Unforgettable (Talented Saga #6) (33 page)

They were fast but my team was faster.
While Riley continued to pump tranquiller darts into the
now-defenseless guards, I summoned their fallen weapons into
Brand’s waiting hands. Neither Penny nor I were good shots, and we
both had the advantage of telekinetic abilities. So I figured it
was best to play to our strengths and leave the gunfight to the
guys.

“
Bloody brilliant!” Riley
exclaimed, temporarily forgetting his role as disarmer and staring
wide-eyed at me.

“
Where is she?” I demanded
over the screams of the scared guards.

“
Just down the hall. This
way.” Riley gestured me forward.

One of the guards had managed to
wrestle the gun away from Angus, and the two were now engaged in
hand-to-hand combat. Riley ran past them, with me hot on his heels.
Since Angus wasn’t faring quite so well in his fist fight, I took a
second to aid his efforts. Slamming his opponent into the wall hard
enough to daze him, I then sent a gun flying through the air to
land in Angus’ hand.

“
This one, here,” Riley
said, indicating a metal door, identical to all of the other metal
doors in the hallway.

Without hesitation, I blasted the door
off of its hinges and ran inside.

What the hell? The room was
empty.

“
Riley!” I shouted
frantically into the comm unit. “She isn’t here!”

“
I could have sworn…,” he
began, and I could imagine him scratching his head unhelpfully. “I
felt her. And James, too. I
still
feel them.”

Too caught up in using my
powers, I hadn’t paused long enough to
feel
Kenly myself. Stupid mistake.
Riley was good, but my ability to sense other Talents trumped his
skills no question. And once I concentrated, I felt her
too.

A wave of power hit me
square in the chest, hard enough to make me gasp.
What the hell did Mac do to her?
I wondered. Being a natural-born, dual-Talent,
Kenly had projected strength prior to becoming Created. But now her
power was off the charts.

“
She’s two doors down,” I
wheezed, sucking in air and trying to catch my breath.

My teammates heard my declaration
through the comm units, and another blast from the hallway told me
that someone had found the correct door.

“
Got it right this time,
didn’t I?” I heard Riley say in my ear.

I rolled my eyes and didn’t bother to
correct him. If the boy wanted credit for locating Kenly and James,
he could have it.

I rushed back into the hallway, intent
on getting to Kenly. I needed to see for myself that she was okay.
Although, considering the circumstances, “okay” was more of
relative term. Physically unharmed was more likely the best I could
hope for.

Blowing passed Penny, who was helping
Angus incapacitate the few remaining guards, I darted towards the
open door, two down from the one I’d just exited. Riley and Brand
were already inside and I had to peer around Penny’s boyfriend for
my first good look at the girl who’d once been my
mentee.

Riley and James—I recognized him from
Erik’s vision—were exchanging easy banter, as if this wasn’t a
freedom rescue in a slavery situation. I only had eyes for Kenly.
She appeared stunned, brown eyes wide and mouth agape, clearly
unsure whether the scene before her was real or a
mirage.

Like all the other female captives,
Kenly wore a crimson gown that fit too snuggly against her skinny
frame. Her hair was pinned up in an elaborate fashion that made me
wonder if the Poachers employed professional stylists. The makeup
on her pale face was garish, having obviously been applied by
someone with a heavy hand and predilection for mascara and black
eyeliner. But the most obscene parts of Kenly’s appearance were the
shackles around her wrists and ankles.

Suddenly, my hands itched with the
desire to choke the life from every single Poacher who’d ever
lived.

“
You shouldn’t be here,”
Kenly said, her voice barely a whisper. “The Poachers are looking
for you.”

Her words startled me and
my rising fury retreated some.
Me
? True, I was Created, too. But I
was nothing special, not anymore. Prior to Mac’s initiative to
inject most of TOXIC with the Creation drug, my raw power and
ability to manipulate even the most willful of minds had been
considered exceptionally rare. But over the last year, TOXIC’s
medical staff had drawn countless vials of my blood. They possessed
the vital ingredient they needed to make more just like me. There
was no telling how many powerful Mind Manipulators were roaming the
world, high off of the same power that coursed through my veins.
Honestly, they were probably all stronger than me, at this
point.

I shook off her words. They weren’t
important just then.

“
Neither should you,
Kenly,” I said sternly. “And you won’t be for much longer. We’re
going a little off-book here, but we’re still going to get you
out.” My next words were for Brand. “Unchain them,
Brand.”

It was a nod to the severity of the
situation that Brand simply rolled his eyes before complying with
the order, as opposed to challenging my authority.

Shouts from the hallway drew my
attention. In my ear, Penny was cursing and Angus was grunting.
Reluctantly, I turned my back on Kenly to face the new threat on
the other side of the open door.

“
Hurry up, we have
company!” I shouted to Brand, before joining Penny and Angus to
fend off the new arrivals.

My team had managed to incapacitate
the original guards stationed in Kenly’s hallway, but one of them
must have radioed for backup at some point. A fresh wave of angry
Poacher guards was pouring off the same elevator we’d ridden up on.
The situation was spinning out of control entirely too
fast.

In sync, Penny and I reached for our
powers, both using telekinesis to rid the new arrivals of their
weapons. But this time, I went a step farther and cast out my will
as well. Wanting to conserve my physical energy for the fight
outside, which was beginning to look like an eventuality rather
than a possibility, I only used a fraction of the power I
possessed. It was enough, though. All but one of the guards slumped
to the ground, fast asleep for the foreseeable future.

“
What’s going on out there,
Lyons?” Brand demanded.

