She couldn’t see anything. The fear started to rise in her throat again, and her stomach felt like it was swimming through a hurricane. If she had had anything left in her stomach, she was sure that she would have been vomiting it up onto her legs that refused to move. She was in a full-out terror when the door swung open, revealing the outline of the old doctor who had been so gracious.

  “Come on.”

  He moved forward and gripped her good arm, tugging her up to stand. Addison leaned heavily into him as he looked out the door at the people running. He was old, he wasn’t in the best of health, and he was having difficulty keeping her upright. They took a step into the hall, and she stumbled and face planted into the ground. He tried to pull her back up to stand, but his attempt was futile. She heard the loud voices and felt the cold stare against her back.

  The doctor called over his shoulder, “If she dies the boss is going to be far angrier than you have ever seen him.”

  Whoever he was talking to scooped Addison up into two strong arms and carried her down the hall and up the stairs. As soon as they made it outside, her eyes shut. The light of the sun was glaring into her pupils. She buried her face in the man’s neck, and it took her a second to realize that she felt skin.

  Opening her eyes she saw light brown hair and white skin. He wasn’t wearing his usual garb. She was taken a few blocks before being shoved into a dark-colored SUV with all the windows rolled up and air conditioning blasting. The man followed her in, but as soon as the door was shut he had a mask back in place.

  Each of the people in the front of the vehicle were also wearing the facial coverings, and the windows were so darkly tinted that she couldn’t see through them. The doctor entered the SUV a few seconds later, and she was squished between him and the burly man who had carried her. The doctor pressed a hand to her good wrist and took her pulse.

  “Pain?”

  “Not yet, too much adrenaline.”

  He nodded and slipped a needle from his pocket. “I’m sorry to do this, but I have to. You won’t remember when you wake up.”

  “Which will be when?”

  Her green eyes turned to him, and he shook his head and looked at the needle sliding into her skin. He wasn’t going to tell her. It was an almost immediate effect when the drugs hit, the tingling that started from the injection site and moved up and down at such a rapid pace. She started to panic as the sensation was eating its way through her body. She couldn’t get away from it. She was never good with being out of control. Her throat constricted, and she was having difficulty time breathing, but seconds later she was in a world of black dreamlessness.

  #

  Slowly Addison’s eyes opened. It felt as though they were sticking together, and she needed a pry bar to separate the lids. A warm wash cloth was set against her face and it felt heavenly. Sighing and moaning slightly, she didn’t move as the cloth coated her sore and stiff face. Once it was removed, she started the tedious process of pulling her lids apart. The wet material was helping, slipping from the bridge of her nose towards her ear, no doubt pulling crusted and dried fluid off her skin to aid. She managed, finally, to open one eye and was staring into the concerned face of the doctor.

  When she spoke, her voice was groggy and deep with sleep. “Wha… happn’d?”

  She realized in the back of her mind that she was having trouble forming the words and focusing on his concerned face.

  “You didn’t wake when you were supposed to.”

  “How… long?” She swallowed.

  It felt like a giant roach had crawled into her mouth and lodged itself in the middle of her esophagus. She could feel the legs move each time she tried to force her vocal cords to make sound.

  “Far longer than you should have.” He was running the wet material over her other eye, but she was having far more issues prying those lids apart. “Don’t try to open it. It’s swollen shut.”

  “Swollen?”

  “Yeah, from when he hit you.”

  The doctor’s head turned and there were two other voices in the room. They had been very careful so that she only heard the one man’s voice, but she was certain that with the fire there were some changes that needed to be made. Her head swiveled around so that she could look at her surroundings, and she deduced that she was in a house. She was tied to a bed, her arms by her head and her feet straight out. It was rather uncomfortable because not only was each limb tied, but her abdomen also had restraints covering it. She couldn’t count the number of ties that held her as she looked down. About every foot there was rope wrapped tightly around her skin until it was close to cutting off circulation.

  Wincing, she turned back to the doctor.

  “So, any new plans?”

  “I don’t come up with the plans. I do their bidding.”

  His words made Addison huff. He certainly did far more than he was supposed to. He must have heard what she was thinking because his eyes narrowed on her.

  “That was different.”

  “Not by much, you’re splitting hairs at that point.” She shot back quickly before she felt the hands at her ankles.

  Looking down the bed, she saw the same masked men as before. In all honesty, she had no idea if it was the same men that were in the car, that were in the building before, or completely new ones. They all started to look the same; their garb made sure of that.

  “They’re new.”

  Addison sighed, knowing that new guards meant they would be restarting the interrogation—or at least their version of interrogating. She cried when suddenly pain sliced through her body. It had been so unexpected that she couldn’t even contemplate containing the noise that pressed past her lips. She was gasping for air when the man that was holding her ankle took the two bones he had just snapped and twisted violently in two opposite directions.

  There was sweat on her brow, and her heart beat pounded in her ears. She couldn’t move to try and prevent the blows, she couldn’t curl her body away from it, and she couldn’t protect herself from the pain. The man issued a quick word to the doctor and he left the vicinity with a sad look. The new guard came up to her ear and whispered harshly.

