by J. C. Diem
The Cleanup Crew arrived shortly after I’d finished throwing up. I sat huddled on the stairs as they climbed past me with curious glances. It was the same two guys that I’d seen previously. They showed no surprise at the mess that the TAK Squad had made. Pre-warned, they’d brought cleaning supplies to take care of the blood and other bodily fluids that had oozed out of the telepath. Thankfully, we left before I had to see them sliding her pieces into a body bag.
“Are you ok?” Kala asked as we made our way back to the SUV. We were walking a few steps behind the guys, but I knew they could still hear us.
“Sure,” I replied in a mock cheerful voice. “It must have been something I ate.”
“I’m sorry you had to see that,” she said, seeing straight through my bluster. “Mark is usually here to make sure we don’t get carried away like that.”
“He’ll be back soon, right?” I asked anxiously. God only knew what they’d do to the remaining three psychics if they caught them before their leader returned. Bite their throats out maybe.
“I hope so,” she replied, but I had a feeling that some part of her really hoped that he wouldn’t. The agents enjoyed hunting a little too much for my liking.
As soon as we reached the base, I headed for my room to take a shower. My stomach was still tender and food was the last thing on my mind. Coffee was the only substance that I wanted to consume.
The lower floor was empty when I descended the stairs. I boiled the kettle then felt someone standing behind me. I knew who it was even before I turned around. Garrett was standing so close to me that I had to tilt my head back to see his eyes. They were shuttered and hard to read.
“You know there can never be anything between us,” he said abruptly.
I’d known that he had no interest in me, but hearing him state it so baldly sent a stab of pain through my heart. “I know,” I replied stiffly.
“You aren’t my type and you’re far too young for me,” he said unnecessarily. I really didn’t need a list of what was wrong with me. It was obvious that I was the last person he’d ever be interested in.
“I know,” I repeated. “I get it. You don’t have to spell it out for me.”
He nodded and took a step back, distancing himself from me physically as well as mentally. “Good. I just wanted to make sure you knew how I felt.”
My cheeks were burning in shame and embarrassment when he walked away. It had been cruel, but he obviously thought it had been necessary. I’d never had my heart broken before, but that was what it felt like now, as if it had just shattered into a thousand pieces. A few tears escaped my control and I wiped them away when I heard Kala and Flynn thundering down the spiral staircase. I was glad they hadn’t witnessed the most humiliating experience of my entire life so far. I had a feeling this pain would stay with me for a very long time.
₪₪₪
Chapter Sixteen
I was sitting on my bed reading when Mark returned late the next morning. I was looking at the electronic page without really taking in the story. My mind kept replaying Greed’s death over and over. My appetite had fled and I’d barely managed to drink coffee over the past twenty-four hours. I kept hearing the wet tearing sounds of her arms and head being torn off and my stomach would revolt. My jacket still smelled slightly smoky.
A fist banging on the door roused me from my thoughts.
“Alexis?” Mark called. “It’s me.”
Putting down the e-reader, I slid off the bed and opened the door.
Agent Steel wore a concerned expression. He was obviously worried about me. “Reece told me about what happened yesterday. Are you alright?”
At first I nodded, but then my head moved from side to side instead. “I don’t know. I’ve never seen anyone being torn limb from limb before.”
Stepping inside, he closed the door and led me back to the bed with a hand at the small of my back. “I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“Yeah,” I sighed as I sank down on the mattress. “So am I.”
“They don’t usually lose control like that,” he said with an earnest look.
“Why did they lose control?” I didn’t ask how they could have dismembered a human being with their bare hands. I wasn’t sure I really wanted to know.
“You were in danger,” he said simply. “Kala, Flynn and Reece are very loyal and extremely protective. They’ll do anything that they feel is necessary to keep you from harm.”
I could understand Kala’s reaction because we were very close to becoming friends by now. I could even see why Flynn wouldn’t want me to be hurt. He was more reserved than Walker, but I was pretty sure he liked me. Garrett on the other hand, I didn’t get at all. He’d torn Greed’s head clean off her shoulders and had then told me that there could never be anything between us. All three of the agents were confusing in many ways and I doubted I’d ever be able to fully understand them.
“I’m glad I’m on their side,” I said lamely. “I’d hate to be in their crosshairs.”
“You’ll never have to worry about that,” Mark said and patted my shoulder. “Kala told me you haven’t had breakfast yet. Would you care to join me downstairs?” He lifted his eyebrow in polite enquiry and it would have been churlish to refuse him. I wasn’t hungry, but the others probably thought I was petrified of them by now. The real reason I’d been avoiding them was so they couldn’t see how devastated I was at being rejected by Garrett. While he was the last person I wanted to see, I couldn’t hide in my room forever.
Reluctantly following Mark downstairs, I felt bad when Kala flicked a wary glance at me from her seat on the couch. After I choked down a bowl of cereal, I made two cups of coffee and carried them into the living room. I placed a mug on the coffee table in front of Kala and sat down beside her. Looking at me over the top of her magazine, she deliberately kept her silence. It was going to be up to me to make the first move.
