Chapter Nineteen
The closer Beth and her group got to the hall outside the Senate Chamber, the louder it became. The sounds of battle sliced through the air, shouts and scream, crashes, and even a bang loud enough to be an explosion. Sharp pops of gunfire punctuated the chaos. In response, Luke, Kenny, Rodgers, and Ahearn drew their weapons, too.
The only bright point was that a generator had been brought into the corridor outside the Chamber, and there were lights. She could see normally. Downside? That only highlighted the destruction.
The rest of their friends had taken up a defensive position against the southern wall, outside the chamber. She looked for Kitty. If anyone could do something to convince a room full of fighters to change their minds, it was her. Yet, when Beth reached out for her, she found only Nick and his worry and fear.
Kitty was down.
The noises around her faded. Her vision clouded, and the now-familiar panic attack threatened to consume her. It was up to her to do something to stop this.
Guns needed to go. They increased the destruction and disorder. She reached out to Parker’s fighters. Throw your guns to the military. Throw your guns to the military.
One by one, rifles, pistols, and every type of weapon in between flew through the air. They landed in a heap at Seth’s feet.
All of it had to be removed from the room, before someone here figured out a way to circumvent her. She reached out to Seth. Take all weapons to Martins. Take the guns to Martins.
As Seth disappeared, his arms weighed down by guns, she sighed with relief. One less threat.
From there, she told all of the fighters to stop. After that, it was a short time before she had them tied up and indisposed.
When they were neutralized, she hurried to where Blue, Kenny, and Luke stood watching as Nick hunched over Kitty. As she bled from her thigh, he attempted to apply a tourniquet through his cloud of panic and terror. Seth hadn’t returned yet, but he would. Nothing would keep him from this.
The entire group looked ragged—all of them bleeding, with black and blue marks everywhere. Luke favored his arm, Kenny his leg. Blue was pale, obviously losing a lot of blood from a gash on her shoulder.
This needed to end, fast. They couldn’t sustain much more damage.
“We need to get this over with. You take that entrance,” she told Blue and Kenny. “And Luke and I will go in this way. We’ll rely on surprise.”
They all nodded. Again, she listened as each wondered in their own way if this might be their end. Their minds wandered. The two couples gazed at each other, doing their best to memorize their faces. Luke’s mind hazed with remorse, and she closed her eyes, unable to carry it with her own fear.
She sent out her wishes to them, her friends, just in case. I’m honored to know you all.
“Go,” she said before she stood and threw open the doors to the Senate Chamber.
The floor was covered in bodies. Martins had told her that some of the senators had escaped before Parker gained control, but there were still at least thirty people here. While so much news was made of how split the government was, the legislators that remained had huddled together in the back of the room, behind the crescent of chairs. Some had fallen where they’d been holding each other. Others had curled in on themselves, but their hands rested on feet, on arms, on whatever parts of their colleagues they could reach.
Having been through the change herself, she remembered the isolation. She’d ached and writhed through the pain. But she’d been able to hear the others around her, and she’d wanted to reach them. Knowing they were near—knowing she wasn’t alone—had made it tolerable. That had been the gift of her telepathy.
Hopefully, none of these senators had gotten far enough in their change to find out if they could read minds.
They weren’t actively writhing, though, as they would in the grips of Solvimine. Instead, they were in stupors.
Relief pulsed through her, tinged with triumph. I did it.
“Mr. Kincaid.” At the front of the room, Parker Sinclair leaned against the podium. Beneath him, Jack stood with his feet wide and his arms crossed. There were ten armed guards spaced through the room, and four of them were telekinetic. “And Dr. Jenkins, I presume.”
So he’d let them in here. She should have guessed. The door had been unlocked.
“You have devised a way to stop the drug.” His tone was level, but his fury vibrated from him.
“I have.” He had her same skills, but as she got closer, she couldn’t hide her surprise. He looked older than she expected, frailer. They’d told her he was in his fifties, that he had taught at a remote college before leaving civilization behind. He’d grown paranoid of crowds, of outsiders.
