The Forbidden Trilogy (89 page)

Lucy's heart skipped a beat.
Why would he bring that up
now? What would using the sphere do?

Luke shook his head. "Nice try, but Lucy got rid of
that booby trap in the valley."

Did Beleth want Luke to drain his own life energy? If that
was the case, it was a convoluted way of accomplishing what he'd had many
opportunities to do himself.

This clearly enraged Beleth. He roared and looked more like
an animal than ever before, the sound of his voice filling the large space.
"Leave!"

What? Yes, dummy, leave.
She couldn't figure out why
Beleth was giving her brother an out, but he'd better take it.

Luke raised Hunter's sword and crept closer to his pack.
"Never!"

Damn fool, still trying to complete the mission.

Beleth turned away from Luke and walked to Hunter, still
slumped over, unconscious. "Then he will pay for your decision."

What? Oh God!
This just kept getting worse and worse.
Lucy wanted to run and help, but she wouldn't make it in time. Why hadn't Robyn
arrived yet? Lucy wanted to check on them, though she'd given instructions
already, but she couldn't pull her eyes from the screen.

Luke had to help Hunter. Why wasn't he moving? She looked to
Hunter and to the vents.
Shit!
This was Luke's only chance to get the
sleeping gas into the vents, but if he did that, Hunter would die. If he
didn't, those kids would die.

Luke stood, paralyzed.

Panic gripped her voice. "Do something! Now!"

Beleth moved closer to Hunter, each step a loud thud, his
muscles straining as if fighting himself.

If Luke didn't move soon, he'd lose his chance to do
anything, and Lucy would lose Hunter and her brother.

Luke whispered something. "Sometimes there are no right
decisions."

That sounded familiar. Beleth... he'd said that in the plane
when they'd first met. Now it had come full circle.

Luke sprang to action and ran toward Hunter.

Lucy cried in relief.

***

Luke darted through the room and struck at Beleth's neck
with the sword, but Beleth turned and blocked with one blade while
counter-attacking with the other. His blade stopped in mid-air, humming with
tension.

Beads of sweat formed on Luke's face as he focused on
Beleth, holding him with power.

A new look crossed Beleth's face. Pain twisted his usually
calm features. The blade jutting from his hand started to crack. Beleth
groaned, and the blade shattered, the pieces clattering like glass.

Beleth roared in pain and pulled away, but Luke stayed
focused and erected an entire barrier around the man, then shrank it until it
became tighter and tighter. Lucy could see the iridescent reflection of the
shifting matter even through the cameras.

Beleth coiled into a ball, then his muscles bulged and he
burst free of the force-field, tearing the air with a sound like thunder. His
breathing came out harder than before. "Nice trick."

Luke staggered back from the exhaustion of pushing his
para-powers so hard, but didn't give up. "Here's another."

One of Beleth's spider legs jerked forward with a crack, as
if Luke had him on a string and had tugged. He must have been forcing a shift
in the molecular structure. A brutal tug-of-war ensued, until the spider leg
ripped off entirely. Beleth roared again, and for a moment Lucy believed her
brother might actually win this battle.

Then Beleth's last blade extended and he plunged it into the
ground, snapping the concrete tile like a board of wood. That made no sense,
and then—

Lucy screamed, "Luke, move!"

He hopped backward just in time to avoid the blade that came
up from the ground to split him in two. It nicked his leg instead, and he fell
to the ground, the air knocked out of him.

Beleth crawled over to Luke using his spider legs, the
strain of his recent battle showing in his tight, pain-filled eyes, but not in
his speed.

He got closer to Luke, who wheezed on the floor and clutched
his leg, when the door burst open and Robyn and her team stormed in.

Beleth's eyes widened in surprise. Darren flicked his hand
and sent a table flying at Beleth, who tumbled back. Robyn, Norm, Mary, Greg
and Gary held guns on him, but Beleth responded without hesitation, pushing his
blade into the ground again.

Luke waved his arms. "Everyone move!"

The team moved back, but the blade didn't attack from below
as expected. Instead, it came up under Luke's pack with all the sleep grenades,
pierced it, then changed into a mallet shape and slammed back down, crushing
all the contents. Green gas exploded out, enveloping them.

