Seven Psychics Read online

  We stuck close to Bailey, moving in fits and starts as he tracked down the telepath that had caused so much devastation in a short space of time. “I’ve lost him,” he said after he’d been on foot for several blocks.

  “He knew we were coming,” Mark said, frustration evident in his tone. “He must have had a car waiting. I bet he stuck around long enough to see his minion wreak havoc before fleeing.” We pulled up alongside Flynn and Mark wound his window down so they could speak in person rather than through their ear pieces.

  “Do you want me to keep searching?” Flynn asked. He was eager for action after spending a week cooped up at the compound.

  “It couldn’t hurt,” Mark decided.

  “Can I go with Flynn?” I asked on the spur of the moment. I’d only slow him down, but sitting in the SUV was getting old.

  Bailey jumped on the idea almost before the words were out of my mouth. “I’ll make sure she doesn’t get into any trouble,” he said before Mark could deny my request. “I’ll let you know the instant I pick up the trail again and you can come and pick her up.”

  “Fine,” Agent Steel said with obvious reluctance. “Keep me posted every ten minutes.”

  We both saluted him snappily and his lips twitched in amusement.

  Flynn and I searched the streets in a comfortable silence. Used to being alone most of the time, I didn’t feel the need to chatter incessantly. He broke the silence first.

  “I laughed so hard when you punched Garrett in the face that I thought I was going to pull a muscle,” he said with a grin.

  “Do you think he’s angry with me?”

  “It’s hard to say. Reece is always angry about something.”

  “Why is that, exactly?” I doubted Garrett would be happy if he knew he was the object of our gossip, yet I wasn’t about to miss the opportunity to learn more about him.

  Flynn shrugged. “It’s just his nature. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him really happy. I think he feels kind of lonely most of the time.”

  “But he has you guys,” I said. “Aren’t you like his family?”

  “Kind of, but not really,” he replied cryptically. “I think he feels like an outsider even among us.”

  That was exactly how I felt most of the time. The only person I’d ever felt truly close to was my father and he was gone far too often. I knew what true loneliness felt like and sympathy welled. “That’s sad,” I said, which drew an assessing glance from Flynn.

  “You’ve got it bad for him, haven’t you?” he asked me. Thankfully, he covered his earpiece and whispered so Mark couldn’t hear him.

  “I know how pointless it is,” I said, copying him and putting a hand over my ear. We received a strange look from an elderly lady as she walked past us, dragging her aged Pomeranian behind her. The poor dog was overweight and was wheezing for air. “He told me there could never be anything between us,” I added.

  My glum pronouncement made Bailey raise his eyebrows. “He actually said that to you?”

  “Yep.”

  “I wonder if he was trying to convince you or himself of that?”

  I looked askance at him. “I’m pretty sure he was trying to convince me.” In fact, I was certain of it.

  “Hmm,” he said, but didn’t tease me further. Flynn had never shown a cruel streak before and it didn’t seem like he was trying to be mean. His motive for trying to make me think that Garrett had even the slightest bit of interest in me was baffling.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Our search turned up no new leads and Kala and Reece had just as little luck tracking Lust down. We gave up just before dark and Mark drove back across town to pick up the other two members of his team.

  “I think we should stay in Denver for a couple of days and try catch the psychics when their next victims appear,” Mark said when we were all back inside the SUV and he was in his usual seat once again.

  “Each time they use their powers, they become a little more addicted to it,” Reece said as he set the vehicle in motion. “Pretty soon they won’t be able to stop themselves.” His tone was bleak and I imagined everyone in the city being incited into either trying to kill each other or to have sex with each other.

  Choosing a hotel in the heart of the city, Mark secured three rooms for us all. He must have been planning for this contingency because he’d told us to pack a couple of changes of clothing and to keep them in the SUV over a week ago.

