Hunted (Talented Saga # 3) (30 page)

“Kidnapped?” I exclaimed.
That wasn’t what I’d expected.

“Civilians will be more inclined to report any sightings of you guys if they think you’re in danger and not that you
ran away.” Adam rolled his eyes to emphasize how ridiculous he thought the notion was.

“What about the others?
What are they saying about them?”

“Downplaying it for now.
They haven’t made it widely known that they’re gone,” he replied.

“Does Director McDonough know who Alex really is yet?” I asked, a lump forming in my throat.
Erik said once Mac knew, he would pull out all the stops to find him. I didn’t want to put Adam and his people in danger on our account. He’d been nice enough to take us in and I hated the thought of ruining everything he’d built here.

“I’m not sure.
If he has, he isn’t advertising it. He did pull his son from whatever assignment he was on and has him at that hotel,” he replied.

“Donavon is here?
In Washington?” I demanded. If Donavon were at the Hamilton, Mac knew.

“That’s what I hear,” Adam confirmed, startled by my reaction.

“How far are we from the hotel? Do you know?” I asked frantically. My connection to Donavon was stronger than any other I’d ever formed. I could reach his mind from a space of several miles if I concentrated hard enough.

“I’d say about three miles, give or take,” Adam guessed, looking thoughtful.

“Thanks for the nuts. I think I’m tired enough to sleep now,” I said, quickly rising.

“Sure.
See you in the morning,” he responded. If Adam were confused by my abrupt departure, he didn’t let on.

After high-tailing it through the mall/street, I checked on Alex and found him sleeping peacefully.
With great effort, I cleared my mind of all thoughts. Then I concentrated on Donavon. At first, I wasn’t able to connect with him, but perseverance paid off when I eventually felt his familiar brain pattern. It was weak, but the harder I concentrated, the stronger the connection became.

Donavon was at the Hamilton.
He was upset and growing angrier by the minute. I concentrated harder. He was with Mac. They were fighting. Mac was screaming at him for being so stupid as to get Kandice pregnant and then not telling him about the baby. Mac was incredulous that Donavon had hid Alex. I concentrated even harder until I could see Donavon sitting on the black leather couch in Mac’s room. He wanted to stand up and defend his actions. He wanted to shout at his father and tell him exactly why he’d hid his son, but Donavon didn’t dare. He was terrified of Mac.

My heart ached for him as he sat there and let his father berate him.
Then the dressing down turned even uglier; Mac brought me into it. He insisted that if Donavon hadn’t “messed things up with me”, then this whole situation would’ve never happened. Then something strange happened. The connection faltered. I refocused my mental energy and realized Donavon was trying to block me. He knew I was in his head. I wasn’t sure if the effort of attempting to keep me out and contain his rage at his father was too much for Donavon or if he just gave in to the inevitable, but his barricades dropped almost as quickly as they had gone up.

When I reestablished the link, Mac was still yelling about Donavon letting me catch him with Kandice, causing me to break-up with him.
So
that
was what he didn’t want me to hear. He didn’t want me to know that Mac had essentially forced him to date me. I should’ve let him block me.

Tears stung my eyes as Mac shrieked about all Donavon’s mistakes.
I’d never heard Mac so out of control. The composed façade he wore for the world was gone. He held nothing back. Funny, I thought. I always figured I’d be the one to expose the crack in Mac’s armor. Indirectly, the situation unfolding at the Hamilton was my fault. If I hadn’t taken Alex, Donavon wouldn’t be experiencing Mac’s wrath.

Guilt washed over me.
My actions had an adverse effect on everyone I cared about. Erik and his family were in danger. Donavon’s secret had been exposed. Cadence and Henri were soon to be on the Agency’s most wanted list if they weren’t already.

Back at the Hamilton, Donavon reached his breaking point.
“You have no one to blame for this, but yourself,
Dad
,” Donavon screamed. “Alex is four years old! Why couldn’t you just leave well enough alone? Are you so ambitious, so desperate to leave your mark on Toxic? Was turning me into a monster not enough for you?” Donavon’s cold laugher filled my head. “Thank you,” he said softly. “Thank you for sending Talia to extract him. She is the only person with enough gumption to stand up to you. All this time, you thought she’d be your salvation. Now she will be your downfall.”

