Seven Psychics Page 19

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirty

  It was verging on dusk when I snapped out of the semi-coma of sheer boredom that I’d fallen into. Mark’s phone rang as his agents called to give him their usual hourly report. He pushed a button on his steering wheel that connected all three of his agents at once.

  “I’ve still got nothing,” Kala advised.

  A familiar, insidious feeling crept over me as someone tried to pry into my mind. “Stop the car!” I cried.

  Stomping down hard on the brake, Mark came to a halt in the middle of the street. A horn blared angrily behind us as the driver narrowly missed crashing into the back of the SUV. The driver was white faced and shook his fist in frightened rage as he swerved around us.

  “What’s wrong?” Agent Steel asked and did a double take when he saw my reflection in the rearview mirror. My eyes were wide and I was clutching the seat with both hands.

  “Reverse back!” I said. “Hurry!” My eyes were locked on a building down the street where I could sense the compulsion seeping from. Lust was very busy and she hadn’t noticed Mark’s presence yet. Once she sensed him, she’d run and our opportunity to catch her would be lost.

  Checking the street to make sure there was no one behind us, he zoomed the SUV backwards. Mark kept his foot down until I slumped in relief when we’d moved out of the psychic’s range. Turning into a side street, he parked and swiveled around to speak to me, but I was already on the move.

  “What’s going on?” Kala asked suspiciously. All three agents were listening in and had overheard my frantic command for him to stop.

  “I’m not sure,” Mark replied. “Alexis might have sensed something. I’ll get back to you in a minute.”

  Feeling charged with purpose, I waited for Mark to join me before I loped back towards the main street. Peeking around the corner, I pointed at a four story apartment building that was halfway down the street and across the road. “Lust is in there,” I told him.

  It was an ordinary looking brick building with no outstanding features. No police officers had gathered in response to a tipoff that something was wrong as yet. “How do you know?” he asked.

  I tapped my forehead with my finger. “I can feel her.” I’d been trying to deny it all day, but I could no longer pretend that I was alone in my head. Someone else’s feelings had been bombarding me and I was pretty sure I knew who they belonged to. I just didn’t know how it was possible or why it was happening. Now I had a second person’s insidious thoughts battering at me.

  Mark couldn’t feel anything, but he trusted that I knew what I was talking about. I’d been beneath the spell of Wrath, if only very briefly and I’d also been snared by Lust. It was easy for me to recognize the signs of mind control being used on me now.

  “Where are you?” Reece asked. A babble of voices came and went as he passed a group of people on the street. He was moving so quickly that I couldn’t make out what they were saying.

  Mark gave his team our current location, but I wasn’t willing to wait for them to arrive. Tilting my head backwards, I counted five stories on the building beside me. We were at the outer edge of Lust’s range and to move any closer would be both foolish and dangerous. “We need to get up higher,” I told Mark.

  He understood what I had in mind and nodded in agreement. “Alexis and I are going to climb up high and survey the building. Stay a distance of two blocks away from the telepath’s lair,” he instructed his team. They made disgruntled noises, but reluctantly agreed.

  We rounded the building to see a small parking lot crammed full of cars. Peering up at the fire escape, I realized it was far too high for me to reach it. Looking around for assistance, I spied a dumpster pushed up against the wall. Mark could probably have boosted me up to reach the ladder, but it would be just as easy to use the dumpster instead. Putting my shoulder to it, it rolled far more smoothly than I’d anticipated. Mark joined me and helped me to position it beneath the ladder. Sweat beaded his forehead and he was breathing hard from the effort. I felt fine and hoped he wasn’t coming down with my mystery illness.

  Climbing up on the dumpster, I held my breath for as long as I could so I wouldn’t have to breathe in the putrid odors that were emanating from it. The ladder rattled down to the ground when I yanked on it and I started climbing. Agent Steel followed me at a much slower pace.

