Henri came rushing out of the room. I met his brown eyes and saw the same alarm that I felt. We ran back down the hallway and flew down the stairs, my feet barely making contact with the carpet. Somebody had turned on the lights, and I could see Erik sparring with two men. I reacted without thinking, adrenaline starting to pump through my veins. I grabbed two knives from my belt, throwing one at each of the men. Both knives struck their targets. Satisfaction surged through me as one landed in the shorter man’s thigh and the other cut the upper arm of the taller one. When I mentally summoned the knives back to me, I was already in motion. The first man had fallen when the knife struck him, and I went for him. Henri went for the taller one. I deftly hit my opponent in the temple. He crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

All of the noise had woken the rest of the men in the house, and they were now flooding into the foyer. Panic gripped me. We were outnumbered. We were going to be killed or, worse, captured. I needed to do something. I needed to restore our advantage. I needed to focus. I needed to breathe. I greedily gulped the stale air, filling my lungs. My eyes darted around the space for a sign of what to do. The lights, I thought. A thread of hope pulled through the quilt of dread.

I concentrated on the overhead lights until they exploded, blanketing the room in darkness. It was a risky move, but I figured that our heightened senses would give us an advantage in the dark. My eyes adjusted in seconds. The men from the house floundered in the dark. Relief washed over me. We weren’t out of the woods yet, but we’d definitely gained ground.

I closed my eyes and focused my energy to my hearing. I moved through the room, depending solely on my ears and my mental abilities. I quickly sunk my blade into the mid-section of the first man I encountered. Flecks of sticky, dark liquid dotted my glove. I suppressed the urge to retch. Keep it together, I chastised myself. He stumbled to his feet. I brought a fist and the blunt end of my knife, slick with his blood, down on his head. The cracking sound reverberated through the room and blood spurted from his new wound. His knees buckled. I swallowed my disgust and hit him again. He stayed down.

Before I had time to congratulate myself on my victory, another figure collided with me, knocking me to the floor. I let out a small grunt of surprise as I landed on my back, and instinctively crossed my arms protectively over my face. The man’s fists rained down on me, but luckily he couldn’t see well enough to hit anything vital. He got in one good punch to the side of my head. My ears rang. I coughed and sputtered, blood filling my mouth. The metallic taste reminded me that I needed to take the offensive. I couldn’t play his punching bag.

The man was straddling me, his bulk pinning me to the floor. His weight was compressing my lungs, and I couldn’t catch my breath. The room started spinning around us. Getting him off of me was the only thing that mattered. I used the only weapon I had, my head. I strained my neck muscles and flung my forehead towards his, head-butting him. My vision blurred slightly, but I summoned my mental energy to throw him off of me, chiding myself for having not thought of it sooner. He flew backwards, landing several feet away in a crumpled heap. I scrambled to my feet, my chest aching from the sudden influx of air. Erik, Henri, I thought weakly. They were both still fighting with their own combatants. I didn’t waste time assessing my injuries. I threw myself back into the fray.

Movement on the stairs caught my attention, and I moved toward the noise. I heard three loud pops. I froze mid-step, a fresh wave of panic overcoming me. Someone had a gun. Time seemed to stand still. The bullets headed straight to where Erik was standing over a man kneeling before him.

“NO!” I shrieked mentally, unable to get the word past my lips.

All of the mental energy I was expending caused me to shake with fatigue, and I didn’t know how much I had left in me. But I couldn’t let those bullets hit Erik. Gathering my waning strength, I poured every ounce into my telekinetic abilities. The projectiles froze mid-flight. I almost cried with relief. The gun fired again. By some miracle, I managed to stop the second round of bullets shortly after they left the muzzle.

Rage dwarfed the terror inside of me. Only one thought traversed the sea of red swirling inside of my head: Stop the gun from firing again.

Too furious to care about my own well-being, I rushed towards the man holding the gun. He pulled the trigger for a third time, only to find the clip empty. He didn’t bother reloading, simply chucking the weapon at my head instead. I deflected it with my mind and literally dove at him. I knocked him backwards onto the staircase. His spine made a cracking noise when it connected with the steps. This time, the sound didn’t bring about feelings of revulsion. I wanted to make him hurt. I needed to make him sorry that he’d pulled that trigger.

I landed on top of my opponent, fists flying angrily at his face. His arms were down by his sides, and he didn’t attempt to raise them to fend off my blows. Too late, I realized why he’d chosen not to defend himself.

