Alec had paid enough attention in physics class to know that falling seven stories totally sucked. There was no choice. Turn into a bloody pancake or use his orb.
He shoved his hand into his pocket and tightened his fingers around the crystal. Move it, he ordered. The satisfying surge of Tyon power made his skin tingle and his heart race. Around him, panic seized the other occupants of the elevator. Their screams filled the air and elbows and hands beat futilely at him and the walls. Alec didn’t have time to pick a destination or to fight off the wildly terrified people around him. He just left.
He was vaguely aware of the usual pulling and pushing sensations and that he was not alone as he travelled. He was also aware of a growing sense of guilt. He had left at least ten people to die. It didn’t matter that there was nothing he could have done to save them; no one had the power to move so many through space with a Tyon crystal. But those people were dying directly because of him. Rhozan wouldn’t have cut the cable otherwise.
Sickened, he landed with a thud and toppled backwards into the tiled walls. Someone fell on top of him and someone else gave a loud grunt and shoved him from behind. An almost-familiar voice was screaming. Alec opened his eyes as he jammed the orb back into his pocket.
He was back in the same subway he’d started in, he realized with a start. Clearly his subconscious had been driving and had recognized the tube station as a safe place. But on the other hand, he’d brought four people with him, which explained the massive headache that was now making its unpleasantness known. Groaning, he clasped a hand to his forehead and checked out the vicinity. Five people winking into existence in the middle of a very public space was not going to be missed. Especially by the people who’d done the travelling.
The matronly woman who’d told him off in the elevator had landed several feet away and was lying on her back, her wool skirt around her waist and her knee-high nylons kicking in the air. Alec groaned. What a horrible sight. Directly on top of him was a businessman. The man was struggling to right himself and grabbing at the papers that had escaped his briefcase and were floating downwards to settle all over the filthy floor while his eyes darted all over the subway station, Alec, and the screaming matron. The businessman gibbered something unintelligible, gave one final terrified look at Alec and bolted. Alec pulled himself to his feet and turned to see whom he’d landed on. It was actually two people and one of them looked enough like Riley that Alec’s heart zoomed right back up into his throat. He couldn’t tear his eyes away and for a long moment stood entranced.
A closer inspection showed that the Riley look-alike was actually much older and not nearly as pretty. Especially as her eyes narrowed and she snarled, “Who the hell are you?”
Okay, that was more like Riley.
Alec was just about to take a step away when a heavy hand dropped to his shoulder and spun him around. Off balance and sickened by the teleportation and the headache, Alec fell against the uniformed chest of a burly man.
“Ere, young man. What’s going on?”
Alec blinked at the shiny buttons under his nose. The hands gripped his shoulders again, this time both sides, and pulled him upwards to stand about a foot away. Alec craned his neck upwards. The police officer was nearly a foot taller and twice as wide. He stank of nicotine and his hazel eyes didn’t have a fraction of kindness anywhere.
Alec tried to moisten his mouth enough to unstick his tongue from the roof. He was about to protest his innocence, when the matron shoved herself between the officer and Alec and started screeching.
Alec watched the bobby’s face harden as he focused on the woman. The second the grip on his shoulders slackened, Alec was off. Head still pounding, vertigo threatening to topple him to the ground with every step, he ran. He heard the shouts behind him. The cop’s thick baritone brogue, the matron’s shriek of indignation and the Riley look-alike’s profanity. None of it mattered. The icy sensation of being targeted galvanized his feet. An Emissary. Somewhere nearby and moving in fast.
Alec tore through the station. He vaulted over the exit turnstiles and took the stairs upwards three at a time. There were more shouts but he ignored them. The instant he was out of the station and on the street he turned on the speed. He didn’t spare a look behind.
He ran down the street for several blocks before the goosebumps faded and the uneasy feeling disappeared. He slowed to a walk and tried to catch his breath. That had been far too close and way too scary.
He forced himself to take a few slow and deep breaths. He would have to grab a cab and get something to eat and find a place to stay for the night. He had only a few pounds left in his pocket so another ATM was on the list too, and he didn’t fancy that at all. Rhozan was getting faster at showing up when he touched his orb. One of these times his luck was going to run out.
He buttoned his jacket and rammed his hands in the pockets, mostly to keep them well away from his orb. The lights in the shops on either side of the street were coming on and the crowds thinning. All the cabs seemed full and now that the adrenaline rush was over he felt drained and weary. He had just spotted a bank machine on the other side of the street when the freezing sensation started in his orb again. Without pausing to consider it, he ducked in the closest shop, scurried around a rack of clothing and slipped up to the window, hiding behind a mannequin. He peered through the glass and waited.
A minute passed and Alec saw no one who might be anything of significance. No obvious Tyon Operative in dull grey overalls, or blank-eyed puppet of the Others. As for the trio he’d only briefly glimpsed while on the tour bus, not a sign. He ran his fingers through his hair and leaned a little closer to the window. Why did this odd sensation he was being watched persist? Who was out there?
“Excuse me, young man.” A hand came down on his shoulder. Alec leapt a foot off the ground. He whirled around.
The saleswoman was middle aged with bright blue stripes in her hair and nearly purple lipstick. She had a half annoyed and half amused expression on her face. “May I help you find something?”
Alec cleared his throat. “I just…,” he started to say as he glanced past the woman to the store beyond her. There were racks of filmy lace and shelf after shelf of satin. His face flushed a brilliant crimson as realization hit him.
“No, I er, just made a…” He stepped back and bumped into the mannequin. His eyes rolled over the scantily clad all-too-realistic dummy and his throat closed. He didn’t finish his sentence. With a strangled gasp, he bolted from the store.