“Yeah, good idea.” It would be a shame if my special access privileges got revoked before I even got to properly use them.
Chapter 11
“Finally,” Tommy said as he saw Jaiden and me getting out of the elevator, relief flashing across his face. “You both need to prepare for a mission. Now!”
“Why? What happened?” Jaiden asked.
“The tainted elementals we’ve been looking for have been located. We should hurry before they get a chance to escape again.” Tommy ran off down the hallway before I could ask him what he meant by tainted elementals. Elemontera was always trying to catch tainted elementals, and I had no clue which ones they had found this time.
“Do you think it’s those elementals that attacked us at the university?” I looked at Jaiden, my throat constricting at the thought that Elemontera had found Noah and the others before they could leave the city. They should have already gone to Roivenna, but I couldn’t contact them to find out if things had gone like planned.
He shrugged. “Let’s find out. Get ready and meet me here.” He strode back to the elevator, and I headed for my room.
I put on a black shirt, black leather jacket and a pair of black pants with numerous hidden pockets, and I managed to stuff the vial and the paper I’d stolen in one of them. Then I picked up my tablet to check if someone had sent me info about the mission. A map flashed on the screen, and I saw our target was a building in an industrial part of the city.
Some of the photographs taken by a satellite showed images of the building, which had dilapidated walls and a broken sign on it that said Chip Factory. There weren’t any photographs of people, but that wasn’t surprising considering we were looking for elementals who could turn into air. Another image showed high levels of elemental energy, which meant one of Elemontera’s agents must have already investigated the place.
Although high energy levels weren’t really a confirmation of anything, because they could have been caused by a fight with elements or any other activity that involved lots of energy. The goal of our mission was to capture the elementals or kill them if they resisted. Relief overcame me when I saw Raven’s face on a photograph, which meant we’d be going after the elementals that had attacked us at the university and not one of our friends.
It appeared that Raven’s family owned the building, and her real name was Sandy Carter. Elemontera hadn’t identified any of those with her, but there were at least five of them. The alarm sounded, indicating that it was time to go, so I didn’t have time to read whatever Elemontera had found out about Raven’s family. Shutting down the tablet, I threw it on the desk and hurried to meet with Jaiden and the other agents.
“The team will storm the building, and if the elementals are still there, they’ll try to escape, so you and I will wait outside and try to spot any shimmering, okay?” Jaiden said as we materialized on top of a building across from the one where elementals were supposedly hiding.
I nodded. “I doubt they’re still here. They could have already escaped through some tiny hole that we don’t know about.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jaiden said. “You watch the front, and I’ll watch the back. The bracelet is set up to beep if you get close to me so you don’t mistake me for our targets.” Turning into air, he flew away.
I waited until the shimmering cloud vanished behind the oak trees and rooftops. Elemontera’s mission could go to hell for all I cared, so I made sure I was alone and turned into air, flying to the nearest alley. I looked around, pretending I’d seen something, and looked up straight into the camera. Elemontera could probably see me too, but they wouldn’t be able to tell if I’d seen something shimmering or not.
I just hoped someone from Lily’s team was watching, too, and that Noah was somewhere close. Turning invisible again, I lifted into the air and climbed on a rooftop. Shouts sounded from the street as Elemontera’s agents blew up the front door and rushed into the building.
I couldn’t see any shimmering anywhere, but that didn’t mean the rogue elementals weren’t trying to escape. Maybe they were flying low around the building or had found a sewer or something. Elemontera’s team had brought various devices to try to block all the exits, but I didn’t know how effective that would be. I assumed we’d find out soon enough.
A couple of minutes passed, and I jumped from foot to foot, wondering if Noah would come. When I turned around, I noticed a shimmering cloud coming my way. Bracing myself for a fight in case it was the enemy, I waited for the cloud to reach the rooftop. The cloud transformed into a familiar boy with blue eyes and black hair.
“Noah! You almost scared me.” I breathed out a sigh of relief. Glancing around us, I reached with my air just to see if I could touch someone’s mind, but found nothing.
“I’m glad you’re okay.” He pulled me into a tight hug. “I assume you have something for me.”
“Yeah.” I bent down on one knee and dug out the vial and the paper. “Do you have a pen and a piece of paper?”
“Um.” Noah rummaged through the pockets of his dark blue jeans. “Lucky for you, I do.”
“Thanks.” I took the paper and scribbled a message on it, along with the address I’d found in Sheridan’s office. “You’ll deliver this to my mom, and no one else will find out about it.” Without a second thought, my air shot out, making Noah grimace in pain as it tore through his defenses.
“Moira? Stop!” he yelled through gritted teeth.
“I’m sorry,” I said, but my voice was distant. “I don’t want anyone to see or read this message, and that includes you. You won’t tell Lily, and you won’t tell anyone else under any circumstances about the note or the vial. And you won’t try to find a way to let them know I mind-controlled you. You’ll tell Lily that I found the lab, but that I need to find a way to get inside first. Tell her that Elemontera is trying to convert regular elementals into tainted elementals, and it would be great if she could check if the government is financing that project, too.”
