Burn Read online

  A task made more difficult by the sudden appearance of Kindred.

  FORTY-TWO

  Jade

  “My God,” Cole muttered as we pulled into Joe Hanson’s neighborhood.

  I looked up and felt my mouth drop open at the sight of the raging inferno that used to be Brennan’s family home. Emergency vehicles surrounded it. The flashing lights reflecting from the smoke pouring out of the house created an eerie glow over the entire neighborhood. “We’re too late,” Cade moaned.

  “Not completely,” I argued. “Look.” I pointed to where Joe and Angie stood. I felt sharp relief at the sight. Each held a child as they watched their home burn, and the relief turned to trepidation. “Wait… two children. Where’s the other kid?”

  We parked as close to the blocked off area as we could, then raced to Joe and Angie. Cole pushed his focus to the house. “Bobby is alive,” he assured us. “Not conscious at the moment, but definitely alive. I can’t read anything from Brennan.”

  “Brennan’s in the house,” Joe said. His voice cracked, either from emotion or due to smoke inhalation, or some combination of both.

  “He…” Joe rubbed a hand over his watery eyes. “He started this. Somehow.” His eyes widened, and he stared over toward me. “He was on fire! His arms… the flames came out of him. Then his eyes were glowing, and he was more like himself again. Fire was still coming from him, even then. I don’t know if he managed to get them to stop.”

  Joe’s breaths started to come in shallow pants. “I left them in there! Bobby and Brennan. They’re both still in trouble, and I just left!”

  I rested a hand on the distraught man’s shoulder. “You had no choice. You had Tommy to think of,” I assured him. “Brennan will figure this out, and rescue Bobby.”

  Angie still stood, her daughter in her arms and her gaze glued to the house where two of her loved ones were in peril. Tears cleaned a path down her soot-covered cheeks. Sara and Tommy were both subdued and shaky.

  Joe pulled Tommy close to him. He took a couple deep breaths before asking. “What is going on with my boy? What happened to him?”

  “Too much to explain right now,” I said regretfully. “We need to get him out of there.”

  A fire truck screamed to a stop in front of the house, and I cringed. “I think our lie is about to fall apart,” I told Cole with a nod toward the truck. “Brennan’s truck mates are here.”

  “Go talk to them,” Cole said. “Let them know someone has to go in for Brennan and the other kid.”

  “Bobby,” Angela managed through her tears. “His name is Bobby. Please, get my babies out of there!”

  She held her youngest child, and I could tell her grip on the little girl was all that kept her outside. Otherwise, I had no doubt she would go after Bobby herself.

  I gave a sharp nod and ran to the truck. “Jim!” I yelled. The older man stopped, his helmet halfway to his head.

  “Jade? What…?”

  “No time,” I cut him off quickly. “Brennan and his little brother Bobby are still in there.”

  Jim nodded and rushed to talk to Quentin. The lieutenant’s face went from passive to angry, then to slightly anxious. All within a matter of seconds. He nodded to Jim, and before long Jim and Nick geared up.

  With one final glance toward me, Jim nodded, and the two firefighters entered the raging fire.

  Now that there were people inside I could read, I could get a better sense of what was going on in the house.

  I could feel surprise come from both Jim and Nick. They found Brennan almost immediately, but the way was blocked somehow. From their thoughts, it appeared there was both debris and a shadowy figure of a man between them and the people they wanted to rescue.

  For a moment, I wished I could actually see what others saw. Mostly to confirm my suspicions about just who it was they were seeing.

  “Cole, what are they seeing?” I asked when I rejoined them.

  His eyes went white, and he explained, “Brennan has Bobby. They’re at the top of the steps. Brennan doesn’t look too good. He’s still conscious, but he’s on his knees. What… his eyes are glowing. He took control back from Kindred, so that’s good. What Nick and Jim see… it looks like something fell across the steps? And they see a man who seems to be talking to Brennan. But… something’s not right. There isn’t anything there!”

