“Ginny?” I shook Gin awake as subtle as I could.
“Fuck, what time is it?” She jumped awake out of the bed and then went into the bathroom. She rambled on about not being able to sleep and turning off her alarm. I sat and texted Vlad good morning.
“I’ll be shadowing you more closely today.” I tried not to freak her out, but my instincts were on high alert.
“What was that?” She came out already ready for the gym. “I can’t eat anything.”
“Me neither. Never mind. Listen, I need to do something with you before we go.” She looked at me with curiosity. “Don’t worry. I just need to establish a deeper connection with you so when she takes you, I can follow without her knowing. I have a feeling. It’s gonna happen today, and yesterday I disconnected so you could be with your hubby.”
Her intake of breath told me maybe I had come on too strong but fuck it, I needed this to protect her.
“Gin, come here.” I took her trembling hand and went to sit on the bed. “Once we are connected, I am linked to you. I know you’ve seen Vlad’s ability, right?” She just nodded. “I am a hundred times more powerful than he is. This bitch will not harm a hair on your head.” She smiled, and I took her hands and interlocked our fingers. I closed my eyes and concentrated hard on Gin, her body, her energy, her soul, and the shadows that surrounded her. How much she loved her husband and friends. How much she loved what she did and how good it made her feel. Everything. She was an open book, and now, I was among her pages. I let go of her hands and waited for her reaction. She opened her eyes and stared at me.
“I feel weird. Strong weird.” She stared at her hands as if she had never seen them before.
“It’s completely normal. I can take you and do whatever right now. Our connection is strong enough. You can feel me too,” I explained.
“Knowing that doesn’t help.”
“It should. I can protect you because we’re linked.”
“Oh. Then let’s get this over with.”
I had to admit, this feisty blonde in front of me had balls. We both followed our routes to the gym, and I watched from afar while Ginny started running on a treadmill. In less than half an hour, Jezebel joined her, and they talked as if they were old friends. I had to fight my urge to protect Gin. I could sense so much evil from Jezebel. Jezebel was too strong for her if she only knew. I followed them around when I saw them going to the sauna. I kept close but could not go in with them. I felt Ginny’s heart racing, and I knew this was it. Vlad was close as well so I sent him a message as an extra precaution. I closed my eyes and concentrated on Ginny. Our connection was strong, so I could follow her from afar all day. I felt how her body went from tense to scared. Her heartbeat raced so I followed her along and we were flying. Fuck, Jezebel was strong, and she carried us both in a blink of an eye. I opened my eyes and saw around me a dark hallway. The smell of humidity, limestones, and rotten eggs made me gag. Where the fuck were we? I heard sounds, moans, pain, and exhaustion. I felt it all. I walked and saw several doors and machinery. I felt Ginny near, so I kept on walking.
“Do you think planting that little bitch was gonna get me? Really, Lada? I’ve been tracking that Victor asshole for years now. He’s obsessed with me, maybe infatuated. Maybe both.” I turned around to see Jezebel naked. What the fuck? I looked away for a second. “What? Are you a prude? I’m amazing to admire. Just look at me.” She was a beautiful woman, but the whole I-just-caught-you-while-naked thing was freaking me out. She walked, leaned in, and graced her lips over mine. “You’re quite something, aren’t you? Is your Russian with you? He’s quite delicious. And Remo? Yum.” I was amazed at her ability. Victor had said we were similar, but I was only able to take people into black holes. Jezebel created a whole universe within the black holes.
“Do you want to find out? Where is she?” I looked around, and it felt as if I were flying in space.
“She’s learning her new tasks. What’s her ability, anyway? That’s still a mystery to me.” I looked straight at her eyes in defiance.
“You’ll pay if anything happens to her.” I began to lift shadows around her when I felt Ginny’s fear. My shadows dropped immediately. I felt her distant for a second, but our connection was still strong.
“Do you think I’m an idiot who would believe that all of a sudden there is a perfect woman, alone, in Vegas? The Agency is quite something. What have they ever done for us? Have you asked yourself that question?” she screamed. Her eyes were evil just like her energy.
“I haven’t. I don’t care about the Agency.” I talked to her but concentrated on Ginny.
“You’re such a bullshitter. You’re their bitch right now, and you don’t even know it.”
“You’re the one full of shit. You don’t want me to go with the Agency, but you want me to become your bitch instead? Cut the crap and make it easy on you. You have no idea the powers I possess,” I screamed back.
She appeared with a silk robe. Where had that come from? “I’ve been following you for a while, Lada. Who the fuck do you think arranged those two little shits to end up with you?” With the mention of my daughters, I went blind. Shadows all around shifted and surrounded her. I heard her laughter as I lifted her off the floor. I could not penetrate her body. Being connected to Gin was holding me back. I felt her own power fighting back, and it was too much for me to bear.
“You killed their mother.”
“Put me down—now,” Jezebel ordered, and against my will I was forced to do it. “I want you to listen. The mother does not matter. She was poor so life on the streets would eventually have killed her anyway. I want you to join me. The Agency is filth, a bunch of men calling the shots. Have you seen any women agents? Together we have more power than any man.”
“And what do you want with all this power?”
“What do you think, bitch? Rule the world, have money. It’s payback.”
