Forbidden Fire (Forbidden #2) (25 page)

His lips twitched slightly.

"We—my friends and I—are this organization's idea of the perfect human specimens, and still they've lied to us, imprisoned us and impregnated many of us. You really think they're going to treat you and your daughter any better? If they were going to save your daughter, they would've done so by now."

Her words settled into him, but she could see the fight behind his eyes. "You think I'm going to listen to you, Bitch. You don't know what I can do, what they've promised me."

"You're right, I don't. But I know it's all lies. Why would they help someone they think is inferior? Have they done anything but barely keep her alive? Have they given you any reason to think you can trust them?" She stepped back from him, but kept her gun aimed as she leaned against the desk behind her. "You're an ass, but you're not stupid. Think. Whose side do you want to be on now?"

Outside, guns fired, people screamed, friends died. Lucy hovered on the brink of irrational behavior, struggling to keep herself calm while Mr. Black thought. And thought. And thought.

She shoved the gun against his head again. "My friends are dying and I'm losing patience. Decide."

Lucy could see as he reluctantly accepted the truth of her words, a truth he very much did not want to believe. Letting go of the lie meant letting go of the last hope his daughter had to live. A small twinge of empathy floated through her, but it changed nothing. Too many were already paying for his indecisiveness.

"If I let you out, are you going to shoot me?"

"No, Mr. Black. I'm not you. If you open these gates, I'll help you get your daughter out of here."

"Sure, like I would trust you. I know you want to punish me for the things you think I've done. Why would you help me?"

"First, I'm not going to let your daughter suffer alone in there. She needs you and she's a true innocent in all of this. Second, I'm not a monster."

"Fine. The password is 4321978."

Lucy raised her hand and began typing in the numbers, but something in the shift of his eyes and the shuffle of his stance stopped her. "You're lying."

His eyes widened. "You have your powers back? But how—"

"No, I don't. But as someone once told me, humans can tell right from wrong, even without powers. I assume a false code will trip some kind of security shut-down? Nice try, but you need to give me the correct code, or things are going to get ugly here. I'm not going to let all of these students die for you."

Mr. Black nodded and typed in the correct code. "I underestimated you."

Time ticked by in my head with each heartbeat. Save myself or save Drake?

That would have been easy to answer. The real question was much harder. Save Drake or save our child?

I jumped for the door. "I can't leave him to die. We have to go find him." My mind could only hold one thought:
Drake is in trouble.

I should have made room for a few more thoughts—like doorknobs hot enough to brand a human's skin.

A scream tore out of my throat, and I pulled back my blistered hand. The Seeker tsk-tsked and tore a piece of cloth from his white robe, but his hands fumbled and shook. He tried again, though the pained expression on his face showed that the effort cost him. "Here, use this as a bandage."

"How are we going to get out?" Panic gripped my heart. I reached out to find Drake, but he existed as a black hole in the universe—invisible to me and my powers. Instead, I hunted for Lucy's mental signature.

'Fire! Must run. Sam... Sam? Help us. Our powers don't work. The guards will kill us.'

"You have to release your hold on my friends. They'll be killed by your guards if you don't. Do you really want to sacrifice our kind on the altar of... what? Your father's vision? The man who abused you, killed the only woman you loved, and then wiped your mind clean? We don't have time for you to digest all of these new memories. Now's the time to choose, Seeker. Whose side are you on?"

A single tear fell down his perfect, pale cheek. "You do not understand. I am dying."

"I know."

"And this hold, it is a double edged sword. The use of my powers is killing me, but the exchange of power, of energy, is also keeping me alive. If I let go completely, I will die much sooner. My power will drain from me. I will be gone."

I wiped the tear from his face and linked with his mind.
"I'm so sorry, for everything you've been through. Sorry you had to endure such brutalities from the man who should have protected you. Sorry your powers have been abused. Sorry we couldn't be the happy family you wanted. And sorry you are dying. But many more are dying out there. My friends. My family. I need your help."

 Blood dripped from his nose and ears, just like Mary. His eyes squinted in pain, and he fell to his knees in front of me.

"I have released them all. Guards, students... everyone. My mind has not been my own in so long. I had grown accustomed to the myriad of thoughts, emotions and voices that created a symphony inside of me. Now I am so alone. So empty. A void comes for me, to devour me. Even now, I feel my power flowing out and dissipating into nothing."

He looked up with eyes that reminded me of a hurt puppy. "What do I do now, Sam? Who am I if not the Seeker? Who will I be when I am no longer here? The darkness. I have walked in the dark for so long, but always it was filled with the bright stars of others like us. Now, nothing."

He chose
this
moment to have an existential crisis? I grabbed his hand with my good one and pulled him to his feet. "You're not dead yet. We'll worry about that later. First, we need to get Drake and get out of here. Is there an emergency exit to the library? Or a fire extinguisher? A huge room full of paper must have at least an extinguisher."

I let the Seeker's hand go and ran from wall to wall, and found what I needed by the checkout desk. In the movies, they always bashed out the glass window of a fire extinguisher case with their elbow. That didn't sound fun to me, or my elbow. I looked around and grabbed the biggest, heaviest book I could find. I shielded my eyes while I smashed the glass and freed the fire extinguisher from its case.

Our emergency medical training course had covered the use of these, but my hand throbbed so much I couldn't get a grip on it. "Hey, you know how to use one of these things? I can't manage it one handed."

