Unleashed (TalentBorn Book 4)

by C. S. Churton

  “What’s wrong?” he asks, killing the bike’s engine and flipping up his visor to search my face with concerned eyes. I pull off my helmet and slide it over my forearm.

  “This. Everything.”

  His face turns wary, like he thinks I’m about to bolt again, so I shake my head and take his hand in mine.

  “Except that.”

  “Then… I don’t understand.”

  I climb off the bike and stretch out my legs. It’s been a long time since I straddled a bike and I can barely keep them from shaking. When I turn back to Scott his helmet is on the floor and he’s watching me anxiously.

  “We’ve been here before,” I tell him. “When we ran from Gardiner.”

  The memory sets a hundred tiny needles stabbing at the back of my eyeballs. We’d got away, AbGen had no clue where we were… but the cost of our freedom was too high. It meant leaving Megan to rot – or so we thought – in Gardiner’s cells. So we went back. But even if we’d known she was a plant, we’d have gone back eventually anyway.

  Scott drops his head and perches on the edge of the bike.

  “You want to keep fighting.”

  I nod.

  “We belong in this fight. We’re fighting for our kind, for our right to exist – and exist freely, without answering to the likes of Gardiner, and Pearce, and anyone else who wants to control us because we’re different. This is our fight. We can’t run away and let someone else fight it for us.”

  “Anna, I’ve just got you back. Don’t ask me to lose you again.”

  I cross the distance between us quickly, taking his hand in mine again.

  “That’s never going to happen. We’re stronger than they are, and we’re stronger than anything they can throw at us. The only way we can ever lose each other is if we walk away from this, and wait for them to find us.”

  Scott leans his head forward and touches his forehead to mine.

  “When did you get so wise?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  The room falls completely silent as the door swings shut behind us. People are gathered in clusters talking in hushed voices, but they stop as their eyes fall on us. I falter under their looks, and Scott squeezes my hand. No-one seems to know what to say. I guess none of them had expected me to be walking back through that door any time soon, not willingly, at least. I can’t say I blame them. I hadn’t been expecting it either. I sweep the room, taking in the shocked faces. I recognise all of them. That’s the guy I took hostage, Dan – guess I owe him an apology – and there’s Duncan – guess I owe him an apology too. And that’s– my hands start to tremble as I stare at her. Helen. Her name sets bile churning in my stomach and I draw a sharp breath, taken aback by my own hatred and fury. Why? Why would I hate her? But why wouldn’t I hate her? She tried to use her talent on me, tried to capture me and take me away from– No, she tried to save me, she–

  I spin round into Scott, burying my face into his chest.

  “I– I don’t–”

  The heady scent of leather and oil crowd my nostrils, and it smells like home, pressed up here against him. I take another raspy breath. I sense rather than see him share a look with the others, and then they melt away.

  “It’s okay,” he murmurs into my hair. “We’re alone.”

  But it’s not okay. How can it ever be okay if I don’t even know if what I’m feeling is real?

  “Talk to me, Anna.”

  I take another unsteady breath and prise myself from his chest.

  “I still hate her,” I admit in a small voice, not daring to look up at him. “I didn’t think I would, after everything, but...” I trail off and stare intently at my feet. “I’m sorry.”

  His finger reached under my chin and I stifle a flinch. If he notices he doesn’t react, other than to gently lift my eyes to meet his.

  “You have nothing to be sorry for. None of this is your fault.”

  “I can’t even trust my own emotions anymore.” There’s no part of me he hasn’t tainted. My hands ball into fists by my sides. Scott takes one and smooths it out between his palms.

  “It’s going to take time. You’ve been through a lot, it’s not going to go away overnight.”

  I say nothing, casting my eyes back to the floor.

  “We don’t have to stay,” he says. “We can leave right now. Someone else can fight this war. You’ve given enough. We’ve both given enough. Come with me, let’s put this all behind us.”

  “I can’t. Don’t you get it?” But he doesn’t. How could he? He doesn’t know what I’ve done. “There are dozens of people rotting in AbGen’s basement. People I put there.”

