Wicked Legends: A Dystopian Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Collection

by hamilton, rebecca

  Her breath came in small, panicked puffs. Why had she trusted him? Why had she listened?

  He spoke then, his lips pressed against her skin. His hot breath puffed her hair away from her ear, his quiet, hoarse voice laced with menace. Her heart stuttered.

  “Councilor Three killed your mother, Lena.”

  She stopped struggling. Cold wrapped around her. The heat of rage chased it away.

  “We hauled her in, sick and weak. Put electrodes on her head and charged her until her body couldn’t handle it, and she bled out.”

  He crushed her in tighter. The dusty grit coating the wall bit into her forehead and chin. The pebbled surface beneath the paint pressed her breasts and belly and thighs. Her breath sawed in and out of her raw throat. She tried to fight, pushing back against him. Dust swirled across her skin in agitated reflection of her anger and confusion.

  “Lucas liked it,” Reyes growled into her ear. “He liked seeing you naked and helpless on that table. He liked watching you jump and fight when they shocked you. And he really liked hurting your mother. Councilor Three let him do it. He gave Lucas permission to charge you both until your mother’s brain exploded.”

  She shoved away from the wall, managed to gain several inches. He slammed her back. Her forehead cracked against the cinder block. A scream of rage erupted from her. Bright clawing branches of electricity spread across the wall before her then sheeted back behind her, flinging Reyes away from her a moment before the enormous boom of sound and light and pressure erupted from her chest.

  The wall disintegrated, and she fell forward through it, stumbling across the broken blocks and skidding across the debris-coated street outside. She hunched over painful hands and knees that had taken the brunt of her fall and curled away from the noise of her discharge. Unlike before, when the boom had been loud and then gone, this one went on rumbling loud in her ears.

  But it wasn’t the echo of her thunderstrike. The building collapsed behind her. She turned her head to look back. The wall slid down into the street. The ceiling had collapsed. Rubble filled the opening.

  Her mother was buried within.

  Lena’s heart squeezed. She swallowed the pain back down. At least she’d also buried the bastards who’d killed her mother.

  And Reyes?

  She turned onto her butt and pushed away from the rubble that slid through the opening. His remembered voice growled, vicious and low in her ear. Councilor Three killed your mother. But Reyes worked for the Council. He worked for Councilor Three. He was one of them, wasn’t he? Why had he helped her escape?

  Councilor Three killed your mother. He was one of them.

  Lena lifted herself up from the ground, knees and hands bloody. A fine dust covered her. She shook her head, trying to shake the worst of it off her skin and hair.

  Councilor Three killed your mother.

  She turned and limped down the street as quickly as her knees would allow, angling up behind the building next door, moving away from the shouts and activity behind her.

  Councilor Three killed your mother.

  9

  Grit filled Alex’s nose and coated the inside of his mouth. Hands gripped him, holding him in place as he tried to roll away. They snapped a neck brace around him and then counted off. He didn’t need a damn brace. He tried to tell them, but remnants of the ceiling gummed in his mouth and made him choke again when he inhaled. On the count of three, the techs rolled him to slide a backboard behind him. His bellow of pain became snorts and hacks that cleared the worst of the debris and allowed him to breathe easier. At least he wasn’t choking anymore, as he had been in the time it had taken them to get in the door.

  Each breath burned agony in his chest, but it was infinitely preferable to choking. Every move lit a fire in his ribs. When he’d been thrown back like a rag doll in the last moments before Lena had exploded the wall, his left side had slammed into the end of the bed before he’d fallen. The toss across the room had protected him when the ceiling came down like a hinge, but his ribs were in misery.

  And her explosion? He couldn’t wait to learn that trick—once he had gotten her back to safety. He groaned. Someone above him shouted some drivel about being okay. Yeah. Whatever.

  They lifted him and carried him down the long hall to the old wing before handing him off to some waiting medics. He managed to crack his eyelids open. Grit fell past them and burned like cinders. He squeezed them shut and grunted in displeasure. Someone swiped his face with a cool, wet rag, carefully easing it along both eyes and then down and around his nose.

