Vital Found (The Evelyn Maynard Trilogy Book 2)

by Kaydence Snow

  Josh’s eyes flew open, and he took a deep, shuddering breath. Trying to push himself up, he coughed, spluttering blood everywhere, then groaned and rolled over onto his back.

  “Josh!” I did my best not to shout. I didn’t want the guards to come back.

  He looked over at the sound of my voice, his eyes widening as they landed on mine. He tried to get up again but winced, clutching his side.

  I winced too. “Don’t move. Just take it easy, OK?”

  “Are you OK?” His voice sounded strained. I’d been drugged, kidnapped, and betrayed, and I’d nearly had to witness him die. I was definitely not OK.

  He watched me in that way only he could, then nodded. Our gazes stayed locked across the space of the dirty concrete floor, both of our heads on the ground, both of us reaching for the other through the metal bars.

  “We need to get out of here,” he ground out after a few minutes, pushing himself to a sitting position.

  I sat up too, my restraints cutting painfully into my skin. “How?” I was really hoping if he had a plan, it was better than the one that had gotten him all bloody and caged. “And where are the others?”

  “I was the closest when the alarm went off. Hopefully they’re not too far behind.” He looked around the basement, paying special attention to his cage. Pulling himself to his knees, he studied the cage door intently. I heard the metallic click of the lock turning, and the door swung outward.

  The tug in my chest increased a little. My glowing Light transfer had managed to get him off death’s doorstep, but he was nowhere near fully healed and shouldn’t have been using his ability at all. I kept my mouth shut though. He was doing it to save our lives, and there was nothing I could say to convince him not to.

  He rushed over to my cage. As soon as he was within reach, my bound hands went to his, and I immediately started pushing Light into him.

  He paused and sharply inhaled as his eyes closed for a moment, but he didn’t indulge in the sensation for long. He unlocked my cage the same way he’d done his. In an instant, he’d pulled me to my feet and wrapped me in one of his crushing hugs, my bound hands squished awkwardly between us.

  The hug didn’t last long either. Someone could come in at any moment.

  “I need something to cut you free,” he whispered into my hair before moving off. I only nodded. I didn’t want him away from me, but short of hopping around with my feet bound and probably face-planting onto the concrete floor, there wasn’t much I could do to follow him. So I just stood there in the open door of my cage, my heart hammering in my chest, listening intently for the sound of boots on rickety stairs.

  Josh returned quickly, a pair of giant bolt cutters in his hands. “It was all I could find.” He shrugged before bending down and cutting the zip tie around my ankles. He made quick work of my wrists too, and I rubbed them, wincing at the raw skin.

  Josh grabbed me with one hand and held on to the bolt cutters with the other, taking the lead toward the far end of the basement—the area cast in shadow. We couldn’t risk going through the same door the kidnappers had taken. There had to be another way out.

  Unfortunately, we hadn’t made it more than a few steps before the dreaded metallic sound of the door opening rang through the cold space.

  “. . . why we have to knock her out again. She’s tied up already,” one of the kidnappers whined.

  “Man, shut the fuck up and pass me the tank.” His gruffer-voiced companion didn’t sound as if he was in a good mood.

  They were on the stairs, about to come around the corner—too close for us to make a run for it, and we had nowhere to hide. I started to panic; we didn’t have time to jump back into the cages and pretend we were still tied up and knocked out.

  Josh reached the obvious conclusion before I did. We had to fight.

  He pushed me behind him, raised the bolt cutters over his head, and waited. I prayed that neither one of them had their guns drawn as I stuck my hands under Josh’s shirt and pushed as much Light into him as possible.

  But as the two men came into view, three quick, loud bangs—the sound of muted gunfire—came from somewhere above us, followed by shouting voices. The two men turned their heads, their hands going to their weapons.

  Josh didn’t hesitate, bringing the heavy metal tool down over the first man’s head. His target crumpled to the ground, the tank I recognized from my kidnapping clanging to the ground next to him. But it was the other man who howled in pain, doubling over and clutching his head.