“So, I guess you must be pretty strong,” I said. “It’s not every day you see a girl your size tear someone’s arm off.”
She flashed a guilty look at Agent Steel as he crossed the floor towards the staircase. “I’d never hurt you, Lexi,” she said softly. “None of us would.”
I looked down at the mug in my hand and swallowed a bitter laugh. One of them had hurt me, even if it had only been mentally and emotionally rather than physically. “I know,” I replied. “I’m like a little sister to you all.”
“We don’t all feel that way about you,” she said and cut a look over her shoulder at Reece. He and Flynn were sparring in the ring. Both were concentrating hard and were ignoring us entirely.
“Yeah, he thinks I’m an annoying little kid and he wishes he’d never met me,” I said quietly.
“Part of that is true,” she said with a grin, but she didn’t elaborate on which part. Did it really matter? Either he thought I was a child, or he wished he’d never met me. Neither choice did much to soothe my already shattered ego.
I spent the next few days trying to keep myself busy while Mark kept track of crime in Denver. I practiced my indoor and outdoor shooting skills every day and Kala was usually my companion. I did my best to coach her and to help her with her shooting skills. In return, she showed me a few defensive moves in the event that I was ever grabbed again. I didn’t have anywhere near her strength, but I now knew the vulnerable spots to strike for. The eyes and throat were the best targets for a female assailant. I could add the groin to the list if my attacker was male. All in all, I’d rather just blow a hole in them, but I’d learned the hard way that I might not always have a gun handy.
Finally, Mark heard of a disturbance in the city. It was just after lunch and we were still sitting at the table when he received a call. “This is Agent Steel,” he said and listened intently. His three agents went into action even before Mark gave us the nod. “We’re on our way,” he said to his informant.
I was the last one up the stairs, which was nothing new. I was already wearing jeans, a tank-top and my milit
ary style jacket. I grabbed my backpack out of the closet and scrambled after the others as they left their rooms and headed downstairs.
“It appears that Pride has come out from hiding,” Agent Steel said when we piled into the SUV. “A man is currently holding some people hostage in a bar with a pistol. He’s demanding that they swear their fealty to him. The cops think he’s either drunk or high on drugs and they’re trying to negotiate with him.”
Being so far from the city usually meant that the action was over by the time we arrived. That wasn’t the case this time and the victim was still alive and holding his captives hostage. We pulled up two blocks away from the bar where a large crowd had gathered yet again. You’d think the citizens of Denver would have grown used to the strange things that were going on in their city by now, but they just kept turning up to see the excitement for themselves.
“Pride is bound to be here somewhere,” Mark said as we exited from the SUV. “He won’t leave until his victim is dead. Lexi, stay with Garrett. I’m going to see if I can get some more information. Kala and Flynn, spread out and search for the target.”
Reece wasn’t happy at being lumped with me again and I was less than overjoyed with the arrangement as well. We stood in an awkward silence as Mark crossed the road and flashed his badge at one of the police officers. I took my earbud out of my pocket and inserted it just as he was asking his first question.
“What is the situation?” Agent Steel asked the cop.
“The perp showed up at the bar a couple of hours ago swaying on his feet and looking drunk,” the officer reported. “He pulled a gun and ordered everyone in the bar to pledge their allegiance to him or some crap along those lines. One hostage got away, but he shot the next person who tried to flee. As far as we know, he’s shot two more people since then. The SWAT team is preparing to storm the bar.” He gestured at a black van parked at the curb. A team of black clad police officers were donning tactical gear and checking their weapons.
“As soon as the victim is dead, Pride will run,” Garrett said. He stood beside me with his arms crossed, making his biceps bulge even more than usual. A group of girls around my age stood across the road, watching the scene from a safe distance. One of them spied Reece and elbowed her friend in the side. They all turned to stare and I couldn’t blame them. Gorgeous, muscled and highly dangerous, Garrett had a bad boy vibe that a lot of teenage girls undoubtedly found attractive. I certainly did, although I’d never been attracted to dangerous men before. Maybe I was a late bloomer.
Moments later, the SWAT team went into action. They disappeared around the back of the bar and we heard several shots coming from inside.
“I see Pride,” Kala said a few seconds later. “He’s on the run!” There was silence for a short while then I heard a car door slam and the screech of tires. Walker swore viciously, wringing a hint of a grin from Reece. “He got away,” she said in frustration. She was fast, but not even she could chase down a telepath who could also teleport. That was the second time he’d gotten away from the TAK Squad.
“He’ll have his base somewhere near here,” Mark said as he returned to the SUV. “Canvass the area and see if you can pick up his trail.”
Garrett barely waited for his boss to arrive before he was darting across the road to join the hunt. Despite Agent Steel’s confidence, their search proved to be fruitless and they gave up after several hours of searching.
“Why do the psychics stay in Denver?” I asked Mark as we headed out to pick up his team. I didn’t ask how so many people with the same type of mental powers could have originated from the same city, or how many more people like them were out there causing death and mayhem. It was doubtful that he’d have the answers. Even if he did, they wouldn’t do us much good.
“This is where they lived before they were institutionalized,” he replied. “They know the city and they feel comfortable here.”
