In the Shadows (Metahuman Files Book 3)

by Hailey Turner

  Sean sensed a little tension between the brothers, and he wondered what had brought it on. He knew a thing or two about arguments between brothers, but this felt a little more vicious than the ones he’d had with his own siblings. It didn’t ease his mind any.

  “Is that why you’ve brought us here? To discuss business with both of you?” Sean asked.

  Declan swiveled his seat a little from side to side, the picture of a man unconcerned with the situation at hand. “I think you both know why we’ve brought you here.”

  “I honestly don’t know, unless you’re asking for a consultation for Root Source, Inc.’s services.”

  “I’m not interested in what your company can do. I think you’ll find Adrian isn’t as enamored of your business as he used to be.”

  Sean glanced at Adrian, whose poker face had returned, making it almost impossible to know what he was thinking.

  “Does he speak for you?” Sean asked.

  “When it comes to security, yes,” was Adrian’s clipped reply.

  “Not do much good in New Miami,” Alexei said with a challenging smirk directed at Declan.

  The younger brother ignored Alexei, but Sean caught a microexpression of anger on his face before it was wiped away.

  “New Miami was an outlier. Adrian didn’t listen to my warnings and nearly paid with his life. He’s not making the same mistake twice,” Declan shot back.

  “What is it you want?” Sean asked.

  “The truth,” Adrian said, looking right at him. “You think you’re the only one with friends in high places, Sean?”

  Before his name was completely falling from Adrian’s mouth, Sean was already calling out a warning to the others over comms. “Covers are burned.”

  Declan shot a murderous look at his brother as Sean scrambled to his feet. “I said not to use his fucking name!”

  The room exploded in violence. Sean remembered Alexei’s constant refrain about ducking, and for once, he had no hesitation about doing just that—by phasing.

  His comms and bioware went immediately dead. An arm swept through his throat in a chokehold that never happened, while across the table Alexei was on his feet and fighting with one of the bodyguards, exchanging quick, bruising blows. Declan yanked Adrian out of the line of fire while calling out orders over his own comms. Sean only half listened to him, intent on reaching Alexei. The computer in the table sparked and fried as Sean phased through it.

  Alexei grabbed the man he was tangling with by the front of his shirt and yanked him forward into a headbutt to momentarily stun him. Rather than toss him aside, Alexei wrapped an arm around the man’s throat and held him in front like a human shield against Declan’s too-accurate close-range shot.

  The man in Alexei’s arms jerked and yelled from a possible hit, but Sean couldn’t see if Alexei had been wounded. The door to the office slid open and more men rushed inside, dressed in tactical gear and fully armed. Sean blinked, and when he opened his eyes again, the world was on fire.

  Tongues of fire snaked through the air, the scalding heat forcing everyone back. Sean was almost to Alexei when several bright streaks of energy cut through the air and fire, one bolt slamming harmlessly through Sean to hit the opposite wall.

  Alexei wasn’t so lucky.

  The whine of a neuro-jammer gun being primed made Sean’s teeth ache even in his phased state. The man in Alexei’s arms elbowed him viciously in the side and Alexei uncharacteristically crumpled a bit. Alexei tried to move out of range, but the energy bolt clipped him on his arm.

  The nanotech-driven charge disrupted a human body’s central nervous system with crippling results. Humans suffered seizures or worse, while a metahuman’s power was short-circuited for a limited amount of time, leaving them disoriented. If Sean was phased, the bolt of energy couldn’t harm him. His power was also the only one on record that could disrupt a Faraday cage in use, but it took a lot of effort and the backlash was excruciating.

  Sean’s phase power was the only good thing they had going for them right now. Without Alexei controlling his pyrokinesis, the fire he’d created didn’t fade away, it merely took on a life of its own. With a roar, the fire latched onto walls and furniture, growing rapidly. It didn’t stop the men from surging forward.