The Seeker took it and moments later a stream of white suds coated the door. He used his robe as a glove and turned the handle, then sprayed more suds into the hall. "Follow me."

He turned left. We needed to be going right, towards the room Drake and I had been held. "You're going the wrong way. Drake!"

"He will get out on his own. We will get caught up in the fire if we go that way."

He tried to pull me towards him, but I broke free. "I'm not leaving him."

I turned and ran down the hall.

The Seeker sighed and followed behind me. "You are a very stubborn girl, but, very well. We will try to get to Drake."

Guards ran past us, towards the exit. They glanced at us but didn't stop.

We turned a corner, almost to Drake's room, and faced a hallway full of flames. The heat hit my face in a gust of smoke and fire. The Seeker sprayed enough white foam to clear a path for us to run through. Well, I ran. He stumbled and nearly pulled me to the floor. I grabbed him and helped him through. My jacket caught fire, and I pulled it off and threw it to the floor before it burnt through my clothes and skin.

Tears sizzled down my face. The door to Drake's room slumped to the side, the hinges almost completely torn off.

My voice cracked from smoke inhalation. "Drake!"

The room was empty save for the candles that still burned in the haze. "He's not here. We need to find him."

"He is probably already outside. Let us go."

This time I let him lead me away. If only I could have connected telepathically to Drake. I hated the emptiness I felt without his presence. For months, we'd been joined in the most intimate of ways, and now he was gone, leaving not only a void in my mind but a hole in my chest.

Flames chased us from both sides of the hall as we searched for an escape route. The extinguisher sputtered out its last white stream.

We rushed to the nearest office and closed the door. The room boiled with the rage of the fire, and filled with smoke so thick we both gagged.

I took a chair and threw it at the window, and glass shattered outward. We were on the second floor, but we could climb down the fire escape.

The room cooked and simmered, full of energy about to erupt. The Seeker's white robe had turned gray with ash, and his pristine skin looked sallow. The walls crackled as the heat blistered paint.

"Come on, we need to climb through the window." I reached for the Seeker just as the ceiling above me crashed down.

The weight of his body, slight though it was, propelled me out of harm's way. I stood and brushed myself off. "Wow, that was close. Thanks for—"

Only a fraction of life remained in his eyes. A beam from the ceiling pinned him to the ground, and a metal disk impaled his abdomen.

I reached for his hand. Tears streamed down my face.

"Sam, you must get out. I was dead before we met. Do not mourn me. Save your friends. Save your baby." He coughed and blood wet his lips. "I... I am sorry for what I have done to you, for what our father has done to you. He has plans, Sam, big plans, and dangerous weapons. You must stop him before it is too late."

His hand went limp in mine. His eyelids flickered closed.

"No. Please, I can't lose anyone else. Stay alive and help us. We'll find a cure for you. Just don't die. What are his plans? What is our father going to do? I need your help."

"Too late. One last gift for you. Come... closer."

I leaned into him. He pressed his lips against my brow and a powerful jolt electrified my mind and body. Blackness swirled around me and the world faded out for a moment.

His voice brought me back. "Sam, you now have what you need, and my powers have not all been lost. It is time... for me... to go. Did I make it right? My whole life I tried to do what was right, but right became so wrong. Was this the right thing, Sam?"

Sobs shook my chest. How could life flip on its axis so dramatically that I would mourn the man I considered my most deadly enemy just a day ago?

I knew so little of life and love and truth.

"Yes, you did it right."

Mr. Black squinted at her. Lucy could tell he expected her to run through the gates and never look back. Instead, she lowered her weapon and dragged him towards the hospital.

Fire had spread throughout campus, carried on the winds and trees. Every few minutes, an explosion ripped through the air.

Three guards approached. "Sir, step aside, and we'll eliminate the girl."

"That won't be necessary, men. I have control, and she's my prisoner now." Lucy felt his finger poke into her back as a mock gun. "You go on ahead and I'll catch up to you later."

Another explosion shook the ground, and the guards ran towards it.

The clinic had also caught fire. Patients were evacuated through the front, some in wheelchairs and others on beds. Medical personnel bustled about, trying to keep the patients calm.

Mr. Black approached the nurse Lucy had seen him speaking to when they'd admitted his daughter. "Where is she? Where is Sarah?"

The nurse clutched at her clipboard. She didn't seem to notice her soot-covered clothes and disheveled hair, only the needs of the patients. "Please, calm down. We're trying to get all the patients out."

Mr. Black brushed her aside and lunged for the front door. Lucy followed him in.

"Sir, you're not allowed in— That's off limits. Sir!" They both ignored the shrill voice of the nurse.

Patients clogged the passageways as they made their way through the halls.

They found her in a bed outside her room, where she'd been abandoned in the hallway.
Poor girl.
Lucy couldn't imagine how anyone could leave a terrified child alone like that in the middle of a fire.

Mr. Black lifted his daughter out of bed. Her eyes fluttered open, and her face lit up in the biggest smile Lucy had ever seen.

Sarah threw her arms around Mr. Black's neck. "Daddy, you came for me! I told them you would, and you did."

"I will always come for you, Sweetheart, but right now we have to get out of here."

Lucy grabbed a blanket and covered the slender child.

Mr. Black nodded in thanks.

They turned to leave the way they had come, but found the hallway blocked by a hungry inferno of flames.

Lucy thought back to her sneaking around when Sam had been kept here against her will.