by S M Olivier
He mechanically stood up and joined his friends.
“They're made of metal,” Carrie said, startling me. “I should be able to remove them with little issue, but some of them are deeply embedded.”
I hadn’t noticed her following so closely behind me.
“Julie,” Carrie called. “I’m gonna need ya.”
“For what?” I asked willing the panic to go away.
I couldn’t lose my bandmate. One day when we got our life back, I was going to pursue that path again, and I needed him by my side once more.
“She’s a healer,” Carrie stated. “Relax. He’s in good hands.”
“Noah’s on his way,” I insisted.
In my experience, only one other person was close to Noah’s talent, and I didn’t trust anyone else, especially not with my friend.
“It’s okay, Blake,” Kirk reassured me. “Julie will take care of him.”
I felt gentle hands pull me back. “It’s okay,” Jaxson murmured. “He’s going to be okay.”
I looked back at him and saw the same anxiety in his eyes. I almost forgot that they had known each other since they were eight. They played football together since they were eleven. He needed me just as much as I needed him in that moment.
⸟
I felt a tremendous relief at having all my guys by my side once more, including Noah. I was more confident with them by my side. Slowly but surely, we were getting rid of the insurgents, but we were still on edge. We had no clue where Horatio went with his group and Lincoln’s twins’ siblings. It seemed like every time a group came close to them another wormhole was opened and they were off our grid once more. We concluded that they were in search of something, but what, we didn’t know.
“We need to just find him,” Jaxson stated. “Everyone else can continue to get the stragglers. We need to end this now.”
“He’s near the computer labs,” Lincoln suddenly spoke. “I tried to jump him, but he’s too strong.”
“He’s after the halos,” Jace surmised grimly. “They also had other prototypes in there.”
“That’s three floors down. He’s going to see us and become more desperate,” Troy frowned.
“We can call Miranda,” Remy said to me, hesitantly.
I looked over at him sharply. He knew I didn’t like interacting with her if the children weren’t involved. I immediately felt anger, but then reason closely followed. I couldn’t let my personal feeling for her hinder the good of us all.
“Call her,” I murmured, crossing my arms over my chest.
I felt warm arms encircle me from behind, and I looked up and smiled at Drake. He set his cheek on the top of my head, leaning against me.
“Magician,” Jace called. “Notre Dame here.”
Someone had dubbed Miranda as the magician because she was able to make things disappear. It had stuck, and now they used it as her call sign. It took me some time to figure out Jace’s call sign. They had to explain to me that they did a play on Jace’s last name. The Hunch Back of Notre Dame rung the bells. Somehow, they thought Notre Dame was clever. I guess it was, in a way.
“Go ahead, Notre Dame,” Miranda immediately responded.
“Can you−” Jace began before I heard a loud screech in my ear, followed by Gavin’s urgent voice.
We need to go silent. Our headsets have been compromised. They have a set, and we may need back up. We have them in the labs right now. Jemmy jammed the door lock, and Lockwood has their powers blocked, but he can’t hold it too much longer.
“No time to wait,” I explained to the guys before I took off at a run. “Gavin and a few others are already there. They have him locked in the labs, and they have a block on them, but it won’t last for long.”
They fell into step beside me. I tore through the door. Our feet were loud on the metal stairs and echoed loudly in the stairwell. From the sounds of it, we weren’t the only ones headed in that direction. There were sounds of boots coming from above us. I was glad we were heading down the stairs instead of up.
We burst into the hall and, like always, I was shocked that this floor existed. It was stark white, and the white fluorescent bulbs above our heads made me blink for a second. All the white was nearly blinding. To the right, I could see a room surrounded by glass and the things you would see typically in a medical lab. To our left was a place marked Restricted Authorized Personnel Only.
Movement at the end of the hall caught my eyes, distracting me from looking around further. I could see Gavin, Jemmy, Sierra, Terrance, Marcel, Sam, Ford, Dawn, and a group of Knights, SC, and Illinois teams behind them.