White-hot pain exploded just beneath my ribcage, lancing through my midsection and up my left side. I let loose a bloodcurdling scream, equal parts shock and rage. With trembling fingers, I reached towards the source of my pain. My hand closed around the handle of a dagger. The blade wasn’t visible; it was embedded in my side.

I gasped, the involuntary action bringing a fresh wave of searing pain. Panic paralyzed me. These suits were supposed to be impenetrable. How had this happened? I’d been so concentrated on the gun that I hadn’t even noticed the knife. My eyes sought those of the man lying underneath me. His astonishment mirrored my own.

Strong arms pulled me to my feet. I knew instantly that they belonged to Erik. My knees were shaking so badly that I couldn’t stand on my own. He leaned me against the banister for stability. Erik didn’t meet my gaze as he reached for my belt and pulled one of the knives free. His expression was murderous. I knew Erik’s intentions without asking or probing his mind. I averted my eyes as Erik plunged the blade into my attacker’s exposed neck. Bringing my hand to my mouth, I stifled the strangled cry that was fighting its way out. Erik turned to face me, rage burning in his turquoise irises. The intensity that was radiating off of him both terrified and thrilled me. He reached for me, and I collapsed into his waiting arms.

“Get it out. Erik, get it out,” I yelped hysterically, reaching for the end of the dagger in my side. My hands were trembling so badly that I couldn’t grip the handle.

“No! We need to get you somewhere safe first,” Henri exclaimed, coming up behind me. “If we pull it out now, you’ll lose too much blood. We need to get out of here now. Most of these guys are still alive, just unconscious.”

Erik scooped me up in his arms. He bolted out of the house and straight into the woods. Once we were a good distance into the trees, he set me down gently on the forest floor. I was disoriented, my vision hazy. Henri dropped to his knees and morphed into a wolf. Erik fastened all three of our packs to Henri’s back and then turned to me. “I’m going to morph. Can you climb on my back by yourself?”

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“Yes,” I answered, even though I wasn’t actually sure that I could.

Erik morphed into a large dog and dropped down to his stomach, making it easier for me to crawl onto his back. I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to position myself so that the blade handle wouldn’t bump into his back. We took off into the night.

Every breath I took sent a fresh wave of pain through my side. I wanted to reach down and check how much blood was soaking through my suit, but I was afraid that I’d fall off if I let go of Erik’s neck. I took ragged, shallow breaths in time with Erik’s paws beating against the dirt. I needed something to distract me from the pain. I tried to count Erik’s footsteps, but my mind was spinning too quickly to keep up.

The combination of the moonless night and the speed at which we were moving made it impossible for me to actually see our surroundings, but after a time I was positive that we’d passed the safe house. Erik and Henri showed no signs of slowing. I wanted to say something, but I had yet to manage mental communication with either of them in animal form.

The pain was becoming too much, and I thought there was a chance that I might actually pass out. Fear enveloped me. I wanted Donavon. I instantly scolded myself for being so weak that I needed a boy to comfort me. It was just a little knife wound, after all, right?

The pain was so intense. It spread from my side, down my left leg and across my stomach. One minute, icy-cold fear shook me. The next, my skin was on fire and sweat bathed my face.

I gave up caring whether I appeared weak. I reached out to find Donavon’s mind, but I couldn’t even catch the faint buzz of his mental activity from this great a distance. I tried harder, opening my mind and expanding it little by little. It was a lost cause. I now knew definitively that my mental net did not span thousands of miles. Apparently, even I had my limits.

After what seemed like forever, Erik came to a halt. I gratefully rolled off of him and promptly passed out.

“Stay with me, Tals. You need to stay with me,” Erik urged, frantically shaking my shoulder.

“I’m here,” I mumbled, reaching my hand towards the sound of his voice.

“Open your eyes,” Henri ordered harshly.

I tried desperately to obey but couldn’t manage more than opening my eyes to small slits. I felt Erik pick me up again. The sound of his footsteps changed as the ground underneath segued from dirt to something smoother—probably concrete.

“Where are we?” I choked out.

“The barn,” Erik replied tersely.

He shifted me slightly as he walked up a set of stairs. I winced but managed to keep in the howl climbing up my throat. He set me down on a hard mattress at the top of the stairs. I heard Henri come in after us and the space filled with a faint blue glow. I managed to open my eyes wide enough to see Henri flipping switches on a panel, similar to the one in the control room of the safe house. The computers hummed quietly as they sprang to life.

Henri started pulling gadgets out of his pack and setting them on the floor next to the mattress.

