I hoped that it would never come to that. If Connor could stay close to Jeremiah long enough for me to be able to find him, that would be all I needed. I guess that was when I decided that I wasn’t just going to stand around outside the Center and wait for helicopters. No. I was going in with the others. They could plant their bombs, but I knew I was going in after Jeremiah. And I would probably never leave the building. But I was okay with that.
Even though I had seen the mess of mangled bodies and buckets of blood while watching through Danny, I wasn’t ready for the sight. Danny and Heather looked up at us when we entered. The other soldiers pointed their guns at us at first, but quickly lowered them when they saw us.
“What’s all this?” I asked.
Danny shrugged. “No idea.”
“This is our wonderful little army that we were hoping to fight with,” Heather said.
“Hey,” a soldier next to her snapped. “Have some respect. These people weren’t common criminals, you know. These were Jeremiah’s victims.”
Heather just clinched her jaw as the man spoke, then turned her head to hide her red cheeks.
I looked around the room, wondering what could have happened here. Someone outside of the prison must have rounded everybody up, shut the doors and killed them. But what was intriguing was that some of the bodies had bullet holes, and others just seemed smashed. Even more puzzling were those that had burned faces and heads. My first thought was Jeremiah’s ability that he had stolen from Evelyn’s friend, Whit. Whit had discovered the power to heat his hands and burn things. Through a terrible act, Jeremiah had been able to steal that power. These burns were exactly what that looked like, but I didn’t think Jeremiah would have come in here and done that himself. He had hunters to do big jobs like these.
The sound of a door slamming behind us jolted me from my thoughts. Doors banged shut on the top level of the room and on the other side as well.
“They’re locking us in here!” a soldier yelled out, but I placed a hand on his shoulder and told him to calm down.
On the other side of the room, one door was left open, but instead of a walkway beyond, there were two men standing there. As they stepped into the light, my stomach dropped.
Hunters. Specifically, they were the two hunters t
hat had been harassing Connor less than an hour ago. Anthony and Trace. Having faced the particularly deadly Starborn, Commander Green, this morning, I was in no hurry to face two more. I had no idea what these two could do, but having Aaron, Danny, and Heather with me gave me some comfort.
Aaron turned back to the soldiers that were with us and told them to go back and tell the others.
“They can’t go back,” Trace said, still walking toward us. “Screven soldiers have barricaded the room. Your only way out is through us.”
“You’re funny,” Danny said. “There’s four Starborns and five soldiers against the two of you. What makes you think you can win this fight?”
Trace and Anthony stopped walking and stood in the middle of the room among the bodies. Trace looked down and smiled. “Jeremiah won’t be surprised you are already here. Little Connor told us that it was going to be three days, but he was either wrong or lying.” He waved a hand in the air. “No matter.”
“If you don’t want to die,” Aaron said, “then let us out of here.”
“You Starborns are so confident,” Trace said. He looked at Anthony who nodded in agreement. “None of you have any idea what we can do, yet you stand there and pretend that you are unstoppable.”
Heather went at him like a flash. We barely saw the blur as she ran up to Anthony, knife in hand, ready to stab him in the throat. But Anthony moved before she even got there. It was almost as if he had seen her coming before she even went at him. He brought his foot around and tripped Heather to the ground, then pulled her up by her hair. I knew what his gift must be.
I grabbed a rifle from one of the soldiers and pointed it at Anthony, and Trace dove behind a stack of bodies. As I let off a round, Anthony stepped aside, the bullet missing him by inches. It was as if he could sense where the bullet would be just before it got to him. I let off a second round, and just before I pulled the trigger, he moved again and I missed. With my third shot, he pulled Heather in front of him and the bullet grazed her shoulder. She yelled out a curse at me, and I stood there, petrified.
Trace lifted one of the bodies off the ground above his head. It was on fire and his hands were glowing. It looked to be the same power that Jeremiah had stolen. He dropped the flaming body in front of him, his hands as bright as the sun.
He stared us down and snarled. “Let’s see what you can do.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
My first thought was that this guy must be Whit from my dreams, but I knew that couldn’t be right. Trace would have to be at least forty years older. I didn’t have a long time to ponder it as a flaming body part was hurled in our direction.
The group of us scattered like roaches from the light as it landed. It was disgusting to see. Trace kept reaching down and searing off limbs with his fiery hands and launching them at us. He threw an arm and part of a leg, hitting two Resistance soldiers. The other three soldiers let off rounds at Trace, but he held another flaming body in his hands. He then charged one of the soldiers, slamming him into the wall.
Danny rushed up to Trace and smashed a fist into his chest, sending the hunter sailing to the ground. Trace seemed stunned at first, but when he got up to one knee, he looked at Danny and smiled. That’s when I noticed that his hands had stopped glowing, too.
Danny jumped at Trace again, but this time, Trace caught Danny by the arms and swung him around to the floor. Trace went after him and punched Danny in the face. Danny fell to the floor, next to all the other bodies on the ground.
