Arc Angel (35 page)

But she couldn’t sacrifice Bryce. That was unthinkable. So where did that leave her? She glanced down at her watch. One minute past the guards’ check-in time. She needed to get out of here before they sounded the alarm and called the police.

She dragged herself upright, pulled open the door and crossed the alley on shaky legs, heading right for John’s waiting arms, which held a silver dampener so it was clearly visible. He slipped the silver bangle on her wrist and led her inside.

***

Kate looked up from her paperwork, her desk chair creaking at her sudden movement. Something had happened. She didn’t know what, but she knew it involved Miranda. And that it wasn’t good.

Her call with the museum’s curator hadn’t accomplished anything, since the older gentleman had complete confidence in her work. For once she regretted not falling into the stereotype of the bumbling detective. But without authorization, she wasn’t willing to justify entering the locked and supposedly secure building. She’d already had a few too many out-of-character actions lately. So she’d tried to ignore the growing feeling of dread gathering in her stomach as best she could. She hadn’t been able to convince herself to head home for the night, so she’d stuck around at the station, hoping mindless paperwork would lull her into relaxation. But now the dread had bubbled up and over.

She flipped on the police scanner that sat next to her desk and sat back to wait. It didn’t take long. The band sputtered to life in less than a minute.

“Dispatch, this is Officer Hanson down at the Elder’s Grove Museum. We may have a situation here. Requesting assistance.”

The artifact. It had to be. Anything else was too much of a coincidence.

Her hunch was right on the money, and everything fell into place. The mysterious Mr. Brown wanted the artifact, and that’s why he needed Miranda. Kate knew exactly how much security surrounded the stone, and how tough it would be to get past; she’d helped design and implement the damn system. There was no way anyone should have been able to even get close to the damn thing.

But Miranda wasn’t just anyone.

Kate grabbed her jacket, badge and gun. She always took her badge and gun when she left the building, as a matter of course, but this time she had a chilling feeling she would actually need them.

Chapter 25

John marched Miranda silently down the hall, which was fine with her. Her internal monologue kept her too busy for conversation anyway.

Okay, Miranda, stay calm and think. Take it one step at a time. What’s the top priority here?

She looked down at the ring of silver encircling her wrist. The bangle needed to go. She couldn’t afford to call up Arc Angel again, and while she knew it would be reckless to try to use the electricity without her alter ego’s guidance, the power was still the only advantage she had.

So as she followed John into the elevator, she focused on the metal. What had Mr. Brown said about it upstairs? That it was a resistor of some kind? It slowed down the electricity so much that the charge was lost. What would happen if she could overload it somehow? Maybe if she poured enough power into it, it wouldn’t be able to handle it and would break. Of course, where was she going to get that kind of power? The bracelet prevented her from accessing even a flicker of electricity.

She looked down at the stone tablet in her arms. It looked like just a big chunk of rock, albeit one with symbols etched on it, yet she knew it was far more than that. The thing practically pulsed with power. Strange and scary power, but power nonetheless. Maybe she could tap into it somehow…

The elevator doors slid open, and she followed John off the elevator and back into Mr. Brown’s luxurious office.

Miranda tensed and looked immediately for the monitor, freezing in her tracks until she saw Bryce, still in his chair. She relaxed a fraction at the sight of him still alive and presumably well, but knew she couldn’t drop her guard yet. Mr. Brown’s promise not to hurt Bryce was as reliable as the cable guy’s promise to show up during his pre-determined service window. Besides, she knew better than to trust a snake. At least Bryce looked okay, for now.

And it was up to her to keep him that way.

John took her arm and steered her until she again stood in front of her chair across from Mr. Brown. He pressed down on her shoulder until she sat.

Gavin Brooks lurked in the corner, fussing with a video camera. The camera’s red light gleamed like an evil beacon, informing her that he had already started filming.

Eh, whatever. Being filmed had dropped from the top of her list of fears to around #57. Gavin was far from a nice guy, but Miranda knew who the real villain in the room was. She did spare a second to wonder if Mr. Brown realized he was being filmed… Again, eh, whatever. She refocused her attention on the man practically jumping out of his chair in anticipation.

