Embolden

by Syrie James

  To her dismay, the elevator slowed. No, no, no! She exchanged a worried glance with Alec as the elevator stopped at the eighth floor and the doors slid open. A young Taiwanese man wearing a skinny-cut jacket was waiting to board.

  Alec held up his hand and said something in Chinese, which Claire assumed was a polite request not to board. The man’s reply in the same language had a “the hell you talking about?” tone as he shoved his way in and hit the button for the top floor.

  Claire froze, struggling to ignore the distraction and to continue controlling the minds of the two Fallen, who had both taken a step away from her dad.

  Nine.

  As the elevator hummed upward, the newcomer bent down to pick up something at his feet. It was one of the earbuds. Claire’s pulse began to beat double time. Would this screw everything up?

  Ten.

  The guy held up the earbud and was about to speak, when Alec reached out with a smile and scooped the tiny device into his own hand, muttering something in Chinese and half bowing graciously. Then Alec quickly snatched up the three remaining earbuds from the floor and hid them in his pocket.

  Eleven.

  Claire kept directing her thoughts along the tendrils into her dad’s handlers’ minds. Return to the room. Do what I say and don’t argue. We can take him from here.

  Twelve. The elevator finally arrived. The young guy stepped out of the way, leaning against the sidewall of the car and swiping on his phone while the bodyguards got off. Her father started to dutifully follow them.

  Alec placed a hand on Tom’s shoulder to gently restrain him. “You’re staying with us, sir.”

  Tom’s eyes narrowed in silent surprise and uncertainty.

  “It’s all right, sir,” Alec added in a reassuring tone. “We’ve been instructed to accompany you to another location.”

  Tom stayed where he was but looked confused. The bodyguards continued down the hall. As the elevator doors closed, Claire heaved a sigh of relief, confident that the effect would be as long-lasting as it had proven to be in the past.

  As the elevator went up, however, her father kept glancing warily at her, Alec, and the Taiwanese guy.

  He doesn’t trust us. “It’s okay,” Claire told her dad, smiling up at him warmly as she projected her thoughts: Don’t worry, everything’s fine. We’re going to help you.

  It didn’t make any impression. The tethers thrown from her mind just seemed to bounce off. Claire darted an anxious glance at Alec, who she could tell shared her concern.

  When the chime sounded their arrival at the fourteenth floor, Claire and Alec each put a hand on one of Tom’s shoulder blades and firmly nudged him out of the elevator. Just as firmly, they urged him down the bizarre plastic-and-wood-paneled corridors and to a door labeled back stage, where the service elevators were hidden. Alec unlocked it with his mind and soon they were out of sight of any potential guests. From here they could return Tom discreetly to the lobby below.

  Tom glanced at them as they walked down the drab gray service hallway. “Who are you? What is this?” His voice—deep and eerily familiar, from her visions of him—signaled his rising alarm.

  “We’re here to help you.” Alec kept his tone even. “You’re perfectly safe, I promise you.”

  “No! I don’t know you.” Without warning, Tom backed away from them and bolted down the hall in the opposite direction.

  Instantly, Alec thrust his hand forward, catching Tom in his telekinetic grip. Tom lurched to a stop, struggling against the unseen force. “Get the elevator!” Alec grunted.

  As Claire raced down the hall, her phone rang. She answered without looking. “What?”

  It was Helena. “I just got an image of Alec and your father. Things aren’t going to go as planned.”

  “No kidding. Already happening.”

  “Get him to the elevator,” Helena replied. “I will meditate on what to do.”

  Claire shut off the phone and shoved it in her pocket as she ran. She reached the service elevator, hit the call button.

  Alec slowly and deliberately reeled her father back toward them as if he were gliding on ice.

  “No. Let go! I can’t—” Tom gasped, trying in vain to fight Alec’s invisible power.

  Just as Alec joined her with Tom in tow, the elevator arrived with a ding. Claire was relieved to see Brian inside, as expected, attired in the surprisingly informal black T-shirt and slacks worn by their bellhops. Beside him sat a push cart draped by a white linen cloth, holding a flower arrangement.

