Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (63 page)

“
Willa’s tending to the
tagalongs,” Riley told me brightly. “The girl’s still a right mess,
but the boy is okay.”

Emma and Kip were down in the bunker. Kip
was intent on staying in London until we learned more about
Nightshade and the client who’d hired them to find us. Much as I
would have preferred them safely tucked away, I thought Kip
deserved the truth. And, honestly, I wasn’t sure if there was a
safe location for Kip right now.

“
He should walk through the
door in,” Kenly consulted her watch, “ten minutes exactly. Penny’s
with him. And an agent named Miles. That’s it. The others are
running interference.”

Ever since we’d been tipped off that Erik
intended to ambush Bryn, Kenly had been sitting in a sort of trance
trying to future gaze. Worried the meeting was a setup—paranoia ran
deep with this crowd—she’d wanted to be sure of the situation. Her
hours of mediation had paid off. She’d seen Erik and the others
entering the club, though she hadn’t been able to see the actual
meeting. This, Kenly informed me, was due to the number of factors
involved. Not being a Visionary myself, I didn’t really understand
how the gift worked. But I did know the future was fluid, and that
even the smallest decision by even the most seemingly inane person
could produce a ripple effect and change the outcome of a
vision.

“
I will go down to meet
him, shall I?” Bryn asked, popping to her feet.

“
Yeah, sure. Thanks, Bryn,”
I replied absently.

She disappeared through the same doors Kenly
and Riley had entered through. Kenly wandered to the balcony
railing and looked over the edge at the party below. It was barely
eight p.m., yet Pure Bliss was packed. I’d been worried about
someone spotting me, but Bryn had assured me that her clientele
were too self-absorbed to care. Besides, in the VIP lounge, I was
practically a ghost. No one could see us up there, and James and
several of Bryn’s trusted friends were patrolling the hallways
leading to lounge so that no undesirables could get in.

“
Do you want us to stay?”
Kenly asked. She retreated from the railing and climbed the stairs
to the uppermost level where I was seated. She sank down next to me
on the sofa, looking agitated and ill at ease.

“
Not if you’re
uncomfortable,” I told her, sipping more coffee.

For a long moment, Kenly stared off into
space.

“
Kenly? You okay?” I asked,
snapping my fingers in front of her face.

An array of emotions burst out of her all at
once. Fear. Panic. Regret. Guilt. Terror.

“
Run,” she
whispered.

Taking the steps two at a time, Riley was at
her side. He shook Kenly as tears gathered in her eyes.

“
Run,” she repeated, louder
this time.

The door to the lounge exploded open. I was
already on my feet. Kenly, frozen with terror, remained motionless.
Riley pushed me towards the stairs, simultaneously grabbing Kenly’s
arm and hauling her to her feet.

“
What? Aren’t you glad to
see me,
Tals
?”
The voice was cold and hard and so close to Erik’s that my steps
faltered.

Still two steps from the landing, I whipped
my head towards the speaker. The guy had Erik’s build, and the same
unruly black hair. Even the turquoise eyes were eerily familiar. It
was his essence that was wrong. He didn’t feel like Erik. He wasn’t
my Erik.

“
Who are you?” I demanded,
matching his tone icicle for icicle.

The boy sauntered in as if he owned the
place. Two figures followed closely on his heels, holding a pissed
off Bryn between them.

“
Who knew fugitive paid so
well,” the boy who wasn’t Erik commented, running his fingers along
the back of the sofas on the third tier. “Swanky.”

I stood taller, as though to block Kenly and
Riley from the newcomer.

“
It pays to have friends in
high places,” I said dryly. “Who the hell are you?”

The boy wiggled a finger in my direction and
clucked his tongue. “No need for the attitude. I’m here for a
friendly chat, that’s all. Just you and me, Tals. What do you
say?”

The telltale cock of a gun drew my attention
to Bryn. One of the people holding her prisoner, a woman with
flaming red hair and piercing lime eyes, pointed the barrel at
Bryn’s temple.

I am finally going crazy. It’s finally
happened.

The woman’s resemblance to Penny was
uncanny. But just like with the fake Erik, the giveaway was her
essence. I held on to the fact to keep myself sane.

