Touch (Denazen #1)(81)

“Mom,” I yelled as I dodged a badly aimed kick. “Get Fin!”

She whirled around, opponent forgotten, but it was too late. The suit had Fin pinned on the bar, a needle plunged deep into the skin of his neck.

“No!” Mom wailed, hair swaying back and forth as she shook her head. Her focus on Fin, she backed up too far, tripping over the guy she’d grounded. He grabbed for her, but she didn’t fight.

Fin’s struggles were starting to fade. His eyes, once a fierce and fiery hazel, glazed over. The Sixes on level nine. Kale’s blood. They’d dosed him.

The suit nodded to the one I’d missed with the bottle. He launched himself at me, swinging a brutal kick at my side. I saw it coming and rolled away. Growling, he rounded for another assault, but again I skirted out of his reach, finally on my feet again.

“Stop playing and tranq her already,” the one by the bar snapped.

Familiar green eyes gleamed with indignation as he said, “Who are you going to call this time? There’s no security to save you.”

The guy from the mall. The one we’d called security on. Someone didn’t look happy to see me. He advanced a few steps, backing me up until I hit the wall with no place to go. Hands shot out, gripping my shoulders and hauling me forward. Bringing my knee up, I nailed him right between the legs. With a muffled umpf, he released my shoulders and staggered back, clutching himself.

Satisfied, I turned and started for the bar where Fin and Mom were. I got halfway there when someone tackled me. The air left my lungs with a whoosh as something wedged into the middle of my back. A knee.

“If you cooperate with them, Denazen isn’t such a bad place for your kind.” My attacker grabbed both my arms and yanked them back.

My kind? Next he would tell me I’d get my own suite with an ocean view and all the mint chocolate chip ice cream I could eat.

Um, no.

When I felt him lean forward, presumably to bind my arms, I threw my head back, catching him off guard. A resounding crack filled my ears as a sharp pain throbbed across my skull. He loosened his grip enough for me to push myself off the ground. But no sooner was I on my feet than someone else grabbed me from behind. This grip held tighter, though. More solid. This grip wasn’t going anywhere.

Dad stepped forward as the man behind me moved away. “I’m disappointed, Deznee. I’m always disappointed in you, but I thought this might have been different. We’re not as bad as you think. We really are doing a lot of good in the world. You could have lived a normal life.”

I kicked him. Childish? I know. Useless? Pretty much. But it made me feel a little better inside and that’s all that counted.

“Well, if you’re done, we need to proceed.” Dad gave me a dismissive wave and turned to Mom. Kale was nowhere in sight.

Mom watched him, eyes pleading. “I’ll go back without a fuss, I promise. I won’t make any further trouble. Let her go.”

Dad folded his arms and tapped his chin. He looked like he might be considering her request, but I knew better. The man had no conscience and no soul. “As much as I’d like to grant your wish, Sueshanna, I don’t think it would be wise in the long run. You don’t know our little girl very well. She’s a troublemaker.” He raised his gun, placing it against her forehead. “Exactly like her mother.”

Dad clicked the safety and ground the gun further into Mom’s temple. He turned to the nearest suit and said, “Take Fin and Deznee outside.”

“Drop the gun, Cross.”





31


We all turned to see Ginger standing inside the doorway… with about six others. Dax and Sira—the woman from the hotel—as well as a cluster of others I didn’t know. How they’d entered the building without any of us seeing them blew my mind—until I caught the eye of the younger bouncer from the party. He saw me looking at him and winked.

Ginger stepped away from the crowd, eyes locked with Dad’s. “Now,” she demanded. The command in her voice was comforting and also a little bit scary.

Dad complied and lowered the gun with a sly smile on his face. “Fin, would you mind?”

Face still blank, Fin stepped forward, arms ablaze and poised to fire.

“Barge,” Ginger called. A tall, thin boy no more than fifteen years old literally hopped out from behind Dax. He smiled at me, eyes glittering with mischief, and opened his mouth wide.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then I felt it. The temperture in the room seemed to drop. In awe, I watched as the flames, previously devouring everything, swirled together in one large mass of smoke and fire and rushed at us. No, not at us. At Barge. The guy’s mouth still open, the flames danced and swirled above his head for several seconds before, with a single breath, they were sucked into his mouth. Once they were gone, Barge closed his mouth, a wide smile on his face. He stepped back and burped, a small tuft of smoke escaping thorough his sealed lips.

There were several seconds where no one moved.

Then chaos.

Dad snapped something to Fin and yanked him behind the bar. The few remaining bottles of alcohol scattered and crashed to the ground, echoing through the room in the last seconds of silence.

With the smoke now clear, Dad’s monkey-suited morons surged forward, and Ginger’s group dove to meet them. Denazen versus Six.

One could argue that Sixes against a few guys with guns was a joke, and that would have been right—if Dad hadn’t thought to bring reinforcements.