Restless (Element Preservers, #4)

by Linwood, Alycia

  “Are you going up?” A masculine voice said behind our backs and I nearly jumped. A dark-haired guy in his twenties came into view, clutching a pile of papers to his chest. He flashed me a smile and stood in front of the scanner, pressing his finger to it.

  “Yes,” I said, my voice quivering, so I coughed to cover it up. The elevator opened and the three of us walked inside. I noticed a camera in the corner and quickly looked away. The guy pressed the button for the second floor and I pressed the third, hoping the guy wouldn’t ask us anything. I’d be utterly lost if he tried to discuss his experiments with me.

  It seemed like an eternity until the elevator finally reached the second floor. The guy winked at me as he walked out, whistling to himself. I hoped Paula wasn’t on that floor because we couldn’t go after that guy. Sooner or later, he’d start a conversation with us or tried to see where we were going. Adrian took a quick peek outside, right before the door closed again, and shook his head.

  “I can’t feel any elements,” I whispered, barely moving my lips.

  “I have a feeling there’s something in these coats that blocks them,” he whispered back, keeping his head turned away from the camera. If bracelets could block elements, I didn’t see why some part of a coat couldn’t. It was expensive to make such a material, but if someone had that kind of money, it was the government. Why they thought they needed such protection in here was a completely another question.

  “It’s a big lab,” I said. “Many people work here.” And that was a good thing, or that guy would have called the security as soon as he had set eyes on us. I couldn’t feel Paula’s element anywhere in the building, so if she was really here, she had to be in a well-protected room. Adrian only nodded, playing with his notepad.

  “How are we going to get back to the elevator if they ask for the authorization on every floor?” We were lucky to get in it at all, but I doubted our luck would hold. Someone would notice that we were always waiting for someone to get in first. And we couldn’t exactly stand in the middle of the room without a thing to do and wait for someone to use the elevator. What if we got stuck on one floor for hours because no one had to go anywhere? That was a scary thought.

  Adrian patted his coat right above the spot where he’d stored his gun. So he planned to force someone to open it, but that would mean everyone would know we were intruders. We’d have only minutes to find Paula, and I wasn’t sure how we’d get out, especially if the guards didn’t care about the lives of the scientists who worked here.

  The elevator opened again and we were greeted by a row guards, their rifles trained on us. I swore, throwing myself sideways to avoid the gunfire. Adrian did the same and pressed the button for the next floor.

  “How the fuck did they figure it out?” I said, my heart in my throat. Our time was up and we didn’t even know where we were going. Had they caught our faces on the cameras and ran the images through the face recognition? Had the guy noticed we didn’t belong here? I didn’t have time to ponder on that. We needed to find Paula.

  “No idea,” Adrian said, throwing his notepad to the floor. “But we need to hurry.”

  I couldn’t agree more with that, but the armed men would definitely slow our progress. The elevator opened and we peered outside, relieved when we realized no one was waiting for us. Adrian pressed all the buttons on the elevator and we ran out. I hadn’t seen any doors that indicated there was a stairway, so the elevator was probably the only way to go up in this building. Obviously they didn’t care who died and who survived in case of an emergency. How nice. The paycheck had to be outrageously high or so many people would have never agreed to work here.

  We got rid of our coats and pulled out our guns, ready to fight with all we had. Maybe our elements were more dangerous than guns, but guns were faster and easier to use. As we ran down the empty hall, Adrian froze the cameras that were trying to turn in our direction. I opened a couple of doors, but they all led to empty rooms or offices. What if we were wasting time on the wrong floor?

  Pushing the troubling thoughts away, I followed the hall until I reached the last door on the left. I kicked it open and found myself in front of another door, but that door was locked and a scanner was attached to the wall next to it. Calling to my fire, I used it on the door and the scanner, but nothing happened. I didn’t even leave a scratch.

  “This one’s locked,” I said, turning my head to face Adrian. Just as the words left my mouth, someone came out of the room at the opposite side of the hall. A middle-aged blond man stared at us, and Adrian grabbed him before he could run away.