But he didn’t look frightening. A short man with a receding hairline and a ruddy complexion, he was even on the pudgy side, lending him a bit of a snuggly, harmless look.
Her assessment upset him. She smiled. How typical. All his power, yet he was worried about his hairline and waistline.
“You are a bothersome child.” His frustration had grown. The guards lifted their rifles and pointed them at her. “You and your little team are completely outnumbered. You can’t believe you can win this.”
“If you plan to change the senators, you’ve lost today.”
I haven’t lost.
She narrowed her eyes. Maybe she should be more afraid. All day, she’d functioned in a near-constant state of panic. Here, under the watchful eyes of the guards with the guns, she could only manage irritation. “You should come quietly, Mr. Sinclair. You have many skills, but you can’t evaporate or fly. You’re not going to get out of here a free man.”
You don’t know anything.
His thoughts refocused on the senators on the ground. He evaluated his options. If these elected officials weren’t also gifted, they wouldn’t understand his plight. Right now, their kind—everyone who was changed—was forced to either run and hide or be kept under the watchful eye of the government.
He didn’t want to be trapped under the government’s thumb. Freedom, that’s what he craved. He didn’t wish to conform, to be told what to do or what to think.
“You don’t want to be told what to do, yet you force others to do as they’re told. You’re a hypocrite.” She glanced at Jack, who wasn’t meeting her eyes. His mind was blank. She recognized the tactic, remaining purposefully unfocused. It was a skill that required talent, to defy telepathic attempts.
She wondered if Sinclair realized he did it.
Sinclair scowled at Jack before returning his eyes to her. “There will be other chances.”
“Maybe. Maybe not.” Not if I can help it. I can adjust my antidote. I’m smart, smarter than you. I’ve already done this, and I’ll stand to defy you again and again. She smiled to punctuate her thoughts.
She may be right. If she is smart enough to make changes to the drug, she is smart enough to be useful to me. His eyes narrowed, and he folded his hands behind his back. “Miss Jenkins…”
“Dr. Jenkins.”
He lifted his brows. “Doctor. Perhaps we don’t understand one another…”
“Do not attempt to tell me of things I don’t understand.” Her voice was clipped, betraying her anger. “I can hear your thoughts. I can hear that you’re going to try to convince me that what I know to be true is false. But I have eyes. This is wrong. I will work against you at every step.” I will stop you. You have lost.
So be it. “Then…” He lifted his hand. As he did, the rifles of all of the guards also rose. “If you aren’t going to help, you are harmful to our cause.”
Staring him down, she sensed how he tried to block his intentions, but though telekinesis hadn’t come easy for her, this skill did.
Won’t attempt to use telepathy. She will resist, and I will be distracted. She’s weak with her other power. That is my advantage.
The gunshots filled the air, a nearly simultaneous boom.
…
As Beth faced off against a semi-circle of armed guards, Luke’s heart jumped into his throat. She was going to be killed. Absolutely not.
He needed to protect her.
They weren’t paying attention to him. He’d used that to his advantage. With a desperate mental flick, he forced the gun muzzles into the air as they all went off simultaneously. Beth dove to the side, falling behind one of the senators’ desks.
He used the moment of confusion to throw Parker forward, off the elevation at the front of the room.
The older man didn’t fall gracefully, hitting the ground hard on his left shoulder. By the time he righted himself, his guards were running from the room.
Beth’s work. They stopped, though, suddenly, as if regretting their decision—or like Parker had put them on pause.
From his position behind a column, Luke watched Parker stumble forward, clutching his shoulder, glaring at the guards. They all seemed to struggle, caught between Parker’s wishes and Beth’s. From her perch behind the desks, Beth stood, her shoulders firming, glaring Parker down.
Everyone still had guns. The battle would be decided by which telepath lost control first, but Luke wanted to dull the potential damage. He searched the room, desperate to find something that would help tip the scales in Beth’s favor. Only then did he realize that Kenny had fallen.