The right side of my face exploded in pain, stars danced before my eyes, and I toppled backwards on the bed.
I was so stunned that it took me a minute to realize what had happened. Mac had backhanded Donavon. He had hit his own son. My own pain and hurt feelings were quickly forgotten as the urge to sprint the several miles to the Hamilton and attack Mac overwhelmed me. I wanted to hurt him; I wanted him to feel the humiliation that Donavon was experiencing now. The primal desire to kill had never been stronger and somehow I doubted it was related to my new powers.

Donavon fled from the sitting room of Mac’s suite into one of the bedrooms and slammed the door behind him.
He was on the verge of tears and I felt as though I was intruding on something personal and intimate. But he was so upset, I couldn’t leave him alone.

“Donavon?”
I sent tentatively.
“Are you okay?”

“How’s Alex?”
Donavon asked, ignoring my question.

I looked over at Donavon’s son.
He was curled in a tiny ball with his thumb stuffed in his mouth, breathing evenly, the very picture of innocence.

“He’s good.
He’s sleeping next to me right now,”
I added.

“Thank you, Talia.
After everything I’ve done to you, I can’t believe you were willing to take such a risk,”
Donavon choked, and I knew he was openly crying.

“Well, I didn’t do it for you.
You’re an ass,”
I said dryly.

“I’m so sorry, Tal.
I never meant to hurt you. I did love you. I do love you. What my dad said ...”
he didn’t finish his thought, but he didn’t need to. As much I wanted to hate him, I couldn’t even be angry with him when he was in so much pain.

“
It’s fine, Donavon. None of it matters anymore. And I love you, too.”
I did love him, just not in the way I’d once thought I did.

“Where are you guys?
You must be close,”
Donavon said.

“I don’t think I should tell you.
The less you know, the better.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t trust him. He wouldn’t put Alex at further risk, but I wasn’t sure how far Mac was willing to go to get the child back. After all, he had experimented on his own son; I doubted he was above intense psychic interrogation if he thought Donavon knew our whereabouts. And I knew firsthand how badly that could end. I shuddered at the thought of what I’d once done to a boy Mac had forced me to interrogate; that guy was now in a psychiatric ward and didn’t even know his own name.

“You’re probably right,”
Donavon agreed.

“Have you heard anything about Erik?”
I asked hesitantly. If anybody would know whether Erik had been caught, it would be Donavon. But I was reluctant to divulge too much information. While I was convinced Donavon wouldn’t jeopardize mine or Alex’s safety, there was no love lost between him and Erik. I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t turn Erik in if he knew we weren’t together.

“Isn’t he with you?”
Donavon asked, confused.
“Dad figured Erik was the only one with the ability to get you of here.”

“We got separated,”
I replied lamely. Damn. Maybe asking was a mistake.

“Tal, they have his family’s home under surveillance.
Dad knows he will go for them. He needs to be careful; Dad is just as desperate to get Erik back as he is you and Alex.”

I didn’t affirm Donavon’s suspicious, but I didn’t contradict them either.
There was no point.
“What’s going to happen to you? Will you be arrested?”
I asked, fearfully.

“No, technically I haven’t done anything wrong yet.
Alex is only four, so Toxic can’t argue that I violated the Mandatory Testing Laws. And it’s not illegal to keep your son a secret from your father, no matter how many times Dad says otherwise. My father is keeping the whole situation quiet since the Agency broke their own laws by going after a young child and…murdering Kandice.”
The words were painful in his mind and the connection allowed me the insight to know he couldn’t have spoken them out loud. He’d cared about her. Loved her, even. Regret darkened his mood further.

I was seized with a desire to comfort him, hug him, hold him, and tell him that I was sorry about Kandice.
Sorry wasn’t enough, though. He’d lost the mother of his child, his ally in the fight to keep Alex hidden. Never in a million years could I have imagined that I would share his pain.

“I guess that’s good, at least,”
I managed to send back.

“I don’t care what they do to me as long as Alex is safe and away from Toxic,”
Donavon said.

“I’ll keep him safe,”
I promised Donavon.

“I don’t know how to thank you enough, Tal.
I wish there was something I could do to repay you.”

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out,”
I told him.

