The Escape (23 page)

Ava sensed my concern. “For what it’s worth, they found heroin in the baby’s blood.”

That didn’t make me feel much better. “So if Howard Obstfield is the Mann’s biological son, the Emporium obviously put that Unbounded in his place—or a baby they hoped would Change. But then who do they have in the compound? Or does he have a twin?”

“I don’t know, but twin Unbounded are extremely rare. Less than one percent of the regular rate for mortals, due to the gene’s natural inclination to choose the strongest possibility of individual survival.” Ava sighed and stared out into the night. I followed her gaze. Lights gleamed all over the city—from tall buildings, cars, traffic signals, and billboards, some blinking off or on with a curiously beautiful randomness. If I opened my senses, all the life forces of the people stacked on top of one another in such an enclosed place would make it seem as bright as day.

“Could the Patrick Mann at the fundraiser be an illusionist?” I asked.

“All our intel says the Emporium doesn’t have anyone with that ability.”

I let a few minutes pass until I remembered the other thing that bothered me. “Back at Emerson’s when we met that sensing Unbounded, Lew Roberts, I thought I saw Mari shot, but afterward she was fine. I didn’t feel her shift out of the way or anything, though maybe she blinked in and out so fast there was nothing to feel.”

Ava’s eyes found mine. “Show me.”

I opened my mind a crack so she could slide in. During our practices, she hadn’t yet been able to break through my shield, though I’d shown her repeatedly how I did it. She also couldn’t make anyone hesitate in place or move a limb. I believed the effort I’d expended in Mexico cracked something inside me, allowing me to delve deeper into my ability. But it might be because Dimitri’s mother had the sensing ability, and maybe receiving the gene from both sides made me stronger. Given the continuous assault from the minds around me, I wasn’t completely convinced it was for my good.

Keeping the rest of the world out, I shut my eyes and remembered the scene at the Emersons’ townhouse. I knew Ava would be studying the sand stream of my thoughts as I pushed back to the correct memory location.

Wait,
she said in my mind.
Show me that shield again.
She meant Lew Roberts’ shield.
I’ve never seen anything like that. So strong. And that cord . . . it seems he’s mentally shielding his partner as well.

It was thin enough to cut.
I let my contentment show through.

Doing so might have been dangerous,
she countered, and I remembered the black snake-like thing in Patrick Mann’s mind.
We’ll have to practice making that shield,
she added.

I have a theory on that. I think the more you block someone who’s actually trying to get through, the stronger you become. I bet Roberts’ repeated contact with Delia is what made him that strong.

Maybe. We’ll have to try it with the others. I was able to get through Dimitri’s shield yesterday when we were practicing in the car. It took a long time, but I did it.

That he allowed her to try showed the degree of trust between them. I wanted to ask her about that, but now wasn’t the time.

We’ll talk about this later,
she said.
Go on.

I continued to the place where I’d left Mari unshielded and then to where she’d stumbled as if shot. Ava had me replay it three times, the third with her hand on my face. When she pulled away, my eyes opened. “Well?”

“She was shot and she didn’t shift. You blocked her.”

I blinked. “What?”

“You threw out a shield.” She shook her head back and forth as if unable to believe it herself. “The bullet hit Mari with enough force to knock her over but didn’t penetrate.” Her head swung back and forth. “I’ve only dreamed of doing something like this. I want you to teach me.”

We spent the next hour practicing shielding each other and trying to break down shields, until our fingers and toes grew numb with a cold so intense that even our regenerative properties couldn’t keep us from feeling miserable.

“Your shield is getting stronger,” I told Ava. “I couldn’t get through those last two times, even using the machete. That supports my theory.”

She laughed. “Or you’re just getting tired.”

There was that. We unfolded our legs and with effort climbed down from the coop. “What about that thing in Patrick Mann’s mind?” I said. “Any theories yet?”

“I assume it’s there to hide whatever information he knows about their plan so that even if he falls into our hands, we can’t pick up on it before it’s too late.”

“Then we have to try to see what’s inside.” If Stella could locate him, I was sure Ritter could help me get in to see him. Surely Patrick wouldn’t be as unreachable as the vice president himself.

