The Forbidden Trilogy

by Kimberly Kinrade

  She didn't need crap from this guy. She'd do it her own way.

  She turned to walk away, but Beleth's next words stopped her. "You're not so different from us. When the time comes, you'll do what it takes. When hard decisions have to be made, you'll make them."

  Lucy whipped her head around. "No. I'm nothing like you and your kind. I'll make the right decision, or none at all."

  Beleth dropped his head. "Sometimes there are no right decisions, and you are left with the lesser of two evils."

  More turbulence threw Lucy off balance once again. Before Luke could use his para-power to steady her, Beleth's arms reached out, his hard muscles stopping her fall against the sink. Thunder shook the plane and flashes of lightning lit up the windows. Lucy used Beleth's body to balance herself and stand again. His skin was cool under her hands, his gaze unwavering, and with each flex of his muscles, his tattoos came alive and seemed to crawl over his skin like living ink.

  Lucy removed her hands from his body and nodded her head. "Thank you."

  A small smile touched Beleth's lips, and Lucy wondered what secrets lurked behind his dark eyes.

  The plane shuddered again, and as Luke and Lucy turned to leave, Morrison approached them. "We have a problem. The plane is slowing down... on its own. The pilot can't do anything about it."

  With a skipping heart, Lucy looked out the window. The storm that caused the turbulence was in full rage and the plane appeared to have stalled in midair. The power of the sphere pulsed like her own heartbeat, faster and faster as Mother Nature whipped them around. The increased frenzy of the sphere was Lucy's only warning that powers beyond nature had hold of the plane. She gasped as the tail of the plane tilted up as if on a string that someone jerked.

  "Hold on!" Her warning was too late, as everyone on board slid toward the front of the plane. She held tight to a chair, but gravity forced her to let go and she crashed into Luke.

  Morrison looked almost comical as he tried to right himself and regain control of his team. "Everyone, just stay calm as we figure out what's going on."

  Before the agent could follow through on his plan, the back hatch of the plane, where they would have parachuted from, screeched open as metal twisted and snapped apart. The cabin pressure quickly changed and pulled at them.

  A panicked pilot hollered from the cockpit. "I've lost all control of the plane and there's a helicopter hovering above us."

  Everything clicked for Lucy as she looked into Bethel's eyes. "Paranormals. They're attacking the plane."

  Bethel's head dipped slightly to acknowledge her words. "Now is the time for stillness."

  As if on command, men in black poured into the cabin, some carrying guns, and others... she guessed they didn't need guns. That worried her even more.

  Agent Morrison pulled his own gun and aimed it at Beleth's head. "This is what you're here for, right? Him? Don't move or I'll blast his brains out, I swear."

  One man stepped forward from the group, a baseball cap on his head, and raised his hands.

  Lucy felt the sphere pulse as energy flowed off of him. His pale eyes took in the group, and she knew he was the true threat. "Be careful. He's the telepath that brought down the plane. He's very powerful."

  The man's eyebrow twitched. "Perceptive."

  Morrison didn't waiver, and Lucy found herself finally impressed by the man. "Don't even think about it. As soon as I feel this gun budge, I'll pull the trigger."

  Lucy pushed through the wind assault to face the man directly. "What's your name?"

  He looked almost amused as he answered. "Robert. And you?"

  "I'm Lucy," she said, then gestured to her brother. "This is Luke. We're paranormals too. There's no need to attack us. We're not your enemies. But I can assure you, Agent Morrison will pull the trigger if you use your power. Are you willing to risk Beleth's life?"

  Robert hesitated, then waved his hand. The room tensed in anticipation, and beads of sweat dripped down Morrison's face, but his hand held steady. Lucy prepped for the onslaught of power, but instead, the other soldiers lowered their weapons.

  The room let out a collective sigh. At least, those on the receiving end of the weapons and power.

  Lucy looked over to Beleth, relieved that his life had been worth something to these men. A glint of black, something shiny like oil, caught her eye. The transformation happened so fast. One second, his tattooed hand rested by his side, the next, it extended into some kind of blade.

