Fated: The Epic Finale (Talented Saga Book 8) Page 7

  The holographic woman smiled, seemingly pleased by Gracia’s directness.

  “You have seen our source farm.” It wasn’t a question, but Gracia still nodded. “The current harvest is weak. Not one of them is a natural Mind Manipulator, nor do we have a Mimic on hand. The source material we have from both Natalia and Erik is dwindling rapidly. We need to replenish.”

  Taken aback, Gracia didn’t hesitate before asking, “So, you do not intend for them to fight with us? You believe they will become sources?”

  “I do not believe they will. I know they will. I have seen it,” Gretchen corrected. The hologram smoothed her dress. “I also know they will be with us when we lay waste to the Isle of Exile, when we destroy each one of UNITED’s bases, when we eradicate the blood traitor Ian Crane, and when we place my throne upon this world. Natalia Lyons and Erikson Kelley, both the originals and the enhanced versions, will be there the day I first hold court and the current world leaders bow to my authority. And they will have front row seats to global Privileged rule, where only the unworthy will not know the beauty of power.”

  Chapter Five

  Talia

  I didn’t hurt Gracia. Not much, at least.

  She was a little bruised, a little battered, but it wasn’t anything serious. As much as I wanted to take out my aggression on the girl who had my face, it actually wasn’t my intention to unleash those feelings when I started the fight. When Erik became lost inside Gracia’s head and stopped responding to me, I’d taken a gamble not knowing whether it would work.

  Thankfully, it did.

  While I’d thrown my doppelganger around Mac’s bathroom—an act that was oddly satisfying on many levels—Erik’s brain seemed to disconnect with his body entirely. He’d dropped to the floor, a vacant expression on his face. I was afraid I’d lost him. I also worried that joining him inside Gracia’s mind might only result in losing myself, too. The only way I could think to save him was to launch myself at the girl, to distract her long enough for Erik to pry his mind free.

  As Gracia struggled to her feet for the umpteenth time, Erik gasped loudly. The sound was terrifying, as though he’d been under water for entirely too long and just surfaced. With a wave of my hand, I sent Gracia flying into a wall. Pinning her there with my mind, I rushed to Erik’s side.

  “Are you back? I was so scared,” I breathed. Letting Gracia crumple back to the porcelain surface, I knelt beside him in front of the broken bathtub.

  Erik’s senses were on overdrive, putting him in a state of hyperawareness. I was scared his nerves were too raw, terrified that he might shatter beneath the slightest touch. Still, I inched as close to him as possible while avoiding contact.

  “Erik?”

  His breathing even slightly. As I pushed a measure of comforting energy his way, some of the tension slackened from his muscles. When I finally dared to put a hand on his shoulder, my mind was tightly closed against Erik’s. Something told me that I didn’t want to see the visions in his head.

  “Erik?” I repeated his name softly.

  The turquoise eyes I loved so much turned toward me. With the next breath, he shuddered slightly.

  “They are going to attack UNITED’s bases,” he said robotically. “All of them. And Ian, she’s going for him too. Gretchen wants Ian dead. She’s intent on world domination. She wants to be queen.”

  “I’ll call Ian now,” I said automatically, my brain already skipping to the next steps. “And Vict—”

  Victoria is dead. Tears pooled in my eyes again, but I willed them back. It was not the time for sentiment. Will it ever be? I wondered. I cleared my throat. “Michael Tanaka. I’ll call him. He’ll know what to do.”

  The house communicator was on the floor, where Erik had dropped it during his trip into Gracia’s mind. It was within my physical reach, yet I summoned the device with my powers. It belatedly occurred to me that I didn’t have the links to comm Ian and Councilman Tanaka. Victoria would’ve been my point of contact, I’d known her comm link by heart.

  Erik must have realized the issue, because he took the communicator and began punching in a number from memory as he stood.

  “We need to go meet my father and Alex in the hangar,” he said softly.

  “Right. Um, what should we do with her?” I cocked a thumb toward Gracia.

