Tremble (17 page)

…and Kiernan appeared.

20

“Whoa!” Ben breathed, sliding farther down the wall. His eyes were wide as Frisbees and he looked a little pale. I hoped to God he wasn’t going to puke.

“Back off,” Kiernan growled in my direction. “My friend and I are leaving. If you don’t want to get hurt, just leave us be.”

I snorted and stepped between them, letting go of my mimic. There was a slight tingle, and suddenly I was nice and comfy, back in my own skin. “Over my better-dressed body.”

Her eyes widened, and for a fraction of a second, surprise froze her in place.

Then she was on me.

Kiernan’s lip curled up and she lunged forward. Fingers extended toward my throat, she wore an expression that defined pure fury—then nothing. “Crap,” I spat, spinning in a full circle with my arms flailing. Kiernan wasn’t an expert fighter—last I knew of, anyway—but being able to move through the room unseen gave her a serious advantage.

Something connected with my jaw, rocking my head back and sending the room into a swirl of watery color and blurry shapes. I thrust my arms out in front of me, trying to back myself against the wall to narrow down possible areas of attack, but I was too slow. She hit me again, this time from behind, and sent me sprawling to the floor.

From somewhere to my left, I heard her laugh. “What’s the matter,
sis
? Feeling a little unbalanced?”

Getting my ass handed to me by an invisible girl was embarrassing and certainly not the best impression to give the new guy. In the corner, Ben watched, wide-eyed, clearly having no intention of leaving his hiding place. Obviously he wasn’t the help-a-damsel-in-distress type.

Then again,
I
wasn’t the damsel type.

Taking a deep breath, I held it and really paid attention. There was no sound. When Kiernan used her ability, she essentially created a bubble around herself, making her body and anything she touched, as well as any sound she might make, undetectable.

But as helpful as that was for her, it didn’t stop me from noticing the ends of my hair flutter on the right side as she geared up for another attack.

I threw myself sideways as hard as I could and a painful howl filled the small room. Kiernan appeared behind me, left arm cradled in her right. I didn’t waste time. Bringing my leg up, I caught her in the stomach, and when she doubled over, I struck again by bringing my elbow down hard between her shoulder blades.

There was a point in my life, not long ago, when the actions that followed might have horrified me. But so much had changed—with my reality and my life—that I didn’t even think twice. Dropping down beside her, I slapped my hand over her mouth, making sure to cover her nose.

It took a moment but she started thrashing, desperate to shake me loose. Desperate for air.

“Holy crap—you’re killing her!” Ben said, finally crawling out from his corner.

As soon as she stopped struggling, I let go, hoping it wasn’t an act. “As much as that would have made my year, I only wanted to knock her out.” I stood. “In case you didn’t realize it, she’s with those people I told you about.”

“I—” Ben started as the door burst open. Assuming it was someone belonging with Kiernan, he swung without asking questions.

The recipient of his blow—or miss, as it turned out—was less than thrilled with the reception. Kale stepped into the room, artfully dodging Ben’s punch, and shoved him hard against the wall. “Do
not
do that again.”

“Easy,” I said, stepping over Kiernan’s still form and wedging myself between the two boys. “You took him by surprise, that’s all. Kale, this is Ben Simmons.”

He looked at Ben for a moment as if sizing him up, then turned to me. “We need to go. I took care of two agents, but not before one was able to call for help. They know we’re here. They’ll come prepared.”

I followed his gaze to Kiernan, lying motionless on the floor. Her head was at an uncomfortable-looking angle with her right arm wedged beneath her. I was betting she’d wake up with one hell of a stiff neck. “She’s fine,” I said, a pang of jealousy shooting through me.

He tore his gaze from her and met mine with a look that sent the butterflies in my stomach moshing up a frenzy. “I don’t care about her.”

“Right,” I said with a nod. He didn’t care. I was reading into every little thing he did, and that needed to stop. Creeping to the door, I opened it a crack and peered around the frame. The hall looked deserted. If we were going to make a break for it, now was our chance. I waved to Ben. “Come on.”

He shook his head, skin slightly pale and eyes alternating between Kiernan and me. His hand rested atop his stomach and, judging from the expression on his face, there was a good chance he
was
going to be sick. “You go ahead. I think I’ll wait here for the cops.”