  It would be strange to share a room with Kala, but I was relieved that I wouldn’t be alone. Ever since my eighteenth birthday, I’d had disturbing dreams of either chasing something or being chased by something. I never saw what was following me, or what I was chasing, but the dreams always left me with a strange yearning that I couldn’t identify.

  Having dinner in the hotel restaurant, we were subdued and conversation was sporadic. The telepaths didn’t have a preferred time of night or day that they struck and we were ready to move at a moment’s notice.

  I received strange looks when I carried my backpack into the restaurant. It sat at my feet where I’d have constant contact with it. I didn’t want to have to return to my room for my rifle if either of our targets struck while we were dining. If there was a chance that I could take them out from a distance, I was going to take it.

  No attacks of rage or rape were made and we consumed our meals without interruption. We didn’t linger at the table afterwards, but instead headed upstairs to our rooms.

  “I’m going to take a shower,” Kala said as I entered our room behind her.

  Restless and bored, I strode over to the window and peered outside. The view of the building next door was uninspiring and I shifted my attention to my ghostly reflection. I looked pale, haunted and strange. I wondered how my father would react after he saw me when he returned home from whatever mission he’d been sent on. It was clear to me that I wasn’t the same person anymore even if the others couldn’t see it. My dad would instantly know there was something different about me. I just hoped he’d buy the story that taking Gluttony’s life had changed me and had forced me to rapidly grow up.

  The shower shut off, snapping me out of my self-contemplation. I was sitting on my bed when Kala opened the bathroom door and emerged in a cloud of steam. Her short hair stuck out in all directions, she wore no makeup at all, yet she still managed to look pretty.

  Walker plonked herself down on her bed and caught me staring at her. “See something green?” she asked with a smirk.

  “You’ve had sex, right?” I blurted then blushed bright red at my audacity at asking such a personal question.

  Rolling onto her side, Kala propped her head on her hand and regarded me with a serious expression. “Of course I’ve had sex. Is there something in particular that you want to know about the process?”

  I didn’t have a mother or girlfriends to talk to about this kind of stuff and I wasn’t about to search for the information on the internet. Mark would be able to see what we used the computer for and it would be beyond embarrassing for him to know that I was querying this particular topic. I could have used my phone, but I didn’t want to risk my father knowing about my interest either. For all I knew, he had my calls and internet usage monitored. He’d always been highly protective of me and it really wouldn’t surprise me if he went to such lengths to keep me safe.

  “What’s it like?” I asked. Kala’s lips twitched in amusement and I hastened to clarify. “I don’t need to know the mechanics of it all. I know what goes where. I want to know what an, um,” I took a deep mental breath and forced the words out, “what an orgasm feels like.” I finished in a whisper that was so quiet that I could barely hear it myself.

  Walker heard me just fine and nodded thoughtfully. “It starts as a kind of tingling in your girly parts.” She gestured towards her groin and grinned when I clapped a hand over my mouth to stifle my giggles. “It builds and builds and until you feel an indescribable pleasure and all of your muscles down there contr
act and spasm.”

  “There’s no…intense heat before the grand finale?” That’s what I’d felt. A build-up of heat before the indescribable pleasure and muscle spasms.

  “You’ve been reading too many romance novels,” Kala said with a laugh. I retaliated by throwing a pillow at her. Snatching the pillow out of the air, Kala bounced to her knees. “Oh, it’s on now! You’re going down, Lexi Levine!” Her threat came out in a menacing growl.

  Rolling off the bed with a shriek of laughter, I barely managed to dodge my own pillow being flung back at me. I picked it up just in time to deflect Kala’s blow as she hit me with one of the pillows from her bed. Deep in the middle of an epic pillow fight, we were screaming and laughing so loudly that we barely heard someone knocking on their door.

  “Uh, oh, we’ve been busted,” Kala said with an impish grin and skipped over to the door.

