I could tell she was staring down into the opening, but I couldn’t see her. My vision was gone, probably because of that last desperate effort to reach Ritter through the generator shield. No wonder I felt like collapsing into a pitiful ball.
“Use my ability to shift out,” Mari called. “Ritter’s holding off the guys who put you here, but he needs us.”
“There’s a shield,” I said as the shouting and clanging of weapons grew behind her. “Look for a button somewhere—”
Like a breath, I felt the shield wink out of existence.
“What about now? Hurry if you can. We stopped them from putting back the cement slab, but they seem pretty determined.”
“Okay, I just need a moment.” I began absorbing as rapidly as possible, sucking in nutrients. I wished I could reach for Brody to get more power, but I didn’t seem to have enough mental energy to bridge the physical gap between us. At last, Mari’s anxious face came into view as new strength restored my sight. The cement slab was only a foot above her head. I shifted.
Instead of appearing next to Mari, I materialized in the hallway near the lobby. As weak as I was, I would do Ritter no good, but here I should be able to contact Brody. Searching, I found him full of energy—and new fear. All around him lightning crackled in the sky, attracted by his pull.
I’m here,
I said.
I can take it all.
Energy poured through him into me.
No more now,
I warned Brody.
Don’t take in any more.
I don’t know if I can stop.
You have to. Get a hold of yourself. You can do it.
I knew what he wasn’t saying. That taking in the energy was addictive, an almost sensual high. I’d have to keep an eye on him so he didn’t blow up the building.
I dropped our connection and shifted again, this time appearing next to Mari.
“Oh, there you are. For a moment I was worried.” She handed me my sai. “We have no more bullets, but they don’t have any either. Jace brought these when we first came from the hotel, and I knew you’d want them.”
The sound of fighting was louder now, moving our way. A flashlight had fallen to the ground, and humongous shadows danced on the wall near the stairs. I felt Ritter, his mind open to me like Mari’s had been, in spite of the danger with Delia around. Where was she? I reached out for her, but if she was anywhere nearby, I couldn’t sense her presence.
“You distract one,” Mari said, “and I’ll get him with my knife.”
Hefting a sai in each hand, I reached out to Ritter across the basement, channeling his ability. He came into sight at that moment, dwarfed by his own shadow on the wall. He was beauty in motion, fluid, exact, and deadly.
“Here!” I shouted, running into the fray.
Ritter’s thrill of combat, coupled with his relief at seeing me, flooded my senses. Added to the electric energy singing in my brain, it was a heady combination.
A soldier turned to meet me, his sword coming down like a guillotine. I parried with the sai, first with the right and then the left, the lengths of the blades along the inside of my arms.
Next, I twirled the blade out, trying to catch his sword between the hand guard and the blade so I could twist it from him. He faltered at the last moment, sending his blow toward my other side, but I anticipated and blocked him. It was all the distraction Mari needed. She appeared behind him, one arm wrapping around his torso almost like a lover. He slid to the ground.
Ritter finished with his opponent at the same time. He rushed over to me, carrying a sword in one hand and a sai in the other. He looked like the devil’s avenging angel. Blood dripped from several deep cuts on his face, and the coat sleeve on his left arm had been torn completely off to reveal that the arm had been bandaged. Probably a souvenir from his visit to the vice president. The other sleeve and his pants sported numerous cuts.
Without a word, the arm with the sai went around me and his mouth came down on mine, pushing my lips open and kissing me deeply. Need filled me, stirring up more electric currents that made delicious circuits to the most intimate parts of my body. For that moment there was nothing but the two of us. Nothing else mattered.
We came up for breath and his eyes fell over me, taking in my borrowed outfit. “I really hope this isn’t where
you
confess some kinky fantasy about hotels.” His finger reached inside the rip in my skirt, running up the warmth of my thigh. “Though maybe that wouldn’t be too bad. Certainly looks better on you than mine did on me.”
I grinned. “How’d you get inside?”
Ritter shrugged. “Oliver masked me until I got through their lines, and then I climbed down through the roof.”