  It seemed like forever, but in reality was probably only seconds, before Sean managed to get his hands on Alexei. He reverted to solidity from his fingertips to wrist, just enough to get a good grip on Alexei and push his phase field through him. One of Declan’s men had him pressed to the tabletop, half out of it from the neuro-jammer hit. The second Sean phased Alexei, the bodyguard momentarily lost his balance. Sean solidified his hand and yanked a gun out of the man’s thigh holster while he was distracted before fully phasing again.

  An alarm blared in Sean’s ears as he held Alexei close and started to sink through the floor at a rapid rate. Artemis’ voice rang out of every speaker, crisp and calm, as the AI said, “This is not a drill. Please evacuate the premises. This is not a drill. Please evacuate the premises.”

  “Someone initiate the emergency overrides!” Declan bellowed.

  It was the last thing Sean heard from him before the world disappeared, blacked out by the floor they passed through. Light appeared again as they floated into the level below, arriving in a security room manned by half a dozen people milling around in confusion. Every terminal Sean could see had a red emergency bar on the bottom of the holoscreens.

  “What the hell?” someone exclaimed as Sean and Alexei dropped in from above.

  Sean solidified them both just enough to get their feet on the ground before hauling one of Alexei’s arms over his shoulder. “You with me, Lyosha?”

  Alexei didn’t answer him, eyes squeezed shut, his breath coming in uneven gasps. Sean was having to take on more and more of Alexei’s weight, which didn’t bode well for them getting out of here quickly. Phasing made them intangible, but he didn’t have Annabelle’s anti-gravity power to make a person lighter.

  Sean swore as he pitched them both forward through the terminals, phasing as he went. Sparks erupted everywhere as his power disrupted the room’s computer system in a cascading effect before they disappeared through the floor again. He didn’t stop their descent, not even when they fell through occupied and unoccupied rooms, startling more than one person into screaming.

  “You think they’d be evacuating,” Sean muttered as he kept counting floors.

  Alexei still wasn’t talking, and Sean ruthlessly shoved his worry and fear to the back of his mind. Panicking wouldn’t help either of them right now. He relied on his training to keep calm, mind narrowed to the hard focus that always came when faced with a life-and-death situation.

  In the event their covers were burned, the plan was to get out of Las Vegas any way they could. The biodome complicated matters, because there were only six ways out of the city, all through a version of the locking tunnel system they’d used to get inside. But if they could get out ahead of Declan’s people, they’d have a better shot at surviving. Being without communications or RealIdents greatly limited their capabilities in a world where everyone and everything was wirelessly connected. Using their actual identities would be easily traced, especially if the CIA was responsible for leaking their covers to Declan.

  A biting fear pounded through Sean’s mind in time with his heartbeat, incapable of dying off. If that information came from Stableford, there was a good chance it came from CIA Deputy Director Carter Bennett, which meant he needed to head north to his family. If the CIA was taking action against the MDF through intermediaries, then the director needed to know. Sean knew how critical it was they got that information out, but he couldn’t risk his family.

  He needed to get to New Seattle.

  Not for the first time did he hate his phase power, just a little. Metahuman powers weren’t all they were cracked up to be sometimes.

  Sean phased them back to solidity on the second floor, the room they appeared in thankfully empty. Th
eir feet hit the ground and he took a moment to readjust his hold on Alexei. As he wrapped an arm around Alexei’s waist, his fingers slipped through something warm and wet. Sucking in a sharp breath, he stretched his fingers away from Alexei’s body, seeing them smeared with blood.

  “Fucking shit,” Sean growled as he hurriedly maneuvered Alexei onto the nearest bed.

  Alexei didn’t protest, just leaned against Sean and weakly grabbed at his arms as he fought against the pain from the neuro-jammer. Sean was surprised he was still conscious, but then, it hadn’t been a direct hit. Even indirect hits were terrible though, and Sean wondered how much longer Alexei would remain awake.

  Sean set his stolen gun on the bed and quickly shoved Alexei’s suit jacket out of the way, glad it was a darker color to hide any bloodstains. Alexei’s dress shirt was torn over his right side where a bullet had gouged a deep, bloody gash through his flesh. Sean checked the area to make sure a bullet wasn’t actually embedded in Alexei’s body and didn’t find any sign of one. He was bleeding, but not with the life-threatening quickness that meant a major vein or artery had been hit in any way. Sean couldn’t see if the wound went deeper, or if shrapnel could have broken off during its passage.

