Part 19 (2/2)

Bullets flew, the whoos.h.i.+ng of the silenced shots sounding deadly and fast. Jace arched as one hit him, even as I pushed out my mental s.h.i.+eld to cover his body. The next bullet only pushed him forward as it had with Mari at the Emersons' townhouse. I didn't have time to feel relief as I let off a flurry of shots with my own gun.

One of the men leapt toward me. We crashed with a terrific impact that sent both our handguns flying. He reached for his sword. The instinct of Jace's ability had me rolling to grab one of the end tables near the couch. I tumbled away, bringing it up at the last instant to block the sword as it hurled down toward me.

He slashed again, and I caught the sharp edge of his sword with the table, pus.h.i.+ng him off. I heaved the table, flipping it around so the legs went first, hoping to score a blow. In the right place, even a table leg could do serious damage.

”Enough.” A gun jabbed painfully into the side of my head. Patrick Mann. I'd taken my eyes off him too long. ”Go get the other one,” Patrick said to my opponent.

”No!” I reached for the image of my machete, slamming it down on the connection between the two hit men and Lew Roberts. The connections severed and calling up my reserves, I flashed light into their minds. The men faltered, but didn't collapse.

Lew laughed. ”Thought you'd try that again. We can't s.h.i.+eld them completely, but you'll find besting them won't be so easy this time unless you use a lot more power.”

Jace took advantage of his opponent's momentary disorientation and slammed a foot into his chest, knocking him against the wall where his head slammed with a sickening thump. Down, but for how long? The other hit man roared in fury and lifted his sword.

I had the satisfaction of watching Jace use a lamp to wrench the sword from the other man's hand. They began trading punches. Lew raised his own gun and fired, but the shot hit the mental s.h.i.+eld I'd erected around my brother and did nothing more than add strength to his last punch.

”Get her out of here,” Lew said to Patrick with a grimace. ”Be careful. She might still be armed.”

”But what about-” Patrick began.

”Now. She's what we need. The other is unimportant. Thurston can take care of himself. Move!”

”Relax. I'm coming.” Patrick shoved me toward the bedroom as I struggled.

I thrust light into his mind, but the black snake absorbed it before it did much damage. Patrick swore and shoved me harder, knocking me to the ground. ”Don't,” he said, spittle falling from his mouth, ”do that again.” He yanked me to my feet and pushed me once more toward the bedroom door.

I thought about resisting further. A gunshot to the head wouldn't kill me, but it would hurt like h.e.l.l and put me out of commission for at least a day. Not a wise choice if I wanted to escape. And before I did anything, I had to warn Ritter and the others. They might be too far away to help me by the time they got here, but Stella at least might reach Jace in time. She was amazing in combat for a technopath.

Another thought came immediately after. I'll discover their full plan and send that to them. My capture won't be in vain. Releasing my fury, I followed the urge that had pressed ever harder on me since entering the room. The mental image of my machete appeared inside Patrick's mind, and I slammed it down on the undulating snake in his thought stream.

An explosion wracked my mind. Images both raced and fluttered past my awareness. My life. Lives I'd only glimpsed from others. All jumbled together in an unintelligible heap. I collapsed under the a.s.sault. A tortured keening filled the room. Was that me?

The detailed plans I'd been seeking were right there-I was right about the information being hidden inside his mind-but I couldn't decipher much of it. Standing in my way was the black image of a robed woman, the edges of her mental outline s.h.i.+ning like an eclipse. I knew that outline. Sickness filled my stomach. I had to get out of here!

Patrick's gun s.h.i.+fted to my leg. ”Get up or I'll give you something to whine about.”

But I couldn't move. Not a single muscle obeyed my command. I couldn't even withdraw mentally from his mind.

Lew's hand stopped Patrick from firing. ”Wait,” he said in his nasal voice. ”Delia wants you to wait.”

All at once Lew was in my mind, past any barrier I'd erected. Ha, he told me. Delia knew you would be unable to resist that block in his mind after you saw it at the fundraiser. That's why she added a little something just for you.

A trap! I needed to warn Ritter. Get them out of the hotel before reinforcements arrived, if they weren't here already.

Oh, you want to reach out to them, do you? a voice said in my mind. I can help there. Horror swept over me. It was a voice that had filled every nightmare since my Change. Delia Vesey, whose life and experience made Dimitri look young by comparison. How nice of you to accept my invitation, she added. I know it was unconventional, but I can't wait to continue your training.

