Page 18 of Rescuing Air

“Who do you really work for?” I demanded, glaring at one of the men sitting in front of me. “I know it’s not the police, so my guess is the Dark Lord or one of his minions.”

One of them just gave me an evil grin as he chuckled, but didn’t answer. He didn’t need to. That told me everything I needed to know. Instead, I turned to Hudson and Brayden who looked furious to be sitting there unable to do a damn thing. If these people were actual humans, then our spirit weapons wouldn’t do anything to them, but if they were hosts for demons, it might give us the upper hand. First, we needed to create a distraction or throw them off their game.

“I’m really impressed that there aren’t any major potholes in the road. One would think with the ocean so close the salt would eat away at the asphalt,” I mused, looking out the front window, trying my best to catch Brayden’s eye. “Wow, we’re heading for the coastline. It’s so pretty. You know, we didn’t get much time to explore before you came to kidnap us.” If Brayden couldn’t catch on maybe Hudson would.

“Shut the hell up before we make you,” the driver growled.

I just clicked my tongue in irritation. “Sorry, I’m just nervous. An enormous wave or a crack in the ground might open up, killing us all. It’s the PTSD from the fun times I had with the Dark Lord.”

For some reason, I was channeling my inner Cami right now to keep from losing my shit as I tried to get us out of this mess. I’m not sure I could have made my point any clearer but neither of the guys seemed to show any sign of understanding. In fact, Hudson had his eyes closed and was relaxing as we flew down the coastal highway to God knows where.

Just when I thought all hope might be lost, the ground rumbled and rocks from the cliffs we were driving next to pelted the van, making the driver swerve to avoid crashing into a boulder that landed in the road. “Fuck! Someone, knock them out! They’re trying to use their powers on us. The Dark Lord warned us they were tricky,” the driver yelled back. He seemed to be the leader of the bunch.

Before the guards across from us could make their move, I lunged forward, crashing into both of them. It was a mess of limbs as I kicked out, clipping one of them in the jaw as the other tried to shove me off him. I’d managed to hook my hands on his utility belt, clinging on for dear life as the van jerked to the right, slamming me into the bogus cop who got smashed up against the wall of the vehicle.

“No, no, this can’t be happening! There is no way they could do that!” the man in the passenger seat screamed. He tossed his door open and leaped out of the still moving van.

What had gotten him so freaked out? Then I saw it as the road curved—a massive wave was rushing toward us and there was no way to avoid it. Looking around the van, I tried to see something I could grab onto but with my hands behind my back it made it all that more challenging. There was a bar running along the length of the van for them to hook cuffs to. It wasn’t the best idea, but it was the only one as I lay on my side and gripped the bar with both hands. This was going to hurt, but there was no way I was going to let them kill us to make way for the Dark Lord.

Hudson opened his eyes and when he saw what was coming, he gulped. “Brayden, you better hold on to something. It seems my powers are a lot stronger than I anticipated.”

“Fucking hell,” Brayden muttered as he turned to grip the honeycomb metal sheet keeping us separated from the front of the van.

The wave rocked the van to the left before the wave picked it up and slammed it into the cliffs. My arms ached as they got wrenched by the impact as I clung to the bar for dear life. The wave seemed to carry us as it swept back toward the ocean, taking us off the road and tumbling under the water’s surface as we rolled. Unable to hold on any longer, I face-planted on the chest of one of the guards while the other landed on top of me, creating a cushion each time we slammed into the side of the van. Finally it stopped, and before I could even think about how glad I was to survive, water started to fill the van. I was trapped with a body on top of me but using every bit of strength and determination I had, I shoved him off.

My fingers brushed something metal on his belt, and I discovered it was a key for the cuffs secured to his belt by one of those retractable cords. Fumbling for what seemed like an eternity, I got one cuff undone so I could flip around and see what I was doing this time. Now free, I ripped the key off his belt and went for Brayden who was unconscious, blood dripping from a cut on his forehead. Getting his hands free, I shook him. “Brayden, you need to get up. Please, my love, I need you to wake up and save us one more time.”

With a groan, his eyes fluttered open. “What the hell happened?”

“No time to explain. I need you to use your power to lift us out of this water before the ocean becomes our permanent resting grounds. While I love the beach, I’m not planning on dying here,” I said, speaking as fast as I could, feeling the water sloshing around my ankles.

“Is Hudson okay?” Brayden asked as if he didn’t hear what I just said.

Grabbing his face I forced him to look at me. “Brayden, get us out of the water.”

“Right, okay, give me a sec. My brain is pretty rattled,” he muttered, bringing a hand to his forehead and hissed when he touched the wound.

I left him to pull himself together, and I freed Hudson and tried to wake him up. If Brayden couldn’t get us out of this, then I hoped to God Hudson had some power leftover to use. This was the first time either of them had used so much. I didn’t know how I knew but both of them were running low. As I checked over Hudson, I couldn’t see anything wrong with him but he wasn’t waking up no matter what I tried.

“Lailah, I don’t think I’ve got it in me to do this. My head is killing me and I can’t tell up from down, with how dark it is,” Brayden whispered, anger tinging his words.

Reaching out to him, I could feel the self-loathing that he couldn’t do this for me. He couldn’t save us and we were counting on him to do just that. My white knight was convinced that he was going to fail us when we needed him the most.

Crawling over to him, I straddled his legs and pressed my body against his everywhere I could, then I wrapped my arms around his neck before sealing my lips to his. I poured my power into him. This was my purpose. I could give and take energy from any of them, doubling the strength of our combined powers. As I shoved as much power into him as I could, he clung to me, drinking it all in and sending it right back out into the earth below us. The water was around our waists now but it didn’t matter, because together, Brayden and I were going to do this.

The van groaned as it started to be pushed up out of the water. It moved steadily, but I didn’t stop our endless loop of power as I charged us both full of power. This was how we were going to beat the Dark Lord, together as a team supporting each other, making us that much stronger. If I could create this much power with one of my bonded men just thinking of what it would be like with four of them was crazy. The angel had been right. I’d been holding back, not trusting myself or these men of mine to push things to the limit.

When the sun flooded the van once more and the water receded, I opened my eyes and pulled back from Brayden just enough to see us once again above the water. “You can stop now. You saved us,” I murmured against his lips.

“No, we did it. There was no way I could have done that on my own,” Brayden corrected as he rested his forehead against mine. “Holy shit, I can’t believe that just happened. Hudson created a tsunami.”

“Yeah, he sure did, and it was awesome.” I chuckled.

twelve

Lailah

Now wasn’t the time to celebrate things, since we were still trapped in a van with men who wanted to kidnap us or possibly even kill us. Then there was the whole bit about Pride Resources getting blown up. I had to believe that those three were safe. Seeing as I was still alive, it had to be true, since everyone kept telling us if one of them died, I would know or it would kill us all at the same time. The van was lying on its side and the metal grating keeping us from the front was bent and hanging, giving me enough room to squeeze through.