And he did. He swooped low in front of Janelle. She appeared confused, and Erik prodded her with his beak and flapped his beautiful wings until she got the picture. This left me to get Victoria. By now I was positive the Council guards were dead.
The operatives were distracted with Erik and Janelle, who were performing a routine of aerial acrobatics. I took the opportunity to land beside Victoria. She was in much worse shape than Janelle, but caught on to what she was supposed to do much quicker. She wrapped her arms around my neck and managed to pull herself onto my back. I’d never carried a passenger before. I was surprised to find her added weight didn’t slow me down much.
Victoria clung to my neck, her own talon-like nails digging in to my flesh, as I shot towards the chasm Erik had created in the ceiling. Bullets followed us, and I used the same bob and weave technique I’d seen Erik employ. I had a feeling mine wasn’t as graceful; although, it was effective. We were through the opening and soaring into the night unharmed seconds later.
Our hoverplanes were still forming a perimeter around the capital city. Buildings were erupting in orange-red flames to my left and right. Below, on the square outside of the metro station, Mac’s Created were showing their worth. Their movements were so fluid, like they were made of something other than flesh and bone. Our people were good fighters, great fighters even, but how did you defeat a person who was there one second and gone the next? Human and then not? Transforming into your mirror image, so you thought you were fighting yourself?
My first concern was getting Victoria to safety. Her grip on me was starting to weaken, and her chest was thumping against my back in an irregular rhythm. The Councilwoman needed medical attention – now. I caught sight of Erik and Janelle making a beeline for one of our crafts. I decided to follow. There, medics would be able to tend to her injuries before it was too late.
The underbelly of the hoverplane was still open from when our troops had exited. Erik soared through ahead of me. By the time my talons were skidding to a stop across the metal flooring, he was human and helping Janelle up a ladder to a second level. Like the enormous craft I’d flown across the country on, this one belonged to the Council and was large enough to carry the population of a small island nation.
Unceremoniously, I dumped Victoria on the floor of the craft. When she cried out in pain, I felt guilty. The transformation from bird to human was quick. I’d become very proficient in my short time as a Morpher. I helped Victoria to her feet and draped one of her arms around my shoulders just before she passed out. She so better not contain me, I thought as I hauled her dead weight to the ladder. Two sets of hands reached down through the opening at the top and relieved me of my burden.
I didn’t recognize either person, but they were both wearing scrubs and those were good enough credentials for me. After Victoria went up, Erik came down.
“Quick thinking down there,” I told him. “You saved our lives.”
“Yeah, well someone had to,” he sent back with a grin. Then he sobered. “Did you see what’s happening on the ground?”
“You mean how our people are getting their asses kicked?” I asked.
“I don’t know what to do. They’re too … too much for us. UNITED should just obliterate the entire city. Victoria was right, the created are too dangerous.”
“You don’t mean that,” I said. “They deserve a chance to be cured. Most probably don’t even understand why they’re fighting.”
“There isn’t a cure yet, Tals. We don’t know that there ever will be.”
“There will be,” I shot back angrily. “There has to be.”
Erik blew out a breath and folded me into his arms. He kissed the top of my matted curls. “The Hamilton?” he asked.
“The Hamilton,” I agreed.
“You lead, I’ll follow.”
I stood on my tiptoes and kissed him softly. Then I turned and sprinted the short distance to the opening, dove headfirst into the emptiness below, and once again morphed in midair. I felt him as bird Erik drew even with me. Together, we dodged stray gunfire, circled skyways, and managed to take out several TOXIC sharpshooters en route to The Hamilton. The luxury hotel wasn’t hard to spot; it was one of the tallest buildings in the city. I kept my focus on the square rooftop so I wouldn’t have to see what was happening below.
Get rid of Mac and this will all end, I kept telling myself.
I had no idea whether that was true. In my mind, it was, though. In my mind, Mac’s death would set the world right again.
