Lexi was holding onto my arm, until she suddenly squeezed tighter. No one said anything as we exited onto the roof and climbed into the helicopter, with a pilot and two armed men accompanying us.
Jackie began having a conversation with the pilot over the headset, but I wasn’t listening, worried about Freya now. Suddenly, it’s like all I could see in my mind’s eye was her sitting against the edge of the house, her knees up, her head in her hands, her expression vacant like she was both shocked and traumatized.
Freya sat against the edge of the house with her knees up, her hands grasping her head, barely keeping it together as her body trembled.
She knew Winter was on top of Nancy, her knee in her back, her hands secured in her powerful grasp, yet the two other women might as well be an entire lifetime away, as Freya found herself lost in the past.
Screaming.
The screaming of thousands of dying children – one of those children all too familiar.
I knew my imagination was just going into overdrive, but the image in my head just felt too real.
The trip back home was a nerve-wracking one. We were pretty much taking the fastest mode of transportation available to us, yet it still felt like every minute was an eternity. The whole time Lexi held tightly onto my arm, my clenched hand in her lap, since we were in a pair of seats side-by-side.
It wasn’t until the pilot spoke up again in the headset that I realized that we were close…
And that there was a problem.
“I can’t land in the field around the house. With the rain last night, it looks too muddy – skids could get stuck.”
“What about the road?” Jackie asked seriously.
“I may have to take us a mile up, because here’s not a good spot. And I can’t block the cruisers anyway.”
There were six cruisers down below, all of them on the road, since our gate wasn’t opened up all the way, as if someone had manually turned the system off. I could also see a beige car in our yard too, with the hood dented in like a boulder had smashed into it, as well as a group of officers surrounding Winter as she talked a mile-a-minute.
Focusing on her, I could almost just imagine what she was telling them.
“Look,” Winter said firmly, trying to ignore the nasty bite on her arm that would take at least a week to heal on its own without Heidi’s help. “I can’t give you more than that right now. Just take her in. You can’t even begin to imagine how many deaths she’s responsible for. She needs to be prosecuted for homicide, infanticide, pseudocide, insurance
fraud, illegal cloning – the list just goes on and on. And she’s just the tip of the iceberg for a much bigger criminal organization.”
“It’s fine,” I snapped into the headset at the pilot. “Just get close to the house. I’ll jump.”
“Sam,” Lexi said in alarm.
“I’ll be fine,” I reassured her, reaching out with an astral limb and gently wrapping it around her wrist. “And not just because I can regenerate. Shouldn’t even have to.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, realizing the implications. “Then, can you take me with you?”
I thought about that. “Yeah, I can.”
“Wait,” Jackie said in alarm, as we both began undoing our harnesses. “You can’t be serious! Sam, you might be okay, but Lexi can’t survive a fall like that!” She then screamed when I grabbed her with an astral limb around the ankle, causing the other men to wince, only to realize it was me.
“We’ll be fine,” I reassured her, lifting Lexi up into the air without touching her, only to deposit her in my outstretched arms, while keeping one astral limb wrapped around her waist to ensure she remained tethered to me.
Needless to say, while Jackie had some clue of what I was capable of, she’d never really seen it in action. Her green eyes were wide as she tried to wrap her mind around this. Not to mention, the other guy who was sitting in the rear with us – he looked like he was about to shit his pants.
“You better keep her safe!” she finally snapped, even though it was obvious I wasn’t waiting for her permission.
No, I was just waiting until we were a little closer.
“Of course,” I agreed, not looking at her, with Lexi tightening her arms around my neck. “It’s what I’ve always done, since the first day I met her.”
And with that, I took off my headset with an invisible limb and leapt out of the cabin, rapidly picking up speed as I started freefalling straight down, my astral limbs shooting out as far as they could reach, just ready to find purchase on the ground the moment they made contact.
The Powerful Pride of an Immortal (Immortal Supers Book 4) Page 34