Lucy screamed into the comm. "Get your masks on and get
out of there."

That was it. They'd failed. But what about Sam and Drake?
And their baby?

She radioed Simmons as the green vapor filled the room and
blocked the camera. "We need to evacuate, now."

"Is the mission complete?"

"No. The grenades are destroyed."

"Shit! We'll send in armored trucks. Get near the gate.
But first, Lucy, did Agent Riley leave his pack with you?"

"Yes." Lucy felt a panicky sickness in her gut as
she lost all visual of her friends and Hunter—still stuck in the room with
Beleth.

"Good. Go to the pack and open it."

Lucy didn't want to leave the computer, but she couldn't see
anything now, so she dropped to the side of the bed and unzipped his bag. Wires
connected to a device that looked like....

She stepped back and gasped.

"A bomb."

Drake pushed the gun in my hand and the bullet went wide,
missing Steele and hitting a tank, creating a thin blue line of liquid down the
side. I stared at my fingers and then glared at Drake. "What the
hell?"

"I... Sam, I'm sorry." He held up his hands, as if
he'd never seen them before, as if they'd just done something horrible, which
they had.

I scanned his thoughts, probing deep.
Why did I do that?
What's wrong with me? I don't understand why my body reacted without my
control.

Neither one of us had a clue as to what was going on, but at
least he hadn't betrayed me. Which left one person.

Steele. He flashed a smug smile from across the room.

I tried to slip into his mind, but it had something like a
firewall around it that I couldn't crack. Instead, I dove back into Drake's
thoughts and tried to meld with him like we used to.
"We need to
attack, now!"

'I can't. I don't know why, but something's wrong.'

Steele drew a pistol and aimed it at us. "I'm sorry if
things aren't going according to plan."

And yet, he didn't sound sorry.
Go figure.
I didn't
wait for him to react, just aimed my gun again and pulled the trigger,
except... I didn't pull the trigger. I lowered the gun and dropped it. I
couldn't do anything else, almost as though....

I turned to Drake, fear and betrayal smothering me.
"You controlled me?"

Drake's faced dropped in confusion and sadness. He didn't
understand.

"It's not his fault," explained Mr. Steele.
"He's been programmed to protect me." He looked to Drake. "When
we met, you thought I scanned your memories. I did much more than that. I
altered your thoughts, your deepest, most subconscious, basic, primal thoughts.
You'll protect me, because that's what your mind has been conditioned to
do."

'No, can't be right. I can't do this. I won't do this. I
love Sam and Ana. I won't hurt them.'

I stood in shock. So this was why Steele had let Drake out
of jail. He didn't need him to kidnap kids, he wanted him right here, right
now, to deliver me to him and protect him from me all at the same time.

I knew it wasn't his fault, but it didn't matter. "You
should never have come back."

Drake dropped his head. "I'm sorry. I wanted to do the
right thing, to make up for my mistakes." He bent over to pick up the gun,
then tried to point it at Steele. The strain of his muscles, the sadness in his
eyes, expressed his agony as he cried out and dropped the weapon.

"If you can't help me, than you're a liability." I
turned and kicked him hard right between the legs.

He collapsed on the ground, groaning with his eyes closed.

I scrambled for the gun, but....

Steele moved faster, and pulled the trigger.

A bullet grazed my leg, and I collapsed on the floor, the
pain tearing into me. I tried to reach the gun on the assumption that Steele
wouldn't kill me, since he apparently needed me for something. My finger
brushed against the metal, and just as I was about to get a grip on it, a giant
foot covered in black, sharp obsidian-like rocks stepped on the gun, crushing
it.

I looked up at a man who was more beast than man. Red tissue
clung to his body as if his skin had been stripped. His misshapen and building
muscles stretched to the point that it looked painful. Down his right arm and
shoulder more obsidian covered him, moving up his back and neck and covering
his head, like a shell. Red shorts that would have been huge on anyone else,
dug into his skin, though he didn't appear to notice.