  He tried again, fluttering his lashes and then lifting them. A nurse with a grim face but a gentle touch cleared the worst of the dust and debris from his face and ears. Someone else examined his chest and legs.

  “What happened?” Alex frowned at them. He hadn’t lost consciousness after the second blast. But he hoped to pass for woozy and newly conscious. “Where are the others?”

  The nurses exchanged a look over him. He could hear someone shouting in the hall outside. Though his damaged right ear muted sound, he thought it might be Lew Merritt, Councilor Three’s Junior Security Director, who served directly under Hernandez.

  One of the nurses said something about being right back and stepped away. She called down the hall, informing someone of his status. A moment after she returned, running her hands over each arm in turn, he could hear Merritt’s heavy footsteps.

  “I said, what happened?” Alex repeated, raising his voice for effect.

  Merritt’s clipped voice sounded from somewhere behind and above his head. “We’re hoping you can tell us.”

  Alex made a move as if to turn and see Merritt. The nurse hissed at him and held him still. Merritt came closer, standing behind the nurse. He was a big man, both tall and wide. Even his features were big—lantern jaw and long, wide boxer’s nose over a bristling blonde mustache.

  Alex furrowed his brow. He needed to know who survived before he made a move. “Where are Hernandez and Lucas?”

  “They’re working on prying Lucas out. He’s alive, but barely.” Merritt paused, the muscles around his brows tightening. “Hernandez was killed, along with one of the women. The suspect’s mother, I’m told. What happened?”

  “We were interrogating the Gracey woman. Hernandez was charging, with Lucas questioning. I was observing.” Alex made a show of thinking.

  With Hernandez dead and Lucas down for the count, things were easier. However, he had no doubt there was more going on within the Council than Alex or his people knew about. Without knowing the parties involved or being able to guess the end-goal, he’d have to tread carefully. Carefully but quickly. His mind flashed to the lost, broken quality to Lena’s voice in that dark room. His stomach turned over. He had to find her.

  “We brought in her mother,” he continued for Merritt. “Gracey flipped out. It seemed—like she maybe grounded through the table or something?” If grounding included a concussive thunderclap that destroyed walls and ceilings, sure. He slowly nodded his head, filling his voice with disbelief. “She used her ground as a weapon?”

  Merritt grunted. “I’m surprised no one’s thought of it before, actually. You’d have to be pretty desperate. What did you get out of her?”

  Alex growled his frustration. “Not a damn thing yet. Where is she? Let me have her for a few minutes, and I’ll get it out of her.”

  Merritt shook his head. “She’s gone.”

  “What? How?” He kept his stare locked on Merritt’s.

  The man shook his head again. “She blew up the damn place. Room upstairs came down on it. Exterior wall is blown to Dust. Looks like she climbed right out. She should have been restrained.”

  “She was,” he answered. He shook his arm in a small movement meant to show his displeasure at being strapped to the board. “Let me up. This is my case. I can find her.”

  The nurse above him shook her head. “You’re not going anywhere until we can get a doctor down here to make sure you haven�
�t broken anything.”

  “Then get me a damn doctor,” he snapped.

  “I can’t,” she snapped back.

  “She can’t,” Merritt said simultaneously. “Gracey blew the whole building. Every area behind a security door is locked down. We’re trying to figure out the extent of the damage. We can’t get anything back up yet. Right now, the Council building is dead, and almost all of our people are trapped.”

  Alex stared at him, his mouth hanging open. The entire building?

  She was a hell of a woman. He wanted that trick. He had to get her to teach him all of the fun things she could do.

  He recovered a moment later. “Unstrap me,” he commanded the nurse above him. “I’m fine.”

  She pushed on his left side. Alex roared, tears springing to his eyes. When she released, the sound faded to an angry hiss.

  “Fine, huh? And what about your ear?”

