“I still don’t think we’ll be able to do much if our bodies become paralyzed like last time,” Noah said.
“My and Jaiden’s elements have gotten stronger lately,” I said, “so I think we have a chance. Maybe we’ll be able to break through his control.”
“If that doesn’t work, I also brought the strongest element blockers I could find,” Lily said. “And I have a device that could block any technology, if that’s what the guy is using, although it seems unlikely.”
“Maybe it’s a combination of both,” Marissa said.
“Could be, but let’s hope we’re better prepared this time. He should be more relaxed because nothing has happened to him here and I guess he wants to have some fun,” Lily said. “So our best chance is to find a way to surprise him.”
“Yeah, except we don’t even know who he is or what he looks like,” Noah said.
“Doesn’t matter. Keep watching your phones. If they stop working, you’ll know he’s somewhere. All we’ll have to do is figure out who he is before he spots us,” Lily said. “That’s why all of you are going, and my men will stay at a distance. I think you’re more likely to see any shimmering or something strange, because I’m sure the guy uses his elements while he’s there.”
“Okay,” Noah nodded. “Anything else we need to know?”
“Jaiden and I will turn into different people, but we’ll put two silver bracelets around our wrists so you can recognize us,” I said. “It’ll be better if the guy can’t see and recognize us immediately, which still doesn’t mean he won’t figure out something’s wrong, but we hope we’ll catch him off guard. He has no reason to believe that anyone let us hunt him down or even allowed us to come here.”
“Any more questions?” Lily asked, and everyone shook their heads. “Okay then. You can go. I’ll be monitoring everything closely, and activate the devices if I need to.”
Jaiden and I turned into air and flew outside. After we hid behind one of the walls, we waited for some people to pass by. A couple who was just leaving caught our eye, and we sent our elements toward them so we could easily take their appearance. When we were done, Jaiden was a middle-aged man with dark hair and hazel eyes, and he was wearing a suit. I was his wife, and had shoulder-length blonde hair and dark brown eyes. My long red dress was slightly uncomfortable and my heels a bit too high, but if I wanted to pretend to be the woman, who had already gotten into her car and left, then I had to do this.
“Are you okay?” Jaiden asked, taking my hand.
“Yeah, but these heels are killing me,” I muttered.
“Don’t worry. Maybe you’ll get to stab our bad guy with the heel.” He winked at me.
“Hopefully.” We entered the casino and headed toward one of the machines. As Jaiden pretended to play, I scanned the room, looking for anything suspicious. The machine started beeping and a smile broke out on Jaiden’s lips.
“I won!” he said.
“That’s awesome, really. Can I try now?” I couldn’t exactly stare around the room all the time.
“Sure.” Jaiden moved as I inserted some money into the slot. As I stared at the machine, I wondered if the owner had to fix them every time the mystery guy came here, or maybe the guy could somehow select what he affected.
“Ugh, I lost.” I straightened my back and leaned forward, as if I were going to kiss Jaiden. “Did Lily ask the people who work here what machines have been affected?”
“Yeah, but they weren’t really broken for a long time. They just stopped working for a while. All of them, I guess. Or at least that’s what everyone here believes.”
“Damn it. I thought we could narrow down his location by figuring out which machines were down. Do you think he can even play slots? Or whatever technology he touches goes haywire?”
“I don’t know,” Jaiden said, and as he glanced down, his body stiffened. I stepped back, my lips parted, and realized he was holding his phone in his hand, and the screen had gone black. “He’s here!”
The machines around us all started blinking as if they were broken, but as soon as people started complaining or asking what was going on, an invisible force spread through the room, and everyone went quiet and froze in spot. The energy wrapped itself around Jaiden and me, and when I tried to move my arm, I realized I couldn’t.
Our disguises were still on, despite this new force that was keeping us in place. I tried to speak, but my mouth wouldn’t form words. But as I stared in front of me, I saw a dark-haired man with blue eyes strolling in as if he were having an easy walk in the park. He was even humming some soft melody. That was our guy. It had to be! He headed toward one of the tables, but I couldn’t see him any longer because I couldn’t turn my head.
Any attempts to use my air or fire didn’t work, so I tried to pull my disguise back. For some reason, I could do that, and my element slammed into me, flashing me into a shimmering cloud and into my corporeal form. This time, when I reached for my air, I could push it out. I turned into air, freeing myself from invisible bonds, and rushed toward the guy.
He was sitting at a table and taking a sip of some drink, while a terrified waiter stood in front of him. I rushed our target from behind, wrapping my element around his throat. We fell to the floor, and I became visible again, but I kept my element in place, squeezing harder and harder.
A collective gasp rang out and people suddenly rushed around us. Jaiden, Noah, Kenna, and Nick were at my side immediately, but before I could do anything, the man sent a ripple of air through me, leaving me breathless, and my hold on him weakened. He shoved me off, but Jaiden and the others attacked him with their elements.
While the people screamed and ran, Lily and her men surrounded us, some joining in the attack, and some waiting with their guns raised. Suddenly the man’s body went limp. Everyone’s elements were circling around him but careful not to touch each other because we couldn’t afford canceling each other’s attacks out.
