by Sophie Davis
My mental walls were down and she had a clear picture into my mind. The look of concern in her eyes and the paleness of her complexion made me wonder how much snooping she’d done while I was brooding.
“Is that a castle?” I asked aloud, pointing out the hover’s window at an enormous stone structure below.
Yes, I was trying to change the subject. Yes, it was like latching on to the first shiny object dangling in front of me. But the damned thing really did look like a castle. Like something from a book about knights and ladies-in-waiting and other crap. Maybe there would even be swords on the walls.
“It’s Walburton Manor,” Angus answered from the front. “Councilwoman Walburton’s family home.”
I whistled. This was not what I was expecting for a safe house. TOXIC’s safe houses had been dilapidated barns.
“Impressive,” I admitted.
“I’m sorry, I seem to have missed the part where this was a luxury getaway. Is she royalty or something?” Penny asked, practically crawling into Brand’s lap to get a better look. He didn’t appear to mind one bit, either.
“Not technically speaking. But her roots do trace back to the current ruling family, I believe,” Angus replied.
Talia and I exchanged a glance. And then Talia asked the question that was on both of our minds. One that she shouldn’t have said out loud.
“Please don’t tell me that it’s through King Jensen. It’s not, is it?”
“Possibly. I don’t recall offhand,” Angus said.
As if it was no big deal.
“You don’t think she’s related to the Poachers, do you?” Talia sent.
“Maybe. If so, she might know more than she’s telling,” I sent back.
Talia nodded in agreement.
We didn’t get another chance to talk about the theoretical link between Victoria and the Poachers just then, though. Before all of us had finished deplaning, two men dressed in UNITED flak jackets and black cargo pants emerged from the enormous front doors of Walburton Manor. Angus greeted them by name, calling one Chaz and the other Viktor. Brief introductions were made all around, then we were asked to follow them to the conference room.
It was difficult to retain a modicum of dignity when passing through the imposing entryway; I felt like a kid gaping at the oversized toys in a luxury toy store. Though the outside of the manor looked straight out of the middle ages, the inside was like something out of a catalogue on modern living. The furniture was sleek, the floors a gleaming polished mahogany that couldn’t be bought in this day and age. On the walls were various moving, live-action screens created by the grand masters of the medium. Even knowing as little as I did about art, I was aware that many of them were celebrated works, akin to the old world’s Starry Night or Mona Lisa. Only the extraordinarily wealthy could afford to own a single one of the renowned pieces hanging the entire length of the hallway. Whether Victoria was related to the Poaching families or not, she was definitely loaded.
As we wound through the lower-level maze that ostensibly led to a conference room, Talia slid her small hand into mine. Her fingers were warm and comforting, making my heart feel a little lighter. Guilt over my part in Kenly’s abduction inched back into a corner of my mind where it could be forgotten for the time being. Talia had that effect on me—making me feel like, no matter what else was happening, everything would be okay. Because I had her.
“Erik?” Talia asked tentatively, testing the bond to see if my mind was open.
“Yes, beautiful?”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw her smile. I loved her smile. I loved making her smile. And I hated that I was the reason she rarely did so anymore. Well, one of the reasons. Still, I was supposed to be her rock. I was supposed to be there for her, and lately I’d been slacking on my duties. Right then, I resolved to step it up. To be stronger, for her.
“This is really going to happen, right? I mean, Victoria is going to make sure this rescue happens? She isn’t going to change her mind?” Talia asked.
My girlfriend knew full well that I had no more insight into the inner workings of Victoria Walburton’s brain than she did, but I appreciated that she was talking to me about her concerns. As I felt the comfort of our connection, I realized that I really needed to keep my mind open to her more often. Regardless of how unmanly it was to think, she was the sunshine to my storm clouds.
“No, Tals. She won’t change her mind. She’s already making plans. Don’t worry, we’ll get Kenly back,” I promised.