  “Open the door.” Adrian pointed his gun at the man’s head, shoving him toward the door with the scanner.

  “I’m afraid I can’t...” the man started to say and Adrian dug the barrel of his gun into the man’s temple.

  “Yes, you can,” he said coldly. “Or I’ll blow your head off.”

  The man stepped in front of the scanner, glancing at me, and pressed his hand against the glassy surface. The door beeped and opened. Pushing the man out of my way, I ran into the room. The sight in front of my eyes made my heart skip a beat. The world stopped spinning around me and my every movement was in slow motion.

  Paula was lying on the floor in a pool of blood, her clothes torn and bloody. Someone screamed and I had a bad feeling the thunderous sound had come out of my throat.

  Chapter 28

  I fell to my knees next to Paula’s unmoving body. Her face was covered in bruises and cuts, her left eye swollen shut, her lips dry and cracked. I slowly lifted her head, my vision blurry with tears.

  “Paula? Can you hear me?” I said, caressing her bloodstained hair. Her good eye cracked open and she looked at me.

  “Please. No more.” She coughed.

  “Shh, you’re going to be fine.” I laid her head down, inspecting her body for serious injuries. We needed to get her to the hospital because, even though I couldn’t see any wounds that needed immediate attention, she might have internal bleeding.

  “The guards are coming!” Adrian yelled.

  I sprang to my feet, the gun ready in my hand. “She can’t move. You need to help me.”

  Adrian barely had time to get to Paula’s side when the guards spilled into the room, their rifles pointed at us. There were too many of them. We could never shoot our way out. Shit.

  “Stay where you are!” I gripped the gun in my hand, aware that I had to give them a reason not to shoot us all. And I had to do it fast. They held their positions, blocking our path. Nobody moved or breathed. “Stay behind me,” I said to Adrian, but he didn’t listen.

  A bald man stepped forward, his rifle trained on me. “Drop your guns and nobody will get hurt.”

  Thank God the guy was one of those who asked questions first or I’d have had a huge hole in my chest already. They probably wondered who we were and what we were doing here. “The president doesn’t want me dead.” I wished Adrian would step back, but he stood right next to me, his gun pointed at the guy.

  The bald man laughed, and the unnerving sound completely filled the room. “And why is that?”

  My fingers were slightly shaking because I couldn’t hold the gun in the right position forever. “I’m Ria Milanez, the president of the Element Preservers. I’m sure you’ve heard of me.” I doubted he’d heard the gossip about Ethan and me, but he had to have heard about me at some point, right?

  “Somebody call the president and tell him we have an emergency.” The smile faded from the bald man’s face as he turned to one of his men. A tall and thin man nodded and ran off. Ok, that was one less, but there were still too many of them.

  “Hey, isn’t that guy that magic disease carrier?” A blond man pointed his rifle at Adrian and fired. I sent a fireball at the bullet, hoping my fire was strong enough to swerve the bullet. Bits of plaster fell off the wall behind us as the bullet embedded itself in it. Beads of sweat dripped down my back. That had been close. Way too close.

  “Stop it, Nick, damn
you!” The bald man pushed Nick’s rifle up, so it was no longer aimed at Adrian, but at the ceiling.

  “But he’s a carrier, Harry,” Nick growled, and his blue eyes filled with rage. I thought the men would jump at each other’s throats, but a woman dressed in a black shirt and jeans elbowed her way through them, and I could feel her element. Before any of us realized what she was planning to do, air gushed into the room. It blew with so much force that my gun fell out of my hand and I had to close my eyes.

  I was thrown across the room and my shoulder hit the wall. I slid down the wall, the room spinning around me. Paula was still lying on the ground, undisturbed by what had happened. It was hard to breathe and I was getting dizzy, but I felt the element getting away. Someone must have told the woman to leave because her air didn’t affect only Adrian and me, but also everyone else in the room. It didn’t even matter that the room was huge.