“Is he dead?” someone asked, and I pushed myself to my feet. The man’s eyes were closed, but it was strange that everyone’s elements were still swirling around him. It was as if they weren’t getting through.
“Moira, help me,” Jaiden said. “I can’t get into his mind. I don’t think...”
But before I could call to my air and aim it at the man’s head, strong wind blew in our faces, making us squint. A burst of air exploded from the guy and sent us all flying back. A powerful mini tornado whirled through the room, destroying everything in its path. But as it was about to reach the other half of the room, it vanished into thin air.
I pulled myself up and tried to call my elements, but they weren’t working. Lily or someone must have activated the element blocker. I immediately sprinted toward the spot where we’d left the guy, but he was nowhere in sight. Shit! We’d lost him again. Turning around, I tried to see where he’d gone, but all around me were only our people.
“He’s gone,” Lily said as she came to stand next to me, a thin trail of blood seeping down her leg.
“How did he fight us all off? And the element blocker? The door was closed. Where did he go?” Noah looked around him.
“I don’t know. Damn it! But don’t open the door yet. Maybe he’s still here.” If he was really so powerful to be able to resist the element blocker or any technology blocker, then he might be still here somewhere, invisible even to us.
“You think he’s still here?” Lily held tightly onto her gun.
“Maybe. Just check the whole room. And if you don’t find anything, turn off the blocker.” The man might be long gone, but it wouldn’t hurt to inspect every tiny space he could occupy.
“There’s no sign of him. I’m turning off the blocker.” Lily rushed toward one of the doors, and I followed her to make sure no one would slip through it with her. Luckily, the room she went in didn’t have any windows or any vents that I could see, and when the blocker was off, I immediately let my air roam the room to see if it would collide with something.
&nbs
p; “I can’t believe we lost him again. Is he really more powerful than a group of tainteds?” Lily rubbed her eyebrow. “I thought that if we all worked together, that he wouldn’t be able to escape, especially when we had the element of surprise on our side.”
“I don’t know what he is, but I saw his face, and he didn’t have time to erase my memory. I know what he looks like,” I said. “And I bet everyone else who participated in the attack remembers too.”
“I came a bit later, so I mostly saw elements around him,” Lily said. “But if you remember, that’s great. We can get a facial composite and finally find out who he is.”
“There’s one strange thing about this. He’s too old to be a tainted.” I frowned.
“Maybe he shapeshifted like you did,” Lily said. “Although, that’ll make it harder to find him then, because we’ll be searching for a man whose identity he stole and not him.”
“But why change shape and mind control everyone? It doesn’t make sense. If he were just taking on people’s appearances, he wouldn’t have to bother mind-controlling them because no one would be looking for him anyway.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want attention,” Lily said. “If he knows we could get permission to hunt him down if we had slightest proof that he was involved...”
“No, if he didn’t want attention, he wouldn’t have killed Asya or anyone. I really think that his face is real, or maybe at least permanent. If he shifted, then he might’ve gotten stuck in whoever’s face he’s wearing.”
“Okay, find my tech team and give them as many details about the guy as you can.” Lily supported herself on the table, her knuckles white. Someone yelled something I couldn’t understand outside, and Lily and I both looked toward the door.
“We have a problem,” one of Lily’s men said. “The owner and some of the employees are insisting on calling the cops, and they claim we destroyed their casino and tried to kill their clients.”
“What?” Lily’s mouth hung open.
“I think they already called them. They seem to think we’re the bad guys, and they aren’t listening to us. They were yelling the rest in French, so I’m not sure what they said.” The guy gave us a sheepish look.
“Great. Now we’re the bad guys.” Lily groaned. “This isn’t good. I’m going to talk to them.”
“Sure.” I watched Lily storm out of the room, and then I turned into air, rushing toward the room where her techs were supposed to be. I hoped she could handle the drama here on her own, because I wanted to find out everything about the mystery man as soon as possible. It was high time we learned his real name.
Chapter 18
“Did you finally find something about him?” I asked Lily as soon as Jaiden and I entered the room. After a few days of no progress, I was hoping for some good news. Noah, Kenna, Nick, Ashley, Sam, and Marissa were sitting around a table, and three of Lily’s men were present too. Lily turned to us, the lines around her eyes more prominent.
“Yeah, I’m about to tell you everything. Please take a seat,” she said, and Jaiden and I settled ourselves in the two empty seats at the front of the table.
“We’ll have to act fast because the local authorities aren’t happy with us right now and think we invented a threat when there isn’t one. They even sent one of their investigators who’s a tainted elemental to check the minds of everyone who was at the casino, which means they could probably find out about the mind control the guy used and blame us for it.” Lily sighed.
“I thought you said you had some good news when you called us here,” Noah said. “This doesn’t sound good at all.”
“I wanted to tell the bad first. The good news... well, if you can count it as good... is that we identified our mystery guy. His name is Phil Clarkens. He’s supposed to be just a regular air elemental. He’s thirty-nine years old, and is officially a citizen of our country. We have a photo of him. I don’t know how he got his powers because he’s way too old to be a tainted, but we know how scientists like to play with our genes, and maybe someone succeeded in turning an adult into a tainted.” Lily’s face was grave, and I wondered why that news hadn’t cheered her up more. “But...”