  Had I not seen countless other people doubled over in pain just like that, I would have wondered if my mind was playing tricks on me. But I knew exactly what was causing it.

  “Alec,” I breathed, a tentative kind of relief flooding through me. We were still in danger, we had no idea how many people we had to fight through to get out of this situation alive, but at least the reinforcements had arrived.

  Josh dropped the bolt cutters, and with a flick of his wrist, a heavy wooden crate tumbled off a nearby shelf onto the second man’s head. He joined his companion on the ground, unconscious.

  I crouched next to the pile of passed-out kidnappers and extracted the first man’s gun from its place on his hip. Josh picked up the other weapon and reached over for mine, but instead of taking the gun away from me, he flicked the safety off and fixed me with a steady look.

  “Hold it with both hands, point, squeeze the trigger, and be ready for the recoil.”

  I gave him a shaky nod, swallowing around the lump in my throat. He nodded sharply and turned back around, positioning himself at the corner and pointing his gun up the stairs. I stayed behind him, the heavy gun trembling in my raised hands, my brain helpfully reminding me I had no idea what I was doing.

  A bang, like a door slamming against a wall, came from the top of the stairs. I jumped, nearly firing the gun I had no business handling. The loud noise was followed by the sound of several feet on timber.

  Josh lowered his gun and slumped against the wall, but I couldn’t make myself do the same. Logically I knew by his reaction that whoever was coming toward us wasn’t a threat, but the horror of the situation was catching up to me, and something at the edges of my being was starting to crumble. The gun provided an illusion of safety I wasn’t ready to part from.

  Tyler came into view first, his gun raised as he moved forward purposefully. He was wearing a thick black vest, which was probably bulletproof, and the pale yellow shirt underneath jarred with the gritty situation we were in. The color was too cheery; his signature rolled-up sleeves, too casual. He cast his eyes over me and Josh but kept moving past us, still on alert.

  Alec followed, wearing the same vest, but his combat boots, black pants, and long-sleeved top fit right in. Despite his pain ability, he too was armed, his stance almost identical to Tyler’s. With his ice-blue eyes, he scanned me, then Josh, just as Tyler had, but he didn’t move off immediately. He lowered his gun, extending his left hand toward me, palm out.

  “Eve.” His voice was level, his face blank. My eyes were darting between his face and the gun I was pointing directly at his chest. Or almost directly—my hands were shaking so badly I couldn’t even aim properly.

  A split second later, Ethan came around the corner. He wasn’t armed, but one raised hand held a deadly ball of blue fire. His eyes went straight to me, and all the emotions he must have been holding back cracked through and poured into his expression. All the fear and worry and anger were right there in his amber eyes.

  “Evie.” Alec drew my attention back to him.

  Fat tears began rolling down my filthy cheeks. I took my finger off the trigger, my shoulders slumping as I finally let my arms go slack.

  Alec grabbed the gun by the barrel, removing it from my tenuous grip in one swift movement.

  “Watch them,” he said to Ethan over his shoulder, passing him the gun. Then he raised his own weapon and went after Tyler.

  Ethan secured the gun in the back of his pants before stepping forward and enfo
lding my terrified shaking body in his big warm one. He tucked me into his side, standing between me and Josh and keeping a vigilant eye on our surroundings. I clutched at his bulletproof vest but couldn’t find anywhere to grip the rigid material, so I settled for nestling my arms between us and turning my face into his shoulder.

  I could feel Ethan trembling, tiny little shivers coursing through his body as he gripped me as if I might disappear into thin air at any moment. As confident as he’d looked coming around the corner, he was clearly just as freaked out as I was.

  After only a few moments, Tyler’s firm voice yelled, “Clear.” A beat later Alec answered him with a “Clear” of his own, from the opposite end of the basement.

  I lifted my head. Tyler was stalking back toward us, holstering his weapon at his hip. His gray eyes, usually so calm, were staring right at me, filled with fear. As he got within a few feet, I instinctively reached for him, and he took hold of my outstretched wrist and tugged me out of Ethan’s grasp. I winced from the friction on the spot where the zip ties had cut in, but he didn’t see it. He’d already pulled me into a hug.

