Daz held the rifle easily at his waist. “You and Drake were supposed to stay with us.”
Alec lowered his hand. “What matters is that we got her.”
“No, what matters is we were supposed to do this together. We agreed. How did you get her?”
“She escaped by herself,” Alec said. “And quit your stupid hissy fit long enough for us to get out of here.”
Daz pointed at Alec. “The next time you have to deal with an underground complex, a telepath, a spook and a lovesick firestarter, let’s see how pissed you get.”
Beth ignored the headache and tried to make sense of all the voices demanding to be heard. Daz didn’t trust Philip or her and he wasn’t completely sure about Alec. Neither Philip nor Alec was sure if Daz could be trusted.
This is my rescue team?
Her headache grew worse. Like a sinus headache, it pounded behind her eyes, almost as if her skull would explode. Lesson one: Don’t read so many people at the same time—just shut them out.
Gabe tapped some sort of device strapped to his wrist. “We’re in trouble. I bypassed the alarms but one of them went off about five minutes ago anyway. We’re running out of time.”
“Commander,” Philip said, voice as sharp as a slap. Everyone stared up at him. “What are the odds of an ambush on the other side of this door?”
Daz frowned. “The alarm’s down here. That’s where they’ll send the goon squad first. Well, some of them.”
“So we assume there’s an army out there. Battle ready through the door,” Philip said. “Commander, if you’re going to back us up, get up here.”
Daz scowled but walked up the flight of steps and stopped next to her. Beth shrank back against Philip. Daz scared her. Why? He gestured with his hand to Alec and her memory flashed on the night she’d been taken, when he’d gestured just like that to another soldier. Daz had picked her up off the floor in Maine.
“Let’s go, Drake,” Alec said.
Philip nodded. “I go, then you, then the team, protecting Beth…”
“…And if they fail, they won’t live long enough to regret it.”
Beth winced at the intensity of Philip’s thought and caught an image of two Resource guards shot in the back of the head. I don’t want to see that. She imagined a wall around her. She blinked. That worked. She imagined opening a door to Alec and only Alec. That worked too. The pounding in her head eased.
“Alec, you’ll protect Philip? He’s in bad shape.”
“I will. Trust me.”
“I do.”
She gritted her teeth, bit her lip and let Daz and the other two soldiers surround her. They were careful not to brush against her and she realized they were as afraid of her as she was of them.
Philip pushed down the metal handle of the steel door and released the bolts at the top and bottom. He punched in a code and turned the handle again. The door opened and he dashed through. Alec followed, one step behind.
She held her breath. Alec reappeared almost immediately. “Clear.”
She rushed out from behind F-Team and raced through the door. Alec grabbed her hand as she entered the hallway, and the walls inside her mind came tumbling down.
“Alec, let go of my hand, dammit.”
He dropped it. “Sorry. Forgot again. You’re just irresistible, counselor.”
“That’s not funny. Do you have any idea how much that hurts?”
“Sorry.”
“At least I know there’s no one else in this hallway, so it accomplished something. And you can trust Daz. But your team doesn’t like risking a fight.”
She imagined the walls around her brain again and the headache lessened. She recognized this as the ground floor of the Resource where she’d met with Alec. Unlike below, the walls on this floor were pastel-colored and decorated with classic art prints. She sighed as her feet sank into the carpet. The rough fibers felt like silk after all that cold linoleum and sharp metal.
Philip opened his mouth to speak and was instantly drowned out by a blaring alarm. The lights went out.
Shit.
Chapter Nineteen
Red lights flickered above them. They appeared on the ceiling tiles in a straight line, casting everyone in an eerie glow. Shit had really hit the fan.
But we’re together. I can protect her now.
“Nearest exit,” Alec said in a low voice. “Go.”
They ran, passing Beth’s old office. She kept close behind him. Drake brought up the rear, behind Daz and the other two soldiers. They stopped for a second at an intersection with the second hallway. One more, and they’d be out on the grounds.
Alec sent the TK ahead, searching for anything moving. Nothing. “Let’s go.”