  A holographic image of Crane’s face projected from the communicator. “You have reached Ian Crane, Interim President of the United States, delegate to the UNITED council and Joint Nations committee….”

  Erik disconnected. This wasn’t exactly the type of thing to leave in a message.

  “I don’t know Tanaka’s private extension,” he said hollowly. “But Dad should have it on his UNITED communicator.”

  He started for the door.

  “What about Gracia?” I asked again, hurrying to catch up to him.

  “Bring her. Medical has places where we can keep her contained,” he replied, without looking back.

  With my telekinesis, I quickly refastened the restraints on Gracia’s hands and ankles with just enough leeway to walk.

  “Come. Now,” I sent, the command stronger than it needed to be. I wasn’t sure exactly what had happened while Erik was in her mind, but I knew enough to be particularly careful of Gracia.

  I waited with her in the McDonough’s foyer while Erik told the others where we were going. He left Kip in charge, since James was too distraught over Kenly to be of any use and the other girls were both asleep.

  The McDonough’s house wasn’t far from the main campus where the hangar was located, but we borrowed Mac’s personal hover and drove the distance. Gracia sat in the back, shackled and silent, though she did twitch every so often. I kept her calm with compulsion but refrained from playing inside her head. Whatever Erik encountered in the dark recesses of Gracia’s brain had shaken him. He wasn’t ready to talk about it yet, and that was fine. For now.

  For lack of something better to do, I redialed Crane’s number repeatedly on the short drive. Every time, I received the same message.

  Where are you?

  I tried Frederick’s comm, too, though I was relieved when he didn’t answer. Hopefully it meant he and Henri had made it to the Isle with reinforcements.

  My finger hovered over the comm’s news feed icon. The world was in chaos, I didn’t need anyone to tell me that. And yet, I couldn’t help myself. With a tap, I braced myself for an influx of bad news.

  The feeds didn’t disappoint.

  With the Coexistence Treaty overturned, seaports and private hover hangars were being overrun with Talented fleeing to safety. In Russia, Talents were already being rounded up like cattle and detained until the government decided whether they were dangerous. Even in the U.S., several states had declared the Talented illegal and wanted them out.

  “Please don’t read that right now,” Erik said quietly. He steered the hover up the main drive and into the campus where we’d both learned to use our abilities.

  “It feels wrong to just ignore everything,” I replied. Even as I said it, I tapped the feed closed. “We should be out there, helping with this crisis.”

  “There are ways to fight that don’t include being on the frontlines,” he said in a flat voice. Erik spared me a sidelong glance. “Right now, this is where we need to be.”

  The hover glided past the front of medical. Just the sight of the building where Dr. Thistler had “treated” my seizures made me itchy. The only thing they’d been treating were the effects of the Creation drug, stifling the effects to keep Mac’s secret. Which, of course, caused the seizures.

  With Mac’s personal hover, the back landing gate slid open automatically, so we could use his private entrance. Gracia shuffling along between us, Erik and I marched her through medical’s cold, pristine hallways. We plodded down to the restricted wing, where the school had once housed disturbed students.

  Ernest, I thought. The memory of my first psychic interrogation sent chills down my spine.

&
nbsp; I looked at Gracia, who stared straight ahead without blinking. Did she know how Ernest went from a drooling, destroyed mess to a normal, functioning member of the Privileged?

  We shoved her inside a cubicle with four bare walls, a twin bed, and two chairs. It was designed to hold unruly patients, or whoever Mac had wanted to lock up at any given time.

  “You can’t just leave me here by myself,” Gracia snapped.

  Her voice sounded eerily like mine, right down to the inflections. I wasn’t a fan.

  “Don’t worry, I’ll be back,” I assured her. My devilish grin made her back away from me, and I winked for good measure. “I’m not done with you yet, Gracia.”

  She straightened her spine.

  “My name is Natalia Lyons. I attended the McDonough School for the Talented after my parents were murdered for—”

  I shouldn’t have done it, but I slapped her with an invisible hand. A red mark blossomed on Gracia’s cheek.