Talia squeezed my hand, sending the thought of me kissing her. Unsurprisingly, my adrenaline spiked. Since the very first day I met Talia, she had that effect on me. Part of me wished I’d waited to experience all the physical stuff with her for the first time. The rest was all a waste of my time. Even though I didn’t know her back then, and she wasn’t always mine, I should have been more patient while waiting for the love of my life to come along.
“Here we are,” the agent named Chaz said, coming to a stop in front of a carved wooden door identical to the last twelve we’d bypassed. It stretched up well above my head and was wider than my arm span, as if people who lived in castles were all enormous. “Councilwoman Walburton is waiting for your call.”
“She obviously didn’t trust me to keep my promise,” Talia sent, rolling her eyes up at me.
“Do you blame her?” I sent back teasingly.
“Agent Lyons,” Chaz addressed Talia, “You will be seated at the head of the table. Agents Kelley and Meadows, you will sit on either side of her.”
Was this guy serious? This was a little much, even for Victoria
“Assigned seats?” Brand muttered, giving voice to my thoughts. “What are we, thirteen?”
I laughed, though the rigid Chaz didn’t look the least bit amused. Clearly, the guy needed to get out of these stone walls more. Viktor had yet to say a word thus far. Being castle agents, what I’d already begun to think of them as, was apparently detrimental to everyday social skills.
The large, oval conference table sat in the middle of a wood-paneled room with wallscreens on three of the four walls. There were enough chairs to seat twenty, but Chaz and Viktor did not join us. The castle agents stayed near the back, like sentinels watching over our group. Their odd detachment made me wonder why they were really there. Were they babysitting us? Was Victoria concerned I’d go rogue? She’d been sending me and the others out on missions to track the Created for weeks, and we always came back sans killing spree. So the added security was odd.
Without needing to dip in to her thoughts, I could tell Talia was thinking the same thing. She kept eyeing the two agents like they were the enemy, about to pounce on us at any moment. Her mistrust leaked into me, and suddenly I wanted them out of the room.
Steady, I coached myself, not wanting to validate any suspicions regarding my mental soundness.
Brand, Talia, and I took our assigned seats, with the others filling the empty chairs closest to where we sat. As I watched everyone getting settled, I noticed Willa clinging desperately to Honora’s hand. Every so often she would visibly tighten her grasp, but Honora didn’t utter a word of complaint. Riley kept rubbing his girlfriend’s back reassuringly. Curious, I took a quick peek into Willa’s mind, just to see why her hazel eyes were large as dinner plates.
I instantly regretted my decision.
Unlike Honora, Willa was not afraid of us. In fact, we barely registered on her radar. She was channeling Kenly, experiencing a flood of emotions that ranged from mortification to fury. And, suddenly, I was too. Every ounce of her indignity and anger streamed into me. It was an odd sensation, not seeing what the target saw, but instead feeling what she felt.
Talia’s mentee was a fighter, I had to give her that. Whatever was happening to her was bad enough to induce shame, but that shame was making her livid. Kenly wanted to kill her captors. Not figuratively, either. Really kill her captors. And Kenly’s rage was concentrated on one person in particular.
Truly grasp
ing the extent of her situation, I wanted out of that damned conference room. I wanted to attempt to View her, and it was impossible in there. Remote Viewing was one of my more sporadic Created Talents, not something I could call on in a snap, and I needed a calm, tranquil atmosphere without distractions for it to work properly.
“Erik?”
I blinked several times, unaware that I’d lapsed into a daze.
“Yeah? Sorry, Tals,” I said, turning to look at my girlfriend. She had a vice grip on my arm with one hand, looking like she was about to slap me with her other one.
Dammit. How many times had she called my name?
“You okay, man?” Brand asked, his eyes showing genuine concern.
My gaze darted to where Willa sat hunched over in her chair, hands furiously twisting in her lap. My heart went out to the poor girl. She was going through real agony, feeling as though she owed it to Kenly to stay with her.
