Ignited (12 page)

Good,
I thought. They hadn’t found Lottie. I fingered the knife in my pocket and pulled it out, wondering if I would be forced to use it again.

Knockoff Bond dropped his gaze to the weapon. He stopped abruptly and held up both hands. “You don’t have to do that,” he said. His blue eyes wrinkled like I’d amused him.

My eyes narrowed. “Something funny?” I asked.

“You,” he said. “You actually think you can take down three of us?”

I let my energy unwind in the air for a second and drawled, “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time. Do you remember what pain feels like? Because I would love to remind you.”

A hand gripped the sweater at my lower back. Asher didn’t want me to push the stranger too far. He was probably right, but dealing with Dean had taught me never to back down. If you showed a predator a weakness, they would take advantage of it. He turned again to face the two men who had paused a few yards away. They seemed cautious but not poised to attack.

Knockoff Bond had stepped closer while my attention was divided. “You don’t want to do that,” I told him.

The knife didn’t scare him. That was obvious from the amusement still on his face. He said, “A cut wouldn’t be enough to stop me if I decided to put an end to this.”

I trembled. Either rumors of my abilities were making the rounds of the Protectors, or these men worked for my grandfather. It made sense that Franc had sent them after Erin, guessing she would make contact with me again.

“Maybe not,” I told him. “But that’s not the only injury I’d transfer.”

His questioning gaze roved over me. I dared him to attack, almost wanted him to. My injuries would weaken these men at best, but it would feel good to use my abilities again. I let my energy swirl in the air longer than before. His face tensed with the pain that the hum of my power caused Protectors.

He straightened and backed off a little. His entire demeanor changed from threatening to charming. “I’m not going to hurt you or your friends,” he said. “I’m here to talk, Miss O’Malley. Just talk.”

He lied. Protectors wouldn’t let me go. My mind raced for a way to keep my friends safe, and I saw only one path. “Great. Let my friends go, and we can have a nice chat.”

That hand at my back twisted my sweater harder, and I ignored it, widening my stance to stay balanced. Asher didn’t want to leave me on my own. Noted. Too bad. He’d promised to watch over my sister. If he could get away with her, he’d better damn well go.

It was a moot point anyway. Knockoff Bond
tsk
ed and folded his arms. “I’m sorry. I can’t do that.”

“Then we really don’t have anything to talk about, do we?”

A movement behind him distracted me. My eyes couldn’t quite pinpoint what the blur was, and my first thought was that Lottie had arrived to rescue us. Knockoff Bond noticed my inattention and twisted toward the new threat. I launched forward, using my Protector speed. The blur swept past us, and I hoped Lottie rushed to help the others.

All the hours of training I’d done with Gabe kicked in. I slammed my flattened hand into Knockoff Bond’s throat in a textbook throat strike, cutting off his ability to breathe. His hands shot to his neck, and I ducked down, sweeping my leg out to knock him off his feet. My next move would be to use the knife, but my fingers jerked open, the muscles refusing to grip the weapon. A wave of dizziness had me swaying like the trees as the knife clattered to the ground.

My heart seized and beat erratically.

Not now. Please, God. Not now.

My vision blurred, and I landed flat on my back staring up at a canopy of green. I waited for the attack to come, completely helpless to protect myself. Shouting sounded from a distance, and I heard the thud of fists pounding skin and bones. I whimpered.

Knockoff Bond’s face appeared over me, and for a second, he reminded me of someone. His fingers gripped my shoulder in a painful grasp, and the image faded before I could catch hold of it. He gasped for air and his eyes narrowed with rage as he glared down at me. “You should have listened to me. Come with me now.”

“Never,” I choked out. I would never enslave myself to a bunch of Protectors. I pushed against him, but my hand fell to my side uselessly.

“You don’t understand. We—”

“Get away from her!” Gabe shouted.

That couldn’t be right. Gabe was in Europe. It had to have been Asher. Knockoff Bond disappeared as if he’d been ejected through the air, and the sounds of fighting resumed. A steel band tightened around my chest when I tried to breathe. Lucy appeared beside me. I groaned when she forced me to sit up, the pain ripping through me. One of her arms slipped under my armpit, and she heaved me up to my feet with Erin’s help. We stumbled along the path with the two of them propping me up. Asher limped beside us, cradling an arm. From the angle it hung and the way his face blanched white with pain, I guessed it was broken.