“Payback to whom exactly?” She rolled her eyes and walked around. I felt pain, not mine, Gin’s. “You do realize you’re using women, not men. To do your shit. You fill your mouth with all these insane ideas, but you’re just like all men who exploit and abuse women. In fact, you’re worse.”
She paused for a second and dismissed whatever was in her mind. “Shut the fuck up, lifter.”
I felt a pang on my chest as if an elephant stepped on me or something. I could barely breathe. Somewhere in there were the women captives, and I had to live to set them free. I fought back with everything. I closed my eyes and thought of my girls, laughing and playing. I thought of Vlad making sweet love to me. I thought of my new friends and how much life there was for us to share. I had to live for them. When I opened my eyes, I saw a twinkle of weakness in Jezebel’s stare.
“I’m asking you one more time. Where are they?” I closed my eyes. “I can feel them.”
“I can feel them too, baby,” I heard his deep voice behind me and smiled.
“What? A man to save the day! Typical.” Jezebel stepped back a little.
“No, ma’am. Lada brought me here. She’s stronger than you and I combined.” Vlad gave me his hand.
Holding everything together was taking a toll on me. A metallic taste in my mouth from my own blood made me realize I needed to work fast. Vlad and I lifted shadows around her, and Jezebel kept stepping back.
“How the fuck did you sneak in?”
We ignored her and joined forces against her. Shadows swirled around her, and all we felt was darkness. Keeping this energy away from Gin and still keeping our connection was making me weak. I squeezed Vlad’s hand and spit out the blood that was pooling inside my mouth. I moved and left him in charge of Jezebel to find the women. I closed my eyes once more and was transported to a room that reeked like dirty laundry and humidity.
“Lada.” Ginny came toward me and held me up as I realized where I was. “Take us out of here. These women are in a trance. I have tried to talk to them, but they can’t listen to me.” When I looked around, there were about fifty women training, reading, in chairs with some type of device over their eyes, etc. They all had black tracksuits, and their hair was shaved off, including Ginny.
She ran her hand over her head, “I didn’t want her to know her abilities did nothing to me.”
I could not talk and spilled more blood. “We need to get out of here. I know you’re scared, but I will be right back. Start taking all this shit away from them. They won’t hurt you.” I pointed to all the cables and devices the women were hooked on. Ginny was probably scared, but she did not look it. Her bravery astounded me.
She nodded, and I went back to Vlad. He was on the floor, but Jezebel’s screams of pain were deafening. I turned. “Can you handle her on your own? I found them. There are like fifty women who I need to teleport back to the hotel. I can’t handle it all and you. I’ll be back for you.”
“I love you.”
His strained voice gave me more courage. I let go of my power over her little by little so Vlad could absorb it. He went down to his knees, and his nose bled, but he told me to move on. I loved him so much. With a second wind, I went back to the women and found Ginny following my instructions. As Jezebel grew weaker, the women’s trance started to disconnect. Ginny was there to talk to them and calm them down as I went back and forth from the black hole to the hotel’s sauna. Like lightning, I took my first victim back to reality to find Bruce, Remo, Joe, Victor, and five other agents waiting in agony. Bruce created a small explosion to evacuate the area while the Agency secured the perimeter away from human’s eyes. Remo and Joe would carry and fly women to the hospital at the beginning while rescue ambulances made their way to the hotel. I ignored everyone’s questions and concentrated on being fast and accurate. Ginny was a champ, so brave between my trips, helping all the women and not asking for anything in return. After several trips out of the black hole, I found myself carrying Ginny back to her beloved husband.
“Thank God,” was all he said before taking her into his arms and flying away. I saw Joe and Bruce help victims left and right. Agents were running in and out of the mayhem. I seeked them out and brought them with me to find Vlad. Not before I told Victor, “Jezebel is coming next, be ready.” I teleported Bruce, Joe, and I back through the hole to find my worst nightmare.
“She left you!” Jezebel was screaming at Vlad while he was lying on the floor trying to fight back. Joe without missing a beat ran up to her and punched her with all her might. I was able to feel Vlad’s relief.
“Do you want her to explode?” Bruce was good and ready.
“No!” I screamed. “She must have many black holes besides this one. Just make it hurt.” Bruce concentrated, and with his help, Vlad collapsed to the floor.
“Don’t do anything else, my love. We got this,” I whispered to him before he fainted.
Joe fought with all she had until I went back to them both.
As soon as I had Vlad lying on the floor close to us, I lifted the shadows around Jezebel who was already in pain from almost exploding into a million little Jezebel pieces.
“Joe, carry Vlad. He is too weak to move.” I felt blood coming out of my ears and mouth. “Bruce, I need you. Keep doing what you’re doing.”
“You got it.” His eyes lit up like lightning and never wavered from Jezebel who twisted and turned in pain.
“This is our last ride. Joe, you got him?”
“Yes.” She was not even out of breath.
That was all I needed to hear. The will to take him away from this place, my friends, and my girls gave me the strength for the last trip out of that nightmare. As soon as we landed inside the sauna, Joe laid Vlad on the nearest surface, came toward Bruce and I as we looked around, looking for Jezebel. Our connection to her was lost, and she was gone. Joe ran back and caught Bruce right before he hit the floor. I saw Vlad being assisted by first responder agents. Where the hell was she? I spit out blood again, and as the liquid left my body, I felt the room spinning around me until darkness clouded my eyes.