Forbidden (The Seeker Saga, #2) (21 page)

“We need to call the cops!” Ashley exclaimed.

“And then what?” Eve rounded on her.  “We’ll be found out!  They’ll know we’re runaways from school when they do a background check.  Besides, there’s no way in hell they’ll get here fast enough.”

“I’m coming with you,” Madison said.  There was fierce determination in her eyes.  “I won’t let them hurt Liz.”

After a second’s pause, I nodded.  If I couldn’t use my crystal, at least Madison could… What?  It’s not like any of the other girls had the power to manipulate the connections like me. 
Damn it!
  If I couldn’t use the crystal, there’d be no saving Liz.  It was all on me.  All my responsibility. 

“Alright.  Eve, Ashley, help John up.  Get him to the room.  Call an ambulance if you need to.”

“No ambulance,” he said firmly.  “I just need to get the wound wrapped up.”

“Alright,” I said. “Well, you guys do that.”  Just as I was about to turn, Rob honked the horn.

“Come on!” he yelled. “They’re getting away!”  I looked in the distance.  I could barely see the rear lights of the van anymore.  I sprinted to the truck, Madison right behind me.  I prayed we were fast enough. 

Rob slammed his foot on the gas as soon as we jumped in and the truck jerked forward.  My head whipped against the head restraint.  The truck skidded onto the road and raced forward.  The headlights barely gave enough light to see.

The road was empty.  In fact, everything around here was empty.  The sides of the road were lined by vacant lots and flat fields.

Rob gripped the wheel so hard I could see the tendons flex in his hand.  His knuckles were white.  He was leaning forward intently, struggling to see better in the dark.  Our headlights barely illuminated the next fifty feet.  At the speed we were going, it’d be easy to crash into something without seeing it.

Thankfully, the lights of the van ahead started to get brighter and brighter.  We were gaining on them.

As Rob drove, I kept trying to link to the crystal.  I clutched it in my hand, pressing it into my skin. But, for whatever reason, the link would—not—come.  I ground my teeth in frustration.

“Tracy, what’s wrong?” Madison whispered, softly enough so Rob couldn’t hear. 

“I can’t link to the crystal,” I hissed.  “I don’t know why.”

“Oh,” Madison said.  “Here, try mine.”

“Yours?  I thought we could only use our own!”

“No.  That makes it easier, sometimes, because you get used to it.  But the crystals need time to recharge.  They can’t go all the time.  You’ve used yours a lot the last few days.  I haven’t touched mine.”

“What the hell?  I didn’t know that.  Why didn’t you tell me before?”

Madison shrugged.  “You never asked.”

I had to admit she was right.  I grabbed the crystal from her, and opened my mind to it.  The link slipped into place easily.  The blue light burst forth from my hand, freezing everything temporarily in place.  I felt the links in my mind, the connections that existed between everything around me. But, there was also a…
stress
… that had not been there before.  A strain on my mind.  It was like pulling to lift too much weight.

Madison was right. It was harder to use someone else’s crystal.  The connections were there, and I could feel them, but the power that ran through me felt like it was too much.  My mind felt like a balloon on the point of bursting.  But I pushed through it, and felt out the connections in my mind.  I knew the shape of the truck, the presence of Rob and Madison beside me, and… just the edge of the van ahead of us.  We were still too far away for me to do anything.

I released the crystal, and a searing pain erupted in my temples.  “Ah!” I groaned, swaying in my seat.  Madison grabbed my shoulders.

“Careful,” she warned.  “If you pull too hard on mine, the after-sickness will come again.  The threat’s always there when using a new crystal.”

“I’ll try,” I told her unsteadily.  It took a moment for me to regain my bearings.  “Rob, we need to get closer,” I urged.

“You have a plan?” he asked.

“Sort of.”  I had Madison’s crystal, but I didn’t know what I could do with it.  Liz was in the other vehicle.  I couldn’t do anything drastic for fear of hurting her. 

