Twice as Hot (43 page)

Plus,
there were twenty-foot-tall lamps strategically placed to chase away night’s
gloom. Suddenly I was glad for the Shadow Brothers. On our trek, Hans kept us
wrapped in an umbrella of dark the entire way, no matter if someone tried to
flash a light at us. It was eerie, though, because I couldn’t see my hand in
front of my face. Christian could have lit up our little circle, he’d
explained, and no one would have been able to see inside, but combating his
brother’s all-encompassing darkness would completely wipe him out.

Hans,
who could see through that dark as well as create it, had had to guide us.
“Left turn in five steps,” he would say. “Straight, ten steps.”

“Belle,
Elaine, you ready?” Rome whispered.

I
would have looked at her nervously but I couldn’t see her. We didn’t want to
disable the fence; that would have alerted our targets to our presence. So we
had to get through it with the electricity still pumping and without killing
ourselves.

I
heard a whoosh of material and suspected Elaine was removing her gloves, maybe
stuffing them in her pockets.

“Be
careful.” Tanner’s voice, serious and grim, echoed through our circle.

“I
will.” She must have reached out and wrapped her fingers around the links
because suddenly I could hear the chains rattling ever so slightly. Then I
heard a little gasp escape her. The rattling increased. She was drawing the
energy into herself, away from the fence.

Someone—Tanner?—shifted
from one foot to the other, clearly agitated.

I
fumbled around until I ran into him, squeezed his hand to offer comfort, and
withdrew the wire cutters Rome had given me before we’d left the airstrip. I
was shaking, but moved quickly, not wanting Elaine to have to touch the fence
any longer than necessary.

You
control fire. You can summon storms.
Electricity was nothing.
Please let it be
nothing.
The moment the metal came into contact with the fence, I felt the
volts enter me, going straight to my core and searing.

I
cut back a yelp.

Elaine
must have increased her rate of absorption because I could feel the jolts
leaving me and flowing back into the fence, which then must have slid back into
her, because once more the rattling increased. Just like that, I calmed. Had
she not dulled the sensation, I think I would have dropped, wiped out for the
rest of the night. As it was, I was sweating, burning up really, my muscles
spasming as little shots of pain flickered through my veins.

With
Hans guiding my movements, I cut a circle big enough that even Rome, massive as
he was, could crawl through. When I finished, I fell away from the fence. “Now.”

Elaine
fell, as well, smashing into the ground. Both of us lay there, panting
shallowly.

“You
good?” Tanner asked.

“I’m—”

“Not
you,” he told me.

“Just
need…a moment…” Elaine said.

“Thanks
for the concern,” I muttered.

“Belle,
how are—” Rome and Jean-Luc began in unison. Both stopped abruptly.

Then
Rome was kneeling at my side. He could see in the dark better than anyone I
knew. Well, except Hans. He reached out, cupped my chin, hissed and jerked
away.

“What?”
I demanded, concerned.

“You’re
electric.”

“Elaine,
too,” Tanner said with his own hiss of pain. “I can feel it even through her
clothes.”

I
turned in the direction of his voice. There, a few feet away from me, I could
see little sparks rising from Elaine’s body—pinpricks of gold, like lightning
bugs flying around her. They were lovely. Probably deadly. And they were flying
off me, too.

“How
are you feeling?” Rome asked me, drawing my attention back to him.

Through
the flickers, I could make out his concerned features. “I’m okay. But damn.
Cody lives with this every day. I’m not sure how he’s survived.”

Jean-Luc
knelt at my other side. He watched the byplay between Rome and me, anger in his
eyes. “If you need anything, let me know.”

“Let
me
know,” Rome corrected tersely.

Slowly
I sat up, rubbed my temples as a wave of dizziness hit me. “Enough of that. I’m
ready for action.”

Rome
shook his head. “The guards will see you coming. You and Elaine have to stay
here until the charge wears off.”

Oh,
hell, no.

