Cipher (28 page)

Knight was already airborne.

I leaped for him. Our hands met in the air. The energy running through me was instantly quieted. Tires squealed as Dex righted the med-v.

The rope caught around my waist, slamming me back into the roof. All of the air was knocked from me, but I held onto Knight with all I had.

He was over the side of the med-v. And he was slipping.

“Slow down, Dex. Knight. Don’t.” I reached for him with my other hand, but it was no use. He was going to fall. He was going to die and I hadn’t told him how I felt about him. “I love you! Please don’t leave me!”

“I love you, too. But don’t worry so much.”

What? Don’t worry? He loved me, but don’t worry? We were going as fast as this stupid vehicle could go and he was about to become roadkill.

He kicked away from the side of the med-v. My hands slipped the last little bit. I screamed.

Glass shattered as Knight’s foot hit the window. He slid-fell into the med-v.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears. I laid my cheek back down against the metal as my breath wheezed in and out of my lungs.

I’d never been so scared before. And the asshole had done it on purpose.

“Get back inside, Emma,” Knight said.

Nope. I wasn’t moving. The dickola would just have to wait.

The rope tugged at my waist, pulling me back toward the hatch. I grumbled to myself, and then made my way down to the top bunk. Hands came around my waist and set me on my feet.

I stared hard into Knight’s beautiful green eyes, and then slapped him across the face. It only took that split second of skin-on-skin for the electricity to dissipate.

He scrunched up his face. “What was that for?”

“For scaring the crap out of me. You let go! What the hell was that?”

He grinned. “That was my patented let’s-not-become-roadkill move.”

I shoved him. “Give me some warning next time, you asshole. I nearly had a heart attack up there. And you’re here all fine and dandy laughing.” He laughed harder. “Not cool. You can’t promise me a future and then throw yourself from a moving vehicle at high speed.”

His grin softened. “Emma.” He wrapped his arms around me, and I listened to his heartbeat. “See. I’m fine.”

I squeezed him harder. The overreaction said everything that needed saying.

“I love you, too, princess. And I’m not letting you go. I won’t die on you. We’ll get through this.”

Knight was in too deep, and I couldn’t let him go anymore.

Chapter Twenty-Two

KNIGHT

I soaked in the feel of Emma for a second.

She’d nearly lost control out there. Lady Eva wasn’t stupid. She would have told the whole team the danger. If Emma had really lost it, someone would’ve shot her. Even though she was a Red. Even though she was insanely powerful. Even though I loved her, they would’ve shot her dead.

There was no hope for the Ravens if another Red publicly lost control. No one would care what Nagi did as long as he eliminated the danger. It’d happened after New York, and it had taken Lady Eva decades to rebuild her cause.

Emma had been out in the open. Glowing.

Thank God she was okay. We were okay.

But we weren’t out of danger.

I held onto her hand as I looked to Dex. “Who’s left?”

“We’ve got two teams behind us. One in the air.”

That meant three air teams were down. Three ground. Jack knew our location. It wasn’t about outrunning him anymore. We were going to have to make a stand. “Where’s the closest defensible spot?”

“How much time do we have before they’re on us again?” Emma asked.

“Fifteen minutes. Max.”

She looked at the GPS. “We’re kind of in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, but there’s an abandoned military base about five miles west of here, if you take the third exit.”

I turned to her. “How do you know?”

She shrugged. “Sally. Plus, spent a lot of time roaming on my own. It’s good to have a few hiding spots here and there. Spent the night on the base a couple years ago. It’s creepy, but it could work.”

Creepy was probably a different thing for her than it was for me. Still, I didn’t like to hear that she was sleeping in abandoned military bases.

If she knew about it, then so did other people.

I connected a call to Sam. “We’re heading to the abandoned base.”

“What? No. You should keep moving. We’ve got reinforcements on the way, and if you can hold off, I think we can get you in the clear.”

There was a little bit of desperation in Sam’s voice. She was still way too young to have this job. “No.” However smart she was, she didn’t have the level of experience that came with living life and loving.

“But, Hunter,” she said. “She was glowing. You could see it in all the feeds. You can’t engage. She’ll lose control. You’ll lose her.”