Five operatives were standing guard on the roof of The Hamilton. One stood at each corner like a gargoyle warding off evil; too bad the real evil was already inside. The fifth was stationed at the door to the inside. They followed us with their guns, but no one took a shot. I guessed that they weren’t sure which side we were on. Erik answered that question when he suddenly darted forward, his right wing fully extended, and swatted one of the operatives over the side of the roof. The person toppled forward, morphing from dog, to tiger, to horse, and finally backed to human in time to splat on the sidewalk below.
Guess being multi-talented is only handy if you know how to use all those talents, I thought.
Gunfire burst forth from the remaining four operatives, none of whom were exceptional shots. I used evasive tactics to avoid the bullets, but Erik met the challenge. He dove at one operative, catching the woman between his enormous wings and tossing her into the air. I knew this was a kill-or-be-killed situation, but I was having a hard time getting my body on board that train of thought.
Now that the odds were slightly better for us, I considered morphing back to human. One of the remaining operatives was trying to grab hold of Erik’s feathers as Erik sunk his talons into the guy’s adapti-suit. The operative who’d been blocking the roof entrance to the hotel charged forward, gun drawn, and fired at Erik’s head. I landed on the roof, morphing at precisely the right time so that my boots slid over the rooftop instead of talons. I deflected the bullets before they found the mark. Then, I tore weapons from hands and belts to alleviate one obstacle.
The two operatives not actively engaged in wing-to-hand combat, rounded on me. I took a deep breath and readied myself for a physical fight. One of them evaporated into thin air, and the next thing I knew, the heel of his boot found a home in my lower back. I screamed in pain as I pitched forward. His friend rushed forward and delivered an uppercut to my jaw with enough force to rattle my teeth.
A sick cracking noised that sounded a lot like a wooden board being snapped in half distracted me long enough for the rear attacker to land a roundhouse kick between my shoulder blades. All the breath whooshed out of my lungs. I was getting my ass kicked. I fully expected the front attacker to hit me again. Through blurred vision I saw Erik, now human, materialize in the minute space between us. With lightning-fast reflexes, Erik caught the operative’s fist in his open palm and twisted. I shut down my auditory senses so I wouldn’t have to hear another bone breaking.
I whirled around to go another round with the guy behind me. He stared me directly in the eyes, opened his mouth to say something, and then fell flat on his face. I gaped. What just happened? Without getting any closer to him, I looked for blood. There didn’t appear to be any. I sniffed the air. No, no coppery scent.
“Come on, Tals. Gotta move if we want to get to the Director before he escapes.” Erik’s arm was around my waist, dragging me towards the rooftop entrance to the hotel.
“Did you see that?” I asked. “That guy, he just … fell.”
“You have a guardian angel,” Erik sent back, pausing at the door to listen and feel for signs of life from the other side. He looked to me for confirmation that no minds were buzzing close by. I shook my head no.
“That’s not it. He isn’t dead. I don’t think,” I said.
Erik tried to twist the knob. When it wouldn’t budge, I disengaged the lock with my mind.
“He’s not moving, which means he’s not attacking. That’s all that ma
tters.”
Erik held up a hand, signaling for me to wait while he made sure the stairwell was clear. I ignored his silent order and followed directly behind him, easing the door closed and reengaging the lock.
The stairwell was pitch black. I heard the hum of a generator somewhere deep within the building, and assumed it was being used to supply power to areas where it was necessary, like Mac’s suite. My eyes adjusted quickly, and I was able to make out the faint outline of the steps and handrail.
“Take my hand.” Erik reached back and wiggled his fingers at me.
“I can see,” I sent back.
“Yeah and you can also be seen. I’m going to try making both of us invisible. As long as you’re touching me, it should work.”
“Should?”
“Cadence was able to do it. I’m not as experienced with light manipulation, but my talent for it is stronger than hers ever was, even with the amplification drug.”
I threaded my fingers through his and waited for something to happen. When it did, I wished it hadn’t. I didn’t like not being able to see myself. It was like I’d ceased to exist.