Rob nodded, unquestioning, and stepped on the gas.  The old truck lurched forward once more.  The engine started vibrating violently under the strain.  I gripped the bottom of my seat to avoid being thrown about on the uneven road.  But we were getting closer.  We were gaining on the van.

A few seconds later, the engine started to sputter.  On and off.  On and off.  It felt like we were driving over a series of speed bumps.

“What’s going on?” I demanded.

Rob glanced down at the dashboard.  “Damn,” he cursed.  “The gas is gone!”

I exhaled.  It was now or never.  Even though I could see the van in the distance, I still didn’t think we were close enough.  But this was my only chance.

I tightened my grip on the crystal and opened my mind to it.  Power surged through my arm, up into my body, to my mind, nearly overwhelming me.  The blue light erupted from the crystal once again.  I could see everything around us clearly; the darkness was no more.  But I didn’t need to see to know my surroundings.  The road was flat, as was the land all around it. 

I reached out through the connections, stretched until I could just feel the tip of the other van.  I strained, pulling more power from the crystal.  Heat started to build up behind my temples. 

In a flash, the van revealed itself to me, like an object surfacing from underwater.  I closed my eyes and concentrated.  I could feel the energy contained within the vehicle, the momentum given to it by its speed.  I could sense the frame of the van, the entire makeup of the engine, and – most importantly – I could sense both Liz and her kidnapper inside. 

I knew the makeup of the vehicle, but I cursed that I didn’t know enough about cars to do anything with it.  Every part of the engine was clear in my mind, but I had no idea how it all fit together; no idea if shifting one thing would lead to it stalling or to a violent explosion.  I couldn’t do anything dramatic, not with Liz still in the car. 

An idea struck me.  The tires!  Once, back home, a tire of the car in front of us exploded on the road.  The driver lost control, the car spun around and around, but eventually came to a stop.  Luckily there was no other traffic to collide with.  More importantly, I distinctly remembered the car
not
rolling over,
not
threatening the life of the driver.  If I could increase the pressure in the tires of the van, it could make them explode.  As long as there were no obstacles on the road, no oncoming traffic, nothing on the sides, it was as good an option as I would get.  The van would come to a grinding halt, and we could get Liz.

It was risky, yes, but it was the only chance I had.  As long as the van didn’t roll over Liz would be fine—in theory.  There was the threat of it backfiring, of course, but if I were in Liz’s position I’d want somebody to do the exact same thing for me.

That made my decision.  I felt through the connections in my mind, jumped through all of them until I was focused on the tiny atoms of gas inside the tires.  They were jolting around wildly, their energy contributing to the pressure that kept the tires inflated.  I couldn’t take that energy away, but I
could
add to it.  I strained, focusing on increasing the speed with which the atoms danced.  The pressure behind my eyelids flared uncontrollably.  Pain erupted in my head, but it was pain in somebody else’s body.  My entire focus, my whole presence, was on the air in those tires.

I strained, throwing more and more energy at the tires.  But catching those atoms enough to increase their energy was…
difficult
.  Much harder than manipulating the formation of rock as I had in the caves, or making the ground swell up in the forest.  I assumed it was because I was using Madison’s crystal.

I kept going, though, adding more and more pressure to the tires.  I added more, straining as much as I could, as much as I dared.  There was no sure way to know if it’d be enough until I released the crystal.  But if I miscalculated, I did not think I’d get a second chance.  I put more and more there, drawing energy from the crystal and sending it into the tires.  More.  More. 
More
!

And…
there. 

I released the crystal. The light retracted into my palm. Four bursting noises like fireworks tore through the night.  Reality sped back up, and the van in front of us started to skid.  The driver lost control, swerving left and right wildly before finally coming to a jarring stop.

“Did you see that?” Rob exclaimed.  Madison squeezed my hand knowingly.  Our own car continued to lurch, and suddenly the engine gave out.  Rob cursed, hit the brake, and we came to a lunging stop.  Our headlights were off, but the moon in the night sky gave enough light to see.