“We both know that help won’t come in time. It’s better to stop and make a stand from a defensible position. How many of them are en route?”

She blew out a breath. “That’s the only good news. Y’all aren’t close to any outposts. That part of the Void is really hard to get to, which is why they stashed Emma there. Parson and his goon squad have to get to you by air, but none of them will be fast enough. If you can end this in…under ten minutes, you’ll be okay. Otherwise, you’re fucked. If that happens, surrender. Stay alive. We’ll get you out as fast as we can.”

Surrendering wasn’t an option. I’d rather die than get picked up as a dual-helix traitor. They’d already hurt Emma once, and probably had about as much information as they were going to get out of her. If Jack got his hands on her again, she wouldn’t last long.

Yeah. No. That wasn’t happening. “We’ve got this.”

“You’re being dumb, Hunter. If you’d just—”

“Sam.” I was done listening to her.

“Fine. But if you die, I’m going to be seriously pissed off.”

“See you soon.” I clicked before she could start arguing again. I didn’t run by committee. It was my choice what to do next, for better or worse. Luckily, all the options sucked. It was about choosing the least sucky one.

I hated being on the defensive. We needed to turn the tables.

One more exit to go before the base. I started to coordinate the men we had left, shoving away any grief for loss of life.

That would be dealt with later.

I rolled my shoulders, and prayed I wasn’t making a bad decision.

***

The base was a series of buildings, some more than twenty stories high. The base plans that Sam had sent showed a landing strip that took up a good swath in the back of the base. An air control tower sat off to the side.

If we stayed by the tower, then we could be in a good position to wait for the Ravens’ jet.

I called Sam. “There’s room for Eva’s—”

“Plane. Yeah. Already on it. ETA is nineteen minutes, forty-three seconds. Parson’s squad will be there in less than five.”

“Thanks, Sam.” I knew she thought I was making a foolish mistake, so it mattered that she still had my back.

“Where to?” Dex said as he swerved between buildings. “I need to know where I’m going.”

“The runway. We’ll take cover in the control tower.” I directed him where to go.

“We’ve got four trucks behind us,” Dex said. He opened one of the windows and stuck his head and shoulders out. “They’re not quite in firing range, but we slow down, and they will be. We have to move fast.” He was coming up on the tower quick. He spun the wheel as he braked hard. The med-v stopped with a jerk next to the control tower’s door.

Time to move.

I jumped out of the door, weapon in hand. “Everyone out.” The two teams behind us tore in and followed suit.

The door was coded, but it opened after a bullet and a firm kick. I checked the stairwell before motioning everyone in. “Let’s move.” The guys moved as a team, surrounding Emma. Her skin was barely glowing. If you didn’t know she wasn’t normally that brightly pale, you’d never notice the difference. But I could see it.

I stood against the wall as the men moved past, cutting in the center to grab Emma’s hand. The zing of power was painful for the first second, but I relaxed, letting it flow through me. “You’ve gotta get control, Emma. I need both hands.”

Her face turned a nice shade of pink. “You say that like it’s easy. I’m doing my best.”

If I didn’t have skin contact, she really would’ve been glowing. I had to stay calm. Collected. Like always. “Don’t get upset. Breathe deep. You can do this.”

She nodded sharply once. Her breathing became slow and steady as we walked up the stairs, and my bones finally stopped aching.

“That’s good,” I said.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes.” I wouldn’t tell her that I had so much energy that I was suddenly exhausted. I could handle this.

Cold sweat rolled down my spine. This was either going to be a really good idea or a fucking bad one.

The top of the tower was surrounded with large glass windows. Busted com consoles ran along the edges, where air traffic controllers used to work. Two long tables with equipment took up the center of the room. I pushed Emma into one of the chairs. “I’ll be right back.” Leaving her without skin contact was bad, but she was holding it together so far.

“Okay.”

I stared at her for a second, waiting to see if she could hold it together. Her skin seemed her normal white with a dusting of freckles. “Okay,” I said as I strode to Dex. “How’s it looking?”

“Four Black Helix teams are on the ground and closing in fast. There’s an enemy chopper heading our way and Seligo plane en route, but if the Lady’s gets here in the next eighteen, we’ll miss it. We need to take off again as soon as the jet lands.”