“It’s okay, Tals. You’re still here, just invisible. Hold on to me.”
I did as instructed and Erik started down the stairs. Our footsteps were quiet, but still audible. It seemed pretty silly for Erik to waste the energy making us invisible if our shoes were just going to give us away. I kept my opinions to myself, since Erik wasn’t likely to appreciate them.
One short flight of stairs, and then a four by four landing, followed by another ten metal steps, and we were at the door to the penthouse level of The Hamilton. I found that I was holding my breath as the door eased open just a crack. A thin beam of soft yellow light shot into the blackened stairwell from the emergency bulbs in the hallway. I closed my eyes and concentrated on counting the minds on the penthouse level. Four. I counted just four. That meant only three guards stood between us and Mac. There were more on the lower levels, but the symphony of gunfire and grunts told me they were occupied.
Coward, I thought as Erik slipped into the hallway with me a beat behind him. Mac was a coward. His operatives, his people, were fighting and dying because he was too weak to accept punishment for his crimes.
“Two at the door. One must be inside with him,” Erik sent.
“Yeah, I see them.”
Two guards stood sentinel on either side of the door to Mac’s suite. One, the male, was exactly what I’d expected. He was close to two feet taller than me, just shy of seven foot, and probably weighed as much as a small hovercar. Hard muscle rippled under his adapti-suit as he rolled his shoulders and then jogged in place.
It was the woman – a girl really – who stopped me in my tracks. She was tall and thin with hair the color of milky coffee and eyes that matched. Kenly Baker. My protégé. What the hell was she doing here?
“Tal? What’s wrong?” Erik tugged on my hand.
“I know her,” I said, dumbstruck. “That’s Kenly. The girl I was training for her Hunters’ tryout. She … she shouldn’t be here. This isn’t right.”
Kenly glanced in our direction and squinted her eyes like she trying to see something a great distance away. I stopped breathing. Could she see us?
“Do you see something down there?” she asked her partner.
Mr. Muscles barely looked before answering, “Nah.”
I exhaled slowly.
Kenly wasn’t convinced, but she let it go.
“What do you want to do?” Erik asked.
Want did I want to do? I wanted Kenly to not be here. Her presence complicated matters too much. Killing the nameless operatives at Tramblewood, even the ones in Gatlinburg, had been hard enough. She was my friend. No way was I going to harm her. Unfortunately, she was also in my way. I’d have to go through her to get to Mac.
“Tals?”
“I’m thinking,” I shot back.
“Not to be an ass, Tal, but could you think faster? The natives sound a little restless downstairs.”
I bit my tongue to keep from audibly groaning. “Fine. You take the big one. Let me deal with her.”
“I was going to suggest that anyway.”
“How chivalrous of you.” Sarcasm lost something when used mentally. “Erik? No matter what, don’t kill her.”
“No. No deal. If she gets the upper hand with you, I’m taking her out.”
“Erik,” I begged.
Erik started forward without another word, leaving me no choice except to follow unless I wanted to suddenly appear in the middle of the hallway.
Fine, I thought, I just need to incapacitate her before Erik finishes with the oaf.
We crept so close to the duo that I felt the big guy’s hot breath on my face. Onions, he’d eaten onions recently. I stopped breathing through my nose.
“Count of three?” Erik asked.
“One,” I said.
“Two,” Erik added.
And on three we broke apart. My forearm was corporeal when it slammed into Kenly’s throat. Her eyes bugged and she looked like she was going to be sick all over me. I didn’t hesitate before using the heel of my other hand to knock her head into the wall behind her. This should’ve put her down for the count. Her eyes crossed and she wobbled like a newborn animal unused to her legs, but she remained conscious.
“Talia?” she asked, sounding confused.
I clapped a hand over her mouth and was about to slam her against the wall for a second time, when I felt a sharp jab between two of my ribs. I glanced down. Kenly had the tip of a knife jammed directly below my heart.