Noah’s nostrils flared, his fists clenched. “Get out of my head.”
“Of course.” I let my element slip out, and I could swear it felt as if it couldn’t be happier.
“You didn’t have to do this! You should trust me!” Noah yelled. “What the fuck is wrong with you?”
“You should go now. I have work to do.” The corners of my lips quirked up. Somewhere deep inside of me, I knew that this was a wrong thing to do to a friend, but my element silenced those doubts very quickly. Noah would get over it. And if he didn’t, Lily would send someone else.
He shot me an indignant look before he pocketed the vial and the papers and turned into air. When he was out of sight, I noticed shimmering in another alley that wasn’t far from the building that was swarming with Elemontera agents.
Turning into air, I plunged toward the shimmering, but it disappeared from view. Taking corporeal form again in an abandoned alley, I carefully picked my way through the trash and broken glass. If the broken window was of any indication, someone must have been here. Had the elementals tried to escape through it?
As I slowly approached the window to peer inside, something hit me in the back of the head. I swayed on my feet, and all I could see was a blurry silhouette of a man. Another blow came from behind, sending me sprawling to the ground. My face ended up in the dirt, and I coughed. Rolling over, I saw four men coming toward me, guns in their hands. Finding my air inside of me, I whipped them with it, knocking their guns away. The men squinted at me, shielding their eyes from the wind I’d created, while I struggled to get to my feet.
But almost an instant later, my wind was met with another air attack, and I had no clue which one of the men was an air elemental. Turning my fists into fire that was half blue, half red, I hit the ground and sent the fire toward them, trying to block their path. A wave of water extinguished my fire, and I immediately called to my air so I could reach for the men’s minds. But before my shimmering thread could reach them, the ground shook underneath me
and vines shot out of the dirt, entwining themselves around my legs. Burning them with my fire, I tried to free myself, but I couldn’t use both air and fire at the same time.
“Who are you? What do you want?” I yelled, although I doubted that would distract them. They were all older, over thirty, so they couldn’t be tainted elementals, unless someone had succeeded in what Elemontera couldn’t have done.
“You,” one of the men said, pushing his black hair out of his light blue eyes, and grabbed the gun off the ground, firing at me. I only had a moment to kick off the burning vines and deflect the bullets with my air. As the bullets returned toward the rest of the men, they used their own elements to stop them. Raising a wall of fire, I backed down the alley, wondering where my backup was and what on earth these men could possibly want from me.
Had someone been spreading the word about tainted elementals and now someone wanted to capture one as proof? Yeah, right, as if that would help them. If the government didn’t want anyone to know, they’d simply dismiss the whole thing as a hoax, and there was nothing anyone could do aside mind-control hundreds of people to believe in what they couldn’t really see or feel.
My firewall was torn down a second later, and I immediately sent out my air to grasp the men’s minds. It was very easy to get inside. “St...” I couldn’t finish my order because I was knocked down to the ground. A bald man with wide hazel eyes slammed his fist into my face. A wave of pain erupted through my whole body, and I was glad he’d missed my nose or he’d have broken it.
As he tried to pin me to the ground, my air rose inside of me like a snake, slithering into the guy’s mind. There was only one thing I wanted to do.
Kill them all.
It was like a whisper in the wind, but I obeyed it. Shoving my element in between the brain signals, I crushed them, leaving nothing behind. My attacker’s eyes went wide, and he fell off me. Before the others could even begin to comprehend what was going on with their friend, I forced my element into their heads until they all dropped to the ground around me.
Breathing hard, my legs wobbly, I looked at the dead bodies around me with strange detachment. Lifting my eyes, I thought I could see a shimmering cloud, which disappeared a second later. Someone had been watching me.
“Moira!” Jaiden’s voice full of worry broke through my thoughts, and I turned to look at him. He rushed toward me, placing his hand on my cheek, and I winced. His fingers came away with blood, and I suspected I had a nasty cut on my face.
“Are you okay? What...?” Jaiden’s eyes fell on the men, and his lips parted in surprise. “What did you do?”
“I...” I ran a hand through my hair, my fingers getting stuck in the muddy knots. Two more Elemontera agents ran toward us, their faces paling at the sight of the bodies.
“Send the investigators. I want to know who these people are,” Jaiden said. The men nodded and went away.
“We’re going to tell them I did this, okay?” Jaiden grabbed me by the shoulders, looking straight into my eyes. “Good thing there aren’t any cameras here.”
But even if there were cameras, no one would be able to prove that Jaiden couldn’t have killed the men from a distance. I nodded at him, my head hurting. Actually, every inch of my body ached.
“What did they want?” he asked.
“I don’t know. They just attacked me and I...”
“Why didn’t you interrogate them first?” he hissed.
“I wasn’t thinking clearly. Sorry.” I didn’t want to tell him that at that moment there hadn’t been any coherent thought on my mind aside from the urge to kill. My element had been the one controlling me, or had it all been me?