“Will you tell him I love him?”
Donavon asked, tearing up again.

“As soon as he wakes up,”
I swore. Then I broke the connection. I wanted to stay in that hotel room with Donavon, even if I were only there in mind and not body. Connecting with someone who understood and appreciated the enormity of what I was facing was comforting. The intensity of Donavon’s emotions was too much on top of my own, though. His mind was a black pit of despair and I couldn’t risk being sucked inside.

I scooted across the bed and wrapped my arms around Alex.
Holding him gave me a sense of peace. His warm body reminded me why Kandice had lost her life, why Donavon had orchestrated the plan to hide his son. Toxic and Mac had already corrupted our bodies, ruined our lives, but there was still hope that they wouldn’t do the same to Alex and countless other children.

As promised, the first thing I did the next morning was tell Alex his daddy loved him.
The little boy was so brave. He didn’t cry, just nodded stoically and made me promise to tell Donavon he loved him, too, and hoped he would see him soon.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Over the course of the next couple of days, Alex and I fell in to a routine.
Every day, he played with the other children while I helped Adam collect the food that had been dropped down the grates. Alex drew me pictures and made me strange looking crafts out of popsicle sticks and I dutifully pinned them to the walls of our living quarters. I often sat with Adam after Alex went to bed and kept him company while he stood guard.

My anxiety over Erik’s well-being increased with each passing day.
Adam’s contacts hadn’t heard the news of his capture, so I took that as a positive sign. I chanced reaching out to Donavon a couple more times, but he was no longer close enough to establish a connection. According to what little information Adam was able to glean, the hunt for me, Alex, and Erik was now an Agency-wide initiative. Oddly, there was no mention of Cadence or Henri and I wondered if they hadn’t been associated with our disappearances or if Mac just wasn’t as concerned with finding them.

On the fifth day after Erik’s departure, I returned from my collection duties to find Alex agitated and moody.
Leisel told me he’d been like that for hours. He refused to speak and was curled in a ball in the corner of the room, nearly comatose. I hurried over to him and collected him in my arms.

“What’s wrong, sweetie?” I asked, stroking his hair.
He began to whimper as he buried his face in my chest. Clutched in his small fists were several pieces of balled up paper. My stomach plummeted. Fear constricted my chest like a fist squeezing my lungs until I couldn’t breathe. My hands shook as I pried the pages loose.

“No, no, no, no,” Alex moaned, rocking back and forth.

With trembling fingers, I smoothed the crinkled pages. There, on the first page, was an incredibly detailed picture of Erik; he was bleeding from a cut on his head and his lip was split. His eyes were dull and unfocused. I flipped to the second page - Erik unconscious lying on a bed in a cell. The third page - Erik propped up against a cinder block wall in the cell, two men pinning his arms down by his sides as a third man stood over him with his hand raised. The third man was Mac.

I threw the pictures to the floor as quickly as if they had burned my hand.
I started gulping air and began to hyperventilate. My head swam and darkness clouded my peripheral vision. I must’ve screamed or moaned because suddenly, Leisel and several other women surrounded me and Alex.

No, Talia.
Be strong, I ordered myself, terrified I was about to faint. Alex needs you, a voice reminded me. I shook my head to clear the black spots. Alex continued to shake in my arms. I hugged him tighter, just as much for my benefit as his.

“Get my father,” Leisel cried.
“Talia, Talia are you okay?” she asked, dropping to her knees beside us.

“I’m fine,” I snapped, willing the statement to be true.

Leisel flinched at the tone of my voice.

“I’m fine,” I repeated more calmly.

Leisel picked up the pages and gasped, bringing her hand to her mouth when she saw the images. “I’m so sorry,” she breathed.

A crowd had gathered around us.
They were breathing too hard, too much, consuming too much air. I felt as if I were suffocating. Move, move, move, I willed them. They finally parted for Adam, who shoved his way to where I sat. Leisel handed him the pictures without comment. A grim expression settled over his features. Urging the throng of bystanders back, he gripped me around my waist and lifted me to my feet. He put his hand on the small of my back and guided me and Alex out of the room.

Adam didn’t take us back to our alcove, instead leading us to a room at the very end of the hallway.
The space was smaller than the others I’d seen. Even through the haze that obscured my vision, I noticed the prettily painted dressers and felt the homey comfort of the room. Worn rugs decorated the floors and hand-drawn pictures dotted the walls. This was where Adam and his family lived, I realized.

