Inescapable (Talented Saga #7) (19 page)

Talia

Vault, Isle of Exile

Four Days Before the Vote

Nights on Vault were lonely and depressing.
Yocum returned to Eden and his family, and I was left alone in my
cell with only inanimate objects to keep me company. I did have a
nighttime babysitter; a humorless, strictly by-the-book agent named
Lynn Konterra. Luckily, she preferred standing guard outside my
cell door to sitting in the uncomfortable chair Yocum occupied
during the day.

But it wasn’t the hard plastic seat or
uneven legs that wobbled that kept Konterra in the hallway. It was
me. I disgusted her, and she feared spending too much time in close
quarters with me would somehow contaminate her.

Reading her thoughts hadn’t been necessary
to learn her true feelings. Konterra spoke them aloud frequently to
her fellow guards at a volume that carried through the cell door.
She wanted me to know that she thought I was lower than the muck
that grew on the inside of a particularly filthy toilet bowl. The
guard was under the mistaken belief that I actually cared about her
opinion of me. In fact, she often wondered if her harsh assessment
of my character would reduce me to tears if spoken to my face.

That, of course, wasn’t going to happen. I’d
been a loner for the majority of my life, so I was used to people
saying mean things about me, both behind my back and directly to
me. Plus, prior to incarceration, I’d spent a lot of time with
Brand Meadows. He knew me and my weaknesses well enough to land
crushing verbal bombs that made me feel like a little pile of
Talia-ash when the fight was over. Konterra would have to seriously
up her game if she wanted to knock Brand off the podium to claim
gold in the Asshole Olympics.

Konterra’s ugly array of emotions was not
reserved solely for me, however. She loathed all of the prisoners
on Vault with an equal degree of righteous indignation. Traitors to
our own people—that was how she thought of us. In Konterra’s mind,
there was nothing more sinful than betraying UNITED and our fellow
Talented.

The trouble was, she seemed to be incapable
of making the distinction between “betraying UNITED”, “breaching
protocol”, and “insubordination.” Despite the fact most of Vault’s
prisoners were in for the latter crimes, she thought us all
turncoats who deserved to rot in a cell until the end of our
days.

Yeah, Konterra was a peach.

The only time she interacted with me was
during our nightly trip to the shower stalls. I usually looked
forward to the opportunity to leave my cell and wash away the day’s
dirt and grime, even if it meant enduring Konterra’s unpleasant
attitude. But that night, I just wanted the routine excursion over
and done with so I could return to the new files Victoria had sent
over via messenger earlier in the evening.

“
Got somewhere to be,
inmate?” Konterra grumbled as I hurried down the hallway as quickly
as my shackles would allow. “Maybe you have a hot date lined up?”
The guard laughed at her own pathetic joke.

There was no use engaging with her, since
that was what Konterra wanted. Instead, I stared straight ahead and
continued on towards the shower room.

Once there, Konterra removed my restraints,
then practically shoved me inside a shower cube and locked the door
behind me.

“
Five minutes, inmate,”
she barked through the partition, which ended several feet shy of
the ceiling. “Make sure you scrub extra hard, you need to wash away
that bad attitude of yours.” Again, Konterra cackled like she was
the wittiest woman alive.

Ignoring her, I turned on the faucet and
stepped beneath the stinging, hard stream.

The water was cool, though I actually found
the temperature refreshing. Since I didn’t have the luxury of
ordering endless pots of caffeine to keep me alert while I reviewed
the new information Victoria sent over, this was my best chance for
invigorating my tired eyes and aching muscles. I was hoping to work
through the night, eager to come up with something for the council
as soon as humanly possible.

The new files had arrived between lunch and
dinner. I’d spent the evening reading the articles, I-posts, and
police reports aloud to Yocum. Despite his constant grumbling to
the contrary, he’d seemed to enjoy story time, getting in to
solving the big mystery. Unfortunately, we only made it through
three of the five folders before Yocum’s shift ended and the witchy
Konterra took his place.