“We’ll find out.” He sighed, pulling me into his arms. The investigators found their way to us and crouched near the bodies, inspecting them with their devices. Jaiden guided me farther from them.
“Did you catch the elementals?” I asked.
“No. The building was empty when the team got there, and I didn’t see any shimmering.”
“I think I saw one of them watching me fight the men, but... I don’t know. I...” At this point, I wasn’t even sure I could trust my own eyes.
“Shh, don’t say anything. You’re still shaken from the fight.” He led me to the front steps of a nearby building, and we sat down.
I stared down at my hands in my lap, wondering if this meant that I could lose control of my elements and turn into a killer; into a real monster. No, Jaiden was right. I was still agitated after what happened. I wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe I just needed some time.
Chapter 12
I had no idea how long Jaiden and I had been sitting on the stairs while the investigators did their job. A woman with long blonde hair tied in a ponytail approached us, her face serious.
“These four men were magic disease carriers. The cops have been looking for them for months. They all have huge criminal records, and it seems they’d been stealing elements from their victims,” she said, rubbing her neck.
“Carriers?” I frowned. “Carriers can’t sense my elements. Why would they come after me?”
“I don’t know,” the woman said. “We suspect someone hired them to attack you.”
Jaiden and I looked at each other, and then Jaiden nodded at the woman. “Send the report to the boss.”
She trudged off, and I faced Jaiden. “Do you think the elementals hired those carriers to kill me? But how would they know...? They knew we were coming, didn’t they? It was a set-up.”
“Yeah, looks like it,” Jaiden said. “They must have tipped off one of our agents so we’d come here looking for them.”
“But why would they send carriers after me? They couldn’t have known I’d be alone. And why would they risk attacking someone much stronger than them?”
“Maybe they’re hired assassins. Some carriers still accept kill jobs to get money and elements. Not everyone gets to obtain an element legally or knows how to control himself. Maybe the elementals lied about you and thought you’d be caught unawares. You know they want to kill us all. They’ve already tried. Maybe they thought you’d underestimate the threat. Or it was all a distraction so they could escape, and you happened to be the one to run into the men.”
I shook my head. “But carriers weren’t surprised that they couldn’t feel my elements.” They were a bit stupefied when one of them dropped dead, but that was a different thing. “So they must have known at least something about what they were dealing with. If the elementals had simply told them we had some special kind of a blocking bracelet, then they would be surprised to see I have two elements.” My whole face throbbed as I spoke, my cheek feeling as if it had doubled in size. “Unless they would have attacked anyone for the right sum of money because they already had elements in their system.”
“Or they were mind-controlled to attack you. We know at least one of the elementals has that ability,” Jaiden said. “But out of all people, they picked assassins, not some random guys, so they must have gone through some trouble to find them and maybe even offered some money to lure them in. We should look into it, because these assassins can’t just be found on the street, even with our special abilities.”
Part of me was immensely glad that the men had been assassins and not innocent people. I’d have never forgiven myself otherwise. “God, they can turn anyone into a criminal. Force people to do things they’d never do. We have to stop them.”
“We do. Finding Raven’s family is our best chance, but they all seem to have taken their possessions and vanished. Maybe they’re in another city or country by now.”
“But Raven is still here. What do you know about her?”
“Not much. Her family used to own one of the biggest factories of nanochips, but it was closed down after Raven’s grandfather died. They had a big house for the whole family, and they had enough money to live comfortably. Raven was an excellent student in high school, but she never went to college. Actually, she just disappeared. There’s no evidence that any
one knew she had more than one element.”
“She must have discovered her other elements and realized she couldn’t have a normal life,” I said. “Someone must have found her. Hasn’t anyone seen her? Tracked her on surveillance cameras? Through a friend?”
“Actually, the techs didn’t find any trace of her on any footage, but she could have stayed in parts of the city that aren’t monitored that much. No one has seen her since high school and her old friends have no clue where she is or why she left.”
“Do they have memory gaps? She might have mind-controlled them, and I could fix that,” I said, my element stirring happily at the thought that it could be in someone’s head again.
“No, I don’t think so. She was probably hiding or avoiding everyone.”
“What about the building? Any clues in there? Fingerprints?” I asked hopefully.
“No idea yet.” Jaiden got to his feet, offering me a hand. “Do you want to come see how the investigators are doing in there?”
“Sure.” Maybe I could take a look and see if I could find anything useful.
When I entered a brightly lit room, one of the investigators cringed as he saw my face, but I ignored him.
“What is all this?” I asked as I took in the room. A huge table stood in the middle, filled with papers and books. One of the walls was covered with a huge map, various photographs, and bits and pieces from books and newspapers. There was also a huge hand-drawn circle divided into four parts, representing each of the main elements. Actually, the whole room was filled with papers, books, and notebooks.
“I’ve no idea,” Jaiden said, frowning as he picked up a sheet of paper.
“Oh, it’s safe to touch things. We got the prints already.” One of the investigators rolled her eyes at him.
He flashed her a smile. “Sorry. Forgot to ask. So, did you get the prints?”
Monster (Tainted Elements Book 3) Page 7