“Let’s end this,” I said in determination as the glass shattered from one of the rooms approximately fifty feet away from us.
I felt a large body cover me and I was thrown to the ground. I could tell immediately that it was Remy. I could hear the glass as it struck the walls and floor.
“Well, well, well,” I heard a cold amused voice say. “Is that my beautiful, stubborn daughter I see?”
I heard the crunch of glass under several pairs of feet before I looked up. I was hastily yanked and pulled in closer by Remy.
My father was a good-looking man. Like Will and Greg, he had aged gracefully. He was tall and lean. His clothing immaculate. But his eyes were cold, empty.
I looked at the small group that was positioned slightly behind him and was somewhat concerned to see the twins were no longer with him. I looked back at Lincoln, and our eyes met briefly. I could grasp the same apprehension in his eyes.
“I’m no daughter of yours,” I sneered at him. “You killed the only man I knew as a father.”
He tilted his head to the side. “He should have never kept you away from me. I needed you. I need you still.”
“No, thank you,” I scoffed. “I see what you do to the people you need.”
He gave me another cold smile. “We can do this the hard way or the easy way.” He shrugged. “Come with me, and no one gets hurt.”
“I would like to see you try−” I began to say before I felt a shift in the air and the tiny glass particles that were scattered on the floor were raised and hurled towards us. I barely had time to erect a shield.
Drake must have been quick as well, because I saw him project his shield a few feet in front of mine. I could see Gavin and Terrance jumping into action and engaging the other people with Horatio.
I looked back at him and smiled once more. I was angry that one of his minions had attacked us. I took a few steps back towards my men.
“Hold me,” I insisted in their heads.
Without hesitation, I felt the touch of seven men.
“Time for this to end,” I sneered at Horatio.
He tsked at me as I felt a blinding pain hit me. I felt like my brain had been doused in ice. “You project too much, my dear girl. I’m really tired of the games. Let’s end them now. Come with me, and I won’t hurt anyone else.”
“Screw you,” I said through gritted teeth. I drew strength from the guys and could feel the power course through me. The colors that swirled around me were so vivid and beautiful. “You can’t breathe,” I glared at him silently. “Your airways are closing. You feel the air leaving your lungs.” I watched in satisfaction as he collapsed on his knees, clutching his throat. He was desperately grasping the air towards me.
I barely noticed the flash of light in the room to my right.
“Let him go, Blake,” I heard a furious feminine voice state as she stepped forward.
My eyes widened slightly as I recognized Brigette, my half-sister, coming out of the room where the bright flash had been seconds ago. She looked rough with no makeup, her hair was limp and hung in strands around her now very plump face. Her belly protruded out quite a bit in her pure white jumpsuit.
Further movement behind her caught my attention. I turned my head and saw the twins, Frankenstein, Alison, and a few people I knew we had captured before. It took me a few seconds to notice Ella and Alex in the back of t
he group.
I gasped in shock, feeling my concentration begin to slip.
“Finish him, and we’ll get the kids,” Jace reassured me.
I wavered for a moment. Shocked that he wanted me to end him after telling me not to kill before. Afraid that I wouldn’t be able to get to the children in time, I looked over at Alex and Ella and was so proud to see how well they were taking it. They were still dressed in their swimsuits, but they were stoically holding hands. I nodded and turned my focus back on Horatio. He was now laying on the ground, gasping.
“Let him go, Blake!” Brigette insisted before I heard ear-piercing cries.
Frankenstein had stepped forward, and he had a morbidly sweet smile on his face. Alex and Ella were on the ground their arms were at an awkward angle behind them.
Stop! I screamed silently at him.
He paused for a second before he shook his head and turned to looked at me. “Let him go, Blake, and I will let the kids live.”
“Let the kids go,” I insisted as I slowly released some of the pressure I had on Horatio. “And he will live.”
