The Escape

by Teyla Branton

  Ritter dropped the towel to the carpet, his eyes holding mine. “I would never have stopped until I found you,” he said, the timbre of his voice going deeper.

  I knew that. The connection between us was too strong for me to pretend otherwise. At least to myself. That didn’t mean I had to admit it to him. “You might have found me too late.” I looked down at my hands, stifling a shudder.

  “You’re stronger than you know. And getting stronger.”

  My eyes snapped to his. “How did you know?” I hadn’t told anyone but Ava about my growing abilities particularly because I didn’t want the others to be wary of me. Ava had shared the information with Cort and asked him to create some experiments that would be able to scientifically measure my progress, but no one else should know.

  He grinned, resting his hands on his knees as he angled toward me. “Part of my ability is to measure an opponent’s strength. That way I know who to attack first. Your strength has grown.”

  Yes. When I was fighting the Asian and using Edgel’s combat ability, I’d known all along that Edgel was the greater challenge and that I couldn’t beat him.

  “It would also help,” Ritter added with a hint of mockery, “if you stopped doing things before people ask. Like passing the salt at dinner or answering a question before they finish speaking.”

  I sat up rigidly, hurrying to explain. “Surface thoughts come to me now without trying, and I’ve been able to break through mental barriers, even some strong ones.” I hesitated. “Not our people. Not without permission.”

  He gave a quick shake of his head, furrows appearing on his forehead. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. Maybe you can use this to teach us to create stronger shields. The Emporium has at least two sensing Unbounded, and they could have more. They’ve been breeding for it. Ava doesn’t believe they can penetrate our shields yet, but they could be training to do so. Like you have.”

  Leave it to Ritter to see my ability as a defensive weapon for everyone. He was right, though. “Okay, I’ll work on the shield thing,” I muttered. “But you sure have a way of destroying the mood.”

  His left eyebrow arched. “There was a mood?” The teasing was back in his voice.

  “I was definitely feeling it.” My words were a challenge, one I knew he couldn’t resist.

  He scooted over, closing the space between us. “I think I can do something about that.”

  “Oh? Is that your ability talking? Because I didn’t know mood fell under the combat instinct.”

  “With you it does.” His lips came down on mine and despite my exhaustion, I pushed closer, opening my mouth to his pressure. His hands ran down my back, the thin material of my dress feeling almost nonexistent. I rubbed my hands along his chest, letting them slide around to his back. The desire in our minds melded into one thought.

  It was crazy to feel safe in his arms when everything was uncertain between us, but I did. He wanted to be here holding me more than anywhere else, and I wanted the same. The issue of fertility and two thousand years of posterity didn’t matter for the moment.

  After a long while, we drew away. I felt stronger and oddly content as I arose from the couch, my lips tingling from his kiss. “I’d better change before Ava comes back.”

  His eyes took in the stains on my dress. “Do you need help?” He sounded almost hopeful.

  I turned my back to him. “You could undo the zipper.”

  He stood and unzipped it steadily, trailing his finger down the opening, infusing my skin with heat.

  “Ritter . . .” I swallowed hard, turning toward him.

  He grinned, as though my obvious reaction amused him. “Erin . . . I . . . we—look, I have something for you.” His uncharacteristic hesitancy sparked my curiosity. “I’ll get it and come back to walk you down.” He was already moving away with the grace and speed that came from his ability. He was so beautiful that I wanted to call him back, but I decided I was more interested in what he wanted to show me.

  Having no time for a proper shower, I used two precious minutes to rinse off, keeping a towel over my wound to protect it from any spray. What was it Ritter had for me? The memory of his touch was almost as powerful as the actual experience and it made me want to linger in the water.

  After drying off, I slipped on what I called my catwoman suit, especially designed by Stella for carrying numerous weapons. This one was sleeveless and worse for wear, but Stella had others on order for me. I zipped the front up all the way, frowning at the bit of cleavage still exposed. Stella was a romantic at heart.

