The Forbidden Trilogy(252)

Why didn't he just use his power to destroy Simmons? To end her? He'd been drugged and he was worried about Lucy; he couldn't think straight.

Lucy pulled herself up and walked through the pain. "Please, Luke, stop. I'll be fine. Don't do this. Listen to me!"

He didn't listen. He focused, pain crossing his face as his body hunched in. The sphere was draining him of his life as he reached across the ocean with his power.

"It's killing him." Lucy screamed at Simmons, "Are you mad? You have to stop this!"

An insane gleam lit up her eyes. "Shut up! Don't move."

Lucy continued walking. She wouldn't let this monster kill her brother, or turn her brother into a murderer. More shots rang out. Another bullet crashed into Lucy's shoulder, then her arm. She stumbled, pain riding her, blood pouring from her, but she didn't stop. She couldn't.

Hunter cried for her. "Lucy, don't!"

The world clouded over in her mind, the pain taking up residence in her like a parasite. She ignored it and kept walking toward her brother. He had to see her, had to listen.

"Shoot her. Kill her," said Simmons.

Another shot, but it missed. Even through the haze, Lucy could tell the agents were losing faith. They weren't trained to brutally murder an unarmed woman.

She walked on, fighting more pain than she ever knew a human could endure, not even sure how she was still walking, but she refused to stop.

Simmons screeched at her agents to keep shooting. They did, but the shots went wide.

Lucy was grateful, for one more, and she might not have been able to get back up.

Someone flinched from Simmons's heat. He fired and hit Lucy in the foot.

She fell and cried out in pain.

Simmons stood over her, holding a gun. "Stop now, girl, and your brother may yet live."

Lucy looked up, blood gagging her mouth. She tried to talk but choked on the coppery life force. On the brink of death, Lucy could feel how close Luke was to being drained entirely, and Simmons didn't even care. Over the horizon the wall of the facility crumbled.

Simmons smiled like a sociopath. "Stay down, girl. If your brother dies, he'll die a hero."

Lucy looked up at Simmons, gathered the last remaining strength she possessed, and pushed off the ground. Agony. Pain. The taste of blood. Death sinking into her.

But she stood.

Simmons sneered. "You bitch." She raised her gun and aimed, and someone grabbed it from her.

Agent Mark put Simmons in a stronghold and pointed the gun at her head. "Don't move. You're being relieved of command, and are under arrest for actions in violation of the IPI Code of Ethics." He grabbed the sphere and pushed it to the ground, out of Luke's hands.

Lucy smiled and collapsed. Dream visions came to her, of their life together. Her brother was safe. She could rest now.

Luke glanced at her, his head wobbly, his cheeks hollow. "Lucy?" He groaned, and something sparked inside him, lighting up his eyes. The sphere shook in his grasp, as he pulled it off the ground and pushed it towards Lucy, muscles straining in his arms.

"Lucy, Lucy!" Tears flowed down his face and he caressed her cheek.

Warmth stole over Lucy and a bright light glowed in the distance. She knew that glow meant safety, love, peace. She wanted so badly to follow it, but Luke wouldn't let her. "Thanks for watching over me, Brother." She closed her eyes and followed the light, and let it wrap her in a perfect feeling of bliss.

But something pulled her out of that embrace, something cold and sharp against her skin. A foreign power invaded her, one she recognized.

"Hang in there, Sis." Luke held the sphere against her. "This thing healed you once. It can do it again."

Energy flowed into her, knitting her back together, but it pulled from Luke. She tried to move, to push him away, but she couldn't do more than beg through the blood in her mouth. "No. Don't."

Luke smiled through his tears. "I told you, Sis, I'd always look out for you."

She smiled back, but didn't want him to be hurt. Please, Luke, don't sacrifice yourself like this. Her words couldn't find their way out of her body, and she sobbed inside at the loss of his life.

Then another life force filled her, and she felt the pressure of someone else's hand. Hunter.

He stood over her, clutching the sphere with Luke. "We said after we got out of the valley, we'd be together. You can't leave me now."

Hunter. My Hunter. She didn't want to leave him, but it wouldn't be enough. Now she would kill them both. She was too close to the edge. It would take too much energy to bring her back from the brink—to heal her body.

Except, instead of draining them, more energy joined. Another hand held the sphere to her body. Agent Mark.

He smiled. "I should've stopped her sooner. You're a hero, and we don't let hero's die if we can help it."