Kale moved toward him. “If you don’t start moving toward the door, Supremacy will be the very least of your problems.”

I grabbed Ben’s arm and pulled while giving Kale the stink eye. “What he
means
to say is the cops won’t get here in time. If you don’t come with us now, there won’t be a later to worry about. Trust me on this; we’re trying to help you.” I’d done the hardass routine with Ashley, and she ended up dead. I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. “Please, Ben. Trust us.”

His eyes widened, then kind of glossed over. Suddenly his breath came in short, shallow pants. “The bloody people. That’s who you’re talking about?”

I had no clue what he meant, but I nodded with great enthusiasm. I would have told him Santa Claus was real and rented an apartment with the Easter Bunny in sunny California if it got him moving. “Yes. Bloody people. Bloody people who want to
kill
you.”

Technically I wasn’t lying to him.

Ben’s expression was a mask of utter panic, but he followed me to the door and out into the hall. Before starting forward, I gave Kale a neener-neener grin and couldn’t help the spike of happy I felt when his lip twitched in amusement.

We were a few feet from the end of the hall when an angry voice came from behind. “What the— Stop!”

A quick peek over my shoulder told me the security guard I’d sent to the office had returned. He stood in the doorway of the room with his radio out, presumably to call for backup. “Great,” I snapped, pushing Ben forward. “Just great.”

As the three of us wove our way through the crowd, trying hard to stay at its thickest to avoid detection, I dialed Mom. “Please tell me you’re almost here,” I huffed when she answered. In the background, a horn blew and Dax’s muffled curse, along with the distant squeal of breaks against blacktop, rang out.

“About ten minutes away,” she replied. “Why? What happened?”

“We had a little hiccup.” Beside me, Ben kept pace, but he didn’t look good. Sweat beaded against his brow, and his eyes darted back and forth. He’d wrapped both arms around himself like he was terrified to touch anyone and had started whispering incoherent things under his breath. I couldn’t catch much of what he said, but I did hear the words
spike
,
death
,
harpoon
, and
space
. “Actually, it’s more like a stinky butt burp than a hiccup.”

Mom groaned. “Can you make it outside? We’ll pull up right in front.”

I looked to Kale for confirmation. “Front door?”

He shook his head. “Blocked by security.”

A quick look over my shoulder showed more guards fanning out to canvass the room. They were getting closer. “I’ll have to call you back,” I barked and ended the call, almost dropping the cell. “If we can get someplace out of the way, I can try mimicking us and we can walk right out the front.”

“No,” Kale said. “Three people? That will take too much out of you.”

Of course it would. Focus, Dez! Focus.

It was stupid, considering the situation we were currently in, but I froze, staring at him like he’d just spouted the lyrics to a Powerman 5000 song in ancient Greek. “What?”

“You’ve already mimicked yourself twice in the last hour. The attendant and the police officer. You won’t be able to change all three of us and walk out of here on your own. If I have to carry you it will attract too much attention.”

When my brain was functioning on all cylinders, I knew that, but memory-impaired Kale didn’t. I’d never told him. “How did you—”

“My head,” Ben said, stopping short and crouching low to the ground. We were in the middle of the crowd, and several people slowed to stare. “My head is going to float away!”

“Oh, shit.” The guard said they restrained Ben during the flight because he’d become delusional and violent.

“Is…is he okay?” a tall woman asked, pulling her small child behind her. The boy wouldn’t be pushed aide, though. He shrugged her off and pulled back the legs of her pants to get a better look at Ben.

“Yeah, he’s fine. He just doesn’t—”

“They’re inside my head!” he cried, curling tight on the floor.

People didn’t pass slowly anymore. They stopped. The woman jumped back, startled, and pulled her son into the crowd as others joined her.

With each word, Ben’s voice grew louder and louder, overcoming the noise of the terminal. “Inching their way through my gray matter and trying to eat out my eyes!”

“What’s he talking about?” Kale asked, trying to drag him off the floor. But Ben kept going limp, folding like overcooked spaghetti.

“He’s having an
episode
. His symptoms are further along,” I whispered, bending to help Kale pick him up. “Worst timing
ever
.”

