Burn Read online

  I took a step back at his sudden appearance and felt a flash of relief when he said Lena and Paul were safe.

  My eyes narrowed at his last comment. The goofy nickname, I ignored. “How does hurting Cade or Tray hurt Brennan? They’ve known each other for a few days.”

  He gave a nod of acknowledgment. “True. But in that time, Inferno has accepted them as friends. He trusts them. Better yet, he knows they’re here because of him. Knowing innocent lives were taken in the name of protecting him? Maybe not as effective as killing his family, but it’s a start.”

  Forget the misunderstood victim. This guy didn’t deserve the consideration we’d given him. Maybe at one point, he’d tried to be better, but he’d clearly gone the other way.

  “I also couldn’t allow the brothers to get into my head again. The kid needed to go.” He glanced at his watch and smirked. “And now, so do I. Time for me to see what my future has in store.”

  My vision started to grow fuzzy. Or, that’s how it seemed. Until once again we were unable to see Kindred.

  “Tell Inferno I will see him again soon.”

  His voice faded, and we suddenly heard Tray’s voice as he yelled loudly from one of the bedrooms. “HELP! Someone get in here, we need to help him!”

  Without another thought toward the psycho who’d once again escaped, we raced toward our friends.

  “Cade!” I almost froze at the sight of our friend who was splayed out on the floor in Brennan’s room, blood splattered all around him. He gasped and struggled for every breath. Rae and Laurie rushed to Cade’s side. If anyone could help him, they could.

  Tray struggled in the corner, tied with wire to prevent him from helping. I ran to Tray and worked to untie him. “What happened?”

  “He blocked my access to my power. Cade let down his guard for only a moment to try to sense anything he could from Kindred, and he barreled his way right through us.” He strained his head in an attempt to see around me and catch a glimpse of Cade.

  It took me a moment, but I was able to untie Tray. Once he was free, I called for an ambulance. Laurie and Rae focused on Cade to such an extent that I didn’t believe they heard any of what Tray or I said.

  Tray absently took out his little rubber ball and bounced it back and forth in his hands. His eyes were locked on Cade, who struggled for every breath.

  After a minute, he caught the ball in the air between his hands, but his face showed the strain. Despite the effort and the situation, he breathed out a sigh of relief. “I think the block was temporary.” His relief was short lived when his eyes drifted back to our friends. “Just long enough to keep me from helping Cade.”

  I gave him a strained smile and focused my mind on Cade. “You’re right,” I said. “Kindred wanted you to be unable to help, but he meant for the block to be permanent. Cade stopped him. Managed to make it only for a short time.”

  Tray glanced from Cade to me, and smiled gently. “Yeah. He’s kinda protective like that,” his voice cracked, and tears rolled down his cheeks. He wanted to grab Cade and hold him tight. To keep him with us.

  Sirens approached. “We should go down and lead them up here,” I said. I stared at Cade, unwilling to let him out of my sight. I felt the same as Tray; worried that if we left him, he wouldn’t hold on.

  Cade’s breaths had slowed. He no longer appeared as panicked. Despite Rae and Laurie’s best efforts, he still scrunched his face in pain, and dug his fists into the floor as hard as he was able.

  “We’re here, Cade. We’re getting you help,” I assured him. I reached down to squeeze his hand. “You hear me?”

  He wasn’t far enough gone to not hear me, but I could feel his resignation. Tears flooded my eyes when I realized he had no confidence that he would survive. He’d lost too much blood. The pain was overwhelming.

  “It’s not that bad,”—my voice cracked as I tried to assure him—“You’ll be fine. Cole’s at the hospital waiting for you.”

  Tray’s power squeezed his ball so hard it cracked. “Tray?”

  “He started with me,” he muttered. “Blocked my powers and cut me.”

  Silent tears rolled down his cheeks as he pointed out a long shallow slice at the top of his arm. “When he felt Cade trying to break through his control, he moved to him. He realized Cade was one of the two who broke into his mind.”

