Chapter 18

This was what I'd been sensing as we'd driven here. It wasn't Vivian that needed saving, it was every single abnormal kid that Gardreel and his goddamn fallen had scooped up.

Even knowing that they'd been here, I'd not realized that drive to protect the young was so strong in me. My maternal instincts were as on fire as my hands burned through the handlers' connections. The upside? Some handlers had multiple kids, which meant I didn't have to deal with each kid.

The process was still a lot.

My mind raced as I reached for the kids, as Easter and Killian all but shoved them toward me. Behind me the cacophony of chatter, of high-pitched voices and then crying, nearly had me spinning around.

"Shut the fuck up!" Easter yelled and the group immediately quieted.

I nodded her my thanks and reached for another kid. My legs shook as the fire burned through me and into her. My throat was parched as though I'd been in the desert, sucking down sand and wind.

"Start getting them out," I gritted out as I kept at it. We were through half of them. Half was better than none. Easter snapped her fingers, shoved Dinah into my holster and took Diego back as she got the first batch of kids moving.

"Fast feet, quiet mouths!" she snapped, and they were gone.

Ten more kids and I was on my knees. More worrisome than that was the feeling of eyes sliding back and landing on us.

The handlers were trying to re-connect with their charges.

My jaw ticked. "Killian, the cameras."

"On it." He turned to the closest camera and grabbed it with his palms. Electricity coursed out of him and bounced around the room, pinging off lights and settling us into a shadowy darkness with just the emergency lights coming on once more.

The seconds ticked by as loudly as if I could hear them, but it was more likely the humming that turned into a blaring alarm.

"That's all of them." Killian grabbed me under the arm. "Come on, kids, let's go!"

He was dragging me to the door, my legs numb from the effort. I stopped at the door, my hand on the frame, a tug turning me around. "Take them up."

"You don't mean to wait for the Magelore?" He stared at me, and I shook my head.

"No, there is someone else here."

I turned back to the level they'd kept the kids. "Go, I'll be right behind you."

He growled, kissed me hard, giving me a pulse of electricity to use if I needed it, then did as I asked. Not out of weakness, but because he trusted me and my instincts. Just like I trusted him.

Killian would get the kids out, I knew that.

With my hand on the wall, I followed the sensation of . . . family . . . down the curving hall. The feeling of a child I knew, but maybe hadn't ever met? Maybe one of my brothers had a child I didn't know about. Maybe Bea's daughter. Dinah's daughter. My niece.

I didn't want to hope.

And yet my feet picked up speed as a door on my left came into view, the only one shut. I put my hand to it and Dinah trembled.

"She's in there. I know it."

"Me too." I tried the door, but it was locked. I stepped back and then kicked out, the door not even bending a little.

"Let me," Dinah said, her voice shaky.

I pulled her out even as the footsteps of more guards came to my ears. I spun and went to a knee, aiming, squeezing the trigger, watching the bodies fall, hitting the wall, slumping down.

Before they were full down, I'd turned back to the door, squeezed Dinah's trigger again and blew the lock open.

I pushed the door with my shoulder and swept the room.

A girl with long chestnut hair sat in the far corner with her hands over her head. "You can't make me believe! You can't! I can talk to the dead! You can't make me believe otherwise!"

"She's strong," Dinah whispered, "just like you. I bet she hasn't been here long."

"Emerald." I said her name and her head snapped up. Her eyes were not green like you'd think but more blue, closer to my color. "Time to go, kid."

She wobbled to her feet. "Who . . . who are you?" There was a faint accent there. Like English was her second language.

"I'm your family," I said. And then took a chance that she knew him. "I'm Bear's mother."

Her face crumpled and she fell toward me, so that I had to catch her even though my own body was weak from all I'd done to free the children from the handlers.

"I tried to keep them safe!" she yelled. "I tried!"

I grabbed her by the arms. "Are they in here?" Surely, I would have felt my own children over my niece. But I had to ask, I had to be sure. She was already shaking her head.

"No, no, I made sure that the monsters followed me. I made sure that they didn't see Bear or Angel."

Angel. My daughter. I took Emerald's head in my hands and ran my fire through her, just in case, trying not to think about Angel or Bear.

And that's when I felt it. Something inside of her that was not like the other children. Not just a block, not just something to bend her mind into a pretzel.

A fucking booby trap. She gasped and tried to pull away from me, and I had no doubt it hurt but if I stopped now . . . I could see what would happen. The fire would consume her in a way that would leave her literally melting into my hands. We had to see this through together. Fuck.

Gardreel had known. And he'd set me up.

"No, no!" I held on tighter as my flames curled through her mind, like burning the fuse on a stick of dynamite. "Hold on, we can't stop! We have to see this through!"