His eyes, however—those small, beady eyes—looked so
familiar. His face, his features.... I knew him. Well, I had seen him in Lucy's
mind. "Adam?"

They'd done something to him, but I never forgot a face.
Lucy thought he had died saving her. but Steele clearly had gotten to him
first.

I slipped into his mind and tried to read his thoughts, but
he barely had any. He wasn't blocked or shielded, he was empty. I switched to
mind control, and pushed my will onto his to get him to help me.

Nothing happened.

I couldn't even feel the coil of power inside me anymore. I
shot mental daggers at Steele. "What did you do to my powers?"

He shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking
about."

Truth or lie? Would Lucy be able to tell? I thought about
it... the power I'd never had before, that had only come about while I was
pregnant with Ana and connected to Drake.

Ana. Oh God.
I hadn't used mind control since Ana was
born. I hadn't needed it. Did I lose my power when I gave birth? Was I just
borrowing Ana's power—a power she inherited from Drake? That would explain why
I'd never presented with this ability before. I knew there was another piece to
this puzzle I had to figure out, but I couldn't place it. Hopelessness consumed
me. My power was gone and I had no defense against Steele, Adam
or
Drake.

Steele's cold voice cut into my misery. "Pick her up,
Grunt."

Adam—I refused to call him Grunt—picked me up with one hand,
like a giant would pick up a child. His hot breath settled on my face.

"Bring her to me," Steele said.

Adam followed the command, not thinking, just obeying. A
Grunt indeed.

"What have you done to him?"

"I rescued him from a meaningless existence."
Steele walked over to a little table with a coffee pot on it and poured himself
a cup. The harsh aroma tickled my nose. His voice lacked any emotion or empathy
when he spoke. "After your friends created that debacle in Russia, I had
to eliminate that facility, destroy an entire corporation. No one believed that
our visit and the death of their lead scientist, not to mention a breech in security,
were coincidental. I found Grunt hiding out in the mountains, the perfect
specimen for my own experiments. Studying him gave me all the info I needed on
human enhancement." He sipped his coffee. "Eventually, I was even
able to surpass the Russian scientist's brilliance and make some
modifications."

Grunt stopped in front of Steele, still holding me. I felt
like a rag doll, and his grip started to cut off blood flow and air to my body.

Steele gestured to a crib. "Would you like to see your
baby?"

All discomfort forgotten, I spit in his face. "Why do
you want her?" I heard Drake moving around behind me and prayed he didn't
make this situation worse than it already was.

Steele took a napkin and dabbed at his mouth as if we were
at a freaking tea party. "She's the key. You both are."

I remembered my dream, the Seeker's memory of me being
brought home as a baby. Steele had said I was perfect, that I was the key.
Apparently, I wasn't perfect enough, if he still needed Ana.

He walked over to the crib, picked up my Ana and cradled
her. She fussed and cried, but he ignored it. "With Grunt, I was able to
enhance powers, even transfer them successfully, but only the basic ones:
strength, speed, physical manipulation, appearance. The powers this baby
possesses are beyond that, the next evolution of paranormals."

I wanted to dig out his eyes with my fingers and pull out
his trachea. How dare he touch my baby? How dare he use her like this? I
struggled against Adam, trying to escape, but he was too strong and my leg bled
and hurt. Still, I wouldn't give up, not with Ana just a few feet away, crying
for me. I could feel her fear and confusion, her dislike for the man who held
her.

"You better hope she is okay, because if you have
harmed even a hair on her head, I will make your death long and painful. You're
going to die either way, but I can make you wish for death, Steele, and I
will." The words may have sounded like empty threats, but I had a mother's
conviction on my side. I wasn't bluffing.

Drake joined the fray by running toward Steele, who pointed
his gun at Drake. "I've made some alterations. Don't make me make
more."

Drake froze.
'What's the use? I can't even hurt him or
allow him to be hurt. Useless.
It's over. I've failed.'

No, failure was not an option. I wiggled in Adam's hand.
"He's hurting me."

Steele looked up, as if he'd forgotten I'd been dangling
there. "Of course. Grunt, put her down."