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I focused on Kindred’s mind again and flinched as my mind touched his. It was as if I’d touched a hot stove. Kindred writhed in Tray’s mental grip, and my eyes widened in realization.

  It was a gutsy move. One that could so easily backfire. What could have possessed them to think it was worth the risk? I couldn’t ask. Not with how much concentration it took for Brennan to initiate this sort of contact. He’d only done it once before, and on a friend.

  If I read the situation correctly, anyway. An orderly finally made his way to Brennan’s treatment area and pulled back the curtain. His eyes were on the chart in his hand, and he pushed a wheelchair toward the exam table. I stepped in front of him to block his view of the others.

  “Hi, you must be here to escort Brennan to radiology,” I said. “I’m Jade. That’s Tray and Jeremiah. They were just leaving. I’ll be coming with you, at least as far as the waiting area.”

  The large man looked up at me, a slight frown on his face. “Right. Dr. Patil mentioned that Mr. Peterson had some friends who didn’t want to leave him alone. Fine. I need to get him into the chair. Are you able to stand, Mr. Peterson?”

  When I looked back at Brennan, I let out a sigh of relief. He’d been able to block the unnatural glow from sight once more. Though his eyes were still bloodshot, and his face seemed even more haggard than before.

  My relief quickly morphed back into concern. He pushed himself too hard. Tray shoved Kindred ahead of him, and the two disappeared down the hall toward the main waiting room.

  I leaned down and—under the guise of giving Brennan a hug—whispered in his ear. “When Cole and Cade get him, maybe let up on using your power? They can handle Kindred.”

  He frowned, but didn’t answer. The large orderly helped Brennan into the wheelchair and the three of us walked to the elevator. “The waiting area is to the left once we get out,” he informed me. “Or, as Dr. Patil suggested, you can go straight to his room. Up to you, I guess.”

  “Thank you. I’ll head to his room in a bit. I’m going to make a few calls from the waiting area first.”

  Brennan looked up at me sharply. He had to have guessed who I’d be calling, and what I would tell them.

  “Get more information on Bobby, if you can,” he rasped.

  Of course, his little brother was first on his mind. He still hadn’t heard more than the news he was still alive and had a machine to breathe for him. “I will,” I promised. “I’ll update you as soon as you get back to your room.”

  He yawned, the inhale leading to a painful sounding coughing fit. Once he was done, he leaned back in the wheelchair. The man was exhausted. The push to use his shield on two more people couldn’t help. “Remember what I said, Brennan. Get some rest. I’ll see you in a bit.”

  The elevator stopped, and I followed the orderly’s directions to the small waiting room on the third floor. Radiology was straight on from the elevator. Nothing else was in that area. From the waiting room, I could see the hall entrance and would see if anyone else entered, or if they took Brennan out.

  Brennan gave a slight wave as the man pushed him out of sight. I followed their progress, only slightly mollified by the fact that I could easily read the orderly, and—while he wouldn’t win any personality awards—he seemed harmless.

  I pulled out my phone and called Cole. “Is Tray with you yet?” I asked as soon as he picked up.

  “Yeah. He and… Jeremiah, are here with us. I’m not entirely sure what we do from here.”

  “Have someone call Laurie. She and Rae should be here shortly. They might have some idea what we can do. In the meantime, are you able to take over for Brennan? Can you get into Kindred’s mind to block his power?”

  I could hear his doubt filled thoughts even from two floors away. “Never mind,” I sighed. “If you can’t be certain it will work, we should probably stick with what is working. Tell Tray to let Brennan know to keep doing what he’s doing. At least until we figure out what to do next.”

  “Tray? He can…?”

  “He can read Brennan. Apparently, there’s a bit more to Brennan’s abilities than we thought.”

  I could hear a scuffle on the other end of the line. “Cole?”

  There were several seconds of tense silence before I got a huffed response. “Something went wrong. Kindred got away.”

  Cole sounded dazed, and I could hear someone yell in the background. “What exactly happened? Is everyone okay?” I frantically asked.

  I rushed toward radiology without waiting for a response. Kindred could make people see anything. Who could say he wouldn’t make me see an empty hall in order to make it to Brennan?

