The Forbidden Trilogy (23 page)

But since being here, I'd gotten almost none. Ana would
brush against me when she could, offering a hand of support. Susie tried not to
touch me at all, and Dr. Pana never touched me except in creepy ways that made
my skin crawl.

I'd never realized how much I needed to be touched, and to
touch—to feel that contact with another person.

No one wanted to end the conversation, but we all forced our
goodbyes. Still connected to Ana, I felt the tears flow down her cheek and drip
over the edges of her smile.

'Thank you, both of you. Thank you so much. That meant
the world to me.'

The group link had drained me. Would it affect our ability
to escape? Maybe, but I didn't regret it. That one conversation healed a hole
in my friends' hearts that had been raw far too long. I could see the light in
Ana as well, brightness in an otherwise dark world.

This was real power. Not controlling other people, but
helping to heal their hearts. For the first time in my life, my para-powers
meant something more.

They made me proud.

Drake and I linked and commanded the guard to shut down the
camera. Ana had slipped him a little something that would keep him in the
bathroom for quite some time. She locked him in, and Drake and I instructed him
not to leave, even if he started to feel better. Ana snatched the keys from the
guard desk, and came to my room.

She pulled out a scalpel and walked toward me. The hairs on
the back of my neck sprang to attention.

"I'm so sorry, Sam, but I have to do this."

This couldn't be. I didn't believe she would hurt me.

"You have a tracker in your arm. I have to remove it
before we leave this room, or you won't get past the security gates."

My body visibly deflated.
Right, the tracker.
She
reached for my right arm. I rolled up my sleeve, held it out and gritted my
teeth.

The pain came without warning—sharp, biting. The blade
sliced into me, dug through me, and pulled out. Warm liquid flowed down my
skin. A metallic plop followed.

Ana wrapped my arm. "You're a very brave girl. Are you
okay?"

I moved my arm to test it. The muscle ached, but I would
live. "Yes, let's go get Drake."

She hid the tracker, a thin metal piece, in a drawer and
grabbed a clean scalpel for Drake. I grabbed my backpack with my sketchpad and
secret box tucked safely inside.

When we got to his door, I paused. This was the moment. Our
first meeting. Ana had been kind enough to get me a pair of khaki pants that
fit and a blue sweater that brought out the blue in my eyes. I'd pulled my hair
back in a braid. No makeup, but I hadn't worn any in so long that I didn't
really think too much of it. Still, the butterflies in my stomach turned into
raging bees.

What if the chemistry we had in our minds didn't translate
to our bodies? What if he looked at me and ran away?

Ana, reading my mind, tugged me to the door with a motherly
smile. My heart clenched at the thought that Lucy and Luke should have basked
in that smile over the last eighteen years. The injustice of it all renewed my
motivation.

She opened the door and Drake stepped forward, and for that
moment, the world stopped spinning and time stood still.

In my imagination, he hadn't been so tall. Tall and
muscular. His blond-highlighted hair lay casually messy, and his crystal blue
eyes held me in a long stare. He'd found a way to shave, and the chiseled
strength of his jaw made my knees weak.

When he smiled, warmth filled my stomach.

"Sam."

That was it, just one word, but he made it sound like it
held all the secrets of the universe. His voice was deeper, huskier, than it
had been in my mind.

"Drake, it's really you."

He reached for my hand. "It's really me."

When his skin touched mine, lightning danced between us.

He pulled me close, breathing in the scent of me as our
bodies touched. I nearly cried right there in his arms, just being held,
feeling him. I never wanted to let go.

But I had to. We sighed and reluctantly pulled our bodies
apart, though we clutched each other's hands as often as we could.

He held his arm out to Ana, having heard our thoughts, and
she carved the tracker out. He didn't flinch, just held my gaze and smiled, as
if she hadn't jabbed a sharp object into his bicep.

Ana wrapped his arm, and led us through a maze of hallways
and rooms. They knew Drake could control minds, which would explain why she led
us to the door. Her alibi.