“
Tell me who you are, then
we can talk,” I said calmly, forcing just enough manipulation into
my command that a normal person would have complied.

“
Your mind games don’t work
on me, sweetheart. But I’ll tell you my name.” The boy shrugged,
unconcerned. “I’m Erik Kelley. Your boyfriend.” He frowned. “It
hurts my feelings that you don’t recognize me, Tals. After all, I
was your first. The way I hear it, girls don’t forget their first
time.”

I shook my head to clear the cobwebs. No.
No. He wasn’t Erik. I knew that. I did. With every fiber of my
being. Still, I couldn’t get over how much they looked alike. And
how did this guy know personal details about my life?

Lot’s of people know about
you and Erik,
I reminded
myself.

“
That hotel room was pretty
nice, not as nice as the one I’m staying in at The Palace, but
decent. Just ask your girl, Kenly. We had a nice talk, didn’t we,
Kenly?”

Behind me, Kenly
moaned.
“Trap. Trap. Trap.”

“
Let Kenly, Riley, and Bryn
go, and then we can chat,” I said.

“
No,” Riley said firmly.
“Not a chance.”

“
This is between Erik and
me,” I said.

Out of nowhere, the oddest sensation started
in the back of my mind. It was as though someone or something was
scratching at my mental barriers, testing their strength. The
sensation was more annoying than anything. Had I not been in a
heightened state of awareness, with my senses on overdrive, I
likely wouldn’t have even noticed.

“
She’s right, Ri,” Kenly
said quietly, her tone devoid of the panic from earlier. In fact,
Kenly’s emotions had evened out as well. She was still scared, but
a peace had settled over her.
“He’s
here,”
she said inside my head.

I was about to ask who “he” was, but Kenly’s
barriers were as effective as a closed border. I could have pressed
my way in had I not worried about wasting my energy. The fake Erik
was powerful, and I had to be on top of my game if I were going to
spend some quality time with him.

Imposter Erik nodded to his two cronies.
Penny’s doppelgänger grabbed a fistful of Bryn’s hair and began
dragging her backward, the gun pressed to Bryn’s spine.

“
One wrong move, and she
dies,” the fake Penny hissed, sounding nothing like my best friend
at all.

Whoever these copies were, the resemblance
was meant to be physical, that was all. I wasn’t sure whether that
was good news or bad news.

“
We have numbers on our
side,” Riley was saying in my ear.

“
And they have Bryn,
James’s sister. They have trumped us,” Kenly replied.

“
Go,” I commanded both of
them.

Obeying my order, Riley reluctantly placed
one arm around Kenly’s waist and led her past me. “He’s here,” my
mentee whispered as she passed.

The fingernail digging its way through my
shields increased its efforts.

“
Good little girl,” the
fake Erik said, patting Kenly on the head like a dog.

Anger flashed through her. For one terrible
second, I thought Kenly was going to hit him. Her head whipped
around so fast that the veil came loose. Power crackled around her,
the sparks of electricity visible in the still air. The imposter
didn’t register Kenly’s shift in mood, though. Whatever he was, he
wasn’t sensitive to other Talents, at least not to the degree that
Riley and I were.

Unable to control herself, Kenly’s hand
darted out and slapped the imposter’s smirking face. His fingers
locked around Kenly’s throat. She let out a gurgling noise as he
squeezed her windpipe. Riley drew his fist back and punched the
fake Erik right in the nose. It had no effect. The boy refused to
release Kenly, who looked shell-shocked and too terrified to fight
for herself.

I sprang into action, catapulting myself
through the air to reach Kenly. Using telekinesis, I pried loose
the hand strangling Kenly, as Riley continued to land one
ineffective blow after another to the boy’s midsection. Once free
of his grip, my mentee scrambled backwards, clutching her throat.
She stumbled and fell, landing on her butt and scuttling further
from her attacker like a frightened crab.

The boy turned his ire on Riley. Furious
over his treatment of Kenly, I interceded. Wrenching the fake
Erik’s offending hand backward, I twisted his wrist with my
mind.

