Aurora Rising (23 page)

“Bombs,” Cassie yelled. A multitude of small objects floated out over the square in all directions, some thrown, some controlled by telekinesis. A rush of power surged around Rori as Cassie, Bass and Keyen reached out with their minds to redirect them to safer areas. Ultin and Tankin ignited some in mid-air using fire and sound but more followed. There was no way to counter them as explosions began to shake the area.

Rori stumbled, gripping the wall beside her to keep from falling. The bombs were coming from so many different directions there was no way to shield everyone. Screams of pain, panic and fear came from everywhere.

“No,” Rori cried out as she saw Keyen knocked to the ground by an explosion detonated near him before he could push it away. She couldn’t see Cassie or Bass for the dust and smoke in the air.

Another hail of bombs filled the air.

“No.” This time, it was a whisper from her as subconsciously she reached for the detestable things. Rori stretched an arm out as if to grab them with her hand as did her mind, wrapping her shield around them like a cocoon.

The first few went off in minor explosions, held harmless in her shield. Then, a massive explosion ripped through the air. The ground shook. Buildings quaked as if in fear. Sound rolled out in thunderous waves. Smoke bellowed and churned over the square. Fragments burst out, only to freeze in midair. Trapped in the web Rori wove around them.

“Astounding,” Ultin cried out over the comm.

“Grand. You’ve been holding out on us.” Tankin’s comment teased, though there was a lot of awe behind the words.

Rori wasn’t sure what to say in return. She didn’t know she could do it. She hadn’t even thought of doing it. She more just did.

“Rori,” Keyen called her name. “You okay?”

“Yes.”

“Good move.” Keyen said over the comm and his words echoed it in her mind along with his love.

“I…” Rori started to answer when a wave of mind numbing confusion hit her so intimately it took a second to realize it wasn’t directed at her but Keyen. She felt pain so intense build within him, that it took her breath away.

Keyen stumbled out from behind his protection, staggering as he tried to fight the compulsion that pulled him into the open almost before Rori could get a shield around him.

“Destroy him,” Drasc yelled from his position, and again, the air filled with fire from lasers.

Rori stepped from behind her barrier.

“No! Don’t shoot,” Drasc’s cry echoed over the square. Several more blasts erupted, bursting short of her as they intersected with objects thrown up by Cassie, Bass, and a member of Orn’s team. Rori hardly flinched, her attention was locked on Keyen. He’d dropped to one knee, his hand locked on his head as he tried to fight off the mental attack.

Rori ran across the space and dropped to her knees beside him, placing her hands over his. The mental confusion in her intensified, but Rori met it. Letting her mind shield flow through her to Keyen, she pushed back, countering the hypno. Rage, envy, and the desire to destroy them flared in the hypno as she fed more power into her attack.

The blast of the woman’s hatred hit against Rori’s shield, flaring back at her. Across the square there was an agonized scream that shifted into a wail of despair as the hypno’s talent crashed in on her.

Rori felt a wave of empathy for the woman, but it disappeared as the hypno burst from behind a vehicle. The laser weapon in her hand was set on the highest setting and locked in continuous fire. The beam cut across the square scorching everything in its path. A slider exploded and a statue toppled as the beam drew near.

Keyen tackled Rori to the ground as the laser burned a trail only a foot above them. When the beam shifted back toward them, he linked onto a section of the damaged statue, flinging it back in the laser’s path. Sparks and fragments flew as it burst apart.

A sharp, ear-ringing whine pierced the air.

“It’s going to blow.” Keyen’s words barely reached Rori though he yelled them in her ear. The explosion of the overheated laser cut off anything she might have said. The ground shook, and Rori felt a wave of sadness for the young woman made unstable by the promise of making her talent stronger.

Rori didn’t get to contemplate it long though, as the momentary silence that had settled over the square was ripped apart by the explosion of another string of bombs. Keyen pulled Rori up and behind the slider, using it as shelter while he sent a myriad of the explosives back at their senders.

“We have to end this now,” he yelled over his comm.

Rori knew he was right, and felt a sense of pain as the fire fight picked up once more. She could taste how unstable Drasc’s forces were as adrenaline fed their tainted talent and pushed them over the edge of self-control.

Tears ran down her face at the waste. True, they had elected to join Drasc, drawn by power and greed. Still, it brought her pain and her thoughts locked on the man that caused it all for his selfish hunger of power and glory.

She brought the image of him up in her mind, first of him across the square waiting to declare himself emperor. The image shifted to him standing over her, declaring she would be his, gloating and using a threat against Bass to hold her. ‘Even you can’t’, the words filtered back through her mind, and again, how did she know if she hadn’t tried. She just knew she had to stop it before anyone else was hurt or killed.

Keyen’s attention was on blocking explosives and laser bursts sent toward them and buildings where groups of people took refuge. Rori straightened and, once again, stepped from behind the cover.

“Rori,” Sansa yelled, followed by her name being called by Keyen and others.

She ignored them all. Her shield up, laser fire burst harmlessly around her as she walked across the square. Inside her, she drew from the pain and fears, letting it fuel her. Power flowed through her as she kept walking, expanding her shield as Keyen and Tankin followed her. They were joined by Bass, Cassie, Sansa and Ultin. Unified, they reached the center of the square.

Drasc’s people, who had ceased fire in stunned reaction to such a bold move, finally recovered and opened up fire. Keyen locked on one man, fling him to the side where he crumbled to the ground. Bass and Cassie followed suit on the other side picking off attackers one by one. Steadily they continued toward Drasc’s position, countering everything thrown at them.

“Kill them! Kill them all!” Drasc yelled. Using his own talent to send one of the massive artworks that had been shorn off by the hypno’s laser at them. Keyen intercept it in midair and send it back at him.

