The Forbidden Trilogy (48 page)

"You have to release your hold on my friends. They'll
be killed by your guards if you don't. Do you really want to sacrifice our kind
on the altar of... what? Your father's vision? The man who abused you, killed
the only woman you loved, and then wiped your mind clean? We don't have time
for you to digest all of these new memories. Now's the time to choose, Seeker.
Whose side are you on?"

A single tear fell down his perfect, pale cheek. "You
do not understand. I am dying."

"I know."

"And this hold, it is a double edged sword. The use of
my powers is killing me, but the exchange of power, of energy, is also keeping
me alive. If I let go completely, I will die much sooner. My power will drain
from me. I will be gone."

I wiped the tear from his face and linked with his mind.
"I'm
so sorry, for everything you've been through. Sorry you had to endure such
brutalities from the man who should have protected you. Sorry your powers have
been abused. Sorry we couldn't be the happy family you wanted. And sorry you
are dying. But many more are dying out there. My friends. My family. I need
your help."

 Blood dripped from his nose and ears, just like Mary. His
eyes squinted in pain, and he fell to his knees in front of me.

"I have released them all. Guards, students...
everyone. My mind has not been my own in so long. I had grown accustomed to the
myriad of thoughts, emotions and voices that created a symphony inside of me.
Now I am so alone. So empty. A void comes for me, to devour me. Even now, I
feel my power flowing out and dissipating into nothing."

He looked up with eyes that reminded me of a hurt puppy.
"What do I do now, Sam? Who am I if not the Seeker? Who will I be when I
am no longer here? The darkness. I have walked in the dark for so long, but
always it was filled with the bright stars of others like us. Now,
nothing."

He chose
this
moment to have an existential crisis? I
grabbed his hand with my good one and pulled him to his feet. "You're not
dead yet. We'll worry about that later. First, we need to get Drake and get out
of here. Is there an emergency exit to the library? Or a fire extinguisher? A
huge room full of paper must have at least an extinguisher."

I let the Seeker's hand go and ran from wall to wall, and
found what I needed by the checkout desk. In the movies, they always bashed out
the glass window of a fire extinguisher case with their elbow. That didn't
sound fun to me, or my elbow. I looked around and grabbed the biggest, heaviest
book I could find. I shielded my eyes while I smashed the glass and freed the
fire extinguisher from its case.

Our emergency medical training course had covered the use of
these, but my hand throbbed so much I couldn't get a grip on it. "Hey, you
know how to use one of these things? I can't manage it one handed."

The Seeker took it and moments later a stream of white suds
coated the door. He used his robe as a glove and turned the handle, then
sprayed more suds into the hall. "Follow me."

He turned left. We needed to be going right, toward the room
Drake and I had been held. "You're going the wrong way. Drake!"

"He will get out on his own. We will get caught up in
the fire if we go that way."

He tried to pull me toward him, but I broke free. "I'm
not leaving him."

I turned and ran down the hall.

The Seeker sighed and followed behind me. "You are a
very stubborn girl, but, very well. We will try to get to Drake."

Guards ran past us, toward the exit. They glanced at us but
didn't stop.

We turned a corner, almost to Drake's room, and faced a
hallway full of flames. The heat hit my face in a gust of smoke and fire. The
Seeker sprayed enough white foam to clear a path for us to run through. Well, I
ran. He stumbled and nearly pulled me to the floor. I grabbed him and helped
him through. My jacket caught fire, and I pulled it off and threw it to the
floor before it burnt through my clothes and skin.

Tears sizzled down my face. The door to Drake's room slumped
to the side, the hinges almost completely torn off.

My voice cracked from smoke inhalation. "Drake!"

The room was empty save for the candles that still burned in
the haze. "He's not here. We need to find him."

"He is probably already outside. Let us go."

This time I let him lead me away. If only I could have
connected telepathically to Drake. I hated the emptiness I felt without his
presence. For months, we'd been joined in the most intimate of ways, and now he
was gone, leaving not only a void in my mind but a hole in my chest.

