Echo Into Darkness: Book 2 in The Echo Saga (Teen Paranormal Romance)

by Skye Genaro

  I pulled at the door handle. The childproof lock was in place.

  "Let me out of here!" I reached for the door control on the front console and Jaxon elbowed me into my seat.

  "You're not going anywhere. We lose you and we take your punishment," he said.

  I crushed my face into my hands. Keenan wasn't going to let me go home. Whatever he had planned now was more than I could bear to think about. Ivan's burn mark was a testament to the penalty I faced. Nausea set in.

  "She's going to puke," Jaxon warned.

  "Get a hold of yourself, Echo. You're going to make things worse if he sees you fall apart," Ivan said. Our SUV slowed down.

  "What are you doing?" Jaxon hissed.

  "She needs to pull herself together," Ivan answered.

  "She needs to get what she deserves."

  "Echo, how did you do that? Reconstruct the building?" Ivan asked. His voice was gentle and sincere.

  "I don't know." I didn't care, either. There was a strong chance that my life was about to end. I would beg for Keenan's mercy but then what? I'd be right back where I started, preparing for the next mission, forced to cause unthinkable pain to more targets.

  I should have jumped off that bridge when I had the chance three weeks ago. My dad and Kimber would have been devastated, but even that would have been an improvement over the events that had unfolded. Connor never would have been captured and tortured. I would be long gone, on my way to my next life.

  The unthinkable ahead of me, I filled my thoughts with my soulmate and what we'd had and how I'd do anything to have it again, in this lifetime or the next. This made my wrist burn until it ached to the bone. The skin over the chip blistered and the smoke coming off it smelled like charred meat. My sleeve stuck to the open wound. I didn't care. I found Connor's perfect face in my mind and held it there until my heart beat so hard, I wouldn't have been surprised if Jaxon and Ivan heard it.

  As we pulled into the Feller Industry garage, Jaxon wrinkled his nose. "What stinks?"

  Ivan fanned the air. "Excuse me."

  "It smells like burned steak," Jaxon complained and opened the window to let fresh air in.

  "It smelled like that when I ate it, too," Ivan laughed. He snuck me a glance in the rearview mirror. A grinding sound came from under the hood.

  "Something wrong with the truck?" Jaxon asked.

  "Engine trouble," Ivan replied. His eyes were wide in the mirror. "Echo, how're you doing back there? You feeling better?" His voice sounded off, on the high side. He caught my gaze again and slowly led my eyes to the dashboard. The dials spun erratically. The engine light blinked.

  I was overriding the chip.

  Chapter 38

  A thin trail of smoke rose from the wound on my wrist. The smell of scorched chip plastic stung my nostrils.

  Jaxon hauled me out of the SUV and into the elevator with the rest of the team. He checked his phone. "My cell's not working. Anybody else got reception?"

  "Nope," Luma answered. Other soldiers shook their heads.

  "My signal's fine," Ivan said without bothering to check. He dug his fingers into my shoulders. His aura was sending out a mix of alarm and compassion. Mostly alarm.

  Keenan was pacing in his living room when we stepped into his penthouse. He pinned me with a black scowl. The full force of his rage slammed into my body.

  "Leave us," he said, and everyone scattered. "Luma, stay."

  "Goody," she said, not trying to conceal her eagerness.

  Keenan turned to me. "We have no tolerance for lack of loyalty. I thought you would have learned that much in the short time you've been here."

  His voice was low and dangerous, but my rage frothed to the surface. "You wanted me to kill those people!"

  "We had an agreement, one that you set in place. What would have happened today if I had refused to let your friend go? Would you have completed the mission then?"

  "You can't turn me into a monster," I shot back.

  "Nearly every one of my agents has said that at one time or another."

  "Not me." Luma's mouth curved into a predatory smile.

  "No, Luma, you were born for this work." He jerked his head. "In the back."

  She left the room. I scrambled for options. I doubted Keenan would listen to reason. How strong was I without the cuff? If I could disarm him and get his keys, I could make a run for it. I had to guarantee a disabling hit, though, or I would not make it far. He had to get closer.