  He glowered at her. “I’m a Spark. My ear’s already healing. My ribs will be fine in a week. My back’s fine. My legs and arms are fine. Wrap my chest. Give me something for the pain. It’s not the first time I’ve had broken ribs.”

  Merritt looked at him appraisingly.

  “Wrap me up and let me go. This is my case. She may be long gone, but if anyone can find her, I can.”

  Merritt nodded at the nurse. She sighed and shook her head, but she unstrapped Alex from the back board. He braced himself before pushing up, gritting his teeth against the pain. He kept his breathing as shallow as possible while she wrapped his ribcage with tight bandages.

  “Who’s out there, and where are they?” Alex asked Merritt.

  “We’ve got four teams out at a ten-block radius, sweeping in. She can’t have gotten that far.”

  “Four teams?”

  “Everyone else is on recovery or locked down. Even our strongest Sparks can’t get those shorted doors to respond. We can hear them working on them from the other side, too, but they’re not coming open.”

  Alex shook his head. “Shut down the city gates.”

  “She’s not getting past—”

  “She’ll get past. She might already have. She’s got resources. She’s slipped us twice now. Twice. Shut down the city gates. Nobody in or out. Give me forty-eight hours.” Alex needed that time. He needed them focused on the commotion that shutting down the gates would cause, allowing him to get her out via the tunnels.

  “I can’t shut down the gates for two days. There’s no way. We have people out there—”

  “She killed the Councilor’s Director of Security.”

  “I worked with the man every day. I damn well know what the situation is.”

  “Twenty-four hours.” Alex stared at Merritt. He had to get something from the man.

  Merritt chewed his mustache. “Twenty-four. Who do you want with you?”

  “My junior.”

  “He’s down. Maybe permanently.”

  Alex shook his head. “I don’t want anybody. My case.”

  “That’s not happening. You’re not in any shape to be out there alone. If you can’t think of anyone you want then I’ll—”

  “Fernie Salas, if he’s not locked upstairs.” He straightened and rocked gingerly. The pain stabbed through him.

  The nurse gave him a look.

  He had to be sure he could move.

  Merritt nodded. “Fine. You should know before you head out—Councilor wants her alive.” Merritt raised a brow and made a small shrugging movement with his broad shoulders.

  Alex turned the corner behind the reception area and stepped around the crew of Spark agents and building techs clustered around the electrically sealed access to the upper levels. A heavy rock propped open the rear door, and a pair of agents stood to either side of it. The lock plate was blackened and melted, so they had managed to get some opened, even if by force. Was the Councilor stuck upstairs in his offices? The thought of the man having a panic attack over being confined to his office made Alex’s lips twist briefly into a smile. Then he sobered.

  The Councilor was far more likely to be having an apoplectic fit of fury, which would not bode well for Lena. Especially with the speed at which they were getting everything open. The more agents flooding Azcon looking for her, the harder it would be for him to smuggle her to safety.

  Alex didn’t pause when he hit the parking lot. Salas and the Security boys Merritt had insisted on including in the search trailed behind him. “Understand the assignment and the goal?” He tossed the words back over his shoulder.

  At the affirmative sounds from behind him, he crossed to the little Volt. He tried to swing into it as he normally would. Agony hitched in his chest and caused him to stop. He pressed his curled arm tight against his ribs. Once he’d caught his breath, he eased his way into the car and gingerly swung his legs into the foot well.

  He’d sent Salas to her mother’s house, and the Security team had instructions to go to Danny’s house. Alex had chosen to check on her sister. He hoped Lena had listened to him and gone straight to Ace, but if she hadn’t, he was betting she’d go to her sister. It made sense that she would go there to check on them after Lucas had pulled them in for questioning.

  First, he’d stop at the Piece of Asp to be sure Ace wasn’t there waiting. It was almost three. The bar sat on West Alameda, which fed into the Northwest grid, where Lena’s sister lived. While he was on his way to her sister’s, he’d double check that Lena had gone straight to Ace. Assuming she’d followed Alex’s instructions, she would have made it to Ace’s before he’d left for his appointment with Alex.

