by Jordan Dane
His anger had been an ally, but now that everything hinged on him being at his best, he couldn’t trust his instincts, and that killed him. It would be like a normal person being unable to rely on their own eyesight or hearing, but he knew his uncle had been right. To help Rayne and Lucas and the others, he’d have to attempt something he’d never done before when everything mattered.
If he failed, he wouldn’t get a do-over.
But something far worse than his failing powers bothered him. When he looked in the bathroom mirror and saw the nightmare still haunted his face, he could finally put words to what he had sensed and couldn’t tell her. The smothering darkness that had made it hard for him to breathe had carried the unmistakable stench of death. He didn’t know if he could stop what he saw.
He only knew he had to try.
Chapter 16
Downtown L.A.
4:30 a.m.
O’Dell jumped a curb and drove his SUV through weeds toward the rendezvous point Boelens had arranged. The location had been picked for staging the attack because it couldn’t be seen from the road and it had steep embankments of thick vegetation for cover. It was also near an abandoned railroad-track tunnel, an underground entrance that would serve as the main assault point. O’Dell used his headlights for only a short while before he cut them and parked behind an Expedition he recognized. Boelens had his men at the tailgate of his vehicle, going over a map by flashlight.
With the help of the Tracker system, Boelens had played a hunch to snare Raphael Santana when he made another run to the health-food store and it paid off. The kid thought if he split from his little buddy he’d lose Boelens, but Boelens stuck to the smaller boy, an easier mark. After Boelens got what he needed—a likely assault target—he cut out before that nest of freaks figured out they’d been busted. He’d found where they lived.
Now it was time for O’Dell to reap the rewards of what he’d sowed.
After Boelens bribed a city official to get his hands on maps of the underground network, his man had enough to devise a strategy—one that he’d come up with after his last encounter with that head case, Kendra Walker. Boelens told him that he had a few payback surprises and couldn’t wait to tell him about it.
O’Dell came dressed for the part. He wore full assault gear provided by the church that was stored in the operations bunker. With black BDUs, helmet, a holstered Glock 21 sidearm and night-vision goggles, he’d look like everyone else. When he walked up to Boelens, his man didn’t bother with introductions. O’Dell had warned him not to use names.
“This is Cobra One. He’s in charge of the op. I report to him.” Boelens nudged his chin to O’Dell and said, “You ready for me to brief our men?”
“Yeah, carry on.” O’Dell had been tempted to salute, but didn’t.
“These are architectural schematics for the tunnels. We’ll come in three ways and converge here to extract prisoners. Hit ’em hard with flashbangs and tear gas. We gotta keep these mind freaks disoriented until we can dart ’em with knockout juice. Don’t let them get their hooks into you. They’ll seriously fuck you up and scramble your juevos. If they get in too close, fry their asses with a Taser. Transport will be waiting at the extract point.”
Boelens had learned from his last failed attempt to capture the Darby kid. His surprise retaliation utilized the tactics and weapons of a hostage-rescue unit, only there would be no rescue. Flashbangs were a first-assault incendiary device used to disorient hostiles. It blinded them, messed with their heads and took out their hearing for six seconds. Tear gas would be round two and Tasers would send a jolt of electricity to short-circuit their brains and body. His man had a solid plan for a good harvest operation.
“You have your team leaders and assignments. If we strike hard, they won’t know what hit them.” Boelens handed out photos of Lucas Darby and Kendra Walker to each team leader. “Remember these faces. They’re our prime objectives for this mission. Must-haves, gentlemen. The boy’s code name will be Skywalker. Hers will be Princess. Sing out when you have ’em put down.”
“What about use of deadly force with the others, sir?” one of the men asked.
Boelens barely looked at O’Dell before he said, “If you feel you are in danger, take ’em out. End of story. But if you kill Skywalker and the Princess, you’re a dead man walking. Got it?”