  Reece stood on the other side. He glared down at Walker and pushed his way past her, probably to make sure I was still alive. The beds were now a mess, but nothing in the room was actually broken. He saw me peeking at him from the floor beside my bed, still giggling. My hair was tangled and hectic red spots no doubt flared in my cheeks. I glanced up at him through my eyelashes and something stirred in my stomach at the intense expression on his face. He didn’t even have to touch me to make me feel hot inside, just one look was enough.

  For once, he didn’t look angry. It was hard to read his face, but he almost seemed amused. “Try not to wreck the room completely,” he admonished before stalking towards the door.

  “Yes, Dad,” we both intoned together then collapsed in shrieks of laughter.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  We didn’t have to wait long for Wrath to strike again. We were in the restaurant and had just finished breakfast when Mark’s cell phone rang. “This is Agent Steel,” he said and listened while the person at the other end spoke. “Where?” A short silence was followed by, “We’re on our way.”

  Garrett had opted to park the SUV on the street rather than allowing the valet to park it for him. It saved us a couple of minutes of having to wait for it to be retrieved.

  Sliding into my usual seat in the back, I was charged with energy. I was surprised to realize I was looking forward to the hunt as Reece followed Mark’s directions and wove his way through the early morning traffic.

  Cursing beneath his breath at the volume of cars clogging the street, Garrett abruptly chose an alternate route. He turned the wheel sharply and drove directly into a used car yard. Caught by surprise, I was flung against Flynn. He righted me with a grin, clearly not fazed that my chin had connected with his shoulder hard enough to make me see stars. A salesman yelped and shook his fist in protest as the big black vehicle powered across his property.

  Rubbing my chin, I felt like adding a few expletives of my own. Garrett sarcastically saluted the man, exited onto a much quieter side street and put his foot down. He ran two red lights, narrowly missing a car and pulled up half a block away from where we could see havoc in full progress.

  My spot in the middle of the seat gave me an excellent view through the windscreen of the milling mass of men and women. At least twenty people were embroiled in a free-for-all brawl. Two women were yanking at each other’s hair, screeching obscenities that I could hear even while enclosed in the SUV. Men were throwing punches and kicks that were more ferocious than skilled. Several bodies were lying on the ground. It was hard to tell if they were dead or merely unconscious.

  Cop cars were blocking the street and the officers had moved in on foot to surround the unruly mob. Madness reigned as they shouted contradicting orders at the people who were paying no attention to them at all. The noise level became nearly overwhelming when Mark opened his door. “Wrath has to be here somewhere,” he said to his team. “Find him and shut him down.”

  I didn’t need to be told to stay with Agent Steel. Standing near the SUV, we remained a safe distance away from the fray. We could easily be caught up in the compulsion to destroy our fellow man if we moved in any closer.

  “You’d better get your rifle ready, just in case this turns uglier,” Mark warned me when more people joined the mob. He spoke a moment too late and one of the cops fell beneath Wrath’s spell. Turning his gun on a nearby officer, he shot the woman in the stomach then drunkenly swung around to point his weapon at the mob.

  Pulling my handgun, I calculated the odds of successfully hitting him from a distance of five hundred yards. A pistol was far less powerful than a sniper rifle, but the bullet could travel a very long way. The only problem was that I didn’t have a scope to assist me and I only had a split second to make my decision.

  Mark opened his mouth to order me not to take the shot, but I aimed and pulled the trigger before he could speak. The cop let out a strangled roar and dropped his gun as blood spurted from his shoulder. He shuffled around to face us and rage mottled his face. He took a few staggering steps towards us and Mark gave me a light shove towards the SUV. “I suggest we move to a less dangerous location,” he said calmly.

  Re-holstering my gun, I didn’t argue and climbed into the passenger seat. Mark reversed backwards, turned into a side street and propelled the vehicle away from the enraged mob. Remembering the earbud in my pocket, I slipped it into place and listened in on the hunt.