“
Exactly what it sounds
like, Brand,” I shot back through the comm. “Backup has arrived.
Theirs, not ours. But the situation’s been handled.”

The one guard still standing was not a
guard at all, but rather a guy in a suit that screamed money. I
recognized him. He, along with James, had been in Erik’s vision.
His name alluded me, though. But I knew all I needed to know about
him from the vision. He was a Poacher.

Wide-eyed, the guy looked like he
might wet himself at any moment. Penny was closest to where he
stood, frozen and terrified. She grabbed his arm and began dragging
him forward with impressive strength for such a scrawny
girl.

“
Should we take him for
leverage?” she asked. “In case this turns ugly?”

I was about to ask how much uglier
this could get, before deciding better of it. Chances were, things
were going to get a lot worse before we made it out of the auction
house.

“
No,” I decided. “Knock him
out like the others and leave him, Penny. No hostages.”

I was already in a shitload of trouble
with Victoria and the council. The last thing I needed was to show
up with a Poacher in tow. That might bring the wrath of the entire
organization down on UNITED. Hopefully a few dead and concussed
guards would not.

“
Wait!” Kenly yelled,
startling all of us. All eyes turned towards her. “That guy, his
sister, Libby, is a Talent. She’s horrid, but I promised him that
we’d help her. We have to help her.”

Comprehension dawned. Libby
must have been the one attempting to manipulate Kenly’s mind in
Erik’s vision. She’d been the girl sitting on the arm of her
father’s chair in the study. I
so
didn’t want to help that girl with anything. She
was a flipping Poacher for heaven’s sake.

As if sensing my hesitation, Kenly
rushed on.

“
Jaylen was going to help
us—me and James—escape, in exchange for taking Libby to the
islands. Please, Talia. I…I promised.”

Her earnestness touched me. Kenly was
obviously a better person than I. If that Libby chick played in my
head the way she had in Kenly’s, I wouldn’t be upholding that
promise now that the cavalry had arrived.

Or would I? Hadn’t I just disobeyed
orders to repay Anya for helping me?

“
Ahh, that explains it,”
Riley declared. “We’ve been waiting since before the auction began
for the two of you. About twenty minutes ago, your names were
removed from the auction house program. That’s when we elected to
pop round, to find you.”

Since I was already in a heap of
trouble, I decided that another count of insubordination was
inconsequential at this point.

“
Okay, where is she?” I
asked, my mind made up.

I glanced between Jaylen and Kenly,
waiting impatiently for someone to answer me.

Jaylen couldn’t be bothered with me,
instead focusing on Riley with an expression of awe. For a moment,
I thought he might reach out and try to touch Riley’s
face.

“
You look just like Benji,
my bodyguard,” Jaylen said.

“
That’s the point, mate.”
Riley grinned like fool. “Your sort knows my face well, I had to
obscure my appearance. I reckon the best way to do that is by
looking like one of your actual guards, now isn’t it?”

Apparently as eager to get moving as I
was, Kenly ignored them and answered me.

“
She’s already in a
hovercar outside. She’s supposed to be drugged.”

Since I’d cut off mental communication
with Erik after the Anya incident, I spoke to him through the comm
unit.

“
Erik, I need you to find a
girl. She’s in a car, she should be unconscious.”

Masking irritation with me and fear
for Anya with flippancy, Erik replied, “Drugged, you say? Just the
way I like my women. Makes them less mouthy.”

I couldn’t help it, I smiled as
everyone else laughed, the same thought floating through all of
their heads: If Erik liked his girls less mouthy, he picked the
wrong girlfriend.

“
Of course you do,” I
replied sarcastically. “But there’s a line of hovercars waiting to
take the buyers home, by the rear exit,” I continued. “The girl
should be in an SUV.”

Since Jaylen still seemed enraptured
with Riley and his morphing prowess, I didn’t bother asking him for
details. I simply read them from his mind. The guy was not the
easiest mark, and it took some digging to find the
information.

“
The license tag is
Y…four…W…three…G…hang on a sec.”

Mental walls were slammed down inside
Jaylen’s head. He’d apparently caught on and understood I was
reading his mind. I pushed against the barriers, which gave way
quickly. The guy might be decent at building them, but he was
horrible at keeping them in place.

“
Six, one, one,” I
finished. “Got that?”

Erik read the alphanumeric sequence
back to me.

“
Exactly.” I took another
look inside Jaylen’s head and found his most recent memory of his
sister. “In the backseat, there’s a blonde. She’s wearing white
jeans and a blue silk blouse. She’s safe. I’ll see you
soon.”

“
Tals, be careful getting
out of there. Try not to draw any attention. Victoria got wind of
your deviation, and she’s on the warpath.”

Too late for
that
, I thought. Even if we did get out of
here without attracting any more attention, the hallway littered
with guards was a decent indicator that something was
amiss.

Cringing, my teammates
exchanged glances. They knew as well as I did that we were all in
trouble.
Great team leader, I
am
.

“
Let’s go before someone
else comes up here and realizes that all the guards are down,”
Brand said, taking charge before turning to me. “Talia, take care
of our friend here.”

He pointed to Jaylen.

Still focused on what I was going to
say to Victoria, Brand’s orders barely registered as such and I
complied without argument. I turned to face Jaylen and directed my
will towards him. In a matter of seconds, his eyes rolled back into
his head and he slumped against Penny.

“
All done!” I
declared.

With Brand and Angus taking the lead,
our little liberation party exited the room.

In my ear, Henri spoke.

“
Ernest is on the move. I
think he’s leaving. What do you want me to do, Talia?”

Before I had the chance, Catherine
responded.

“
Stand down, Reich. The
final Created was just sold. Time to clear out.”