Retrieval (36 page)

She placed a motherly kiss on Everly’s head.

“Go in peace, sister,” Everly whispered, and Skylar sent a bolt of energy that put Everly under the protective cloak of sleep.

She could feel the inky darkness of her father’s presence within Everly’s mind but realized that with Everly now out, he’d leave her. How had he managed to make himself telepathic?

In her mind, Skylar relayed the new developments to Micah and told him to get to Everly before Sebastian demolished the estate.

“Slow your roll, little bit,” Micah demanded.

“No time now, Mic, got family to save, and a father to destroy.”

And Skylar snapped their connection. Severed it in two as she’d done with Sebastian. It was show time.

* * * *

“She’s moving, Seb. Smythe-Ward moved the people he had caged up for experimentation, and she’s going to save them. I am nowhere near being able to help her. Hold off on the demolition of the estate for at least an hour, please Sebastian. I’m begging you, my entire world is in there, and she’ll die if you destroy it now. Go to the loading docks behind the GenTech Facility Building 24. That’s where you’ll find Skylar and Smythe-Ward.”

Micah gave him the instructions at a staccato pace and then disconnected.

Sebastian cursed and threw the SAT phone against the wall. He barked out orders and began to gather what he’d need for an immediate rescue. He met everyone in the living room.

“We move now. I don’t know what we’re going into, and I only have a location, but we move now,” Sebastian said as he headed out the door.

“On it,” Bleak announced, and Morrissey, Rover, both Bonners along with Conner Parks and the McKannon sisters headed out with him.

* * * *

Nothing moved. Not the wind and most certainly not any person. The building appeared deserted. She could feel the steady heartbeat of the being inside the tractor-trailer that remained alert and oriented to the situation. She’d tried to mind-speak with the being earlier, but he was maddened by the danger to his family and his inability to protect them.

“I’m coming,” she whispered and prayed that he could feel her.

She could only hope that this wasn’t some kind of trap, though logically it could only be that. At least the timetable had moved back instead of up. Perhaps Sebastian and her sisters were still getting ready to move and weren’t actually engaging in her rescue mission right now.

She could feel the waves of rage coming in stronger now from the being inside the steel trailer. The air became even heavier than usual, and she noticed the trick she herself employed on occasion to confuse her pursuers.

“It won’t work. I am the air. Work with me, not against. If you would let me, I would save you.”
She spoke along the link that had seemingly magically opened up between her and the—oh my beautiful God, she thought catching her breath—the half man, half what was he?

“I trust no one, especially not a child of the monster who created me.” Whiplash words meant to flay and cause harm.

“I do not consider myself his. But I consider you one of mine, and you will be saved today. You and your family. You have no other alternative but to trust me, feel my intent.”
She opened herself to the other being like she had done only one other time in her life … with Sebastian.

She felt him stiffen as she dwelled inside his mind, and she read his heart with ease once the connection was accepted on his end. She sensed the magnificence of this creature and was given the impression of a large man with power on the scope of her own. Dangerous, awe-inspiring power.

“We have long waited for you. I am Aleksei, and whatever you need from me is yours. Whatever power or energy I have, I would gladly die to give you if it means my family survives.”

“I might take you up on that later. Not the dying part, but the other. Now where are they?”

“I can sense only Smythe-Ward, and I am forbidden by the very facets of my blood to divulge his hiding place. You would cause him harm, and therefore I cannot give you that information without risking my own life and that of my brethren. But I will tell you to look into the sun, and there you will find him.”

Skylar guessed that along with superhuman power, and a boatload of what the fuck, Smythe-Ward had encoded cryptic speech into them all.

“Yeah, well, gee, thanks. I’m sure I’ll be getting back to you. Can you break out of the bars you’re in?”

“Yes, but not until he’s incapacitated. He is using some of his own energy to hold me here.”

“His own energy?”

“You don’t know he experiments on himself?”

