The interrogation room doorswung open, the hinges squeaking, and Rome stepped into the hall. He didn't glance around. No, he instantly pinned me with a hard stare, as if he'd known exactly where I was standing all along.
I gulped. Had he?
Beside me, Tanner muttered, "Shit. Cat Man's pi - issed."
That he was. His eyes were narrowed, his pupils a thin, feral line. I licked my lips, a nervous gesture I couldn't have stopped had my life depended on it. Here he was, my most primal fantasy in the flesh.
Dark, dangerous and untamable.
Rather than smile and tug me into his arms for a kiss, he snarled, "Can you two keep it down? You're distracting us."
Us? When neither Lexis nor Tobin had even glanced at the window since Tanner and I had stepped up to it? "Uh, I could scream the national anthem and no one inside that room would be able to hear me." His lips pursed, and he remained silent. Stubborn man.
"Just...go back in there and finish the interview." I gestured to the window. Lexis, too, had gone silent the moment Rome had exited, and she and Tobin were listening through the still-open door. "Well, no one can hear us when the door is properly...clo...sed." I had trouble getting out the last word.
Rome's gaze was in the process of raking over me, heating from cold ocean to azure fire. He lingered on my calves, where the chocolate ribbons x-ed a path to my knees, and ran his tongue over the seam of his lips. "What are you wearing?"
It was a question laced with some sort of husky promise. I gulped again, this time for an entirely different reason. Maybe the dress hadn't been such a bad idea, after all. Maybe Rome liked me no matter what I wore.
"This old thing? Oh, it's just something I threw on."
Tanner snorted. Thankfully, he kept his mouth shut.
"You look very...pretty." Rome's voice was low, raspy now.
Clearly, his first choice had not been "pretty." Maybe I'm an idiot. "Thank you," I said, raising my chin.
Whether he'd meant to say "amazing" or "wretched" I didn't care. Really. He'd either like me or he wouldn't, and there was nothing I could do about it.
Now, that is. There was nothing I could do now. When his memories returned - and they would, I refused to believe otherwise - he would pay for all of this and assuage my stinging pride.
I stretched my arm around him, careful not to touch him, and closed the door. "How did you see us through the glass?" I asked. I had to keep the conversation rolling or I'd find myself sidling up to Rome and resting my head on his shoulder out of habit. No telling how he'd react.
"I told you. Eye enhancements. Two-ways are not a problem for me."
"You never told me - " Wait. Yes. Yes, he had. I gasped as the implications hit me, hope infusing my every cell. While we were "dating," a.k.a. while he chased me so that PSI could neutralize me, he'd told me all about the voluntary procedures he'd undergone to increase his physical strength and scrim-hunting skills. "You remember telling me about the procedure?"
Confusion settled over his gorgeous features. "I - I - "
Right on cue - because she'd known how close we were to a breakthrough, the bitch - Lexis opened the door and stepped into the hall.
"What's going on?" she asked in a snotty tone far worse than her usual smugness.
Beside me, Tanner went rigid.
"Do you remember?" I insisted, keeping my attention centered on Rome. "We were in a car, being chased by Pretty Boy. I was snuggled into your side and you were trying to distract me from my fears so I wouldn't ice the car. My head was resting on your shoulder, my hand on your chest, so I could feel your heart drumming and - "
"Great story." Lexis ran her palm up and down Rome's arm, petting him. "But it isn't as though it can possibly be verified."
"I can verify it," Tanner told her, the words more a growl than anything. "I was in the backseat listening." Damn, I loved him. "Rome," I said. "Do. You. Remember?"
The confusion faded from his face and anger returned. He shook his head. "No. I don't. I don't know why I said what I did."
Still, my hope remained. My fiance was in that head somewhere. Whether his memories had been erased or borrowed didn't matter. Somehow, a part of him did remember me.
He placed an arm around Lexis's waist - my hope blended with a fiery prong of rage - and tugged her closer to him. For comfort? My hands burned. Then he released her to close the door behind her. He'd only meant to move her out of the way. The burning subsided.
