The Guardians (MORE Trilogy) (16 page)

“There’s someone out there!” the man shouted back into the cave. “Come on, and bring Christopher!”

Another man and a blond woman emerged from the cave, both holding weapons, followed by a slight, dark-haired man Tiernan recognized from the fight at the Rogue lair when they’d rescued Ava.
 

The pyrokinetic.

He winced. That wasn’t good.

Ava continued to throw rocks and branches through the forest, luring the little group away from the cave.
 

Tiernan slipped closer. He could feel one more person inside. He glanced up at Ava, hoping she felt the same thing. It felt strange to rely on someone else after so many years working on his own. The only person he truly trusted in the world was Katherine, and even with her, he preferred to call the shots. Not that she didn’t push it. Frequently.

Ava nodded and held up one finger in agreement, then went back to distracting the others as Tiernan moved silently toward the cave.
 

The crash of rocks and branches in the distance covered his movements, and he reached for the knife at his ankle when he got to the entrance, his back pressed against the cold rock as he took a quick, assessing glance inside. With a sharp breath, he descended into the darkness, waiting a moment for his eyes to adjust before he proceeded, his fingers trailing along the chilled walls of the cave.

It was larger than Tiernan had expected, tall enough for him to stand upright, and extended down and back to where it disappeared around a sharp corner. He proceeded through the tunnel around several twists and turns until he came to a large, well-lit cavern that apparently served as some kind of command center. A bank of computers was set up against one wall, the rest of the room filled with stacked crates and boxes. He started toward the computers to take a closer look, but as he rounded a large crate, he noticed another smaller tunnel branching off from the cavern. He could tell that whoever was still in the cave was somewhere in that direction.
 

Just as he was about to head down the tunnel, he felt another presence approaching quickly from the opposite direction. He turned and ducked behind the crate, only to see Ava appear from the main tunnel, headed straight for him.
 

Perfect.

“What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be the distraction.”

She waved a hand. “They’re chasing rocks all over the place out there. We have time.” When he continued to glare at her, she cocked a brow. “Not enough to sit here and argue about it, but—”

“All right.” He relented, albeit reluctantly. “Let’s go, but stay behind me.”

“My hero,” she said, batting her eyelashes.
 

Tiernan ignored her and set off through the tunnel. It wasn’t long before they came to a dead end, a stone wall facing them, and two openings on either side blocked by makeshift metal doors.
 

“This one,” Ava whispered, touching to the door to the right.
 

Tiernan nodded and pressed his ear to the door, listening for a moment before giving it a tentative shove. It stood firm, somehow wedged into the thick rock.

“Stand back,” he told Ava as he drew his pistol. He took a deep breath and kicked the door.
 

With a crash and a shower of dirt and rocks, it collapsed forward onto the dirt floor, revealing a small room carved into the rock. A young woman sat curled up on a cot in the corner, watching him with wide and frightened eyes. Tiernan held the gun pointed at her as he advanced into the room, but the girl didn’t move. She sat, paralyzed, not even blinking, until Ava reached out and touched his arm. He’d been so intent on the girl that he hadn’t even realized Ava had followed him into the room.

“I think you can put that away.” Ava started to step around Tiernan, but he threw out an arm to stop her.
 

“She’s just a girl,” Ava said.

“Looks can be deceiving.” He’d seen it too many times. Deadly purpose wrapped up in innocent packaging. For all he knew, this girl could burst their internal organs with a thought.
 

“She was locked in this room,” Ava said slowly, as if explaining to a small child. “Which means she needs our help.”
 

Tiernan eyed the girl for a long moment. “She was locked in this room for a reason. Maybe
we
need protection from
her
.”

The girl swallowed nervously, watching him like a skittish colt, her legs twitching with what he suspected was an instinct to run. With a resigned sigh, he lowered the weapon to his side.
 

Ava moved around Tiernan, ignoring his warning grumble. The girl swiveled her anxious gaze to Ava, watching as she came closer until her knees finally bumped the edge of the cot. The girl was young—maybe fourteen or fifteen—her dark hair chopped at odd angles, the chin-length strands streaked with blue and purple. Cheekbones carved sharp shadows on her face, echoed by the straight lines and corners of her thin limbs and joints. She wore no contact lenses, so her eyes were her most compelling feature—almond-shaped, one almost black, the other pale green. She stared at Ava without blinking, giving the impression she saw much more than most.

“We won’t hurt you,” Ava said quietly, feeling the tension in the room. “We can help you get out of here. Who are you?”

The girl swallowed nervously. “Emma.”

“Emma? That’s your name?”
 

She nodded. “Emma Reiko.”

Ava smiled encouragingly and sat down next to her, smoothing her hand over the rough woolen blanket. “I’m Ava. This is Tiernan.”

Tiernan peered back out into the tunnel. “We don’t have time for this.”

Ava tipped her head slightly in acknowledgement. “We’re looking for someone,” she told Emma, trying to rein in her anxiety with steady breaths and gentling tones. “Was there . . . someone else here? A man with dark hair and blue eyes? He might have been wearing glasses.”

Emma licked her lips, swallowed hard again, and darted a glance at Tiernan. Turning back to Ava, she nodded, whispering, “You mean Caleb.”

Ava tensed. “You know Caleb? You saw him?”

