LAILAH
TWELVE
Now wasn’t the time to celebrate things, since we were still trapped in a van with men who wanted to kidnap us or possibly even kill us.
Then there was the whole bit about Pride Resources getting blown up.
I had to believe that those three were safe.
Seeing as I was still alive, it had to be true, since everyone kept telling us if one of them died, I would know or it would kill us all at the same time.
The van was lying on its side and the metal grating keeping us from the front was bent and hanging, giving me enough room to squeeze through.
“Brayden, keep an eye on Hudson and see if you can’t handcuff the fake officers to the van. I’m going to see how far out from the shoreline we are,” I said, already wiggling my way up front.
The driver and other guards were in a heap, since neither of them had put their seatbelts on.
The windshield was splintered but remained intact.
I remembered Jay telling me some special film held it together so it didn’t shatter and hurt the person in the car.
I could kick it out and get a clear view of what was going on.
It was a lot harder than the movies made it seem but I managed and gasped at the destruction the rockslide and wave had caused to the shoreline.
An entire section of the road was washed away as if there’d never been a way to drive through.
There were a few cars stopped with people milling about, looking at the disaster that happened, spanning the width of a mile.
One of the guys groaned behind me and before he could even open his eyes, I kicked him right in the head.
I’d had enough of playing nice through this whole nightmare.
I was over it. It was time to put away Lailah, the lost girl who didn’t know what she wanted for her life, and instead pull from my strength as Synergy to make her mark in the world.
Quickly, I cuffed the two men together and then cuffed one of them to the door they were lying on in case they wanted to come after us.
Sending up a prayer, I hit the unlock button and the faint snick told me we were home free.
The back of the van had two doors,making it easier for us to get out of this damn vehicle than trying to get the guys to fit past the grate to get up here.
Making my way back, I kneeled next to Hudson who still wasn’t waking up even as Brayden tried splashing water on his face.
“I wonder if it’s because his powers are too low,” I mused.
“At this point, anything would be worth a try so we can get out of here and back to shore,” Brayden grumbled, wiping the blood from his face with the shirt he’d removed.
It was then I noticed that the cut was gone, and the swelling had also reduced. Reaching out, I grabbed his chin and moved his head around, looking him over as if I’d been mistaken about where the injury had been. No matter where I looked, he was fine. “How do you feel?”
“Pissed the fuck off, but surprisingly good for all we’ve just been through. My head aches but nothing I can’t handle. I’m more impressed that the bleeding stopped. Scalp wounds are known to be bad bleeders,” Brayden rambled, not realizing just how impressive that really was.
“It’s gone,” I said, pointing to his head. “The gash you had is gone, like it never happened.”
He blinked at me. “What do you mean? How could it just be gone? Did an angel come and heal us again?”
“No, I think I did. When I was giving you power, what if I also healed you?” I whispered.
Quickly, I turned to Hudson and took his face in my hands, leaning down so my forehead touched his.
This time I let my power slowly fill Hudson from his big toe all the way up to his head, completely replenishing his energy.
When he started to overflow with my power, I pulled it back into myself, only to cycle it back to him, like a current of energy was flowing between us, giving and receiving.
As I did this, I felt more of his own power entering the mix, his blue swirling with my gold until the blue overtook it.
Then I seemed to have this sense to just filter out my own power, leaving the blue energy behind, refilling him until it was bursting out of him.
“Lailah...” Hudson groaned as his eyes started to blink open.
It was at that point I noticed his glasses were missing. “I’m right here. The world might be a little foggy since your glasses fell off so don’t be surprised.”
“I can see perfectly,” he shared, sitting up slowly, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands as if he didn’t believe it himself. “What happened to me? I feel like I could swim across the ocean.”
“Funny you should say that because we’re gonna need to swim back to shore.
I got us out of the water but I’m not sure I should mess with the earth more than I already have,” Brayden said as he got up and kicked open the back doors, showing our situation.
“That wave you created could have taken out a small city but thankfully the cliffs kept it from getting too out of control.”