He gestured to the largest of the four beds.
Numbly, I made my way over. The springs gave a loud groan when I sat. I tried to lay Alex on the mattress, but he clung to the front of my shirt and refused to let go.

My mind raced; Erik had been captured.
Erik was going to be killed if I didn’t do something. And it was my fault. I had caused this. My stomach was nauseous and I was glad I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. What was I going to do? I had to go to him. Erik had rescued me so many times and in so many ways, I couldn’t just sit here and let Mac hurt him. Mac. After the way he’d treated Donavon, his own son, I knew there was no hope for Erik.

“I have to go to him,” I blurted out.

“Talia, you need to think this through,” Adam said, taking a seat next to me. His tone wasn’t patronizing. It didn’t have the lecture-like quality that Mac’s always did when he thought I was being rash or unreasonable.

“There’s nothing to think about.
He needs me. They’re going to kill him,” I shouted frantically.

“Not necessarily.
The Agency wants you and Alex. They will keep him alive until they can draw you out,” Adam reasoned.

“What if they interrogate him?
They’ll be able to figure out where we are. You’ll all be in danger,” I shook my head, biting my lip to keep the waterworks at bay.

“He’s strong-willed, Talia.
I’m sure you know that. He won’t break,” Adam said calmly.

“They can break anyone.
I should know. I’ve broken people. You don’t understand what the psychic interrogation is like. It’s awful,” I moaned.

“No, they can’t.
You’re the only Talent with Manipulation powers strong enough to break any person’s will. Why do you think they want you back so badly?” Adam said pointedly.

I was barely listening; I was beyond reason.
He had no idea what Toxic was capable of. With all of their experimental technologies, I wasn’t even sure the extent of their abilities. Except Adam was right about one thing. There was one person who hadn’t cracked, Penny. Mac had admitted to me that no Talent had been strong enough to get through her barricades.

Penny had been a strong Mimic, just like Erik was.
But Erik had a lot of experience blocking my mental intrusions. If he could keep me out, he could keep anyone out. Hope filled me. If Erik could keep them out of his head and if what Adam said was true, then they would keep him alive until they had me and Alex back. There was a chance I could get him back.

The wheels in my head started turning again.
Slowly at first, but picking up steam as I fell into planning mode. I was a Hunter. Toxic had trained me to think on my feet, make snap decisions that could mean the difference between life and death. This was just another mission, I told myself. Sure, a very personal, very dangerous one, but a mission all the same.

A rescue mission would require a team, an exceptionally skilled group of highly trained individuals willing to go against Toxic.
Where on earth would I find such a collection of people? The men and women of the Underground weren’t experienced enough for my needs. Amateurs, no matter how determined, made mistakes. Mistakes, when the stakes were so high, were not an option. Erik’s words came back to me.

Supposedly, Crane’s parents were among the Operatives who had originally broken ties with Toxic and founded the Underground.
Adam and his men smuggled Talents into Coalition territory. The Coalition had attacked the research facility in Bethesda. Even as the plan took shape in my mind, I had my doubts. What I didn’t have, however, were options.

“Adam?” I began hesitantly,
then continued before I lost my nerve. “Was Ian Crane ever part of the Underground?” The words tumbled from my mouth. I still wasn’t sure whether I was ready to associate the man who may or may not have killed my parents with people I’d come to know over the past couple of days. The people of the Underground wanted peace. Crane waged war. Right now, though, I needed someone willing to do battle with Toxic.

Adam didn’t even blink.
“Yes. He broke off from our organization because he didn’t think we were proactive enough. He hated hiding. He recruited followers and, well, you know the rest.”

Even though I’d been expecting the answer, it still felt as if the wind had been knocked out of me.
A million other questions burned in my mind. Only one mattered.

“Erik said you can smuggle people into Coalition territory?” I said.

“We can,” Adam told me, growing uneasy.

“I need you to get me and Alex over the border,” I announced.

“Talia, every person in the country is looking for you two. Toxic is offering a huge reward. It’s too risky,” he answered sadly. “I promised Erik I’d keep you safe. I can’t do that.”