  Next, I tied my ancient machete and scabbard around my waist. There was a pocket for the machete in my suit, but since I’d be wearing a coat anyway in this freezing New York weather, the leather tie would keep it handy. I’d gone through a lot to retrieve this weapon a native had given me in the Mexican jungle, and I wore it every chance I got. It was easier to carry—and sometimes more useful—than the swords the others strapped to their backs whenever there was a possibility of meeting Emporium agents. Besides, there was a legend attached to it, that if stolen, it would turn on the thief, becoming the object of his demise. I didn’t exactly believe it, but the last two people who’d stolen it had been killed, helped to their doom in a large part by the machete.

  Next, I put on my ballistic knife and my nine mil Sig. I didn’t know if I’d be heading back to the Emporium compound tonight, or if Ava had something else in mind, but it paid to be ready. Thankfully, my interlude with Ritter had returned my strength. Well, either that or the curequick.

  I’d finished restocking my other knives and was strapping on my backup pistol when Ritter rapped on the door. I could feel him there waiting, his body tense. Swallowing hard, I pulled on my calf-length leather coat and strode to the door. Don’t get distracted, I told myself. I’d felt two new life forces enter the building as I’d dressed, and I knew Ava would be waiting.

  My plan to hurry faltered as I came face-to-face with gleaming metal. Ritter held two three-prong weapons, one in each hand. The middle blade was a foot long, the handle another six inches, and two side blades curved up and out on either side of the main blade, about four inches each.

  I was fascinated. “What are these?” They reminded me roughly of a trident without the long handle.

  “They’re called sai.” Ritter lowered the weapons several inches, my eyes following the movement. “I got these in China a few years ago, and I thought you’d like them.”

  Was he flushing? My heart lurched, though I wasn’t sure why. I knew Ritter had a soft side. He just didn’t show it often. What did it mean that the softer side was showing now? No hint came from even his surface emotions, so I knew he’d clamped down on them.

  “Now that you have the machete well under way,” he said, “it’s time for you to master another weapon.”

  “You mean because you’re tired of the machete.” It was all we’d been focusing on these past few weeks whenever we weren’t watching the Emporium compound.

  He laughed. “Maybe a little.”

  I took one of the weapons, running a finger along it. Ritter did the same with the other. “Notice the edges aren’t sharp. Or the point. Sai are used mainly for striking and blocking. The idea is to disarm or repel your opponent so you can get away. They work well against clubs or any stick weapon.”

  “Like the bo staff?”

  He nodded. “It’s used for striking, catching, and stabbing. You normally hold it like this.” He rotated it so the blade lay along the inside of his arm. “This is for blocking with your arm and for thrusting with the handle. Keep your arm straight or it’ll bounce back and hit you. And this”—he slowly pivoted the blade out—“is for striking and for blocking swords and the like. Make sure your fingers aren’t still over the guard or they’ll be cut off. There’s another way to strike and a hold where you use the handle as a sort of hammer, but we won’t worry about those right now.” He stroked the blade of the one in his hand again before passing it to me.


  “They’re beautiful. Thank you.” I turned to put them in my room, but his hand grabbed at the flap of my long coat.

  “They go in these inside pockets. Stella orders all of the coats and jackets with them, but not everyone carries sai. I haven’t even trained Jace on them yet, though I know he grabbed some from the armory.”

  I’d fleetingly wondered what the oddly shaped pockets were for—it wasn’t as if I went around looking inside everyone’s coats when we were out on duty to check what weapons they carried. The sai fit perfectly, the main blade emerging from a hole in the bottom of the pocket, pointing toward the ground. “Nice.”

  “Yeah.” He opened his black jacket, which was shorter and thinner than my coat but still long enough for his own pair of sai. I could see other bulges in his black clothing, and a sword rose from a back sheath, so apparently he’d taken the time to restock as well. Nothing more attractive than a man dressed to kill.

