The Escape (27 page)

Then Ritter was there, his gun at the head of the big man in blue plaid. “Go ahead. Kill him. But you’ll be next.”

Kofford hesitated. Ritter plucked the gun from his hand, and rapped him over the head, knocking him unconscious. Ritter scowled at Oliver. “Where’s the SWAT team, huh?”

“Oh, uh. I was fighting with—”

“Now!” Ritter growled.

“Hold it, everyone!” came a powerful voice near the podium. A dozen men in uniforms had appeared there with assault rifles and shields. “Drop your weapons immediately.” Rifles and knives clattered to the floor.

“Go!” Ritter grabbed Brody by the back of his shirt and yanked him to his feet. “Oliver, you’re the last one out. Erin, tell Mari we’re coming.” Half-dragging Brody, he jumped toward the doorway. Cort and Jace followed, as well as several Hunters, who seemed more anxious at escaping the police than anything else. I tried to step forward or call out to Mari, but the power pulsing inside rooted me to the spot. My hands still clung to both sai.

“Erin?” Oliver asked.

“Go,” I said.

To his credit, he hesitated.

“Go!” I didn’t want him here when I blew.

The next instant Ritter was gathering me in his arms and running down the hall. A figure rose up to stop us, but Ritter resolved the challenge with a single kick.

I beat at Ritter’s chest. “Put . . . me . . . down. Too much . . . power. Brody’s ability . . . going to blow.” I didn’t want to take Ritter with me. How ironic that I might be the cause of his death.

Ritter slowed, understanding at last. “Break your connection with him.”

I couldn’t. At least I wasn’t taking in any more power, but I couldn’t seem to release what I had.

“Find a target,” Ritter barked. “Anything. Blast it like a gun!”

There had to be some way to release the power as he commanded. Maybe I just had to choose a target.

We’d reached the foyer where the monitors sat on the desk. That was as good as it was going to get. “Leave me,” I told Ritter. “I’ll blow the computers.”

He held me tighter, his forehead touching mine. “I’m not leaving you.”

It was an unreasonable response. He was in charge of the mission and I was endangering it. He should cut his losses. But of course he wouldn’t.

I looked at the desk and pointed with a sai, pushing the power toward it. The energy careened through my body in a heady rush. The desk, the computers, and the entire room, burst into flame. Ritter leapt for the door even as the heat became unbearable. An explosion erupted behind us, and we were blown out to the sidewalk in a shower of glass.

Mari screeched the Land Cruiser up to the front walk. Everyone was already inside, except for Oliver, who crouched on the sidewalk, covering his head. Jace jumped out and pulled him inside as Ritter and I found our feet and started running.

Next door, people piled out of the church. “Call the fire department!” someone shouted.

“There are people inside!” called a second person. “Help me break the windows so we can get them out.”

Mari stomped on the gas, leaving the destruction behind.

“W
HOO-HOO!” JACE SCREAMED. “THAT’LL TEACH
them to mess with us!” His words belied his numerous cuts and bruises, and the already blackening eye. Cort, Ritter, Keene, and I were no better off. Only Oliver had escaped with minimal wounds, and Brody, who’d lapsed into unconsciousness in the back seat with Cort. From the bag of medical supplies on Cort’s lap, I suspected it wasn’t a natural unconsciousness.

Mari smirked. “Only if your assailants look worse than you do.”

“What, you don’t think going up in flames is good enough?” Jace quipped.

“That was kind of impressive.” Mari glanced back at me, a question in her eyes.

I wasn’t about to get into it now, though I’d have to make a full report to Ava. My head throbbed and I felt as weak as a baby. I was glad they’d done something about Brody because I couldn’t feel the power in him now. Either he’d found a safe way to release it, or the power had gradually seeped away after he fell unconscious. We’d all been so close to death. The first thing we needed to do when Brody awoke was to help him control his ability or the next time he was frightened we might not be so lucky.

I shivered, though I didn’t feel cold, and Ritter put an arm around me. “Pass me a blanket,” he told Cort. “And some curequick.”

