Power(34)

Sienna, Dr. Zollers said, his voice urgent. I’ve driven her out. Sienna!

I blinked in my own head, coming back to myself. “Driven her … out?” I felt memory flood back. “Claire,” I said, remembering. “Oh, God, she was in my head—”

She was attacking you, he said, quickly. She didn’t get into your mind, just kicked you around a bit. I’m keeping her at bay now. But, Sienna, you’re falling—

My eyes snapped open as I reached within and felt myself clutch hands with Gavrikov somewhere inside. The pavement was inches away—

I lifted off and soared again, matching speed with the white van that lingered behind the battered SUV that Reed was still driving down the highway. I looked and saw it in front of me, looking as if it had been driven straight out of a junkyard and onto the road.

I was flying inches from the ground and I made myself ascend, bring myself up to the side of the van. I caught another look at Claire in the van’s rearview.

This time, her eyes were wide. And the smile? All gone.

I swayed to the right and then swooped left, hitting the van in the side and sending it hard against the concrete divider in the middle of the highway. The side door opened as I flew right and prepared for another attack. Instead of slamming into the van again, I flew inside with a spinning, twisting maneuver that knocked both of the gunmen waiting inside the doors right off their feet.

I didn’t hesitate, stomping on one while punching the other. Their bones cracked and broke, screams came flying from their lips, and all the while I saw movement ahead with every stolen glance I sent to the front seat. Claire was moving now, her stout form crouched between the two front seats, eyeing me as I finished the two gunmen. Both humans, I was pretty sure.

“Sienna,” Claire said, glaring back at me from where she’d perched.

“Claire,” I said, twisting a certain enjoyment from seeing her like this. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“Well,” she said, “you know how I like to harass and annoy you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “You’ve followed me from Vegas. It’s almost like you’re stalking me.” I clenched my fist at my side.

“You killed Weissman,” she said, and I caught a hint of danger in her eyes. I didn’t worry too much about it since I knew she was mentally crippled.

“Did not,” I said. “That was my mom. But I did kill the Wolfe brothers and crash the plane. So … there’s that.” I watched her warily, just savoring the moment. “I talked to your boss last night. He was pretty pissed at Weissman for that whole deal, he said. So I’ve just gotta ask, between you and me—has he finally wised up to the fact that he doesn’t have a chance with me? Because trying to assassinate me and my friends on the freeway like this—”

“Oh, this isn’t Sovereign’s doing,” she said, and I caught a hint of a smile. “And what he doesn’t know … will only hurt you.”

“You’re crossing him?” I almost laughed. “For what?”

“I’ve got my reasons,” she said, and nearly snarled.

“Tell me it’s because I broke your leg,” I said. “Because if it’s to avenge Weissman in some misguided attempt to bring me down, I’m just going to die of laughter.”

Her hand emerged from behind her seat, pistol clutched in her chubby fingers. It almost looked like a single-barrel shotgun chopped down to a handgun. “It’s for Weissman, yes.”

I blinked at her, dully. “Seriously? For that greasy, sorry-ass—”

She fired and it felt like the world exploded around me. I burst out the back doors of the van in a haze of smoke, coughing and feeling the sting of burning pain in the center of my chest. I hit the ground hard and rolled, feeling Wolfe’s psyche brushing against mine.

The smell of something burning filled my lungs and my throat even as my arms and legs hit the ground. I rolled and felt my clothes tear, felt my skin give way as my body bounced. I had no will left to summon forth Gavrikov; the pain in my body was everywhere, down every limb and in my torso, too.

After a few moments that stretched into a few years, I felt my body roll to a stop. The sky hung overhead, and I could taste acrid smoke in my mouth. I tried to cough and it hurt. I moved my arm slightly and it screamed at me in such pain that I gave it up.

I heard tires screeching, people screaming, all in the distance, like they were miles away. Sirens sounded, voices called, and I cared about none of them.

I could see the blue sky over me, and faint dots checkered my vision. There were faces around the edges—J.J., I thought, maybe, and Kat. Reed was there, too, and I saw his dark eyes staring at mine from a million miles away. They got darker and darker, and it felt like I fell right into them as I lunged into the blackness of oblivion.