Chapter 23 #2
Ben and Taylor stared at me like I was crazy, so I handed Ben my phone. A look of alarm crossed his face, and I knew he was feeling that premonition too.
“Guys,” I silently called to my men, “we have trouble heading our way.”
The studio guy looked harried. “Are you sure we can use room four?”
Before we could respond, the fire detectors above us began to blare. I immediately pressed my hands over my ears as the shrilling noise seemed to pierce deep into my marrow. I shuddered at the alarming sound.
“What do you mean you’re having trouble?” Remy immediately asked, her voice alarmed.
“I’ll explain later, but for now, if there’s anyone nearby, please send backup,” I insisted.
I inwardly cursed myself for denying an escort today. We’d gotten careless, and I knew better. Just because Horatio hadn’t hit us for a while, and we were launching an offensive attack of epic proportions, didn’t mean we should have let our guard down.
“We’ll reschedule!” I insisted, packing up my violin.
Lincoln needed no further prompting and discussed a reschedule with our sound technician. He grabbed my jacket and helped me slip it on.
“What? Quitting already over a little noise and technical difficulty?” Mike scoffed loudly.
“Let’s go,” Ben insisted.
Taylor and Rick weren’t stupid. They hadn’t missed the interaction between Lincoln, Ben, Gavin, and me. They knew something was up, and it was important to leave. They quickly packed up their instruments and fell into step behind us.
Lincoln stuttered to a stop in front of me, and I barely caught myself from crashing into him. It took me only a few seconds to realize why. There were ten people in front of us, and it didn’t take long to recognize Bridgette leading the pack.
My brows rose in surprise. They must be desperate if they were sending her out into the field. It was hard to believe, but she looked even worse than she had a few weeks ago. If I didn’t know her so well, I would never think she had ever been a beautiful, nearly twenty-year-old woman.
“Where are they?” Bridgette asked through clenched teeth.
We knew it was only a matter of time before they realized we were picking off their top dogs one by one. By now, I was sure they were starting to notice it wasn’t just poor communication, or that the messages they were receiving weren’t even from their men and women.
“Where are who?” I asked, wearing a dumbfounded expression.
She gave me a malevolent grin the moment her eyes met mine. “Okay, keep playing dumb. One or two of our guys being unreachable isn’t anything new, but eleven? Impossible.”
I could barely contain my smile. I wished I could have. We expected by now that they would be feeling it.
She looked over our group. “Three level twos, two level fives, a level eight, and three level tens,” she tsked, shaking her head. “And here I am with ten-tens. How do you think you’ll fare in this battle?”
“Better than you,” I said, straightening my spine, moments before I saw a distortion in the air.
I wondered if it was just my imagination when Mike’s “girlfriends” squealed in fright. I couldn’t help but notice two of them jumping and latching onto Lincoln. He gently pushed them back before placing an arm around my waist.
I saw the brief flare of jealousy and rage in Mike’s eyes as he realized his girlfriends had “jumped” into Lincoln’s arms when they felt threatened. I barely had time to react before a shield was erected around us. I looked at Gavin with widened eyes.
“That disruption in the air would have made blood come out of our ears, noses, and mouths. Tremaine, there can essentially scrambled our brains, causing significant trauma. If that had hit us, we would have all been fried.”
I was immediately incensed by that low-blow tactic, and I wanted to toy with them. I wanted them to feel the embarrassment of their cockiness. “Shall we play with the mice?”
The question barely left my mouth when the shield around us began to crack, and at the same time, a few people came walking out of the other studios.
I inwardly cursed. I should have remembered the other studios had people in them.
I should have commanded them to stay in their rooms. I quickly erected a shield around them.
I knew I didn’t have time to play any games with Bridgette, especially after one of the civilians fell to the ground, clutching her arms.
She was screaming, and as I watched, I saw several razor-like cuts open up on her arms. Blood immediately began to bead and flow from the wounds.
One of the other guys began to panic as little boils popped up on his skin, and I had to hold my hands over my mouth when some of them burst. A sickly green-and-yellow, mucus-like substance began to ooze from the painful-looking sores.