His man had given the order to kill without hesitating. His words reminded O’Dell that these men were paid mercenaries. The almighty dollar was their only moral code. Each man would carry an M4 assault rifle for protection, but they wouldn’t hesitate to use them if things got ugly. When the briefing was done, Boelens pulled O’Dell aside.
“I brought shaped charges to blast through barriers these vermin could have in there. That’s how that brat got away from me this afternoon. I don’t want that happening again, but don’t worry. The noise should be minimal underground.”
“Shaped charges?”
“Yeah. C-4, man. Explosives are a real icebreaker. Comprende?”
“Understood.”
Boelens stared at him with his usual stern expression until a smirk spread across his face. “You know, I’ve done black ops all over the world, but none for a church.”
“Yeah. It’s a calling. Go with God, my son.”
Boelens turned to join his men, but when O’Dell didn’t follow, he said, “We go in twenty. You comin’?”
“No.” O’Dell took off his helmet. “Use your comm unit to brief me. I’ll be in my vehicle.”
Boelens narrowed his eyes. “Unbelievable,” he muttered as he headed back to his men.
O’Dell pretended not to hear him.
* * *
Rafe woke up to screams in his head.
Go! Go! Go! They’re everywhere!
Kendra! Where are you? Help us!
Rafe’s body jerked straight up. It took a second to realize that he’d fallen asleep on the floor, and he fumbled for a flashlight that he kept by him at night. He flicked on the light and shone it into the darkness. The light found Benny. The kid was sound asleep on his mattress, where he’d left him. The tunnels were deathly still. Only Rafe’s head buzzed with voices.
Evacuate! This isn’t a drill. Get out now!
That voice he recognized. Kendra. She’d made them run drills for escape routes if they ever came under attack.
Kendra had them split up on purpose. They slept in groups. That way they wouldn’t be trapped in one location. They’d have different exits, too.
Rafe had hoped that the day would never come for real, but his luck was for shit. He shoved the flashlight into the waistband of his jeans and reached for something more useful. He grabbed a baseball bat that he kept with him, a reminder of his old man that had nothing to do with a ballpark.
“Benny?” He knelt by the kid and whispered, “Kendra’s got another evacuation drill goin’ on. Wake up, buddy.”
The kid never complained. He rubbed his eyes and crawled into his arms, still dreaming. Rafe carried him and hit the tunnel outside his quarters. He used his senses to guide himself to the evacuation route in the dark. The flashlight would only make them a target.
When he got to the main passage, he stopped and clutched at Benny. Other kids were around and they saw the same thing he did. Two inky-black silhouettes stood in front of them and made a human barricade. They were big. A green glow came from their masked faces and red laser scopes shot across the darkness. Lasers pinned them where they stood. One red beam targeted Rafe’s head. Another painted his heart. Too close to Benny.
“What’s that?” the kid whimpered.
As the men stepped closer, Rafe backed up and whispered, “Plan B, little man. I gotta talk to these guys. I’ll meet you outside. You got that?”
When the kid nodded, Rafe put him down and shielded him with his body. He sent a message to the others and tightened his grip on the bat.
Take Benny. Run when I make my move. I’ll hold ’em off.
When he hit the flashlight,
they did as he told them and scrambled into the dark. The stark light took out the night-vision gear these shitbirds had brought. As they shielded their eyes and cowered from the light, he ran straight for them with the bat.
Something punched his body and he smelled blood. When he thought of Kendra and Benny, he fought to stay on his feet. He didn’t have her ability, but he knew how to swing a bat. His old man had taught him that.
* * *
Kendra had stayed with Lucas. Her first thought had been to take charge and protect the others, but a strong urge forced her to stay with him. She couldn’t explain it, but she’d learned to trust her instincts when it came to Lucas. He had a quiet strength and she had felt his power grow. Now his brilliant blue aura with its crystal sparks burned with an intensity she’d never seen.