  “That’s not your fault Anna, Pearce locked you away and tortured you. You didn’t have a ch–”

  “I did have a choice,” I cut him off and pivot away on my heel. “He gave me a choice, and I chose to save my own selfish skin.”

  “You saved your own skins. You ran. Just like always.” It’s not a flashback, just a memory, but Marcus’s voice is ringing clearly in my head, because even though I couldn’t admit it back then, he was right. Anna always does what’s best for Anna, and other people pay the price.

  “Anna–” Scott reaches out to me, but I move away from his outstretched hand.

  “Don’t. I’m dangerous. People around me get hurt. Pearce turned me into a weapon, and I let him.”

  “I don’t care,” Scott says, his eyes blazing as he closes the gap between us. “I don’t care about any of that.”

  “Well you should care! Look at what I did to you.” I gesture to his injuries with one hand. “I could do it again. I could do it to any of your friends. I should be locked away. None of you are safe around me.”

  “We don’t care either,” a voice says quietly from the doorway. I look up and see her – Helen – watching us. Rage fills me at the sight of her and a dozen images flash through my mind: me breaking her arms, snapping her neck, smashing my fists into her face, cutting her throat, watching her scream and squirm and plead, and– I swallow the bile at the back of my throat and grit my teeth, working my jaw and trying to supress the vile, alluring images.

  “We’re willing to take the chance,” she says. “You’re our friend. And I think I know someone who can help you find yourself again.”

  I recognise the slender young redhead who steps timidly into view, and the dangerous young man who hovers protectively beside her. You’d have to be blind and deaf to miss the tension rolling off him in waves, and even then you could smell it. My body gears up to fight him, but I stop it before my hands have moved more than an inch. I drop them back to my sides and ease my limbs out of the defensive posture they’ve dropped into. Savage Anna hisses at me from inside her cage, reminding me that the telekinetic is the most dangerous person in the room. Except me. I ignore her protests and curve my lips into a not-quite-natural smile.

  “Hello, Mika. Rohan.”

  The tension doesn’t leave Rohan. I can’t say I blame the kid – he saw what I was could do even before Pearce spent months turning me into Super-Anna. I’m glad at least one person is the room is capable of taking the threat I represent seriously.

  “Hi, Anna,” Mika returns shyly.

  I wonder how Ephraim – leader of the rebel faction known as the Ishmaelians – took the news that two of his most talented absas, or ‘gifteds’ as he insists on calling them, had absconded to join an ill-fated rescue mission for someone who was never his favourite person in the world to start with. I can’t imagine that went down well. Nor can I imagine that he let them leave without putting up a fight. I’ve met hundreds of absas, but Mika’s talent puts her among the most valuable. The girl’s a walking lie detector – irreplaceable to anyone who wants to know if they can trust the people around them. Or wanting to interrogate their enemies. Doctor Pearce had been actively hunting her, but Ephraim had kept her well-hidden. Until now.

  I shake my head and remind myself I don’t answer to him anymore, nor do I crave his approval. His blood will suffic
e just fine. Rohan draws Mika closer to him and I give a curt nod. Kid’s the only one round here with any sense.

  I reach into my waistband and pull out the taser I snagged from Ollie’s table this morning. Before Rohan can fling me across the room like a rag doll – which gives me about a quarter second – I toss it in his direction. His attention snaps from me to it, and he uses his telekinesis to snatch it out of the air and pull it into his hand. He looks the weapon over and cocks his head at me.

  “If I try anything, put me down. Don’t hesitate.”

  I shudder at the thought of the volts arcing through my body but force the image aside. What if I lose it and hurt Scott? Someone needs to be ready to stop me and Helen’s talent isn’t going to cut it.

  “Don’t you dare,” Scott warns softly, his body tensing in contrast to his tone, and the weapon wavers in Rohan’s hands. I silence him with a glare.

  “Better than the alternative.”

