Burn Page 24

  I hoped Cade was with it enough to communicate with Cole on some level, at least. Then, if the worst happened, he wouldn’t be alone. And they could say goodbye.

  A sob escaped. I leaned forward, my face in my hands, and elbows resting on my knees. How had everything gone so wrong?

  The monster would pay for this. He would not get away with what he’d done.

  “Sir?” The voice made me jump. I quickly wiped away the tears that rolled down my cheeks. The nurse eyed me with sympathy. “You’re set. Here are your prescriptions for pain relief and antibiotics. You can take them to any pharmacy to get them filled.”

  I slid off the table and grabbed the two small slips of paper before going to the hall to wait with Cole. I found him seated, his elbows rested on his knees, his head forward so I couldn’t see his face.

  “Cole? Anything new?” I asked softly. I sat next to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

  He shook his head. “Not from the doctor… but—I felt it. Cade… his energy is crashing…”—his voice cracked, and he let out a sob. My heart broke with his next words. “He’s… he’s dying, Tray.”

  I clung to him because it was the only thing I could do. Nothing I said would do any good. I could only make absolutely certain Cole knew he wasn’t alone—in the world or in his grief. The brothers didn’t have other close family. Their father had run out on them, and their mother had recently passed away. Now, he faced the loss of his brother as well.

  “I’m here,” I murmured. “Brother, I’m here.”

  It was apparently the right thing to say, because he reached and clung to me as desperately as I clung to him.

  We sat that way for an undetermined amount of time before Cole suddenly stiffened, then sat straight. His sobs now silenced.

  We knew. Before the doctor came out to talk to us, we knew. Where Cole’s sobs had been desperate, and he’d done everything in his power to stay connected to his brother— he was now silent and still. A heartbroken shell of the man I looked up to as if he were my big brother. He no longer fought for the brother he knew was gone.

  We sat in silence for a long time. My own emotional numbness wore off, and I felt tears roll down my cheeks. My arm started to throb in time with my heartbeat. A beat I only had because Cade had… had sacrificed himself for me.

  “It isn’t your fault, Tray.” Cole’s voice was flat. “He would always protect if he could. That’s just who he i—was.”

  A nurse came and asked gently. “Do you want to see him?”

  Cole gave a hesitant nod, but didn’t release his grip on my wrist. “Come with me?” He shook his head. “Only if you want. I know it’s—”

  “I’m coming,” I said, making no effort to hide my tears. “You aren’t alone.”

  FIFTY-THREE

  Brennan

  Everything felt so surreal. Cade was dead. I didn’t see Cole again for the rest of my stay at the hospital. Jade and Laurie spent some time with me. We discussed future options. Ways they could continue to help me now that I would be off work indefinitely.

  Lena was a rock. She stayed with me and helped guard my mind, although Kindred didn’t make contact again. Maybe he decided to give us time to grieve. Maybe he’d lost interest.

  Or maybe he wanted me to be in better shape before he came back.

  Jade was the only one who came to pick me up. My parents remained in the hospital with Bobby.

  “You ready to get out of here, Bren?” Jade asked when she entered the room.

  “Actually, no. I need to go see Bobby,” I informed her. “He’s awake, and I need…” My voice trailed off. I needed to see him alive. To know that my brother had survived his encounter with the killer.

  She smiled gently. “No problem. We’ll go see him. I need to see the positive in the situation too.”

  Some part of me tensed, and I pulled her in for a hug. “I’m sorry. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t called you—”

  “Let me stop you right there, buddy,” Jade snapped, her finger jabbed into my chest. “We’ve been over this. I will not have you blaming yourself for that monster’s actions! If you do… well, that’s the first step in his plan succeeding.”

  I took a slight step back and cocked my head in confusion.

  “He wants to break you, Brennan. That means shaking the foundations of anything that could keep you safe from him. Including making you believe you should be held accountable for his actions.”

  She slapped my arm. I jumped and rubbed the sting away. “And you best not be beating up on yourself. I don’t want anyone hurting you. Including you.”

  I took hold of her hand. “Okay. I’ll try not to. It’s hard though.”

  We got onto the elevator and made our way to Bobby’s room. Both my parents were there, ready smiles on their faces when they saw me enter the room.

  “Hey, Bren. Finally sprung you, huh?” Joe said.

  I met his smile with one of my own, although mine was likely tinged with a hint of sadness. “Yeah. I’m done with this place,” I agreed.

  In more ways than one, really. My lungs would likely heal, but it would take some time. In the meanwhile, I was off work with nothing to occupy my time but trying to figure out my powers.

  “We will, too,” Jade assured me.

  Joe and Angie exchanged a look when Jade edged closer and took my hand. We would. Together we could figure out how to give me back my control.

  “Are you protected right now?” Angie asked.