“
Bryn!” I screamed at
Riley, hoping her name alone was enough for him to understand that
I wanted him to go to her.

A sickening crack filled the air. At first,
I thought I’d broken the boy’s wrist in my rage. But then I heard
Bryn grunt, and I realized the noise had been the sound of a gun
firing.

“
No!” I
screamed.

Riley launched his body through the air,
going completely vertical. Seams burst and leather split as he
morphed mid-leap. He landed on four giant paws. Black and blue
stripes ran from his flattened ears to the tip of his swishing
tail. The tiger—at least I thought that was the form he’d taken—was
so large that he blocked Bryn, who was lying in a heap on the floor
of her own club. With a growl that shook the rafters, Riley
pounced.

The sight of Bryn crumpled like a paper doll
was too much. My anger exploded out of me. This time, I did wrench
the boy’s arm hard enough to break bone. It was enough to bring him
to his knees, but the imposter didn’t seem to feel pain. Cold,
turquoise eyes stared up at me defiantly.

“
You don’t have the stomach
for killing,” he spat. “I know you, Tals. You’re heart is too
soft.”

“
Obviously you don’t me
that well. I’ve taken more lives than you can count,” I told
him.

“
Yes, but can you take my
life? The life of the person you claim to love?”

It was the eyes. Those swirling pools of
turquoise that reminded me of the island where I’d lived with my
parents. Even though I knew the boy kneeling before me wasn’t my
Erik, I couldn’t kill him. Later, I’d tell myself that my inability
to do the deed had more to do with the fact that I needed the guy
alive for information. That he was more useful to me alive than
dead. But that wasn’t the truth.

That moment of indecision cost me. The
imposter sucker punched me in the gut. I doubled over, but managed
to stay on my feet. Until the boy’s leg swept them out from beneath
me, anyhow. Air whooshed from my lungs when I landed flat on my
back. Fake Erik was on top of me, a knee planted firmly on my
diaphragm. I couldn’t breathe. And then, I couldn’t think straight.
Images flooded my mind: the first time I’d sparred with Erik during
Hunters’ tryouts; the first time we’d kissed; finding Erik inside
that cell in Tramblewood after Mac had tortured him.

How did this imposter know so much about me?
How had he seen such private moments?

Distantly, I heard Kenly sobbing and Riley
whimpering.

Fight.

I had to fight, for all three of us. But as
soon as the thought came, it was replaced by more memories of my
life with Erik. A sexual highlight reel began to play inside my
mind.

At least I’ll die
happy,
I thought.

My mental barriers had been reduced to
rubble. Worse, I didn’t want to stop the influx of happy memories
flowing into me. I wanted to relive those moments over and over
again.

Fight.

The thought wasn’t mine own. Without my
shields, the person chiseling away at my mental security suddenly
had complete access to my brain.

“
Tals. You’ve got to
fight.”

“
Erik?”

“
It’s me, Tals. I’m almost
there.”

“
No, I’m right here,
Tals,”
a second voice, very much like the
first but not quite, screamed.

“
We’re coming,
Talia.”
Penny. Her voice was like an
anchor to reality. I just needed for her to keep talking. My best
friend didn’t disappoint.
“Like thirty
seconds. Just fight until we get there.”
It wasn’t a plea. It was a command. Instead of fighting
Penny’s hold, I embraced it.

The weight pinning me to the ground lifted.
I flew to my feet just as the door to the VIP lounge exploded open
on a gust of air. Five figures swooped through the opening. I only
had eyes for the one in the lead. Erik, in all of his badass glory,
spared me only a brief glance, but that one look held so much
emotion that I nearly collapsed. He went straight for the imposter,
who was struggling to his feet near the balcony railing, where he’d
landed when I threw him off of me.

James hurried directly to Kenly, while
Penny, Miles, and Brand entered the fray with Riley and his two
opponents. Erik and his doppelgänger began to fight. My boyfriend
was too enraged to use his talents, relying on brute strength
instead. And brute strength was something Erik had in spades. He
pummeled the imposter like a speed bag. The boy’s punches and kicks
were feeble by comparison, and yet he grinned like a fool through
it all.