  “So why do they see it, but you don’t?” I asked. “Are you sure it’s an illusion?”

  Cole focused again, and nodded. “I’m pretty sure the only reason I saw it to begin with is because they do. Kindred must have put the image in their minds, but didn’t extend it to those who wouldn’t be inside. Their way out is clear,” he confirmed.

  “Quentin!” I yelled. I raced back to the truck where Quentin and the others worked to hook up the hoses. He looked up at me, eyes crinkled in confusion. “I need a radio. I need to talk to your men inside.”

  His mind whirled with questions, but I raised a hand to stop him from asking. “Please. I’ll explain later, I promise. For now, just let me talk to them.”

  “Sorry. It’s against regulation…”

  “Fine. I’ll jump through the hoops a bit,” I snapped. “You’re currently furious that we lied to you about where Brennan went earlier. You’re also worried because he was acting strangely before he left. You don’t believe he has anything to do with the arson fires, but can’t explain why he was at so many of them. Now you’re even more convinced he’s innocent, because he would never do anything to hurt his family.”

  “Wha…? How could you possibly know?”

  “I can read your mind, Quentin. And my friends over there can see through other people’s eyes. They gave me some information that could help to save Brennan and his little brother, but I need a radio.”

  More questions swirled through his mind, but none of them came out. Wordlessly, he handed me his radio. “Jim… This is Jade. The staircase is clear. Nothing is blocking you. Go up and get them!”

  “You sure?” His tinny voice came back. He was uncertain, but wanted to believe me.

  “Yes! Go get them!”

  Despite his hesitation, I could hear the moment when he decided to head up the steps. Nick’s astonishment as Jim walked right through what he thought was a solid object, was clear. He shook it off quickly and followed.

  Nick’s silent questions flowed through my mind. How did that happen? Who actually started this fire? Why could he walk through the burning debris? Where did the other man go? The continuous flow of inquiries stopped suddenly.

  The next thing I heard from him was: Why are Brennan’s eyes glowing? His fear and confusion were as clear to me as his thoughts.

  Jim’s thoughts were more organized. He had learned to take things as they came. He’d made it through what had appeared to be a barricade, accepted the disappearance of the other man, and then tried to take the kid from Brennan in order to get him out.

  I heard his thoughts as they mirrored what he told Brennan. “You need to let him go. We’ll get you both out of here, but you need to trust me.”

  “How’s it going in there?” Paul asked. He came up behind me, his wide eyes locked onto the nearly destroyed home.

  “They found Brennan, but from what I can tell, he’s having a hard time letting go of his brother.”

  The young man nodded. “Yeah. Older brothers are like that.”

  The flames roared, and Paul couldn’t pull his eyes from it. To be honest, neither could I. Even from where we stood behind the fire truck, the heat was nearly unbearable. I couldn’t imagine what the people inside were dealing with.

  “Nick has Bobby. Jim’s working on getting Brennan. They should be out soon,” I told him after a moment.

  Within seconds, Nick raced out of the fire, a small bundle cradled in his arms. Angie and Joe ran toward them and reached them as Nick handed Bobby over to the paramedics. The boy was still, and I held my breath as I aimed my power toward the paramedic’s thoughts.

  Paul,
who picked up on my anxiety, also stared toward the child. He didn’t hold his breath, but he tensed more and more the longer it took for anything to happen. We watched as the medic listened for breaths and checked for a heartbeat. We continued to watch when they began CPR. My chest ached as I held my breath in anticipation.

  Joe and Angie clung to each other, their other children held tightly between them. Tommy stared toward his twin, a wide-eyed and fearful expression on his young face as his brother fought for his life.

  My attention was torn from the scene when Brennan and Jim made their way out of the fire. Jim practically dragged Brennan to another medic. Brennan hardly managed to keep his feet under him. His face was flushed, although somehow, he’d been able to pull back his fire wall enough that his eyes no longer glowed.