“Erik is in danger.
They will kill him. This is the only way to save him. Please,” I begged. “He’s done so much for me. I love him.” The tears were swimming in my eyes and I didn’t try to hold them back this time. I needed Adam to understand how much Erik meant to me.

“Let me make some calls,” Adam said after a long pause.
“Lay down here for now. Rest. If I can get a Conductor to agree to take you, you will need your strength. The journey won’t be easy.”

I wanted to impress upon him the urgency of the situation.
Toxic had Erik. And while they might keep him alive in hopes of drawing me out, that would only buy him so much time. Eventually, the Agency would get tired of waiting and in the meantime, they weren’t just going to let him sit in a cell twiddling his thumbs.

Going to the Coalition, and Crane specifically, was a huge risk.
I had no idea if he would be willing to help and in truth, I had nothing to offer him in return. But he had just orchestrated an attack on a Toxic compound, which meant he might be crazy enough to attempt another. Several of his men had been taken prisoner. He might agree to a rescue mission. Granted, he hadn’t come for Penny once she’d been sentenced to death, but she was just one person. Maybe he’d be more inclined when the lives of a handful of his men were on the line.

The plan was thin and full of gaping holes.
I found my thinking in terms of “ifs” instead of “whens”. Unfortunately, I had nowhere else to turn. Asking a man I’d spent half my life hating for help sickened me. But even I wasn’t delusional enough to think I could save Erik alone. Being sick had taught me patience. I could wait to settle my differences with Crane. All the new developments in my life had made me less eager for revenge and more willing to hear him out.

Alex was still agitated and kept twitching and groaning on the bed.
I rubbed his back and made soft, soothing noises, but the child gave no indication that he heard me. Deciding to take Adam’s advice, I lay down next to Alex and cuddled him in my arms. His body stilled in my embrace even as his whimpers continued. I scanned his mind, immediately wishing I’d refrained.

Alex wasn’t living in the here and now; he was entrenched in a vision.
He was in an interrogation room. Erik was shackled to a solitary chair in the center of a dimly lit room. The single overhead light flickered every so often and I wondered if there was actually a short or if an Electrical Manipulator was the culprit and the scenario was more for effect. One of Erik’s eyes was swollen completely shut and the cut on his mouth that I’d seen in Alex’s picture now tore entirely through his bottom lip. His nearly black hair was matted with what I assumed was his own blood. Erik wheezed as he sat hunched over in the chair. The sound of his ragged breathing was like music to my ears, though. At least he was still alive.

From one corner of the room, Mac screamed obscenities incomprehensibly.
Even in the poor lighting, I could make out the crazed expression in his steel eyes. I had finally succeeded in pushing Mac over the edge. My abduction of Alex and my own disappearance had sent him spiraling out of control. Mingled with his incoherent ramblings were words that chilled me. Mac knew Anya had analyzed my blood and he was using her as leverage against Erik. My heart sank. The fact that Erik wouldn’t divulge my whereabouts, even if it meant Anya’s life, made me feel even worse.

A thought occurred to me:
If Mac were using Anya to attempt to get Erik to speak, he had no better leverage. Erik’s family must be safe; Henri and Cadence must’ve gotten away. A small glimmer of hope dared to break through the dread. At least Erik had succeeded in what he’d set out to do.

“Tell me where she is!!” Mac screeched at Erik, his voice cracked, already hoarse from yelling.

Erik gave a short, raspy laugh that held no mirth. “Fuck you,” he spat.

Mac brought one heavy boot back and with more force than a man of his age should have, landed his steel-toe in the center of Erik’s knee cap.
I cringed, bringing my hand to my mouth as the sound of the bone cracking echoed in the small room. I felt his pain as if I really were in the room with him and it brought tears to my eyes. The only indication Erik gave that he felt the blow was a low grunt.

“I’ll find her with or without your help.
Either way, I will kill you once I do,” Mac hissed, leaning over Erik, his large hands pressing on Erik’s shoulders.

Erik winced at the harsh contact, but when he turned his face up to look at Mac, the one turquoise eye still visible had his patented mischievous glint.
“You will never find her and it will be me that does the killing if you do,” Erik whispered. His voice was soft and he enunciated each word to make sure there was no misunderstanding.