Thus far, I hadn’t found any new information
regarding the cow thefts. Even the new police reports failed to
shed fresh light on the matter. The investigating officers did not
take the abductions all that seriously, thanks largely to the one
farmer’s frequent alien claims, so they weren’t exactly pushing
themselves to solve the crimes. And, unlike Victoria, the police
hadn’t made any sort of connection, even a tenuous one, between the
power outages and cattle heists.

A particularly thorough investigator from
the electric company did look into the possibility that the power
outages were the work of an Electrical Manipulator, theorizing that
a rogue Created had been testing his new abilities in an area
unlikely to draw attention from UNITED. This avenue had led nowhere
conclusive, though. The most telling piece of new information came
from a note the investigator made at the bottom of his report; one
section of the power grid was pulling an unprecedented amount of
power during the same timeframe as the outages. Unfortunately, I
had no idea where that fit in with everything else.

I’d made a note to have Victoria’s people
find out what exactly was in that specific area of the grid, since
the investigator’s report didn’t include that information.
Naturally, the suspicious part of my mind had considered the
possibility that those particular details were purposefully
eliminated from the electrical company’s report as part of some
widespread cover-up.

Sure, it might’ve been time for me to don a
tinfoil hat. But if we were really considering that this might all
be part of some great conspiracy, I figured it was entirely
plausible.

Three sharp bangs on the shower door pulled
me from my wild speculations.

“
Time’s up, inmate!”
Konterra hollered, pulling the shower door open just as the water
automatically shut off.

I dried off with the thin towel she handed
me, then dressed in fresh prison clothes that were identical to the
ones I’d removed five minutes earlier. Clothes and fashion had
always been more of Penny’s department than mine, but I was really
looking forward to reintroducing color and soft fabrics into my
daily wardrobe.

Once I was dressed, it took Konterra under a
minute to replace all of the restraints.

In a perverse way, this was one of my
favorite parts of our brief face-to-face time together; I greatly
enjoyed making her uncomfortable. The woman loved antagonizing me,
and making any number of witty quips at my expense, but deep down,
Konterra was actually quite terrified to be in my presence. When I
was restrained, she felt confident that I was no threat, since I
was supposedly without my powers. But during this brief time when
my arms and legs were free, the guard worried I might kill her with
my bare hands. Apparently, that was a skill I was rumored to
have.

“
Why are you grinning? Did
I say you could smile? What’s wrong with you?” Konterra demanded,
backing away from me. Her expression was hard, but tendrils of fear
squeezed at her abdomen.

“
Nothing,” I replied,
continuing to smirk. “I’m just thinking about how sad it is that
our time together is almost over. I guess you’ll need to find a new
prisoner to torment once I’m free in the world again. Or maybe I’ll
come back and visit you. You’d like that, right?”

Konterra’s hand darted out and closed around
my upper arm with a vice grip. She yanked, hard.

“
Start moving,” she
hissed.

Neither of us spoke again until we reached
my cell door.

“
I might have you out of
my hair sooner than you think,” the guard said, something
dangerously close to a genuine smile on her lips. “And I don’t
think you’ll be coming back to visit.” Konterra undid the locks on
the ankle cuffs, then straightened to her full height and glared
down at me. “Nothing would make me happier than for you and the
other traitors to get what you deserve.”

Roughly, she grabbed my joined wrists and
pressed her finger to the sensor in the center of the handcuffs.
The locks disengaged and the cuffs fell away. In a rare show of
true nerve, the guard wrapped her fingers around my wrists, digging
her nails into my skin in the process.

“
You have no ide—” she
started, cutting off in surprise when I easily broke free from her
grip.

Truly, I hadn’t meant to
fight her hold. I’d been acting purely on instinct. Nonetheless,
Konterra was
pissed.
She drew her hand back, as if to slap me.

On Vault, guards were allowed to hit
prisoners if provoked. And I was pretty sure even Victoria would
have a hard time believing that I hadn’t provoked this
altercation.

But backing down from a fight wasn’t in my
nature.

Before I thought about the words and their
potential consequences, I whispered, “Do it. I dare you.”

“
Talia? Talia? What’s
going on?”