  "I took a chance, negotiating with you yesterday," he continued. "I'm glad, though. Giving in to someone's demands can be very revealing. I see, now, that loyalty is not one of your strong suits."

  He closed the distance between us and my insides turned to liquid.

  "I-I-I'm sorry," I said. "I-i-it was wrong of me."

  "Sorry does not begin to describe it."

  Now, I commanded myself, do it now. I angled my palm toward this horrible man. Aimed for his chest.

  A low moan stopped me cold. Luma came in dragging Connor behind her. Fresh panic slammed through me.

  A chain encircled his neck. His arms were no longer chained, but it didn't matter. They hung limp at his side. The bruises on his head were deep and the gashes on his face had reopened. He hobbled on one leg, his expression vacant.

  I lunged toward Keenan. "You said you let him go!"

  Keenan twisted his lips into an ugly smile. "I'm sorry," he mocked. "It was wrong of me. Did you actually think we were going to let this boy get any farther than the parking lot? You overestimate your influence here, and it occurs to me that I may have treated you too softly. You have tested boundaries that most recruits do not survive. Failed missions. Attacked your superior. Lied. And you," he said to Connor, "I know you are hiding ability."

  "He's not. He's barely even psychic." I ran to Connor's side and linked my arm in his.

  He shook me off. "She's lying," he rasped. "Get the cuff off me. Test me. Echo's a baby compared to the abilities I've got. Let her go and I'll show you."

  Keenan circled us. "We're going to play this game again? You've refused to show us anything."

  "Jaxon knows. He's been keeping it from you," Connor retorted.

  Red hot needles erupted off Keenan.

  "Be quiet, Connor," I pleaded. He was in no condition to fight. Maybe he thought he had some reserves left. I didn't see how. He could barely stand upright.

  But if he did, the two of us might be strong enough to overpower Keenan and Luma.

  "Connor's right," I said. "Test him."

  "Shut up." Connor's words struck me with the force of a punch to the stomach. He jerked away.

  "Jaxon's been lying to you the entire time," Connor continued. "About where I'm from. What I can do. Your foster brother's got you on a leash, Keenan," he laughed, "and you are too blind to see it."

  "Put a cuff on Connor. He'll show you," I said, praying this plan would work.

  "I said shut up. It's your fault we're in this hellhole. This is between me and him." He glared at our captor with crazed eyes. "What else is your little brother hiding from you?"

  The possibility sent a spasm through Keenan's shoulders. The tendons in his neck stood out. While he might have believed Connor, he wasn't about to let Jaxon's disloyalty distract him.

  Keenan's jaw muscles pulsed. "Every recruit has a breaking point, that place where we finally have the ultimate understanding about their role here. Apparently we haven't reached that understanding with either of you." He formed a V with two fingers, pointing at Connor and I simultaneously.

  Keenan gave Luma a tiny nod and she made a slight motion. Connor's arm involuntarily extended straight in front of him. It bent at an impossible angle.

  Connor moaned.

  "Connor's telling the truth. I'll tell you everything," I pleaded.

  "No more negotiating," Keenan said.

  Luma twisted Connor's arm behind his back. He coughed in agony. I lunged at her, but a small jerk of her hand sent me sprawling. He saw me set my in
tention on Luma, saw the singed skin on my wrist, and registered what I was about to do. He nodded weakly.

  Go, he mouthed.

  I stopped. He was too weak to run and I had no way to get him to safety after I immobilized the other two. And then they would know that I was able to override the chip.

  "Pay attention, Echo, we're learning about your breaking point, too," Keenan said. "Take the boy's hand and transfer the pain to yourself."

  "I don't understand." I could barely hear him over the pounding in my ears.

  "You're an empath. You can't help but pick up other people's emotions. Now do it on purpose. Draw his pain away and take it as your own. Your friend thinks you are the reason he's imprisoned here. If you agree, take his pain away."

  Connor's lips pulled back in a grimace. His breath hissed through clenched teeth.