  "No!" Lucy tried to dive toward Beleth, to stop him, but the cabin pressure did not allow for a fast response. At least not for her.

  Beleth had no problem navigating the space. No problem using his sword-hand thing to slice through the air, and into flesh and blood and bone. No problem slicing Agent Morrison's gun hand clean off.

  Time moved in slow motion as Morrison stood, stunned, not seeming to realize his hand had been amputated. He looked down, his face paling, and clutched his wrist. Bright red blood poured from the space where his hand used to live, and he slumped to the floor.

  Lucy couldn't make sense of what she was seeing. Breaking out of Rent-A-Kid had resulted in plenty of bloodshed, but this... this looked almost fake. So much blood, so bright and sticky, like the stuff they use for movies.

  Beleth, unfazed, walked to Robert, his black sword changing back into a hand. "What's our location?"

  Robert handed him a gun. "We're near the base, Sir."

  Lucy couldn't believe they could have a conversation like a man wasn't bleeding to death in the corner. She pushed through the cabin, ignoring the threatening glares of the soldiers, and reached for Morrison. She pulled off her belt and tied it around his wrist. He didn't speak, but stared at her with eyes that were losing their spark.

  A soldier raised his gun and aimed it at Lucy.

  Luke screamed. "No!"

  Beleth put his hand up. "Not those two," he said, pointing to Luke and Lucy. "Kill the rest."

  The sound of bullets filled the small space. Lucy screamed. Luke stood very still, channeling his power. The sphere pulsed stronger.

  And the bullets stopped in mid-air.

  The soldiers ceased fire and Beleth turned his attention to Luke. "Interesting."

  Luke seized the moment. "Why kill them? Just leave. You have what you came for. There's no need for more bloodshed."

  Beleth commanded that stillness as he stared at Luke. "Someday you will understand. One can never leave a cancer to spread." He flicked his wrist and the soldiers open fired on the IPI agents and crew, carefully avoiding Luke and Lucy.

  Luke threw up another shield, and the bullets once again stopped mid-air, even as more joined them.

  The pow-pow-pow of a hundred bullets deafened Lucy's ears. More and more bullets cluttered the air, stopping at Luke's shield point, but Lucy could tell Luke's energy was draining. The bullets shook, wavered, pushed forward as if fighting against the shield. Luke wouldn't win the fight for long, she knew.

  With another flick of Beleth's fingers, the shooting stopped as suddenly as it had started. He addressed Luke. "Join us. If you come peacefully, we'll let the crew live."

  Agent Morrison stirred under Lucy's hands. His eyes sharpened to focus. "No! Luke, Lucy, don't go with them."

  Before Lucy could register the movement, Beleth raised his gun and shot Morrison in the head, silencing him. Lucy choked back a sob. "No. What did you do?"

  Beleth spoke as if she hadn't said anything, as if he hadn't just killed a man. "What is your answer?"

  Seriously? He thinks we'll go with him now?

  Luke had the same idea. "We're not going anywhere with you scumbags. Ever."

  Beleth sighed without any melodrama, then nodded once. Robert lifted his hand. The sphere thrummed again and Luke flew through the air and was pushed into the airplane wall. His limbs spread apart and Lucy could hear cracking.

  "Leave my brother alone!" She looked to Beleth, then Robert, but they did nothing to stop.

  She looked back to her b
rother. His mouth opened in a scream of pure agony, but no sound emerged.

  Beleth gestured to Luke. "Your brother's lungs are collapsing. If Robert releases him soon, he will not suffer permanent damage, but wait too long and he won't recover. Consider your choices carefully, Lucy."

  His fingers bent back, pushed to near breaking by the invisible force that controlled him. His limbs twisted in unnatural ways. Lucy tried to run to him, to help him, but a force stopped her, paralyzing her and forcing her to watch her brother be tortured to death.

  She couldn't move toward Luke, so she moved to the side, grabbing Morrison's gun from his detached hand, fingers slipping on the blood. She lifted it, aimed and shot Robert in the chest.

  Luke collapsed to the ground and groaned in pain.

