The Forbidden Trilogy(242)

That sounded familiar. Beleth... he'd said that in the plane when they'd first met. Now it had come full circle.

Luke sprang to action and ran toward Hunter.

Lucy cried in relief.

***

Luke darted through the room and struck at Beleth's neck with the sword, but Beleth turned and blocked with one blade while counter-attacking with the other. His blade stopped in mid-air, humming with tension.

Beads of sweat formed on Luke's face as he focused on Beleth, holding him with power.

A new look crossed Beleth's face. Pain twisted his usually calm features. The blade jutting from his hand started to crack. Beleth groaned, and the blade shattered, the pieces clattering like glass.

Beleth roared in pain and pulled away, but Luke stayed focused and erected an entire barrier around the man, then shrank it until it became tighter and tighter. Lucy could see the iridescent reflection of the shifting matter even through the cameras.

Beleth coiled into a ball, then his muscles bulged and he burst free of the force-field, tearing the air with a sound like thunder. His breathing came out harder than before. "Nice trick."

Luke staggered back from the exhaustion of pushing his para-powers so hard, but didn't give up. "Here's another."

One of Beleth's spider legs jerked forward with a crack, as if Luke had him on a string and had tugged. He must have been forcing a shift in the molecular structure. A brutal tug-of-war ensued, until the spider leg ripped off entirely. Beleth roared again, and for a moment Lucy believed her brother might actually win this battle.

Then Beleth's last blade extended and he plunged it into the ground, snapping the concrete tile like a board of wood. That made no sense, and then—

Lucy screamed, "Luke, move!"

He hopped backward just in time to avoid the blade that came up from the ground to split him in two. It nicked his leg instead, and he fell to the ground, the air knocked out of him.

Beleth crawled over to Luke using his spider legs, the strain of his recent battle showing in his tight, pain-filled eyes, but not in his speed.

He got closer to Luke, who wheezed on the floor and clutched his leg, when the door burst open and Robyn and her team stormed in.

Beleth's eyes widened in surprise. Darren flicked his hand and sent a table flying at Beleth, who tumbled back. Robyn, Norm, Mary, Greg and Gary held guns on him, but Beleth responded without hesitation, pushing his blade into the ground again.

Luke waved his arms. "Everyone move!"

The team moved back, but the blade didn't attack from below as expected. Instead, it came up under Luke's pack with all the sleep grenades, pierced it, then changed into a mallet shape and slammed back down, crushing all the contents. Green gas exploded out, enveloping them.

Lucy screamed into the comm. "Get your masks on and get out of there."

That was it. They'd failed. But what about Sam and Drake? And their baby?

She radioed Simmons as the green vapor filled the room and blocked the camera. "We need to evacuate, now."

"Is the mission complete?"

"No. The grenades are destroyed."

"Shit! We'll send in armored trucks. Get near the gate. But first, Lucy, did Agent Riley leave his pack with you?"

"Yes." Lucy felt a panicky sickness in her gut as she lost all visual of her friends and Hunter—still stuck in the room with Beleth.

"Good. Go to the pack and open it."

Lucy didn't want to leave the computer, but she couldn't see anything now, so she dropped to the side of the bed and unzipped his bag. Wires connected to a device that looked like....

She stepped back and gasped.

"A bomb."





Chapter 114 - Sam



Drake pushed the gun in my hand and the bullet went wide, missing Steele and hitting a tank, creating a thin blue line of liquid down the side. I stared at my fingers and then glared at Drake. "What the hell?"

"I... Sam, I'm sorry." He held up his hands, as if he'd never seen them before, as if they'd just done something horrible, which they had.

I scanned his thoughts, probing deep. Why did I do that? What's wrong with me? I don't understand why my body reacted without my control.

Neither one of us had a clue as to what was going on, but at least he hadn't betrayed me. Which left one person.

Steele. He flashed a smug smile from across the room.

I tried to slip into his mind, but it had something like a firewall around it that I couldn't crack. Instead, I dove back into Drake's thoughts and tried to meld with him like we used to. "We need to attack, now!"

'I can't. I don't know why, but something's wrong.'

Steele drew a pistol and aimed it at us. "I'm sorry if things aren't going according to plan."

And yet, he didn't sound sorry. Go figure. I didn't wait for him to react, just aimed my gun again and pulled the trigger, except... I didn't pull the trigger. I lowered the gun and dropped it. I couldn't do anything else, almost as though....