  Flynn’s voice came through first. “I’m on his trail and I’m closing in,” he reported. I flinched at the volume, fished the earbud out of my ear and turned it down before putting it back in place.

  “Where are you?” Mark asked.

  “I’m two blocks east and one block south of your location.”

  Mark pointed the SUV in the correct direction and glanced sideways at me. “That was truly excellent shooting, by the way.”

  Well used to receiving compliments on my accuracy, I shrugged off his praise. “He was well within range and I knew I could hit him.” He’d been startlingly clear when I’d focused on him, almost as if he’d only been a hundred yards away rather than five hundred. My eyes had always been good, but they were far better than usual today.

  “Were you aiming for his shoulder?” he asked casually.

  “Of course.” I was insulted that he even had to ask. “It seemed like the safest area to target.” I didn’t want to kill the man, just to incapacitate him.

  “It was a good choice,” he said and went silent.

  I knew what he was thinking. It was obvious in the sidelong looks that he kept sending my way. The police officer had been too far away for most people to have been able to even wing him at that distance. I hadn’t just hit the man, I’d hit the exact spot that I’d been aiming for. I wasn’t sure if even my father could have made that shot. My accuracy wasn’t just excellent, it was bordering on eerie. Now that I was shooting at live targets rather than paper or metal ones, my level of skill had stepped up a few notches. I wasn’t unhappy about it, but it was hard to explain my sudden boost in skills.

  “I have a visual,” Bailey said, interrupting my train of thought. “He mustn’t have seen us coming this time. I’m moving in.”

  “Be careful,” Mark warned. “He’s even more powerful than we thought.”

  “It’s cool,” Flynn said. “It takes a lot to get me angry.” He sounded flippant, yet beneath it was an excitement that I secretly shared. I wished I was with him as he closed in on his target. It was unlike me to have eager thoughts about violence, yet that was what I was feeling right now. Wrath had caused far too many deaths and he had to be put down, one way or another.

  “We’re right behind you,” Kala said. She had to be sprinting flat out, but she didn’t sound out of breath.

  “I’ve got this one,” Flynn declared. “You two can’t have all the fun all the time.”

  “He’s all yours,” Reece agreed. “We’ll flush him into that alley.”

  Up ahead, I spied the team converging from three different directions, all were chasing a fleeing man. Wrath was panicked and ma
de a break towards a parked car, but Garrett cut him off. He pointed at an alley to the right and Bailey split off as Kala and Reece herded the telepath towards the narrow opening. Wrath cast a desperate look over his shoulder and ducked into the alley. I didn’t need to be a mind reader to know he’d planned on making a getaway in the car he’d left parked at the curb. I wondered why his precognition had failed him this time.

  Mark pulled up short of the narrow opening and put his hand on my arm as I was about to open the door. “You don’t want to see this,” he warned me.

  Disappointed that I was going to miss out on the action, I sank back into the seat and listened to the chase. I heard frantic footsteps then a grunt of pain as Flynn presumably caught up to the target. I could almost picture him tackling the psychic to the ground and putting his hands around the man’s throat.

  “Stop!” Wrath gargled. “You’re full of rage and you must kill everyone you see!”

  “Nice try, but you’re voodoo magic doesn’t work on me, bro,” Flynn replied almost conversationally.

  “I wondered if you’d be smart enough to split up from the fed,” Wrath gasped. “He was the one we can always see coming for us. What we don’t know is what you other four creatures are.” His voice was raspy as Flynn presumably tightened his chokehold.

  “It doesn’t matter what we are,” Bailey said. “All that matters is I’m the last thing you’re ever going to see.”

  I didn’t wince when I heard a snapping sound of broken bones this time. I was just frustrated that I hadn’t been there to see Wrath’s end. I’d been nauseated the first few times the team had hunted down the psychotic psychics, but this time I just felt a sense of satisfaction. I couldn’t even dredge up any alarm that he hadn’t been able to sense me and had included me with the genetically modified agents.