“I don’t like the sound of that,” Nick whispered.
“But,” Lily repeated, “most of the data about him has either been erased or was never even collected. The latest info about him is that he graduated from high school, and since then, there’s no record of him anywhere. I don’t know how he got here or what he’s doing, because there are no credit cards in his name or any indication that he ever went through customs in any country.”
“Does that mean he got his powers before he decided to go on a trip around to world to hunt down some special serum for God knows what?” Noah asked.
“It’s a possibility, yes,” Lily said. “But we might have found a clue as to why he’s in this area.”
“Oh?” Noah said. “Does it have anything to do with that serum he wants?”
Lily nodded. “There’s a factory in Marseilles that collects elemental energy. We have reasons to believe that’s his next target. The factory has apparently been working on a secret new development, but they aren’t allowed to say much about it.”
“So Phil is supposed to go there? Is he forcing them to create the serum for him?” I asked.
“Yeah, I made some contacts, and it looks like there’s an important meeting happening in a few hours, so I think that’s it. I already dispatched my team there under the pretext that we’re testing the factory’s security. We’ll try to use an element blocker in the factory, and install weapons in the room where the meeting is supposed to be held. Maybe the reason Phil escaped is because we were too late to turn on the blockers, so he was fast enough to fly out. This time the blockers will be on from the start, and the weapons will be ready to shoot as soon as Phil is in range. If he can defeat our elements easily, maybe he won’t be able to avoid so many bullets.”
“And what are we going to do?” Noah’s brow furrowed. “If everything’s automatic...”
“We’re going to wait outside and be ready if Phil somehow defeats our guns, so we can catch him once he’s out. If we’re lucky, he’ll be wounded, or at least his energy will be down if he has to use it to shut our blocker down,” Lily said. “And we won’t be inside the factory, so he’ll have to use a lot of energy if he wants to cover the whole area around it and freeze us all. Besides, with some of you flying around, it should be harder for him to do that.”
“Does Phil have any family or friends? Someone we could ask about him or...” Jaiden said.
“I already checked, but no one knows much about him. He’s been gone for a while, and even if they knew something, their memories were erased. Phil didn’t have any brothers or sisters. His parents are dead, and it doesn’t look like he got close with anyone,” Lily said. “And even if he did, it’s very unlikely we’ll find that person now. So gear up, and let’s go.”
“Before we go, can Moira try to mind-control us so we don’t respond to Phil’s mind control? Would that work if he tried to freeze us?” Noah asked.
I shrugged. “I can try, but I don’t know if it’ll work. His ability to immobilize us might not have anything to do with our minds. As for mind control, I can make you maybe slightly more resistant to it, but if he can fry your brain signals... I’m not sure anything I order you to do will be of much help.”
“I’d still prefer you do it,” Noah said. “We have nothing to lose.”
“Okay,” I said.
We all got to our feet and hurried to get ready. I wondered if we’d be able to catch Phil this time or if he’d see us coming. We had to make sure he wouldn’t spot us and flee... if he showed up at all.
It took us an hour to get ready and one more to fly to our destination. We didn’t want to use any vehicles that could be seen coming from miles away, and we couldn’t exactly drive invisible cars and hope we didn’t cause an accident. The factory was surrounded by thick woods, so it was easy for us to h
ide in the branches. Those of us who could turn into air were flying above and watching, while those who couldn’t were waiting on the ground, concealed in the trees.
“What if none of us can see him once he’s out?” Noah asked as he floated next to me.
“We hope we’ll be able to spot him, especially if he’s wounded or weakened. And if that doesn’t work, we should at least be able to predict when he’s coming out and we should try to create nets out of our elements around the exits.” Actually, Jaiden was flying a bit farther from us, and once we received an alert from the factory that Phil was there, Jaiden would spread his air as far as he could and try to catch the guy if everything else failed.
“Okay, I’ll go check the other side.” Noah whooshed away, and I just floated there, eyeing the factory. Everything was calm, and there weren’t any cars coming or going. Minutes passed, and I wasn’t sure if the guy was ever going to show up, so I lowered myself onto one strong-looking big branch and turned visible, taking my phone out of my pocket. It was still working, and there were no alerts of any kind. Judging by the time on my phone, Phil was already supposed to be here, so where was he?
Multiple shots rang out from the factory, and I immediately turned into air, surging up, but I was too far to see anything.
“He’s at the main door. Get him!” someone yelled, and we all came out from our hiding spots and rushed toward Phil. I didn’t wait to come closer to send a blast of air at the man who was running across the parking lot. It didn’t look like he had any wounds, so I wondered what had happened to the multiple guns that Lily had set up. Apparently, those were based on some simple system that could be easily triggered and not on technology, but Phil must have avoided them all somehow.
He was visible and on foot, so maybe his energy was down. Still, when my air was about to hit him, he deflected it easily with his own. Someone raised a huge wave of water in front of him, but Phil just burst through it as if it didn’t exist. Shit! He was still too strong for us.
Resilient (Tainted Elements, #6) Page 10