She gave Drake her car keys and the keys from the guard.
'In
the trunk, there's a blue backpack with a small memory stick in the inside
pocket. It also has money, clothes, and supplies for you both—medical supplies
for you, Sam, a laptop computer, and a cell phone that's not traceable. You'll
also need the guard keys to get out the back way, through the locked gates.'

Even though I wanted out of this hell, I couldn't stomach
the thought of what we had to do next. They mustn't suspect her of anything.

Damn pragmatism.

Drake looked miserable. "I'm so sorry, Ana. Thank you
so much."

Ana sat on the floor against the wall so she wouldn't fall,
then smiled. "Just do it,
mijo
. It's okay. I'm tougher than I look.
Just make it believable."

He released the super strength his muscles carried before
punching her in the side of the head.

I cried out as she slumped to the floor, feeling his fist as
if I'd suffered the blow.

Drake cradled Ana's head so she wouldn't fall to the floor,
and positioned her in the most comfortable way possible before looking at Sam.
He waited for anger, but he saw only love in her eyes.

He reached out and ran his hand through her silky hair.
"I'm sorry."

Her eyes spilled over with tears, but she didn't pull away
from him. He sighed in relief when she gripped his hand with as much desperate
need as burned in him.

"I hate this, Drake, but we had to. Now let's get out
of here before we're caught."

An ache eased in him. He had a new guardian angel, a soul who
accepted him, shadows and all.

Drake was guiding Sam toward the door when a voice from the
stairs froze them in place. "What the hell are you doing down here? Stop
right there."

The security guard aimed his gun at them.
How did he get
out?

As soon as he'd thought the question, the answer arrived.
Dr. Pana followed behind the guard with an evil grin spread across his face.
"You two are not going anywhere." His calm, quiet voice was more
terrorizing than if he'd been wild with rage.

A haze of compulsion settled into Drake's mind as Dr. Pana
hijacked his powers and took control of him. He wanted to scream for Sam to
run, but his mouth wouldn't open and he didn't know if she could hear him
mentally anymore.

Sam's face turned hard. "Let go of him, Dr. Pana. Now!"

The clutches on Drake's mind released and he gasped in
relief and pain.

Dr. Pana's face twisted in anger. "How?"

Sam still held center stage, so Drake used that moment to
creep forward, ready to tackle the doctor.

Sam grinned. "You underestimated us."

'Drake, he can only use one power at a time. We have to
keep him off balance.'
Her voice floated through him like a cool breeze.

He took that opportunity and lunged, tackling the doctor to
the ground.

Sam screamed. "The guard!"

From the corner of his eye, Drake saw the guard turn and
point his gun at him. Time pushed against him like a viscous liquid, and he
couldn't move fast enough to stop the inevitable.

The guard's trigger finger twitched.

Drake braced for the impact of a bullet.

But no gun fired. The guard's eyes glazed over and he threw
the gun down the stairs.

Sam had intervened, but in letting go of the doctor's mind,
she'd opened up the window he needed to seize Drake's mind again.

Under compulsion, Drake moved away from the doctor. Inside,
his will fought the clumsy control the doctor exerted, but couldn't break it,
and he recognized in that moment the energy of the man who had kidnapped him
from his surfing contest.

Of course, Dr. Pana had been behind it all. Fury raged in
Drake, seeking an outlet but finding none. His muscles flexed and pulsed,
bulging tight against his jeans and shirt, coiled and ready but unable to
strike.

The guard made for his gun, but Sam intercepted him and
kicked the gun farther away, then latched onto Dr. Pana's mind again and
released Drake from the control.

"You did this to me. You took everything from me."
His fist landed in the doctor's gut and sent him flying down the hall, where he
lay struggling to breathe.

Drake stalked forward, ready to finish off the doctor, but
the guard pounced on Drake and wailed at him with ineffectual punches. Though
no match for him in strength, the guard was small and fast, and Drake's
counterstrikes landed on air.

A foreign energy infiltrated Drake's body as he fought the
guard, and siphoned off his extra strength. The guard's punches bit deeper into
his body and filled him with unexpected pain. Each blow disoriented him
further, until his vision spun with flashes of light.

