Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(78)
Author: Gena Showalter

"Not you," he told me.

"Just need…a moment…" Elaine said.

"Thanks for the concern," I muttered.

"Belle, how are – " Rome and Jean-Luc began in unison. Both stopped abruptly.

Then Rome was kneeling at my side. He could see in the dark better than anyone I knew. Well, except Hans. He reached out, cupped my chin, hissed and jerked away.

"What?" I demanded, concerned.

"You’re electric."

"Elaine, too," Tanner said with his own hiss of pain. "I can feel it even through her clothes." I turned in the direction of his voice. There, a few feet away from me, I could see little sparks rising from Elaine’s body – pinpricks of gold, like lightning bugs flying around her. They were lovely. Probably deadly. And they were flying off me, too.

"How are you feeling?" Rome asked me, drawing my attention back to him.

Through the flickers, I could make out his concerned features. "I’m okay. But damn. Cody lives with this every day. I’m not sure how he’s survived."

Jean-Luc knelt at my other side. He watched the byplay between Rome and me, anger in his eyes. "If you need anything, let me know."

"Let me know," Rome corrected tersely.

Slowly I sat up, rubbed my temples as a wave of dizziness hit me. "Enough of that. I’m ready for action."

Rome shook his head. "The guards will see you coming. You and Elaine have to stay here until the charge wears off."

Oh, hell, no.

Before I could utter a protest, though, he slapped a revolver in my hand. The metal vibrated with energy.

"Shoot anyone who approaches you."

I sputtered, trying to stand. My muscles didn’t cooperate, my knees buckling under my weight. "Without Hans hiding us in shadows, we’re targets."

"Cody’s taken care of the cameras. All that remains are the guards. If you lie down and be still, you’ll look like rocks from a distance. Granted, rocks with fireflies hovering around, but rocks all the same.

Trust me. You’ll be fine. If I thought for one moment you were in danger, I wouldn’t leave you here.

Now, when we’ve taken out the guards on the parapet, we’ll flag you and you can come running." With barely a pause, he said, "Team, let’s move out."

No one protested. Which surprised me. I expected Jean-Luc to fight to stay with me, and Tanner to fight to stay with Elaine. But clearly, they thought we were safer here and were eager to end this war.

They climbed through the hole in the fence Elaine and I had provided for them, disappearing in Hans’s shadows like dark phantoms.

"Are you f**king kidding me?" I gasped out, rolling to my stomach to make myself more rocklike.

Elaine did the same. "They’re going to need us," she whispered fiercely. "I mean, the plan was for me to drain as many guards as I could to minimize the threat. Right now, they’re outnumbered. They’ll have to shoot, and that’ll make noise, silencers or not."

Outnumbered didn’t begin to describe it. Basically, Rome was on his own out there. Tanner was only just now learning to shoot (properly) and I had no idea if the Shadow Brothers, young as they were, had any combat skills. Jean-Luc didn’t care if Rome lived or died. And while I trusted Rome to get the job done, I knew our team would fail without him. We had to have him alive and well. Uninjured.

"We can’t just stay here," I said, studying the terrain. Rocky, on a steep incline.

"No, we can’t. Tanner needs me. He’s still not at full strength, though he won’t admit it." There was roughly one hundred feet between the fence and the parapet, then a staircase leading to the top. "We’ll have to haul ass, and our bodies will probably hate us, but if we move just right, the guards might think we’re lightning bugs."

"Well, with the lamps they’ll be able to see us, not just the sparks." Good point. "Shit. What are we going to do?" Rocks and twigs were digging into my belly. The ground was cold, hard and a mocking reminder that I was currently doing nothing to help my friends. Worse, the more time that passed, the less aid Elaine and I would be able to provide. Rome would have already inserted himself into the thick of battle.

"Maybe we can throw rocks at the bulbs?" she suggested. "It’ll dim the light."

"That might announce our presence. Unless…" An idea began playing through my head. "I’m going to make it storm. We’ll be harder to spot if the guards have water in their eyes. Also, we can break the bulb closest to us and maybe they’ll think it was lightning, rather than an intruder." She reached out, feeling for a big enough rock. "You take care of the rain, I’ll take care of the bulb."

"Consider it done." For once, I didn’t lament about how to get the job done. I closed my eyes, picturing Rome and Tanner shot during this battle. Lexis and Sherridan broken beyond repair. Poor, sad, motherless Sunny crying on my shoulder. My chin began to tremble. My eyes began to fill with tears.

A few drops of rain splattered on the top of my head and sizzled. Ouch. Was that what Cody felt when he touched water? I did my best to direct the rest of the droplets away from Elaine and me, even as I did everything in my power to intensify my sadness.

Would Rome and I ever get back together? Truly together? Would he still want me after I went on those three dates with Jean-Luc? Not that anything would happen on those dates –  unless Lexis was right.

She isn’t, can’t be  – but some men couldn’t stand the thought of another man looking at their woman, and Rome was more jealous than most.

A fine sprinkle started up, just ahead of us.

Satisfaction wanted to fill me because the storm had begun, but I couldn’t let it. That would cause the rain to stop. Rather, I needed it to intensify. Sad, sad, sad. Me, all alone. Rome, back with Lexis or even with some other girl. Me, never seeing him again. Never seeing his daughter again. Never being held by him, loved by him. Him, realizing he didn’t want or need me anymore. Him, realizing he hated the girl I’d become.

I kept those terrible thoughts playing through my mind, tormenting me. Tears ran down my cheeks in rivers, burning, even as the sky opened up and poured a deluge of rain onto the land. Hail even fell, slapping into the ground. I couldn’t keep it away this time, there was simply too much, and damn, did it hurt.

I shivered, soaked to the bone in seconds. "R-ready?" I asked Elaine.

"Y-yes." Her teeth were chattering, too, and lines of tension branched from her eyes.

"Fight past the pain. Hell, maybe the rain will even help get rid of our sparks altogether."

"I hope so."

The boys hadn’t given us the signal, which meant they were still engaged in battle. They needed us, whether they wanted to admit it or not. Gripping the gun – it didn’t vibrate this time, and the pain inside me was easing, so what I’d told Elaine had been the truth – I rose. When Elaine did the same, almost collapsing beside me, I instinctively reached out and latched onto her, keeping her upright. Thank God she was covered by long sleeves. I would have dropped if I’d accidentally touched her skin.