“You will not hurt anyone else, especially innocent civilians,” I said through clenched teeth.
My eyes narrowed on them as I studied every single one of our enemy’s faces. There was no time for games. I had to end this before it spun out of control.
“Everyone down on your knees, link your hands together, and place them behind your head,” I commanded.
“We just located Mercedes and Bentley. We’ll be there shortly!” Jace’s voice resounded in my head.
I felt comforted to know that my guys would even the odds. I had faith in Lincoln, Gavin, Ben, and I but the others were questionable. The three women accompanying Mike were low level gifted—not that that was terrible— they were there as support and operations staff and not missions.
I’m sure we could hold them off and keep them detained until they got here, but I didn’t know how long. Plus, it comforted me knowing I could have my men by my side in a crisis.
“No!” Bridgette screeched.
She finally saw that she was weaker than I was. Sure, we had come into a confrontation before, but with others by our side. Gift for gift, we might both be tens, but it was clear I was stronger. There was no denying it. She was struggling, helpless to heed my command.
“What’s wrong, sister?” I smirked. “You may be a ten, but what about your baby? Is she still reading at a four?”
I had to bite my tongue to keep from antagonizing her further.
I didn’t want to ask if she knew who her baby’s father was, because she would know I was talking about Ethan.
She might have known we had help, but she had no clue from whom.
Ethan and Arianna were pretending everything was normal while we were in our secret meetings or on missions.
With Mercedes, Bentley, and Micah, it was easy to transport them to our location when necessary.
“Do it!” she screamed at an attractive-looking couple that had been hanging in the back.
I barely had time to gloat before I felt a heavy punch to my chest and realized a couple of them were pushing back against my command. I frowned as I tried to catch my breath. The second realization that struck me was that I should have commanded her to silence.
“That’s Julius and Merriam,” Gavin said between gasping breaths. “They’re a connected pair and one of Horatio’s first experiments with boosting our gift levels. They’re the only ones who have survived the experimentation thus far.
“They have mental abilities and are capable of overcoming any shields or cloaking.”
The intensity built, and I cried out, clutching my stomach. It felt like someone was reaching in and trying to squeeze my uterus. The babies began to riot, and I could feel their distress.
“The babies,” I sobbed.
My airways felt like they were trying to close, and I felt a wet warmth spill from between my thighs as I screamed out. My breath became even more shallow as I realized I was losing my babies. With great effort, Lincoln leaned over and cradled me against his chest.
“Tap into her gifts, push back,” Lincoln gasped to Gavin.
I barely registered the yelling around me or the fact that our backup had finally arrived. The pain was too unbearable. I had experienced a lot of pain in my short life, but this was like no other. The clenching in my uterus made me want to roll around in agony, but I seemed to be paralyzed by it.
In my agony-induced state and panic, I didn’t realize that backup had arrived until the pressure from the connected pair ceased, and Noah was beside me. I vaguely registered the presence of the rest of my guys, Micah, Kade, Pops, Terrance, and a few others we typically ran missions with.
I looked at him with tear-filled eyes. “The babies, they’re coming, and it’s too early!”
I heard Pops bark out orders to detain our attackers.
Out of my peripheral, I saw Kurt helping the civilians, and I knew that by the time they left here today, they would be healed and have no recollection of what had happened.
I felt bad that we were messing with their memories, but in the end, I knew it was the best course of action.
Remy crashed down to his knees beside me.
His face went pale, and I looked down and let out another ragged sob when I saw the blood coating my grey leggings.
He squeezed in on my other side, and with trembling hands, he grasped my face.
“Fuck! She’s bleeding. What happened?” He turned rage-filled eyes toward Lincoln, Gavin, and Ben.
I knew he was attempting to place the blame on them.
“Not. Their. Fault,” I hissed between clenched teeth as another contraction hit me.
Lincoln had a look of guilt in his eyes as he braced my back against his chest. He kissed my temple, whispering reassuring words to me. “Whatever that bonded pair did, they induced labor.” He pointed a finger toward the said pair.
“My baby may be reading low right now, but at least I’ll have mine,” Bridgette gleefully crowed. “I don’t think you can say the same after today.”