How was she in my mind? She had to be nearby. Either that or she was coming through Lew, somehow forming a link of communication.

Now let's tell your friends there's been a delay. Delia pushed out with me, finding Ritter easily on the main floor. Her range was greater than mine, and I saw that together we'd be able to extend even further. Ritter hefted a Secret Service agent he was stas.h.i.+ng in an unused conference room.

Run! I wanted to scream. Get out! Delia's here. I pushed the thoughts, but they didn't make it past my own brain.

Tsk, tsk. No spoiling the fun.

Her enjoyment of my torture was all too apparent. I pushed against her will, and when that failed, I tried to bend around her, to reach Ritter on my own. But each way I turned was met with a s.h.i.+ny impenetrable black barrier.

Slight delay, Delia put in Ritter's mind. Not channeling my ability so much as forcing me to do and say what she wanted. Some annoying hotel guests. But everything's a go. We have Patrick Mann.

No! I moaned, but Ritter didn't hear.

Delia laughed at my despair. How long do you think he'll wait before he realizes you are no longer here? Long enough for me to trap him? Even as she spoke, she directed Lew to order Patrick to pick me up. In my mind, I fought him, but in real life, I was as immobile in his arms as a sack of flour.

My last view was of Jace blocking his larger opponent's right hook as the first man he'd knocked unconscious struggled back to his feet.

In the bedroom, the dresser had been shoved aside to reveal a gaping hole. Stella may have been right about the rooms not connecting, but apparently the Emporium agents had made their own door. It was to this that Patrick carried me. Into another suite and through a connecting door to yet a third hotel room.

Lew opened the door to the hallway. ”Did you take care of the camera?”

That's when I noticed Patrick was now wearing something that resembled Stella's neural headset, only smaller. He nodded. ”They have control over the cameras already, but I inserted another feedback loop. By the time they discover it, we'll be gone. But how am I going to explain this to Secret Service?”

”No need. I'll come back and clean up the mess, once our reinforcements lock down the hotel. The agents won't remember a thing.”

That was an awful lot of cleaning up the Emporium was willing to do, but we'd probably do the same if we had an agent posing as the vice president's son.

Patrick s.h.i.+fted me to his shoulder as they opened a door and headed up some stairs. The roof, I thought. Jace was right about checking out the roof. Was that the sound of a helicopter?

Delia cursed in my mind. He didn't buy it. He's heading up to the room. Why is he doing that?

Because you're not me, I told her, though I didn't really know.

Impossible. You can't have that kind of connection.

Ignoring her, I pushed out. Ritter!

He can't hear you, she said.

My world went black.

DARKNESS TUMBLED IN MY MIND, greedily eating everything in its path. Only occasional flashes of light relieved the scenery, but these moments of near lucidity were accompanied by terrible scenes of Jace fighting for his life, of Stella weeping after losing her baby, of Ritter being tortured. Someone was laughing, a horrid, nasal sound that sc.r.a.ped my nerves.

I jerked awake, only to see nothing but more darkness. A hard carpet made up my bed. Where was I? At Emporium headquarters or at the compound? Or perhaps somewhere worse. My first thought was to reach outside myself in search of clues to my location and a way to escape, but I stifled the impulse. First, I had to make sure I was mentally free.

Gingerly, I explored my mind. Was I alone, or was Delia and her a.s.sistant poised to control me again? I did the equivalent of mental tiptoeing as I looked around. Everywhere I turned, I sensed soreness, as though the fabric of my mind had been wounded during the mental blast. But no other presence was near, and tentatively, I threw up a s.h.i.+eld around my thoughts. The barrier was a weak, flimsy, Swiss cheese kind of thing, but I felt triumphant to have managed that much.

Piece by piece, I repaired the damage, working by feel and hoping I was doing it correctly. Whatever Delia had done to my mind didn't seem permanent. Or would I know if she'd damaged me forever? Others I'd met hadn't known, like Tom, my former fiance. I'd have to let Dimitri and Ava explore later to see if there was anything the hateful crone had left behind. No way did I want her touch staining me.

Had Jace gotten away? I shuddered as I remembered the dream. If they'd captured Jace, Delia would have one more p.a.w.n against me and against her colleague Stefan Carrington. Maybe she would mess with Jace's mind. Was he strong enough to withstand her?

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