Page 66 of Captured Immune

It hurts that she doesn’t immediately shoot off the bed and into my arms. She doesn’t trust me anymore. I understand why, but it still stings. It takes me a second to recover internally. When I do, I whisper, “I’m busting you outta here.”

Her eyes go wide as she springs off the bed and slips her feet into a pair of flats.That’s more like it.

I open the door to find Craig standing there with his phone held up. “You son of a bitch. Almost had me there. I just heard from Victor. He’s not even on base.”

I’m about to reach into my jeans for a perrizo gun when a searing burn takes over my body. The room grows bigger and bigger with each sharp breath I suck in. I clutch my stomach. Vomit is coming.

Arella’s screams echo above me as a giant Craig squats over me. His enormous hand is about to grab me as I snatch one of the guns from my jeans. I’m not sure what damage a tiny perrizo gun will do to him, but it’s all I’ve got.

Suddenly, the burning stops. I fly into the air as the room returns to normal.

“What the hell?” Craig stumbles backward, hitting his back against the wall. Shock, then anger, courses through my head as he glares at me, then at Arella.

It hits me what she just did. I can’t believe she did it so fast.

“You bitch.” Craig balls his hand, draws back, aims at her, and?—

Ssspt!My shot misses. It hits the wall behind him. Craig freezes and glances back at the little needle sticking out of a burnt area in the wall. He shoots me a venomous look as a lightning ball grows in his hand.

“You bastard!” He launches his sizzling ball at me.

I duck. The ball hisses as it zips past me and scorches the wall.

Another glowing orb soars toward my chest. As I step aside to dodge it, another one flies straight at my face. I wince as it stops barely a fingertip from my nose, then falls to the floor and disappears. Another lightning ball flies through the air. This time, it stops a fist away from my face and also drops to the floor.

“What the fuck?” Craig shouts, then points at Arella. “It’s you again, isn’t it? You’re blocking my powers from?—”

Ssspt!

“Ow!” The needle hits his shoulder. He plucks it off, then flicks it to the carpet.

I still have the gun up, aimed at him. The look on his face tells me I’m in for it. He opens his palm. This time, no sparks appear. Shock consumes him as he closes, then opens his hand again. No sizzling. No glowing light. Nothing.

Before he can make another move, I pull the trigger.Ssspt!The shot hits him right in the chest. This time, he doesn’t pluck it off. Instead, he wavers, then falls face-forward with a heavy thud.

I’m about to let out a sigh of relief when a siren blares.Brehh! Brehh! Brehh!“Intruder alert! Intruder alert!”

In the hallway, red lights flash from the ceiling. Next comes a man’s deep voice over the speakers. “Floor two. Royal spy. White male. Leather jacket. Blue jeans. Pyro. Kinetic. Empath. Kill on sight. I repeat, kill on sight.”

Fucking great.

I expect Arella to look as terrified as I feel. Instead, she glances up at me with a firm confidence in her eyes. She grabs my hand and slips her fingers between mine.

With the most conviction I’ve ever heard her speak with, she says, “I’ll make sure they can’t hurt you, Trey. Just get me out of here.”

15

TREY

Brehh!Brehh! Brehh!

The siren is maddening. At least the wordsintruder alerthave stopped repeating. The red lights are still flashing though.

I sense a mass of people racing toward us. There’s so many, I can’t count them all. They’re running from the community room and jumping down the stairs with aready to killenergy that erases all the assurance Arella just instilled in me.

I grip her hand tighter in mine. “Don’t let go, ’kay?”

She nods, then we step over Craig’s unmoving body and sprint out of the room. The red lights are brighter out here, making it hard for me to see. Halfway down the hall, I stop and turn around, jerking Arella with me.

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