Dark Legacy (21 page)

All Jarred could do was stare as the exhausted and mentally drained woman he’d been determined to protect kicked ass. The first team killed the newest intruders with four efficient shots, then swept the dead men to the periphery of the room. Someone grabbed Jarred from behind, restraining his arms.

“Maddie?” he stuttered.

She stared down at the bloody knife in her hand, then at the man she’d maimed. She was shaking again, coming back to herself from Sarah or whomever else she’d just connected to, and whatever that connection had done to her.

“Secure the package,” the black shirt at her feet growled though the pain from his injury.

The man made it to his feet as his cohorts surrounded Maddie. They took the knife away. A flinch was her only visible reaction.

“Don’t touch her,” Jarred warned.

The injured black shirt fingered a hands-free device wrapped around his ear. One of his team fished into his backpack, removing a rumpled pile of black clothing.

“Get them dressed,” the injured one ordered. “Report,” he said to God knew who on the other end of his communication.

Maddie whimpered.

“You’re scaring her,” Jarred said as he struggled into his clothes, hating the callousness of the hands stuffing Maddie into hers.

Then, suddenly, the shirts supporting a semiconscious Maddie raised their free hands to their throats. They began to choke.

“Oh, God,” Jarred said.

“Roger, we’ve cleared the primary site. Package is in tow. We’re underway for rendezvous in sixty.” The wounded man’s only response to his team’s distress was to step directly in front of Jarred.

He was choking, too. Jarred could see the strain in his face as he calmly fought for air. But that didn’t stop the man from lifting the lethal blade of his own knife to Jarred’s throat. Meanwhile, Maddie’s nightmarish visions of choking to death every black shirt in the room flooded Jarred’s mind.

Help me…
her mind whispered, begging for the same control Jarred had been for her as she’d reversed Sarah’s damage to his body.

“Stop her, Doctor,” black shirt bit out on a gasp. “Or I will by whatever means necessary. More center operatives are no doubt on their way. Ms. Temple is no longer safe without our protection. The Brotherhood’s orders are to bring her in alive. The rest is at my discretion. I will make my rendezvous as ordered, even if it means damaging the package. You have thirty seconds to make up your mind.”

“The package?” Jarred spat back, somehow knowing the man wouldn’t slit his throat. Not if he needed Jarred to handle Maddie.

“Twenty seconds.” The guy holstered the knife. He opened the chamber on the weapon slung across his good shoulder, revealing the same type of medicated dart Metting had used on them before.

“She doesn’t know what she’s doing,” Jarred insisted.

“Understood. Fifteen seconds.”

He snapped the chamber closed and aimed the weapon, one-handed, at Maddie. His face was turning blue, but he would fire. Jarred had no doubt.

“All right.” As soon as Jarred said the word, the man stumbled out of his way. Jarred approached Maddie carefully. “Let her go.”

The black shirts restraining her looked to their leader for confirmation. Then they sank to their knees, hands on their throats. Jarred caught Maddie to him, wrapping his arms around her shivering body.

“You’re safe,” he whispered over the sound of storming winds and rustling branches in their minds. “Let them go, Maddie. You don’t want to hurt anyone.”

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes.

“Let them go,” Jarred said over the click of a weapon being primed to fire. “I love you. You have to trust me. I won’t let them hurt you anymore…”

It was a lie. He could feel that she knew it, too. But then she was letting go, softening against him as the men choking on the ground collapsed to all fours and gulped in full breaths of air.

Jarred closed his eyes, wanting to believe he’d made the right decision. He turned with her to face the blackshirt leader—whose gun was trained on Jarred now.

“I did what you asked,” Jarred raged.

“Is she unconscious?” the other man asked.

“Yes.” Jarred positioned as much of his body as possible between Maddie and the gun.

The black shirts on either side of them rose to their feet, one taking Maddie’s arm, the other taking Jarred’s.

“Good,” their leader said, dispassionately firing a dart into Jarred’s neck. “That makes my job considerably easier.”

We’re death, and it’s the Raven’s fault. Never forget that. It’s the Raven’s fault…

Sarah’s hate was the first thing Maddie became aware
of. Horrific images came next. Maddie choking security at Trinity Center, stabbing Jarred, attacking another man, facing down danger with combat skills she didn’t possess because Sarah had been trained in them somehow. And what Sarah knew, Maddie did now, too.