  Reaching the roof, I jogged over to the ledge that overlooked the street. The building where Lust was currently wreaking havoc was a full block away and on a diagonal from where I stood. Cries of pleasure that sounded almost like pain floated over to me. I was amazed that the police hadn’t been called to investigate yet. The occupants of the building were making enough noise to raise the dead.

  Mark was fit for his age, but I’d left him in my dust. I’d assembled my rifle and was peering through my scope at Lust’s lair by the time he reached me.

  “We’re in position, boss,” Garrett said into my earpiece. He, Walker and Bailey had the building surrounded on three sides. They were ready to move in if needed, but it was going to be up to me this time.

  Searching each window of the apartment building, I caught a flash of blonde hair and a lush, naked female form on the third floor. The woman moved away from the window and I made a sound of frustration. It had only been a brief glimpse, but I was pretty sure I’d just spotted my quarry.

  Eyeing the building next door, the gap looked small enough to leap across, but it was a full story shorter. An air-conditioning unit ran along the left side of the rooftop and jutted out over the edge. It might be able to offer me a safe way to leap across the divide.

  Still peering at the building through his binoculars, Mark didn’t realize what I was planning to do until he heard my rapid footsteps. He lowered the binoculars in time to see me running along the top of the silver unit. I launched myself into the air before he could order me not to make the jump.

  Clutching my rifle to my chest, I cleared the gap with room to spare and fell towards the lower rooftop. I expected to sprawl on my face and was pleasantly surprised when I instead landed on my feet and only had to adjust my balance a little. I cast a look back over my shoulder to see Mark staring down at me with his mouth open in shock.

  “I can get a better view from here,” I explained.

  “Can you warn me the next time you’re going to do something that foolhardy?” he asked me tightly.

  “Sure,” I lied and hurried over to the edge of the building. Just as I’d hoped, this building gave me a much better view of the apartment windows. It also brought me closer to the sexual compulsion that Lust was broadcasting.

  Ignoring the faint, yet insidious command to satisfy my body’s newly awakened desires, I leaned my rifle on the ledge and focused on the window where I’d seen the naked woman. She’d moved away, but she hadn’t gone far. The window to the left gave a view of a bedroom and two people were now entwined on the bed.

  Adjusting the scope slightly, details leapt into my view with startling clarity. A heavily muscled man was lying on top of the blonde woman. His expression was a mixture of pleasure and agony as he thrust himself into her. My face flamed in embarrassment, but I didn’t allow myself to look away. It was far too late to worry about modesty now. I couldn’t see the face of the woman yet and I didn’t want to shoot an innocent person. I’d have to monitor them both until I had visual confirmation that she was the target.

  Mark spoke into my earbud, distracting me momentarily. “Fall back, Alexis,” he said with heavy disappointment. “It’s too dark to get an accurate shot now.”

  My brow furrowed at his pronouncement, but my attention was drawn back to the woman when she rolled over so she was on top. “There’s still plenty of light,” I argued. I could see the pair of writhing bodies as clearly as if spotlights were shining on them. The blonde shook her hair back and her face was revealed. “It’s her,” I said in a flat tone. While I couldn’t remember meeting her in person, I’d seen her photo and I’d never forge
t that beautiful face and soulless blue eyes.

  Almost as if she knew she was being watched, Lust looked straight at me. Her mouth curled upwards in a wicked smile as she sent me a silent command. She’d picked up on Mark’s presence and had deduced that he wasn’t alone.

  The instant that her compulsion touched me, I had a flashback of being commanded to find a victim and to pleasure him with my body until he climaxed. Forcing the memory away before I could see who I’d chosen to be my bed partner, I shut my thoughts down. Doing so also cut off the almost overwhelming compulsion. My mind became clear and my training took over. “I’m taking the shot,” I said and slid into the zone where nothing could distract me.