  My eyes searched desperately for any sign of a threat. Although, if he managed to get an image into my head… maybe using my mind reading on him would be easier.

  “It may have had something to do with the connection between us,” Tray’s voice now came through the phone. “He… You need to get to Brennan. If I felt the backlash of what Kindred did—you need to get to him, Jade. NOW!”

  I took a deep breath and froze. “Guys, I smell smoke up here. You need to get help. I’ll do what I can for Brennan.”

  The smell led me toward the closed radiology door where they had taken Brennan. Dark smoke curled in lazy wisps through every crack.

  I paused. My knowledge of how fire behaved was a bit limited, but I knew opening a door to an enclosed area could cause it to suddenly flare out of control.

  “There’s fire behind the door,” I said into the phone. My voice sounded frantic, even to me. “I don’t—I don’t know what to do!”

  FORTY-SEVEN

  Lena

  Paul and I waited in the car outside the ER entrance. The emergency room was full enough without our entire group there. I also had a bad feeling. I’d already mentioned my opinion that Kindred would be willing to harm a hospital full of people to fulfill what he thought he wanted to do. What could have driven him to this?

  I tapped my fingers on the armrest while I stared at the hospital entrance. Earlier, I’d attempted to make contact with Kindred again. There was nothing.

  “They’re on top of things in there, Lena. You said it yourself, they managed to stop Kindred before he could get to Brennan again,” Paul tried to reassure me. He set his hand over mine to stop the constant tap.

  My power still pushed toward everyone in the hospital that I could still read, and I shook my head. “I don’t like the sudden cut off from both Kindred and Tray. I don’t understand what happened, but I don’t like it.”

  Jade. Her mind suddenly screamed in dismay. “We need to get in there.” I pushed the door open, got out, and slammed it behind me before I ran to the entrance.

  Paul followed. I didn’t have to look; it was an obvious thing for him to do. Obvious… and dangerous. As much as he knew about people with powers, he didn’t have any himself. His mind was fully vulnerable to all sorts of attack possibilities. I paused at the door and looked back at him. “You… you should stay out here.”

  “I’m not leaving,” he told me. “I came here so you wouldn’t be alone. I promised Jason I would keep a close eye on you. I promised myself,” he added softly.

  I spared a moment to take his hand in mine. “Thank you. But you need to stay with the others. I can’t risk Kindred getting at you. Please, stay with them in the waiting area?”

  It came out as more of a question than I’d intended. It had been meant as an order. Historically, however, Paul hadn’t been known to take orders from anyone but Jason. Orders he currently followed, to the detriment of his own safety. To reinforce my plan to keep him safe, I pushed into his head. “Stay. I need you safe. I need you to stay here.”

  He paused for a moment, his eyes blank. Then he blinked up at me and nodded.

  Paul’s safety dealt with, I rushed into the ER and immediately found Tray, Cole, and Cade. They all shook their heads. “We had him. We had him, and he got loose. Jade thinks he made it to Brennan, somehow.”

  “Possible,” I agreed
. “I’m going up. Paul is staying down here. Tray, you should too. Your mind is open again,” I added suddenly. “What… weren’t you protecting him?” I asked Cole.

  Tray shook his head. “No. It was Brennan.”

  “Cole, you stay with Tray and Paul, keep them safe. Cade, come with me.”

  The blond nodded. He clapped his brother on the shoulder and followed me to the elevators. “I keep feeling as if something terrible is about to happen,” I said.

  “Do you have precognitive abilities?” Cade asked. “Because, if you do, Tray would fanboy like crazy over it.”

  “What? No,” I answered absently. “Just… I read people. I read the situation. Jade is terrified, and Brennan’s power is out of control. There’s also the fact that Kindred is nowhere to be seen.”

  He tapped his head. “I’m scanning for him. Any sign of him. He’s not up here. At least not that I can tell. I think whatever he did to break free of Brennan affected Brennan’s powers.”