“But they have to know we’re hunting for them by now.” Kala had almost nabbed Pride and she’d only just missed him. He might not know exactly who she was, but he had to know that she wasn’t chasing after him for his autograph.
“Their powers make them arrogant. They believe that they can outsmart us.”
“Four of them are dead,” I pointed out. “None of them have managed to outsmart us so far.”
“Yes, but they weren’t as wily as Pride, Wrath and Lust.”
His reply didn’t do much to reassure me that we’d be able to take them down without suffering casualties on our side. The agents might be able to withstand mind control, but I doubted they’d be able to survive it if someone else was ordered to shoot them. One command to an armed police officer could end the lives of any of us at any time.
₪₪₪
Chapter Seventeen
It was becoming harder and harder to pin down the final remaining psychics. Several days passed and Mark decided to head to the city. He had a feeling one of the targets was going to break their cover soon and he wanted us to be there when they did.
We arrived in Denver shortly after the morning rush to work. Traffic was light as Reece drove around the city in patterns that seemed random. In reality, he was visiting the past crime scenes, hoping to pick up the trail again. A sweep near the bar where Pride had struck last finally had a result.
“Pull over,” Kala said. Her window was open and she’d picked up his scent. “He was here recently,” she added when the SUV came to a stop.
She, Bailey and Garrett climbed out and followed the scent on foot. Mark and I moved to the front of the SUV and waited for them to move several blocks away before we followed them. The invisible trail led several blocks away to a series of redbrick apartment buildings that all looked the same to me. Thin, sickly looking trees lined the sidewalk and made a pitiful attempt at beautification.
“Here’s in there,” Kala said and pointed at one of the buildings. Agent Steel parked a safe distance away where we could watch and offer backup in the unlikely event that our help would be required.
The street was relatively empty, with the exception of a few children playing in a park to our left. Their parents and nannies watched over them, unsuspecting that danger was hovering so close by.
“Kala and I are going in,” Garrett advised.
“Yeah, and I’m stuck out here as the lookout,” Flynn grumbled.
I was glad I could follow the progress of the mission through the earbud. It would have been agonizing not to know what was going on. After a couple of minutes of silence, I heard the crash of a door being kicked open.
“The apartment is clear,” Kala said a short while later. “He must have heard us coming.”
“He teleported onto the fire escape,” Reece said. “He’s coming your way, Bailey.”
A man burst out through the front door of the apartment building and sprinted across the blacktop. He seemed to blur for a second then he was suddenly all the way across the street. Apparently, he could only teleport in short bursts rather than across long distances. I automatically reached for my gun, but Mark put his hand on my arm before I could draw it. “Flynn’s got this,” he said, confident of his agent’s success.
Bailey didn’t waste any time pursuing the target. He streaked across the street and caught up to his quarry far faster than should have been humanly possible even with Pride teleporting every few seconds or so. Timing his leap perfectly, Flynn launched himself through the air and tackled the telepath to the ground just as he was about to teleport again.
I felt the swell of the psychic’s power as he sent out a mental command to everyone in the park to come to his rescue. Heads turned and several civilians took their first tentative steps towards the man that had taken over their minds. Even Mark became snared in the net. His eyes went distant and he reached for his seatbelt release. The distinct sound of breaking bones came through the earbud and the power instantly shut off. Still muddled, the parents, nannies and children looked around in confusion.
Mark shook his head c
lear and sent me a relieved look, realizing how close he’d just come to being bamboozled into attacking his own agent. I hadn’t been nearly as affected. Maybe I was beginning to acquire a resistance to the mental commands.
“The target has been neutralized,” Bailey said coolly. “The bystanders are getting restless, boss. You’d better get over here with your badge before someone calls the cops.”
It was probably already too late for that, but Agent Steel exited from the SUV and hurried over to Flynn. Some of the parents were converging on Bailey, erroneously thinking that he’d just attacked an innocent man. Mark arrived and flashed his badge before they could attempt to make a citizen’s arrest. “We’re federal agents,” he explained to the concerned and still slightly confused citizens. “Agent Bailey has just apprehended a dangerous felon. Please stand back so we can take this man into custody.”
“I’m pretty sure he’s dead,” one of the fathers said dubiously. “I think you’re going to have to take him to the morgue rather than to jail.”
Retching sounds made me grimace as someone with a delicate stomach lost their lunch. I sympathized with whoever it was and I was very glad that I’d stayed in the car this time.
Kala and Reece joined the group and hauled the dead psychic to his feet. They made a show of cuffing him and dragging him to the SUV. His head lolled forward and his feet dragged on the ground. He looked unconscious, but I knew his current state of rest was permanent. I was reluctant to climb into my usual seat after they folded the corpse into the space at the back of the vehicle. My morbid curiosity took over once more and I snuck a brief glimpse at him. He was in his late twenties and might have been cute if his eyes hadn’t been glazed over with death. At least there was no blood this time.
“Are you going to puke?” Kala asked me warily when she climbed in next to me. Flynn hesitated at the door. He waited for my answer, ready to spring out of the way to safety if I felt the need to purge.
