Mia Darien - Good Things

“What happened to their energy balls?”

“Sawyer’s telekinetic. His specialty is energy manipulation.”

Ah. He must’ve fried them with their own energy. “Cool.”

Sawyer grinned.

Quinn checked the cameras in the building again. “This way. We’re close. Be ready.”

A few more halls and turns later, and the reek of antiseptic hit her nose. The fight must’ve opened up some of the containers in the lab.

“There are eight demons now, instead of four. One of our guys is down. The other is pinned behind the large table to the right.”

“Where are the demons?” Cain asked.

“Scattered across the other side of the room. Go in blazing.”

Shaw pulled out an odd device, which he attached to the door. “Always do. Sawyer manipulates energy, but I got mechanical manipulation.” He turned to his brother. “Sawyer?”

Cain grabbed her arm and pulled her around the corner. After a second, howls of agony echoed through the room. “Cover your ears,” Cain warned.

She did just before an explosion blasted around them, shaking the wall she leaned against as a wave of heat blew past her down the hallway. Without hesitation, she followed her men through the smoke and damage. Gunshots echoed in the room as the team opened fire. The demons hunkered down across the large room filled with lab tables, the walls of bottles already a mess of broken glass and dripping chemicals.

While the demons were unarmed, so to speak, after Sawyer’s manipulations, they wouldn’t stay that way long. Quinn stooped behind a tall piece of equipment and used her abilities to check the cameras. Difficult to see through the smoke, but she could make out where most everyone was. She stayed in position as Cain and the team spread out. The first blue blast came from the right, like a miniature lightning bolt. The air sizzled as the energy ball passed her to explode against the wall above Cain.

Demons were powerful but often stupid. They were lucky none of the spilled chemicals had gone up in flames yet. Chaos erupted around her as they exchanged fire.

Quinn stayed in position and saved her ammo, until, finally, an opening presented itself. As subtly as possible, she popped out from behind her shield just enough to see her target, aimed, and squeezed the trigger. Clean shot to the head. One down.

She dropped back behind her cabinet, as a barrage of bullets slammed into the machine. She checked the cameras and waited again.

Cain managed to take down another demon, and Max got two. Sawyer put out as many energy balls as he could, but with this many demons, he couldn’t douse them all. As he concentrated, he worked his way around it to where the downed man lay and dragged his body back behind a barricade of tables. A movement caught her attention across the room.

“Throw it to the back right corner,” she yelled to Shaw.

“Fire in the hole,” he yelled. The grenade in his hand went sailing, and Quinn braced for the explosion which ripped through her ears. The floor under her feet shuddered with the impact. A high-pitched ringing in her head brought tears to her eyes. All sound ceased to exist for her. She shook her head, trying to clear the pressure in her ears, but she couldn’t hear a damn thing—not Cain who was yelling at her across the room, not the computers. Nothing.

A flash of fear froze Cain’s features just before an arm snaked around her neck from behind and jerked her upright. Her hair stood on end in reaction to the blue energy coming from the ball of light held near her temple as her captor dragged her out from behind the cabinet.

He was yelling, she could tell by how the sound reverberated off her back, but the ringing hadn’t subsided and she couldn’t hear. The demon let her go, backing away slightly, and pressed the energy ball close to the back of her head, if the stench of singed hair was anything to go by.

Cain, Max, Sawyer, and Shaw all put their weapons on the ground. She might not be able to hear, but the message was clear. Surrender or she’d die. On the other hand, the demons were as likely to kill her men either way.

Quinn took a calming breath and concentrated on her self-defense training, compliments of Delilah. Six years of hard work better payoff, dammit.

In a rapid series of moves, she turned, bringing her arm down, which aimed his hand upward. Holding his wrist for leverage she brought her leg up and kicked him in the neck, crushing his windpipe. The demon dropped to the ground and she followed, bending the arm she held and slamming the energy ball still sizzling in his palm into his chest. Then she dove back behind the cabinet.

The demon screamed, his beautiful face contorting in agony and his body thrashing as the condensed source of energy devoured him from the inside out. In seconds, he went limp. Dead.

Cain and the others picked up their guns and resumed the fight. Quinn, who no longer had her hearing or her gun—she must’ve dropped it when he grabbed her—waited it out from her shelter. About the time the firefight wound down, the ringing in her ears had lessened.

Finally, Cain stood, and the others followed, telling her the battle was over and they’d won. After a cursory check of the room, he moved to where she still sat on the floor and crouched down.

“You okay?”

She caught the words in blips, pieced together with the movement of his mouth.

“My hearing is shot, but it’s coming back.”

His quick smile told her she’d shouted the words. “That’s all right. Shaw got the radios back up, and the fighting is over.”

“What about the prisoners?”

“Still looking.”

The memory of the map of the facility she’d pulled from the computers flashed through her mind. “I know where they are.”

Quinn sat on the tail of a pickup truck outside the compound and submitted to being examined by Sawyer, who was apparently also a medic. The others were nowhere to be seen.

After checking her eyes, her balance, her reflexes, and checking for other signs of concussion, Sawyer stuck an otoscope down her ears. “Looks like your ear drums are still intact.”

“I told you. My hearing’s almost all the way back,” she grumbled.

He held up both hands with a grin. “Don’t shoot the messenger. Cain said to check you out, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

She rolled her eyes, but let Sawyer get on with it.

“How is she?” Cain’s deep voice skittered down her spine, and she turned to find him leaning against the side of the truck.

“Fit for duty, sir.” She gave him a sassy salute.

He ignored her, gaze on Sawyer.

“She’ll be fine. No permanent damage.”

“She’s right here.” Quinn waved her arms.

Cain ignored her and gave Sawyer a curt nod, then jerked his head. Sawyer gathered up his gear and left them alone, giving Quinn a wink as he left.

Cain moved around the truck to stand in front of her.

“So…” She raised her eyebrows. “What now?”

“Delilah’s other teams will handle things from here. But we got them.”

Relief and a heady sensation from the knowledge she’d helped save a lot of people swept through her, and Quinn smiled.

Her breathing hitched at Cain’s answering grin. “You did good today.”

She sobered. Now the bad guys were history, she had to face facts—knowledge sunk like a lead weight to the pit of her stomach. This might be the last time I ever see Daniel Cain.

“It doesn’t have to be.”

What? Oh, holy crap, she’d done it again. Spoken her thoughts out loud. Then his response finally penetrated her mortification at that particular flub. “What do you mean?”

He moved closer, hands on either side of her hips, taking up all her space. She inhaled the spicy scent of him.