Riley’s heart was in her mouth and pounding so loudly she almost didn’t hear Darius’s hurried instructions. The world around her— Alec’s limp body, the warm blood between her fingers, the crowd on the bus craning their necks to see—disappeared with a frisson of electricity and the usual surge of Tyon Power. Darius’s work, clearly.
Riley focused her attention on Alec the instant they arrived wherever Darius had sent them. The blood was still welling up through the attempt at a seal she’d made with the palm of her hand against his tee-shirt. She could feel his heart labouring through his ribs. She’d only seen the silver blade for a second but the sight of its bloody emergence from Alec’s back was seared into her memory.
“Get your orb out. Heal that incision.” Darius’s words seemed to come from far away. Without hesitation, Riley reached into her pocket and pulled out her orb without question. Hands trembling so hard she could barely hold onto the slippery crystal, she applied it to Alec’s back, just at the opening of the knife wound. She closed her eyes. Concentrate, she urged herself. She tried to visualize the injury. The torn and bleeding skin, the ripped muscles, the veins spilling his precious life blood into the cavity. She shuddered. She prayed that his kidneys weren’t damaged or, worse, a main blood vessel.
The orb began to heat up as the Tyon power sizzled underneath her skin. She tuned out Darius’s urgent voice and Peter’s whining responses. She didn’t pause to notice where Darius had brought them. She didn’t pause to even think how to do what she was doing. Urgency was her teacher. Heal. She pushed the power through her hands into Alec. Please heal.
The floor underneath her knees lurched slightly and she nearly fell. Instantly righting herself, she focused harder. The lurch repeated twice more then settled into a steady movement forward. Someone dropped down beside her. A second pair of hands bumped up against hers.
“Don’t stop. I’m helping,” Darius gasped in her ear.
Riley nodded. Darius’s orb clinked with hers as he shoved his closer to the wound. The heat grew stronger.
The pulsing of power steadily increased, with one orb feeding off the other, amplifying in strength. Riley became entranced in the effort. She lost track of time. She was vaguely aware of her knees becoming sore, of movement around her and sounds of traffic. She felt Darius’s arm and shoulder against hers. His exhaustion and concern penetrated the healing fog but she pushed that awareness away. The only thing that mattered was saving Alec’s life.
Someone was shouting. The noise was insistent and irritating. Her concentration broke. She opened her eyes and blinked with amazement.
He’d transported them to a camper. A massive, top of the line, over-decorated RV, she corrected. Alec was lying on the floor in between the faux marble table and the matching plush velvet sofa bed. Darius was squished against her and Peter was ensconced in a beige leather captain’s chair and steering. The tasselled curtains over the wide window above the sofa swung rhythmically back and forth and something inside the mini-fridge to her immediate right was sloshing with each sway. Someone had paid a ridiculous fortune for a made-to-order mobile palace in gold and fawn.
“Do I turn east or west?” Peter repeated loudly.
“East,” Darius said weakly. Riley turned to stare at him in shock.
Darius’s skin was pasty white, his freckles stood out in frank relief and his lips were bloodless. She shoved him with her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Darius swallowed and gave a slight nod. “Hate the sight of blood,” he whispered.
Instantly relieved and not a little annoyed, Riley focused her attention back to Alec. He was breathing easier she noted and his heart didn’t seem to be labouring as hard as before. She peered at her bloody hands. There was barely any blood on the floor, although the back of his shirt and the waist of his jeans were soaked. She raised her orb for a quick peek underneath. The skin, puckered and angrily red, was knitted together. A wave of relief surged through her veins and she began to shiver.
“He’s gonna be okay,” she said to Darius.
He bobbed his head in reply.
“I can take over now. You rest,” she ordered. He’d transported all three of them; a herculean task for an Operative. It was a wonder he wasn’t unconscious with the strain.
“Sure?” Darius asked. But he was already pulling his orb away from hers and leaning back against the sofa with his eyes closed.
“Sure.” Riley shifted into a more comfortable position. She grimaced at the cramp in her left leg and banged her heel against the carpeted floor to restart the circulation. “What on earth was he thinking?”
“To start the fight?” Darius murmured softly. “You, probably.”
“I can look after myself,” Riley turned her head away. She rapidly blinked the tears away. “I don’t need him dying for me.”
“I’d say he’d tell you that you’re worth dying for.”
“And you agree with him? Would you die for someone?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Darius grinned. “I’m much too important to sacrifice myself for anyone.”
Riley couldn’t help the smile. It was good to see that his ego was safely overinflated, that the strain of saving them hadn’t been too much. “See if there’s something to drink in the fridge, Dare.”
Darius sighed deeply but leaned over her shoulder to pull open the mini-fridge door behind her. The vacuum popped as it opened and the rack of cans rattled while he rooted around. The door closed.
“Here,” he held out an ice-cold can of soda.
“Can you open it for me?” she asked. “My hands are kinda full.”
Darius stood up instead and stepped unsteadily over her. He turned on the water in the mini-sink and washed his hands for a moment, scrubbing at the sticky blood. He then washed off the two cans of cola he had removed from the fridge, rinsing his bloody handprints down the drain. Satisfied, he stepped back over Riley and flopped down onto the sofa. There was a sharp crack and hiss as he pulled the tab. He handed her a can. In the front of the cab, Peter was swearing at the traffic and gave both of them a dark look in the rearview mirror.
Riley took a grateful swig and swallowed, while keeping the orb in place. Darius drained his can, belched loudly and sighed in satisfaction. After a couple of moments, he opened his eyes. “That feels better.”
“What? The drink or the typically gross display of masculine lack of manners?” Riley said as she took another mouthful.
Darius’s lips curled into a slight grin. “Both.”
“I see you’ve got Happy Boy under control,” she nodded towards Peter.
Darius rubbed his face with his hands and sighed with evident fatigue. “Maybe a bit too much,” he said quietly. “I had to move pretty fast. I couldn’t afford to be subtle.”
“How long will it last?” Riley asked.
Darius shrugged weakly. “Who knows? Maybe it’s permanent.”
A horrible vision of Peter, endlessly trailing behind Darius, waiting to do his bidding, flashed across her mind. Forcibly shoving that thought away, she focused on the more pressing issues. “We’ve both used our orbs, Darius. They’ll be onto us any minute.”
“I know,” Darius frowned. “I can only trust we’re far enough from the time travel site that they don’t put two and two together. Hopefully, my signature is distinct enough from our combined one that no one notices.”
“And Anna?”
“Probably locking down my co-ordinates right now.” Darius leaned forward. Just for a moment, an irrepressible spark flickered in his eyes. “You’ll have to give me your orb. She can’t see you using one. She’ll know something’s up.”
“And what’ll you tell her about this?” Riley placed the empty can on the counter and waved her hand over Alec’s unconscious form.
“I came across three Potentials. All at once. And saved you from attack.”
“And she’s gonna believe that?” Darius must be brain damaged from exhaustion. Anna, his direct supervisor and ultra-strict Tyon, was anything but stupid.
“I don’t see why Anna wouldn’t.”
“You don’t see why I wouldn’t what?” asked a familiar icy voice behind them.