“Need you to drive. I have to scan the crowds,”shesaid.
“What’s going on?” heasked.
“You’re lucky Viper culled what information she could get from Halloran before you disobeyed orders,” Stirling interrupted, soundly coldly furious overtheline.
In no world would Kyle ever be sorry for what he’d just done, so he kept silent in the face of his CO’sanger.
“Cillian did something new with his bombs,” Katie told him as they got on themotorcycle.
“I’m not going to like this, am I?”Kylesaid.
“Three Sons of Adam fighters are carrying Splice in their stomachs along with micro-explosives. Cillian told the man doing the implanting not to tell him who volunteered. They’ll self-destruct when they’ve reached theirtarget.”
Kyle didn’t have to think very hard about who that target would be. “We need to get Senator Callahan tosafety.”
“Why do you think I told you todrive?”
In response, Kyle revved the motorcycle’s engine and sped forward, tires squealing a little on the blood-speckledground.
14
A Wild Game OfSurvival
Sean heavedagainst the hands trying to pry Alexei out of his arms, unable to phase due to the constriction around his mind that was similar to the Faraday cage, but far more gentle in therestraint.
Sean! We need you to calm down. Gracie can’t look after you if you stayphased.
It took far too long for Sean to recognize the echo in his mind as Katie’s telepathic voice. By the time he did, the pain had ceased to exist in his body, and its absence was almost a different kindofpain.
Sean opened his eye as much as he could, vision blurry, barely able to make out Gracie’s dark face leaning inclose.
“I have you, Agent Delaney,” she said in a calm, soothing voice that matched the healing in her touch. “And I have Staff Sergeant Dvorkinaswell.”
At Alexei’s name, the panic came back, but by then, a different telepath was in his mind, rendering his power null and void by whatever means necessary. Mercedes’ mental touch wasn’t as easy as Katie’s had been, but she was relentless in keeping Sean from calling up hispower.
We can’t treat you if you’re phased,Mercedestoldhim.
Someone gently grabbed his hand, pulling his arms away from where he was clutching at Alexei. Panic was a sharp, knotted thing wrapped around his chest, clawing mercilessly at his throat. Sean wanted to scream at everyone tolet them go, but the words wouldn’t come. They remained locked behind his teeth, swollen tongue unable to form a syllable. His breathing ratcheted up as he made a grab for Alexei, but a pair of nurses pulled him out ofreach.
Sean’s vision wasn’t all that great, but the limp way Alexei hung in their arms, the way his head lolled heavily as they placed him on a stretcher, was impossible to miss. A high-pitched sound cleaved itself from his throat, sending Sean deeper into panic, because that was anoise. He was supposed to bequiet.
Sean fought against hands that might only want to help, but he’d been in that dimly lit room for too long to feel safe right now. It didn’t matter that the smell of blood, wet cement, and brick no longer filled his nose, because the metallic tang of blood was everywhere, and alwayswouldbe.
Then a hand touched his shoulder, the other gently curving around the back of his head as a familiar face ducked down into hissight.
“Sean, honey, I need you to stop fighting,” Dr. Naomi Delaneytoldhim.
As a child, when he was hurt, his mother would tend to the bruises and cuts he’d accrue with bandages and kisses if the nanny weren’t around. For all the time his mother spent away at school, following her dreams of becoming a surgeon, she’d always been there for her sons when they needed her most. Sean didn’t know how badly he wanted his mother until she appearedbeforehim.
He was a bloody mess, riding a high from the lack of pain that would end soon enough, sending him crashing down into the agony that was his body. But as badly hurt as he was, Sean knew Alexei was worse off, and he knew he had to watch, had to keep his eyes on Alexei, had to stay quiet,hadto—
You’re safe now,Mercedes promised, gently derailing his thoughts before they could make his panic attack worse.I promise, you’re safe. So isDvorkin.
Sean wanted to believe her, he honestly did, but the second they moved him onto a stretcher, the pain came roaring back with a vengeance. Sean arched weakly upward, body throbbing as every nerve remembered what was really happening in his body. Gracie’s power had eased enough of his pain to give him a clarity of thought that Sean wanted to run from. Because he’dwatched—he hadn’t done a damn thing whenCillian—
Too late,hethought.
He should have tried harder, should’ve done somethingdifferent—
