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I try to get up, but I’m pinned against the base of a pew. I plant my foot on the wood to brace myself. The wind would push me along the floor if the pew wasn’t blocking my path.
I twist around to look in the direction of the voice, and I see a man with his hands out toward me. He came from behind the stage, and he’s walking slowly toward me. He’s got white-blond hair, and a black duster hangs to his ankles. The wind isn’t affecting him. Not one hair on his head is moving.
He’s using a Gift on me. Fuckingwind.
It’s getting stronger. My tactical suit is starting to strangle me. My foot slips, and I tumble around the base of the pew. Suddenly, I’m flying backward along the floor. The wind is blowing me under the pews toward the doors I came in just minutes ago.
I scrabble for a hold on something—anything, but the wind is too much. I’m about to be blown right out the doors.
I shout into my comm, “I’m under attack! Some bastard with wind as his Gift. I need backup!”
But Rev is yelling into my ear, talking over me. “Did you say there’s a woman? Jesus Christ! Call off the missiles! Call off the missiles!”
I don’t know if anyone heard me say I was under attack, and now our comms are lit up with the guys asking if they heard right that there’s a woman in the casino. I couldn’t get a word in if I wanted to. It looks like I’m on my own against this asshole.
My hands grab at the pews as I fly past them, but I can’t get a hold on anything. Then I’m past the pews and sliding toward the doors. The stool is long gone, and the doors stand wide open. So do the outer doors. I’m about to be pushed out of Raptor’s security headquarters without completing my mission. I’ve got to disable all their shit so we can search for Jud freely.
Flailing for anything, my hand grabs onto a candelabra. I close my fist tight around its base, and as I blow past, it clatters to the tiles and comes with me, slowing me down. A twist of my wrist as I blow past the doors makes the top of the candelabra hook the frame.
My feet leave the floor as wind pummels me. My body is flapping in the breeze like a goddamned windsock. But I’m anchored, thanks to the heavy brass.
“Think you can fight the Storm?” the blond guy says. He’s planted his feet right in front of the monitors, staring me down from the business end of the center aisle. “Think again. Wind is just the beginning. Wait ’til you feel my lightning.” He grins, showing yellow teeth, and he rubs his hands together like he can’t wait to electrocute me.
If he hits me with lightning, I’m dead.
But I’m not thinking of myself right now. I’m thinking of Cora. The asshole who kidnapped her had lightning as his Gift, and he used it to torture her. He used other things too, like the cigarettes that left marks all over her back, spelling out his name: Leon.
That fucker.
This Storm asshole is a fucker, too.
Rage makes me hot inside. I have to do something to end this. To end him. He’s one of the enemy, and he’ll hurt Cora if he gets half a chance, just like Leon did.
But I dropped my handgun, and I can’t get to my rifle. It’s being blown back so hard the strap is trying to strangle me.
I’m about to lose hope when, deep in my belly, my Gift churns. It’s ready to serve me. I just have to tell it what to do.
The answer isn’t obvious. I’m the tech guy. I can’t fight wind or lightning. I can’t lift a human being with my mind and send him flying, like Brawn. I can’t summon birds to swarm this douchebag. But there is one thing I can do.
I focus my entire mind on the bay of monitors behind him. Every monitor is connected to a computer with a power supply. It’s all connected to the power flowing into this building from generators outside. With my Gift, I focus on all that power. Every last watt. And I imagine all that energy building inside those computers. Mentally, I multiply the power, making it grow and grow until every piece of equipment holds the energy of a stick of dynamite.
Then, I make it blow.
It happens in an instant. A white-hot explosion rocks the church, starting at the security hub and blooming outward.
Storm is history, swallowed by the blast. But I might have overdone it. A flash of heat replaces the wind. My skin cooks, and I’m thrown back from the doors. The candelabra is wrenched from my grip. Everything goes black.
Chapter 15
Brawn
“Did I hear Scrap right?”Target’s voice fills my ear as I crouch in the shadows across the street from the casino’s front entrance. A glance up shows him and X-Ray circling high overhead, barely making a sound. “Did he say there’s a woman inside?”
“Hold your fire!” Sarge barks into the comms. Since he’s right beside me, I hear him loud and clear through my open ear, as well. “Repeat. Hold fire, chopper.”
“X-Ray? You seeing a woman in there?” That’s Recon, who should be behind the casino with Rev and Steel. “Confirm Scrap’s intel. Come back?”
The radio is a mess with men talking over each other about the woman Scrap said he saw, but I’ve got something else he said echoing my head.