“Kenly,” I said in a voice barely above a whisper, “You don’t want to do this.”
Indecision flickered across her gaze, and the knife went in a little farther. The fabric of my suit was bearing the brunt of the force, and I was pretty confident the blade wasn’t going to actually penetrate.
Before I could plead with her further, Erik’s hand shot between us, knocking Kenly’s hand and the knife upwards. The weapon flew across the hallway, skidded across the polished floor, and smacked into the wall with a thud. Erik had Kenly by the throat and was squeezing the breath from her.
“Erik, please. I don’t think she knows what’s going on.”
“Get the Director, Tals. He’ll have heard the commotion.”
Kenly was clawing at Erik’s fingers to no avail. I noticed that while he had her pinned to the wall, he wasn’t actually strangling her.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Erik added.
He glanced down at me with murderous rage that made his irises glow. It scared me. He scared me. Even more terrifying was that I saw the same rage reflected in Kenly’s eyes now. When she’d looked at me, she seemed confused, maybe a little lost. Now … now she looked like something not quite human.
“Go,” Erik growled to me.
I didn’t hesitate any longer. Mac was so close I could practically smell the expensive cologne he sometimes wore. And Erik didn’t want me to see what he was about to do. He was trying to spare me the pain of watching Kenly die. His patience was wearing thin, though. Erik wanted Mac as much as I did.
He stood alone in front of a glass wall, arms crossed over his chest, and watched as the capital burned. Shoulders rounded, head hung, Mac kept his back to me as I slowly closed, and locked, the door to the suite behind me. I saw his reflection in the glass, superimposed over the fingers of orange flames that reached higher and higher until they gripped the top of the building directly across from The Hamilton and tore it to the ground. There was no sound to accompany the chaos; it was like watching a muted wallscreen.
“Natalia.” Mac’s tone was flat, lacking even the tiniest hint of inflection when he said my name.
“It’s over, Mac,” I told him, taking three more steps into the opulent suite.
Mac laughed humorlessly. “No, no, Natalia. ‘It’ is far from over.” He turned, slow and deliberate, to pierce me with cold eyes the same silver as the blade Kenly had nearl
y shoved into my chest.
“You’re trapped, Mac. You can’t escape,” I told him, even though I wasn’t sure that was technically true. I had no idea who was winning the fight outside The Hamilton’s walls, or within them for that matter. I wasn’t even sure that anyone could be called a ‘winner’ in the wake of so much destruction.
My bluff fell on deaf ears. Mac kept talking as if I hadn’t spoken.
“My vision has been realized. Others understand and agree that the talented are superior to the rest of the population. We are more than human, Natalia. We are a class unto ourselves. And this new breed of Talents, well, they are superior still to you and I. They can and will take over the world.”
“You’re crazier than they are,” I told him.
“You must have seen that for yourself,” Mac continued, ignoring me once again. “If nothing else, you have seen what your own boyfriend is now capable of.”
Mac raised a questioning eyebrow, finally seemingly to truly acknowledge my presence. I said nothing. I had seen what Erik could do. Before Mac’s interference, Erik had been lethal. But he’d been controlled, too. Now that control was slipping. My own control was only hanging on by a frayed thread. In the past, I’d been quick to defend, but rarely was I the aggressor. Since being injected with the creation drug, I was more willing to let my more basic instincts guide my actions, instead of my conscience.
“Why?” I asked Mac.
“Why?” he parroted. “Our race was becoming extinct, Natalia. Each generation has far fewer Talents than the one before it. Those that are blessed with gifts, are weak. Half the children at the School are unable to move a pebble with their minds, see further into the future than tomorrow, or view a person not related to them. The created?” Mac’s eyes lit up with unabashed glee. “The Created can move mountains. They can bend armies to their wills. They do not just see the future; they are the future.”
My blood ran cold. Mac had just confirmed my worst fears. A dull ache started behind my eyeballs, causing the right one to twitch. My hands, fisted at my sides, started to shake. Mac grinned.