  “He’s not in good shape either,” I said quietly.

  Lena joined us, slipped her hand into Paul’s, and leaned on him lightly. “Kindred doesn’t have him. Brennan managed to shake off his influence again.”

  “But for how long?” I asked. I shook my head, tears filled my eyes at the sight of the small boy who needed to fight for his life, and Brennan, who looked as if his entire world had just been destroyed. I angrily wiped the tears from my face. “We can’t keep going like this.”

  “No one’s arguing,” Lena answered wearily. “But what do you expect us to do?”

  The million dollar question. One I had no answer to.

  Brennan fought against the paramedic who tried to get him to lay on a gurney. His eyes flashed, and I knew he was nearly at the end of his control. He kept trying to look over to his brother, but his line of sight was blocked by several people.

  Another look at the situation with Bobby, and I released a breath I hadn’t realized I was still holding. “He’s breathing. They got him back.”

  FORTY-THREE

  Lena

  Jade didn’t wait for us to respond before she raced to Brennan. I couldn’t blame her. The man fought to get free of the people who wanted to help him, and his eyes started to flash as he felt more threatened. I also thought I saw the flicker of fire along his arms.

  The block! Kindred must have somehow removed it. I looked around at the bystanders and first responders. He would never forgive himself if he lost control here and hurt anyone. Brennan would have a hard enough time with what had happened in the house.

  I silently urged Jade to get him to settle. She would use what she knew about Bobby to help calm him. We could only hope it would be enough to prevent his power from flaring out of control.

  At this point, he was like a powder keg. Any spark had the potential to cause him to explode.

  Spray from the hoses blew back at us when the wind picked up, and I shivered at the sudden cold after such extreme heat. The firefighters worked in earnest to knock down the flames and save what they could of Brennan’s family home.

  Paul squeezed my hand to get my attention before he finally asked the burning question: “Can you sense Kindred?”

  Opening my senses, I tried my best. I could tell where he’d left his false vision of the debris by the steps. He’d been there. Only briefly, but long enough to stop Brennan’s escape from the inferno. Long enough that the little boy nearly died, and potentially still could.

  Even then he’d known he couldn’t keep control of Brennan, but he’d still tried to push and make his plan work. Brennan had his shield up, but I could read the surface panic and terror. Nothing scared him more than the thought that his power might hurt someone. Especially someone he loved. Even his fear of abandonment paled in comparison to the terror that filled him at the thought that he’d killed his little brother.

  As I watched, Jade gripped Brennan’s hand hard between both of hers, and spoke urgently to him. I didn’t have to listen to know she wanted to make him understand that none of this mess was his fault. Only Kindred was to blame for this mess. That his hands were no longer on fire told me she was at least partly successful.

  “Jade’s right,” I said softly. “We can’t let this continue. Brennan has already almost lost one member of his family. He shouldn’t have to go through more.”

  The two patients were loaded onto separate ambulances. Jade reluctantly stepped away from Brennan, who now lay quietly on the gurney. Her hand went to her face, as she struggled not to cry.

  Heat rose in my face and I swung around to face Paul. “We’re going to stop this,” I stated.

  I turned away again and pushed my mind to find the path it had used before to connect to Kindred. “You shouldn’t have done this, cousin!” my mind screamed into his. “Now, I will not hold back. You aren’t getting away with this.”

  The shock I felt from him when I initiated contact made me give a harsh grin. “You… how did you get to me?”

  “I warned you, Kindred. I warned you that if you continued to pursue this I would hunt you down and destroy your mind.”

  His normal confidence began to return, despite my unexpected entrance into his mind. “If you could, you would have by now, little cousin. This was a slight wrinkle in my plan.”

  I pushed more power into the connection. The only part of my physical body I remained aware of was the warmth on my back from Paul’s arm around my shoulders.

