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Chapter 38

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Beth’s eyes grew wide. She nodded briefly, and then a determined expression shone through when she realized what I wanted her to do. With concentrated effort, she bore her vision into the back of one of the guards, who up until that moment had been holding a stunner pointed at some of the smaller children to keep the older ones in line. The weapon flew from his hands. With a look of shock, he spun to see who had disarmed him.

In the same instant, Sam slammed an elbow into the nose of the guard at his back and Will kicked low, breaking the knee of his captor. The man released him and crumbled to the floor, screaming in agony. Chaos broke out. Byter had gotten the jump on his guard as well, and a flurry of men in uniform rushed the scene. Beth, along with the help of two of the older children, used her abilities to disarm the guards before they fired on Sam, Will, and Byter, allowing the three men to fend off multiple attackers.

Malevich, surprised by the turn, pulled out a gun, grabbed me around the neck and dragged me backward toward the elevator, screaming at his mother to follow, even as he pressed the Glock into my temple. I had a moment to wonder if it was the gun he’d taken from Josh, and a surge of anger rose inside me.

“You’ve lost! Can’t you see that?” My voice rasped against Malevich’s choke hold.

The white-haired woman stood frozen, horrified by the situation. “You fool! How can you let these children defeat you like this?”

My wind cut off, I followed backward and worked my fingers into the small gap between his arm and my throat, took a breath, and cleared my mind. If I convinced him to only take me, maybe everyone else could fight their way out before the explosives blew. He was pounding on the button to open the elevator and still yelling at his mother, the two bickering back and forth.

“Now is not the time, Mother,” he said through gritted teeth. The smell of his foul breath fell hot and heavy on my face, and I choked as he squeezed my throat tighter. The cold barrel of the gun pressed sharply into the side of my head. I couldn’t reach the knife in my boot and I wasn’t willing to bet my life and everyone else’s that I could heal from a bullet to the brain.

“You never listen to me!” Malevich’s mother fumed. “You should have drugged the little monsters and had them boarded onto the ship unconscious like I told you to.” She glared at Sam and Will, who were still exchanging punches, kicks and bone-breaking combinations with agents and guards across the room.

Byter had disappeared from the scene and Dr. Bartholomew had been caught in the crossfire. He lay in a pool of blood, his thick glasses askew and his eyes staring, lifeless. A mix of emotion rolled through me. The man who’d turned my mother’s research into a death sentence for her was now gone. Before I had a chance to sort through the implications, the elevator door opened. Malevich yelled to his mother.

“We have to go—now!” There were three minutes on the clock and the rumble of engines below vibrated up through the floor.

“We’re not leaving without the children.” Mrs. Malevich turned to Beth, clapping her hands in front of the girl’s face and distracting her concentration. “Stop that, this instant, young lady,” the old woman demanded. But Zeph grabbed the woman from behind and faced off with Malevich. My pulse roared in my throat.

“No! Zeph. Don’t do it.”

“Let my sister go, or I swear I’ll drain the old lady dry,” threatened Zeph, glaring coldly at Malevich. Even as he said the words, the woman’s face turned a ghostly white and her mouth opened, but no air came in or went out, and her eyes widened to saucers.

Malevich tightened his hold, took in an enraged breath and in a word, commanded his dogs, “Attack!”

King and Prince leapt through the air in two bounds and were on Zeph in a flash. The old woman shrieked and stumbled out of the way, then fell to the floor. Zeph howled as the dogs latched on. One of them viciously tore at his leg while the other took him down by the arm. If it were only one and he could get a grip on the animal, he could kill it in an instant, but as it was, he could barely defend against the brutes trying to tear out his throat.

Screams rang in my ears as the whole scene narrowed to a microscopic lens before me, my brain in dire need of oxygen. Beth had been hit by a stunner and lay against the wall, while EVO teens fended off guards who tried to force the children onto the elevator behind us.

Weapons flew, guards fell, and the sounds of battle raged around me, but all I heard was my brother’s cries and my own screams inside my head. Even if I could break free, how would I stop the dogs from tearing my brother apart? I struggled against Malevich’s hold, clawing at his arm, until finally my fingers caught on the chain around my neck. Resting over my heart was my locket...and Will’s whistle.