  “It has been determined that you are no longer fit for questioning. You are no longer of further use to us and have no more information to give.”

  If her heart hadn’t been going a mile a minute before, it was in that moment. If they had no use for her, then what was the point of keeping her around? She looked at him clearly through the one good eye. She blinked slowly.

  “So, now what?”

  “Now, we use you to train our recruits.”

  “Lovely.”

  She hissed as her other ankle was snapped by the skinny person who had remained standing stoically at the end of the bed.

  #

  James woke with a start. Her muscles were so tense that they hurt. She was on full alert. James looked over at the sleeping form next to her and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Extricating herself from the bed, she covered the child with a blanket, and pressed soft lips to her forehead. James lingered longer than ordinary, breathing in the scent that was uniquely Lily. It calmed her firing nerves and reassured her that everything in that room was all right.

  Slipping from the bed to step out of the room, she shut the door and leaned heavily against the wall. She’d had a nightmare. It was either a nightmare or a vision, as she was going to call it. She wasn’t sure which, but it had scared her. Closing her eyes, she fell down the wall, bent her head to her raised knees, and circled her legs with her hands, holding on tight.

  James cried.

  She let the tears slip down her cheeks. The salty drops were making the clothes she wore damp, and the sobs stole through her body until she felt her form shake from the force. Shaking her head, she buried her face farther away from any impending sunlight of day and let the moment of utter despair, fear, and pure helplessness surround her. What seemed like minutes later, her crying hadn’t eased and she was starting to breathe heavily. Each time her lungs went to expand, the muscles in her chest would not allow the life-giving air in. She struggled to keep living.

  Then there were warm arms wrapping around her, and there was a quiet shushing sound in her ear. She leaned into the embrace, breathed in deeply through her nose, and recognized the soft scent of aftershave. It was a unique kind, which was why she remembered it. Lips pressed to her head and she continued to let the tears fall as he rocked her back and forth. So much time had passed that James had lost all count of it.

  Rubbing her fists over her face, she looked up into the green eyes that she loved so much and blinked rapidly. Shaking her head to clear the image, she held back more tears as she concluded that she was not staring at Addison.

  She choked back a sob and said, “They put her in a room when the fire started.”

  Rob took a deep breath and stared across the hall without comment. He got up and moved, leaving her alone. She was still pressed against the wall and wrapped in a tiny ball. She looked so small and devastated.

  “They took her out of it and put her in a car.”

  James said and tried to remain strong. Yet the tears started to slip past the dams she had put in place, and her legs were bouncing with the energy of trying to keep the sobs at bay.

  “Then they injected her with something and I couldn’t… I couldn’t feel her anymore.”

  Rob was holding onto her again.

  “I can’t feel her.” James was shaking her head back and forth into his shoulder as she tried to shut out the rest of the world. She wanted to focus only on Addison; maybe if she did that then she would be able to feel her.

  “They probably took her far away,” Rob spoke softly, his voice not daring to echo off the walls. He wanted to remain reverent of the situation.

  “No. I’ve always been able to feel her. Even when she was across the country or I was. I’ve always been able to feel her. I can’t feel her.” James lifted her eyes to his face, trying to make him understand her urgency. Her yellow eyes bored into his, and he nodded.

  “All right.”

  Kissing her forehead, he pulled her to stand with him. It was the first time James realized that there were other people in the hallway with them. Just two others, who were wearing leather coats and had guns strapped to their legs.

  Rob asked, “Where’s Lily?”

  “Inside, sleeping.”

  “Get her. We’ve been here too long. We need to leave.” He nodded gently, quieting the tone of his words.

  James slipped back into the room. Picking up the sleeping child, she cradled her tenderly, and moved back to the door.

  “I need to tell Brad that we’re leaving. He’ll be worried if he comes up here in the morning and we’re gone.”

  Rob glanced to one of his compatriots before looking back at James. “We had to incapacitate him.”

  “Incapacitate?”

  Rob shrugged. “He’ll wake up in an hour or so. Just a quick stun.”

  “He’s one of us.”

  “He is not one of us, James. You are one of us by proxy, he is not. He belongs to no group. Just because he has a gift does not mean that he is one of us.” He started moving toward the stairs after checking the room for anything that they had left behind. He shoved their clothes into a small duffle he’d brought and left the room.

  James was apprehensive about leaving with them. What made them better than the people she had just escaped from? They were willing to go to the same lengths, it seemed. The only advantage she saw at the moment was that this was Addison’s brother and they were, hopefully, there to take her home.

  Chewing on her lip, she finally answered him, “I understand.”

  She quietly followed them down the stairs and outside to a minivan. She was allowed to get in first and sat in the middle. She kept Lily in her arms, cradling and caressing the child as she mumbled lightly in her sleep.

  The sun was just coming up and she drew in a deep breath, feeling that for once things were going in the right direction. Then there was a moment when the rug was pulled and everything crashed down on her again. Addison was still gone and missing.

  She was dead. There was no other reason that James could think of as to why she couldn’t feel her presence. She tried so hard to link with her again and each time she was as lost as before. James started to rock back and forth as they drove on the highway, and she ignored any looks that the three men gave her.

