Page 119 of The Firebrand
“Where are you from?”
“Boston. How about you?”
“Seattle.”
Well, not exactly, but the boy doesn’t need all the details.
“They’re monsters, you know, except they’re real. Did you ever seeZombieland?”
“No.”
“Some guys around here could pass. Bad shit. They drag people from their cells. Sometimes they haul out dead bodies, like the lady down there. Emily. I think her name was Emily. Hey! Does anybody know for sure?”
A woman who sounded as if she was in the cell to the right of Braelyn sniffled. “Yeah. Her name was Emily. She came in about a week ago. The same time I did. The name’s June, by the way.”
“Where are you from, June?” asked Braelyn.
“A small place in Nebraska. You wouldn’t have heard of it. I had a farm just outside town. I’m scared.”
Brandon didn’t speak for so long, Braelyn thought he’d stopped talking to her. Then he whispered, “It’s going to happen to us. What do you think they’re waiting for?”
“I don’t know.” Braelyn massaged her aching jaw, a lump forming where Aisen had struck her.
Please find me, Rein.
Did he have a special warlocky locator spell, or was that just hype? Her eyes popped wide. An idea.
Be an arrow. I drove thoughts and images into Rein’s mind before. Why not again? What do I have to lose?
Braelyn drew a deep breath, her chest expanding, her fingers clutching her ripped top. She closed her eyes and pictured her thoughts as arrows. She aimed them at Rein, releasing them to find their target.
I’m in a cell, sending some images your way like before. I can’t see outside. This place is nasty. It stinks, and I’m not the only human here. I’m scared. Scratch that. I passed scared and caught up with panicked. You’re saying, “Damn, female, shut up so I can hear myself think.” Well, I’m not shutting up. I’m going to talk until you get so pissed off you’ll find me just to shut me up.
Braelyn doubted Rein got her message, but talking to him calmed her as if she were snuggling up inside him where it was safe, warm. Perhaps if he was close to her, her voice would invade his mind. So, she’d just keep up the chit-chat. After all, words were her business.
You need an incentive. Let’s see. I promised you a treat when you returned from saving the realms. Here it is.
Oh, oops! There goes the first button on my blouse. The second button. Look! I’m undone. Time to slide it off my shoulders and slip it to the ground. I’m wearing a sexy black push-up bra from Victoria’s Secret. I unclasped it. Plop. It hit the floor. Now I’m wiggling out of the matching lace thong panties.
While she shot thoughts at Rein, she explored her cell, looking for an escape. Checking where the metal bars met the walls, she jiggled them to see if any were loose. Nope.
If you get me out of this hell hole, I promise I’ll buy sexy lingerie. How about some crotchless panties?
Her hands slid over the concrete, feeling for cracks or defects.
****
Rein, surrounded by hisfrerons, leaned a shoulder against his great room wall. Kole, in the center of the group, divvied up assignments. Jezzi shifted to panther, the pupils in her eyes dilated in the fading light, her claws retracted as she padded across the floor, sniffing for evidence.
Rein moved farther away from the Firebrands, an insane idea crystalizing. Old vampires could communicate telepathically with others nearby. But Rein could go one better. He could connect with those who were distant. In fact, he had to block the constant chatter. If he didn’t, he’d go mad with the cacophony of so many voices trying to make contact.
How far could he stretch? Of course, Braelyn would have to target his mind at the same time, using her new, unexplained gift.
A Hail Mary pass. It’s ridiculous to try, but what else was there?
He slammed his eyelids tight. Listening for one voice, a thread among millions, billions, he reached out and out. Still farther. Voices thundered against the walls of his mind, but he snapped them off like a light switch. He visualized threads leading in all directions. Though he grabbed a strand, he discarded it when it did not lead to Braelyn. Stretching farther than he had ever gone, Rein risked scattering his consciousness, his thoughts so thin he might disappear. The threads became minuscule strands of filament. He grabbed at thinner and thinner fibers. Gossamer like spider webs. He was drifting, becoming less solid than a cloud. Then he jumped upright. He caught it. That one string among the unimaginable.
“Holy fucking hell.” Rein shouted at the Firebrands, “I know how to find her.” His lips curled into a quick grin.Damn, female. That’s a sexy picture.