  “Hey,” Brian began cheerfully, his expression snapping to horror when Alec, abandoning any attempt at delicacy, telekinetically thrust Tom into the waiting elevator car, then jumped in after him.

  Claire followed, quickly hitting the button that started their descent.

  “Tom, you need to calm down,” Alec insisted as he struggled to hold the flailing man against the elevator walls.

  “Help! Help! I’m being kidnapped!” Tom yelled at the top of his lungs. He threw a weak punch at Alec that missed, then shouted something equally urgent in what Claire presumed was Chinese.

  “Mom, we need you now!” Claire called out, whipping the cart’s tablecloth upward, exposing its occupant who was folded like a gymnast into the compartment beneath.

  Lynn crawled out, pausing to stare at her husband with anxiety and excitement. Her voice cracked as she said, “Tom! Tom, it’s me, Lynn. Do you remember me, honey? I’m your wife.”

  They’d hoped that seeing Lynn would be comforting and encourage Tom to go along peacefully. Instead, his eyes widened in fear, glistening now as he violently shook his head. “No, no. It’s another trick. You can’t be real. Please, let me go. I have to get back to my friends!”

  “What’s wrong with him?” Lynn asked, frightened.

  “It looks like Stockholm Syndrome,” Alec grunted, straining to hold on to Tom. “They probably tortured him until he didn’t know what end was up, then convinced him that they’re on his side.”

  “Jesus,” Claire gasped.

  “What should I do?” Brian interjected, worried, holding his phone at the ready. “This is the part where I’m supposed to tell Erica and Neil to get started.”

  “Not yet,” Alec insisted. “We have to get him under control first.”

  Claire glanced at the elevator countdown. Any minute now, they’d reach the lobby and be in full view of the security monitors. Quickly, she pulled the emergency lever. The elevator lurched to a stop.

  “I’ll try mind control again.” Claire closed her eyes and focused every ounce of her energy on Tom, speaking the same words she projected, “Please calm down. We’re your friends. You were kidnapped. We’re here to help you, rescue you, bring you home.”

  The effort took intense focus, but only seemed to make things worse. Tom became increasingly agitated. She could feel him battling back with his own mental powers.

  “Stop it,” he grimaced. “Stop it. Get out of my head.” Tom yanked one arm free of Alec’s grip and swung at Claire, shoving her into the elevator wall.

  Claire cried out as her head hit metal with a sharp bang. Pain reverberated through her skull. Sparks showered in the edges of her vision as she grabbed her temple, woozy, and slowly slumped to the floor.

  “Claire!” her mother shouted.

  Everything that followed swam past Claire’s eyes in spurts. Her mind felt fragmented. Her head pounded. She could swear she heard Helena’s voice in the back of her mind, but it was garbled.

  “Helena just texted,” she heard Brian say. “Alec, she says you need to reset Tom.”

  Everyone’s voices were fuzzy, like she was deep underwater.

  Her mom: “Reset? What’s that mean?”

  Alec, upset: “It’s like a psychic enema. She wants me to connect his mind to the Grigori Nexus.”

  “But you need to
meditate to access the Nexus,” her mom gasped.

  The Nexus. Claire knew that word. All at once, she understood what was happening. Shock and fear speared through her. She opened her mouth, desperate to say something, but her head was pounding too hard.

  Brian spoke. “You think you can get him to meditate right now?”

  “I can try.” Alec winced, still working hard to control Tom. “It could get him back to his core self.”

  No, no, anything but that, Claire wanted to shout.

  “But … once you’re connected, the Grigori will know where you both are.” Panic laced Lynn’s every word.

  Claire found Alec’s eyes, which stared straight into hers.

  His voice was grave. “Yeah. There is that.”

  thirty-eight

  Should I do it?

  Alec’s mind whirred. If he connected to the Nexus, it might be the end of everything. Claire. His freedom. A normal life.

