Indestructible (22 page)

“We’ll find them,” Adrian said confidently. “He must have some sort of an office or he wouldn’t have where to meet his business associates.”

“Do you think he has a safe somewhere? How are we going to open it?” I didn’t think Adrian and I could guess the password.

“I’ll give you some mini bombs. They’re good for opening that kind of things and they don’t make a lot of noise,” Lily said as if opening safes were the easiest thing in the world. The only good thing was that Ethan’s father couldn’t have a lock enhanced with an element because he didn’t have any elements. If he were an element preserver, he wouldn’t need to hide all the time and stay away from people.

“Great,” I said. I knew Lily would try to help us as much as she could, but I still couldn’t shake off the nervous feeling in the pit of my stomach. Would this mission be the last thing I do before going to a lab? Or would this be the last thing I do in my life?

I tucked a knife in my boot and strapped a gun to my belt. The bombs Lily had sent us were small enough to fit into the pockets of my leather jacket. Adrian was across the room, but I was safely enveloped in the cloud of his element. He flashed me a smile as he shrugged his black jacket onto his shoulders.

“Five minutes,” I said, glancing at my watch. Adrian crossed the distance between us and pulled me into his arms. I rested my forehead against his. “If something goes wrong, I want you to know that I’m not sorry for anything we’ve done.”

“Good to know,” he said, tipping my chin up. “But even if things go wrong, we’ll find our way out. Isn’t that what we always do?”

“Yeah, I guess it is.” I smiled and pressed my lips against his. “We have to go.” Gathering our things, we left the hotel and hurried to our car. This time we’d let Lily to rent the room for us, so hopefully no one would ransack it by the time we got back. All I knew was that if we wanted our plan to succeed, we didn’t have much time.

“Not so fast.” Adrian grabbed my arm, and I raised an eyebrow at him. We were just across Marlau’s house and we could clearly see the guards and the high fence that surrounded the whole property.

“What? I just wanted to go closer. Maybe near that tree?” I pointed in the direction of the tree that was closest to the fence.

“No. It’s too close. We wait for Lily’s sign. She’s monitoring everyone and she’ll know when it’s safe to go near.”

I stomped my foot on the ground, trying to alleviate my anxiety. Why couldn’t we just go inside and be over with it? Pressing the com-link in my ear, I turned it on so I could talk to Lily. “Hey, what’s the hold up? If your guys want to help and create a diversion, they better do it now.”

“Don’t be impatient. The family has left the house only fifteen minutes ago. You don’t want the guards to alert them about something weird happening. We don’t want any family members to return too fast,” she said.

“Relax,” Adrian breathed into my other ear, running his fingers across my arm.

I licked my dry lips and waited, glancing at the watch every twenty seconds. A couple of people passed us by, but we pretended to be two young people in love who hadn’t seen each other for a long time. We even had an imaginary conversation about our trips to various countries.

“Go to the alley behind the house,” Lily said, and just like that, we were on the move, striding across the street. Adrian’s hand was in mine, my fingers a bit slippery from sweat, but there was no time to wipe them on my pants.

“The cameras are off. Be careful,” Lily added.

An explosion rocked the ground before we reached the alley, and we ran toward the fence. The guards rushed to the other side of the house, their guns drawn. Whatever Lily’s men had done, it worked. After he safely wrapped me in a cloud of his element, Adrian climbed the fence and I followed him. We’d chosen the lowest part of the fence, and I was glad there weren’t any sharp points.

I jumped to the ground, bumping into Adrian. His protective cloud faltered, but he grabbed my hand in time to stop the disaster. We ran across the grass as fast as we could and got to the porch.

“Lily, the door!” Adrian said after his attempt to push the door open failed. The keypad next to the door beeped and the door opened. I stared at it in surprise because I would never have thought someone would bother to have a keypad instead of a normal lock on the door of their own house. Maybe the front door was different, but we didn’t have time to check.

I shut the door behind me and looked around. We were in a long, dark hall, which led to three different doors. It took me a moment to remember the plan Lily had sent us. The door in front of us led to the living room and the kitchen, while the door to our left would take us to the basement. The door to the right led to the rooms, and perhaps Anton’s office.

