Remember Jamie Baker (Jamie Baker #3)(9)
A gun cocked. Motel Guy stood behind the counter, with a pistol pointed at my captors. “Let go of her!”
In the blink of an eye, one of the men had disabled the weapon and was holding the confused man in his arms. The poor guy was going to get hurt for trying to help me. I couldn’t let that happen. “Touch him, and I’ll kill you.”
All three of the strangers laughed at my threat.
I tried again to break free of the man holding me, but failed. He tightened his grip so hard that he started to crush my chest. I bit down on my lip to keep from crying out in pain.
The man standing in front of me watched my struggle with a sick sort of amusement. “I’m going to enjoy this,” he said, balling up his hand. The rubber of his glove squeaked as he tightened his fist. His knuckles may have been padded because of the electricity-proof gloves, but I had no doubt it would still hurt when he punched me.
“Lorenz,” the man holding me warned. “What are you doing? You know Donovan will go ballistic if you do any unnecessary damage to her.”
I knew the name Donovan. James Donovan was head of Visticorp. Tony had told me a lot about him and the kinds of things he’d done to us in the labs. That meant these guys were with Visticorp.
“I owe her a shattered knee,” Lorenz growled to his companion.
He only took his eyes off me for a second, but it was just the distraction I needed. Thanks to my captor holding me so tightly around my upper body, I was able to pick up both of my feet and kick them straight out into my would-be assailant’s chest before he could dodge it. I landed the kick with so much force that Lorenz went flying backward right through what was left of the front of the motel.
The impact of my kick also knocked the guy holding me off his feet and we crashed to the ground. I broke free from his hold. He snagged me again, but couldn’t grab both of my arms before I got a grip on his hair.
“You really should have made a mask or a helmet to go with your nifty suit,” I said as I let my energy break loose. I was so amped up that I might have overdone it just a tad with the voltage as I roasted the guy. His entire body locked up so tight that he couldn’t even scream.
Motel Guy’s mystified gasp snapped me out of my rage, and I realized that if I didn’t let go of the man soon I would kill him. I was tempted—it was self-defense, and he deserved it—but I wasn’t a killer.
When I dropped him, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he passed out. I barely had time to catch my breath before the third guy threw Motel Guy across the room and tackled me. He moved so fast I didn’t even have time to brace myself for the hit.
He pounded me into the ground so hard that my head made an indent in the concrete pad beneath the linoleum floor. Pain shot through my whole body, making things go black for a moment. When I came to my senses, the man was on top of me with his gloved hands wrapped around my neck.
“I don’t care if Donovan wants you alive,” he said as he choked the life out of me with his superstrong fingers. “You are too dangerous. He’s a fool to think he’ll ever be able to control you.”
My lungs were on fire. I clawed at his hands, but I was too weak from hitting my head so hard to do any damage. I reached for the man’s face next—if I could just come into contact with his skin—but he was twice my size, and it was like he had gorilla arms. I couldn’t reach him.
There was only one more thing I could think to do. If I accomplished it, I would kill the man. I didn’t want to take a life, but at this point it was him or me, and I wasn’t in the mood to die right then.
Just as I can manipulate the electricity in the atmosphere around me, I can direct the energy in my body. When I build up enough of it, I can release it in the form of lightning bolts. It is seriously a cool power to have. I’ve always been envious of Tony’s telekinesis, but I wouldn’t trade my lightning for it.
I didn’t want to use my lightning right now, but I had no other choice. I was dying. The superfreak was strangling me to death. My vision started to blur into darkness and my arm felt as heavy as a freight train, but I lifted it and aimed my hand at the only part of my attacker that was not covered by his special suit—his head. I pushed all the energy in my body to my arm, until my palm was practically on fire.
Just before I released a bolt of lightning into the man’s face, he fell to the floor with a thud, completely unconscious. I sucked in a breath, welcoming the sting of air as it filled my lungs. As I coughed and tried to regain my wits, a boy suddenly appeared standing over the unconscious man, holding a tranquilizer gun in his hands and wearing a smile the size of Texas. “Hey, Angel. Long time no see.”
I must have hit my head harder than I thought, because I swear the boy had just appeared out of thin air. Like, poof and he was there. I say boy, because that’s what he was. Sort of. He couldn’t be more than sixteen. He was a little stocky with brown hair, brown eyes, and a light dusting of freckles. “Neat trick, eh?” he said as he nudged the unconscious man with his foot. He sounded like Hugh Jackman—or rather, Hugh Jackman if the Australian native were going through puberty.
He checked the pulse of the first guy I’d zapped into unconsciousness, then shot a tranquilizer dart into his neck. “Better safe than sorry,” he explained with another grin. “These are horse tranquilizers. He’ll be out for hours.”