Page 44 of Blood Brother Cursed

“Oh no,” she stood up straight. I’ve no desire to stay put and let you go running into danger. I’m ready.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. What do you want to do?”

“Ok, I haven’t thought too much about it. I don’t want to kill people, so a mass hallucination would clear the place out.”

“What about any women they have taken for experiments?”

“They don’t have any.”

Astrid looked over at him. “How do you know?”

“They just started it up over the last year, and I’ve been monitoring them. I also regularly tap into the thoughts of the people in charge—I have to meet with them regularly for work—and no, they don’t know what I really do. Elliott’s been monitoring the comms I planted on them during the meetings. We heard when they found you without realizing it was you.”

Astrid thought back for a moment. “Is that why he responded immediately to me calling Cooper?”

“Probably, but I can’t get into his mind, so I couldn’t tell you what he’s thinking.”

“Your ability is really weird but incredibly useful.”

Phoenix was looking at the building when he said, “It always creeped my father out. My mom could do it, too, which was probably why he married her. She couldn’t read his mind; otherwise, she wouldn’t have married him.” He turned to face her, his cool blue eyes like a calm day before a storm. “Can you make it rain?”

“I… I can do more than that with an entire ocean nearby.”

“I’m not looking to flood the place.”

She smiled. “It could be a controlled flood.”

“What’s that?”

“Kind of like a controlled burn, but the point is to push out the people instead of culling the undergrowth.”

A wicked smile spread across his face, exposing his beautiful white teeth. “How does a tsunami sound?”

“Oh, no, I can’t bring that kind of water this far inland.”

“You don’t have to—I’ll take care of getting their attention with it, and you start flooding the building.”

“I knew there was something I really liked about you.” She bumped him with her shoulder, then turned to face the structure some ways in the distance. “We’ll need to move closer for me to keep from killing anyone.”

Phoenix whisked her off her feet and ran toward the facility. “Tell me when.”

She laughed, this time enjoying the feel of the wind on her face. “Here, here!” she cried when they were about a half milefrom the place. A bit of disappointment filled her when he put her down. Astrid looked at him for a moment out of the corner of her eye before turning her attention to the facility. “You said that they were on the move. Have they left the facility?”

“No, they are still in there preparing. It sounds like they’ve located someone else, so intercepting them before they leave would be ideal.”

“You can’t trace them?”

He looked over at her. “I couldn’t. I was only able to get the big fish, and they don’t do anything that would get their hands dirty.” He folded his arms over his chest. “They’ll send in guys like the men you saw.”

“Ah, well, then we had best get moving.” Astrid inhaled and exhaled through her mouth as she focused on the facility. “You have ten minutes until the storm arrives.”

“That should be enough.” Phoenix stepped up beside Astrid.

For a second, she looked up at him, and then she slipped her hand into his. He turned to look at her, then squeezed her hand.

Allowing something in her to open, Astrid began to draw the water toward them. She could feel it churning and roiling as she made sure not to drag any living creatures along with what she was collecting. In the distance, the sounds of sirens began to fill the air with a horrific noise that she imagined had to be horrifying to the people who had no clue what was coming.

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