“Where’s Lottie?” I asked. We couldn’t leave her behind. She’d just saved my life.

“Right here.”

I glanced back, and there she was a few steps behind us. I frowned and would have stopped if Erin and Lucy hadn’t kept me going. “I don’t understand. Where did those Protectors go?”

No way would they have let us go. Not with only one Protector left standing. The odds had been in their favor when I went down. Suddenly, the last of my strength disappeared. My entire body went limp, and I felt myself falling into a face-plant when Erin and Lucy lost their grip on me. I was yanked up at the last second and bodily lifted into the air.

Gabe’s chiseled, grim features hovered over me. The most inane thought popped into my head; I’d forgotten how beautiful he was. “They took off after I bashed their leader’s face,” he said. “Be still, Remy. We’ll take care of you. You can rest now.”

He cradled me against his chest, his strength obvious in the easy way he carried me. I believed him when he said I could rest. For the first time in ages, I entrusted myself to another and let go, drifting into the abyss of unconsciousness where the pain didn’t exist.

C
HAPTER
N
INE

W
e broke into another house. I heard snatches of conversation. The consensus was that we shouldn’t return to our house until we understood how they’d found us. Lottie had apparently collected a list of empty residences in the vicinity that we could use as safe houses, and we headed to the closest one in Sausalito, a small artsy community that faced San Francisco across the bay.

I didn’t notice much about the house, except that it was furnished. Gabe lowered me to the overstuffed brown suede couch, and the others sprawled on the floor or in chairs in the living room. Lottie shut the blinds in the front window, cutting off the sunlight. I closed my eyes in relief. My sunglasses had been lost in the fight, and my head was killing me. I focused my energy enough to steady my heart again. The ache between my eyes didn’t go away, but the room was dark enough that I could deal.

I sat up slowly and took stock of our group. Lottie, Gabe, and Erin had apparently come through the fight without a scrape. Lucy had a cut on her forehead, and Erin knelt before her chair, already healing the minor injury. I wondered what she would think when she realized she was in a room with three Protectors. Most likely, she’d run home screaming, and the best we could hope for was that we would be long gone by then.

Asher sat in an armchair by the fireplace, his long legs stretched out in front of him. His head rested against the chair’s back and he stared at me with an unreadable expression. Gabe sat beside me on the couch, his hip against mine. His deep brown hair had grown out to his nape, and long waves fell over his forehead. He shared Asher’s green eyes, angled bone structure, and proper accent, but he was larger and more muscular. His size used to scare me, but I’d gotten past that. His beauty, not so much. The man was sinfully handsome. I couldn’t look at him for more than a second. If I did, I would blush and there was no reason to. I didn’t think about him like that.

Gabe refused to be ignored. “What the hell happened to you back there?”

The room stilled as all attention swiveled to me. Dammit. Gabe never could let anything go.

I stuck my chin in the air. “I’m fine.”

“Bullshit,” he answered emphatically. “You went down before he laid a finger on you.”

Erin shifted uncomfortably, and I glared at her with a silent warning to keep her mouth shut. She couldn’t help me, and I wouldn’t ask any of the others to give up their powers for me. Gabe wouldn’t let this go, though. I had to prove I was okay. I rose and locked my knees when I began to sway. I put one foot in front of the other and tossed a triumphant look at the group when I made it to Asher without stumbling. I sat at his feet, suddenly glad that the distance had been so short. I felt like a weak kitten.

I reached for Asher, but Erin slid between us. “Let me,” she whispered in my ear.

I didn’t argue with her. If I was honest with myself, I didn’t know if I could have healed Asher. It had been foolish to think I could. I moved back to give her room and listened to her soft voice telling Asher to put his guard down so she could heal him. A minute later, he groaned when the bone in his arm snapped into place. Erin moved away, her features tight with exhaustion. Unlike me, using her powers only wore her out. She didn’t have to take on the injuries she healed.

A finger tipped my chin up. Asher had pressed forward in his chair, and I found myself staring up at him. “Are you really okay?” I opened my mouth and he added, “Please don’t lie.”