Drasc locked on another piece, but before he could send it at them, Keyen also locked on, and it became a power play of strength which Keyen quickly won, sending the curved metal structure hurtling out of their path.

A howl cut the air. “Kill them, now!”

A rain of explosives filled the air again. This time there was no panic or doubt in Rori. She wrapped her shield around them, holding them off where they exploded well out of range. The Guardians continued forward, never breaking their pace, as most of Creed’s troops were knocked to the ground or thrown back.

“Drasc Creed,” Keyen called out. “You are under arrest for crimes against society. Cease your actions and turn yourself in.”

Rori felt a surge of power fueled by scorn and supremacy. Around them, debris shifted as Drasc’s talent reached out to smash everything down on them. Cassie and Bass joined with Keyen to force it all down as Rori focused on Drasc, weaving a thin shield all round him, tightening it down.

“What are you doing?” Drasc yelled as he encountered the first constricting band.

“Not allowing you to hurt anyone,” Rori answered calmly, tightening the shield so that it forced his arms to his body.

“No, you can’t. No one can,” he cried, trying to struggle, no longer able to move.

“Evidently, I can.”

“No, I was going to make you my empress,” he wailed now, as if unable to fathom her actions.

“And I told you, I don’t want to be your empress or any part of you ruling the world.”

“No, it’s him.” He shifted his gaze to Keyen. “You chose him?”

“I love him.”

A howl went up from the man. “He should have died at the festival.”

Rori felt her own anger flare, but before she could do anything, Drasc’s power surged in a killing wave that rolled out toward them. Keyen’s own surge of power reached Drasc’s. Talent slammed together in a force so strong it knocked everyone from their feet. A boom rumbled over the area, dampened by Tankin, who kept it from breaking everyone’s eardrums.

Dust filled the air. When it settled, Drasc Creed was on the ground like everyone else, but he wasn’t moving. Rori shifted, glancing around quickly to take stock of the team. All seemed shaken but fine.

“Tank?” Keyen’s attention followed hers.

“We’re all right.” The big man made it to his feet, reaching out to help Ultin and Sansa up.

Rori turned back to Keyen as he raised a hand to her cheek. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, reaching for him.

He drew her in and kissed her lightly before easing back slightly. He rested his forehead against hers. “Have I told you, you are totally amazing?”

“I think you did that.” She smiled at his words then sobered as she turned toward where Drasc lay. Where before there had been rage and power lust, Rori felt nothing. She didn’t need to use a life scan to know Drasc Creed was dead, killed by his own power’s backlash against him when it was overwhelmed by Keyen’s talent.

Keyen’s hand on her chin turned her back to face him. “It’s better this way.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek.

“I know.” Rori swallowed. “It’s just such a waste. He could have done so much good.”

“Everyone has to make choices as to how they live their lives and use the talents given them. We can do good, or we can let power and egotism control us.”

“That is very profound.”

“Hey.” He smiled. “I’m not just a pretty face. Actually, I can’t take credit for it. Your grandfather told me that when I was an angry boy with too much power for his own good. Speaking of which.” He nodded to where Jattin Straye hurried toward them from the council building.

“Rori,” her grandfather called.

She barely made it to her feet with Keyen’s help when her grandfather reached her, wrapping her in a big hug that lifted her off the ground.

“My little girl.”

“I’m fine.” She hugged him back, answering before he could ask the question.

He held her at arm’s length. “When you walked out there, I swear you scared ten years off my old life.” Love softened the sternness in his voice.

“Just doing what you’d have done.”

“Yes, well, next time do it from a safer spot. Boy,” he turned his attention to Keyen, “you’re going have to do a better job taking care of her if I’m to let you marry her.”

“I did the best I could,” Keyen defended himself, a grin came to his face as his arm found its way around Rori’s waist, drawing her near him. She took pleasure from Keyen’s nearness as, suddenly, she felt very tired.

“What are you doing here?” she asked her grandfather.

“I headed here as soon as Hiymm told me you were taken and got finagled into giving a hand, which I better start doing, though now it looks like it’s mostly clean up now. The last of the attackers seemed to have given up or slunk away.” He gave her one more hug before hurrying off.

Rori looked around again, this time taking in the fact that her grandfather was right. Most of Creed’s forces had fallen. There were only a handful left, and they were placidly being rounded up by the security force from the council building.

Rori, Keyen and their team and were joined by Orn’s team.

“That was quite a move,” Orn commented as he drew near.

“I don’t know if we’ll add it to regular defense training, but it worked,” Keyen said, not bothering to release his hold on Rori.

“That it did. But I’d suggest you don’t try that again, or if you do, give us some warning.” Orn shook his head in amazement. “Anyway, I’d guess after the night you’ve had, your team could use a good meal and some rest.”

“You can say that again,” Bass spoke up with a yawn to which Orn just grinned.

“Why don’t you go? We’ll stay around just in case, though I don’t expect problems. The fight has pretty much gone out of them.”

Rori was relieved when Keyen agreed to the offer. Now that her adrenaline had burned out, exhaustion filled her body, and she realized she was starving, not having eaten since the restaurant on the beach the day before.

There was a lot of handshaking and backslaps as the other team split off.

“Are we ready to go run the gauntlet?” Keyen asked the group.

“What?” Rori raised her head from his shoulder, not realizing she’d even rested it there.

Keyen tilted his head to the side and Rori saw the mass of reporters that filled the area between them and their sled.

“How’d they get here so fast?” She couldn’t believe the sight.

“They were here all along,” Cassie answered.

“Just hiding back and waiting for the fireworks to end,” Bass picked up for his sister. “I’d say we gave them a pretty good show.” He yawned again. “I’m all for getting this over with.”