“You have the artifact?” Mr. Brown leaned even further forward. Another inch and he’d slide right off his seat. “You have the Stone?”

Miranda could hear the capital S in his question. What a surprise, Mr. Brown knew something about this freaky rock too. She tried to ignore his overanxious expression and focus on the artifact. She could swear it contained power… she just needed to figure out how to channel it. She tried pulling it in like she pulled in electricity from a wire or light, but couldn’t quite grab ahold.

“Give it to me!” he demanded. “Now.”

“Not so fast. I want to see Bryce again, to be sure he’s still doing okay.” Miranda knew Mr. Brown wasn’t going to permit that, but she needed to buy a few more minutes until she got this rock cracked.

“After you’ve given me the Stone, you can see Mr. Campion. Now give it to me!”

“But what is this thing? Why do you want it so bad?”

“It’s the gateway.” A tremor ran through his voice.

“To what?” She was almost scared to hear his answer.

“To their power. The goddesses’ power. More power than you could dream of. It will make your puny control of electricity seem like a parlor trick. And it will be mine.”

Miranda still wasn’t sure what he was talking about, but it didn’t sound good. And whatever he was talking about, he was done talking. He reached across the desk, his arms outstretched.

Miranda knew that if she refused again, he’d stop asking and would have his goons simply take the thing away from her. Unless she figured out the power right now.

Mr. Brown gestured for John to step forward. This was it. They’d take it.

Miranda finally opened herself up to the Stone like she did when she called Arc Angel. A surge of power filled her, but it wasn’t the sharp crackle of electricity. The power felt warmer and smoother somehow, though just as urgent. And it scared the hell out of Miranda. Reality twisted and churned, making her desperate to break the connection. She knew instinctively that if she stayed linked to the Stone, she’d go mad.

She focused on the bracelet on her wrist, and with a pulse of purple light, it disintegrated, the remaining powder drifting down to the floor. She was free now, could access electricity again. But she couldn’t break away from the Stone, glowing in her arms.

John touched her shoulder. At his touch, a pulse of purple flowed from her into him. He slumped to the floor. She had to stop the power. She couldn’t hold on to any thought, her brain was just a pulsing mass of shapes and sounds.

The two goons that had parked themselves on either side of the office door fumbled in their jackets, for guns or dampeners she didn’t know. She sent a rolling wave of purple toward them, knocking them both out.

A sound in the corner made her turn. Brooks. The coward had dropped to the floor and was playing possum.

The power spilled out of her now without conscious thought, spreading through the room unchecked.

Her knees began to sag, and she started to droop. In another minute, the Stone’s power would send her over the edge, and she didn’t know whether she’d be able to ever return.

With her last coherent thought, she dropped the Stone onto the desk in front of her, creating a spiderweb of cracks as the glass top shattered from the impact. The instant the physical connection was lost, the power faded.

Miranda clutched her head as the contents of her mind slowly fell back in place.

When she’d come back enough to realize where she was and what was happening, she found Mr. Brown leaning over the Stone, staring at it, mesmerized. The Stone itself had stopped emitting that strange purple light.

“You activated it!” Mr. Brown crowed, not bothering to look up. “The stories are true. It really is the Amartic Stone.” His eyes were filled with a manic gleam, and he smiled like it was his brain that had nearly been turned to mush, not Miranda’s.

Miranda had to look away from the sheer craziness pouring out of Mr. Brown, so she glanced down at John, who lay sprawled on the carpet next to her chair. Oh god, was he still breathing?

“Please tell me I didn’t kill someone else,” she said under her breath. To her surprise, Mr. Brown answered.

“Who cares if they’re dead?” he growled, not taking his eyes off the Stone. “It is irrelevant.”

“It’s relevant to me. I’d rather not add anyone else to my growing body count.”

“In time, you will find that killing is simply another act, like walking or speaking. And if you are powerful enough, you can simply order it be done. Like that man who accosted you the night you became Arc Angel. Easy enough to dispose of such trash.”

Miranda’s breath caught in her chest.