"Why? You're hurting her!" Dinah yelled.

Emerald began to cry, but she clung to my arms, nails digging in. Trusting me to save her.

"Hang on, tight as you can," I gritted out as the fire burned through me. The heat rose and the sound of it echoed in the room, crackling, roaring like a forest fire going nuclear. The booby traps were sharp, dug deep into her psyche, waiting for me.

"Fuck you, Gardreel," I growled as I let the power push its way through me and into my niece. A scream ripped out of her as the heat backwashed through us both, orange, red and blue flames lighting up and down my arms to her head. Her hair didn't light on fire, neither did her clothes. But her tears dried as they fell.

"Please!" she gasped. "Stop!"

I closed my eyes and clung to her head as she began to fight me. I couldn't let her go. I could see the last trap, could see how deep it was buried in her and that it was meant for me. It was meant to spring and trap both of us.

He'd known I'd come. He'd known all along somehow that I'd come for her.

Emerald's scream pitched higher, piercing my ears as she thrashed and kicked out. All I could do was pump the fire into her, driving it deep into her mind, chasing that booby trap, grabbing hold of it and literally scorching it into nothing.

Until it was ashes and nothing more.

As the flames slid away from me, I loosened my hold on her face and slumped to my knees, pulling her into my arms. "I got you, kid. I got you."

Her sobs echoed in the tiny room, small after the screams.

A single footstep snapped my head up and I already had Dinah aimed at the door as Pete stuck his head in. He winced when he saw Dinah pointed at him.

"I didn't find her. I don't understand. I thought they had Vivian."

"Help me," I said, and he slipped into the room, getting me to my feet and then scooping Emerald into his arms.

"Where are the others—?"

"Go, go!" I snapped and then he and I were running. Ruby was just ahead of us, leaping up the stairwell.

There had been no EMP pulse. Either Eligor hadn't figured it out, or Cowboy balked for some reason. If they'd been there, I'd have shot him.

Flight after flight we went back the way we'd come. Halfway to the maintenance room I had to stop. I couldn't breathe, my lungs and body felt like I'd been turned inside out and put on a spit. How could I have had more flames than that? Vivian was insane to think . . . Pete grabbed my arm and dragged me upward.

"Don't gas out on me now!" he yelped. "I killed a bunch down there and I saw the bodies but we're missing a fuck ton of guards."

Which meant they'd be waiting somewhere for us.

Along with whatever fallen monsters they had on hand.

"Get her out of here," I gasped out. What the hell had happened back there? Why was I hurting so much?

Pete took one look at me and shook his head. "Not leaving without you, boss lady. I got us into this mess. I'll get us out."

He bent and scooped me up over his other shoulder and then shot up the stairs. I bounced against his back, hating that I needed help. And realizing that I hadn't even asked him.

"Here." Killian was there, pulling me off Pete and into his arms. "The path is clear. The cameras are down, go, go!"

We were flying through the facility at high speed. No guards. No fallen. How was this happening?

I closed my eyes as Killian ran and just let him take my weight. Let him help me.

"Here!" Easter's voice was next and then I had to open my eyes because I knew there was a crawl ahead of me. "Tie her to the dog."

Tie me to the dog? Did I look that bad? Apparently.

Someone took off their belt and then my one wrist was looped in it. The other end was given to Ruby as she was lifted into the shaft, and me right after her.

"Go!" Killian barked and Ruby listened as if she were bound to him and not me. I'll admit the trip out of the shaft was a shit ton easier than the way in. Of course, I got bounced along the sides pretty good. Ruby didn't stop pulling until we were ten feet away from the opening and headed deeper into cover. Little hands were all over me and I realized my eyes were closed.

"Is she hurt?"

"Is that really her?"

"Come on, help her!"

All the hands, all the little voices. One of them pushed through. "I can heal her."

And then a rush of cold, like arctic waters pouring down my throat, and my eyes flew open. A little girl, maybe ten years old, sat on my chest, her hair all but shaved off. Her face was cat-like, from her nose to her eyes and ears which sat on top of her head. Golden eyes.

I didn't remember touching her face.

She smiled. "They put a spell on me to look human. You burned it off."

I blinked. "You healed me."

Her smile widened showing off tiny fangs, not unlike a Magelore. "I'm a cat shifter, I heal people when they least expect it. And you are the Phoenix. The one whose magic burns away the bad guys." I sat up and looked around me. They fucking glowed in their white onesies. And all I could think about was how the hell were we going to get one hundred kids out of here? How the hell did I get them from here, to somewhere safe?

As I pushed to stand, Easter, Pete and Killian were climbing out of the shaft.

"So now we got them out," I said. "I don't think they're all going to fit in the minivan."