At first, she had told Lucas where they should go, sticking to the evacuation plan for their section of the tunnels. They headed for the garden to escape up the scaffolding and through the hole that led outside. When they got there, Kendra stopped in stunned silence.
Men in dark uniforms rappelled down on long ropes. In the bluish haze of the moon, they looked like deadly spiders with weird, glowing eyes. They had rifles and were geared for war. Lucas didn’t hesitate. He changed their escape route to keep ahead of the men. While she gathered the youngest kids, Lucas fed her what he sensed. He stayed calm and never spoke. He’d learned to use his abilities naturally.
East tunnel is clear to the train. Head there now. The commons are out!
She sent telepathic messages to the others as Lucas moved, not knowing if anyone heard her. If these men knew about the garden, she had no doubt they’d attack at multiple points and trap them. They had to get ahead of the men, use exit strategies only they knew about, places where large men couldn’t fit.
Her eyes burned and she couldn’t breathe. What kind of cowards hunted kids with rifles and explosives and tear gas?
When they got to the dead train, Kendra’s legs felt like they were on fire and she gasped for air. Backtracking over eleven miles of tunnels in the dark, while using her abilities to guide herself and the others, had drained her. But nothing was worse that the strain of her emotional reaction. Seeing her family being hunted by armed men left her spent and her head aching. Sweat drenched her body, and gas fumes and dirt stung her eyes.
Up ahead she saw more of her kids, but not nearly enough. She’d lost some. She felt it and that killed her. The Effin brothers and Benny had gotten through, but one of the twins had been hurt. He could barely walk. Kendra had never seen the twins so lost without each other. Their mental link had been damaged by the trauma of the injury. The boys were tightly connected. With one of them distracted by pain, the other had shut down. They operated in tandem and needed each other to be whole.
Kendra never knew. The twins were still only boys. Anytime they used their powers, to them it was a game—nothing more than a prank—but this was no game.
Follow me. Stick close.
Kendra grabbed for Benny, and Lucas helped the limping twin. She led them from the train and down another corridor. At the end of it was a crack in the brick wall, nothing more than a sliver of an opening. Only the littlest kids would be able to fit, but on the other side, they had a fighting chance of getting out and making it to the evacuation spot through a crawl space. The men hunting them couldn’t follow the little ones.
That meant she and Lucas would have to find another way out. Before she had a chance to explain, Lucas touched her shoulder and looked into her eyes. Even in the shadows, she saw he understood.
I know. Just get them out, he told her.
He helped her hoist each kid into the crevice in the wall. When they’d tested the escape route before, the twins had been through the hole. They knew what to do and where to go. Some of the children barely made it and had to squeeze. Benny was the last to go. She kissed the boy on the cheek and said, “See you on the flip side, little man.”
She wanted to ask Benny about Raphael, but didn’t. She didn’t want him to worry. The kid was already so scared, but she knew that Rafe wouldn’t have let Benny go without him unless he didn’t get a choice. Kendra felt hollow inside. She’d lost her connection to Raphael, another voice she couldn’t hear anymore. Feeling Rafe gone, Kendra felt lost. She couldn’t move. He’d been a part of her for so long that she didn’t know where she ended and he began. It was as if her soul had been split in two. When her stomach tightened and her hands shook, she didn’t know if she could stand any more.
But Lucas’s voice—from inside her head—forced her into the moment.
Come on. We gotta go. They’ll need us on the outside.
Lucas had sent her a message that kept her going. He was right. She had to stay focused and keep moving. She couldn’t fail them. The children, her family, would need her. Raphael would have wanted that, too.
But when she heard another explosion—one that was too close—she and Lucas got knocked off their feet. He covered her with his body as shards of brick struck her arms and face. She felt the sting of cuts and smelled the coppery tang of blood.
What the hell was that?
Dust rained down on them and drifted in thick clouds. Kendra choked on it as she got to her feet and looked over her shoulder. The men were coming. Her kids were in trouble. She had to go back, but when more blasts erupted and a wall collapsed, Lucas grabbed her by the waist to stop her.