  He wrapped his arms around my shoulders, one hand at the back of my head, holding me firm to his chest. I focused on the feeling of being held by one of my Variants, on the way his fingers were flexing against my scalp.

  Ethan turned to Josh and gave him a hug too before pulling away and letting Alec take his place. Alec grabbed the back of Josh’s neck and pressed their foreheads together, his back and shoulders rigid. As he straightened, he said something I couldn’t hear. Josh nodded weakly, raising his hand up to squeeze Alec’s shoulder before they both took a step back.

  “We’ve got company,” Alec ground out, his eyes on the little windows near the ceiling.

  “What about our guys?” Tyler released me to reload his gun.

  Alec turned back around. “On the way. Probably another five.”

  “This basement is a death trap, we can’t let them corner us down here.” Tyler didn’t wait for a response, taking the lead up the rickety stairs.

  “Wait.” My voice was shaky. So were my knees. “What are we doing? What do I do?”

  But Ethan was already helping Josh up the stairs, and Alec was firmly nudging my back with one hand. I started climbing, my heart simultaneously climbing into my throat. At least the extra adrenaline was helping energy return to my limbs.

  “Just stick close to me.” Alec spoke low. “I’ll keep you safe, Evie.”

  I had no other choice but to let them take the lead. Alec overtook me at the top of the stairs, placing his body between mine and the rest of the house.

  Then things started happening fast.

  Shouting and banging—the sound of glass breaking.

  Alec pulled me through the door and darted down a hallway, stopping near a bathroom. When Tyler appeared next to me and grabbed my hand, I barely managed to stop myself from calling out. Josh and Ethan crowded next to us in the bathroom doorway.

  “I need a little more Light, baby,” Tyler whispered close to my ear, his eyes glued on the hallway, his gun raised.

  Immediately, I pushed as much Light into him as I could. He dropped my hand within seconds and took off again, gesturing to Alec. I didn’t understand what the hand movements meant, but Alec must have, because we followed Tyler in the opposite direction to where we’d been heading. Ethan supported a limping Josh, and we moved as a unit though the house.

  Eventually I forced myself to look up from the back of Alec’s bulletproof vest. We were at a front door, waning afternoon light streaming in through the side panel.

  “Bulk of force coming in through the back. This is our best chance, but they’re not stupid—they have a few out front as well,” Tyler filled us in.

  Before anyone could respond, deafening gunfire made me jump again, and this time I couldn’t hold in the panicked scream that came tearing out of my throat.

  It was Tyler who’d started firing. Armed men were coming down the hallway toward us. They took cover in the rooms off the hallway but soon returned fire.

  Alec spun around, firing over my shoulder with one hand and pushing me behind him with the other.

  To my right, a large cabinet tumbled to the floor with a tremendous crash, blocking the path of more assailants who were coming at us from an elaborately decorated sitting room. It wouldn’t stop them, but it would slow them down.

  Unfortunately, the use of his ability would slow Josh down too. The sudden pain in my chest made me cry out, the Light desperate to get to him. He wavered, but Ethan caught him, at the same time throwing an angry blue ball of fire that engulfed the cabinet in flames.

  Bright light streamed into the foyer from the now open front door, and Alec pulled me through, once again keeping me behind him.

  But as soon as we were outside, the gunshots started up again. Three more assailants came toward us, big black vans blocking the street behind them.

  We had danger behind us and danger in front of us, and Josh was fading fast.

  I didn’t hesitate. I made everything else fall away—time itself seemed to stand still—as I put all my focus on Alec. My fingers tightened around his hand, and I pushed Light to him almost violently, raising my other hand to the back of his neck—the only other bit of exposed skin I could see.

  I grit my teeth and growled. I was weak too. Bringing Josh back from the brink had drained me, and I couldn’t get that level of power again so soon, but I pulled Light into me as hard as I could, and I shoved it all into Alec.

