Amy Rench - Fallen Rogue

Another rose. And another.

A surge of energy crackled from her head to her hand. With her open palm, she guided the rocks across the water’s surface, bringing them just a body length from where she was standing. Her eyes widened as she watched the objects frozen in the air, just like the bullets before. But this time she was making it happen, not just reacting.

Raising her other hand, she beckoned the energy to erect a shield. Like a breeze ruffling her sleeve, the psipower rippled down her arm and dashed from her hand to form an almost invisible bubble caging her body.

Cool. Very cool.

“Harper.”

With a start, she whipped around to face the unexpected intrusion, swinging the rocks along with her. Rome ducked as they hurled just over his head to crash against the boulder behind him, shattering into small chunks behind him.

Oh, poop.

“Rome,” she moaned, realizing she had almost taken his head off accidentally. “For goodness sake, please don’t sneak up on me like that.” At some point she’d have to break that habit of his.

“That was amazing,” he praised, standing from his instinctive crouch, brushing the remnants of the rocks from his broad shoulders, clearly in awe.

She took several deep breaths, trying to calm her racing mind. She was practically gushing inside at being able to control her power. It was addictive. That would make revenge so much easier. “What’s going on?” she asked, putting a lid on her excitement, wondering what drove him here after her.

“Nothing. I just missed you,” he answered with a sweet smile.

She gave him a skeptical look, adding a smile to soften it.

“C’mon.” He took her hand in his and kissed the inside of her wrist, sending pleasant little shivers up her arm. “We need to work on a plan before they can mobilize. And I made breakfast. Well, lunch.” He looked at his watch, then at the overcast sky.

He was right. Though they’d escaped from the facility, the bad guys now knew she and Rome were onto them. The two of them needed to stay on the offensive. Plus she wanted to end this sooner rather than later. She was getting real tired of being on the run.

“Good idea. Let’s plan.” She gave his hand a squeeze. Besides, she was ravenous. The psi power seemed to give her an appetite now instead of fatigue. The quick self-healing must be kicking in faster as her body adapted to it.

And after a sideways sizing-up glance at Rome, she realized her hunger wasn’t just for food.

“Let’s just round them up and kill them,” Harper suggested mildly as she took a bite of her sandwich. Sounded easy to her. Especially given her newfound control.

“No,” Rome said in flat disagreement, blunting her gusto. “There’ve been too many casualties already. Besides, we want them to be accountable. Make them pay.” She watched him pop a corn chip in his mouth, keeping his clear blue gaze locked on hers.

“Right,” she concurred while she chewed. “Make them pay. With their lives.”

“No.” Rome leveled her with a definite agent-type glare.

“Okay, then,” she said, peering at the map they’d sketched of the facility and surrounding area. They pooled their knowledge and observations with the data from the laptop to create it. “What do you suggest?”

Rome’s face became pensive and his eyes unfocused as he looked toward the window and the forest beyond. They were sitting on the high stools at the island in the middle of the kitchen while sharing a lunch of turkey sandwiches, corn chips, and fruit.

And fresh-baked brownies. To their utter gratitude, the caretaker of the cabin had stocked it to Rome’s specifications before they’d arrived yesterday. Lucky for her, those specifications included brownie mix.

“Rounding them up is a good idea,” he said after a few minutes of quiet contemplation. “It’s a big place, but it has only a couple entrances and exits.”

“So that should make it easier.” She reached for a chip from the open bag. The salty crunch in her mouth almost made her groan in delight.

“Maybe.” He picked out an orange slice and bit into it, licking the juice from his lips. She almost groaned again. “We’ll need to draw them out without too much commotion. We don’t want to provoke them or get trapped ourselves. If we can get them out front, it could be doable.”

“Use me as bait.” Harper shrugged and took a large gulp of water. That was the most logical thing she could think of. They wanted her. She wanted them. Let’s get together.

Rome was silent. A tiny muscle twitched in his jaw while he stared at her. She turned her full attention to him, wondering what would make the clear blue in his eyes storm so violently.

“No,” he whispered, and shook his head. Clearly the idea did not appeal to him.

“Why not?” she asked, ignoring his troubled look. “It’s me they want.”

“They’ll kill you.” He shook his head again. “We’ll find another way.”

“I’m already dead,” Harper said, wondering at his adamant caution. Regardless of her imminent demise, she didn’t think the faction wanted her dead as long as they thought they could squeeze the serum out of her. Maybe with Rome’s experience with this sort of thing, he sensed they were through trying.

But she still didn’t see the problem. Hadn’t he seen her moving rocks? Plus she could heal fast. She was near invincible.

Taking the last bite of her tasty sandwich, she glanced at their sketched map again. When she went to Bobby’s lab, she’d used his direct secret entrance. Yesterday she and Rome had used a back door.

But as she’d explained to Rome on their walk back from the creek a few hours ago, the one problem they were going to have was that her psionic powers didn’t work indoors.

Rome had protested, citing their first encounter together. Bobby’s lab was different, she’d clarified. He’d been impressed that her brother had crafted sunshine for them. And for the same reason the plants were able to draw strength from the lights, her powers had worked in there.

When in natural daylight, she flourished with vitality. So they needed to draw the faction outside to have a chance.

“Here,” she said, pointing at a spot on the map. She circled her finger around the front entrance, which, according to the layouts, as well as to what Rome knew, was a square, concrete walled area with two small depots bordering an open patio, a mix between a square and a U shape. Almost like a gladiator pit from a Roman coliseum. How fitting.

“What about it?” Rome asked, peering at the drawing while he chewed the last of his sandwich.

“Isn’t this a courtyard?” Harper tapped on the paper in the middle of the assumed structures, recalling the aerial maps they’d found on the Internet. “Let’s lure them here.”

She watched him focus intently on the map as he licked the crumbs off his fingertips. The spinning wheels in his mind were nearly visible in every flickering movement of his eyes.

He turned the map around several times, checking it out from different angles, and then sat back, raising his gaze to hers. Mimicking his pose, she leaned back in her bar stool as well, waiting for his competent assessment.

“It could work,” he finally said, though with obvious reluctance. He rubbed a hand over his head, clearly distressed about something. “If we could draw them out somehow, they would essentially be isolated.”

“And vulnerable,” she added, thinking about just how exposed they would be to her powerful psionic mind energy. In one crushing swoop, she could take care of all of them.

“Right,” he agreed, drawing out the word and giving her an odd look as he picked up a knife to cut the brownies in the pan. He handed one to her.