Rushing forward, he skidded to his knees beside his friend. Blood trickled from a gunshot wound on Kenny’s side. “Shit. Kenny.”
Kenny cringed; his blood-stained hand clutched the wound. “Fuck, that hurts.” He glanced around, bringing a couple of the desks to shield himself. “It’ll wait. Right now, we need to get these people out of here.”
Luke had been so worried about Beth, he hadn’t even considered moving the senators. Kenny was right. Beth would want him to save the hostages. Blue sat across the room, rubbing her forehead, as if trying to shake off a head trauma. They were all so broken. He yelled to her, motioning at the elected officials, “Can you help?”
She stumbled to her feet, nodding.
The three of them quickly shifted two or three of the senators at a time out into the hallway. They kept them low to the ground, out of sight of Beth and Parker in the front of the room, trying not to draw attention, hoping that Parker was too distracted to realize what they were doing.
Kenny and Luke would pass the unconscious senators to the doorway, and Blue would get them around the corner. At least they were safe there, for now.
Meanwhile, Beth and Parker remained in a deadlock, struggling for control over the guards in the room. Blood trickled from both of their noses, signaling how intense the fight really was. With the senators gone, Luke tried to figure out what he could do to help. A couple of the guards were unconscious. He had no guess as to how much damage their brains had taken, having two telepaths tear at them.
Right now, Parker appeared too busy to notice him and his friends. But the moment he did, they’d be frozen—or worse, potential weapons. He couldn’t let that happen. Glancing to where Kenny and Blue hunched in the back of the room, obviously hurt, he decided quickly. He yelled to them, motioning them outside after the senators. They were too bruised and battered to fight him. The fewer telekinetics here, the better. He slammed the door closed.
He needed to think of something, anything, to help Beth.
If Parker got the upper hand, Beth would die. He refused to abandon her. Never again.
He did what he could to tell Beth he believed in her. The words were long overdue. If something happened, he needed her to know.
Beth trembled with the exertion of fighting with Parker. One slip, one wrong move, and Parker would have all of those guns pointed at her.
In desperation, Luke picked up one of the senator’s antique desks and threw it at Parker. It paused in midair, careening back at him. He dodged it in time.
If he’d tried to draw Parker’s attention, he’d succeeded.
He was frozen, then free, and then frozen again, like a radio station going in and out of frequency.
Distracted by Beth, Parker couldn’t keep hold of him. That had to be a good sign.
“Jack. Dispose of Mr. Kincaid.” Parker’s voice was strained.
Apparently, he didn’t intend to deal with Luke himself.
Across the room, Jack didn’t move. He had remained still since they entered the room. Standing against a desk, his arms crossed over his chest, he was all college-boy good looks.
“Mr. Barnett!” Parker demanded. “Now.”
Jack moved, but he didn’t want to if the jerkiness was any indication. Walking slowly toward his former friend, Luke lifted his hands, pleading through gritted teeth. “Fight it, Jack. You know you don’t want to hurt me.” He could only hope that was true.
The effort it took Parker to force Jack to move was having an effect on his control over the guards. They were giving in to Beth’s will. Hope surging, Luke coaxed Jack further. “I know you have reservations about working with Parker. I know you regret things. I know. Fight him. We can help you.”
“No.” His jaw firmed, and his eyes met Luke’s. The veins on his neck strained as if he carried a heavy load. “No.”
“Exactly. No. You can fight him. You can come with us. You can save yourself.” He didn’t even know what he was saying, if he was interpreting Jack correctly, but he had to sway Jack into their corner. Beth was winning, and if he didn’t keep Jack occupied, if he didn’t force Parker to spend his energy to manipulate Jack, then Beth would be in more danger.
So he talked.
“I saw the girls, Jack. I saw them. I know you wanted to save them. We all wanted to save our families.” He shook his head. “None of them deserved this. None of us deserved this.”