  He cursed at himself. He was making a whole lot of assumptions lately. Lena was screwing with his head and his standard procedures. He needed to get her to Fort Nevada and get himself back on track so he could repair the wide wake of damage she’d unwittingly done to all of his plans.

  And to your focus, asshole. You’ve spent too much time distracted by big green eyes and freckles. What do they have to do with what she can do with the Dust? Get the girl safe. Dump her at the fort. Get your head back in your fucking sweet spot before you get yourself killed.

  He forced himself to take deeper breaths as he shifted into drive and pulled out of the lot. He had to breathe, even if it hurt. He needed his mind clear. He worked on his focus as he drove to the bar. When he parked, his ribs still hurt like hell, but no more sudden moves, and he’d be fine.

  He pushed into the bar. Light from the sunny day outside fell into the room, illuminating Ace. He sat at the bar, spinning a glass of water between his palms over and over. Alex stopped, and Ace raised his glass a couple of inches in greeting before gulping the water down.

  “Hey,” Ace said to Alex as he crossed to him, “You ready?”

  He shook his head, already furious. “Were you at home before you came here?”

  Ace frowned. “Yeah. Why?”

  “And Lena wasn’t there?”

  “No, she left a note. Said she was going to talk to her family, and she’d be back. She’ll be back.”

  He looked at the floor, cursing. When he looked back up at Ace, he didn’t bother to hide his anger. “Stupid girl. I don’t have time for this.”

  Ace pulled his head back, brows furrowed.

  “Go home and wait for her, Ace. I told her to go there. But she didn’t do as she was told.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “She came in. Came to find me. But my partner got to her. I tried to buy some time, but then he brought her mother in.” Alex stopped. He shook his head. “They killed her mother. It was an accident. Sort of. And Lena—”

  “Council agents killed her mother?” Disbelief warred with outrage on Ace’s face. “In front of Lena?”

  He nodded.

  “In front of her?”

  “I said that, yes.”

  Ace’s eyes narrowed. He leaned in toward Alex and whispered tightly, “Don’t you get short with me, Agent. You say you’ll protect her, then the next time I see you, you tell me Mercedes is dead?
That they killed her in front of Lena? While you were buying time?” Ace leaned back. His face twisted, as if he had tasted something foul and was ready to spit it out.

  “I got her out.” Alex said flatly. “I told her to come to you and wait, that I would get her out of the city. And I can. But she didn’t go to you, so now I have to find her. I’m running out of time.” He turned and reached for the door, bracing himself to pull it open.

  Ace grabbed his shoulder and spun him back around. “Then you should have done a better job of getting her out. What the hell were you doing?”

  Alex’s breath caught in his throat. The pressure built, waiting to be expelled, but the agony that had flared in his side would explode. He allowed the breath, and the pain with it, to hiss out between his lips. “I was busy trying to get the rubble of the side of the Council building off of me. It took a while.”

  Ace searched his face.

  The man had been thrown, even harder than Alex expected. He hadn’t anticipated that Ace might have been close to her mother.

  Alex shook his head. “This is bad. And I don’t have time to explain it all now. Later, after I’ve found her, okay? Right now, I need you to go home and wait. If she shows up, keep her there. I’ll check back.” He held his finger up to Ace’s face for emphasis. “Do not let her leave. This city is not safe for her now. If they take her again—assuming they don’t shoot her out of hand for the death of the Director of Councilor Security—there will not be a damn thing I can do.”

  Ace pulled back when he mentioned Hernandez’s death. “She killed him?”

  “Him. Maybe my partner. Almost me.” His hand twitched, but he managed to keep it from reaching up to support his ribcage.

  “Good for her.” Ace pushed past him and out the door.

  Alex barely managed to avoid being knocked into by the larger man. The sudden jerk away sent a searing wave of pain through him. He ignored it, his breath gasping out as he followed. “Ace—”