  Our conversation paused when the elevator dinged at our stop. We stepped out into a hallway filled with smoke. “Thank goodness.” Jade ran to us. “I can’t get ahold of anyone in radiology. I…”

  Her eyes filled with tears and she coughed harshly. “You need to get out of the smoke. We all do,” I said. “There!” I pointed toward the bathrooms. “We should soak a cloth to filter out the smoke. Then we can get through.”

  “Why aren’t the alarms sounding? We’re in a hospital!” Jade asked.

  Kindred. It had to be. He wanted Brennan to be as damaged as him. To destroy a hospital, even part of one, would damage him almost as much as when he harmed his family. Blocking everyone’s perception of the fire alarm going off was a good way to ensure damage would be done.

  Jade nodded in shocked agreement and we dashed for the bathrooms. Each of us wet thick handfuls of paper towels to filter the smoke.

  We came back out, the wet paper towels over our faces.

  “Uh… guys?” I nodded toward the door to radiology, which now had flames flickering around the frame.

  Jade raced down the hall and pounded on the door desperately. “BRENNAN! Are you in there? Brennan!”

  “There’s a janitor’s closet over there. Grab some buckets and fill them with water. We need to get in there,” she said.

  Cade and I ran to grab buckets. While they were in the sink filling, we drenched ourselves. “Go!” I yelled when his two buckets were full. Mine were nearly there.

  We ran back and forth a few times before the previously burning door seemed okay to touch.

  “I think—I heard him,” Jade said between coughs. “He’s still in there.”

  Open it. Open the door. We all had buckets of water ready to throw, and our clothes dried rapidly. She nodded and used her sleeve to twist the knob. We all tossed the water as soon as the door swung open.

  No flames were visible. Instead, dark smoke filled the room, making it nearly impossible to see. “Br-Bren!” Jade called.

  My eyes burned, and I dropped low to the ground in an attempt to see through the thick smoke. This wouldn’t bode well for Brennan. He already suffered from mild smoke inhalation. This room was… wait, if I remembered correctly, a lot of medical rooms had vents. I checked the wall near the door. I gave a mental cheer when I saw a switch marked VENT. I turned it on, and slowly the smoke began to clear.

  Black scorch marks became visible around the partially melted x-ray machine. It seemed to be ground zero for the fire event. “Brennan?” I called.

  My heart nearly stopped when I saw a body. It was a male, and he was so still. There were no visible signs of movement to be had.

  Jade choked back a sob. “Bren…?”

  She slowly approached and got a clear look. Her tear-filled eyes closed, and she shook her head. “Not Brennan. But he’s…”

  “Yeah,” I said. I rested my hand on her shoulder. “He’s gone.”

  It wasn’t the orderly who brought Brennan here, so I figured that maybe he was the x-ray technician. I looked around the small space, searched every corner. There was only one place left to look. The small room where the tech would normally stand while the x-ray machine was active.

  Jade was still on her knees by the tech’s body when I pushed open the door. “Brennan? You okay?”

  He sat in a corner, his legs pulled up to his forehead, and face buried between his knees. His breaths came out in quick, harsh pants, and I was fairly certain he was far enough gone that he didn’t hear me.

  “Jade, Cade, he’s here,” I called.

  Brennan flinched, but didn’t show his face. I reached down to touch his shoulder. To let him know he wasn’t alone. “Brennan. You need to uncurl,” I said.

  “Lena’s right, Bren,” Jade agreed. “Your lungs might have some damage. The air is clearing in here, please… let me see those eyes of yours.”

  We all breathed a sigh of relief when he huffed a breath and lifted his head. His open eyes revealed that his wall was still in place. For once the glow in his eyes felt like a good thing.

  “You with us, Bren?” Jade asked.

  Cade touched him for a moment before he pulled back with a gasp. “Yeah… still can’t get anything from him with that fire wall. And he’s hot. Like, really hot.”

  I frowned. I’d touched his shoulder, but hadn’t noticed excess heat. “You absorbed the flames, didn’t you?” I asked. “That’s why it didn’t flash out at us.”

  Brennan gave a weak nod, but made no attempt to speak. I cringed at what his throat and lungs had to be like after everything. “Did your power start the fire?”