“Where do we go first?” I said, my voice trembling. The guards were yelling outside, and I wanted to get out of the hall before they decided to come inside.

“Upstairs,” Adrian said, letting go of my hand. I nearly tripped as we ran upstairs, but we made it to the hall with the rooms. The room at the end of the hall was supposed to be Anton’s office, or so Lily had concluded based on some satellite images she had.

As we went closer, my breath left my lungs and my whole body trembled. I reached for Adrian’s hand and the elements disappeared. Gasping for breath, I clung to Adrian. “What happened?” I glanced at my watch. “That was only three minutes, tops.”

“I don’t know.” He frowned. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah.” I was slightly nauseated, but I couldn’t worry about that right now. “Go ahead.” I let go of his hand and sighed in relief when the elements didn’t rush back at me.

There was another keypad in front of the door, but the light on it was green, which meant Lily had unlocked it already. Adrian turned the knob and went inside. Glancing behind me, I tiptoed inside. We had to be careful not to make any noise or the guards might hear us. Hopefully, Lily’s men were keeping them busy.

“Do you see anything?” I asked. The office was completely in the dark, so I was blinded for a moment when Adrian found the light switch. The brown desk in the middle of the room was completely clean. There wasn’t even a computer in sight.

“No. Nothing.” He picked up a couple of books from the shelf in the corner and lifted a painting, but the safe wasn’t hidden there. I walked across the dark red carpet, trying to find a weak spot. Maybe the safe was built into the floor.

“What if this room is only for meetings?” Adrian knelt near the desk and tapped on the wood, seeking a hidden compartment. “Doesn’t everything look a bit too pristine and fake?”

“You think he uses this room to impress his associates?” I felt the wall for any switches or buttons, but I couldn’t find anything. What if Adrian was right? The office was nice enough, but the shelf and the desk didn’t look like they were used daily. They were clean, but that didn’t mean anything.

“Yeah.” Adrian pressed his lips together.

“Do we go to his room?” If he didn’t keep his private files in the office, then maybe he was hiding them in his room. It would make sense. The files would be close enough for him to reach at any time.

“Yeah, although I’m not sure he’d keep the files there. Doesn’t he share the room with his wife?” He headed for the door.

The world tilted around me. “Adrian!”

He quickly grabbed my hand and the world stopped spinning.

“This is not good,” he said. “Is our control getting worse or are we just under too much pressure to do it right?”

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. We didn’t have time to think about the disease. Not now. “I think we counted enough rooms for each member of the family. The wife must be sleeping in  her own room. I mean, he’s a carrier and she’s not. She might wear the element-blocking jewelry and spend some time with him, but sleeping near him would be dangerous. Just imagine if she dropped the jewelry. He could kill her.”

“Okay. Let’s go to his room, then. Which one is it?” Adrian’s fingers slipped out of mine and he switched off the lights.

“First door to the left.”

We rushed outside and slipped into Anton’s room. It had to be the biggest room in the whole house because even the huge double bed looked small. The windows were wide open, letting fresh air and light inside. We could hear the police sirens outside. Lily’s explosion must have brought the attention of the cops and not just of the guards. I hoped that whoever Lily had sent to set up the bomb couldn’t be tracked back to her, but she must have thought of that.

Adrian was going through the drawers as I checked out the nightstand and the shelf. Nothing in the room resembled a safe or looked out of the ordinary. “I don’t think it’s here,” I said in a huff, pushing my hair out of my face. “We’ve searched everything in here, but I think we’ve got the wrong place.”

“What about Ethan’s old room?” Adrian scratched his head. “Maybe he changed the location of the files after Ethan died.”

“I don’t think so.” I was starting to lose hope. What if the files weren’t here at all? All of this might be for nothing. “But we can check.”

Adrian took a quick look at the watch on my wrist. “We don’t have time.”

“Lily? Can you hear me?” I pressed the com-link again and again, but there was no sound. She hadn’t said anything ever since we got in the house, but I assumed she didn’t want to distract us. I looked at Adrian. “Can you talk to her?”

“No.” He took out the com-link and put it back in his ear. “Still nothing. I guess we’re on our own.”