  Because even now adrenaline is flooding my system, preparing me to immobilise the girl and take out anyone who gets in my way.

  “Let’s all just calm down,” Helen says, her voice melodious. Her talent buzzes round inside my head like a harmless insect. I wish she’d stop doing that.

  “Still immune,” I grumble. But the others aren’t, and Scott and Rohan stop squaring up to each other and shake out the tension like a pair of wet dogs. Scott eyes the weapon in Rohan’s hand warily.

  “Grub’s up,” a Scottish voice booms, shattering the last of the tension. Duncan’s head appears in the doorway and he shoots me a wink. “Best get yer arses over there before Nate scoffs the lot.”

  It was a good call, I have to concede as I park myself in front of a plate of steaming food. I hadn’t realised how hungry I was until I started salivating. Guess I’d gotten used to eating three meals a day.

  Rohan puts the taser on the table beside his plate, within easy reach. Periodically Scott shoots him looks of disapproval, and I shoot Scott looks of disapproval at his disapproval. Everything’s still too jumbled in my head. Trusting me would be foolish, but I know it’s pointless to tell him that. Again. Guess we’ll just have to hope Rohan’s quick to use that taser if he needs it.

  “He won’t need it,” Joe says softly, watching me from across the table. It’s not my face he’s reading though. I shouldn’t be surprised he’s scanning my mind – he was AbGen before he was Ishmaelian, and he was military before he was AbGen, and he was always a damned good mind reader. He’s not about to drop his guard around a threat.

  “You’re not a threat,” he mutters, and the others at the table pretend they can’t hear as they carry on shovelling their food. I raise my eyes to look at the ex-soldier. The word traitor screams so loudly in my head that it almost deafens me. I lock my jaw and my mind is full of images: shifting behind him, shattering his knees, pummelling his face, dumping him at Pearce’s feet. I stare down at the table until they stop.

  “I’d rather you didn’t do any of that, though,” he says, and I can hear the trace of a smile in his voice.

  How can you just sit there, knowing what I am? I fire the thought at him. How can all of them just sit here acting like everything’s okay and we can all go home and play happy families and have some fairy tale ending? Life isn’t like that, not for people like them, and sure as hell not for people like me. I’m a fucking weapon and nothing is going to change that.

  “You’re wrong,” Joe says. “If that’s all you were, we’d already be dead.”

  I snort. They’re already dead. We all are. I’m just the only one who’s not too stupid to see it. We all earned a death sentence the moment we crossed Pearce. And the only way we’re going to stop it is if we kill him first.

  “Now you’re talking.” Joe nods his approval. “Eat up, and get some rest. Tomorrow, we’ve got a war to plan.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “You should lock me in my room tonight.”

  “That’s not going to happen.” Scott stares at me through hooded eyes.

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Fine. Then I’ll stay with you.”

  “No.” I shake my head and plant a palm firmly on his chest, holding him at arm’s length. Hurt flashes across his face and I grimace.

  “It’s not that,” I tell him quickly. “Of course I want to be with you. But I don’t know who I’ll be when I wake up tomorrow.”

  “Then I’ll be there to remind you. You’re Anna, the woman I love.”

  “I could kill you.”

  “No, you couldn’t.”

  I roll my eyes. Seriously, now’s not the time for the macho crap. I raise an eyebrow at his ribs. It took three of them to take me down in the alley, and even then, they had to drug me.

  “Clearly, that’s not what I meant,” he says with a boyish smile that erases all the stress and anxiety from his face. “Obviously, you could kick my backside if you wanted to, as you so ably demonstrated – which is more than a little annoying by the way, Miss Mason, given that I’m the one who started training you in the first place. What I mean,” he adds, his face straightening out as he holds my eye and places one hand over mine, “is that even after everything Pearce did to you, he couldn’t erase our love. When you wake up tomorrow, I’ll still love you, and you’ll still love me, and nothing can take that away.”