We managed to get Ben upright, but he wasn’t responsive so I kind of panicked. Taking a deep breath, I backhanded him. Sprained my middle finger doing it, too. He stumbled backward into Kale, eyes wide.

“What the hell?” he snapped.

“Seriously?” I blinked down at my hand. “That actually worked?” Huh. Chalk one up for melodrama in Hollywood!

Kale grabbed my shoulders and spun me toward the door. “They’ve seen us.”

They had us surrounded—at least five at our back and three in front. Kale on one side of Ben and me on the other, we dashed forward.

Agents hovered around the edges biding their time, and security charged full-speed ahead. Typical Denazen. Let someone else jump in and get their hands dirty while they waited on the sidelines to swoop in. There wasn’t much time to think, much less get out of their path. We separated, Kale tugging Ben to the right and around a large pillar to avoid two of the men coming at our front. The third was on me.

The crowd shrank back, giving us a wide berth as a collective gasp rolled through the room. Kale decked one guard square in the head and sent him crumbling to the floor as the other made an inelegant swipe Kale easily danced away from.

Kale was fine. He had Ben, and he’d make sure he stayed safe. I needed to focus on the guard flying toward me. I waited until he was several feet away, speed never decreasing, before bending low like Mom had shown me in one of our training sessions. I angled my shoulder just below his waist and jumped up with every ounce of strength I had. The movement sent him flying headfirst over my shoulder to the ground.

I stopped for a second, shocked it’d actually worked. I’d tried it several times on Dax, and the most I’d managed was a sprained shoulder and a ton of embarrassment. My lips twisted into a goofy grin, thrilled over my accomplishment, before I realized I was doing it again. Losing focus. But it was too late. One of the guards came running up from behind and threw his arms around my torso, pinning both arms stiff at my sides. Head back in the game, I didn’t hesitate. In one of our training sessions, Dax showed me a trick to throw an opponent off balance. I drew my knees up, forcing the guard to support all my weight as well as his own. He didn’t anticipate it, and the move sent him teetering—as planned—and stumbling forward.

We hit the ground in a heap and I wriggled free, but he refused to give up. Clutching a handful of hair, he yanked back, and a painful scream built in my throat. I couldn’t remember the last time someone pulled my hair. Kindergarten maybe? And definitely not a guy.

I twisted and kicked out, catching his shoulder with the heel of my sneaker. I couldn’t hear anything above the noise the crowd made—people were screaming and talking all at once—but I felt something give, accompanied by a sickening crunch. The guard released my hair and let out a scream that would have done an opera singer proud.

“Oh, man. I’m seriously sorry,” I said as I scrambled to my feet. He was just doing his job, and I felt bad. He didn’t understand what was going on.

The Denazen agents, on the other hand, did.

I made it to the edge of the crowd as they closed in. Four of them, one approaching from each corner of the mob.

“Everyone calm down,” the one to my right called out and the crowed hushed. “We’re Homeland Security. We’ve got this under control.”

Homeland Security? Were people really that stupid?

The crowd shrank back ever farther, quieting, and I had my answer. Yes. Yes they were.

The agents came within four feet, and the one who had addressed the crowd spoke in a voice only loud enough for me to hear. “Where’s Ben Simmons?”

“Ben Simmons,” I said, tapping my chin. “Simmons. Hmm. Doesn’t ring a bell. What’s he look like? Is he hot?”

“Don’t play games, little girl,” he growled. “Simmons is dangerous. You’re not doing yourself any favors by helping him.”

I shrugged. “I like danger.”

“Do you?” He took a step closer, grin stretching to remind me of a freaky clown I’d seen as a child. Good thing Kale wasn’t seeing this. He hated clowns. “Do you like pain as well? This is your last chance. Tell me where Ben Simmons is.”

I was about to tell him to check all the spots the sun didn’t shine when a woman from the crowd let out a horrific shriek. Everyone’s attention went from me to the front of the room. I didn’t see it at first and wondered what the big deal was as the crowd scampered to either side of the room like the floor was on fire. But when I did, I was filled with an even mixture of fear and elation.

On the other end of the room, crouched low by the door, was Kale. Moving away from him—and speeding toward us—was a dark, churning thing just below the tile floor. It reached the brim of the crowd and separated into four distinct trails, zooming around me and settling beneath each agent.