“Come get the children and we will make a trade,” Frankenstein maintained. The children were carried forward into the hallway, steps behind where Horatio was still trying to gasp for air.
“Fuck no!” Remy growled.
I barely registered his language as he took a menacing step forward clenching his fist.
“Blake!” I heard Ella wail as it looked like she was being picked up in the air and then slammed back down.
I ran forward without hesitation, barely hearing Jace yell for me to stop. I went to reach for Ella, and my hands met thin air. I scarcely looked up in confusion before I noticed another flash of light behind Frankenstein and Bridgette. Rough hands shoved me hard towards the bright light before I registered that it was all an illusion, and I had fallen for it.
I fell hard on my tailbone and vaguely registered my new surroundings. I now stood in what appeared to be a clinic. There were two holes about ten feet to my right and ten feet to my left. Both were about four-feet above the ground. To my left, I could see Jace, Remy, Drake, Noah, Lincoln, Troy, and Jaxson running towards the hole. To my right Gavin. Jemmy, Sierra, and Terrance..
They looked like they were at least twenty feet away, although I knew I had only been shoved about a quarter of the way. I ran back towards the wormhole just as Bridgette, Alison, Horatio, Frankenstein, and few of the others were climbing through it.
“Get the twins,” Horatio rasped through a raw throat.
I tried to leap towards the opening just as Gavin jumped towards me. I was roughly pushed back down by one of Horatio’s goons.
Horatio turned and glared at me before grinning coldly at me. “And take care as many as them as you can.”
“No!” I screamed just as I saw the wormhole begin to close but not before I saw a spark erupt from one of the goons’ hands to shoot at Gavin straight in the chest. He slumped forward, his eyes going blank as the hole closed completely.
Chapter 30
I barely remembered what happened next. I remembered someone advancing towards me, and I felt a sharp prick in my neck before darkness took over. I knew I drifted in and out of consciousness for several days, maybe even weeks.
I tried to measure time by the sun and moon coming up through my window. I felt like I was being kept in a constant drugged state. My head, arms, and limbs felt heavy, like they didn’t belong to me.
I was kept in a sterile white room. Everything about the place screamed hospital or clinic. People would come and extract blood from me or check on the many machines I was now hooked up to. When they came to visit, I found out the hard way that I couldn’t use my gifts. Painful electric jolts coursed through my body every time I tried. Sometimes, I was even woken from a dead sleep and zapped painfully.
I knew my people were trying to reach out to me, too, but there was no way for me to tell them to stop. They were only causing me more significant pain.
As the days passed, I became more lucid for more extended periods of times. I noticed the distinct smell of body odor from me. Like I hadn’t bathed in weeks. My hair hung listlessly around my head in a snarled mess. I was hooked up to an IV, and to my mortification, I noticed the catheter bag and tube hooked up to me as well.
I found myself in a downward spiral of depression and hopelessness. Memories of my last moments seeing the guys and Gavin crowded my mind. I wanted to believe they were okay. I wanted to think Gavin was, but I knew optimism was fruitless.
I cried a lot. I wept to point I made myself sick. I sobbed to the point I could barely see out of my eyes which were swollen shut from crying. I cried until there was nothing left but a hollow emptiness.
My best friend was dead. I knew it without a shadow of a doubt. I saw the spark of light hit his chest. I saw his eyes lose the light.
One afternoon as I lay listlessly staring out the window watching the snow come down, Horatio and Alison came strolling into the room. Both of them came in dressed like they were ready for a night out to the ballet or an opera, sophisticatedly attired and polished.
The lead stone returned in my stomach. I was supposed to go to the ballet with Noah sometime this month. Then I was reminded of the playoff game I was supposed to attend with Jaxson if his team made it, which they had been projected to by a mile. So many missed opportunities because I had made some rash decisions.
“Hello, my dear, so glad to see you up,” Horatio said with a smile.