The men who’d kidnapped us stirred, and I wondered if they might be a little more forthcoming with their information now that they got beat to hell. I turned to the guy closest to me and patted him roughly on the cheek. “Hey, buddy, you in there?”
He moaned but managed to open his eyes. Peering down at him, I waited for the understanding of what happened to register in his brain. “How are we not dead?”
“That would be because I need something from you,” I answered. “Who sent you to kidnap us and where were you going to take us?”
“Why the hell would I tell you anything when you’re just going to kill me?”
“Oh, I’m not going to kill you. In fact, I’m not going to do anything to you at all,” I responded, my eyes wide at his thought process.
He searched my face as if that would tell him if I was lying.
Since I’m not very good at lying, it was a safe bet he would be able to spot one if I had.
“I don’t know who the guy is, but we were paid to falsely accuse you of the bombing and lock you away in jail.
We couldn’t kill you but we had to make sure you couldn’t leave or get word out to anyone that you’d been taken.
This was only supposed to be a simple grab-and-go job.
We’d been warned about your powers but I didn’t believe it was that big of a threat. ”
“Seems that was shortsighted of you,” Hudson commented. “Are you ready, Sunshine? I don’t think they know anything all that helpful to us.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. We need to find the others and see what they’ve learned.” I sighed and headed for the back door of the van.
“Hey! You can’t leave me here! You said you wouldn’t kill me!” the cop begged.
Glancing over my shoulder, I shrugged. “I said I wasn’t going to do anything to you, including help you get out of here. Let’s hope for your sake that someone decides to check out this random floating van in the ocean in time to save you.”
“I thought the Elementi were supposed to be the good guys who couldn’t sin?” he called after us.
“Yeah, well that all changed once I showed up and the Dark Lord made it personal,” I answered and dove into the ocean.
It didn’t take us long to get to shore and find someone who was willing to take us back to the hotel.
Since they were dirty cops, I had to hope that there wouldn’t be any more issues with them showing up.
The three of us needed clean clothes and cellphones to try and reach out to the others.
Jay made us all switch out our phones for burners that couldn’t be traced.
This again made it clear that someone was spilling our secrets, and we needed to get to the bottom of that before we could make our next move.
I dialed Cami’s number, and she picked it up right away. “Lala, tell me you’re okay!”
“What? How did you know we’d been taken by dirty cops?” I asked, confused at how she knew already.
“I’m sorry, what? You got kidnapped?! I was talking about the bomb going off at Pride. How the hell did you manage to get kidnapped on top of that?” she demanded.
Okay, now that made more sense. If they were tracking the news or activity in Cape Town, they would know about the explosion.
“We split up. The guys seemed to think it would draw less attention if all of us didn’t go.
They knew the Dark Lord was after me so they had Brayden and Hudson stay back with me while the others went to the meeting. ”
“They let Parker go on the mission?” Cami questioned, her tone surprised.
“Cami, we all know he was the best person to sweet talk information out of people and is the best at technology and hacking if we needed it. It would have been stupid not to have him go,” I snapped.
There was a pause on the other end of the line telling me that I might have been a little too harsh to Cami.
“Well, damn girl. Clearly getting kidnapped is not something that puts you in a chipper mood. For the record, I get why you picked Parker to go and I agree with you he was the best choice. I’m just surprised Super Trooper and Flame Boy went along with it, since they are team ‘kill Parker’ is all. Moving on—what do you need from me?”
“Someone has to be giving out information about us. There is no way that someone could know that we split up, or that we were even in Cape Town but you, Beth, and whoever else you guys told. Something’s not adding up.
However they’re getting information is going to get us killed.
The people who tried to kidnap us were dirty cops who were going to frame us for the bombing,” I explained.
“How can we be missing something that’s right in front of our faces? ”
“Fucking cunt-camels,” Cami swore. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do and get Maggs to help me since she can do the tech things I can’t. You guys deal with things on your end and I promise I will figure out what the fuck is going on.”