Flames chased us from both sides of the hall as we searched
for an escape route. The extinguisher sputtered out its last white stream.

We rushed to the nearest office and closed the door. The
room boiled with the rage of the fire, and filled with smoke so thick we both
gagged.

I took a chair and threw it at the window, and glass
shattered outward. We were on the second floor, but we could climb down the
fire escape.

The room cooked and simmered, full of energy about to erupt.
The Seeker's white robe had turned gray with ash, and his pristine skin looked
sallow. The walls crackled as the heat blistered paint.

"Come on, we need to climb through the window." I
reached for the Seeker just as the ceiling above me crashed down.

The weight of his body, slight though it was, propelled me
out of harm's way. I stood and brushed myself off. "Wow, that was close.
Thanks for—"

Only a fraction of life remained in his eyes. A beam from
the ceiling pinned him to the ground, and a metal disk impaled his abdomen.

I reached for his hand. Tears streamed down my face.

"Sam, you must get out. I was dead before we met. Do
not mourn me. Save your friends. Save your baby." He coughed and blood wet
his lips. "I... I am sorry for what I have done to you, for what our
father has done to you. He has plans, Sam, big plans, and dangerous weapons.
You must stop him before it is too late."

His hand went limp in mine. His eyelids flickered closed.

"No. Please, I can't lose anyone else. Stay alive and
help us. We'll find a cure for you. Just don't die. What are his plans? What is
our father going to do? I need your help."

"Too late. One last gift for you. Come... closer."

I leaned into him. He pressed his lips against my brow and a
powerful jolt electrified my mind and body. Blackness swirled around me and the
world faded out for a moment.

His voice brought me back. "Sam, you now have what you
need, and my powers have not all been lost. It is time... for me... to go. Did
I make it right? My whole life I tried to do what was right, but right became
so wrong. Was this the right thing, Sam?"

Sobs shook my chest. How could life flip on its axis so
dramatically that I would mourn the man I considered my most deadly enemy just
a day ago?

I knew so little of life and love and truth.

"Yes, you did it right."

His lips turned upward. "Good... bye... Sister. I am
glad... I did not die... alone."

Mr. Black squinted at her. Lucy could tell he expected her
to run through the gates and never look back. Instead, she lowered her weapon
and dragged him toward the hospital.

Fire had spread throughout campus, carried on the winds and
trees. Every few minutes, an explosion ripped through the air.

Three guards approached. "Sir, step aside, and we'll
eliminate the girl."

"That won't be necessary, men. I have control, and
she's my prisoner now." Lucy felt his finger poke into her back as a mock
gun. "You go on ahead and I'll catch up to you later."

Another explosion shook the ground, and the guards ran toward
it.

The clinic had also caught fire. Patients were evacuated
through the front, some in wheelchairs and others on beds. Medical personnel
bustled about, trying to keep the patients calm.

Mr. Black approached the nurse Lucy had seen him speaking to
when they'd admitted his daughter. "Where is she? Where is Sarah?"

The nurse clutched at her clipboard. She didn't seem to
notice her soot-covered clothes and disheveled hair, only the needs of the
patients. "Please, calm down. We're trying to get all the patients
out."

Mr. Black brushed her aside and lunged for the front door.
Lucy followed him in.

"Sir, you're not allowed in— That's off limits.
Sir!" They both ignored the shrill voice of the nurse.

Patients clogged the passageways as they made their way
through the halls.

They found her in a bed outside her room, where she'd been
abandoned in the hallway.
Poor girl.
Lucy couldn't imagine how anyone
could leave a terrified child alone like that in the middle of a fire.

Mr. Black lifted his daughter out of bed. Her eyes fluttered
open, and her face lit up in the biggest smile Lucy had ever seen.

Sarah threw her arms around Mr. Black's neck. "Daddy,
you came for me! I told them you would, and you did."

"I will always come for you, Sweetheart, but right now
we have to get out of here."

Lucy grabbed a blanket and covered the slender child.