  Silence stretched between us. Ritter opened his mouth, but closed it again without speaking. Was that uneasiness I felt from him? I stifled the urge to push into his mind. Despite his earlier assertions about me helping to strengthen shields, he’d hate the uninvited intrusion.

  I broke eye contact first. “I guess we’d better get down there. Ava’s in the conference room.”

  “About time.”

  “Yeah.”

  As we hurried to the elevator, I wondered what he’d wanted to say.

  THE MEETING WAS WELL ON ITS way without us when we arrived in the conference room, with Ava, Dimitri, Stella, and Jace all seated on one side of the table, staring up at the huge screen. A live stream of local news coverage filled one corner, the sound turned low, and the rest was taken up with different websites. Behind our people stood Tenika Vasco, leader of the New York Renegades, a line of worry on her prominent forehead. Tonight, her many small braids were pulled from her face into a large black mass at the nape of her neck, and her dark clothing told me she’d come directly from staking out the Emporium compound.

  “Hey, Erin, we’re going to be on the news,” Jace said, looking up at me. “Or at least what happened at the hotel is going to be. They keep mentioning breaking news and live coverage before every commercial break.”

  “Great.” I really hoped they didn’t show any video feed of the attack.

  Tenika walked toward us, and it said something for my state of mind that I was glad she was too preoccupied to give Ritter the kiss she normally gave him on the mouth. She simply hit her fist with each of ours in the customary Unbounded greeting, dipping her head in acknowledgment. “I hear you had quite a time tonight.” Her voice held the slightest Angolan Portuguese accent.

  “It was eventful.” My eyes went to Dimitri as I spoke. That he was here had to mean Keene was out of immediate danger.

  “Cort’s with him.” Dimitri answered the question I hadn’t voiced. “He’ll join us when Keene wakes.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’t have gone tonight,” I said.

  “Of course we had to.” Ava’s voice was firm. “There might never have been another chance to get you close enough to the vice president to look into his mind.”

  Tenika nodded. “I agree.”

  “So what do we know?” Ava tented her hands on the table.

  A smile tugged at Stella’s mouth, and I knew she was remembering her earlier comment about me sounding like Ava. “Well, besides the conclusions Jace and I have filled you in on, I think we need to find out what we can about Patrick Mann’s birth.”

  “Agreed,” Dimitri said. “We must learn how he got into place, especially when Erin says his parents seem unaware of the whole Unbounded issue.”

  I took a chair at the head of the conference table where I could still see the screen. Ritter sat kitty-corner next to me with his back toward it.

  “If they’ve done it once,” Ava began. She didn’t need to finish. However the Emporium had accomplished Patrick’s positioning, we all realized it wouldn’t be an isolated incident.

  Tenika paced a few steps, her lean body and tight movements betraying centuries of training. Her ability wasn’t combat, but I wouldn’t want to meet her in battle alone on a dark street. “My biggest concern is getting my people back from the Emporium.”

  Before the slaughter, Tenika’s group had been the largest organization of Renegades in the world. They’d had fourteen Unbounded and a dozen mortal family members and employees. They lost fifteen people the night of the slaughter, five of them Unbounded. Our visiting European allies lost four more Unbounded and one mortal. Twenty people in all. By piecing together the remains found at the scene, Tenika discovered that five of the lost Unbounded hadn’t been killed, two from her group, and we assumed they were the prisoners in the Emporium compound listed on the recovered thumb drive.

  She stopped pacing and turned at the foot of the table, leaning over and placing her hands on the gleaming mahogany. “What I haven’t told you is that of our seven remaining Unbounded we lost two more that same week.”

  “What?” Jace interjected. The question could have come from any of us, judging by my own reaction and the surprise on my companions’ faces.

  Tenika nodded. “It’s not what you think. They left on their own—they just needed time away . . . from everything. Both are gifted in combat. One is very young, only a couple centuries, the other over five hundred. Their wives were killed that night. One was expecting. The other had a teenage son, who was also killed. So many deaths. It was hard for all of us.”