Hearing Erik’s voice inside my head was so
unexpected that I froze, wondering briefly if I was imagining
him.

“
Talia? Can you hear
me?”

Nope, it definitely wasn’t my imagination.
Erik was there, in my mind, his tone laced with concern and
uncertainty.

“
Erik,”
I sent, a burst of longing accompanying the
message.
“You don’t know how much I’ve
missed having you in my head.”

In front of me, Konterra’s fierce expression
turned wary. I realized my own face must have changed from shock
and outrage to something else entirely. I couldn’t say for sure
what she saw, since I had so many emotions fighting their way to
the surface. Relief, maybe? Joy? Yearning?

Whatever it was, it didn’t sit well with my
bitchy guard.

“
What’s wrong with you?”
Konterra demanded for the second time that night.

In my head, Erik sounded
just as confused as the guard.
“Who is
that, Talia? What is she doing?”

This time, when Konterra drew her hand back,
she sent it flying towards my face. Just before her palm connected
with my cheek, it stopped abruptly.

“
I’m getting
Victoria,”
Erik sent, his tone rife with
latent anger.

Baffled, Konterra studied her hand, frozen
in midair, as though it were no longer under her control. Which, of
course, it wasn’t. But I hadn’t been the one to stop the
impact.

“
Yeah, it was me,”
Erik sent.
“Is this
normal, Tals? Do the guards make a habit of beating up their
charges? Victoria promised me—”

“
No, Erik. It’s a
misunderstanding. Sort of. I don’t know. But no, this isn’t normal.
Don’t bother Victoria with it. It doesn’t matter.”

My reassurances did not satisfy my
trigger-happy boyfriend. Erik was furious, and he was on the verge
of making a very big deal out of a very minor incident. More than
anything, I didn’t want a disciplinary action from the warden to
affect my visit with Erik the next day. Konterra would easily turn
the situation around if it was presented to her higher-ups, and I’d
be the one to pay for it.

“
Erik, please don’t.
Victoria had a hard time getting the council to agree to your visit
tomorrow, I don’t want them to have any reason to change their
minds.”

Konterra dropped her hand, her expression
both irate and uneasy.

“
Don’t test me, inmate,”
she spat. “Next time you give me attitude, I won’t be so lenient.”
With that, she slammed the cell door closed in my face.

“
Wait, are you viewing
me?”
I asked Erik, still a little stunned
by how quickly the situation had escalated, and then just as
quickly dissipated.

Praying that he wasn’t, I crossed the cell
to my bed and eased down on the edge of the mattress. Happy as I
was to hear from him after the lengthy radio silence, the idea of
Erik witnessing my dreary living conditions was unsettling. It
would only upset him further, and he was already pissed about the
run in with Konterra.

“
Yeah, and thank goodness
I was,”
he replied.

“
You shouldn’t have done
that, Erik. She’s going to know something is up, and I’m not
supposed to have my powers.”

“
Did you think I was going
to let her hit you?”
he sent back.
“Damn right I stopped her.”

“
Your talents are getting
stronger,”
I mused, intent on changing the
subject.

“
Yeah, they are. It’s
weird, though. Without additional injections, I thought they were
supposed to get weaker.”
He sighed.
“Whatever. I don’t want to talk about my talents.
How are you? Your cell isn’t great, but I’ve seen
worse.”

Yep, he was definitely still viewing me.

“
Good. I’m good,”
I lied.

“
Really, Tals? It’s me
you’re talking to. You can be honest.”

I laughed, just the
faintest trace of bitterness seeping in.
“It’s prison, Erik. I mean, it’s a lot like you’d expect—bad
food, cold showers, and a lot of downtime to contemplate my wicked
ways. My daytime guard is a decent guy; I actually like him. You
just met my nighttime guard, the highly unpleasant wench;
obviously, she sucks.”
I shook my head to
clear the thoughts of Konterra. I didn’t want to talk about her or
Vault, much the same as Erik didn’t want to talk about his talents.
I just wanted to have a normal telepathic conversation with my
boyfriend, like any other girl—was that too much to ask?