The van was about twenty feet away.  Its backlights were still on, but it was no longer moving.  We started to get out of the truck. Suddenly, the van door slammed open.  A man in a white lab coat jumped out. My heart froze.  He had a gun in one hand.  In the other, he held Liz by the scruff of her neck.

“Whoever you are, don’t come any closer!” he warned, waving the gun in front of Liz’s face.  Liz’s hair was in disarray, and I could see a glistening trail of tears running down her cheeks. 

I was most surprised to see the kidnapper.  Aside from the gun, he did not look at all threatening. His hair was a bit wild, maybe, but he had an extremely skinny build.  He reminded me of a lab tech.  He did not look at all like the attacker from Traven Island, or like the two bulky men in black from my room.  But he had Liz, and that made it just as bad.

“Let her go,” Rob demanded in his deepest voice. 

The man barked a laugh.  But it was tinged with uncertainty.  “Do you see this?” he asked, waving the gun in the air.  “Stay back, and your friend might still live!”

I felt Rob tense beside me.  “Wait,” I hissed. 

“I can take him,” Rob said.  “If I’m fast enough…”

“Just wait!” I whispered.  “Don’t you see he has a gun?  I think I can make him drop it.”

“What?  How?”

I ignored the question.  All I needed was Liz to look at me.  I needed her assurance.  She had to know it was me.  Tension filled the air.  It felt like an old Western faceoff.  Suddenly, Liz looked up.  Her eyes shone in the night.  She may have been distraught before, but she was alert now.  When she saw me, her eyes widened. After a split-second, she gave the nod.  That was all I needed.

I embraced Madison’s crystal, and the blue light covered everything in a flash.  I sped through the connections, focusing on the gun the man held—on the grip, specifically.  I could make it hot, hot enough to scald the man’s hand.  I prepared myself mentally for the strain would come, and then began.  Pain flared beyond my temples as I pushed energy into the metal of the gun.  Hot enough to scald, but not to melt.  That would take too much out of me.  I added more, more and more, until I was sure it was beyond scorching.  I released the crystal.

Everything happened at once.

The man yelped, and dropped the gun.  Without hesitation, Rob charged at him.  The man fumbled for the knife, the one he stabbed John with, the one tied to his belt, but I had not forgotten about it – he would have just as much luck holding it as the gun.  Rob slammed a shoulder into him in a football tackle, and they both flew to the ground.  Liz fell to one side, crumbling to her knees.

I ran to her, and quickly helped her up. Together, Madison and I carried her away.  I looked back.  Rob was struggling with the man.  They were both rolling on the ground, fighting for an advantage.  I wished I could do something with the crystal, but I knew of nothing that would help.  Still, I couldn’t just stand aside.  I started to run back toward them, when suddenly the man went completely limp.  Rob yelped and pushed him away like a rabid dog.  The man was on his back.  He convulsed once, twice. Blood started running from his nose.  He coughed, and a spray of blood spurted from his mouth.  He coughed again, and was still.

I ran to Rob.  “What happened?”

“He… he took a pill,” Rob said.  He sounded shaken.  “He dropped it into his mouth while we were fighting.  Is he…?”

“Dead.”  Madison finished his sentence.  She had left Liz to one side, and was kneeling beside the man.  “He has no pulse.”

“Jesus Christ!” Rob said under his breath.  “Jesus Christ! What did we get into?”  Suddenly, his attention shifted.  “Liz!  Is she hurt?”

“I’m fine, thanks to you,” she said, coming up behind us.  I glanced at her as I helped Rob up.  She placed a hand on my shoulder.  “Thank you, Tracy.  And you Rob.  And Madison.”

“Of course,” Rob and I said as one. Then we looked at each other in surprise.

“What did he want?” Madison wondered.

“He thought I was Tracy,” Liz said.  She was all liquid cool composure again.  I had no idea how she jumped from one emotional state to another so quickly.  “The question is: What do we do with him?”

“We have to call the cops,” Rob said.