I stared in horror as I watched. I knew I should have been doing something to help, but my legs felt frozen. Aaron stepped forward to call as much electricity as he could to himself from the various light fixtures throughout the room. Trace dodged a couple of bullets from the remaining two soldiers before he snapped both of their necks. I stood to focus all of my ability on throwing Trace through the air, but he was too quick and he tackled me to the ground.
My breath was knocked out of me and I went blind for at least a few seconds. One punch could do me in. This was it. I was going to die.
At least I won’t die from the virus, I thought to myself.
But when I opened my eyes, I saw Aaron blasting Trace with as much electricity as he could conjure. Trace screamed out in pain and fell to the floor. He rolled around until Aaron had to call on more from some other source. In Aaron’s moment of distraction, Trace jumped up and shoved him into the wall. Aaron immediately initiated another blast.
I tried to shake the dizziness from my head as I crawled to Danny who was just starting to wake.
“Where’s Heather?” he asked, kneeling forward.
My eyes darted to the other side of the room. She was still struggling with Anthony who had her by the hair, but he stood there like a statue, unfazed by her screaming and cursing. Danny’s face turned red with anger as he bolted upward and ran after her.
When I looked back at Aaron and Trace, I saw something I wasn’t expecting in the least. Before, Trace had been crying out in pain, but now he was standing upright as Aaron continued to shoot electricity through his body. A smile spread across Trace’s face as he began walking toward Aaron.
I racked my brain to try and understand what kind of Starborn he was. How was it that nothing was taking him down?
Aaron started to back away in panic. He had probably never seen something like this either. What kind of person had the ability to shrug off thousands of volts of electricity except…Aaron?
My mouth gaped open when I realized what Trace could do. He was only feet from Aaron when I ran toward him, lifting him with a thought and throwing him to the floor. I had planned to do it again, but Trace started to fry me with bright blue bolts of electri
city. My muscles seized and I became paralyzed as I fell to the floor, shaking violently.
Aaron tried to shock Trace again, but it seemed to only feed the hunter’s power. When Aaron realized this, he ran forward and kicked Trace in the stomach. The bolts released their grip on me and I fell to the floor, unable to move a muscle.
I couldn’t say anything. I couldn’t call out. I could see and I could comprehend, but for the moment, that was all I could do. My vision was stuck on Danny as he tried to fight Anthony. The tall, dark hunter dodged everything Danny threw at him, keeping the defenseless Heather in a tight grip in front of him.
I tried to move my eyes to see Aaron, but he was too far out of my vision and my neck wouldn’t budge. In those few moments, I laid out in my mind what Trace and Anthony could do. Anthony must have had some kind of amazing reflex abilities. But it seemed that was all he had. Danny couldn’t touch him, but Anthony didn’t exactly go in for a straight-on attack either. He was probably waiting for the exact moment for Danny to leave himself open before he struck.
Trace, on the other hand, was even more unique. And more powerful. The glowing hands. The electricity. It made sense to me immediately. Trace absorbed Starborn abilities by touching someone, though he didn’t steal them away from his opponent. He simply was able to copy what they did. That explained the reason he could burn things with his hands. He must have touched Jeremiah before he came here. Then when Danny attacked him, he suddenly had the power to knock the brutish man off his feet. He had then tackled Aaron, absorbing the power to use available electricity. But he was limited. I noticed that Trace could only copy one gift at a time. Now he battled an equal Starborn, making the electricity part of him useless against Aaron.
I started to gain more feeling in my limbs. Almost like they had fallen asleep, my entire body began to tingle until I was able to move everything. I pulled my head off the ground and somehow found the strength to sit up. Danny and Heather kept Anthony occupied while Aaron and Trace continued to duke it out hand to hand.
I crawled onto my hands and knees, doing what I could to muster the strength to stand. I watched as Aaron took a knee to the stomach, then a fist to the chin. Trace was a better fighter, probably having more hand-to-hand experience than Aaron. Aaron had never really needed it until now.
As Aaron took another knee to the gut, I was able to finally get to my feet. My mind wasn’t weak. I was lucid and had the ability to call on whatever power I needed. My muscles just twitched randomly and I stumbled forward. I fell to my hands and knees again and I just shook my head. Aaron was taking a beating. I reached out my hand and grablesbed Trace by the arm with my mind. I pulled him down and he fell onto his back with a loud thud. Aaron started to make his way to Trace, but I pulled Trace up again, and again I slammed him into the ground.
Aaron hesitated when he realized what I was doing. I knew I had to keep Trace away from me. I couldn’t let him touch me. I couldn’t let him take my abilities from me. What if he found out about my ability to see others? My ability to see Connor? He would know something was up. If Trace survived, Connor wouldn’t last thirty minutes after the fight.
Again, I smashed Trace into the ground like a rag doll. But before I could do it a fourth time, alarms from outside the prison started to go off. Aaron and I froze and looked at each other when we heard it. He immediately brought his wristband up to his mouth and called out for Evelyn to answer.