  The instinct to avoid pain at all cost made me hesitate. I was not made for this. I was not strong enough. But then, pulled by a force higher than myself, I moved toward him.

  "Get away from me," he cried.

  "Motion to assist denied," Luma said. "So much for true love."

  I ignored them both and clamped my hand onto Connor's shoulder. My mouth formed omigod but my throat closed. The feeling that tore into me could not be described as pain. I had experienced the ache of a twisted ankle, broken ribs, a bruised skull. The sensation coming through Connor tore at my consciousness, threatened to send me into a blackout. The days of cumulative torture poured out of his body and into mine.

  As if from a distance, I heard myself wail. My legs gave out and the sheer force of energy flow flipped me backward, landing me at Keenan's feet.

  "Let him go! Let him—" My plea was cut short by the sound of a bone snapping. Connor screamed. I threw up on Keenan's shoes.

  "Disgusting." Luma wrinkled her nose.

  The smell of acid and bile sent me into dry heaves. Keenan pinched his nose against the odor.

  "Luma, finish the lesson," he said and hurried out of the room.

  She telekinetically bent Connor's middle finger backward. "This is for Echo making a fool of me in the testing center."

  "Echo, leave." Connor's voice was husky from pain. How he had not passed out was beyond my comprehension.

  "No!" The savage that they had mined for came alive. I swept my arm across Luma, hurling gales of pent up violence and rage, and sent her flying across the room. She collided with the elevator door with frightening impact and collapsed to the floor, unconscious.

  Chapter 39

  Smoke billowed from my arm, and if I hadn't already barfed, the sizzling flesh would have sent me over the edge.

  "I knew it," Connor said, on the edge of consciousness. "I knew you could do it."

  I patted down Luma's limp body. "Where are the keys? We need them to get out of here."

  She let out a low moan. Her pockets were empty. I helped Connor to his feet and carefully wrapped my arm around his torso. He swayed and his full weight buckled my knees. I steadied us both.

  "This way," I said, hobbling toward my bedroom.

  I opened every door on the way down the hall. We found bedrooms or closets, no stairwells, no more elevators. My heart sank. What had I been thinking? The central elevator was the only way out.

  "I'm sorry," I said. "I'm so sorry."

  "I'm so proud of you," he rasped.

  In the bedroom, I rested him in a chair. He sat hunched over, clutching his broken arm. "About what I said back there, about this being your fault. I was trying to throw them off. I thought it would help if we looked like we were breaking apart."

  I nodded and concentrated on barricading us in. With my telekinesis, I shoved the dresser in front of the door, then the bed and the desk. That would hold them back for a few minutes. Then what?

  "Connor?"

  "Yeah, babe?" He floated his green eyes over my face.

  "I'm feeling like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."

  "Should I know these people?"

  "They didn't have a way out. We don't, either." I knelt in front of him, resting my hands on his thighs. "I don't know what to do."

  He registered the terror in my eyes and cupped my face in his good hand. "What's outside the window? Can you see the river from here?"

  "Yes."

  "Open the window."

  "They don't open."

  "Make them."

  "And then what? Hide on the ledge? We're twenty floors up!"

  "You need to blow out the glass and levitate down the side of the building."

  I nearly choked. "I've never levitated more than a few dozen feet."

  Our conversation moved at a rapid-fire pace.

  "You can do this, Echo. You overrode the chip."

  "I know I'm strong enough; it's the height. Connor, I can't." I got dizzy thinking about getting near the ledge. "You have to fly us down. I'll levitate us across the river."

  "I was lying back there," he said. "I've got nothing left. Why do you think we're still in this situation?"

  "We'll fall to our death!"

  "We won't. Now go to the window and put your hand on it. Imagine there is no glass, only air."

  I did as he instructed, and the cold glass pane quivered beneath my palm. As I concentrated, it shimmered and dissolved. Wind gusted into the bedroom strong enough to push me off balance.

  "Oh my God." I backed away.

  Loud voices boomed in the hallway. Someone rattled the doorknob.