  Pulling the trigger, I felt savage satisfaction as a hole appeared in Lust’s forehead. Thrown off the bed with the force of the impact, she hit the floor and rolled to the far side of the room. The man she’d been entwined with instantly went lax with unconsciousness. The moans and cries that had been coming from the building were cut off as all of her victims lapsed into unconsciousness.

  “The target is down,” I advised the team with resounding satisfaction.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Packing my rifle away, I removed the earbud and put it in my pocket before I clambered down the fire escape. I didn’t wait for Mark to catch up to me. He’d just order me to remain behind while he and the others verified the kill. I felt I’d earned the right to see my handiwork up close and jogged towards the apartment building.

  It was quiet inside the building. The only sounds came from TVs behind the closed doors. I couldn’t hear anyone talking, singing, laughing or making any of the usual noises that humans tended to make. Everyone in the building had been under the compulsion to have sex and they’d had no ability to resist the order. Apparently, Lust had modified her command enough that her victims had chosen their partners at random this time. I imagined that was what she’d done to me as well. Otherwise it would have been Garrett that had torn my underwear off me. He was both the person I desired the most and the person who desired me the least and he was the most logical person that I would’ve targeted.

  Reaching the third floor, I counted doors until I came to the correct apartment. The door was unlocked, so I pushed it open and entered. I pulled my handgun just in case the psychic wasn’t quite as dead as she’d appeared to be. I negotiated my way through a kitchen and living room into a short hallway. Stopping at the second door, I opened it with my left hand and kept my gun pointed straight ahead. Just as I’d expected, the telepath was sprawled face down on the floor. The force of my bullet had sent her blood and brains spraying all over the back wall. I was pretty sure the Cleanup Crew would be able to take care of the mess.

  Hearing a footstep behind me, I whirled around with my gun raised to see Garrett standing in the doorway. His expression was hard to decipher and I turned away before it became clear. The sensation in the back of my head increased with his close proximity. An overwhelming feeling of pity and remorse welled inside me, but it didn’t originate from me. I didn’t know how it had happened, but our minds had become linked, or at least his mind had become linked to mine. Either that or I was stark raving mad and I was just imagining it.

  Kala and Flynn arrived and crowded into the room as I hunkered next to the body on the floor. I felt no signs of disgust or nausea at the gigantic hole in the back of the dead woman’s head, or at the blood, brain and bone that coated her hair.

  Panting for air, Mark entered the room just as I was rolling the corpse over onto her back. A neat hole sat in the center of her forehead. It hardly marred the psychic’s beauty at all.

  “Lust is toast,” Kala declared. “Nice shot,” she complimented me. “Do you have a night scope on that thing?” She nodded at the backpack that was dangling from my left shoulder.

  “No. There was plenty of light,” I replied. In fact, there was still enough moonlight flooding through the window for me to be able to make out everyone clearly.

  Mark flipped the light on and I blinked painfully at the brightness. A glance verified that the final telepath was indeed dead. He called for the Cleanup Crew and we filed out into the living room to wait. As always, the two-man team arrived within minutes. It took them twenty minutes to scrub the room clean, remove the bullet from the wall and to repair the hole it had left behind.

  The male victim was still sleeping deeply when we left. A quick check on some of the other apartments indicated that everyone who’d been caught up in the compulsion to copulate was now unconscious. They’d wake up naked lying next to their friends, neighbors or complete strangers wondering what the hell had happened. Boy did I know that feeling, minus the waking up next to someone part. I could definitely identify with having no knowledge of the acts that I’d performed.

  Now that our hunt was finally over, I was hit with sadness as we returned to the SUV. I remained quiet as Reece drove us back to the hotel to retrieve our belongings. My temporary assignment was over and I would soon fly home to resume my normal life.

  During the journey back to the base, I held onto the tears that were threatening to fall. I would miss everyone in the team. They’d become my friends, which was something I didn’t want to lose now that I finally knew what it felt like.

  Our mood was solemn as we reached the compound and parked in the garage. Hoping to slink off to my room so I could have a good cry, my back stiffened when Agent Steel called Reece and me aside. “I’d like to speak to you both in private,” he said.