  Guilt. A normal reaction to an abnormal situation. Unfortunately, one I didn’t have time to fully address. I rubbed Tray’s uninjured arm sympathetically. “You stay here. I’ll be right back.”

  I rushed down the stairs and opened the door. There was an ambulance and a fire truck already parked outside, and a police car had just pulled up.

  Frantically, I waved for the first responders to follow me, and led the two paramedics and a firefighter up the steps to the crime scene.

  Tears ran down both Rae and Laurie’s faces when I returned. Cade was non-responsive. What they’d done had made him at least slightly more comfortable, but that was it.

  The medics did their work quickly and efficiently. A firefighter took a quick look at Tray and motioned him to follow as the paramedics loaded Cade on a gurney.

  “He coming, too?” the female medic asked with a nod toward Tray.

  The fireman nodded. “Yeah. Injured arm. Looks like it’ll need stitches.”

  “I got off easy,” Tray muttered. He followed slowly, his cut arm cradled to his chest. His cracked rubber ball, he left behind on the floor.

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can,” I assured Tray. “We need to find Lena and Paul.”

  His faraway look snapped back to me. “He sent them away-”

  “We know,” I interrupted. “We ran into Kindred before we came up.”

  “So… where did Kindred send them?” Rae asked.

  The answer floated in Tray’s mind. I’d cut him off too soon. “He made Lena think Jason was his true target. Sorry, Tray. I shouldn’t have interrupted.”

  Tray shrugged and climbed into the back of the ambulance. “Doesn’t matter. Good luck finding them. See you in a bit.”

  His normally exuberant voice was flat. Rae and Laurie both had grim thoughts at the surface of their minds. I couldn’t get the image of Cade’s bloody body out of my head.

  “Cade’ll be okay, right?” I asked, staring after the retreating ambulance. After all, I could only read Cade’s thoughts, not see whether his body could fight off the multiple knife wounds he’d suffered.

  My friend’s thoughts didn’t exactly paint me a positive picture. Hot tears threatened to fall, and I shook my head, refusing to accept anything less than Cade surviving. “Let’s find our wayward friends.”

  FIFTY-ONE

  Lena

  I’d thought Jason was safe. That Kindred had decided to leave him out of his vendettas. We couldn’t reach Jason, and I couldn’t risk trying to call any of Brennan’s friends. Despite my previous belief that Kindred wouldn’t hurt Jason, I now had no doubt he would follow through with his threat.

  Even through my concern for Jason, my thoughts drifted back to our new friend. Something about Brennan had caught my cousin’s eye, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what.

  “He’ll be okay, right? Jason won’t be in worse shape than when we left him, will he?” Paul’s worried voice cut through my thoughts.

  “He’ll be fine. Even if Jere-… Kindred goes after him, Jason will feel him coming. He always does.”

  We reached the city limits. If we continued on this path, we would be on the way home.

  “Wait…” Something wasn’t right. Kindred wouldn’t go hours out of his way, would he?

  “What? Lena?” Paul shifted slightly in the driver’s seat to look at me.

  “We were going to find Cade and Tray. They’re the ones in trouble right now, right?” I asked. “No… he got into my head,” I said. “We need to go back. Paul; Jason is safe. The others aren’t.”

  A memory broke through the haze of falsehood Kindred had placed in my mind
. Paul and I had reached Brennan’s house. Both Cade and Tray had felt fearful, and Kindred was the reason. I yelled in frustration and exclaimed, “He was at Brennan’s house!”

  I touched Paul’s arm and replaced the falsehoods with what had actually happened. “He was there,” I said more calmly. “So were Cade and Tray. They’re in trouble.”

  A glance at my phone showed several missed calls and a couple voice mails. As I looked, I saw another message come in.

  “I need to call Jade,” I said. “Paul, are we good? We need to get to the hospital. Kindred… he hurt Cade. Badly. He isn’t going after Jason. You know that now, right?”

  Paul had lived much of his life worried for Jason. Protective over the man who had sworn to protect him. Kindred had played on those emotions, and they were slow to release. We travelled a couple more miles before I managed to get through to him.