  Rough hands grabbed my arms and twisted them behind me. Something snapped together and I felt the bite of metal on my wrists. I tried using fire to free myself, but I couldn’t make my fire to get out of my body. Fuck! They had the element-blocking cuffs. My gun was on the floor a couple of feet away from me, but there was no way I could reach it. Not that it would help much even if I could get to it.

  The guy who had cuffed me grabbed me by the hair and forced me up on my knees. As he came to stand in front of me, I realized it was Nick. There was so much hatred in his blue eyes that I thought I’d somehow done something to him in the past. He raised his hand as if he were going to strike me and I flinched.

  “Don’t,” Harry said, wrapping his fingers around Nick’s arm. “The president needs her unharmed.”

  The disappointment on Nick’s face was staggering.

  “This one, on the other hand...” Harry turned his head. I followed his gaze and saw two men holding Adrian down. Adrian was struggling, but they were strong enough to keep him on his knees, especially because his hands were cuffed behind his back. Nick strode over to him and kicked him hard in the ribs. Adrian doubled over, his breathing ragged.

  “Stop!” I yelled before Nick’s boot could connect with Adrian’s chest again.

  “Why should we listen to you?” Harry’s thick eyebrows shot upward.

  “Because I won’t do what the president wants me to if my friends die.” I glared at him, concentrating on my cuffs. No matter how fancy the cuffs were, they couldn’t block more than one element. And while I couldn’t use my element in front of everyone because that would expose me as a carrier, I could secretly try to use fire and air and break the cuffs. Maybe.

  “Oh, is that right? But they don’t have to die,” Nick said and kicked Adrian again. Adrian coughed and tried to avoid the next hit, but the men held him down.

  “What are you girls doing now?” A tall, dark-haired man with broad shoulders came into the room, his brown eyes narrowing on Nick. “Hitting children? Really, Nick?”

  “They’re not children, Peter,” Harry said. “In case you missed it, these two broke in here with guns.”

  “What are they? Eighteen? Nineteen?” Peter’s eyes traveled from Adrian to me. “Children.”

  My cuffs loosened and I slipped out of them, careful not to make noise. I laid them on the floor behind me, hoping no one would come behind my back. Peter’s boots echoed on the tiles as he made his way across the room toward Paula.

  “Please. Let her go. She needs a doctor,” I said, catching a glimpse of Adrian’s cuffs as he turned. That was all I needed to start using my element on them without hurting Adrian. At least I hoped Adrian would notice in time that the cuffs were hot and that he would use his element as soon as he could. The cuffs had been made to withstand one element, but only from the inside. Now that I was free, I could try to melt the link that was keeping them together.

  Except it wasn’t working. No matter how much of my element I sent toward his cuffs, I couldn’t feel the metal give way under my fire. And I was better at controlling my fire now than I was when I first had to free Adrian from the element-blocking cuffs. It couldn’t be, could it? Had they improved the cuffs so they held against elements when someone else used an element on them? Oh, well. I had more than one element, so air joined my fire. I wasn’t really experienced in using two elements at the same time from a distance, but I had no other choice.

  “Who did this to her?” Peter crouched next to Paula, checking her pulse.

  “The new guy. Marlau,” Harry said. “What does it matter?”

  I gasped, bile rising in my throat. Ethan? Ethan had done this to Paula? I saw red, and all I could think of was putting a bullet through Ethan’s skull. I didn’t know yet when, but I would get revenge for this. Ethan would pay.

  A blur of movement brought me back from my thoughts, and I realized Adrian had freed himself from the cuffs. He rose to his feet and elbowed the guy who was trying to hold him down and shoved another one. To my surprise, he ran toward me. I could see the men going for their guns, so I got up and created a wall of fire in the middle of the room, right after Adrian reached my side.

  Something beeped above our heads and water drops fell down on us, drenching us completely and extinguishing my fire. The men on the other side of the room looked dry. Fuck. The fire detector was smart enough to douse with water only the part of the room that was on fire, not the other part. Since I was connected to the fire, it dripped over Adrian and me too.