  Garrett just nodded at the implacable tone and followed his boss down the hall. Walker and Bailey watched us curiously, but they didn’t try to follow us. They exchanged disturbed glances before entering the main area.

  We walked to a door that I’d never been inside before. Mark placed his palm on the scanner, pushed the door open and gestured for us to precede him into a large meeting room. A rectangular table and a dozen black leather office chairs took up most of the space. Instead of bare concrete, the floor was covered in the same dark blue carpet as the upstairs area. The table was mahogany and had been polished to a high sheen. I nervously wondered what Mark wanted to speak to us about. As far as I knew, I’d done nothing wrong. Nothing that he was aware of anyway.

  Leaning against the door as if guarding it, Agent Steel examined us. It was all too obvious that Garrett and I felt awkward being in such close proximity. We stood as far apart as we could get and avoided looking at each other.

  “Alexis, I want you to tell me exactly what happened on the night of your eighteenth birthday,” he ordered. My head whipped up and my eyes went wide with alarm. The events of that night were the last thing that I ever wanted to divulge to anyone. “I know that Reece came here,” he continued. “I found the car that he stole parked right outside the base.”

  Garrett watched me from the corner of his eye. Agitated by the question, I wrapped my arms around myself. A horrible suspicion formed and he turned to face me. “Did you see me that night?” he asked me almost harshly.

  Blanching, I backed up until my backpack hit the wall. I’d never wanted him to learn about what we’d done, but neither he nor Mark was going to let it go. “Yes,” I said in a stricken whisper.

  “What happened between you?” Mark demanded. He was more concerned than angry that I’d lied to him.

  I threw him a bitter look that said it all. “What do you think happened? Lust gave Garrett a command and he had no choice but to obey her.”

  My despair was obvious and Reece sank down on the closest chair. “I raped you,” he said in an anguished voice. A spark of self-loathing rose in the back of my mind. Once again, it didn’t originate from me.

  Shaking my head, my reply was almost fierce. “You didn’t rape me. Rape means the other party isn’t willing.” I looked away and blushed bright red. “You didn’t force me to do anything that I didn’t want to do.”

  An awkward silence held sway until Mark broke it. “Did Reece bite you?” he asked and receiv
ed startled stares from us both.

  “Do I really have to give you a blow by blow account of everything that happened?” I asked, pained by his question.

  Horror swept across Garrett’s face and the self-loathing was replaced by alarm. “Did I break your skin with my teeth?” he asked hoarsely.

  My hand crept up to my left shoulder, which was all the answer he needed. I watched the pair fall into despair and began to feel frightened. Mark massaged his temples with both hands and Reece clutched his short hair in distress. “What’s wrong?” I asked. Sure, Garrett had been forced to have sex with me, but it wasn’t that big a deal. Not unless my father found out about it. If he did, then we were all screwed.

  “It was a full moon that night,” Mark said in a muffled voice.

  “So?”

  “It was the worst possible time for me to have sex with anyone,” Reece said bitterly. “It was too close to the change and I’m dangerously infectious then.”

  “Infectious?” Maybe I’d caught my strange fever from Reece. But that didn’t make sense, he hadn’t shown any signs of sickness. What change was he talking about?

  Dropping his hands, Mark crossed the room and took me by the shoulders. “Alexis, I’m afraid that you’ve caught a very rare and incurable disease.”

  My face went white and I swayed enough for him to tighten his grip. “What disease?”

  He paused for a moment before speaking. “Lycanthropy.”

  I was a fan of paranormal books and movies and I knew what that meant. My dreams of being fascinated with the moon came crashing back. I had a fleeting memory of chasing after a deer and then waking up naked and covered in blood. The remains of the deer in the clearing floated up out of my subconscious and for a moment I thought I was going to throw up. It hadn’t been a wolf pack that had devoured the doe. It had been me.