I stared at him in loathing and shock as he talked to me like I was just a visitor, here of my own volition.
He tsked at me. “You can call me Papa or Dad, which ever you prefer, but you should probably do it sooner than later.”
I continued to glare at him mutinously.
“Such stubbornness. You get that from me, I suppose,” he said proudly as a younger woman came into the room pulling a cart behind her. “Now, I have a proposition for you. It’s an easy one, really. Join the family business…mine, and together we can rule the world. Or continue to defy me. You won’t like the consequences.”
“Screw you,” I muttered through a dry throat made scratchy from disuse, my lips dry and chapped.
He laughed hollowly as my sheets were brought down.
“What are you doing?” I screeched out as the younger woman began to lift up the gown I was wearing.
“It’s called incentive,” Horatio stated with a cold smile.
I looked around wildly as a man came into the room and closed the blinds and turned off the lights. Alison looked just as puzzled and concerned as I was but her calm, indifferent mask slid back into place. The girl who was now squirting a cold liquid on my abdomen refused to meet my eyes as she kept her eyes downcast.
“Get off of me,” my voice was harsh and came out in a croak. I wondered once again how long I had been there.
In my panicked state, I tried to rip the restraints off my arms, using my gift of strength, but a painful jolt went through my brain before coursing through my body. I felt my bladder release once more. I was too angry and too terrified to care that I was only adding to the bag hanging by the bed.
I was out of breath, and my body was tense as the effect of the electric jolt left me.
Horatio tsked once more as I felt something pressed against my abdomen.
“What, who?” I heard Alison’s whisper in shock as she was staring off to my right where the girl was standing.
I heard a distinct sound of heartbeats followed moments later by more heartbeats. I whipped my head to the side barely discerning the woman’s movements on my stomach any longer.
“Our grandchildren,” Horatio said gleefully.
I stared in horror at the little bean-like shapes on the screen. I looked down at the little wand in the woman’s hand as she almost painfully dug it onto my stomach as she continued doing what she was doing. I’ve seen enough shows to know that it was an ultrasound machine I was looking at, that the technician was measuri
ng the images and analyzing the heartbeats of not one child but two.
I whipped my head back at him. “You lie. You’re tricking me.” I hissed at him even as my heart sunk.
This couldn’t be possible. I was on birth control. I knew I had switched the method, but there was no way!
“Not only is my Blake pregnant with twins, but…” Horatio said with a smile at Alison. “One of the babies shares the same genetic marker you do, Alison.”
“How?” Alison whispered. She seemed just as surprised by this revelation as I was.
“I wanted to get Blake started in our program immediately. I had a few samples left from Herman, and I wanted to see if their offspring would show a stronger marker than Bridgette and her child. Imagine my surprise when I found out she was already pregnant with not just one child but two. I waited until the technician said the babies measured at eight weeks and more samples were taken. Then I was surprised once more to find out my daughter now carried bi-paternal twins. One of which carries your DNA.”
Most of my days had been in a dream-like state. I didn’t remember much for many of those days. It just felt like I had been living at the bottom of a lake for most of the time. Sounds and people seemed so distant. Their images had been so distorted.
I wanted to believe that there was no way that he had done all those tests on me without my knowledge, but the bruising near the veins of my inner arm was unmistakable. I had been pricked by needles, of that I was confident.
“My grandbaby?” I didn’t imagine the tears that now shown in Alison’s eyes as she took a seat on the edge of my bed. “What are bi-paternal twins?” she asked tremulously.
“They’re very rare but they are twins that have different fathers. Blake is now pregnant with Jace or Jaxson’s child and another one of her connections,” Horatio said gleefully before he looked over at me with cool calculation. “I know your need to protect anyone you perceive to be in danger is strong. Did you know that miscarriages in the first trimester are a one in four occurrence? You currently sit at ten weeks, Blake. Two more weeks before your risk drops.”