I didn’t dare to think what could have happened to Lily’s connection. She was probably afraid the cops or the guards would discover her intrusion or overhear us, so she didn’t want to answer. “What about the ground floor? Or the basement?”

“I guess we’ll have to check. It would be the best if we could split up, but…”

My head pounded as elements slammed into me.

Adrian swore and pulled me to him. “This keeps happening. You can’t go anywhere on your own.”

“I know.” I’d never thought I could hate the disease more than I already did, but yep, I could. We’d been fine for the last couple of days, and now we couldn’t even hold it for three minutes? Damn everything!

“Let’s go.” Adrian tentatively released me. I was fine enough to walk, so we headed for the door. I turned the knob, pulling the door open, and found myself face to face with a gun.

Chapter 32

“Who are you?” An elderly woman pointed the gun in my face, her hand steady. “What are you doing here?”

I froze, unsure what to do. If I reached for my gun or my knife, she’d shoot me in the face. I couldn’t see Adrian because he was behind me, but I doubted he could do anything either.

“Put your hands up where I can see them,” the woman said. Her whitish blond hair was tied in a bun, her blue eyes narrowed. I put my hands up, eyeing her carefully, but I couldn’t figure out how to disarm her. Even if I managed to get hold of the gun, she might end up shooting Adrian or me. The woman might be old, but she held her shoulders straight, her head up. She wasn’t some frail old lady. “How did you get in here?”

I didn’t know whether the woman had alerted the guards, but they could be coming at any moment. Did she have an element? Because my control could slip at any second and then I’d be unable to stop myself. “We don’t mean you any harm.”

The woman’s laugh echoed through the hall. “I’m the one with the gun, little girl. Of course you don’t pose a threat to me. I just want to know what two carriers are doing in Anton’s home.”

My eyes widened. She’d been in the house the whole time, but no wonder we couldn’t have felt her. She was a carrier. Maybe she hadn’t had time to alert the guards. “Oh, we just… We came to ask if we could come to Sebastian’s funeral, but I guess we were late.” I gave her a sheepish smile and prayed she’d believe me.

“I know all of Sebastian’s friends and you’re not one of them,” she said, her hand tightening on the trigger. Who the fuck was she? How could she know anything about Sebastian’s friends?

“Oh, we weren’t his friends,” Adrian said, taking a step forward.

“Don’t move!” the woman yelled, and Adrian had no other choice but to do what she asked. “Not friends, you say? Enemies, then?”

“He tried to kill us,” I said. “In the lab.”

The woman’s grip on the gun faltered, but she caught herself and steadied her hand. “What do you know about the lab?”

I tried to decide what to tell her. Would she just shoot me if I told her Adrian and I had been in the lab? If she was working for or was close to Anton Marlau, then she’d want to protect his secret. I just didn’t understand why she wasn’t at the funeral if she was so close to Sebastian. “Maybe something. Maybe nothing. Who are you, anyway?”

“Isidora,” she said, a smile curving her lips. “Sebastian’s grandmother.”

“Why aren’t you at the funeral?” I couldn’t help but ask, even though I didn’t expect her to answer. Why would she? She was the one with the gun.

“Because the boy they are burying is not my grandson,” she said bitterly.

“What?” If she thought Sebastian had somehow survived the explosion, then she was in denial. I’d killed her grandson with my bare hands. Who would have thought Sebastian’s grandmother was a carrier too? I didn’t know enough about his family tree to be able to tell whether she belonged to the Marlau family or her son or daughter married a Marlau.

“Anton turned my grandson into someone else,” she said. “Just like he did with his eldest son.”

I gaped at her. What was she talking about? Maybe she’d stayed behind because she was insane. “Turned him into who?”

Adrian stumbled next to me, his forehead beaded with sweat. Isidora immediately aimed her gun at him.

“No, please!” I yelled. Adrian must have tried to use his element while still protecting me, but failed. We’d never even tried that because he’d been using his element only when he was holding my hand, not while his cloud of magic was all over me.

“What’s wrong with him?” Suspicion filled her eyes. “Is he one of Anton’s experiments?”

Maybe Isidora wasn’t crazy after all. She knew something about Anton’s experiments.