  Where are you? I asked silently. I hadn’t used my powers like this against someone else with such strong mental abilities before. I pushed harder and opened my mind to see what he saw. I could see… the inside of an ambulance. One man driving, and behind the seat… Brennan!

  My eyes shot open and I spun, my hand narrowly missed Paul’s face, as I exclaimed, “He’s with Brennan!”

  “What? How?” he almost shouted.

  Without a response, I ran to where the others gathered. “Kindred is in the ambulance with Brennan. We need to go!”

  They all had identical looks of panic cross their faces, Jade turned ghost white.

  “He didn’t want to go with them,” she whispered. “He said he didn’t feel safe with them. I wanted to go with him, but they wouldn’t let me. Said I would be in the way.”

  Cole took her by the arm and we quickly made our way to our vehicles. “Lena, you felt him. Try to keep a connection. Try to figure out where he’s going to go. Cade, call Laurie. Tell her and Rae to get to the hospital. There’s a little boy there who could use Rae’s healing touch.”

  “On it,” the younger brother agreed.

  We all got into the two vehicles and drove off in the same direction the ambulances had gone a few minutes earlier.

  “He’s still on route to the hospital, as far as I can tell,” I said. My eyes widened again, and I turned to the back of the car where Cade rode. “He told me himself. His plan isn’t scrubbed. He’s still planning to make Brennan kill his family. And where are they going?”

  Cade’s eyes widened, and I felt the car lurch forward as Paul also realized the implications. “The hospital,” Cade answered. “Would Kindred really risk the lives of everyone there in order to fulfill this plan of his?”

  A month ago, I would have said no. At that point, Kindred still tried to convince others he was trying to change. To be a good person. Now? Now, he’d already gone off the deep end in his obsession with Brennan.

  He’d gone so far as to try to remove Brennan’s sense of self. Used the name Inferno in an attempt to dehumanize the man. Taken his control away, and used him to kill.

  Now, I would have to say I couldn’t put it past him.

  “Honestly?” I told my companions. “I believe he might.”

  FORTY-FOUR

  Tray

  Jade’s phone vibrated, and she shifted in order to get it from her pocket. Her eyes widened, and she looked up at Cole. “Drive faster.”

  He didn’t need to ask why. Instead, his foot pressed harder on the gas, and we sped up a significant amount. His mouth was pressed in a firm line, and he sat stiffly in the seat.

  Cole didn’t need to ask, but I did. “What is it?”

  “Lena said they’re stil
l heading to the hospital. From what she can tell, Kindred is still trying to follow his plan. He’s going to try to take control of Brennan again and make him kill his family.”

  It sounded plausible. Even likely. But something struck me as being off about it. “He didn’t hurt me,” I said.

  “I’m sorry?” Jade turned to face me.

  “I could have been perceived as a threat, but Kindred didn’t hurt me. Even after I used my power on him. All he did was make sure I was out of the way, so he could get at Brennan. I’m not so sure he would be okay with attacking a hospital.”

  Jade turned back to the front and thought about what I said for a moment. Cole also seemed deep in thought.

  “From what I’ve heard about him, and what I learned about him from his own mind, you could be right,” Cole agreed.

  Jade looked sharply at him, her green eyes narrowed.

  “Think about it: he’s been killing known criminals, he has refused to harm those he sees as innocent. Why would he change his M.O. now?”

  “He already did,” Jade argued. “The second he used Brennan against his family. There is no way he could see those children as anything but innocent. If—as you say—he is so against killing the innocent, would he go after them?”

  We reached the hospital. When Cole parked, we all remained in the car for a minute, just looking at each other.

  “It doesn’t make sense,” I agreed. “But the fact remains: Lena knows he’s here. So are Brennan and his family. No matter the situation, we need to protect them.”

  The others nodded, and we climbed out, heading into the emergency room to find out whatever we could about Brennan and Bobby.

  After I excused myself for about the millionth time on the way to the desk, I gently used my power to push people away. Used subtly enough, no one would even realize the only thing there to push them was the air.