  “Fuck.”

  They didn’t have time to clean up and patch the wound, not right now when they were on the run. They needed to get moving and rendezvous with the others at the designated MDF safehouse. They only had a limited amount of time to do that before everyone would have to scatter again. Keeping on the move was the only surefire way to stay safe.

  Right now, they weren’t moving.

  “Lyosha, I need you to stay awake. Can you do that for me?” Sean asked, curving his hand over Alexei’s cheek.

  Sean helped him straighten up, trying to get him to focus. Alexei’s gray eyes were dark with pain, his pupils uneven, as if he had a concussion.

  Getting hit by neuro-jammer gun is pretty similar, Sean thought grimly.

  “Lyosha?”

  “How they know?” Alexei gritted out, breathing harshly through clenched teeth as he fumbled at the wound in his side. “Where we go wrong?”

  Sean pressed his lips into a tight line as he hurried into the bathroom, yanking a hand towel off the rack. He folded it up as small as he could before returning to where Alexei teetered on the edge of the bed. Sean carefully pulled Alexei’s blood-soaked shirt away from the wound.

  “The other guy must’ve taken most of the hit,” Sean said as he undid Alexei’s belt. “You need medical attention.”

  Sean worked the folded-up towel underneath his shirt and pants, pressing it against the bullet wound. Alexei’s lips peeled back from his teeth as Sean applied pressure. “No hospital. Just team.”

  “We might not make it to the safehouse in time.”

  Sean tried to quell his frustration at Alexei’s demand, but he couldn’t quite manage it. He was used to going to ground and off the grid at a moment’s notice before making his way back to a viable extraction point when undercover. Working with a team still took some getting used to, which Alexei reminded him of when he lifted his head and grabbed weakly at Sean’s tie, pulling him down into an off-center, close-mouthed kiss.

  “Be okay,” Alexei promised shakily.

  Sean smoothed a thumb across Alexei’s mouth before nodding. He wasn’t going to argue, not when they still needed to get off the premises. With a few quick motions, the shirt was tucked back into Alexei’s pants and the belt done up. Carefully, he helped Alexei stand, bracing them both against the weakening of Alexei’s knees.

  “I got you,” Sean said as he wrapped an arm around the taller man, keeping him upright.

  The emergency sirens were still going off, Artemis’ warning ringing in his ears, louder than the pained pants coming from Alexei. Which was odd; Declan or Adrian should’ve canceled it by now. Sean shoved that thought aside as he waited a second for Alexei to get his feet underneath him. The belt was pressed over the towel, holding it in place, but Sean wasn’t sure how long the makeshift bandage would hold.

  He fumbled for Alexei’s hand and placed it over the towel. “Keep pressure here.”

  Alexei nodded jerkily, well aware of what continued blood loss would mean. Sean got a shoulder under Alexei’s arm, shoring him up, before reaching for the gun. It wasn’t biolocked, which was helpful. Tucking it into the waistband of his pants, he took a deep breath and got them moving for the door.

  They exited into a hallway full of people rushing for the stairs since the elevators were inaccessible. Sean half-thought about phasing again, but losing their identities to Adrian and Declan was one thing. Losing them to the general public was another thing entirely. Alexei was more aware now, but still in a great deal of pain, judging by the way he clenched his teeth.

  “Can you handle the stairs?” Sean asked.

  “Can make it,” Alexei grunted.

  Sean didn’t doubt it. Alexei seemed more shaken by the neuro-jammer hit than the bullet wound. He didn’t know if that had to do with Alexei’s Strike Force training or not, but neither of them had Kyle’s ability to heal quickly. Which made dealing with the people shoving their way into the packed emergency stairwell painful for Alexei. Sean could feel Alexei jerk against him every time someone pushed too hard against his wounded side.

  Sean shot a worried glance at Alexei, noticing the sweat beading on his pale face. They could pass him off as drunk, but Sean wondered how long that would last.