“No curequick for me,” I said. The fact that I craved the buzz told me I’d had too much in the past few days. Besides, the power whipping through my body had already given me a high.

Ritter wrapped me in the blanket, but I pushed it off. I felt flushed and I didn’t think it was from fever or from three of us being crammed into the middle seat. I felt Keene’s eyes on me from Ritter’s other side, and when I looked up, there was a sadness there. Or something similar radiating from him. Did he realize that I’d finally accepted my feelings for Ritter back there with the Hunters? That I’d chosen? It felt both good and frightening to even think about so much change. Committing to Ritter was more than a relationship. It meant permanence and family, and I still didn’t think I was quite ready, but it was clear that I loved him and maybe the rest didn’t really matter.

I looked away from Keene and moved closer to Ritter, which seemed impossible without getting into his lap. Ritter quirked a brow at me, but said nothing. “I’ll inject just a little right around your cut,” he said. “Otherwise, you’ll be good for nothing the rest of the day.”

“All right, but no stitches. Just wrap it tight.”

“Okay.” He tossed a syringe of curequick to Jace in the front seat. “Get Oliver to help you if you need it.”

Oliver sat beside Jace, stiff and unsmiling, as though he felt everyone blamed him for our not making it out sooner. But while he should have called up the SWAT team sooner, none of us blamed him for being scared. If he’d admit it, we’d all tell him so, but as soon as his mouth opened, I was pretty sure it would be an excuse or to blame someone else. Oliver might be talented, and his IQ was high enough that he periodically mentioned it in arguments, but his social skills were pretty much nil.

Everyone was quiet as we bandaged our wounds. Ritter sewed up a cut on his leg that made me bite my lip, and Cort announced that he’d need help digging a bullet from his thigh. A few tiny balls from a shotgun had pierced Jace’s arm, but they were easily removed, and he was feeling pretty happy after receiving a shot of curequick laced with anesthesia.

“Better pull over while we look at Cort,” Ritter said. “And change the plates in case anyone at that church jotted them down.”

Mari swerved over with a little too much enthusiasm. “Good, I was getting tired of driving anyway. It’s going to take forever to get there. If no one minds, I think I’ll just meet you all back home. I can get started on reporting to Ava.” She waited less than five seconds before a soft suction of air told us she’d shifted.

“Well,” Jace said. “Wouldn’t that be nice?”

Cort grinned. “Yeah, she’s going to be a pain on the way to the new safe house. Too bad she can’t shift there. Something tells me that will be a long trip.”

Mari’s impatience was a new part of her identity. Before her Change she’d been an accountant, using a machine to meticulously add numbers. Now she added a page at a time with only a glance and folded space as if it were a piece of paper.

Ritter and Keene went to work on Cort’s leg, while I leaned over the front seat and checked the bandage on my brother’s wound. “Not bad,” I told Oliver.

“That guy made it impossible to call up an illusion,” Oliver said. “You should have taken over masking that Hunter so I could do what I was supposed to.”

“Brody’s no longer a Hunter,” I countered. “And I was channeling Jace’s ability, not to mention making sure Brody didn’t blow us all up. Why not just say you screwed up and do better next time?”

Oliver scowled. “I wasn’t sure when to call the SWAT team, and anyway, Brody was the most important thing. At least I got him out.”

I seemed to remember Ritter being the one to carry Brody from the melee, with Oliver still rooted to the spot. But whatever.

“Hey, relax,” Jace said. “It’s cool. Am I going to drive?”

“No, I am.” I took the keys from his fingers.

I slid from the car, my own wounds aching, but needing a little space. The narrow road leading to the freeway seemed to be deserted, and the sun had peeked from the clouds. For the first time in weeks the outside air felt almost warm. Perfect for a short walk where I wouldn’t have to smell blood. I began to up my absorption of nutrients to help my wounds heal but found that the power I’d absorbed while channeling Brody’s talent had also filled me up well in the nutrient department.

Jace caught up to me after only a few moments. “They’re almost finished.”