  I let him pull me against his chest, my resistance crumbling. For a moment we say nothing, then I sigh and break away from him. I reach into my pocket and my hand closes around the remote for my collar. I draw it out, flip the switch, and hold it out to him. My body barely reacts to the EM disruptor scrambling my field, other than to note its presence with a heavy resignation.

  “Then you should take this and put it somewhere I can’t find it. My Savage side has been having some pretty dark thoughts about certain people on this base. And, you know, I’m pretty sure Joe’s going to need both his kneecaps.”

  I force a smile as I say it, but Scott sees right through me. He rubs a hand down my shoulder, and when I don’t budge, takes the remote.

  “Fine. But only because it’ll make you feel better, not because I think you’re going to lose control.”

  Ten minutes later I’m curled up in my bed, and I slip into my first truly content sleep in nearly a year, with Scott’s strong arms wrapped around me, holding me together. I’ll deal with the morning when it comes.

  *

  I smash my knee into Joe’s gut, then slam my elbow down into the back of his neck. The air explodes out of him in a whoosh and he drops to the floor like a stone. My lips curl in contempt and I step over him, not breaking my stride as I make for the helpless redhead. Rohan’s eyes lock on me, ready to toss me aside. I don’t even pause as I fling open the door to the place inside me where terror lives, and my shift takes me behind him. The lights go dark as my pulse takes out the electricity, and I reach an arm round the telekinetic’s neck, snapping it like a twig before anyone knows where I am. I toss his lifeless body to the ground, and lock onto the spot I’d seen Mika occupying three seconds before. A heartbeat later I’m there, reaching for the girl cowering in the darkness. I feel Duncan’s talent slamming against my defences, trying to drag me into his illusionary world, but I bat it aside easily and close my hand around Mika’s arm. She struggles in my grip but my lips curve upwards in a triumphant grin and I shift with everything I’ve got. I toss her on the basement floor and look at up Doc Pear–

  I blink and look around the table at the gathered team. Joe’s watching me warily. They’re all watching me warily, but Joe’s the only one who saw that little fantasy play out inside my head. I roll my shoulders and try to shake the images from my mind.

  “You alright, Anna?” the ex-soldier asks softly in my ear.

  I nod curtly. It’s nothing compared to the hundred other ways my inner savage has imagined wiping out this base. I’m learning to ignore it. Pearce did a thorough job of poisoning me against every single person he thought might try to help me, which means some part of me wants to
kill everyone I’ve ever met. I frown. Almost everyone I’ve ever met. There’s someone from my past he never knew about. Someone whose photo I was looking at not so long ago. I’d struggled to remember the first thing about him then, but I’ve stopped hiding from the BTD memories. Pearce never knew about him because Pearce never asked. He’s not as thorough as we both believed. Another glance round the room confirms what I already know: he’s not here.

  “Where’s Iain?” I ask eventually.

  Scott coughs awkwardly, setting aside the floor plan he’d been walking us through. Langford House, headquarters of AbGen. Seems like me and Scott spent hours pouring over those blueprints, before. A helluva lot’s happened since then, including the notably absent cop risking everything to break Scott out of Pearce’s bunker. He might just be the last memory Pearce left untouched.

  “She’s right,” Joe says eventually, breaking the strained silence. “He might be the key to undoing her reprogramming. And he’d want to be a part of this.”

  “What aren’t you telling me?” Because they clearly aren’t telling me something; that much is obvious from the way they’re all sharing looks with each other and avoiding looking at me.

  Scott perches heavily on the edge of the table.

  “He doesn’t know.”

  “He doesn’t know what?” I ask, my stomach churning uneasily.

  “It couldn’t be helped,” Nathan says hastily, and I instinctively suppress the rage gnawing at the back of my head triggered in response to his voice. “He only checks in with Ephraim every few weeks, and we had less than a day to plan your rescue.”

  “He doesn’t know I’m out.” My voice is flat. Maybe I’ve just run out of emotion. Too much has happened in the last forty-eight hours for me to react. I’ve got no energy left to be horrified. Or maybe I’m suppressing so much anger that it’s gotten buried.