Then came a new dream of using a bloody knife to attack the Raven. Except Maddie no longer had a knife, so she’d have to use her bare hands to get the job done.

No!

Maddie’s mind clawed its way back to her own consciousness, rejecting Sarah’s insanity. She forced her eyes to open and stay open, even though her body was still numb. She blinked into the dimness around her. The return of her hearing ushered in the sound of branches scratching and wind howling, just like in her dreams. In Sarah’s dreams.

Except the nightmare around her now was very real.

He’s there…
Sarah whispered as she gathered the last of her energy for when the Raven showed himself.
He did this to me. To both of us!

Wake up, Maddie,
a gentler voice intruded.
Stay with me.

Jarred.

He was there, too. He would always be there. Even after she’d stabbed him. After he’d watched her hurt that man back in their motel room.

That wasn’t you,
he insisted.

I…
More of the world was coming into focus. The forest floor Maddie was sitting on. The very real tree she’d been propped against. Jarred’s still body was sitting beside her.
I wanted to cut them, the same way I did you. Get away from me, Jarred. Run!

Never.
He didn’t move. Not his body. Not his mind.
That wasn’t you with the knife. Either time. I’m not even sure it was your sister. It was—

The Raven,
Maddie finished. He’d taught Sarah. Trained her mind. Turned her into this. And he was there, in the woods. Circling overhead. Waiting for the next dream. Maddie had to—

Wake up!
Sarah screamed.
Move!

Jarred’s arm circled Maddie, pulling her closer.

Stay still,
he warned
. Close your eyes and stay still.

Jarred, on the other hand, was shaking his head, making an obvious show of waking. Attracting whatever attention was focused on them to himself alone. He felt responsible. He wasn’t going to fail her again.

Don’t you dare try to be a hero!
her mind screamed at him, but she closed her eyes like he’d asked.

If Jarred did something stupid, or Sarah did something worse, before Maddie could—

Be still!
both of them ranted at the same time.

Idiots in stereo,
Maddie snapped at them
. Just the thing to keep a psychotic maniac from losing her shit!

You’re not psychotic,
Jarred insisted.

Go ahead, lose your shit,
was Sarah’s response.
He’s coming…

Through Sarah, Maddie could feel the Raven moving closer. She sensed that he knew, somehow, that she was aware of his every step.

“Dr. Keith, it’s good to see you again.” the voice from Sarah’s nightmares said.

Khaki-covered legs appeared in front of them. God! Maddie was…seeing through Jarred…while she felt the Raven approaching, through Sarah.

The man knelt.

Jarred spat in his face.

The Raven smiled as he wiped his cheek. He had them right where he wanted them.

Kill the Raven!
Sarah screamed through Maddie’s mind.
He has to—

“Die!” Maddie launched herself into a deadly leap for the Raven’s throat.

“No!” Jarred yelled.

Maddie toppled the man to the ground, consumed by Sarah’s insanity and drive to hurt people as badly as she’d been hurt. Her hands clenched, crushing his windpipe. She was going to die tonight. Jarred was going to die, and it was all this man’s fault.

“Maddie.” Jarred tried to pull her away. “Stop!”

Maddie can’t stop me anymore,
Sarah chanted, as her visions of a long-ago accident, a hydroplaning truck, consumed Maddie’s mind.

We’re Death, and it’s the Raven’s fault!
Sarah insisted, clinging to her fading link to Maddie’s mind.
Kill him!

“You’re not Death,” Maddie’s weak-ass boyfriend said out loud.

“Get away from us, Doctor, or you’re next,” Sarah ranted through her twin. Maddie’s hands squeezed tighter. “It’s time to kill the Raven.”

“You’re not strong enough, Alpha.” The Raven’s body relaxed against Maddie’s hold. “You’re expending too much energy maintaining your link, and it’s been too long since you’ve rested. Madeline’s weak. She doesn’t understand how to channel her emotions yet. The…hate, is it? Is that what your shadow control taught you to use? You should have known better. Your power here is dwindling. Disengage, Alpha, before you fry your sister’s brain completely. Target—”

“Don’t you dare!” Maddie screamed Sarah’s threat. But she was fighting for her freedom, too, and starting to win.

Fuck that!

“I’ll kill her,” Sarah seethed in Maddie’s voice. “I’ll kill you all.”