I yanked hard and snapped the the chain, raised the whistle to my lips, and with as much air as I could draw through the crushing of my windpipe, I blew with all my might. A high-pitched whine split the air. The dogs stopped, their ears perked up, and their noses lifted. In the next second, the stairwell door opened and Bo and Pappy bounded in and raced toward Zeph and the two Dobermans. The wolves tore into the dogs and a vicious, bloody battle ensued, marked by snarls, yelps, and the sounds of tearing flesh and crunching bones.

The impossible scene and the spots flashing before my eyes had me wondering if I were stuck in some grizzly nightmare, but the painful grip on my throat and the cold steel to my head brought the image to clarity.

Rushing in behind the dogs was Dalton, Agent Simms, and Maia. Maia? How did she...? The questions and subsequent answers flashed in a millisecond as Joe, Luke, and Tyler Johnson poured into the room. They must have stowed away on the third Condor with the wolves. Had Joe killed Dell and his wife? Was he here to join Malevich, or to avenge his son? I had no more time to consider the man’s motives as the scent of blood and death filled the air.

My attention flew back to Zeph, who was bloody but sitting up, shaking and in shock. Beth, now conscious, crawled over next to him, tears streaming while she clung to him. Upon Dalton’s orders, Maia led the remaining EVO children out into the stairwell and rushed them to what I hoped would be safety. Dalton and Agent Simms joined the fight against the guards. Bo and Pappy, once they’d left Malevich’s beasts in a bloody heap, stood their ground a few feet away, ready to spring, but I held my hand up to stop them, knowing Malevich’s trigger finger was faster than either of them.

Malevich shouted above the chaos. “Stop NOW! Or so help me God, I’ll take this girl’s head off right here.”

My stomach twisted a notch tighter and my lungs seized. Action slowed to a stop. All eyes turned on me. Sam and Will, both bruised, battered, and breathless, took a step toward me, but Malevich stopped them with a press of his finger against the trigger.

“Uh, uh, uh. I wouldn’t come any closer if I were you. This gun has a very sensitive trigger pull and my hands are a bit shaky. You understand,” he said, somewhat breathless himself. “You!” he pointed to Tyler, who turned ashen. Then he motioned to his mother. “Help her up.”

Her wispy white hair out of sorts, the woman struggled to rise. Reluctantly, Tyler came to her aid and lifted her to her feet. She brushed off his hand, clutched her purse, and slowly went to join her son. As she came up beside him, she turned on the crowd—made up of our team and the few guards left standing.

“I want that boy dead!” She pointed at Zeph, whose dark eyes were focused in spite of the pain he was in. “He should have been put down from the beginning. He’s an abomination!”

Malevich, keeping a tight rein on me, took another step toward the elevator. Seeing her son back away, the woman, her eyes blazing, pulled a small handgun from her purse, aimed it at Zeph, and fired. Time stopped.

The crack of the gun exploded in my ears—once, twice, three times, and then blood blossomed across Beth’s abdomen, her eyes going wide. I couldn’t tell whether it was she or Zeph, or both, who’d been hit.

At the sound of the loud pop, pop, pop, Malevich, startled, loosened his grip. I took the opportunity, seized his wrist and pointed the gun skyward, driving the side of my boot down his shin and into his instep. He buckled and swore through gritted teeth. I followed with a sharp elbow to his solar plexus. He groaned and clutched his abdomen, trying to recover his air. A final back kick to the chest sent him tumbling into the elevator, knocking over the man guarding the children. The kids ran out, screaming and running for the stairwell exit. Malevich’s mother shouted to the children to come back, but when they ignored her, she rushed to join her son in the elevator, her only recourse, to escape.

At the sound of shots, more guards poured in from the hall. Bo and Pappy, seeing me free, turned their attention to the newcomers and attacked. Sam, Will, Agent Simms, and Dalton were caught up in battle once again, and I was left to see to my brother and Beth. I rushed to their side and dropped to the floor, tears streaming and heart hammering. But before I could lay hands on either of them, Malevich stepped off the elevator, his gun pointed in Sam and Will’s direction and a satisfied smile edging his lips. My heart seized.

My eye caught a glint of steel. Laying nearby was my grandfather’s .45 caliber Smith and Wesson—the one Sam had given to Will. It had been dropped in the scuffle and lay within reach. With no more than a breath of consideration for what I was about to do, I grabbed the gun, took aim, and fired.