  Lucy shook and dropped the gun as her body went into shock. The plane shifted down, and Lucy slid across the floor.

  Robert was dying and could no longer suspend the plane in the sky.

  Beleth and his men grabbed onto seats to steady themselves. Soldiers and IPI Agents fell. Everyone drew guns, shooting at each other. Lucy knew Luke was too exhausted to stop the bullets. More people died as the plane tilted in the sky, suspended by metal cables attached to the helicopter above.

  Robert writhed on the floor, the bullet to his chest killing him slowly. Lucy didn't want to watch, but couldn't seem to pull her eyes from the scene.

  Beleth knelt next to his dying friend, his voice low but still commanding. "Robert, you have served us well and now, your mission has come to an end. Rest assured, your family will be well cared for, and you will be missed."

  Robert grunted, unable to speak, but nodded his consent to a fast death.

  Beleth placed his gun under his friend's chin. A tear, shiny and black, leaked from Beleth's eye as he pulled the trigger, and that one bullet sounded louder than the hundreds that had come before.

  Lucy's stomach lodged in her throat as the plane plunged forward more, the cables attaching it to the helicopter above stretched beyond capacity. Bethel looked at her, not with anger or despair, as she'd expected, but with that same stillness that so aggravated her.

  His voice boomed in the cabin. "You've made your decision."

  A flicker of doubt plagued her. Had it been the right one? She looked around at the dead men, agents and soldiers piling up at the back of the plane as it hung from the sky. How could this have been the right choice? But giving in, going with them, that wouldn't have been right either.

  Bethel's words from earlier haunted her. "Sometimes there are no right decisions."

  The plane shook and strained against the cables, until one snapped, jerking the plane into a twisted limbo in the sky.

  Bethel let go of his seat and allowed himself to fall toward Lucy, grabbing her. He yelled to the only soldier who survived the massacre. "Get the boy."

  Lucy shoved against his rock hard chest. She might as well have pushed against a brick wall. He wrapped his arms around her and locked her in a death-like grip, a mockery of a loving embrace. She couldn't move, couldn't fight him, couldn't escape. He pulled her to the hatch, presumably trying to get her onto the helicopter above them before this plane crashed and burned.

  Luke struggled with his own captor. He made more headway than her, marginally. Their circumstances didn't allow for much in the way of true fighting, and Luke remained exhausted after his torture.

  The men made it to the hatch, cables hanging and waiting for them to attach themselves so they could be pulled to the helicopter.

  Lucy couldn't let them capture her and her brother. This could be the only chance they had to escape; once they were onboard the helicopter, it would be near impossible with the level of para-power and manpower Beleth controlled. She thought fast, assessing her tools. Their parachutes were still attached, as were their tank-less breathing systems and backpacks. Below them, the ocean swirled and consumed the world. The dark sky beckoned like a black hole into nothing.

  Still, better than the alternative. With her crazy-suicidal-probably-will-die-trying plan in place, Lucy waited until Bethel released her in order to hook her to the cables. When his partner did the same with Luke, Lucy tackled her brother... and pushed him out of the plane.

  She held him tightly as they dropped into the night. Luke returned her grip and smiled. Such a guy!

  "Hope you have a plan here, Luce. Not that I don't love a good adrenaline high," he said through the rush of wind and the sting of rain.

  Breaths came in small, shallow pulses, but at least they were free.

  "Um, Sis, we've got company."

  Lucy looked up, and nearly choked on the rain when her mouth fell open in shock. Bethel had jumped out of the plane in pursuit. Head first like a rocket, and gaining ground. What the hell? He isn't wearing a parachute. Is he insane?

  He sliced through the sky as fluidly as his sword had sliced through Morrison's hand. How could he catch up so fast?

  Lucy's heart raced as she tried to think of something, anything to slow his pursuit. She caught Luke's eyes, and he nodded, understanding.

  Lucy counted. "One...."

  She could see Bethel's face, but not his eyes. Something black, like small wings, sprouted from his back.

  "Two...."

  Closer.

  And... when the whites of his eyes came into view....