“I shifted inside near Patrick’s cell,” Mari added. “You were already gone, but I followed the light and saw her take you down those stairs. That’s how we found you.”
I shuddered. “And Delia?”
“We don’t know,” Mari said. “After they brought you down here, I went to meet Ritter and when we got back they were lowering that cement slab.”
“We’d better get upstairs,” Ritter said. “I’m hoping to avoid a bloodbath outside.”
“Wait. We need to get Patrick.” I started back to the bomb shelter.
Ritter lifted the concrete slab higher with the pulley mechanism, but in the end Mari and I shifted down together and brought Patrick up. It was harder with him being unconscious than it had been to shift Jace a short distance, but Patrick also weighed more. Next, we brought up the leathery mass wrapped in the blanket. I didn’t know who he was, but we wouldn’t leave him here.
Ritter hefted Patrick over his shoulder while I did the same with the horrific bundle. It didn’t weigh more than twenty-five or thirty pounds. Was it me or did it already smell less intense? In my right hand I carried my sai. Mari, holding the flashlight, led the way, but I knew her memory would get us to the lobby with or without the light.
When we arrived, we found the freed Renegade prisoners peering out the front lobby door. Guns twisted in our direction. “It’s Erin and Mari!” I called out, lowering my burden.
Willis limped over to us, his eyes brightening when he saw Ritter. “Hello, Ritter. Good to see you.”
“And you, my friend.” Ritter laid Patrick down on the ground and bumped fists with Willis. “I know it’s been a long three months.”
“It’s over now.” Willis’s voice was hard. He glanced at Mandalyn and Francis, his tone softening. “Well, for some of us.”
Ritter gave the women a sympathetic nod and took a step toward the door. “What’s the situation out there?”
“We’re not sure.” Willis walked with him. “There’s a lot of movement, but no streetlights and the rain makes it more difficult to see.”
The light situation was my fault, and Brody’s, but we’d really had no choice. Feeling powerless without any offensive weapons, I went to the guard behind the desk and retrieved my ballistic knife, cleaning the blood off on the man’s pants. Someone had tied him up with rope, so he wouldn’t be a problem any time soon.
Ritter’s eyes noted the knife as I approached, one brow arching slightly, but he didn’t say anything.
Yes, I used your weapon,
I sent to him pointedly through our still-connected minds.
What are you going to do about that?
He turned back to the glass doors, masking a smile.
Later.
Aloud, he said, “My phone doesn’t seem to be working, so I can’t call the number the vice president gave me to communicate with him.”
“Uh, yeah,” I said a bit sheepishly. “I don’t think any of the phones are working. Or the radios or anything else that has batteries.”
He gave me a sharp glance. “Does this have anything to do with Brody?”
“Don’t ask.”
I reached out searching for Ava. Her shield was tightly in place, and that worried me. Tonight it looked strong and impenetrable, and I didn’t want to weaken myself or her trying to get through, but after all our practice together, I knew if I knocked hard enough to get her attention, she’d recognize me and let me inside. As a sensing Unbounded, she could recognize my signature, as I could hers. Fortunately, she seemed to be waiting for me.
Ah, Erin.
Her relief at our safety flickered through my mind.
The army out here is holding fire. We’re trying to negotiate, but it’s going slowly because none of the electronic equipment is working. And Delia’s out here telling lies. She refuses to order her people to stand down. Just hold tight.
I refocused on the lobby. “They’re negotiating,” I said to Ritter. “Delia’s out there spinning a cover story and holding things up. She’s probably hoping her guards have finished burying me in that hole and that they’ll have time to recapture and hide the prisoners.”
“If the vice president came here to free his son, why doesn’t he just fire on them?” Mari let out a sigh of disgust. “He doesn’t even know his son’s okay.”
Ritter’s jaw clenched as his face swung to meet our gazes. “Because I told him not to. We made a deal with them to make a show of force and then negotiate.”
“What? Why?” I asked. It didn’t make sense, not when we suddenly had the advantage. “We could take out quite a few of the Emporium soldiers once and for all.”
Willis heaved a sigh. “Because that army out there can shoot up the Emporium all they want and most of the devils aren’t going to die. Eventually, they’re going to heal, get up, and fight again. But a whole bunch of those mortals will die if they fight. And they won’t come back.”