“Didn’t have confirmation, but what was I expecting? We’re going to wing this, all right? I have to create enough of a diversion to bring him out of where the hell he’s hiding. After that it’s a free-for-all, so you better be ready to break out, and get your family to safety. Head to Micah—he’ll get you to safety.”

“Where is Everly?”

“Hopefully with Micah. Why?”

“She’s kin; she needs to remain safe. We will head to safety, Skylar. But remember: whatever you need I will gladly provide.”

What was that tone in his voice? Interest? So not what she needed right now.

“Gotcha—good luck then. Here goes nothing.”

With that she stepped out from behind the tree she’d been shielding behind and made herself visible.

“Come on out, Father,” she called as she began to draw on the reserves of the earth around her.

The wind whipped and bits of salt from the nearby marsh saltwater began to pepper the air. They were coalescing into solid particles as the water was dissolved by the heat Sky generated. The trees bent, cars overturned, and for once Skylar McKannon let her fury fly. The buildings around her shook, some falling in on themselves, as the tempest she created swelled and boomed around her.

“You will stop this.”
Dolan Smythe-Ward’s voice was a scream inside her mind.

“No!” she yelled, and the sound was a sonic boom that caused the men hiding with her father to fall to the ground and clutch their heads in pain.

Their noses bled. Hell, even their eyes seeped blood red tears from the damage to their brains via their eardrums.

“Now!” he said and tried to use one of his devices to stop her.

“Not gonna work,
Dad
,” she sneered and watched as bits and pieces of debris pelted the man who’d engineered her.

“Will this?” he yelled at her when she was within a hundred yards of him.

Suddenly the truck that had housed the caged ones blew up in a fireball that seemed to reach to the heavens.

“We’ve already gone. Thank you.”
Aleksei’s voice whispered through her mind and relief made her weak in the knees.

“No,” Skylar said in a whisper that was loud as a freight train.

“Stop this nonsense, child,” her father demanded, and he reminded her in that moment of an errant child not getting his way.

“Fuck you,” she yelled and felt pleasure at the epithet.

Just then Skylar heard vehicles approaching and felt an immediate ramping up of the available energy.
No! Please don’t let it be my sisters.

It wasn’t. What got out of the vehicles and stormed toward her was something out of the worst horror film. Grotesque creatures, almost werewolf-like with large heads, short torsos, and long, backward-bent knees. They looked like they shouldn’t be able to walk, yet they moved at a pace too fast for the human eye. They surrounded her quickly, and it was the one right in front of her that caused her the most anxiety.

Goolsby. Somehow, the creature before her was Warren Goolsby.

He smiled, and saliva dripped from fangs longer than a timber wolf’s.

“Skyyylaaarrrrr.” The thing garbled out.

She turned to gaze in horror at her father, but he’d disappeared. She made to break herself down but knew she had to deal with the creatures in front of her first.

“Oh come on. Goolsby? I have to say you looked better as a human. Dude, you let him experiment on you?” she asked and then spit on the ground next to the abomination.

“Miiiinnne,” the monster in front of her whispered and cackled in glee.

“So not on board with that.” She shuddered for effect before adding, “I’m thinking that’s a big fat hell no.”

She raised her arms and made a pushing motion with her hands. The creatures surrounding her flew backward so fast they landed on their backs but still had time to spring up before she had could remove herself from their circle.

She collided with a particularly heinous creature that grabbed her arm and swung her around. Pulling energy toward her she singed the creature’s arm off and left him howling in agony from her touch.

“Come to me,” Goolsby yelled.

She had no time to ruminate on the fact that he was speaking fine now. She was dust in the wind before he could utter another word.

She moved quickly to the top of a still-standing building. She surveyed the landscape around her and searched for her father.

“
Come to me, child,” he softly pleaded with her. “You are amazing, such a powerful force. I knew that you were much more than I’d originally dreamed. Please come sit with me and talk.”

He was crazier than bat shit, and she decided that was probably the only way she’d be able to get close enough to off the son of a bitch.

“Sure, Dad, where are you?”