Before
I could utter a protest, though, he slapped a revolver in my hand. The metal
vibrated with energy. “Shoot anyone who approaches you.”

I
sputtered, trying to stand. My muscles didn’t cooperate, my knees buckling
under my weight. “Without Hans hiding us in shadows, we’re targets.”

“Cody’s
taken care of the cameras. All that remains are the guards. If you lie down and
be still, you’ll look like rocks from a distance. Granted, rocks with fireflies
hovering around, but rocks all the same. Trust me. You’ll be fine. If I thought
for one moment you were in danger, I wouldn’t leave you here. Now, when we’ve
taken out the guards on the parapet, we’ll flag you and you can come running.”
With barely a pause, he said, “Team, let’s move out.”

No
one protested. Which surprised me. I expected Jean-Luc to fight to stay with
me, and Tanner to fight to stay with Elaine. But clearly, they thought we were
safer here and were eager to end this war.

They
climbed through the hole in the fence Elaine and I had provided for them,
disappearing in Hans’s shadows like dark phantoms.

“Are
you fucking kidding me?” I gasped out, rolling to my stomach to make myself
more rocklike.

Elaine
did the same. “They’re going to need us,” she whispered fiercely. “I mean, the
plan was for me to drain as many guards as I could to minimize the threat.
Right now, they’re outnumbered. They’ll have to shoot, and that’ll make noise,
silencers or not.”

Outnumbered
didn’t begin to describe it. Basically, Rome was on his own out there. Tanner
was only just now learning to shoot (properly) and I had no idea if the Shadow
Brothers, young as they were, had any combat skills. Jean-Luc didn’t care if
Rome lived or died. And while I trusted Rome to get the job done, I knew our
team would fail without him. We had to have him alive and well. Uninjured.

“We
can’t just stay here,” I said, studying the terrain. Rocky, on a steep incline.

“No,
we can’t. Tanner needs me. He’s still not at full strength, though he won’t
admit it.”

There
was roughly one hundred feet between the fence and the parapet, then a
staircase leading to the top. “We’ll have to haul ass, and our bodies will
probably hate us, but if we move just right, the guards might think we’re
lightning bugs.”

“Well,
with the lamps they’ll be able to see
us,
not just the sparks.”

Good
point. “Shit. What are we going to do?” Rocks and twigs were digging into my
belly. The ground was cold, hard and a mocking reminder that I was currently
doing nothing to help my friends. Worse, the more time that passed, the less
aid Elaine and I would be able to provide. Rome would have already inserted
himself into the thick of battle.

“Maybe
we can throw rocks at the bulbs?” she suggested. “It’ll dim the light.”

“That
might announce our presence. Unless…” An idea began playing through my head.
“I’m going to make it storm. We’ll be harder to spot if the guards have water
in their eyes. Also, we can break the bulb closest to us and maybe they’ll
think it was lightning, rather than an intruder.”

She
reached out, feeling for a big enough rock. “You take care of the rain, I’ll
take care of the bulb.”

“Consider
it done.” For once, I didn’t lament about how to get the job done. I closed my
eyes, picturing Rome and Tanner shot during this battle. Lexis and Sherridan
broken beyond repair. Poor, sad, motherless Sunny crying on my shoulder. My
chin began to tremble. My eyes began to fill with tears.

A
few drops of rain splattered on the top of my head and sizzled. Ouch. Was that
what Cody felt when he touched water? I did my best to direct the rest of the
droplets away from Elaine and me, even as I did everything in my power to
intensify my sadness.

Would
Rome and I ever get back together? Truly together? Would he still want me after
I went on those three dates with Jean-Luc? Not that anything would happen on
those dates—
unless Lexis was right. She isn’t, can’t be
—but some men
couldn’t stand the thought of another man looking at their woman, and Rome was
more jealous than most.

A
fine sprinkle started up, just ahead of us.

