Thirty-Eight Ella
THIRTY-EIGHT
Ella
My arms ache, my ears ring, and I’m filled with as much citrine power as is humanly possible. I’ve exchanged energy for at least fifteen minutes, and the world is singing. It’s too bad I can’t shoot this power from my fingertips and take off Wynd’s head.
Corinda has awakened, but she sits like a husk in the chair, not moving. The hollows in her cheeks look like they were dug with shovels and are so dark I can barely tell if she’s still in there. She blinks but doesn’t seem to see anything.
“How can you do this to your own sister, Stacia?” I step away from the stone. The power throbs through me. I might be invincible. Probably not to a bullet, though.
Stacia is busy playing with Wynd’s butt and snuggling into his side. At least that looks like where her hand is. The way his pants tent kind of confirms that fact.
“Oh, please,” Stacia says. “We were never close. She was Mother’s favorite. Always has been. The truth is she’s dumber than a box of rocks.”
“I don’t think she is,” I retort. “I think she just has different ambitions than you. You’re fucking evil. I’ve never met anyone who would kill their own mother before.”
“It was me or her,” Stacia says. “She was slowly killing me by edging me out. She wanted Corinda to take over and bring in some billionaire new husband. Her money was on Justice. You know she planned to kill you, right?”
I swallow. My fingers are tingling. “Yes. I’m aware of that. I really don’t think it was very nice of her, but I wouldn’t have shot her in the head.”
“You would have,” Stacia says cheerfully, and the casualness sends a chill down my spine. “You just won’t admit it.” Her sigh sounds heavy and fake when she looks up at Wynd, her gaze adoring. “We can’t exactly keep her any longer. Justice is going to come looking.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to kill her?” he asks like he’s making dinner plans.
Stacia looks at me, then back at him. “I’d rather you did it. I shot my mother.”
When he looks at me, his eyes are dead. “You want me to shoot her?”
“No.” She shrugs. “I want you to make it more personal.”
I take a step away from them.
“Oh, yeah?” Wynd sounds interested.
I shake my head. “How can you do this to Justice? He’s like a brother to you.”
“No, he’s like a brother to Thorn,” Wynd says. “I’m the hired help. I have royal blood in my veins just like he does. The garnets can be mine.”
I cough out panic. I’m sure he doesn’t have half the power needed to charge them, and he’s too egotistical to know it. “You’re going to drive two social media companies into the ground.”
“We can handle it until kids arrive,” Stacia says, patting her flat stomach. “I’ve heard kids as young as three can charge.”
“Even so, that’s years away,” I snap. “Do you have any idea how Aquarius and Hologrid will take you down by then?”
Wynd shakes his head. “I’ve been coming for them for a long time.”
“Yes,” Stacia says. “We’ve been infecting servers left and right. You have no idea how weak the infrastructure is on both Aquarius and Hologrid Hub. I’m in their systems.”
I blink. “You can code?”
“Of course I can code,” she snaps. “What do you think I’ve been doing this whole time? Just going to parties, having fun with Corinda, and posting on social media?”
“Well, yeah,” I say, stunned. Apparently we underestimated Stacia the same way the world underestimated Alana. I should have known better.
“Don’t worry,” Stacia says. “I’ve done plenty of damage.”
She doesn’t know I already found the routes and corrupted them.
I swallow and try not to sneeze. That stupid purse is too close. “If you can code, do you know where the virus came from?”
“I have no idea.” Stacia stares at me. “I figured you created it.”
“No.” Not the mutated one, anyway. If I can get to a mainframe, I can clear her out completely. She’s not nearly as good as I am. She didn’t have Aura, Mags, and Jos training her all her life. My mind goes to the women. I have to get out of here. Who will take care of them?
I think of Justice. I think of what we could’ve had.
I fell hard, and I fell fast. I love a guy who can break someone else’s neck with his own hands, and I never told him.
Oh, I’ll put up a good fight, but Wynd is twice my size.
While I feel the power of the crystal, it doesn’t give me extra strength.
“I’d very much like for you to strangle her now,” Stacia says cheerfully.
I take another step toward Corinda. The idea of Wynd’s hands around my throat makes me want to gag. I back toward Corinda and grab her arm. “You need to wake up now. Help me.”
She looks up listlessly. “Huh?”
“Get up. We need to fight.” I bite the words through my teeth.