  We’d taken some time over the last week to explain everything that had happened. As my mother, she was understandably both ready to go to battle, and ready to fall apart at the thought of Kindred’s intentions toward me.

  To answer her question, I allowed my fire wall to be visible for a few seconds. The slight warmth of the fire wall was no longer uncomfortable or unfamiliar. Now, it felt more like a security blanket.

  “That’s a yes, then, I take it,” Angie said with a wry smile. “Gotta admit, that does take some getting used to.”

  I exchanged a look with Jade. “This might too.” I paused and looked back toward my parents. “I’ve been talking to Jade and Laurie, and I’ll be going with them. They can’t stop doing what they do, and I can’t work right now anyw—” A cough escaped, interrupting my explanation. I cringed at the scratchy feeling in my throat.

  Joe grabbed me some water, and everyone waited patiently for me to get my breaths back under control.

  “Sorry,” I rasped. My throat cleared for the moment, I continued. “I’m going to be learning to take better control of my powers. I can’t have Kindred—or anyone else—come and take them over again. I couldn’t live with it.”

  “Will you be back?” Angie asked. She seemed a bit wary, as if worried I would turn my back on them again.

  I quickly stooped to give her a hug. “I will be back,” I assured her. “When my lungs are ready to work more normally again. And when I can be sure I won’t inadvertently hurt anyone.”

  Bobby shifted in the bed, and I looked down at the small boy. He was no longer on the vent, but he was still pale. His breaths were raspy for now too, but the doctors still had hope that he would escape without too much damage to his lungs.

  “Hey, kiddo,” I said, noting his open eyes.

  He gave a weak smile and a small wave, but didn’t attempt to speak. In addition to the soreness from smoke inhalation, his throat had to be wretchedly sore from the ventilator.

  “You feeling any better?” I asked. I knelt next to the bed and held his hand.

  He gave a thumbs up with his other hand and smiled again.

  “That’s great! I’m so happy you’re getting better. Hey, bud,” I said seriously. “I am sorry you got hurt. I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure nothing like that happens again, okay?”

  Another thumbs up, and Bobby yawned again. “I know. Get some sleep. It will help you feel better, okay? I’ll see you again soon, little man.”

  He reached both
arms toward me and I pulled him in for a hug. “Love you, Bren,” he whispered into my ear.

  “Love you too, buddy.”

  Jade, Joe, and Angie had smiles on their faces.

  “We should get going,” I told Jade. “I still need to get some stuff packed if I’m going with you.”

  We said our goodbyes, and I held both my parents tightly. “I’ll be back,” I promised again.

  Jade and I walked out of the room and to the exit. “You didn’t tell them what we’d be doing while we helped you with your powers,” Jade said. Her voice had taken on a concerned tone, and her green eyes glinted in the hospital lights.

  I held the door for her, and we walked to the car. “That’s because I couldn’t very well tell my parents exactly what we’re doing. They’d never allow me to leave.”

  She frowned, but nodded. “True.”

  “We may not know where Kindred is going, but he has to know we’ll all be on his trail. He won’t stay off our radar forever.”

  Cole and Tray were in the car waiting when we got there. Cole’s dark eyes were hard and angry. Tray’s lighter ones were like ice. I let my eyes flash with my inner fire.

  “Let’s go hunt down a murderer.”

  Acknowledgments:

  Writing a book is never easy. With BURN it was even harder. The idea to connect the Broken Minds series and the Earthshaker series came to me as I wrote Earthshaker, yet the reality of doing so took a lot of work. Thanks to my editor, Brittany King, I was finally able to make this book a reality. She was a huge help to me in smoothing out the story line.

  Thanks also to my mom, Shirley Lemke, who acted as my proofreader for this project (and several others). I’m so blessed to have the support of my family.

  Another thank you to Christian Bentulan for another amazing cover! He has the ability to bring my work to life with his covers, and I love working with him.

  And, as always, thank you readers for choosing to give BURN a chance. I always appreciate feedback, so feel free to leave a review, or track me down on Facebook to let me know what you think!

  www.facebook.com/earthshakerfans

  Read on for an Excerpt from Tracker: Earthshaker Series book one:

  ONE

  Jason

  I am a Tracker. Although there may be more, I’m the only one I'm aware of. When I touch earth—and to a slightly lesser degree cement—I am able to feel where any one person’s footprints lead. This ability makes it easier to avoid certain people as well. I try to always have a part of me touching the ground so I can feel people approaching, even when I’m asleep.

  My ability to differentiate between different people led me to the knowledge that the men who’d attacked me were unfamiliar. I hadn’t recognized the steps, and their intent was not clear until they had surrounded me. I had rushed to send out an SOS to Alice Farrow. The precinct where she works, Crandal County Station 117, is only a couple blocks from the alley where I’d been grabbed, and I’d been able to feel her steps moving toward the building. Her partner was with her as well, but I had no time to worry about that as I was hit hard enough that the garbage-strewn alley faded to black.