  Claire was staring at him, holding her head, clearly in too much pain at the moment to speak. But her eyes conveyed terror.

  Could he risk losing everything and never see Claire again? Just to save this one man?

  This one man who was Claire’s father …

  No time to think, idiot. Just do it. For her.

  With a burst of strength, Alec hurled Tom to the floor, smashing into the room-service cart, which crashed against the back wall of the elevator, scattering broken pottery, flowers, and water.

  Pinning Tom with all his physical and telekinetic weight, Alec grabbed both of the man’s hands, gripped them tightly, and opened a corner of his mind—a corner Alec had hoped would remain forever closed. He felt Tom’s energy flowing into him, and his own coursing back out. And then … poof. The world around them was gone. No sights, no sounds. Just infinite white.

  Their minds were connected. To each other, and to the Nexus.

  In that blank expanse, Alec still knelt atop Tom, but the man’s struggling ceased. Instead, Tom’s eyes snapped open, now sharp and clear.

  “What’s happening?” Tom began, his voice echoing in the emptiness. “Am I dead?”

  “Not yet.” The clock was ticking. Every second they remained here would make it easier for the Grigori to trace them. “Do you recognize this place?”

  Tom glanced around, inhaling a worried breath. “The Nexus. I can’t be here. It’s too dangerous.”

  “For me, too.”

  Cold realization dawned in Tom’s eyes. “You’re one of us?”

  “Aye.” Then: “Tom. I’m on your side.” Alec heard a slight, faraway whine in his ears that was gradually increasing in volume.

  There were eyes on them. He could feel it. He had to get Tom up to speed and get out of here, fast. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “The last thing? I was … in New York. I’d escaped the Fallen a second time. I know I’d called my wife, warned her to run, but when I got to my apartment the next day, she was already gone.”

  Shite. Alec’s heart sank. He thinks it was only the next day.

  “What am I missing?” Tom said flatly.

  “You’ve lost some time. Eleven years passed between your phone call to your wife and your visit to the apartment.”

  “Eleven years? And how long since I was first taken?”

  “Sixteen years.” The whine was getting quite loud now. Any second, and the Grigori would have their location.

  “Dear God. So it’s true.” Tom looked positively broken.

  “What?”

  “When they found me the last time, they said my wife and daughter were in Fallen custody. That they’d hurt my family if I didn’t comply.”

  “They were lying. Your family’s right here.” With that, Alec released his grip on Tom and his connection to the Nexus.

  The real world surged back, filling in the nothingness around them with a blast of color and sound. Once more, they were in the tight confines of the elevator, with everyone hovering over them anxiously. Alec pulled himself upright, offered his hand, and hoisted Tom to his feet.

  “Tom?”

  Tom turned to his wife, this time with relief and deep-felt emotion. “Lynn. Oh my God.”

  “We thought we’d lost you.” Lynn burst into tears and fell into her husband’s arms.

  Tom held her tight, then pulled back from the embrace to look at her, tracing the worry lines on her face. “Has it really been sixteen years?” He noticed Claire, who was slowly standing up, her hand on her temple, her eyes wide and fixed on her father.

  “Dad?” she whispered.

  “Claire … ?” Tom stared at his daughter, astonished.

  Claire wrapped her arms around both of her parents. “Dad,” she said again.

  Alec didn’t want to interrupt the moment but knew he had to. “Claire, are you all right?”

  Claire nodded, smiling—one of the happiest smiles he’d ever seen on her face. “Yeah. Thank you.”

  Tom’s eyes filled with tears as he looked at Claire and Lynn. “All this time, it felt like a dream,” he said quietly.

  “Unfortunately, it wasn’t,” Alec replied urgently. “We need to get moving.”

  Claire’s expression turned upside down. “What happened in there? Did the Grigori see you?”

  “I sensed … something,” Alec answered honestly.