That told me Cort’s wound wasn’t as severe as it could have been. We’d been lucky, all things considered. If it hadn’t been for almost blowing up, it might have even been exciting. “Good.”

“Brrrr. It’s like ice out here.”

I stopped walking. “I feel kind of warm.”

He reached over and grabbed my hand, releasing it immediately. “Wow, you’re burning.”

“Must be left over from that power I siphoned from Brody.” Interesting. I’d have to see if he felt hot, or if it was because I wasn’t able to get rid of the energy properly.

“He’d be handy to have around in a snow storm. That is, if he isn’t traumatized for life after this.”

“Even if he is, he’ll get over it in a hundred or so years.” I took a step forward, but Jace’s next words stopped me again.

“Dad isn’t my biological father, is he?”

I’d been waiting for him to ask, and in fact I’d been close to telling him myself several times. It wasn’t a secret that our parents had trouble conceiving and had gone to a fertility clinic, which was how Dimitri came to be my birth father. Ava had taken advantage of our parents, allowing them to believe the insemination had succeeded, but maybe that wasn’t such a terrible thing given my parents’ longing for children. They still didn’t know the truth.

Jace dug his foot into the small rocks on the side of the road. “I mean, it’s obvious Dad couldn’t have more children and besides, we’re seventh generation. Without an influx of new Unbounded genes, the likelihood of Change was already practically zero. That both of us Changed would take the possibility into the negative.” He blew out a puff of air. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell Mom and Dad. They went back to that clinic, didn’t they? When they wanted to have me. So how do I find out who my father is? It’s not Dimitri, I don’t think, or he would have said something when you confronted him. Do you think Ava will tell me if I ask? Or maybe you could ask her for me. I’d like to know.”

I believed a person deserved to know who their biological parents were, regardless of whether or not they pursued a relationship with them. Except in Jace’s case where the consequence of knowing might be fatal. I was afraid that once I put words to it, I’d start something no one could stop.

“Maybe,” I said, “Ava has a reason not to tell you.”

“You know, don’t you?” His words were accusing. “How long are you going to hide it? Until I’m a hundred? Three hundred? Come on, I deserve to know the truth. You know our life. One day to the next he might be dead.” A smile quirked his lips, reminiscent of the man whose identity he sought. My stomach twisted.

“I’ll talk to Ava,” I said. “For what it’s worth, I think you have the right to know, but I sure wish you would trust me when I tell you it’s not that easy. You may wish you’d never asked.” Learning that our mother had been inseminated with the stolen genetic material of Emporium Triad member Stefan Carrington, generally believed to have been used for my conception, definitely wouldn’t be the happy ending he was looking for.

“That bad, huh?” He chuckled a little too loudly. “Wouldn’t you want to know if you were me?”

I would. But I wasn’t Jace. I was impulsive and new at this Unbounded stuff, and even a little bit reckless, but he was all that and more. An innocent in many respects. I didn’t want anyone taking advantage of him. “Yeah,” I said.

“Okay. Then talk to her.”

We walked back to the Land Cruiser in silence, me feeling as though I’d betrayed my brother by not telling him the truth. Since when had I toed the line with Ava in regards to my family? Never. No, I didn’t tell Jace now not because of her, but because of my own reluctance. Did I think he’d go over to the dark side?

“So can I drive?” Jace asked. “Give me back the keys.”

I jingled the keys in my pocket, hurrying a bit faster. “Nope.”

When I had the engine running, Ritter asked, “Has anyone thought to notify Emerson that his son is all right?”

“I’ll do it,” Keene said.

I glanced in the mirror and Ritter’s eyes met mine. I extended my arm to Jace. “Help me pull this coat off. It’s hot in here.”

The drive back to the safe house went quickly until we arrived in New York City and the traffic bogged down. All of us were moving with less pain after an hour of healing, even Keene, though perhaps he’d stayed out of most of the brawl—I hadn’t actually noticed what he’d done there. Or maybe the experimental medicines Dimitri and Cort had given him were actually working.