  Standing straight, she pulled back the chair in front of her and sat. “Sometimes people need to distance themselves in order to recover from a traumatic event. I see it all the time in my practice. I know where they are. They haven’t removed their transmitters, but they won’t come back, not yet. I believe they will eventually. Unfortunately in the meantime, that leaves me with only two Unbounded I can depend consistently on, Yuan-Xin and Eric Halden.”

  “What about the other two?” Jace asked.

  Tenika rubbed her temple. “They have helped where they can. In fact, tonight they’re with Eric, Yuan-Xin, and your two new Unbounded watching the compound, but the truth is, their minds are elsewhere. They’re gifted in the arts.” She smiled, nostalgia entering her voice. “When Chloe dances, you forget everything else exists. And when Noah sings, the tune makes you cry with its beauty. In another age, they would be our blessing, but for the moment, I confess that I worry about protecting them.”

  Ava put her hand over Tenika’s. “You should have told us.”

  Tenika shrugged. “I thought I had it covered, especially once we had two more of our descendants Change, bringing us back to seven, even without the two who left, but they . . .” A frown grew on her face. “Well, let’s just say they lack training.”

  Tenika was being generous. I’d heard from Yuan-Xin that their newest members were more interested in thrills and close encounters with death than protecting mortals. Hopefully they’d get over themselves soon.

  “Anyway,” Tenika continued, “this past November we managed to block several Emporium Unbounded from being elected to important political positions here in the east—mostly by uncovering flaws in their fake pasts and alerting the media, but we know for sure at least one was elected. The cover story was too perfect and attacking her openly and planting some false information was beyond our ability.”

  “It’ll get worse if they have more like Patrick Mann,” I said.

  Tenika blew out a long breath. “Yes, but let’s not assume anything yet. I believe if we can free our people, they will be enough to keep us active here in the east. Their return may even be enough to bring the others home.”

  “We all agree that freeing them is of primary importance,” Ava said, “but so far the odds have been too great that we’ll lose more than we’ll gain. We must do this at a minimum cost to both our groups. That means waiting for the right opportunity.”

  Ritter spoke for the first time. “I think I may have a plan, but I need another
day or so to work out the details. You know me, Tenika, and I assure you that freeing them is my first concern. Your people are our people. We work together. It has always been that way.”

  Tenika inclined her head. “Thank you. Yuan-Xin did tell me you were considering a new option, and perhaps these developments tonight will help us find a solution. Maybe even give us some leverage against the Emporium.”

  “What about long term?” Ava said. “We’re moving far too slowly getting our own people into place. When we eventually do announce our presence to the world, we’ll need a face, someone people can trust. At my last count we have fewer than a dozen Renegade sympathizers in prominent political positions. That’s not enough. And none are Unbounded so they couldn’t be the face for our cause.”

  Sorrow crossed Tenika’s features. “We’d have three Unbounded in place if not for the massacre. I really don’t know what we can do about that right now, but there’s a limit to the shootouts and murders we can continue attributing to the drug world or gang activity. Between the Hunters and our battles with the Emporium, we’ve already drawn too much suspicion. Especially after the slaughter of our people. Throwing down a couple packets of drugs and known gang paraphernalia didn’t begin to cover it up. Nearly all of us were questioned and it was only my hypnosuggestion that prevented police from making a more thorough investigation. We should lie low for at least another three months, but I don’t see how that’s possible as long as the Emporium have our people.”

  Ava put one elbow on the table and tapped her finger on her lips. For the space of several long seconds no one spoke. “Okay,” she said finally, “this is what I propose. Dimitri and I will visit the medical facility in . . .” She looked at Stella.

  “Worcester, Massachusetts,” Stella supplied.

  Ava nodded. “It’ll take some doing, but we’ll come up with some reason to hold a medical consult with personnel who were there at the time of Patrick Mann’s birth. We’ll probably have to track those who’ve left or retired to wherever they are now. Once we get close enough, I should be able to learn something from their minds, even if they don’t tell us willingly. Stella, you may have to break into their records as well.”