Eliza opened her fist and Fiona took the locket, holding it in her palm and closing her eyes. After a few seconds, she removed the carnelian bracelet she was wearing, clutching it into the fist of her other hand and resumed her meditation.
Morgan gaped at Fiona’s hand, which looked like it was being lit from the inside. The carnelian stones inside were glowing, the amber light escaping from the spaces between her fingers.
“Here, hold this where the burn is,” Fiona handed the bracelet to Eliza who applied it gingerly to her injured hand.
On the other side of the energy shield, the guys bent over the map, picking out a route.
“We’ll go up through here, around and come back. It should lead to the other side here.” Cal traced the route with his finger.
“That seems like it would take a long time,” Morgan said glancing nervously at her sisters. “I don’t think we can wait. Jolene needs us now.”
“No. No way. It’s too dangerous. We’re not letting you girls get hurt.” Luke gave her his sternest look, but Morgan’s mind was made up … she just hoped her sisters thought the same thing. If they didn’t she was willing to go on her own.
“Sorry, Luke, we don’t have any time to waste,” Morgan said. “Besides we can take care of ourselves, remember?”
Next to her, Fiona was pulling a wobbly Eliza to her feet.
“You girls go on without me. I’ll slow you down,” Eliza pleaded.
Morgan held up her hand. “No way. You’re family and we don’t leave family behind.”
The smile on Eliza’s face warmed Morgan’s heart, but she didn’t have time to feel all warm and fuzzy—they had to get going before it was too late to help Jolene.
She looked into Luke’s concerned, gray eyes.
“I don’t like it, Morgan,” he said. “How will you know where to go if we have the map?”
“We have the hologram in the locket and I can use my intuition.” Morgan’s heart ached as she turned away from him. She didn’t want to be separated from him either, but she knew it could be bad for Jolene if she didn’t get going—like now!
She turned and started down the tunnel without looking back, afraid she might change her mind if she did.
“Wait! How will we know where to meet?” Luke yelled after her.
“Don’t worry, I’ll figure it out,” Morgan shouted over her shoulder without turning.
Morgan could hear Fiona and Celeste coming up behind her. She half-turned to see them supporting Eliza between them. Eliza looked a little unsteady, but was walking with minimal support. Behind her sisters, Morgan could see the worried looks on the guys’ faces as they stared after them. Her stomach tightened and she looked forward again and quickened her pace.
“I think they’re going to be mad at us,” Fiona, who was also looking behind them, said.
“Well, too bad. We have to find Jolene and if that means we split up then so be it,” Morgan replied.
“Of course you’re right,” Celeste said. “It’s just too bad that they have the guns and Tasers.”
***
Loud voices at the end of the hall pulled Jolene out of a fitful sleep.
Had it been two hours already?
She stared at the vial in her hand.
Should she drink it?
The liquid in the vial looked like the liquid in Bly’s beaker … the elixir that was supposed to enhance paranormal powers. She could sure use some enhancing … and the cat had reminded her of Belladonna. What did she have to lose?
She downed the bitter liquid in one gulp, grimacing as it burned her throat. She got up quickly and shoved the vial into the hole in the corner, then ran back to the bench and tried to pretend she was just waking up.
No sooner had she lain down than she heard Mateo outside the door. “I’ll get her.”
Jolene could already feel the power surging through her, but something told her not to tip her hand just yet. She’d gain the advantage if Mateo and Thick Neck thought she was too weak to fight. Much better to let her powers increase while she waited for the perfect moment.
The door clicked open and Mateo came into the room toward her, his eyes darting to her neck.
The locket!
Her hands flew up to hide it. She couldn’t believe how stupid she’d been to put it back on. How would she explain it being back on her neck?
His eyes jerked up from the locket and met hers, but instead of anger, she saw something else. Satisfaction? Understanding? She wasn’t sure what, and equally unsure of how to interpret the strange feeling deep inside her.
He nodded and then grabbed her arm, yanking her up from the bench, but not as roughly as before.
“Time to go,” he said as he pushed her to where Thick Neck was standing just outside the room. He grabbed her other arm and the two of them dragged her down the hall while she focused on pretending like she was too weak to walk.
They passed the dark corridor and she wondered if she should try to break away and make a run for it now or wait. Her instincts told her she should wait until she was in the lab. If she had a chance to incapacitate Bly, then he wouldn’t be able to order his minions to follow her … and the less people following, the better her chances.
She let them shove her into the elevator and they rode it up to the lab.
The elevator doors whooshed open to reveal Bly standing beside the stainless steel chair. He looked at Jolene slumped between Thick Neck and Mateo, his mouth quirking into a malevolent smile.
“I hope you are well rested,” he leered.
Jolene wrenched her arm from Mateo’s grasp, thinking to hit Bly with a whammy of energy first and then take out Mateo and Thick Neck while they were still trying to figure out what was going on. Except it didn’t work. Mateo’s grip on her arm tightened and she felt a rush of weakness.
Her knees buckled and, before she knew what had happened, she’d been shoved into the chair and Mateo was strapping her in.
Except, something was different this time … the straps weren’t biting into her skin. In fact, he wasn’t even securing them at all.