Ava frowned. “Maybe, but we’d better see what Cort knows about it first.”

Warmth welcomed us as we entered the stairway leading to the roof. By the time we’d reached the elevator, I could already feel tingling in my fingers as the heat returned to my extremities. I stared at the buttons for a minute, wondering where to go. I wanted to get our prisoners out, find Patrick Mann, and learn the identity of his lookalike—all my thoughts dividing down each path until I couldn’t think about any of them clearly.

 Ava decided for me. “The others have gone to bed, so this can wait until after workout tomorrow morning. We’ll all think better after a little rest.”

My exhaustion seemed heavy now that she’d spoken. Of course, it had been a long day, what with getting shot and having to pose as Delia. My bed suddenly called to me, as Ava punched the button to the third floor.

We met Ritter and Dimitri in the hallway, deep in conversation. Seeing Dimitri made me wonder who was watching Brody Emerson with Keene, but I knew they’d have it covered. “I’ve heard from Senator Pearson,” Dimitri said, looking up as we approached. “She confirmed that the rumors about President Stevens are true. He is incapacitated. Some kind of a stroke is what they told her, and no one knows if he’ll recover. She says they are stalling for now, but if something doesn’t change, they’ll have to make an announcement to the public.”

Which would put Vice President Mann in charge. Did that fit into the Emporium plan? “Isn’t there anything you can do?” I asked.

“Not unless I examine him, and Senator Pearson didn’t think that would be possible. But since she is so close to the First Lady, she’s going to see what she can do to pull a few strings.” Dimitri shook his head. “There might not be anything I can do anyway.”

Ava touched his arm. “You have to try. Especially if this is part of the Emporium plan.”

What was it we were missing? Two Patricks, a sick president, and a vice president who despite my dislike of him seemed to be honorable. Not to mention a Hunter with an Unbounded son. What was the Emporium planning? I felt it should be obvious, if I could only fit together the pieces.

Ava and Dimitri were staring at each other. Ava, who looked only a few years older than my thirty-one, and Dimitri, whose physical age was around fifty. There was an intimacy between them that seemed to have nothing to do with their obvious attraction for each other. Was this what others saw when they looked at me and Ritter? Or was that all in my mind?

Well, I did have the weapons he’d given me and that meant something, though I still didn’t know what I would do with the knowledge. My gaze shifted to him and found his eyes, dark and unreadable, leveled on my face. Heat ignited inside my veins.

“Guess I’ll turn in,” I said.

Ritter walked with me to my room, coming inside for the second time in as many days. As soon as the door was closed, his hand went up to cup my face. “You feel like ice.”

I didn’t feel like ice. Fire spilled from his touch through my skin. It reminded me of the towel he’d used to clean my arm the night before. The next instant I was kissing him, my mind flaring with need. I wanted to feel his lips hard against mine and his tongue on every inch of my body. My exhaustion fled.

“Erin,” he murmured. His hands slid around to my back and up to my arms. I let him push my coat to the ground with a heavy clunk and stepped closer.

He picked me up and this time I didn’t protest at being carried. Crossing to the bed, he laid me down, sinking next to me. He kissed my mouth, trailing over my face and down to my throat. My arms went around him, pulling him closer. His hand slid to my stomach and around to my leg, my catwoman suit feeling like a mountain between us.

He met the resistance of a knife and I heard it hit the ground. Two more knives and a pistol were next, followed by my boots, my backup pistol, and the ballistic knife. Then his own shoes. His mouth found mine again, and my arms went under his shirt, feeling the heat of his flesh. His mind was open and not only could I feel what he was doing to me, but I could feel what touching me did to his emotions, what my touch did to him. The flames threatened to consume me with pleasure.

I pushed the thoughts toward him, wanting to share it all with him. He groaned and a new thought entered his mind. Me with a stomach full of his baby.

Suddenly the thin material of my catwoman suit was too little between us. Ritter had asked me once if I was ready to have his child because that’s what an Unbounded relationship meant, and in his mind I could see he knew what the next step would bring. Not only was he ready for the leap, he welcomed it. He’d been waiting hundreds of years.