“In the conference room, daughter. I’ll keep Goolsby safely away from you. Try not to harm any more of my guard would you? They’re effective against everyone but you it would seem, and it would be a waste of resources for you to destroy them in your anger at me.”

“Yeah? I don’t know if you caught it, but he was going to try to take my head off with that big-assed paw. That’s not exactly a friendly overture. Why did you kill the creatures in the truck?”
she asked, still perched on top of the building.

“They were failures. I told you we would meet at the labs today at noon. Why are you here at the buildings this early? Did Everly send you here to save my pets?”

Oh, he was one sick fuck.

“Those were people, not pets, you bastard. How dare you put such a low value on human life that you manipulate it and then kill it when it doesn’t serve you as if you’re a god.”
Anger slithered through her tone, and she couldn’t find it in her to care at this point.

The end was coming. Off to the GenTech boardroom she went.

“Yes, daughter, you come to me, and we’ll talk.”

* * * *

“We’re fanning out in twos. Raina, you’re with Bleak. Kinsey, you’re with Morrissey, and Piper, you’re with me. Bonner, take your brother and head around the back of the building. Take your men with you and stay silent unless you encounter something. Ready?” Sebastian asked in a steady voice.

He was barely holding it together. He’d seen the smoke rising from the distant buildings, and it had reminded him of the night he had found her lying on that hospital bed seemingly dead. He’d tried to merge with her mind and been unable to do so. That worried him more than anything. Did Smythe-Ward have her? Were they both dead and that was why he couldn’t get through?

“Sebastian?” Bonner broke the silence he’d just asked for.

“Yeah?”

“We’ve got satellite imaging of a pretty catastrophic explosion about a mile from this location. My man tells me that several buildings are blown to hell and back, and there are heat sigs moving away from the sight rapidly.”

“That’s going to be the ones from the cages. Nobody touches them, understand? Let them leave, because according to Micah we don’t want any of what they got a hard-on for. They are friendlies, I repeat, they are friendlies,” Sebastian said firmly.

“Got it. What the fuck is that?” Sebastian heard one of the Bonner twins exclaim, and then he looked up to see a darkly streaming cloud of
something
headed their way.

“It’s Sky,” Sebastian heard Raina scream over Bleak’s earpiece.

“Don’t shoot,” Sebastian yelled afraid that any one of his men might shoot into the darkness coming their way.

“What the fuck?” Morrissey’s voice was full of wonder as the black cloud settled lightly over the entire building, draping the entire facility that housed GenTech’s corporate offices in darkness.

“Skylar? Come to me, baby, let me help you end this,” Sebastian pleaded with her out loud.

“Get away from here, Bastian, and take my sisters and your men with you. If he gets you, it’s all over for me. Leave,” Skylar commanded, and her voice was a terrible thing.

“No,” he said loudly. He couldn’t see the hand in front of his face even with his night vision goggles pulled down.

He swore at that moment that he felt her brush against him and place a petal-soft kiss on his lips. He reached to grab her and felt … nothing.

“Leave now. He’s here, and what’s with him is too dangerous for you to handle. You might cut down a few of them, but they’ll get to you, and you’ll be used against me. Please, Sebastian? Leave.”

Her voice was tortured, and his instincts screamed at him to find her, take her, and run as far away from this as he could get them both.

But in his soul he knew that Smythe-Ward would never stop looking for Skylar and would hound them forever to get her.

“I’m not leaving. I’ll stand down, I’ll even evade for now, but Skylar, if you die killing him, it will kill me too. Don’t die for that bastard,” Sebastian ground out, and just that quickly the oppressive darkness lifted, and she stood before him.

He had just a moment to note the desperation in her eyes before something loped toward him from behind her.

“I love you,” she whispered and turned to throw a bolt of, holy shite,
lightning,
from her fingertips.

The creature fell and began to smoke, and Sebastian made to move toward Skylar but found that he was frozen and couldn’t move even a finger.

“Release me,” Sebastian demanded and then heard the other men over his comm link demand the same.