The woman was racing down the street behind them, grim determination on her face and Inez could have wept with relief to know she wasn’t yet lost. A quick rage soon followed as Inez mentally balked at the unfairness of it all. Were the blond man not controlling her, she’d be kicking and screaming and clawing the skin off his arm. She’d have fought him with her last breath, but she wasn’t being given that opportunity. Despite being bigger and stronger and faster, despite the fact that he was an immortal, impossible to kill since she had no idea how to, he was even now controlling her body and preventing her from defending herself. The man was a bloody coward, she decided, afraid to risk her puny struggles.
Much to her amazement, her captor suddenly stumbled in his step and she was sure his control on her slipped briefly, long enough for her to instinctively clench her fists in rage.
Realizing the man was still in her mind in order to control her, Inez thought she might have a weapon after all.
You really are a coward. I suspected as much when you cut and ran last night the minute Thomas showed up. But I just thought you were afraid to take on someone your own size, I never expected you to be afraid of little mortal me. What’s wrong? When you were a little boy immortal did a little mortal girl punch or scratch you? I bet that’s what happened, and I bet you cried like a baby.
“Keep it up. I shall kill you slowly and painfully and enjoy the doing.”
Inez stiffened unsure if he’d actually spoken the words aloud as he ran, or if he’d somehow communicated them to her with his mind. Thomas had never said they could talk in your head, but they could alter memories in a mortal’s mind, why not a thought?
I’m sure you will. And no doubt you’ll control me the entire time so I’m completely defenseless. The big superior immortal, torturing a defenseless mortal female to death. Woo-woo! You should be proud. But then I bet that’s how you get off. It’s probably the only way you get off. Are you impotent? Inez asked in her head with interest.
I bet you are, she added. I bet you have a really small penis too. I mean, I know nanos put you at your peak physical condition and all that, but some of you peak a little smaller than others, huh? And, I suppose, nanos can only do so much.
Inez felt his control falter. Excited, she persisted, Seriously, I want to know. Are you hung like a horse and just mean or did fate stick you with a mini tootsie roll between your legs that women stare at in horror and then say the dreaded, “size doesn’t matter?”
She’d definitely hit a sore point there, because a wave of rage poured through her mind and then died abruptly as the immortal’s control over her suddenly collapsed. Knowing it wouldn’t last long, Inez immediately kicked back one leg with all her force. She’d hoped to break his knee or something. Instead, she jammed her leg back as he was midstep, sticking it between one leg and the other like a wrench between the spokes of a fast-moving bicycle tire. Unfortunately, her leg wasn’t as hard and solid as a metal wrench.
Still free of his control, Inez screamed in agony as her leg was mulched between both of his, one pushing forward against her calf bone, while his other leg swung back, snapping the bone with a thick cracking sound. She was still screaming as he pitched to the side and the ground rushed up toward her. While her leg had broken, it had also tripped him up. He was falling, some part of her mind realized and Inez had just enough time to hope she hadn’t just killed herself before her head slammed into concrete. Stars exploded behind her eyes, along with the pain in her head and then they were rolling, the immortal still clutching her in the crook of his arm as they tumbled down what she thought were stairs.
“Inez!”
She barely heard Rachel’s shriek as the lights behind her eyes began to fade and blessed unconscious took her away from the pain.
“What do you think warned him off?” Etienne asked with a frown as he, Bastien, and Thomas descended the stairs down from the roof of the building they’d chosen to watch the coffee shop.
“I’m not sure,” Bastien said, sounding weary. “Inez may not have been able to keep all thoughts of what we were up to out of her mind.”
“Don’t blame Inez for this,” Thomas said through gritted teeth as they stepped off the stairs and headed out the door into the alley between the rows of buildings. “I’m sure she did everything she could. She agreed to help, didn’t she? Putting herself at risk for your stupid plan.”
“It wasn’t a criticism,” Bastien assured him, soothingly. “And we do appreciate it. We also know how hard this has been on you, Thomas, and I’m sorry about that. We were just hoping to catch the bastard and find Mother.”