The Raven’s men trained their weapons on Sarah’s psychic hissy fit.

“No!” Dr. Useless tried to break Maddie’s grip on the other man. “Turn him loose, before it’s too late.”

“It’s already too late for Death!”

Sarah tried to make her twin squeeze harder. She was in control of Maddie’s daydream, fuck what the Raven thought. She and Maddie had been here so many times in the Wolf’s simulations. The storm, the wind and rain, and the truck driver taking aim for their family car. The loss. Anger. Hatred. Sarah feeding on Maddie’s surging emotions. Funneling them into a drive to—

“Kill!” Sarah shrieked through her sister, pointing Maddie at the Raven like the lethal weapon the Wolf wanted them to be. “It’s all his fault. He has to—”

“No!” her twin’s companion insisted. “Don’t do this. Listen to me, Maddie. You’re a healer. Remember? You healed me.”

The Raven smiled at Sarah—at Maddie, whose fingers had loosened around his neck.

“I’m…I’m a healer.” Maddie shuddered, fighting Sarah’s hold. “I’m not alone. I’m not Death. I don’t want to—”

“No!” Sarah was losing. Slipping back into the lonely darkness she’d never escape.

“There’s something powerful inside your twin, Sarah,” the Raven said. “Something stronger than your hate. You have to let the hate go, or the…Wolf, is it? Don’t let the Wolf win.”

The Raven wasn’t smiling now. He was concern and care and protection—everything he’d been at the very start. Everything Sarah had believed when she’d let him lead her out of the coma so the Wolf could drag her back into darkness.

“Can you remember, Sarah?” the Raven asked. “Can you remember what I taught you?”

“Ja…Jarred?” Maddie sputtered.

“I’m here.” Jarred pulled one of Maddie’s hands from the Raven’s throat to cover the useless heart Maddie had kept beating. His love flooded Sarah along with her twin. He was making Sarah feel again. Making her believe there was another way. “I’m here with you, and I’m not going anywhere. I prom—”

“No!” Sarah forced Maddie to say. “The Raven has to die.”

“Then kill the bastard yourself!” Jarred pulled Maddie’s palm to his cheek, their link surging. “You’re done using your sister to do your dirty work.”

Sarah felt herself fading and the Raven watching. She’d seen him as a bird of prey for so long in the Wolf’s dream. Blamed him for the evil the Wolf wanted her to become. But in her mind now, in her sister’s mind, her Raven morphed back into the man Sarah had let herself believe in. The dream weaver who’d promised to be there for her no matter what, just like her twin’s doctor. The protector who’d asked for her trust while he’d trained her gifts and taught her everything he’d said she’d need to keep her safe.

“Richard…” Maddie whispered in Sarah’s voice.

He caught her—Maddie’s—other wrist and pulled it from his throat, holding Sarah through Maddie’s touch.

“I’m sorry, Sarah,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t protect you better. But this is your chance. Whether or not you’re ready for it. Are you what this Wolf wants you to be? Will you and your sister lose everything to his darkness—everything your legacy could become? Or will you trust Maddie to help you? Stop using her like a blunt instrument of destruction. Stop trying to kill. Trust me, and I’ll—”

“Never!” In her mind, Sarah was still strangling him.
Squeezing until the life drained from the Raven’s eyes. “I’ll never trust you again. I’ll never give up. I’ll find another way. And the next time I get my hands on you, I won’t fail!”

“Target release, Alpha,” the Raven said. Disappointment drained the warmth from his eyes until he was once again a soulless scientist putting his lab rat through its paces. “Reset to zero.”

“I won’t stop!” Sarah gathered herself. Shoved Maddie’s consciousness aside.
“
I won’t stop until you die!”

Maddie’s hands snapped back to the Raven’s neck. Squeezing, crushing, going for the kill…feeding Sarah the Raven’s shock and pain…Jarred’s fear…Maddie’s disgust at what Sarah was capable of making her do.

“Help me,” Maddie begged as her fingers dug deeper. Her nails pierced skin until blood ran down the Raven’s neck. “I…I can’t stop…Please, help me.”

“It’s…it’s a dream,” the Raven croaked. He was a flesh-and-blood man again as he reached toward Jarred.

“You have to…wake Madeline up,” he said to the other man. “You’re the only one who can. My men won’t let her…kill…You have to…stop her, Dr. Keith. Madeline has to break her link with Sarah now!”