I didn’t have time to stand and listen. Danny was doing everything he could to take down Anthony, but every move was just too slow for the hunter’s reflexes. As I walked forward, I couldn’t help but grin. I focused my mind on the hand that gripped Heather’s hair and uncurled Anthony’s fingers. He looked up at me in surprise, but not for long because Heather zipped around him and punched him in the side of the head. He fell to the ground with a thud.
“We’ve got to go!” Aaron said as echoes followed him. “Screven soldiers are storming the streets. Some of the Resistance soldiers have been caught already!”
Heather pulled out a knife. “Just let me cut this one’s throat real quick,” she said.
I held out my hand to stop her. “Let him live,” I said.
The look Heather gave me was of disdain and betrayal. But I knew that if this was one of Jeremiah’s hunters, he would probably be meeting with Jeremiah. I reached down and touched Anthony’s arm so I would be able to spy on him. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to use him. I hoped that Connor would be enough, but there was the horrible chance that Connor would be dead soon. Anthony would meet with Jeremiah again.
“We better go,” I said.
Heather gave me another disgusted look before all of us ran out through the only open door on the other side of the room. I stole one last glance back and saw Trace getting up on all fours. I hoped that we would never have to face these hunters again, but I knew that wouldn’t be the case. They were powerful. Once Jeremiah realized we were here, he would use them until they were completely spent.
We followed Aaron through various hallways in the prison even though he didn’t know the way out any better than we did. But within a minute or so, we finally came out into the bright afternoon sun. What had once been a very quiet scene was now a mob of Resistance and Screven soldiers fighting for their lives. At first, the four of us stood out in the open of the prison courtyard, trying to figure out the best way to escape. Aaron got on the radio and the rest of us just stared at the mayhem ahead.
It seemed that the Resistance soldiers weren’t putting up much of a fight at all. Most of them were scrambling to get to safety away from the overwhelming amount of Screven guards.
Aaron tapped me on the shoulder. “Allison and the others are headed for the sewers,” he said. “Just like we originally planned.”
“What about Evelyn and Jeffrey?” Danny asked.
I was more concerned with the one I had brought here. “What about Christopher?”
Aaron just shrugged. “I don’t know. But we’ve got to get to the sewers so we can regroup.”
I nodded at him. I was glad he was taking charge because my legs stt.some use of our abilities.
We ran through one of the large holes in the outer wall that had been blasted with the dynamite and we were instantly spotted by a group of Screven soldiers. They raised their guns at us, but Aaron took them down with a jolt.
“Don’t have a lot of energy out here,” Aaron said to me. “I’ve got to use as little as I can to make sure I can conserve. I’m going to need you.”
But I felt that he could have done well without me. The others held their own. Danny picked up large chunks of debris from the explosion and launched them at a group of Screven soldiers in front of us. Heather displayed her usual charm by speeding up to guards and slitting their throats without them ever seeing who or what had just whizzed by.
We ran several blocks, seemingly in no particular direction before Aaron stopped behind a corner to try and communicate with Evelyn again. He got no answer. He tried with Christopher and Jeffrey and again there was no answer. Aaron cursed to himself as we all crouched next to him, waiting, hoping to reach someone on the other end.
“I guess we just have to run,” Heather said.
“What other choice do we have?” Danny asked.
I knew the answer, but doing what I had in mind would give away my powers. I could close my eyes and try to figure out where Evelyn and the others were, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without raising suspicion.
“Okay,” Aaron said. “Let’s go.” He was about to round the corner when I reached out and grabbed him by the shirt.
“Wait!” I said. He hesitated for a second. I looked at the others and they all stared at me like there was something wrong with me. I let out a deep breath. “I can find them.”
“What do you mean you can find them?” Aaron asked.
I shook my head. “Never mind that, just trust me for now.”
I didn’t give him a chance to respond before I shut my eyes and focus
ed my entire consciousness on Evelyn. I could see her lying in the street, holding on to Jeffrey. They were surrounded by quiet streets on every side. He must have grabbed her and teleported to another part of the city when things got bad. Good.
Jeffrey let go of her and sat back on his rear, wiping the sweat from his brow. He looked down at his wristband. It was broken into several pieces and he just pulled it off, tossing it to the ground.
“How’s yours?” he asked Evelyn.
“Broken,” she answered. “Wasn’t the most graceful teleport I’ve ever experienced.”
“We’ve got to find our way back to the Resistance hideout.”
“Assuming anyone will make it back,” she said.
I opened my eyes to find Aaron, Danny, and Heather staring at me with bewildered looks.
“You enjoying a rest?” Heather asked.
“Jeffrey teleported Evelyn away, so they are safe,” I said. “Let me check on Christopher.”
I shut my eyes again, seeking him out. He was running frantically beside Allison. There were several Resistance soldiers trailing them, letting off rounds of bullets at Screven soldiers as they ran.
One of the Resistance soldiers held open a sewer cap, waving others in until he was roushot through the chest. A bullet zoomed by Christopher’s head and he ducked low in reaction.
“Come on, we can make it!” Allison yelled to him.
He was falling behind, no doubt exhausted from hours of healing my symptoms. I couldn’t help but feel that it should have been me that was slow because of the virus, not him.
The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) Page 53