  Or Kindred’s illusion had finally worn off. He did have some limit to how far away he could be while controlling someone.

  With a muttered curse, Paul found the closest place he could pull a U-turn. He gunned the engine and we raced back toward the hospital.

  Finally sure we were both free of Kindred’s influence, I called Jade. “We’re here,” I said as soon as she picked up. “We were out of town by the time Kindred’s illusion wore off. What do you know? Paul’s driving us to the hospital now.”

  I listened, and my heart sank with every word Jade said. It was obvious from her voice that she was holding back tears. “We’ll be there soon,” I assured the other woman once she’d recounted everything. “I’m going to try to figure out what Kindred is doing.”

  Paul gripped the steering wheel tightly. “Are you sure you should? He just proved he can get in your head.”

  A good point, but one of the only other people who could claim the same was in a fight for his life in the ER. “Yes. As far gone as he is, I still don’t believe my cousin will hurt me. It’s why he sent us away.”

  Still, I did acknowledge the risk inherent in any attempt to connect without backup. “I’ll wait until I’m with Cole. He can help.”

  Paul’s death grip on the steering wheel loosened. “Thanks.”

  We rode the rest of the way to the hospital in silence. We already knew which room Brennan was in, so we simply went there. Any information we could get about Cade and Tray would likely make its way there anyway.

  Besides, going to Brennan meant I could take over his protection. Cole needed to go to his brother. My read on his character told me he wouldn’t go unless he knew Brennan was safe.

  The dark-haired man paused what must have been frantic pacing and looked at us as we entered the room. The look on his face was one of profound relief. “Thank you for coming. I need to get to my brother.”

  “Go,” I said.

  Brennan huffed as Cole raced from his room. “I’ve been trying to get him to go since we found out Cade was in trouble. All it took was one word from you.”

  His voice was painful to listen to, but he seemed more with it than he’d been earlier. Withdrawn and worried, but still a bit better.

  “Are you okay with me taking over?” I asked. There was a man at Brennan’s side. I wasn’t sure how much he knew about the situation, so I didn’t want to be too obvious in what I was doing.

  When I glanced at the bed I noticed Brennan’s hair was damp. The lack of soot on his face made it easier to see how worn and pale he was.

  “Do what you have to do,” he agreed wearily. He continued in his soft voice, “This is my dad, Joe Hanson.”

  The older man shook his head. “You aren’t supposed to be talking, Bren. You know that.”

  Brennan shrugged innocently and took a sip of water.

  Joe glared at his son before he turned to me. “Anyway, it’s nice to meet you…?”

  “I’m Lena, this is Paul,” I said. “How is he?” I nodded toward Brennan.

  “Doctor hasn’t come in since the last scans,” Joe answered. “I know there is a lot of worry about damage to his lungs, but we’re going to hope for the best.”

  I eyed Joe curiously for a moment before reading him to see how much he knew. My eyebrow raised when I realized he knew quite a lot at this point. He knew about Brennan’s powers because of the fire, and Cade had spilled the beans about his powers as well. Guess I didn’t have to be too careful about what I said.

  Some memory tried to make its way forward in my mind. Something I’d heard about those who could control fire… Maybe? “There might be something you can do to help yourself,” I suggested. “I think some part of your power could draw out whatever smoke might be there.”

  Brennan shook his head. “Even if I could have, that only would have been helpful hours ago,” he rasped. He pushed a mask back over his face for a moment. Several deep breaths later, he continued. “Whatever damage was going to happen, already has.”

  A single look from Joe caused Brennan to shrink down onto his pillow and take another sip of water. The dark look transformed into one of worry. “You need to think more positively. They haven’t said there’s permanent damage. It might not be too bad.”

  I smiled at the parental show of concern. Paul had a slight frown on his face as he watched the scene. “You all right?”

  He shook his head slightly. “I don’t understand. Brennan acted like he didn’t have a family who cared, yet here they are.”

  I shrugged. “Every family has their drama. They had communication problems due to Brennan feeling different. Now that his secret is in the open, they can open the lines once again. I think it’s sweet.”