Jolene stared at her arms in stunned amazement, then her eyes met Mateo’s. He mouthed the words ‘play along’.
Jolene didn’t know whether she should trust him or not. He was one of Bly’s minions … or so it seemed. Yet, he hadn’t secured the straps and that surely counted for something. She decided to wait and see what he had in mind. A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt and she could feel herself getting stronger with each passing second.
Bly wrung his hands together in anticipation. He ripped his gaze from Jolene and turned to Mateo. “Did you amplify the output sources like you suggested?”
What did he mean by amplify? Jolene frowned at Mateo, an uneasy feeling spreading in her chest.
“Yes, I rigged it so it will pull the maximum amount out of her … I just hope it doesn’t kill her.” Mateo glanced at Jolene.
Kill her?
Jolene tensed, ready to leap out of the chair on the attack until she saw Mateo shake his head slightly.
Had he read her mind?
Somehow, she knew the headshake was for her and that it meant for her to wait.
Had she read his mind, too?
She sat back in the chair and waited.
“You’ll have to wear this protective shield so you aren’t harmed.” Mateo handed a clear glass helmet to Bly. Two metal posts with a coiled copper spring between them stuck up from the top.
Jolene almost laughed as Bly put it on—he looked like something from a comic book.
Bly adjusted the chinstraps on the cumbersome helmet, then leered at Jolene.
“Hit it!” he yelled, followed by a high-pitched maniacal giggle that set Jolene’s nerves on edge.
Mateo flicked the big red switch. Jolene braced herself, but instead of feeling a painful jolt, she felt nothing.
Bly, on the other hand, stiffened, the color leeching out of his face, his eyes bulging.
“Argghhh.” He poi
nted at Mateo, then fell to the floor clawing at the helmet.
Jolene figured Thick Neck wasn’t known for his intelligence since he was just standing there, his face a mask of confusion as his eyes darted from Mateo to Jolene to Bly.
She bolted out of the chair, pushing her hand out at Thick Neck. A purple ball flew out of the palm of her hand and sped toward him, smashing into the center of his forehead. His eyes crossed and he fell like a mastodon that had been hit by a meteor.
“Come on!” Mateo grabbed her by the arm and headed for the elevator.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I can walk on my own now.” Eliza shook off Fiona and Celeste. Morgan noticed her hand was almost fully healed.
“Your hand, it’s healed already!”
Eliza lifted her hand up, turning it back and forth in front of her face.
“I guess it is.” She handed the carnelian bracelet back to Fiona.
“I’ve used carnelian to heal before, but I’ve never had it work this fast. That meteorite locket really does enhance our powers. We’ll have to get some more meteorites, if we ever get out of here.
“Speaking of which, we better hurry,” Eliza said. “I don’t know if that energy shield breach triggered an alarm. They could be coming for us right now.”
Morgan felt a twinge. She could sense friendly energy—the energy Jolene left behind when she was taken through the tunnel. Even though it was fading, it told her which direction to go. “I think we need to take this right turn.”
They turned to the right, but only made it a few feet down the tunnel when Morgan got another twinge—this one not so friendly. She put her arm out to stop the others.
“Someone’s coming.”
“I don’t hear—”
“Shh… They’re up ahead,” Morgan whispered. Her eyes darted frantically around the tunnel for a hiding place, her stomach sinking when she didn’t find one. Her intuition was getting stronger now. Even though the guards were two hundred feet away, she knew they were there and could even tell how many people were coming. “There are five of them. We’re out numbered, but we have no choice but to fight them now.”
“Meow.”
Morgan whirled toward the noise. A black cat sat in the path, her ice-blue eyes blinking at them. She watched as the cat stood up and walked to the wall, then disappeared.
“Did that cat just disappear?” Celeste asked.
“Looks like it.” Morgan walked over to the spot. At first glance, it looked like a solid wall, but on close inspection, she could see that the stone overlapped in one spot. There were actually two walls next to each other with a thin space between. Peering in, she could see the cat sitting inside a tiny hidden niche barely big enough to fit the four of them.
“Come here, quick!” She gestured toward the others who filed over and, one by one, slid into the space behind the wall. The opening was barely big enough for them to squeeze through, but they managed. She just hoped the small opening and overlapping walls would hide them from the guards.
A few seconds later, heavily booted footsteps passed by the opening. The guards were talking in hushed whispers. There was no sign by the tone of their voices or their energy signatures that they even suspected the girls were there.
It was a tight fit in the little niche. Morgan felt like she was suffocating. She stepped back to get some breathing room.
“Plink!”
Morgan’s heart skidded—she’d inadvertently scraped a rock loose from the wall and it had fallen onto the floor.
“What was that?” The guard’s voice sounded from a few feet down the hall.
“What? I didn’t hear anything.” A second guard.
“I did. Someone is back there.”
Morgan held her breath as the sounds of the guard’s boots scraping the tunnel floor came closer. She braced herself, knowing they would soon be discovered and have to fight their way out. Beside her, she could feel Fiona tense.
“Meow.”
