"Drake, I can't read his mind. It's like trying to walk through a wall."
'I can't use my mind control on him either."
My stomach dropped. "You tried mind control?"
'Of course! I wasn't going to risk anyone's safety if I didn't have to.'
His argument made sense, but still....
"What are we going to do now?"
'We aren't going to do anything. I'm going to go in there and beat the shit out of this guy while Brad takes you somewhere safe.'
"I'm not loving this plan."
'Can you think of a better one?'
I couldn't and he knew it, so I reluctantly followed Brad down the stairs and watched the apartment swallow Drake.
My resolve to do the smart thing lasted all of sixty seconds. As soon as I heard screams and crashing sounds, I lost it and ran back to the stairs.
Brad chased me. "Hey, Sam, you can't go in there!"
I rushed up the steps. "I can't let him do this alone either. What if there's more than one person? What if they're armed?"
"Yeah, what if? And how will you stop them, especially if your powers don't work?"
"The old fashioned way," I said.
"What's that?"
We stood at the door. I looked at Brad. "I'll throw something at their head."
"Great. And here I thought we were walking into a fight unprepared."
I ignored his sarcasm and peeked into the apartment. Upturned furniture littered the floor like a child's playhouse, but no Drake. Someone grunted, followed by a loud thud.
"They're in your room." I headed down the small hallway. On the way, I picked up an upturned lampstand, minus the lampshade.
"That's your big plan? Hit the bad guy in the head with a lampstand?"
"Yes, this is my big plan. At least I have a plan!"
Brad looked around and found a baseball bat that had fallen out of the closet. "My plan." He swung the bat around.
I nodded, and we approached his bedroom.
"Drake, we're in the hall. Are you okay?"
Nothing.
"Drake?"
"He's not responding to me. What do we do?"
Brad looked at me, then the door. His brown eyes turned to small slits. "Stand back."
He made a loud "Hiya!" sound and crashed through the door swinging his bat.
I flanked his side, straining to see inside the tiny room.
He made contact with something that sounded like a watermelon.
My stomach quivered in protest, given that Brad didn't tend to keep watermelons in his bedroom. I didn't want to see, but had to look.
Drake and Brad stood over a body whose head had seen better days. His face was an unrecognizable mess of purple and blue lumps with a split lip and gash in his cheek oozing blood.
I rushed to Drake, who had a swollen eye and bloody lip, but otherwise looked okay. "Any serious injuries?"
"None for me. He's not so lucky." He wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned into him.
"Is he dead?"
Brad checked his pulse. "No. Heart's still working. What do we do with him?"
Drake untangled himself from me and searched the man's body. "We need to figure out who this guy is and who he's working for."
"Is there really any question about who he works for?" Who else but Rent-A-Kid would even have us on their radar, let alone want us dead? "Why didn't our powers work on him?"
The body moved, then groaned. The guys jumped back. Brad raised his bat.
I formed a mental link with his mind again. This time, no brick walls. 'Pain... shit... gonna be busted....' And more of the same. People in a lot of pain were often hard to read, less coherent and more focused on... well, the pain.
"I'm in his mind. His defenses are down."
Drake made eye contact with me. "We need to find out what he knows, and we need to do it quick. Others might come looking for him."
Crap. How was I supposed to take a moral stand against this power when there were so many exceptions?
Drake and I linked, and our powers amplified. Heat rushed through my body as we slipped into our attacker's mind.
Drake gave the guy a command. 'You will tell us everything you know about who sent you and why.'
The man refused to talk, or even think, about the information we needed. He shouldn't have been able to resist Drake's persuasion.
I pushed my own power into the command, strengthening it.
Still nothing. Drake frowned at me, confused.
I shrugged. "I have no idea why this isn't working."
A rush of heat exploded in my belly. I cried out and doubled over in pain. Our mental link intensified and the man spasmed, his body arching off the ground. A small glass wall I hadn't known was there cracked in the man's mind.
He cried out in pain, "The Seeker. He wants you. Tracks you, using us. Not safe."
We tried to coerce more information out of him, but he collapsed into unconsciousness. His mind reeled with wild images I couldn't make any sense of.