  “Thanks,” Brennan rasped. “You two know we can hear you, right?”

  My face heated, and I dropped my gaze to the floor. “Sorry. Didn’t mean anything by it.”

  Joe narrowed his eyes again and warned. “You need to stop talking, Brennan. And it’s not a problem. I figured everyone who’s here to help Brennan would know quite a bit about him. Also, by extension, his family.”

  A light tap on the door drew our attention to the woman and two kids who entered slowly.

  “Brennan!” The little boy raced to Brennan’s bedside.

  I smiled at the reunion. With everything bad that had happened—and was still happening—it was nice to have this little family reunion as a distraction.

  “Hiya, Tommy,” Brennan tried to sound upbeat, but his voice was so low and raspy that it made the little boy freeze.

  The smile on Brennan’s face, and the arms he raised up for a hug, led the child to almost leap onto the bed. “Hi, little brother,” Brennan whispered.

  “Brennan, you were on fire! And Bobby is hurt now. We’re okay though. Are you okay?”

  Joe patted his young son on the back and said, “Brennan is going to be fine. His throat and lungs have some owies on them, so he shouldn’t be talking. But you can talk to him, okay?”

  The boy’s eyes widened, and he nodded. “Okay, daddy."

  The woman who entered set the little girl onto the bed and gave Brennan a hug. “Joe’s parents are down with Bobby right now. They said they’d sit with him until we wanted to go back down.”

  Brennan and Joe both nodded. “Thanks, Angie,” Joe answered.

  “Sara, can you give your big brother a hug?” Angie asked.

  The toddler shook her head and reached back toward her mom. “No! Hot. Scary.”

  “Sweetie, he wasn’t trying to hurt us. I promise,” Angie told her.

  Brennan looked away and withdrew from his little siblings. His mind immediately flooded with guilt, both about what his family was going through, and what had happened to Cade and Tray.

  “Don’t, Bren. She’s so little. She doesn’t know,” Joe told him gently.

  Tommy sensed his brother’s distress. He edged his way closer and grabbed him in a hug. “I love you, Bren,” he whispered loudly into his ear.

  Brennan blinked tear-filled eyes and held the small boy firmly. “Love you too, little man. I’m sorry I scared you,” he whispere
d.

  Another tap on the door interrupted the sweet moment.

  “Jade, I expected you to be down with Cade,” I said. Her visit couldn’t bode well. I wished we could just enjoy the happy moment with Brennan and the kids. At least for a little while longer.

  “We wanted to share the update with you,” she said. Her voice was a bit wobbly, but she forced her emotions back. “The doctors don’t hold out much hope. Cade’s lost a lot of blood, and his heart is struggling to compensate.”

  Her voice cracked, and tears filled her eyes. Brennan gently nudged Tommy to his dad and reached for Jade. Without a word spoken, she fell into his arms with a sob.

  FIFTY-TWO

  Tray

  My best friend was in the next room, his life nearly gone. I was so close to him, but was helpless to do anything to save him. My whole body felt numb at the knowledge. Someone sewed the cut on my arm, but I barely noticed the tug of the suture or the attempts at conversation. My whole consciousness focused on the room with a man who was closer to me than my own family. A man who was going to die because he wanted to protect me.

  So much dark in the world. It was hard to overcome. Today, impossible. There were no jokes that could make this better in any way. No smiles that could bring comfort. Nothing was right. Kindred had destroyed anything good that might have come from this trip.

  I’d come here to help another person with their power. To get to know someone who’s abilities were just as dangerous—or more so—than my own, and maybe get another friend out of it.

  Now? Now I doubted Brennan would want to see us again. And any thoughts of this trip would only remind me of Cade.

  A small part of me held on to the hope my friend could survive, but I couldn’t see it. He was so hurt. Cole joined me in the treatment area for a short time, only leaving to go out to the hall when someone came in to place my stitches.

  He was completely wrecked. His eyes seemed sunken in, and his face was drawn and pale. Every part of him focused on his brother. He’d been next to me, but mentally he was with Cade.