Rage ripped through Alexei’s mind, overriding his fear for his brother.Is he okay?
I’m blocked.Which didn’t answer his question and made Alexei’s heart sink.Mercedes and I are going to try something. I’ll need to stop shielding everyone.
“Take point?” Matthew asked him, obviously hearing Katie’s last order on his end over the comms.
Alexei eyed the doorway of the office they and a couple of other Strike Force operatives were taking cover in.
“Da,” Alexei said.
Katie’s voice echoed in his mind.On my mark.
Alexei took a step forward, sighting down his weapon, ready to move.
Go!
They moved, everyone on their side leaving the safety of cover behind, trusting in Katie and Mercedes to watch their six. The last handful of fighters guarding the door to the office that held Blanchett were frozen where they stood, blood trickling out of their noses and ears.
Something hard raked through Alexei’s mind, and he stumbled, swearing. He wasn’t the only one. Matthew and the others were also affected. Katie’s warning about needing to drop her shields left them momentary targets for Stanislav’s telepath.
Then something else reverberated through his mind.
Like a wave crashing against the shore, Alexei sensed the mental attack only because he was still linked with Katie. It battered at the very edge of his mind, focused on a different target, but the backwash still bled through. The power behind it felt like Katie and Mercedes combined, as if they’d entangled their telepathy together, and Alexei didn’t know what to make of that.
So instead, he cut down the enemy.
Alexei wasn’t the only one carving his way through the men and women standing docilely in the way. He didn’t feel guilty for killing them, not after what they’d helped endorse against his country and his brother.
Fuck them, they’d hurtKyle.
Alexei reached the office door with blood on his hands, finding the old-style door locked. Alexei shot out the manual lock and kicked the door in before twisting to the side to retain cover. Bullets peppered the air where he’d stood, the sound of the gun going off lighter than that of a rifle.
Matthew tossed a flash-bang grenade into the office that went off two seconds later. A woman screamed, and Alexei took that as his cue to move in. Leading with his weapon, he entered the office.
Inside, a young man sat slouched in a chair, head lolling against his shoulder. Blood flowed from his nose and ears, gaze blank with no hint of awareness in his eyes. He was still alive, but that wasn’t saying much. Alexei’s attention moved from the probably brain-dead telepath to the woman standing behind the desk.
Ella Blanchett didn’t look nearly as put-together as she had in the holopics he’d seen during the team’s briefing. She’d stumbled into a bookcase in her attempt to escape the flash-bang grenade, makeup running down her face from the tears caused by pain and sensory overload.
Take her out,a strange amalgamation of Katie and Mercedes’ exhausted voices said into Alexei’s mind.
Alexei didn’t question why they hadn’t done so first, and merely followed his orders. This close to his target, Alexei wasn’t going to miss. Between himself and Matthew, they made a bloody mess of Blanchett’s chest. While her power could interfere with metahuman powers, it couldn’t stop bullets from taking her life. Seconds later, warmth started to filter back through Alexei’s nerves as whatever neural block Blanchett’s nullification power had created disappeared at her death.
He thought they were in the clear.
Then Alexei heard a scream echo from a lower floor, filled with such wretched grief and rage it didn’t sound human.
Alexei’s heart practically stopped in his chest, because heknewthat voice, torn as it was. He knew it could only mean one thing.
“Nyet,” he choked out.
Alexei had only a vague recollection of making it down to the second floor. The fuzziness in his brain disappeared when he made it to the Great Hall and nearly got his head shot off by Declan. Matthew yanked Alexei back inside the stairwell, likely saving his life, and slammed him up against the wall.
“Get your head in the fucking game, Inferno!” Matthew snarled.
In response, Alexei formed a fireball with his pyrokinesis and threw it into the Great Hall. He wielded it without care, let the flames scorch the marble and the delicate coffered ceiling with its ancient red and gold tiles. Nothing mattered to Alexei but getting to his brother.
Matthew peered out at the Great Hall after a moment, sweat sliding down his cheeks, before he looked at Alexei. “Put it out so we can get through.”
Alexei called his fire to heel and was the first one out of the stairwell, the weapon in his hands a negligible weight compared to the fire he could feel burning at his fingertips. Declan was gone, no body left behind in the form of charred remains. It made Alexei believe he’d once again escaped death. He’d be angry about that, later perhaps, but every last shred of his emotional capacity was taken up by the sight of what greeted him when he entered the courtroom.