“Fine, Brand. Just zoned out for a minute,” I said, taking a beat longer than I should have to answer him.
Feeling torn, I wasn’t sure whether or not I should tell them about what I’d just felt from Kenly via Willa. I was worried about drawing unwanted attention and a barrage of questions to someone who was already on the edge. Willa looked like she was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. She was gnawing on her lower lip so intently that a tiny smear of blood had appeared in the corner of her mouth.
Talia followed my gaze and sucked in a deep breath, obviously putting together the pieces and understanding the big picture. Because I know my girlfriend better than she knows herself, I knew exactly what she was about to do.
“Don’t, Talia,” I said, my tone shaper than intended. “Please, don’t do it. You don’t want to see it. Feel it. Whatever. Just don’t. Okay? Let’s get through this meeting, and then I’ll tell you about it. And I’ll view Kenly. We need to hurry up and get through this so I can try to see her.”
Talia’s beautiful purple eyes searched mine, looking for answers she didn’t want. Answers I didn’t want to share with her. I didn’t ever want Talia to feel a modicum of the anguish that both Kenly and Willa were experiencing.
“Is she hurt?” Talia finally sent back, chewing her own lip just like Willa.
“No. I don’t think so anyway. She’s scared, though. But more than that, she’s pissed. And being pissed is good. It’ll get her through all of this.”
“Sorry to interrupt you two lovebirds gazing adoringly at each other,” Frederick of all people said. “But we should really get this meeting started.”
Truthfully, I was surprised Brand hadn’t been the first to make a comment, with far more bite than Frederick’s. Making asinine remarks to Talia was his thing. One glance at Talia’s other side, and I knew why. Brand and Penny wore twin masks of concentration, a telltale sign they were having their own private conversation. They were new to the whole mind-speak thing, and Talia’s best friend and her boyfriend seemed to be under the impression that it worked better if they looked constipated. Regardless of how many times I told Brand that looking like you were in dire need of a restroom didn’t make the transmissions clearer, the guy never listened to me.
“Sorry, Frederick,” I said, trying to ignore the spectacle. “We’re good down here. Ready when everyone else is.”
Evidently the British agents had been waiting for this cue. Which would’ve been helpful to know five minute prior.
Behind me, either Chaz or Viktor clicked a button that caused the wallscreen at the front of the room to turn on. Instead of seeing Victoria sitting at the desk in her office at UNITED headquarters, as I’d expected, a duplicate of our conference room appeared. The effect was as though we were looking in to a reflection. Where our table ended, the one on the other side of the connection began. The only difference was that a group of young agents didn’t sit around the other table. The entire UNITED council did.
Shit.
I glanced at our three new additions to witness their reactions. Willa, still lost in Kenly’s head, didn’t even look up. Honora stared at the councilmembers with that same wide-eyed mix of adoration and fear she’d given me and my friends. Riley sat blank-faced. Only the churning in his bizarre eyes belied his reaction. They’d morphed from flames to whirlpools.
“Mr. Wyld,” Victoria began, addressing Riley first. “On behalf of the council, I want to thank you for coming forward.” Her tone was frosty and seemed to contradict her statement. “Agent Lyons has asked that you and your girlfriend, Wilhelmina Tuggard, be included in this mission.”
Riley cleared his throat before answering.
“Um, yes. Thank you, Councilwoman.”
“It is our understanding that this auction is to take place tomorrow,” said another councilwoman. Her name was Amberly, if I was recalling correctly. She’d ignored Riley’s statement, instead addressing the team.
“This means we have precious little time,” Amberly continued, as though we might be unaware of the fact. “Other members of the UNITED taskforce are headed your way, as we speak. We also have strike teams on standby, but it is our hope that they will not be necessary. With the Treaty vote approaching, an assault will not do us any favors when it comes to public opinion.”