Emma nodded again, loosening the hold on her knees so she could slide off the cot. She pointed out the door to the other room across the tunnel. “They kept him in there, I think.”

Without another word, Ava shot to her feet, racing out into the tunnel and pounding on the metal door as she shouted Caleb’s name. Tiernan touched her shoulder, but she shrugged him off and reached down for her gift. Instead of a slow build, it shot forward in a burst of power, the metal door buckling in the center before slamming into the wall, all but folded in half. She rushed into the room, coming to an abrupt stop in the center of the dirt floor. A cot similar to Emma’s sat folded against the wall, but other than that, the room was empty.

Tiernan walked in behind her, staying close to the wall as he watched her carefully. Ava sighed, her power settling as quickly as it had surged.
 

“He’s gone,” she said, almost mystified by the overwhelming sense of loss. “I didn’t feel him, but I hoped
 . . .
”

Tiernan bent over to touch the cot and closed his eyes a moment. “He was here, though. Not too long ago. An hour. Maybe two.”

Ava’s senses tingled, pushing her anxiety and despair aside with a rush of fear. “They’re coming back.” She left the room with one last longing glance and found Emma waiting for them in the doorway to her own cell. Tiernan passed them, heading down the tunnel, his gun held at the ready.

“Emma. We can take you away from these people. To someplace safe,” she said, tentatively reaching out to touch her shoulder. “But we have to go now. Before they come back.”

The girl paled, eyes wide with undisguised terror as she scrambled away from Ava and backed up against the wall. “No. If I run, they’ll come after me.” She shook her head slowly and took gasping breaths between panicked words. “It’ll be worse. It’s always worse if I try and run—”

Ava worried the girl was going to hyperventilate. “It’s okay,” she said, keeping her voice low and soothing.

“You don’t understand—”

Tiernan’s hissed voice echoed down the tunnel. “Ava! Now!”
 

She approached Emma with outstretched hands, compassion overriding the urgency of the moment. “I know you’re scared,” she said. “But I’m telling you, we can keep you safe.”

“You can’t—”

“We
can
.” Ava gripped the girl’s shoulders gently and looked into her eyes with reassurance. “I know you don’t know us and this is all scary, but time is running out. If we’re going to go, we need to go now.
 

“You need to trust us. Let us help you.” Ava squeezed her shoulders. “Please.”
 

Emma stared into Ava’s eyes for a long moment, then let out a shaky breath and nodded once. She cast a worried glance toward the door before ducking to grab a coat and a small bag and slipping it over her head and one shoulder. She took Ava’s hand and allowed herself to be led through the tunnel after Tiernan.
 

They found him huddled behind the crate by the tunnel entrance, peering around the corner.
 

He didn’t look back as Ava came up behind him. “How far?” he asked. “Do we have time to get out?”

Ava reached out with her gift, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach. “No. They’re too close. Probably already at the cave entrance.”

Tiernan’s jaw flexed as he looked around the cavern, trying to come up with a plan of action. He signaled for them to follow him as he crossed the room, taking up a spot against the wall next to the opening leading to the tunnel going outside. He flexed his fingers around the gun, and said in a low voice, “You’ll have to create a distraction again. With any luck, we can get them headed down that other tunnel before they realize we’re here. Maybe with so many Race imprints, it will be hard for them to pinpoint our exact location.”

“You think that will really work?” Ava asked.
 

“Probably not.” He shrugged. “So you might have to reenact that trick with the door—maybe with that crate over there.” He gestured with the gun across the room, looking at her sideways. “Do you think you can do that?”

Ava knew what he was asking. Could she hurt someone? Could she possibly kill someone? She’d done it before, with Arthur, but that was spur-of-the-moment, unplanned—a them-or-us situation where she didn’t have time to think about it beforehand. This was different. She looked at Emma, clutching her hand, innocent and scared, and thought of Caleb.

Caleb.

Somewhere out there. And once the Council learned Caleb was still on the run, they’d most likely take matters into their own hands. In other words, hunt Caleb down. She couldn’t let that happen. They had to find him first.

With grim determination, she nodded sharply. “I can do it.”

They waited in silence, and Ava could feel each step as the group got closer. She could tell when Tiernan felt them as well. He squared his shoulders, clenched his fists, and braced his feet in a wide stance, preparing for a fight. She turned to the tunnel across the room and readied her own weapons, calling on her gift as the first footsteps echoed through the cavern. She reached out for the metal door she’d knocked down, picking it up and letting it clatter against the stone floor. The sound amplified in the tunnel, and it wasn’t long before their pursuers ran into the cavern. They huddled in the shadows as the four Rogues scanned the room, but to Ava’s surprise, they didn’t even seem to notice them.
 

Then she realized it wasn’t only her own gift she was feeling. Where she held Emma’s hand, she felt the tingle of unfamiliar power running along her skin. She gaped at the girl, whose eyes were closed and brow creased in concentration, and watched as the Rogues took off down the far tunnel.
 

Tiernan tugged on Ava’s sleeve, and she stumbled after him.
 

The three of them ran down the tunnel in the opposite direction, and Ava felt a rush of hope as the light of the entrance finally showed ahead.

They raced out into the sunshine, and Ava stopped and turned around.
 

“What are you doing?” Tiernan snapped, tucking his gun back into his pants. “Let’s go.”