  He cringed and nodded. His face was flushed, and his breaths were still harsh and wheezy. “We need to get you some oxygen and get someone in here to deal with… everything,” Cade said. He winced at the thought of the body in the other room. If Brennan’s power had started the fire, then he had…

  “Brennan, can you drop your shield? Just for a few minutes. I want to know exactly what happened. I promise, I will keep Kindred out of your head.”

  The man’s fiery eyes glanced toward Jade for a moment, before he nodded slowly. A harsh cough escaped and led to a long fit. By the time he was done, tears rolled down his cheeks, and he let out a sob. Pain, or regret, maybe some mixture of both.

  The orange glow faded, and I pushed into his mind to see exactly what had happened. “Kindred isn’t up here. I think he left.”

  “Escaped. We had him!” Jade hissed.

  “Brennan used his power to block Kindred from using his, and somehow it backfired. While Kindred couldn’t use his own ability, he managed to take control of Brennan’s, and pushed the fire out up here. At least partly. Part of the problem was once Kindred started the power, Brennan couldn’t stop it right away.”

  Cade shook his head. “You know, the more I learn about Kindred and his powers, the more I wonder how in the world we’re going to stop him.”

  “He’s scared now,” I said. “He hadn’t expected Brennan would be able to push his power into him. At this point, he may be less likely to do anything more to Brennan.”

  A shaky grin formed on Brennan’s face. “Some silver lining in this, then,” he whispered.

  “You still need to be checked out,” I said. “We need to get people up here.”

  FORTY-EIGHT

  Tray

  We arrived upstairs at the same time as security. Other people had started to gather near the hallway now.

  “Yeah, I don’t know. We saw smoke and when we got in here the machine was smoking, and the tech was on the ground,” Lena said to one of the security guards. “We were here for our friend. He needs a doctor.”

  “We’ll get him one as soon as we can,” the younger of the two guards said. “We need to find out what happened.”

  I marched up to him. “What happened is the machine malfunctioned. It nearly killed my friend, and it killed a hospital employee! Brennan was having problems breathing already! He needs medical assistance right now!”

&nb
sp; The guard took a step back, his eyes shifted to see Brennan slumped against the wall of the now smoke and fire free hallway. Sweat dripped down his face, and he was freakishly pale. Each breath wheezed out noisily, and he didn’t even look up when we said his name.

  “Right,” the guard agreed. He got on his radio. “Get a doctor up here, we have a medical emergency.”

  An apologetic look on his face, he said, “Sorry. A doctor will be up shortly.”

  “Thank you,” I said.

  I knelt by Brennan, ready to ignore anything else for now. “Hey, man. We’re going to get you some air again, okay?”

  Brennan gave a shaky smile and nodded.

  “Do you… is your shield up?” I asked softly.

  His eyes shifted to look past me, and he nodded.

  “Good. That’s good. Anything hurt now that didn’t before?”

  There was a beat where he seemed to take stock of himself. Somewhat hesitantly, he shook his head.

  “Something worse?” I translated his hesitance.

  He lifted his hand and indicated his throat and chest. Nothing unexpected after another exposure to smoke and fire. Which he would know.

  Footsteps rushed down the hall. “Where’s my patient?” a new voice called.

  I looked up and saw a middle-aged man with salt-and-pepper hair wearing a white lab coat. The others had already waved him over, and I shifted. “Right here, doc.”

  The doctor knelt by Brennan to begin his exam. Brennan’s eyes filled with fear and he frantically met Jade’s eyes. When she gave him a slight nod, Brennan relaxed and allowed the doctor to do his job.

  To his credit, the doctor paused when his patient showed obvious signs of distress. “You okay for me to continue?” he asked.

  Brennan gave a shaky nod. I winced at the harsh cough that followed. Sounded painful. He may control fire, but apparently his power didn’t help him with smoke at all. Too bad. Obviously, he could have used a smoke screen power today. Maybe it was something he could learn with time.

  A frown flitted over the doctor’s face while he listened to Brennan’s lungs. “We need to get you to another x-ray,” he said. “I have an orderly coming up with a wheelchair. We’ll get you down there as soon as possible.” As he finished his initial analysis, another man in blue scrubs came down the hall with an empty wheelchair. I moved to help him get Brennan up and into the chair.