Again, she said it like we didn’t know the potential ramifications. Like Victoria hadn’t already given us the same speech. Since I wasn’t acquainted with Amberly in the same way I was with Victoria, I stopped myself from voicing my frustrations. She was wasting what little time we had, but it was her right to do so. Unfortunately, Talia didn’t practice the same restraint.
“If we need to use brute force, then we should,” Talia interjected. “These people are dealing in kidnapped Talents.”
It was as if uttering the words brought out her initial horror all over again.
I squeezed Talia’s hand, urging her to keep calm. Everyone on our side of the wallscreen felt the same way, but fighting with the council was not the way to go. They’d been complacent for this long where the Poachers were concerned, and I didn’t want them deciding that the whole mission was not worth losing face with the public.
“I know that better than you do, Agent Lyons,” Amberly said calmly. “But those heads of nations whom we need the votes of to renew the Treaty? Many are clients of the Poachers. Angering them now is not what we want. That being said, I think we can all agree,” Amberly glanced around the council table for confirmation, “that if it comes to an actual assault, then so be it. We cannot allow any of the Created to fall into the wrong hands. Private ownership of any individual is a revolting idea. But the Created are akin to deadly weapons.”
Talia huffed and sat back in her chair, somewhat mollified.
The news about the Poachers’ important clientele was not the bombshell the councilwoman had anticipated for several of us, drawing a curious expression tinged in suspicion from her. Evidently, Victoria had not informed the rest of the council that she spoke freely in front of Talia and me earlier that morning. Which of course had been passed along to the others at breakfast. Our team had been processing our outrage for several hours.
In fact, Victoria had shared critical intel with Talia and me, things that were above our pay grade, several times over the past few weeks. Thinking back on Victoria’s diatribe about trust that morning, I wondered if keeping us in the loop was her way of reaching out. As if by telling us the unbridled truth, gory details and all, she could gain our trust.
“Our Crypto teams are working to secure invitations to the auction for your team,” Victoria said, taking over before anyone on her side of the divide questioned our foreknowledge. “As you know, this mission will be clandestine, so each of you will assume the identities of actual auction invitees.
“The plan is for you to buy the Created. Money is not an issue, of course. Dummy bank accounts will be set up under your assumed identities. No matter the cost, one of you will be the highest bidder for each of the targets.”
Victoria’s golden gaze landed on Penny.
&nb
sp; “Agent Crane, I trust that you can route the funds through enough servers and holding companies that the Poachers will be unable to trace them back to UNITED?”
“I can,” Penny agreed.
Brand beamed at his girlfriend and I had to suppress my instinctive urge to give him hell for it. Not because I didn’t understand the pride he felt, or what ridiculous things that love for a woman could do to a guy. No, it was because Brand gave me so much shit about Talia, and here he was all starry-eyed because his girlfriend was a computer whiz. Regardless of the Created Talents she possessed, Penny was a Brain, and had been since birth. The girl’s mind was a computer. If she couldn’t hack into some basic man-made mainframes, it would be absurd.
“One hindrance still remains,” Victoria said, her voice drawing my attention once again. There would be plenty of time to bash on Brand later. “The location of the auction is unknown. Though we were able to procure invitations, they do not have any obvious details on them.”
“Obvious details?” Frederick asked, brow furrowed.
“Yes. The Poachers use symbols to indicate the date, time, and location of their auctions. It is a safeguard so that undesirables and law enforcement cannot just show up. The men who attend these auctions are among the most powerful in the world, requiring security against detrimental exposure. Though not everyone disagrees with the Poachers, it would cause great scandal nonetheless if these dealings were public.”
Was it bad that I was a little impressed by the ingenuity?
“Our Cryptos are busy trying to decipher the code on the invitation itself. Agent Crane, if you would also take a look, that would be appreciated. Otherwise, we will have to rely on those of you with viewing capabilities. Agent Kelley….” Victoria paused to smile affectionately at me before continuing. “You are acquainted with Ms. Baker, correct?”
Returning her smile, I nodded.
“And you believe that you will be able to locate her?”