She looks at me, then at her sister, and then she pushes herself up as if her body is ninety years old.
“There you go,” I say.
Stacia actually laughs. “Nah, we’re going to let you live. You have a purpose to serve, so why don’t you just sit down and behave yourself?”
“You are such a cunt,” Corinda slurs. She wavers on her feet. “I can’t believe you killed our mother. You’re going to die a horrible death.” The words are soft, fragile. Her voice is weak; speaking has tired her out. I can’t count on her much for an assist.
I scan the room for weapons. The only thing I can see is a pen. I grab it.
Stacia watches me and laughs.
It’s funny until I stab her in the eye. I brace my feet and get ready to lunge just as the barely repaired elevator door blows open. The whole room stutters.
Justice. He came for me.
I grab Corinda instinctively and push her behind the pedestal as the doorway fills. Justice and Alexei stand there like two different kinds of storms.
Justice hits first. He reaches Wynd and tackles him, bringing him down hard.
Alexei moves for Stacia, but Stacia yanks a gun from her side and shoots him.
Alexei jerks back, blood spattering across his face, shock written all over him.
She laughs, and a knife flashes out of nowhere.
Alexei’s right hand moves as he throws, the blade spinning wildly, embedding perfectly in her throat.
She falls back, the gun clattering from her hand. She clutches at the knife, gurgling, and falls hard. I watch as her body shudders, convulses, and then the light leaves her eyes.
Alexei frowns and grabs his upper chest.
I move Corinda over to him. “How bad?” I ask.
“I don’t know,” he gasps. He collapses to his knees. “Kind of hurts.”
Oh shit. I look over at Justice, but he’s busy pummeling the ever-living shit out of Wynd. Wynd’s face is hamburger meat. I’m not sure there’s a nose left I recognize. Justice looks up, fury all over him, blood splattered across his face.
“I think Alexei took a bad one,” I say, holding Corinda as best I can. She’s barely steady.
Justice turns and punches again. One more blow snaps down on Wynd’s face. I hear bones crack, a percussive cascade, then the body shudders and goes still. Justice, his face splashed with blood, moves toward us. “Are you hurt?”
“No, I’m good,” I say, though my mouth’s dry.
Alexei tears his jacket off and looks down at the wound. Blood pours from him, pooling dark on the floor. Sirens and alarms burst to life above us—blares and the sound of men running, boots on stairs echoing through the shafts. “Shit. Hold on.”
“Guns out,” Justice says.
Alexei pulls a pistol from his boot. Justice pulls his too. I run over and grab the gun Stacia dropped, the cold metal slick with her blood.
“We can’t just keep shooting people,” I say, the panic making my voice thin.
Alexei’s eyelids flutter.
“No,” I cry out. He can’t die. Rosalie will be crushed. I stand and run into the server room, carrying the citrine out to place beside him.
“What are you doing?” Justice asks.
I gulp. “I’m not sure.” I plant my hand on the crystal and the other over Alexei’s heart. It’s beating slowly and not as strong as I like. I shut my eyes and think of Rosalie. Of her sweetness and her loyalty. Of her being my sister. A hum sets up around us.
“Holy shit,” Justice murmurs.
I tap into his energy, pulling strength from him. From the garnets and obsidian gems on his watch. I mentally picture a strong amethyst stone, Alexei’s stone, and shove healing power into the man.
He gasps and sits upright. “What the hell?” He looks down and then presses a hand against his still-bleeding wound.
I shudder and sit back. At least I bought him some time.
“More soldiers are coming,” Corinda says listlessly.
“You’re right,” Justice says, his voice calm as he raises it so the oncoming men can hear him. “Wynd and Stacia are dead. The new owners of TimeGem Moments, Ella and Corinda, are alive. We’re taking them up the elevator. Anybody that comes at us dies.”
He hoists Alexei over his shoulder. Alexei drops his head back and groans as blood runs down his temple, streaking the Russian’s cheek. I wrap an arm around Corinda and guide her toward the elevator. Her legs are shaky, but she moves.
Hopefully we can get out in time. The alarms keep wailing. Footsteps close in. I can feel my heart hammering like it’s trying to escape my ribs. We press our backs to cold metal and wait for the doors to close on whatever comes next.
The elevator doors shut, and I look up at Justice, a brutal man with blood splashed across his deadly angled face.
He came for me.