“I need to take off your suit so I can do a body scan. If the blade hit any of your organs, I need to know before I take it out. The imager won’t work through the material,” he said quietly, searching my face for a sign that I understood him. I nodded to indicate that I did.

He unzipped the suit down to my waist and slipped the imager underneath the parted fabric, next to where the knife was piercing my skin. His hands were surprisingly soft, and his touch was light as he probed the area surrounding the knife. The sight of the cold, gray handle protruding from my flesh made me dizzy. I looked away as bile rose to the back of my mouth. I searched the room for something to focus on and found Erik standing a couple of feet behind Henri. His arms were crossed, and he was nervously chewing his thumbnail. Erik met my eyes and locked me in a stare. The pain dulled slightly. I breathed out and felt the stomach acids trickle back down.

“Good news. It went cleanly through without hitting any organs.” Henri smiled at me.

I tried to smile back, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from Erik.

“I need to test your blood for poison first. Then, I can remove the blade and sew you up. It should only take a minute.”

I gave another barely perceptible nod. Henri stood to get what he needed for the poison test. Erik moved forward, dropping down to kneel next to my head. Concern rolled off his body in waves.

“Give me your hands.” His voice was not unkind but had a firm, authoritative feel to it. Even if I’d wanted to, I couldn’t have stopped myself from complying. Erik laced his fingers with mine. The pain dulled a little more.

“Ready, Tal?” Henri asked, bending back down.

I nodded and gritted my teeth.

“Open your mind and focus on me, Tals,” Erik directed in the same firm tone.

Still helpless to say no to him, I submitted. The pain didn’t totally subside but it did lessen considerably. Henri placed one hand on my hip and one hand on the end of the dagger. In one swift motion, he extracted the long, hooked blade. I’d expected blinding agony, but it didn’t come. There was an odd sensation as it moved through my muscles, but otherwise my body felt almost numb. My eyes were still locked on Erik’s, and when his face contorted and his eyes filled with tears, I understood what he was doing. I admonished myself for not having realized it earlier.

“No!” I shrieked. I tried twisting away from Erik, but he had a firm grip on my hands, and Henri was holding clean towels firmly to both my stomach and back, immobilizing my body. I did manage to break eye contact. The moment I did, a hot, burning pain shot out from the wound in every direction. I gasped as the sensation intensified and spread, writhing on the bed as hot tears filled my eyes. Erik refused to let go of my hands. He was so much stronger than I was, and in my weakened condition, I couldn’t even put up a real fight. He pulled them behind my head and held my face in a vice grip.

“No,” I repeated, this time with much less conviction.

“Tals, stop. You need to relax and stay still. He can’t give you painkillers. This is the only option that you have.” Erik’s face was only inches from mine, his breath hot against the cold sweat covering my face.

“Your blood is clean. I’m going to sew the wound now,” Henri interrupted. “I need to take your suit completely off so that I can get to your back.”

Erik quickly worked my arms out of the suit and pulled it down to my waist. I thought I would be more embarrassed—lying there half-naked—but the pain was excruciating and I found decorum the least of my concerns. I ground my teeth and tried to fight the nausea that was quickly overtaking me. Erik grabbed my hands and again pinned them behind my head. His elbows dug into my collarbone, but I barely felt it over the pain radiating through my side. He rested his forehead against mine, leaving me nowhere to look but into his eyes.

Erik was able to mimic my abilities, but he couldn’t match my strength. I’d had years to perfect my talents. He’d had only weeks to work with them. I knew that I could’ve fought against his mental invasion, but my resolve was weak from the events of the night. While I wanted to be strong and not let him do this, I wanted the pain to stop more. I stopped fighting him and opened my mind, the pain easing immediately. I felt myself losing control as Erik took over, but I was beyond caring. In the end, Erik pulled all conscious thought from my mind. The pain completely dissolved.

“Ready?” Henri’s voice asked, sounding a million miles away.

“Yeah,” I heard myself reply in a mechanical voice that sounded nothing like my own.

I felt disconnected from my body. My alternate reality consisted only of Erik’s eyes. Some part of me felt the tug of the thread that Henri used to stitch my wounds. While I felt no pain, Erik’s eyes filled with tears. I watched in wonder as the tears that should have been mine slowly cascaded down Erik’s cheeks.

“I can give you something now, Talia. It will make you sleep for a while,” Henri’s faraway voice came again.

“Okay,” I muttered. I became aware of my arm as a dull chemical sensation spread from the crook of my elbow, making it heavy.

“Sleep, Tals.” Erik’s said, his voice heavy with exhaustion.

“I think I will,” I replied drowsily as I closed my eyes.