  “Never mention my parents again,” I growled.

  “My name is Natalia Lyons…,” she began again.

  “Tals, come here real quick,” Erik called from outside the cubicle, where he was attempting to program the cell to open only for our biometrics. “I think I’ve got it set for double-verification, just need your eyes.”

  With her wrists and ankles still restrained, I turned my back on the girl who was trying so hard to believe she was me. Even if her limbs hadn’t been bound, I wasn’t worried about Gracia attacking me. Without much effort, I’d literally wiped the floor of Mac’s bathroom with her face. She’d only be hurting herself if Gracia decided she needed a repeat lesson.

  Had she truly been me, Gracia would have wanted revenge for her defeat. Luckily, it seemed no amount of cosmetic work or genetic altering could give her my reckless nature.

  Outside the room, I scanned my eyes and my hands to activate Gracia’s new cell. When prompted, I also read off a line of text to program my voice print. We decided against using a blood sample, since Gracia did have my DNA. Thousands of thin laser beams shot down from the ceiling to the floor in the single doorway, effectively locking Gracia inside. She could still see us, and we could still see her.

  “I’ll be back,” I promised again, mentally disengaging the ankle cuffs. The wrist restraints stayed—couldn’t be too careful.

  “My name is Natalia Lyons. I am a UNITED agent. My name is Natalia Lyons, my agent number is….”

  I could still hear Gracia’s ramblings as Erik and I exited the secure area. It wasn’t until we sealed the door to the restricted wing that her words no longer reached our ears. Instead of returning to Mac’s private entrance, we turned and headed for medical’s vast public lobby and the parking hangar beyond.

  Erik was silent, lost in his own thoughts. I still didn’t press him, though curiosity would eventually get the better of me. It always did.

  As soon as we stepped through the lobby doors, I froze. It took Erik a beat longer to realize the change in the atmosphere. The air was heavy. Too heavy. The whole space smelled like a chem lab. My skin crawled, and an itch developed at the base of my skull.

  “Do you feel that?” I sent.

  It was a stupid question; Erik was already sniffing the air like a hound.

  “It’s not Alex,” he sent back. “But it’s coming from the hangar.”

  Erik reached for my hand. It occurred to me that it was the first time he’d touched me since going into Gracia’s head. What the hell had he seen?

  “Don’t let go,” he sent, giving my hand a gentle squeeze. “I can’t keep you invisible without a physical connection.”

  Our communication channels were obviously open, but his thoughts were guarded. Mine were, too.

  It was weird to have a wall between us.

  Our fingers laced, his power washed over me. The pleasant, tingling sensation didn’t quite overshadow the creepy crawly feeling coming from the east. We were both light on our feet, our shoes barely making a sound, as we jogged toward the hangar.

  “Dad and Alex should have landed by now,” Erik sent.

  I didn’t respond, but a sense of urgency made my feet move faster. I expanded each of my senses in turn. A male voice with a strong Scottish accent met my ears.

  “They been lookin’ for this kid. Bounty on ‘im is enough to pay me bills for three lifetimes.”

  Erik must’ve heard the man, too. “Where is he?” he sent.

  I hesitated a beat before answering.

  “In the hangar,” I replied, increasing my pace as my heart thumped in my throat.

  Erik matched my stride easily. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. Alex and Mr. Kelley were in the hangar. I didn’t know who the Scottish guy was, but he wasn’t a friend.

  “You think you can take us, old man?” The taunt came from a woman. She sounded American, but there was a tinge of British in her voice that reminded me of Victoria’s snotty accent. I smiled wistfully, despite the situation.

  “How many?” Erik asked.

  Though he could’ve answered his own question, I was more adept at counting minds. It only took a moment and practically no energy to take a mental tally.

  “Five,” I answered. Shaking my head, I yanked hard on his hand to halt our forward progress. “Wait. I’m wrong.”

  Erik stopped abruptly and stared down at me. Desperation to reach Alex and his father was conflicting with his hunter training. They’d drilled into us the importance of never walking into a situation blind. His brow furrowed.