  A thought crossed my mind, one that was both sickening and reassuring. The two-hundred-foot drop was our only way out. Once we stepped on that ledge, Connor would figure out a way to get us to the ground safely. He would never let anything happen to me.

  "Let's do this," I said and reached to help him up. He didn't move.

  "Once you're on the ground, it's only a few hundred yards to the river. When you get to the other side, find a place to hide," he said.

  My entire body went numb. "I'm not leaving you here."

  "Someone will be searching for me with the portal. They'll find you and you can tell them I'm at Feller Tower."

  "Keenan will kill you!"

  "Listen to me. If I take us out that window we are as good as dead. I cannot fly us down. Do you understand this? Tell me you understand." He squeezed my arm and tried to shake his words into me.

  "I won't go without you. They'll have to kill us both." I swallowed hard.

  "That's exactly what cannot happen. You have to survive this."

  A body slammed against the door. The furniture shook.

  "No," I whispered.

  "Get her out of there!" Keenan bellowed from the hallway.

  "Go!" Despite his injuries, Connor dragged me to the window and tried to shove me out. The wind plastered my hair against my face.

  "I'm not going!" I grabbed his waistband.

  The bed flew away and smashed against the far wall. The dresser sailed across the room and splintered to pieces. The door opened.

  Keenan's face was blaze red. Roth, Jaxon, and Ivan came in behind him. They froze when they saw me leaning out the window. Keenan's expression did a one-eighty. He forced a smile.

  "Falling to your death is so theatrical. Come away from there and Connor can be included in our conversation." He spread his hands, a gesture of surrender.

  "You don't need him, just the girl," Jaxon said.

  "Nonsense. Both of you are important to me. Luma won't be allowed to lay a hand on either of you. You're too young to die."

  "I welcome it," Connor said.

  "Please. Don't do this," I begged.

  Connor leaned back, shoving me out beyond the ledge. Blood pounded through my head. I saw the ground below and my vision got fuzzy. I latched onto the window frame to keep from falling out.

  "Bring her back in and we can talk," Keenan said.

  "Or what? You'll sic your soldiers on me? If you had much ability of your own, you wouldn't have to surround yourself with gifteds. One day, they'll all turn on you."

&nbs
p; The lamp hit Connor in the head so fast, he never saw it coming. Roth and Jaxon charged us.

  A glance over my shoulder sent streaks of panic into my limbs. Leaping out of the tower would end in death. I was certain of this. Or was I?

  The only thing I knew for certain was that if I did not make a move, our lives would end in that room.

  Connor reeled from the blow to his head. "Echo, go!"

  "Not without you." I lashed my arms around his chest and let our weight carry us backward out the window.

  Keenan's howl clashed with my scream. The wind thundered in my ears, whipped and snapped at our clothing. The tower whizzed by in a gray blur.

  And though the seconds ticked perilously by, the irony of the situation was not lost on me. Not long ago, I would have welcomed death. All I'd wanted was to move into my next life, to find my soulmate and start our life together.

  In my effort to save us from Keenan, I had unintentionally set this very future in motion. Except this wasn't the way it was supposed to happen. Connor's body was warm against mine. In another few seconds, both of us would be stone cold.

  I did not want him to die. I would not let my soulmate perish like this.

  With that intention firmly entrenched in my mind, my body heated and my forehead buzzed. The chip sizzled. Our descent began to slow. Gradually, resistance formed between us and the earth until we were suspended on a downy cushion.

  The wind pushed us toward the building, and I used my remaining strength to drive us closer to the river. My knees crashed into the wet soil. I draped Connor's good arm over my shoulder and dragged him to his feet. I levitated us off the ground a few inches and fell back into the mud. It was no use. I was done.

  "Stay with me. Just a little further," I said.

  Blood poured from the gash in his head. His one leg was near useless. The last fifty yards to the river may as well have been a mile. But we made it.

  At the pier, I searched frantically for the motorboat. The ferry was docked on the far side of the river and the boat was nowhere to be found. We splashed into the water. Connor's knees gave out.

  "Up! Stand up!" I barked, hitching my shoulder into his armpit. His head lolled back.