Satisfaction
wanted to fill me because the storm had begun, but I couldn’t let it. That
would cause the rain to stop. Rather, I needed it to intensify. Sad, sad, sad.
Me, all alone. Rome, back with Lexis or even with some other girl. Me, never
seeing him again. Never seeing his daughter again. Never being held by him, loved
by him. Him, realizing he didn’t want or need me anymore. Him, realizing he
hated the girl I’d become.

I
kept those terrible thoughts playing through my mind, tormenting me. Tears ran
down my cheeks in rivers, burning, even as the sky opened up and poured a
deluge of rain onto the land. Hail even fell, slapping into the ground. I
couldn’t keep it away this time, there was simply too much, and damn, did it
hurt.

I
shivered, soaked to the bone in seconds. “R-ready?” I asked Elaine.

“Y-yes.”
Her teeth were chattering, too, and lines of tension branched from her eyes.

“Fight
past the pain. Hell, maybe the rain will even help get rid of our sparks
altogether.”

“I
hope so.”

The
boys hadn’t given us the signal, which meant they were still engaged in battle.
They needed us, whether they wanted to admit it or not. Gripping the gun—it
didn’t vibrate this time, and the pain inside me was easing, so what I’d told
Elaine had been the truth—I rose. When Elaine did the same, almost collapsing
beside me, I instinctively reached out and latched onto her, keeping her
upright. Thank God she was covered by long sleeves. I would have dropped if I’d
accidentally touched her skin.

A
moment passed before she gained her bearings. She tossed a rock at the lamp.
Missed the bulb. Grunted, and tossed another rock. This time she hit her
target. Glass shattered, and shadows closed around us.

My
eyes were able to adjust to this darkness, though, and I saw her pull her hood
over her head, shielding every inch of her but her eyes. Well, and her hands.
Those she kept free—easier to incapacitate the guards that way.

“Get
ready to hurt.” As the rain beat down on us, we ducked through the fence and
sprinted our way up the hill to the parapet. My muscles screamed in protest,
but at least no one shot at us.

The
closer we got, the more male grunting I could hear. Grunting and growling.

Rome
had morphed into a cat.

We
raced up the stairs, nearly barreled into Tanner, Christian and Hans, one of
whom cracked me in the jaw before realizing who I was. I saw stars.

“Sorry,”
Christian said.

“That’s
going to leave a mark.” Silver lining: my wedding wasn’t happening as planned
and I wouldn’t have to get married with a goose egg on my chin.

Some
silver lining, I thought, my sadness deepening and the rain increasing.

When
my vision cleared, I looked around, trying to decide the best way to help Rome.
Jean-Luc and I could—But there was no sign of Jean-Luc.

Tanner
clasped Elaine’s shirt, jerking her beside him. “Stay here. Rome doesn’t know
you and might accidentally attack you.”

“Go
and get the guards,” I told her. “I’ll take care of Rome so you don’t
accidentally touch him.”

She
bolted forward, wrenching free of Tanner, and raced for the guards. They were
weaponless, their semiautomatics already scattered over the stones. But there
was a swarm of them, too many for Rome to fight on his own. I raced forward,
too, only I launched myself at Rome, landing on his back and sending his
feline-self propelling to his stomach.

His
face immediately swung at me, those long, sharp teeth ready to clamp down for a
tasty snack. At the first pierce, slight though it somehow was, he must have
realized who I was because his mouth moved away from me without hurting me
further. He flipped me over, pinning me with his weight.

I
wrapped my arms around him, embracing him tightly, holding him to me. He didn’t
know it, but I was helping him. Or maybe he did. He could have wiggled free,
but didn’t. To protect me with his own body?

The
rain continued to fall, though it tapered to a drizzle. My heart was pounding
in my chest, a wild, uncontrollable thump. I searched the darkness, found
Elaine standing in the middle of a rapidly diminishing crowd. The guards had
launched themselves at her, but as she touched them, or as they hit her, they
toppled to the ground, one by one, motionless.

Soon,
she was the only one left standing.