Drake raised a heavy arm and swung, but missed again.

The doctor groaned, healing himself with Drake's power, then
pulled a gun from his pocket and aimed at Sam.

"No!" Drake's powers crashed back into him and
renewed strength burned through his veins and flooded his muscles. His fist
slammed into the guard's face and knocked him into the wall. His body slumped
over and blood leaked out of his mouth.

With every ounce of will left in him, Drake focused on the
doctor, but the doctor fought Drake with his own mind powers... and pulled the
trigger.

Two pops reverberated through the hall. Sam screamed and
Drake unleashed more fury than he'd ever felt before.

Images of his New Daddy flashed through his mind. The gun in
the doctor's hand lifted and pointed toward his chin.

"Shoot yourself, Dr. Pana. Don't miss."

Sam's voice cut through the pulsing vibrations in his ears.
"Drake no! Don't do it! Don't become one of them."

Drake looked to her, tears welling in his eyes. "I
can't lose you, Sam. I lost them. I can't lose you too. I'm sorry."

The doctor's face contorted in fear and rage, but his finger
obeyed Drake's will and pulled the trigger. Just like the childhood memory,
blood and brain splattered the wall and the doctor's body fell to the floor
like a bag of sand.

I heard the gun explode in slow motion. Everything went
silent, or really loud. I couldn't tell—like when water is so hot it feels cold
for a moment. My ears rang as I went numb and fell to the ground. Blood covered
me, and my arm stung.

Drake's mouth moved, but I couldn't hear what he said. Rage
overtook him, and he turned to the doctor. He broke from my mind and unleashed
all his power.

Dr. Pana brought the gun to his own chin. Time slowed. The
doctor's finger tugged against the trigger.

"Drake no! Don't do it! Don't become one of them."
The words didn't reach my ears. Maybe I only spoke in my head. Nothing made
sense. I couldn't move. Something pinned me down.

Drake looked to me, tears in his eyes. "I can't lose
you, Sam. I lost them. I can't lose you too. I'm sorry."

My mind filled with Drake's. His pain became mine, his
memories my memories. We existed as one in that terrible moment.

The doctor's head exploded in a splash of blood and brain.

I blocked the image of him from my mind, and my connection
to Drake snapped shut. The guard still lay unconscious in the corner, and Ana
lay like a dead weight against me.

I shifted her, and screamed. A crimson gash covered her
abdomen. I tried to move my arm and flinched. Blood covered my right shoulder.
Two bullets—one in her, and one that just grazed me. She must have moved at the
last minute, and thrown herself in front of me.

She'd saved my life.

This plan was supposed to be simple. How could this happen?

My hearing returned as I choked on my sobs. I held Ana and
rocked her, stared at her, willing her to wake up. I waited for that movie
moment when she would open her eyes and tell me it was okay, that it was best
this way. When she would make me vow to help her children and all the other
kids in this hellhole.

That moment never came.

I was robbed of those last words, that final connection.

Images of Gar's lifeless eyes plagued me. Two deaths.

I looked at my bloodstained hands and cringed. I would never
wipe my soul clean from this.

"Sam, we have to go now. I'm sorry, but we don't have
much time to get out of here. Are you okay? Is our baby okay?"

I stared at Drake, still in a daze, and nodded mutely as he
moved Ana's body off of me. "We can't leave her here. That's not
right."

"I know, but we have no choice. We're the only hope
left to save her kids. She'd want us to go."

"No! I'm not going to leave her here. Her kids deserve
to know where she's buried. She deserves some respect. I will not leave her in
the hands of these monsters! Not like I left Gar."

"Please, Sam, listen to me. For the sake of our baby,
we have to go. Please!"

"I can't. I just can't. The babies. Ana. I can't."

I sat on the floor, crying, clutching her body in my arms,
unable to move, unable to think past the grief that ate away at my soul. She'd
given everything for her kids, and for us. Her whole life had been a sacrifice
for others. I had just reunited her with her children, gave my best friends
their mom back. Now, because of me, they'd lost it all.