“What do you… Do you mean… I didn’t kill him?” Hope rose in her, filling her like a balloon. Maybe she wasn’t a murderer.

But Mr. Brown was apparently done talking about it.

“It’s all irrelevant,” he said, his typical dismissive hand wave far less controlled than usual. “All that matters is that I have the Stone.”

His eyes gleamed with fanatical zeal, and he reached toward the hunk of rock. Blue light slapped into him, knocking him back a step. “Whaaa?”

Miranda’s hands crackled with electricity. She may not be completely steady on her feet yet, but she was strong enough to access the power in the room and channel it, albeit clumsily. And she was alert enough to know that letting cuckoo Mr. Brown near the rock would only end in disaster.

Mr. Brown barely hesitated before he stepped back to the desk and lunged for the Stone. Despite her previous attack, he didn’t even glance at her as he reached for his obsession.

Miranda zapped him again; sparks flew around the office as she also took out his desk chair and a picture on the wall. Part of the wall ignited, flames licking the drywall. Her control sucked as usual, but she didn’t care anymore. She didn’t dare call Arc Angel. Besides, it didn’t matter to her if she had to take out the whole building. Nothing mattered now but keeping Mr. Brown away from the Stone.

She focused on the Stone itself now, setting up a dome of electricity around it. The final result was sloppy but lethal. Nothing could get through it and survive. She looked up at Mr. Brown, wondering how her adversary would react to her latest strategy.

He moved again, but instead of making another grab for the Stone, Mr. Brown pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. He punched a button and barked, “Kill him.”

Movement on the monitor caught Miranda’s attention. A man walked up to Bryce, struck him in the arm and walked back out of the room. Miranda watched in horror as Bryce clutched his chest and slid off the chair onto the ground.

“NO!” Miranda pulled in a huge amount of energy and blasted it at Mr. Brown. The force of the blast pushed the man against the wall and pinned him there, ribbons of blue zig zagging over his body. It also started several other small fires along the wall, but Miranda didn’t give a damn. And still Mr. Brown didn’t stop. He ripped himself off the wall, flames licking down his arms and chest, and lunged for the Stone, plunging his hands through the field of electricity she’d erected. Even as the energy pulsed through him, causing him to stiffen and tremble, he jerked forward until he finally reached the Stone.

As his fingers wrapped around the artifact, a wave of purple washed over him, extinguishing the flames and snuffing out the blue streaks of electricity. Just when it looked like his suffering was ending, his screaming began. The purple wrapped around him like a boa constrictor and squeezed until Mr. Brown finally breathed his last and collapsed to the floor, still gripping the Stone.

Miranda tore her eyes off of the dead man, cursing the seconds he’d caused her to waste, and sprinted from the office. She ran for the stairwell.

25. 24. 23. Bryce was on 15. Miranda ran as fast as she could, practically leaping down entire flights of stairs. 20. 19. He had to be okay. Had to be. She’d find the guard, find Bryce’s pills. 17. 16.

She raced out of the door leading to the 15
^th
floor. The guard’s wide frame seemed to fill the hallway as he faced her, gun in one hand, dampener in the other. Without breaking stride, she started shooting out wild blasts of energy, hoping one of them would connect. The guard crouched down and turned on his dampener. Miranda felt the power start to drain away, but knew she still had a few seconds before it disappeared entirely. She focused every bit of power she had left and sent it toward the metal rod in the man’s hand.

She missed.

Instead of hitting the dampener, the blast hit the light fixture hanging on the wall above the guard. It dislodged the metal fixture, which dropped onto his head, knocking him to the floor. Miranda rushed up to him and knelt down beside the still body. She made sure he was out cold, then grabbed the dampener and turned it off.

“Bryce, I’m coming!” she hollered as she rifled through the guard’s pockets. “Hang on!”

She found an empty syringe, and realized it had contained whatever they’d used on Bryce. She hurled it down the hall and kept searching. Aha! There it was: the little brown pill bottle. She snatched it up and flung herself toward the door.

Miranda ripped the door open and ran to where Bryce lay curled up on the floor. She rolled him onto his back.