“Philip,” Beth said.
Alec turned. Drake was leaning against the wall, hardly able to stand.
“Go ahead,” Drake said through gritted teeth. “Now.”
“Not without you,” she said.
“Support him,” Alec ordered Daz and the others, “Beth, you stay with me.”
Daz put his arm around Drake’s waist and took his weight. “Watch when we get to the door, Firefly. They’ve got gas pressure-rigged to go off.”
Shit. “I’ll handle it.”
“Better or we’ll all end up in the brig or worse,” Gabe muttered.
Slowed by Drake, they moved more at a walk than run. This was not the rescue Alec had envisioned. He doubted Drake had expected it either.
“It’s better than being a prisoner, trust me, Alec.”
He could have kissed her. And he would, soon as they were out of here. The sound of boots thudding against carpet grew louder.
A group of Resource soldiers rounded the turn behind them. The guards wore body armor and helmets with dark shields that covered their faces. They raised their rifles. Two of them had tranq guns. Fuck.
“Total fucking mess,” Daz muttered, bringing his rifle to his shoulder.
Alec flexed his hands, marshaling his fire.
“Stand down, now,” the guard in the middle said. “Do what I say and no one gets hurt.”
“No way.” Alec lifted a hand. He felt the fire close, coiled, ready to be set loose. He was almost glad. No more skulking, no more waiting.
Beth stepped to his side, right into the line of fire.
What the hell? He tried to grab her shoulder and missed. “What are you doing?”
“Keeping anyone from getting shot, even them.” She grabbed his hand.
His head snapped back as pain slashed at him, like a spike right between his eyes. He blinked and it was gone. He was left with feeling liked he had double vision. In a way, he did. He was linked to Beth’s mind and seeing through her eyes as well as his own.
“Lower your guns. You don’t see us, you don’t see anything wrong. You heard noise down the other end of the complex. You have to go check it out.”
Alec felt the power behind her thoughts but they didn’t affect him, just as he couldn’t feel the pain of her headache anymore. He was a spectator. She expected the guards to do as she commanded. Beth could do that? Cool.
Sweat dripped down her face. Her skin felt ice cold. She squeezed his hand tighter. Her eyes had a vacant, unfocused look. Drake slid closer, to stand at her other side. Maybe not so cool, if using her power cost her that much.
Alec kept himself ready to act but the guards stood still, frozen in place. He would have given a lot to see the expressions behind their face shields. Inside his head, he heard Beth sending out the same message, again and again.
After a silent moment, the lead guard raised his visor and waved a hand at the others.
“Okay, nothing here,” he said. “I think I heard something down the other way.”
The other guards nodded and lowered their rifles.
“So, let’s go!” said the one in charge.
They ran off in a controlled jog.
Beth crumpled to her knees.
Alec scooped her up. She moaned and let her head dro
p against his shoulder. She’d bitten through her lip. Blood trickled down her chin. People said he was brave, but she’d just risked herself for people who wanted to make her a prisoner.
“What the hell just happened?” Daz asked.
Beth moaned again. “It won’t last long,” she whispered.
“She told them to go away telepathically,” Alec said. “Let’s not waste it.”
“A real life Jedi mind trick. Shit,” Gabe said.
They only got a hundred feet before the sound of booted footsteps echoed again, this time in front of them. Another squad.
“Damn,” Daz muttered.
They ducked into a dead-end hallway. Drake collapsed to one knee.
“Now what?” Gabe asked.
Alec took a deep breath. Beth was defenseless now. Drake was hardly better. He looked down at her pale face. Through the telepathic link with her, he caught echoes of intense pain spiking in her head.
Two down. Bad odds in a fight.
“Firefly, we have to move,” Daz said.
“Not without Philip.”
Even her mental voice was weak and dripping with pain. Alec looked up at the water lily painting and realized they were right on top of Lansing’s elevator. He turned to Daz. “Here, hold her a minute.”