“It’s not something we can ask them to do,” Ritter added. “Not until they know the consequences. A hundred or so of them for a couple Emporium agents. It’s not a good exchange.”
All at once I understood. Mortal lives would be the cost, and that went against everything we believed. For now it was our fight—and our death price.
“They have to be told one day,” I said. “We can’t do it alone.”
Ritter nodded. “I know.”
The Emporium has given up,
Ava told me.
The army had to send someone for more vehicles because none of these out here have working batteries. They’re loading the Emporium soldiers who have surrendered into a truck now, but there are only about twenty, and most of them are mortal not Unbounded. We don’t know where the others disappeared to. There were nearly seventy at last count.
They’d probably been given the order to retreat. At least those who weren’t unconscious inside the building.
One of the police captains has offered to take Delia to the station for questioning,
Ava added.
Probably an Emporium plant, seeing how she’s shielding his thoughts. We’ve tried to intercept her, but they’re too surrounded by his officers for us to get near.
I bet she’d never make it to the station to answer questions. No, she’d be back at her headquarters drinking her favorite herbal tea before we could arrange a working vehicle to tail her. Given the Emporium’s wealth and connections, the soldiers taken to the station would likely walk as well.
Ritter laid a warm hand on the small of my back. “Let’s go home.”
Ritter carried Patrick, while I hefted my smelly bundle once again. Dragon carried Francis, and Mari and Mandalyn helped Guenter, who was finally awake but in need of curequick and a lot of healing time. Willis took up the rear, guarding our exit in case any of the soldiers we’d taken out regained consciousness.
Outside, lightning crackled overhead, framed by turbulent black clouds. I checked Brody to see if he was still attracting the lightning, but he hadn’t taken in much more energy. We hurried through the icy rain that was quickly turning to snow. The wetness reactivated the smell lodged in the old blanket, and again I had to breathe through my mouth. We walked past the cement barriers the Emporium had brought in, past the empty guard trailer, and through the open gate. The streets and surrounding areas were littered with police cars, army trucks, and other official vehicles, most of which were no longer working, though replacements were beginning to arrive. Dimitri and Ava and the others waited for us behind an armored truck. Cort and Dimitri took Patrick, while Keene relieved me of my smelly burden, wincing as he peeked inside. All of them looked beaten and worn, and I knew the fight out here hadn’t been any easier than ours inside, at least not until the cavalry had arrived.
“Where’s Jace?” I asked.
“He’s at the first aid tent in the parking lot behind the next building.” Stella pointed down the street, looking as beautiful as ever with her wet hair flattened under a camouflage cap that didn’t match the beige dress she still had on from the hotel. “Out of firing range. Once we knew you were okay, he finally agreed to leave. He took two bullets today.”
“The infirmary is where we’d better get Patrick and everyone else who needs attention,” Dimitri said. “I want to look at their wounds. Keene, bring your new friend, would you?” He motioned to the bundle. “Cort, give him a hand. I know you’ll want to document every second of the recovery.”
Cort nodded. “He
is
quite a find. Though there’s not much we can do for him here. We’ll cook up a bathtub full of curequick for him when we get back to the safe house.”
Keene’s eyes met mine, his drenched hair matted down around his face. Something was different. What was he trying to tell me? A snowflake landed on my eyelash and when I blinked, he turned away.
“Check on Oliver,” Ava called as they left with the other wounded and those helping them. “I sent him there, too.” Her gaze went to Ritter. “Good call using Oliver tonight. His failure this morning might have set him back years.”
Ritter shrugged. “We do what we have to. Let’s be honest, he was our only option to get in to see the vice president.”
Ava’s smile didn’t change. “More often than not, that’s how heroes are made.”
I agreed completely. It was a lot like being tossed into a raging ocean and being told to learn to swim. Oliver might have sunk a little further than most of us at the beginning, but he’d come through in the end. I might even have to thank him. I didn’t want to think about where any of us might be at that moment if the army hadn’t shown up to scare Delia and her minions.