Jack’s eyes closed, and the lines around them hinted at his pain, even as he growled with his effort to break free. The stark agony on his face touched Luke in the spot where he hid his own grief for his father. Had Luke ever known how strongly Jack had felt his sisters’ deaths? He suspected. They’d found the little twins together, seen the blood trails on their faces. Jack had stood in the middle of their room, between their beds, and he’d screamed.
The sound of it, guttural and broken, haunted him with the rest of his nightmares.
Jack hadn’t been the same since.
“Stay with us. Fight him.” They were nearly facing each other now. Jack’s face reddened as his fist lifted.
Luke glanced to the side. The guards were turning, facing Parker.
The entire room was tense, full of the wars going on behind closed eyes. Luke held his breath.
Everything exploded in a burst of horrifying energy.
Parker lost hold of Jack. He burst forward, as if he had been pushing against Parker’s bonds physically. But though he dove at Luke, he veered to the right at the last moment.
He jumped, then, flying high through the air in a graceful arch.
The guards Beth and Parker had been fighting over were now pointing their pistols at Parker. They lifted their guns as Jack came down.
It happened so quickly that Luke wasn’t even certain that he saw it all correctly. Jack descended, grabbing Parker’s head and spinning it. The angle was so brutal, there was absolutely no way the man was going to survive.
At the same time, there was gunfire.
The two bodies fell, dropping to the ground next to one another.
Luke hurried to Jack’s side. He’d been shot in the chest, high on his left shoulder. It didn’t look good. Blood pumped from the wound. Luke shrugged out of his shirt, pressing it against the wound. But, even though he was practically leaning on Jack, the fabric was soaked through in moments.
“It’s okay,” Jack gasped out. He writhed, his eyes wide. “I’m cold.”
“Jack. You…” The image of Parker’s head being nearly ripped from his head would never leave him. “Parker’s dead.”
“Should be,” Jack whispered. “I broke his neck.”
A shiver ran along Luke’s spine. The way he said it was chilling.
“God, Jack…”
“He wasn’t going to stop, Luke. You know that.”
Sadly, he did. Parker had been obsessed. He wouldn’t have ever let up, would have come back over and over again. Not here to the Capitol, but somewhere. People would keep dying.
He had no idea how hard it must have been over the past few months to live with him. The short time he’d spent with Parker had been repressive. Jack must have suffocated.
Beth crawled next to him. “Jack. I’m so sorry. I was aiming for Parker. I didn’t mean for you to get caught in the crossfire.” Her forehead furrowed as she closed her eyes. “Let’s get him out of here. He needs help.”
Jack lifted his hand, waving them off. “No worries. Did it to myself.” He snorted, but it made him cough. “Special powers, too, remember?”
“I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. Only stop him…” Her voice trailed off, sad and broken.
“Didn’t deserve to live.” Jack’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“Parker?”
He shook his head. “Me.”
Beth’s helpless eyes found Luke’s. She wasn’t the sort to hurt someone, not on purpose. Maybe she was right. Maybe sometimes situations were out of one’s control.
Lifting Jack off the ground, Luke shifted to his feet. “Hang in there, Jack. We’re going to get you some help.”
But Jack had already passed out.
…
Everything was cold. It radiated from the wound on Jack’s shoulder, but it stretched through his back, down his spine, into his stomach. The chill was welcoming, and he yearned for it.
He’d done it. He stopped Parker.
She wasn’t going to do it. The doctor. She wouldn’t have killed him. It had been all over her face. Justice. She’d planned to take him in so he could have a fair trial.
Parker didn’t deserve fair. Besides, there was no containing someone like Parker. He would have gotten away. He definitely didn’t deserve freedom.
No one else should have to die for his ego. The government was supposed to have checks and balances, people who would rein in fanatics. Jack refused to take that chance.
He drifted. In the recesses of him mind, he could hear Beth Jenkins. He knew she was calling to him, coaxing him to come back. She was a telepath, and she was trying to make him stay.
He didn’t want to.
His last thoughts were the memories of his sisters’ laughs.