Let me go! I gotta help. She wanted to scream, but he held her tight.
“You can’t help them. Not now,” Lucas said aloud, using his voice so the others couldn’t hear his thoughts. He sensed the same horror.
The children.
Eerie lights strafed the dark behind her. The Believers were close and they were far too many. Stunned, Kendra had never seen such violence. These men were like feral dogs on the scent of blood. And their prey? They hunted innocent, unarmed children who hadn’t hurt or killed anyone.
No! Leave them alone. They’re only kids!
Her pain slipped out, not meant for anyone else but Lucas. She didn’t want her kids to feel her lose it, but she couldn’t fight it anymore. She let Lucas feel her agony. She didn’t feel Raphael anymore and everything she’d built had been wiped out in minutes as if none of it had mattered. These men had destroyed her dreams of becoming, of establishing a strong family of Indigos.
Kendra collapsed to her knees and emptied her stomach. These men had taken everything from her. Stripped of all hope, she had nothing left.
She’d failed them all.
Chapter 17
Near Downtown L.A.
5:00 a.m.
Traffic had been light and they’d made good time coming back to the city. With Gabriel riding behind her, Rayne pulled her motorcycle onto the shoulder of the highway near a car tunnel. She drove her bike off road until she reached a stand of trees where she could stash her bike. The mural she’d seen in a book at the museum library would be somewhere inside the lighted tunnel and belowground. She’d driven through the car tunnel many times—a section of freeway cut into a hillside—and never knew it had secret passages that led under downtown L.A.
She turned off her engine, took off her helmet and waited for Gabriel to say something. He only stared into the tunnel with his helmet in hand, narrowing his eyes as if he saw something she couldn’t. She expected him to sense stuff, but the worried look on his face told a different story.
She didn’t know how to help him.
“This is the location I read about,” she said. “Any ideas where to look now?”
“Yeah, maybe.”
Of course he does, she thought. He has to. He had Hellboy and the third eye, right? He probably had abilities beyond what she’d seen. She wanted all this to be true, but the look on his face worried her—for Lucas and for him.
When she got off her bike and fished out her flashlight, Gabriel said, “Oh, no. I’m going in alone. I’ll have enough on my mind. I...” He didn’t finish. He took a deep sigh and touched
her cheek. “I’d worry about you. Please don’t make me worry.”
She knew he was right. The last thing she wanted to be was a burden to him. All the way to L.A., she had no trouble picturing Lucas and all the terrible things that could happen—or had happened to him already. The one thing she couldn’t imagine was failing him again.
“I let my brother down. When Mia took him from the only home he ever had and gave him to strangers, I let that happen.” She fought the guilt that always came when she thought about Lucas. “You say I’m a good sister, but that’s not true. I just want the chance to become one. I hope that’s still possible.”
Gabriel looked into her eyes as if he were reading her thoughts. If anyone understood the importance of family, he did.
“This may not work,” he said. “I may not be able to protect you...to protect anyone.”
“No promises. No regrets.” She nodded and reached for his hand. “I understand.”
She could have argued that this had been her fight from the start. She’d only needed him to find Lucas. Rayne didn’t need psychic powers to feel she was on the verge of doing just that, but Gabriel had a stake in this, too, now. Lucas and these kids were like Gabe. They’d linked their minds and shared things she would never understand or experience.
Despite the love she had for her brother, Rayne knew she’d never be a real part of his life or Gabriel’s. Love had nothing to do with really understanding what it meant to walk in their shoes, but it had everything to do with accepting them as they were.
“Then let’s go...kick some ass,” he said. Hearing him say that with his British accent almost made her smile. Almost. Gabe didn’t smile, either.
Rayne locked up her bike and grabbed her flashlight. She walked into the car tunnel with him holding her hand. The cement walls were solid. She couldn’t see any entrance that would lead them down. She almost panicked until Gabe pointed ahead.