  Not long, it turned out.

  They got down the stairwell, with Alexei nearly losing his footing a couple of times, but Sean kept him upright. They spilled into the restaurant wing of the first floor, plunging into a sea of people streaming for the front exit. Sean kept his head ducked down a little, hoping they could hide from the cameras. They were swept into the gambling area, where people spread out to dart past rows of slot machines.

  Sean angled them in that direction, hoping to give Alexei some relief from the press of the crowd. They may have left the crush of people behind, but they ran headfirst into several of Declan’s employees.

  Sean got eyes on their adversaries first, prompting him to phase immediately. Two seconds later, one of Declan’s people opened fire at them, not caring about the crowd of innocent people surrounding them. The suppressor on his gun couldn’t completely hide the sound of it going off. While the bullets passed harmlessly through Sean and Alexei, the same couldn’t be said for the people around them.

  “You fucking asshole!” Sean yelled over the sound of someone screaming in agony.

  “Targets in sight and still intangible,” the man snapped over comms as he and his partner sought to flank them.

  Alexei shifted his arm off Sean’s shoulder. He had a split second moment of panic that Alexei was going to pass out on him, but then he felt Alexei yanking the handgun out of his pants and thumbing off the safety.

  “Go,” Alexei muttered, transferring the gun to his right hand.

  Sean never let him go as they pitched forward, racing toward the exit straight through the rows of slot machines and screaming people. The holographic displays sizzled before going dark, leaving gaps in the air between machines in the wake of their passage. Declan’s people were forced to go around the slot machines to try to cut them off at the pass.

  They cleared the slot machines and came out into an empty bar area between them and the card tables. Beyond the tables, Sean could see another area of slot machines, the place a veritable maze of gambling. The crowd was following the holographic arrow signs pointing the way to safety. Sean twisted on his feet, turning his back on the exit in favor of the far wall facing the direction of the street.

  Before they could even take a step, a bright bolt of energy cut through his chest, crashing into the synthwood paneling of the bar with a crackling hiss.

  “Neuro-jammer is ineffective on them,” someone shouted.

  “Lucky,” Alexei muttered.

  “How’s your head?” Sean asked rather than argue who had th
e better power in a shitty situation all around.

  “Not see straight.”

  That answered his question pretty bleakly. “Then maybe you shouldn’t use the gun.”

  “Take risk.” Alexei looked down at the weapon in his hand, flexing his fingers a little. “Will work if phased?”

  “The biolock won’t. Rest of it is mechanical and chemical, not electrical. It’ll work.”

  That was all the assurance Alexei needed before he jerked away from Sean just enough to bring his left arm up and take a shot. Sean dug his fingers into Alexei’s hip, hoping he wasn’t aggravating his wound. Alexei only pulled the trigger once, his target dodging the shot with a quickness that only came with some serious training. The bullet slammed into a counter holding liquor bottles, shattering one.

  “Too many bystanders,” Sean warned, eyes flicking over the people running beyond their area. Unlike Declan’s employees, they actually needed to care about collateral damage.

  “Da,” Alexei grunted, leaning heavily against Sean’s side.

  The two hostiles started to advance again, one of them shoving his neuro-jammer gun back in its holster. Sean was grateful for that. Even though it couldn’t kill, its blast was still harmful, whether someone was a metahuman or not. Sean got a good grip on Alexei, knowing they were safe so long as he kept them phased. Declan’s people seemed to recognize that fact, judging by the frustrated expressions on their faces.

  In a split second, their tenuous situation—wounded, no solid exfil, covers burned—changed marginally for the better.

  A figure darted out from a row of slot machines, her quick approach buried beneath the noise of a stampeding crowd. Madison flung herself on top of the bar counter before racing around the half-circle to dive off it at the closest target. She took the man down with a hard hit to the back and neck, slamming him to the floor before thrusting her arm in the direction of the other man.

  The sparking flare of her energy power erupted from her hand. The small projectile cut through the air and exploded against her target with devastating results. The man’s shout cut off when half his face was blown off, blood spattering across the carpet between them as he collapsed.