My cheeks burned with embarrassment because I’d been caught. His gaze wouldn’t let me go, and I gave up. I shook my head.

He grimaced, a muscle working in his cheek. “Since when?” he bit out.

Since I tried to heal Laura.
“A while,” I whispered.
I almost died.

I closed my eyes to escape him. He couldn’t hear me, and it made the ache in me spread. My heart tripped again, and I concentrated on getting it back to normal. Why couldn’t I heal this already? I was so sick of the headaches and the mini heart attacks. Lately, I used up all my energy acting like a freaking pacemaker.

“What’s wrong with you?” Asher asked.

“She just told you, man.”

Gabe’s angry voice spoke from over me, and my eyes popped open. He wasn’t facing me, though. He was glaring at his brother, and he looked ready to thrash him. “It’s been two weeks since Laura died. You’ve been letting her walk around with her heart about to implode anytime. What the fuck is wrong with you? Why didn’t you help her? Any of you.”

“Gabe . . .” I warned.

He didn’t seem to hear me.

“You tried to heal Mom?” Lucy asked. She stood by the coffee table, her mouth twisted with anguish.

A sigh rattled through me. At last the truth was out there, but I didn’t feel the satisfaction I’d daydreamed about. Lucy’s shock added to the pain I’d been trying to shove down. As my sister, she should have known the answer to her question.

My tone was bitter when I said, “Of course I did, Lucy. I loved her.”

She stumbled back until her calves hit the coffee table and she abruptly sat on it. She crushed a hand to her mouth, obviously shaken, and her misery saddened me. I hadn’t wanted this. I hadn’t wanted to feel again.

“How could you not help her?” Gabe repeated to Asher.

He didn’t understand the expression that had come over Asher’s face, or the reason behind it. I did, and the bleak sorrow was too much for me to take.

He didn’t know, Gabe.

My thoughts finally broke through to Gabe. He crouched by me. “How could he not know?” he asked, confused. “Your pain is flashing all over your thoughts like a damned neon sign.”

Five beats of my heart went by before realization swept over Gabe’s face.

Asher pressed a hand to my cheek. It wasn’t an affectionate gesture, but a purposeful one. I sensed that he was testing me. Testing our bond. His eyes searched mine.
I’m so sorry.
The hope that he’d guessed wrong died, and his hand dropped to his side.

“I can’t read your mind anymore,” Asher said with a heavy voice.

C
HAPTER
T
EN

“G
uys, can we focus?” Erin suggested, breaking through the tension that coated the room like an oily film. Blank stares met her announcement. “Remy,” she prompted. “Her injuries are serious. I sensed it in the woods.”

Asher almost shook himself. “Erin’s right. How bad are things, Remy?” He tossed an unreadable look at Gabe and added, “For those of us who can’t read your mind.”

I spoke haltingly with a worried glance at Lucy. “Laura’s brain injury was severe. I tried to heal her, but it was like nothing was there. She wasn’t there.” Lucy moaned, and my voice faded to a whisper. “Something happened. She had a heart attack while I was healing her. I’ve been having migraines since, and my heart . . . It’s damaged.” I’d tried to downplay my injuries, but it sounded awful to say them out loud. “My powers haven’t fully returned, and I haven’t been able to heal myself.”

“You almost died,” Lottie said with dismay. “In the hall at the hospital. You were having a heart attack.”

I nodded. I’d tried to tell them, but then Lucy had turned on me and I’d only thought about hiding to lick my wounds.

Lucy jerked to her feet. “I think I’m going to be sick.” She ran out of the room clutching her stomach.

In another surprising act of kindness, Lottie rose to go after her. “I’m sorry,” Lottie told me, her mouth pulled down in a grimace. “I wouldn’t have wished that on you.”

“You couldn’t have known. I was in shock, and then I was too hurt to tell any of you what was happening.”

She gave a tight nod before leaving, and I wrung my hands, the knuckles turning white. I’d felt so alone the last two weeks. Longer than that. A hand covered mine.

Gabe tugged until he’d pried my fingers apart. “Come on,” he coaxed, raising our hands to brush a tear off my cheek. “Your injuries aren’t so bad. We’ve taken on far worse than that before.” He loosened his hold and backed away.