  Within seconds, everyone was on the ground, moaning in pain, gripping their heads and stomachs. It wasn’t instantaneous, as when we’d done it that first time at Bradford Hills, but eventually they all lost consciousness.

  At first, my own wheezing breath was the only sound I registered. Then traffic, a loud car alarm nearby. As the wail of sirens announced we were about to have more company, my other senses joined the party too. I let go of Alec and stepped back.

  We were at the top of the stairs leading into a large, elegant home.

  At that moment, something clicked into place—the reason why the woman from the basement had looked so familiar. She was Senator Christine Anderson—the same woman who had delivered the rousing speech the night of the gala and was all over the TV lately. How deeply connected was she to Variant Valor? And how the fuck did Zara know her?

  This had to be the senator’s house. Similar homes lined both sides of the street, and tall concrete-and-glass buildings cut into the skyline a little farther away. Were we in Manhattan? Surely they couldn’t have been so brazen as to keep people locked in the basement of a home in the city? And come to think of it, where was the senator? Where was Zara? Had they been involved in the gunfight inside? Had my friend shot at me? Tried to kill me?

  My eyes scanned the quiet street, the bodies on the ground. When they landed on Josh, I remembered the pain in my chest.

  Rubbing at the ache, I took the few steps to reach him, my hands going straight to the sides of his neck. I let the Light do its thing as best I could. I was running on empty; anything coming into me was going straight back out to him.

  “Time to go,” Tyler announced, reloading his gun. “Ethan, are you hurt? Help Josh to the car?”

  “Yeah, I got him.” Ethan’s voice was shaky.

  “Alec, go.” Tyler turned to Alec, who was still facing the unconscious assailants. “I’ll try to clean this mess up.”

  “What?” I croaked, whipping my head around to look at him. “You’re not coming with—holy shit!”

  Tyler’s chest was drenched with blood. Crimson covered the entire right shoulder and right side of his shirt, the original color of the fabric not even discernible.

  I was torn. Josh needed me—he was leaning heavily against Ethan, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the sensation of the Light transfer. But I ached to go to Tyler too, check where the blood was coming from, how badly he was hurt.

  He must have read the torment in my face, because he cam
e to me, pulling the collar of his shirt down. “A bullet grazed my neck. I barely felt it. I’m OK.” He kissed me on the forehead, one hand in my hair, before looking me level in the eyes. “Evelyn, I’m OK. It’s already stopped bleeding. Josh needs you. You need to get him home. Alec!”

  But Alec was already moving. He wrapped one of my hands around Josh’s, took the other, and hurried down the stairs. As we headed up the street, I looked over my shoulder to see Tyler standing by the door, watching us.

  “Wait!” I tugged on Alec’s hand, but he kept a firm grip, a steady pace. “Alec, we can’t leave him there alone. What if they wake up? What if more come?”

  He stopped, then turned me by the shoulders to fully face where we’d come from.

  “Melior Group has arrived,” he said evenly. “See Kyo?” He pointed to a group of three heavily armed men moving toward Tyler. More followed behind them. “Tyler is fine.” He turned me back toward himself, his hands on my shoulders. “We have to go, precious. Josh needs you more than any of us right now.”

  I nodded. Tyler was OK—I’d seen it with my own eyes—and the panic was beginning to settle. My head didn’t feel so light; my ears weren’t ringing quite so much. I’d made it out. Now I had to make sure Josh did too.

  Twenty-Three

  Alec resumed his lead, and I tried to focus on his wide back, his shoulders tense under the black fabric. Some people had come out of their homes to see what all the noise was about; a crowd had gathered on the street, and phones were out. I tried to take in their faces, anything to distract me from how loose Josh’s grip was on my hand, how much my chest still ached even though I was transferring as much Light as our contact would allow.

  As we rounded a corner, coming to a stop next to Tyler’s black Escalade, it began to snow.

  I had to let Josh’s hand go for the few seconds it took the guys to get him into the car, and those few seconds just about tore my chest open. He lost consciousness as I doubled over in pain, the ache and urgency unbearable.