  “Great,” Brian muttered. “Before, it was just the Fallen. Now we’ll have Grigori on our asses, too. We have to book it, double time.” Pushing the lever to restart the elevator, he looked at Tom, and added, in a surprisingly adept Schwarzenegger impression: “Come with us if you want to live.”

  “Who are you?” Tom asked, semiamused, as the elevator zoomed downward.

  “Commander of this rescue op.” Brian winked, clicking something on his phone. “Okay. Message sent. Our fake lovebirds should start the fireworks any second.”

  “Just stay close,” Alec directed Tom, “and do exactly what we tell you.”

  “Got it,” Tom replied.

  The elevator touched down. As the doors slid open, a young woman’s shout could be heard from the lobby.

  “You bastard! How could you?” It was Erica, playing up her part for all she was worth.

  “Let’s go,” Alec commanded, leading the way out of the elevator at a fast clip.

  Neil’s voice echoed from the lobby. “But baby, it didn’t mean anything.”

  Pausing at the entrance to the lobby, Alec put up a hand, signaling his group to wait as he peeked around the corner. Erica was standing atop the round bench where she’d formerly been cuddling with Neil, a bouquet of roses gripped in one hand and a murderous look in her eyes.

  “She was my best friend!” Erica cried.

  Neil looked up at her. “I said I’m sorry.”

  “You’re sorry? You think that makes it all right?”

  Damn it, thought Alec. The distraction wasn’t working. His group needed to dash across the lobby to the far end, where the parking elevators were. But the two lobby guards, still seated on another bench a few feet away and staring at their smartphones, weren’t paying any attention to the squabbling lovers.

  Erica raised her voice and gestured dramatically. “You drag me all the way to China, then humiliate me like this in public?”

  Neil backed away, raising his arms defensively. “It’s not China. It’s Taiwan.”

  “Same difference!” Erica’s frustration looked genuine. Although everyone else in the lobby was staring at them, the Fallen guards hadn’t taken any interest.

  Somehow, Alec had to make things escalate. Reaching out with his mind, he pushed Erica’s hand, causing her floral bouquet to smack Neil in the face.

  Neil sputtered in surprise. “Baby,” he said loudly, “don’t make a scene.”

  The look of confusion on Erica’s face changed to comprehen
sion when she spotted Alec. “Oh, I’ll show you a scene!” She lunged at Neil, smacking him repeatedly with the bouquet.

  Neil shielded himself and backed away, deliberately colliding with the bench where the two Fallen guards were seated—and then falling with a great shout across both of their laps. The ebony-skinned female guard cried out in alarm, while the man tried to shove Neil off. Suddenly, Erica was leaping onto the bench, swatting at all three of them with her thorny roses.

  “Now!” Alec hissed. He grabbed Claire’s hand and started running across the lobby, glancing back to confirm that Lynn, Brian, and Tom were following.

  As they ran, Alec telekinetically pressed the button to summon the parking-garage elevator. Behind him, he could hear Erica and Neil’s dramatic confrontation continuing, giving them the cover they needed.

  Alec rejoiced silently. They were almost home free. All they had to do now was make it to the garage, where they’d join Helena in the van and speed off to the airport.

  To his relief, the elevator doors opened just as they reached them. Alec gestured for everyone to board and jumped in last. Claire punched the button for the garage level.

  The elevator didn’t respond.

  “Come on, come on!” Claire cried, frantically punching at the button.

  Damn it, Alec thought. Hurry. Hurry.

  The doors stubbornly remained open. When Alec glanced back toward the lobby, his heart almost stopped.

  At the far end of the room, Erica and Neil were still rolling around on the bench, flowers flying. But the female guard had pried herself loose from the commotion. As she shook herself off, her eyes traveled across the lobby expanse and connected with Alec’s, then noticed the man standing next to him. Tom.

  The woman gave a shout of fury and recognition, struggling to alert her partner.

  Alec’s stomach seized as the elevator doors finally closed. “They spotted us.”

  “Shit,” Brian hissed under his breath. “The op is blown.”

  thirty-nine