“Oh.” The guard let out a chuckle. “It was just a cat. Get outta here. Go on—scoot!”
“Ha, big bad Roger scared of a cat,” the other guards laughed.
Morgan’s shoulders sagged with relief, but she remained stock still, afraid to breathe.
She heard static. Walkie-Talkies.
“Base to Team one … come in.” The distorted voice sounded far away.
“Team one here,” the guard said.
“I’m getting something on the monitor. A disturbance in sector five. Can you check it out?”
“Roger.” The static snapped off. “Let’s go.”
Their boots scuffled off into the distance. Morgan counted to twenty before jostling her way to the opening so she could peek out. No one was in the tunnel.
“It’s clear.” She waved the others out. “Come on.”
“Boy, am I glad we didn’t have to fight them,” Celeste said, looking around for the cat. “I don’t know if we could have beaten them without Jolene.”
Fiona pulled three glowing crystals from her pocket. “Not to worry. I brought some of these crystals. Remember how they helped us fight off bad guys before?”
Morgan smiled, remembering the big fight for the treasure under their house. Somehow the crystals knew just who to target and packed a wallop. But they only had three, and she had a funny feeling they were going to need more than that. None of them really had the fighting power that Jolene did.
“That’s good to know,” Morgan said. “But I’m worried about the disturbance they talked about.”
“It could be the energy shield,” Eliza suggested.
“Or Luke, Cal, Jake and Buzz.” Morgan’s forehead creased with worry. “They could be in trouble and none of them have paranormal skills. We’d better hurry.”
***
Jolene and Mateo spilled out of the elevator at full speed. Jolene eyed the dark corridor to the right. Somehow she knew that was the best way out, but something tugged her attention away.
The door with the rectangular window—the other cell.
Jolene rushed toward it. To her surprise, Mateo was right beside her. She would have thought he would have wanted to head straight down the dark hallway.
“We can’t leave anyone here.” Jolene skidded to a halt in front of the door to the old woman’s cell. “How many people does he have locked here?”
“Just the two of you,” Mateo said.
Jolene wondered why he was looking at her curiously as he pushed a series of buttons on a panel beside the door.
The door clicked open and Jolene rushed in, her heart pinching for the poor woman slumped in the chair.
The woman turned her face toward them. Her amber eyes looked up at Jolene in confusion, then they widened as they drifted down to her locket and then back up to her face.
Jolene’s heart stopped beating. She felt dizzy with confusion. She’d know those amber eyes anywhere.
“Mom?”
***
The old woman’s eyes filled with tears. She reached out a wrinkled hand and touched Jolene’s cheek.
“Jolene? I thought I’d never see you again.”
“You’re alive?” Jolene’s voice cracked with emotion. She whirled around to look at Mateo. “Is this some kind of trick?”
“It’s no trick,” her mother’s voice said. “I’ve been held prisoner here for a long time. I tried to spare you—”
“What happened to you?” Jolene stared at her mother in disbelief. Her mother had only been dead—well, missing—for seven years. She should be in her early fifties, but she looked like she was eighty.
How was that possible?
Her mother ignored her question. She looked around the room with fearful eyes. “It isn’t safe for you. What are you doing here?”
“Getting you out, hopefully,” Mateo cut in. “Sorry, there’s no time for a family reunion right now. You guys can catch up later, but for now let’s get the hell out.”
He grabbed the handles of the wheelchair and hurr
ied into the hall, then down the dark corridor. Stopping about halfway down at an elevator, he pressed his thumb into a small pad on the side. The elevator door slid open.
“Where are we going?” Jolene looked inside the elevator nervously.
“I know a way out.” Mateo looked back at her. “You have to trust me.”
Jolene looked into the elevator then back out at the hall.
Did she hear someone coming?
“Jolene, get in,” her mother said. Mateo had already pushed the wheelchair in and was standing with his hand holding the doors open for Jolene. “You can trust Mateo.”
Johanna gave her ‘the look’. Childhood memories instantly flashed through her mind. That look meant she should listen to her mother … or else. A half-smile formed on her lips and she stepped inside.
The elevator whooshed them down several floors and the doors opened to reveal the underground tunnel system.
Mateo wheeled Johanna out of the elevator and Jolene followed. She was just starting to think this was too easy to be true when the heart-stopping sound of an alarm split the air.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The shriek of the alarm sent a jolt of adrenalin coursing through Morgan’s veins.
“They must have figured out we breached the energy shield!” Celeste yelled over the din.
Or discovered Luke and the guys, Morgan thought.
“We better kick it into high gear,” Fiona shouted. “There’s a tunnel off to the right that goes uphill, let’s take that.”
“Okay.” Morgan turned to Eliza. “Are you okay? Do you want us to slow down?”
“Slow down?” Eliza scrunched up her face. “We need to speed things up.”
She took off at a trot in the direction Fiona had suggested. Morgan looked at her sisters, shrugged and took off after her.
The tunnel ran straight for two hundred feet, then turned sharply to the left. The alarm was so loud, it was impossible to hear anything else, which is why they almost ran right into the three darkly dressed guards who were just around the corner.
Deadly Intentions Page 15