  Steam rose from the floor, hiding us from view, but there was nowhere we could run. There was only one exit, and every single guard was in front of it. Paula had stayed on the other side with them. I was glad she didn’t get wet, but I didn’t like not knowing whether the guards had used the commotion to take her out of the room. That would certainly make things more difficult for us.

  The water stopped falling on us and the steam was almost gone. Adrian’s fingers interlaced with mine and our eyes met briefly. Paula was still on the floor and the guards pointed their guns at us. I closed my eyes and something cold started to climb up my hand, numbing my fingers.

  I looked down and saw ice forming over my arm, but I didn’t quite feel it as I should, only a slight discomfort. I lifted my surprised eyes to Adrian.

  Trust me, he mouthed, his gray-blue eyes pleading.

  “What are you doing?” Harry said, his eyes wide with panic. He most likely hadn’t seen anyone doing what Adrian was doing to me right now.

  “Drop your guns or she dies,” Adrian announced, his voice steady and deadly. I’d never seen him look so determined. Ice made its slow progress, covering half of my body. I should have felt its biting cold, but instead it felt familiar. It was almost like ice could remember I’d had it in me when Adrian and I exchanged elements. Could Adrian’s element recognize me? Was that even possible? Or was there a thin layer of something separating my skin and ice?

  “Whoa, easy there. The president wants her alive,” Nick said, and for the first time he looked worried. Whoever had spread the rumor that the men who worked in this lab were extremely loyal probably meant that they had seen things and were afraid enough of the president and the government to carry their secrets to the grave.

  “Put down your guns,” Harry said, and everyone obeyed.

  “Call an ambulance for the girl. Now,” Adrian said. “A real one.”

  “Do it yourself, then.” Peter threw his phone to Adrian, and there was a collective intake of breath when Adrian caught it one-handed. What had they expected? That Adrian would lose concentration and let me go? Or kill me?

  “Why don’t we just shoot him?” Nick said, cracking his knuckles. “He wouldn’t be able to use his element then.”

  “Go ahead,” Adrian said, his attention focused on the phone. “If I die, my element won’t pull back. It will kill her before it melts.”

  Ice covered most of my body, except for my head. If Nick got an itchy finger and managed to kill Adrian, there was a tiny possibility Adrian’s element would cross over to me because I was a carrier. Besides, the protect
ive layer or whatever it was would prevent ice from hurting me. Of course, there was no way any of the guards could know that, even if they did protect a bunch of scientists.

  “It’s dangerous to hold an element like that,” Peter said, his face serious. “A tiny slip of control could kill her.” He looked at me. “Honey, why are you letting him do this? Don’t you have an element? Fire, I believe.”

  “You want me to free myself so you can shoot my friend?” I chuckled. “Yeah, like I’m going to let that happen.”

  “But you could die, and then you wouldn’t be able to protect him.” Peter’s brow creased with worry. Was he trying to help me or get me killed?

  “Everyone, fall back!” Adrian said after he finished the call, so I assumed the ambulance was on the way here. He could have asked for the police to come too, but the police probably wouldn’t help us. Last time I checked, the government decided who would get paid and who wouldn’t. “You,” Adrian said to Peter. “You will carry the girl.”

  Unsure whether I could move, I made a tentative step forward. My movements were slower than usual, but I could walk just fine. Peter took Paula in his arms, the expression on his face softening as he gazed down at her. How had that man ended up working here? He wasn’t anything like the other guards, but at least I didn’t have to worry he’d hurt Paula. Adrian must have realized the same thing, so he’d chosen Peter to carry her.

  “Everyone get out of here and don’t follow us,” Adrian said, waiting for the guards to leave us alone. They reluctantly dragged themselves to the elevator and crammed inside. I was getting impatient, feeling thousands of tiny prickles all over my body. For how long could Adrian hold his element like this? Uh oh. I wished there was more than one elevator.

  “And don’t try anything or wait for us,” I said to Harry, who was the last one to go. “I’ll kill myself if any of my friends get hurt. Then you’ll have to explain to the president how that happened.”