Daz blinked. “Are you kidding? I—”
Alec handed Beth to him. Daz had no choice but to grab her. Gabe took the rifle from Daz, so he could get a more secure grip. Daz looked at Beth as if she was some sort of bomb that might go off. Beth opened her eyes and stared back at him.
“Boo.”
Daz half-smiled.
Alec pushed aside the painting and punched the code on the alarm pad. Nothing happened. Fuck. Lansing had changed the pass code already.
Gabe tapped the device on his wrist. The small screen was completely red. “Whatever you’re doing, Alec, do it fast. Cameras are going to come back on soon and we’ll be sitting ducks.”
Alec started tapping on the wall, desperately trying to find the seam that hid the elevator entrance. The TK could slip into the smallest crack and push the door open by force. If not, he could try melting the wall.
Whoa.
His TK slipped inside something. At first, he thought he’d found an empty space behind the wall. But that wasn’t it. Nothing pushed back at his TK, nothing stopped it. He felt like he was swimming underwater. All that space and no end to it. He reached out with the TK and felt tiny balls and thin strands.
Shit, he hadn’t just slipped inside the wall, he’d slipped inside the molecules of the wall. It felt like the time he’d taken the fence apart and put it back together, except it had taken him hours to peel back the fence molecules from each other and he’d never slipped inside the steel fence. He’d no idea his TK could do this.
“What’s taking so long?” Daz said.
Alec opened his eyes and he was back in the regular world again. He stepped back, blinking, still overcome with the sensation of feeling as if nothing in the world was solid. That was damn disconcerting.
“I’m going to open the code box from the inside,” Alec said. “Just a few more seconds.”
If he could slip through the molecules of the wall, then he could find the mechanism behind the code box and manipulate it to open the elevator door. Alec put his hand on the code box and closed his eyes. He fumbled around, looking for wires, and grasped them. Whew. He’d done it right this time.
He followed the wires up to a square panel. He tested, pushing gently at the panel. It had give behind it. If he pushed harder, he’d either set off a local alarm or he’d open the door.
What the hell.
He pushed hard. Something clicked. The wall started sliding.
He took Beth back from Daz. The other three helped Drake into the elevator and the doors closed shut behind them.
“Where does this lead?” Daz asked.
“Lansing’s penthouse,” Alec said. “Last place they’ll look.”
Drake snorted. “I could get to like you, boy.”
The elevator doors opened. They exited onto the top floor, into the hallway where he’d stood only hours ago with Lansing.
Alec rushed to the penthouse door and punched in the alarm code from earlier that night. This time, it worked. The locks clicked open and they all hurried inside. Daz closed the door behind them.
“You bought us time. But I don’t like this.” Daz circled around the room, weapon ready. “Feels boxed in.”
Drake collapsed into one of the sitting couches in Lansing’s living room. Alec set Beth down on the couch next to Drake. She opened her eyes.
“Thank you for watching out for Philip,” she whispered.
“Save the thanks for when I know I didn’t trap us.”
“You two, go check if we’re secure,” Daz said to the other team members. “Alec, we’re sitting ducks, unless you know of another exit?”
“The roof.”
“That’s not going to do us any good unless we can fly.” Daz scanned the ceiling and the walls. “Where are the cameras?”
“Lansing wouldn’t have them in his home,” Drake whispered.
“Yeah?” Daz said. “Since you know so much about him, where would he hide a secret exit?”
Drake shook his head, tried to stand and collapsed to the floor.
“Philip!”
Beth knelt down over her father and laid a hand to his neck. She couldn’t feel any pulse. She put her hands on his face. His skin was cold and clammy and his breathing was shallow.
“You can’t die, Philip!”
“It is what it is.”
She saw memory flashes in Philip’s mind: him putting a gun to the back of the head of two Resource guards and pulling the trigger; a younger Philip tracking down one of her kidnappers and slitting his throat; a confrontation with Lansing from years ago, where Lansing called Philip “son” and Philip knocked him down with one punch; and a last one of Philip as a boy, confronting another man, a towering red-haired man calling him bastard and no son of his. The man backhanded Philip into a wall. A young girl rushed to the boy Philip’s side.