  "Three!" Lucy clutched Luke tighter.

  Luke's body stiffened as he focused his power. The sphere pulsed frenetically. Luke put up one hand and....

  Beleth slammed into the field Luke had created, and ricocheted off it like a bouncy ball against a wall.

  Luke and Lucy continued to fall. If they hadn't been in a race for their lives, Lucy would have enjoyed the descent. She loved skydiving and parachuting, but this was not for sport. Still, she couldn't help but embrace the freedom of soaring through the sky, unfettered from reality. She'd have given anything to have this para-power: the power of flight.

  Lightning flashed, tearing Lucy from her joy and illuminating the bright sky with another vision: one of a black silhouette with wings.

  She acted fast, flipping downwards while Luke helped open her parachute. It slowed them down, temporarily.

  A current of wind drove through them, sending the parachute in conflicting directions. They began to fall too fast. The water beneath them rose up like a giant mouth. If they hit it going this fast, they would drown, pulled down by the ocean and their parachute.

  "Luke, make a wall of air beneath us, but not thick. To slow us, not stop us."

  Luke nodded and held out his hand. He looked so tried, so weak, but he raised his hand and focused his power.

  Panic filled her even as she pushed it away. Oh-my-God-oh-my-God-oh-my-God.... The ocean rushed up to them, water sprayed them, and Lucy prepared for what could be the end.

  Chapter 64 – Steele

  It all came down to him.

  When his son had died he knew he'd have to finish the plan alone. But then his son, the Seeker, had been weak, unable to go the distance.

  Mr. Steele could—and would.

  He looked down at the body lying on the bed. They were all just bodies to be used and tested. They meant nothing except for what they could give him. This body had been badly damaged, but there was one who could fix it.

  He motioned to the guards standing by the door of the hospital room. "Send her in."

  A petite ten-year-old with long auburn hair glared at him with fire in her green eyes, and stroked the snow white cat in her arms.

  The room crowded around him with so many people, but he ignored the sensation. Soon enough he'd be alone in his cavernous rooms, after he handled this.

  He pointed a long finger at the cat. "What is that thing doing here?"

  The guard on the right stepped forward. "She wouldn't leave it. Said she couldn't heal without it. You told us not to hurt her, so it seemed the easiest way to get her here."

  "And the mother?"

  "Dead."

  The scowl on
the girl's face collapsed into tears.

  Mr. Steele knew what grief looked like on others, and found the expressions to be clichéd and useless. He prided himself on his control, and counted his blessings that he didn't have to suffer in the sludge of human emotional excrement.

  Before Mr. Steele could order the cat's execution—both to rid himself of the nuisance, and to punish the girl for her display of tears—the body on the bed convulsed. A fly buzzed around its head, as if waiting for a decomposing treat.

  He gestured with impatience. "Never mind about the damn cat. Girl, use your para-powers to fix this." He spat the last word out as a curse.

  When the girl didn't move, the guard shoved her forward. She dropped her cat, which landed on all fours, the demon that it was, and hissed at him.

  He kicked at the cat, but it avoided his black boot and scurried under the bed.

  The girl trembled and looked even smaller without the white fluffy buffer. "I... I can't. I'm not strong enough."

  Mr. Steele kept his voice calm and even when he responded. Anger was just another emotion, after all. "You haven't even tried. I think you're much stronger than you give yourself credit for. Besides, if you don't, I'll rip your kitty apart with my nails and eat its heart while you watch. Then, I'll do the same to you."

  An idle threat, as he cared nothing for the heart. No, what he wanted—what he needed—existed solely in the brain. That's where the real treasure awaited him—the real power.

  ***

  Cerebrospinal fluid: the key to all his research. Located in the subarachnoid space and the ventricular system around and inside the brain and spinal cord, this fluid contained something very special in those with active and dormant para-powers—the blueprint for specific powers and the code to activate them.

  With the right cocktail of drugs, he could forcibly activate dormant powers in a subject.

  And with the right procedure, he could syphon that fluid from a paranormal and use it to enhance another person's para-power.