  I woke slowly. My eyelids felt heavy, as if they were glued together. Prying them open led to a spike of pain that shot through my head and I slammed my eyes shut again. My attempt to stretch led to the realization that I couldn’t move my arms, and there was an uncomfortable pinching around my wrists. As I became more aware, I recognized the feel of metal digging into my back, and my head was resting at an odd angle, increasing my discomfort. A groan escaped as I once again attempted to stretch into a more comfortable position.

  I peeled my eyes open gradually, knowing I needed to see where I was and how bad the situation was. The light still hurt, but it wasn’t quite as bad as the first time. I looked around carefully, hoping to see anything that would expedite my freedom, and my heart sank. I was in a storage cage of some kind. There was cement to my right and behind me and chain link fence to my left and in front of me. My hands were cuffed to a steel pipe attached to the wall. The light came from a single light bulb hanging from the middle of the cage. The door was part of the chain link fence and was locked with a padlock. It seemed a little excessive considering I was handcuffed to the wall, but whatever.

  Outside of the cage was dark. Either there were no windows or they were covered with something to keep the light out. I didn’t think I’d been out long enough for it to get dark. There was a sliver of light across the room from the space at the bottom of the door. The building was silent, but I could hear traffic moving outside. People going about their lives, unaware there was someone trapped in this warehouse, just drove by without a care in the world.

  I glanced once more at the concrete walls and ceiling and accepted the idea that I was stuck. Any attempt I made to free myself would likely end up with me being crushed under a ton of concrete. My ability to move the ground through the concrete was dangerous, and one I had not practiced. I would have to bide my time and hope an opportunity for escape presented itself. I rattled the cuffs on the pole, and wished I knew how to pick the locks so I could escape. It was something I might want to learn in the future.

  My memory of being grabbed was slightly fuzzy, so I had to search it to figure out if I’d been able to get a message out to Alice. It wasn’t easy to do through the massive headache, but I needed to figure it out before I could do anything to help myself. I also needed to figure out exactly who’d grabbed me, and why.

  It couldn’t be for a ransom; as a runaway, I have no family to pay it. The other options weren’t as appealing. I work as an informant to the police, so anyone I’d ratted on could hold a grudge. If that were the case, they’d have to know that I had spoken to Alice. Detective Alice Farrow is the one authority figure I trust with most of my biggest secrets. She is the only police officer who knows about my abilities, and trusts me when I tell her something I found out because of them. It was usually up to her to figure out how to explain the tips I gave without implicating me in any crimes.

  Most of the cases I’d helped her with involved finding missing people. That is my specialty. It's made simpler if I’ve been in contact with them at some point; previous contact makes following their footsteps much easier. I have a mental catalog of the people I’ve come into contact with and the pattern of their footsteps. Once I feel those steps, I’m able to follow them with little to no difficulty. Most of the time, I instinctively know about how tall and how heavy the people are based on the way they walk.

  Another option was the possibility that my father had located me finally—I’d run away five years earlier. Before my sudden exodus, he’d threatened to kill me if I tried to get away again. I’d made certain to run fast and far; he was about four counties over. I’d also been going by a different name for the last five years, and no one in my new life knew it wasn’t my real name.

  The memory of sending the SOS to Alice came back. I’d been able to reach down and send the message through a crack in the cement just before someone had hit me from behind. I can’t be sure she saw the message, but I was definitely hoping she did. She wouldn’t know where I was taken, but based on the fact that I was able to send the message at all, she’d have a distance to start with. From previous attempts, we had discovered that I could send messages through the earth up to about two and a half miles. It did take a few minutes to travel, but once I sent it at my end it would reach wherever I told it to. I had been able to feel Alice moving outside her precinct, so that's where I sent the message. It would give her both a distance and a timeframe to work with.

  Unfortunately, I’m not able to send messages through cement. I would have to raise the ground under the cement to crack it, giving me direct access to the earth beneath it. I could do that, but it is an inexact power. It would be the same as if I’d tried to escape by using my destructive ability; the whole building would be likely to fall in on me. It would be suicide by idiocy. If I were able to accomplish it without any death or
extreme destruction, the attempt would allow my captors to view some of what I could do. If they didn’t already know, there was no way I was showing them.

  I tensed as I felt footsteps coming toward me. It was time to find out who had grabbed me. The steps were unfamiliar and slightly muffled by the concrete. I was in a warehouse or storage facility somewhere; Alice wouldn’t find me before they had time to do whatever they wanted. My breath hitched as I realized how much trouble I could be in right now. One question plagued me—when I go missing, who tracks the Tracker?