More memories flew at her, too fast for her to sort. The pressure inside her head became worse, pulsating. Her skull felt like it might explode.
Philip was dying and there was nothing she could do.
“You have to get better, Philip, you have to get better, you have to heal, I won’t let you die. You have to heal.”
Philip’s head snapped back. His face flushed. Inside her head, she felt something click, like when she’d accidentally turned off Alec’s fire. The intense pressure against her skull eased to a dull roar. What had she done now? Killed her father?
Philip opened his eyes. He blinked and coughed.
“Daz, help me get him on the couch,” Alec said.
Philip coughed again as he was moved. After they settled him, she felt for the pulse at his neck again and found it. His breathing seemed less shallow.
“Alec.” Philip took a long, labored breath. “Get Beth some clothes and treat her hand. Fast.”
Beth grabbed his hand. “I don’t want to leave you.”
“Momentary collapse. Not my time.”
“Bullshit. What happened, Philip?”
“You saw way too much of my life. But you gave me more of it.”
Daz placed himself in front of the door. One of the soldiers rushed back into the room. “Found the roof exit,” he said. “But that’s it.”
“Jackpot here,” Gabe said from the kitchen. He’d opened the double doors of what Beth had thought was the pantry. “Full security setup. Monitors, alarms, the whole shebang.” Gabe rubbed his hands together. “I can see everything they’re doing down there from here. And maybe screw with them.”
“Do what you can,” Daz said. “If Drake’s better, get the girl ready to move, Firefly. Fast.”
Alec scooped Beth up again. She let him carry her but avoided touching his hand. She’d no idea what happened with Philip and she didn’t w
ant to repeat it. Alec leaned down to kiss her forehead. She turned her face away. What if she accidentally messed with his fire again?
Alec frowned. He’d wanted to kiss her. He didn’t like that she’d turned away.
Her head pounded as Alec strode down the hallway. Somehow, the burgundy wallpaper seemed more blood-red. She squinted to shut out the color. That seemed to help the pain. As a bonus, it kept her from seeing many of the garish cherubs that lined the tables in the hallway.
When they were out of Daz’s hearing, she spoke. “Alec. I’m scared to touch you. My telepathy is—well, I did something to Philip, I think. I don’t know what the hell it was. I don’t know if it hurt him.”
“He seemed better.”
“The last time I felt something like that in my head, I took away your fire.”
A long pause. “Okay, that would be bad.”
Alec stopped at the last door in the hallway, opened the door and set her gently on the bed. He clicked on the desk light. At the base of the light, a little train moved around a tunnel.
A red and black flannel comforter covered the twin bed. The shelves were filled with books on military tactics and biographies. The only fiction she noticed was the Harry Potter series.
“This was your room.” She wished she could curl up on the soft bed and sleep for days.
“Until I was twelve.” He started digging through one of the bureau drawers.
The train lamp began playing “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.” He jabbed at a button and the song stopped. She collapsed on the bed, eyes closed, rubbing her temples, wondering if her headache would ever end. Alec had run from a fight because of her. If they were trapped, it was her fault. She was useless. So much for the great escape.
She heard Alec rifling through the drawers, throwing clothes every which way, taking his frustration out on them. Her feet throbbed, reminding her of the cuts and bruises on her soles.
“I hope these fit.” Alec placed sweatpants and a black T-shirt in her lap.
“They look the right size, thank you.”
He kissed her forehead. “Want these?” He dangled socks in front of her.
She grabbed them out of his hands. “Yes!”
He smiled. “Shoes next.”
He opened the closet door and shifted through the stuff at the bottom. She put the socks on while he searched the bottom of the closet, taking a second to enjoy the soft cotton against her cuts. Socks were highly underrated. She slipped on the sweatpants but hesitated over the shirt. The blood from her hand was sticking to the jacket. She’d rip open the needle wound when she took it off.
Phoenix Rising Page 21