  “You’re wrong?” he repeated, managing to sound both annoyed and amused.

  “It happens,” I replied dryly.

  Anxiously, Erik’s turquoise gaze flicked toward the hangar. “How many then?”

  “Five inside the hangar, I’m right about that,” I sent. “But Erik, that feeling we both got as soon as we walked out of medical? It’s not coming from the hangar.”

  It was true. Now that we were closer to our target, it was easy to feel two distinct groupings of minds. One grouping of five people was inside the hangar. They had Talents with them, though none were exceptionally strong. It was the other grouping, the one approximately thirty yards to the northwest, that gave me pause. I closed my eyes and concentrated.

  “The student dorms,” I sent.

  “How many?”

  I shook my head even though Erik couldn’t see me.

  “A lot. Their energy is too strong. I can’t get a good read on it.”

  Beside me, Erik stiffened. His hand squeezed mine harder as he focused on the outpouring of power coming from the dormitories. Letting my barriers drop completely, I gave into my mental talents.

  Pinpricks of light came from the hangar. One was pure gold, and so bright that it hurt my retinas.

  Alex, I thought.

  The others were like specks of dust in comparison to Donavon’s son, and all but one had a brown taint. Created. Or maybe Privileged?

  When I turned my attention to the dorms, there weren’t individual dots—it was one large ball of orange light with that same brownish ring around the circumference. There was no way all that power was coming from a single person. It was too much to contain in one body. But I’d also never seen minds converge like that.

  “Should we go get the others from Mac’s house?” I asked.

  There wasn’t time, though. The people inside the hangar intended to take Alex and deliver him to Gretchen. I would die before I let that happen. Erik must’ve known I’d already answered my own question, because he ignored it.

  “Can you create a distraction?” he asked. “Maybe make some noise? Something that draws a lot of attention?”

  “You want me to blow something up?” I asked dryly, already looking for options.

  “That would do it. Then I’ll go stealth mode, stay invisible, slip inside and grab Alex and my dad. I can get the three of us out, but….”

  There was no need to finish the sentence. Once we separated, I would be exposed.

  “I
can take care of myself. Just let me know once you’re clear of the hangar. I’ll morph and meet you back at the house.” As far as on-the-fly plans went, it wasn’t bad. Still, there was one major issue. “Those people will come looking for Alex. The McDonough’s house isn’t hard to find. Emma and Kenly can’t fight. James is solid. I really don’t know about Kip. But if something happens and we lose….”

  I let the worst-case scenario hang in the air between our invisible bodies. We both knew the stakes. If we lost, the people inside that hangar would be collecting several bonus bounties. Even if Gretchen wouldn’t pay for my dead body, she’d still get four of the Nightshade targets in one fell swoop.

  “Once I have my dad and Alex—”

  “I’ll blow the bunker,” I finished for him, nodding my agreement.

  It pained Erik to ask this of me. I’d killed for TOXIC. I’d killed for UNITED. Those countless deaths would remain on my conscience until my last breath. But I’d also killed for Erik. Those lost lives weighed on me, too, though I would do it again without question. The same was true for Alex. There was nothing I wouldn’t do to protect that child.

  “The dorms, too,” I added. Whoever was lurking inside those halls was the real threat; the power was inhuman and terrifying.

  “You ready?” he asked.

  I released his hand by way of answer. Erik blipped into being beside me, just long enough to give me a quick kiss. “Be careful. I love you,” he whispered.

  “I love you, too.”

  With that, Erik disappeared.

  Chapter Six

  Cressa

  “Would you like to return to your parents? To your friends?”

  “Umm, no?” Cressa guessed. It seemed like an absurd question for the doctor to lead with.

  “It’s okay if you do,” the woman assured her. “You can go back to them if you want.”

  “I-I don’t want that. I want to be part of the Privileged.” Except, Cressa had never meant it less. Hands clenching the sharp edges of the chair, she focused on sorting through the thoughts and images racing through her mind.