“Got it.” I looked out the window. Trucks were already rolling in from the east side of the tower. “We’re up high. We’ve got the advantage.”

Men in all black hopped out of the vehicles, weapons ready.

Predictable.

But I wasn’t expecting the rocket launcher.

“They won’t use it. Emma’s here.”

I said that a second too late. As the rocket flew from the barrel, I raced to Emma, throwing my body over hers.

Shards of glass rained down on us.

Something slammed into my head.

Chapter Twenty-Three

CIPHER

My ears were ringing and Knight slumped on top of me. “Knight?”

He didn’t respond.

“Knight?”

I rocked my body, trying to get out from under him. “Knight!”

Oh God. He wasn’t answering. I slid out from under him. Blood dripped down his face. I pushed until he was on his back. “Hunter.” I whispered. “Wake up.” I slapped his face lightly. I didn’t want to hurt him more, but panic gripped my heart in a fist. “Hunter. Please wake up.” I shook him.

A fire spread over one of the com consoles. Water rained down from the few of the old sprinkler heads that still worked. The windows were completely shattered and half the roof was gone. Blown to bits. They’d aimed a little high, which had probably saved our lives.

I felt Hunter’s pulse. Weak, but there. He was breathing, but he wasn’t waking up.

A few of the guys stirred. Dex sat up, shaking his body.

“Dex,” I said. “He’s not waking up. He’s not waking up!”

He knelt beside Knight, feeling for a pulse. “Give him a minute. Looks like he took a hit to the head. I’m sure he’ll be okay.”

“Why would he do that?”

“Do what?”

“Cover me like that. Why would he do that?”

Dex gave me a look that was perilously close to pity. “Because he loves you.”

Bullets pinged against the wall, and Dex pushed me under one of the console desks. “Stay here with him. Let us take care of this.”

As I watched, one of the guys I didn’t even know took a hit in the neck.

The others scrambled. Dex yelled orders to the group, but I couldn’t hear them. The wind was too loud.

A chopper shined a light down into the half-missing roof. “Emma,” Jack called. “Time for you to do what you promised. We’ll leave all these boys alone if you walk out of that tower now.”

My vision was blurring. I heard someone yell at me to calm down, but I couldn’t. There was too much going on. I looked down at Knight, as he lay there prone on the floor.

A muffled scream burst as another Raven was hit.

I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t sit here and do nothing. I stood and the room spun.

Shaking off the dizziness, I focused. I had to get outside. Risking any more of these guys wasn’t an option. I took off, running down the stairs two at a time. The guys shouted behind me, but I ignored them.

The metal stairs sizzled as I jumped down the last three steps.

The first Black Helix came at me, gun raised. I lifted my hand.

“Slowly step this way,” he said.

He thought I was surrendering. Not going to happen. I’d burn myself out before I’d surrender.

But I wasn’t going to hurt the guys in the tower either.

I stepped further away from the metal structure, letting the Black Helixes surround me. They stood shoulder to shoulder, each one pointing a gun at me.

“No one touch her. She can’t hurt you unless you touch her,” Jack said.

That was entirely inaccurate. I focused on gathering all the electricity I could reach. It built in me until my skin tingled as it raced through my body and my hands glowed.

“Get down on the ground,” one of the Blacks yelled as he stepped forward.

I knelt down, and pictured a ball of energy forming around me. I let it grow. Fed it with my fear. With my anger.

When the guy stepped toward me again, I let the ball explode outward in a deafening crackle. I was dizzy for a second as the energy flew out of me and I squeezed my eyes tight. I didn’t need to see to know that every single one of the Blacks was now on the ground.

“Emma. Don’t make me shoot you. I’m here to help,” Jack said from above. He was in the chopper, waiting to see if I’d surrender.

“You’re not here to help me. You never were. As soon as you found out I was a Red, you murdered my parents. Your own sister. How could you? Are you that fucking selfish? You want to be a Seligo that badly?”

“You’re dangerous. Look what you’ve done here!”

He was right. Thirty men lay on the ground because of me, but I was done blaming myself. If not for Jack’s obsession, none of this would’ve happened.