Mr. Black nodded in thanks.

They turned to leave the way they had come, but found the
hallway blocked by a hungry inferno of flames.

Lucy thought back to her sneaking around when Sam had been
kept here against her will.

"Follow me, I think I know another way out." She
led them down one hallway and found a door to the outside.

The three of them crashed through it just as the building
collapsed around them. They ran for the campus gate Mr. Black had opened
earlier.

Lucy tried to ignore the bodies littering the walkways. She
couldn't help them all—not now, not this way. But one body stopped her abruptly
and she let out a choked cry.

Mr. Black shifted the weight of his daughter in his arms.
"What the hell? We've got to go, now!"

"It's Higgins." She ran to him and dropped to her
knees to check his pulse. Still alive, but barely. "Headmaster Higgins,
are you okay? Can you hear me?"

His eyes flickered open. "Ah, Lucy, you must leave. All
of you must leave. Terrible things are happening."

"Yes, I know. Here, I'll help you. Come with us."
She went to lift him but he moaned and pushed her away.

"It's too late for me. I tried to help, tried to do
what I could. I'm sorry. I failed you all." He grabbed her hand and pushed
something into it. "Get what you need and leave. End this."

His breathing slowed. Then stopped.

"Mr. Higgins! No!" Her cries ricocheted around her
and inside her.

Mr. Black kicked the back of her feet. "He's dead,
we're not. But we will be if you don't move your ass."

She looked in her hands, a key ring and a note with
passcodes written on it. She shoved them into her pocket next to her sphere,
and ran with Mr. Black toward the gate.

Staff and students all struggled to get through and out of
harm's way. Mr. Lancaster seemed to be in charge, organizing the students and
teachers, getting them out safely, or as safe as he could.

When they arrived, Luke was there waiting for her.
"Sis, what the hell? I've been worried sick. And why the hell is he not
dead?" He pointed to Mr. Black.

"Long story. Let's get out of here."

Before they could escape, a dozen guards surrounded their
small group.

One guard held up a megaphone. "Everybody freeze."

Lucy looked to Mr. Black, still carrying his child. He
stepped forward. "Stand down, men. I have this under control."

"With all due respect, sir, we no longer take orders
from you. You have been compromised."

Sam, where are you. We need you. We're in trouble.

Without further warning, the guards raised their guns to
start firing into the crowd.

A surge of power pulsed through Lucy. Her sphere came alive,
which meant.... "Luke, put up your field. Our powers are back."

He held up his hands and the air condensed around them. The
bullets had stopped mid-air, just inches from their targets.

Lucy expelled her breath, and she and her brother led
everyone toward the gate.

Lucy's mind opened to another presence. Sam.

"Lucy, I'm here. I'm coming."

His daughter's form lightened, as if part of her were already
leaving him. He refused to let her go so easily. "Someone, help! I need an
ambulance. My daughter is dying."

He hated to use that word, that horrible, awful word that
meant this world would lose its brightest star.

Two medics from the local hospital arrived to help him.
"Please, bring her to our ambulance. We'll get her to the hospital."

At the ambulance, an EMT said, "Sir, your daughter's
pulse is weak. We need to move her now. She might not even make the trip to the
hospital."

Lucy touched his arm. "I hope your daughter gets
better. You did the right thing, helping the students get out. I hope you know
it."

He'd already forgotten about Lucy. He couldn't believe she'd
actually followed him into a burning building to save his daughter. For a
moment, guilt surfaced over how he'd treated her, but then his daughter
coughed, and the moment passed. Nothing mattered but Sarah, and anything, or
anyone, who interfered with his ability to care for her would suffer.

"If my daughter dies, someone will pay."

He stepped into the ambulance after his daughter. The EMT
reached to close the door, but Mr. Black put his hand out to stop it.
"Lucy."

She turned and looked up at him.

"The other kids, they're in a facility in Utah."
He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket. "Here's the address. Don't
let these guys get too powerful. It won't be good for anyone. And... thank you
for helping Sarah."