Ritter might want that, but did I? I was already mourning my brother Chris and his two children, who were too far removed from the direct gene to have any chance of Changing. I was thirty-one and in a hundred years, I’d look thirty-three and my niece and nephew—and probably all of their children—would be dead. It was an unnatural thing for children to die before their elders. How many children would I bury?

I was about to push Ritter away, but he began kissing me again. The hard lines of his body felt right against mine, and I was liquid under his touch. One hand slid over my stomach to my thigh. His lips met mine, his tongue exploring my mouth. In principle I understood the horrifying concept of burying mortal children, but my body forgot to behave whenever he was around.

No, I had a choice. I did. And I would stop him soon. But for now, I was going to enjoy his touch.
I need this.
Besides, I hadn’t given him my answer to his weapon offerings, except for temporarily killing Brody Emerson with the ballistic knife he’d given me last week, and Ritter had enough intelligence to understand I’d used the knife without realizing what it meant. Maybe being here so close to him would help me figure out what to answer.

I heard a soft clink and realized that the long gold chain he wore with the rings of his little sister, his mother, and the woman he was to have married had come out from beneath his shirt. The memories he carried shouldn’t bother me but for some reason they did. He wasn’t still hung up on their deaths as he had been when we’d first met, and I knew he no longer dreamed of the woman he’d loved, but I didn’t want her old band anywhere near his heart. Stupid. She was dead and couldn’t compete against me. Even alive, she’d never heard of anything like the Unbounded, and if she met the man Ritter was now, she wouldn’t even know him. Not like I did.

His hand burned a trail up my side, finding yet another knife, the tiny one Keene had given me. I expected to hear another thump as he tossed it to the ground with the others, but he paused, looking it over. My body felt cold without him pressing so tightly against me.

“What’s this?” he asked, his voice deceptively soft.

I saw in his mind that he knew the switchblade hadn’t been in our arsenal, and besides, he’d trained me on all my weapons. “Exactly what it looks like. But watch out. It’s coated in poison. Keene thought it would—” I hadn’t even finished before he was rolling away and coming to his feet, his shield clanging into place around his thoughts. I lay flat on my back, watching him, my head raised. I was still inside his thoughts, but I pulled out.
If that’s the way he wants it.

He set the knife carefully on the bedside table. “Did you use it?”

I flopped my head back on the bed and groaned. “No, I didn’t use it, but wouldn’t you rather me use it than get killed? This isn’t a game we’re playing.” He didn’t respond, so I turned to my side, propping my head up on my hand and bent elbow. “Look, Stella told me about the weapons, but you have to understand it doesn’t mean the same thing to me. Three months ago, I hadn’t even heard of Unbounded, and certainly not their mating rituals. In
my
world a man asks a woman out, and when he wants to propose something, he uses his mouth.”

Ritter stared, his eyes glittering under the single light I’d left on by the door. In two swift steps, he was back on the bed next to me, pulling me into his arms as if I weighed nothing more than a small child. His lips fell to mine, his shield dropping, and once more fire consumed my mind and body. He kissed my mouth, my eyes, my neck, my ears, and every inch of my face until my body sang with his touch. I was soaring and I never wanted to return to earth.

 All too soon he drew away. “Okay, I used my mouth.” There was a little quirk to one side of his lips that told me he’d purposefully mistaken my meaning.

“Arrrr!” I collapsed back on the bed. “So not what I meant.”

That’s when I noticed there were only two rings on his chain, those belonging to his mother and sister. The other ring I’d dreaded seeing was gone. What had happened to it? I couldn’t pretend it didn’t have something to do with his feelings for me. A lump formed in my chest. I’d told myself I didn’t want a ring from him because it would be impractical to wear, but the part of me that had been so recently mortal thought it might be nice to have one on the days we weren’t in battle.

Ritter smiled fully now, amusement in his eyes. “Oh, you know you loved it.” He strode to the door and yanked it opened. “I’ll see you in the gym at four.”

As the door closed firmly behind him, I groaned again. He was such a ridiculous, egotistical jerk! Yeah, I’d enjoyed it. A lot. So had he. Neither of us could deny the chemistry between us, or how we felt when we were together. There was an intrinsic satisfaction at being close to him that couldn’t be found anywhere else.