  Time moved at a different pace than James did. She was being pulled out of the car and handed plane tickets as well as an ID. The name was wrong, that she didn’t know the address printed under the laminate. Rob moved into the building with her and met up with two others while the two people in the van drove away. He spoke with the woman and the man quietly while James held the still sleeping Lily on her hip. The girl would be waking soon. She always had been an early riser. Pressing her cheek into the warm head, James watched as blue eyes locked on her. The man nodded and the woman seemed to dismiss Rob.

  Rob came over and kissed James’ cheek. “I have to go find Addison.”

  “I understand.” She flicked her eyes over to him before moving them back to the couple he had been talking to.

  “This is my boss and his boss. They’ll take you back to our headquarters and go from there.”

  James nodded. “And what will that entail?”

  “They’ll want to debrief you and Lily, after you get checked over by the doctors, of course. You’ll have everything provided for you.” He ran a hand over her arm to reassure her.

  “Okay.” She whispered. It wasn’t like she had another option. She had been told that this was happening. “Thank you, Rob.”

  He smiled and nodded at her, leaning forward and kissing her cheek, again. “Take care of the kid, that’s all I ask.” He didn’t wait for a reply before turning on his heel and leaving her.

  James took a deep breath. Bolstering herself, she stepped toward the woman and the man who were watching her and talking. The other woman was beautiful—she looked like a pixie from a fairy tale: short cropped blonde hair, baby blue eyes, tiny nose, and a long lean body. She was probably a swimmer. James could see the muscles ripple as she twisted her body towards her and let a sweet, soft smile grace her lips. The woman would probably look good in anything: skirt suit, leather, sweats, or a swimsuit.

  Air caught in James’ lungs as she went to speak. “Hey.”

  “How are you doing?” The woman asked her, a hint of a southern twang seeping into the words.

  “Good, I think.” James shifted the weight of the child and swayed her hips from side to side.

  “That’s good. The flight will be a bit—we have about an hour wait. I’m Norma, by the way. And this is my colleague, Jean-Pierre.” She pressed a flat hand into the child’s back and rubbed softly. “She’s beautiful.”

  “Hmmm, yes.” James was still swaying. She was far more tired than she realized, and it wasn’t until that moment that she felt the drain and tax on her body.

  Jean-Pierre spoke next. “Want me to hold her?”

  James shook her head. She wasn’t going to let anyone hold Lily. No one except Addison.

  “O…kay. Well, let’s head through security then.”

  With a name like his, she was surprised when he didn’t have a French accent. Rather, his voice seemed to have no accent, or multiple ones all at the same time. He was in jeans and an over shirt which was very different from his boss, but it didn’t seem to bother either of them. James nodded and followed the faerie-like woman as Jean-Pierre brought up the rear.

  Slipping her shoes off as well as the child’s, she put them in a bin with her ID and the plane ticket. It felt weird to her that those items were all she had to send through the machine. Norma and Jean-Pierre had a few more items than she did, though not much. James held onto the girl tightly as she walked through the x-ray machine and then slowly pulled her flip flops back on. They led her to the terminal and sat to wait for the flight.

  The silence permeated everything. James wanted to speak with them before Lily woke. “So, where are we going?”

  “Back to our headquarters.” Norma was the one who spoke, the same soft smile covering her features as before. It was meant to put James at ease, and it did.

  “Which is where, exactly?”

  Norma took a deep breath and glanced at her partner who nodded his consent. “We are located in Wyoming. We own properties all over the country and even the world, but this is our largest with the most protection and adequate housing. There are guest rooms set up for the both of you.”

  “Thank you,” James said, her eyes sincerely conveying the words. “Does Max know that I’m with you?”

  The woman shook her head, the soft strands of hair moving at the top of her head. She handed James a cell phone. “But you can call him. I just ask that you don’t tell him where we are going.”

  “When will I be able to go home?”

  “We don’t know that. It all depends on Addison and what other information we find. It shouldn’t be long, though. If that’s what you want.”

  “If what’s what I want?”

  “If you want to go home when all of this is said and done,” Norma clarified.

  James furrowed her brow and looked down at Lily who was starting to wake up. “I’m not sure I understand what you mean.”

  “We’ll talk later. Make your call. As many as you like.” Norma pressed a hand to James’ forearm and then turned to her colleague to have a quiet conversation.

  James didn’t dare look at her again; instead she dialed her best friend’s cell and waited for him to pick up.

  #

  The drugs were completely out of Addison’s system, but the pain was so much that she was having a hard time staying conscious. Both ankles were broken, the arm that had been splinted had been shattered once again, and there were bruises along her cheeks and torso. She wanted to fade into unconsciousness and never emerge from the depths of it. She wanted to list away, but the noises pulled her back.

  She heard the loud bangs of weapons as they went off. The dull thuds of bodies as they hit the floor and their dead weight resounded through her ears. She took a deep breath, and the doctor was sitting by her side, his hand clasping hers as he waited for the onslaught to enter. The door burst open and both of them were startled.