"What's going on?" Miss Know-It-All repeated. She focused on me, blinked when she spotted my outfit, then smirked. She ran a fingertip along the buttons of her shirt. "Nice dress, Belle." My cheeks heated with embarrassment. "I'd tell you those jeans look nice on you, but they make your ass look fat."
"Truth," Tanner said with a grin.
Lexis paled but didn't offer a retort.
Tanner reached for me and squeezed my hand in comfort, and I noticed he was trembling. Not by word or deed did he betray it, though. With his neutral expression, he appeared every bit the confident man.
I'd never been prouder of him.
Suddenly Rome's lips pulled back from his teeth in a show of aggression.
"Sweetheart?" Lexis said.
His gaze never left me.
"What?" I demanded.
"Nothing," he snapped, though his eyes were glued to Tanner's and my joined hands.
Wait. Was he jealous, as he'd been with Cody? Or did his anger stem from the insult I'd dealt his precious Lexis? I opened my mouth to say something - what, I might never know - when Rome's voice lashed out.
"Where's Cody?"
"I sent him out on assignment." He'd sent himself, but whatever. "So what'd you guys learn from Tobin?"
Lexis rested her head on Rome's shoulder, as I'd wanted to do earlier and as I'd just told him I'd once done in his car, and patted his chest. To his credit, he shifted uncomfortably. Even disengaged from her to peer inside the interrogation room at Tobin, who had not moved from his chair.
Lexis couldn't mask the hitch of her breath.
I suddenly couldn't stop smiling.
Her eyes homed in on my smile like a missile just before impact. "He stayed at my house last night."
"We slept in separate rooms," Rome said before I could react. He turned back to her, frowning. Upset by what she'd insinuated? "I asked you to stop that."
Stop trying to distress me? And they'd stayed in separate rooms? Thank God! I'd tried not to worry about it, had managed to suppress any mental images of the two of them together, naked, but the worry had been there, deep in my heart.
"You did?" I asked, then cursed myself for how needy I'd come across.
"We're working on the emotional aspects of our marriage before we get physical," Lexis retorted, defensive.
"You're working on your marriage?" I'd known that. He'd implied it before, but still. Knife...twisting...
Rome shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other and tangled his fingers through his hair. "Yes.
No. I don't know. I told you I was going to remarry her." This time, at least, he didn't sound so sure.
"God, I can't believe I ever dated you." Tanner, too, tangled a hand through his hair, dislodging the blue locks and causing them to stand on end as he scowled at Lexis. "Every day, hell, every hour, I get over you a little more. Were you always this manipulative and nasty? And how the hell did I miss it?" As he spoke, I studied Rome's face, watching for any sign of acceptance, any sign that he realized the truth of Tanner's claim, that he was being manipulated in the worst possible way. But while he appeared hard and uncompromising, he did not appear enlightened.
"Watch how you talk to her," he said.
"Why? I've said worse to her," Tanner replied. "While we were in bed." Rome surprised me; he didn't lash out over that "in bed" remark.
"I'm just looking out for my family, Tanner," Lexis said softly, no longer smirking or smug. "For my daughter."
Tanner pushed out a disgusted breath. "No, you're looking out for yourself." Rome's head tilted to the side. In thought? "Wait a second. You truly dated him?" He faced Lexis. He didn't appear upset by the knowledge that his ex-wife had dated a much younger man. Maybe because he knew, on some level, that he didn't love this woman any longer.
"For a little while," she said, rubbing the back of her neck. "Now isn't the time to discuss it, though." Now was as good a time as any, so Lexis could suck it. "Don't you think you should rediscover your past before you work on your future?" I asked him.
Rome scrubbed a hand down his face. "Yes. No." Once again, anger hardened his features. "I don't know what to think about anything anymore. Okay?"
"He's about to blow," Tanner muttered. He probably meant the words for me alone, but they echoed through our little circle. "So, uh, why don't we change the subject as The Great Puppeteer suggested.
Tell us what you learned from that Tobin guy."
A long while passed in silence, time Rome used to clear his expression and soften his body language to give nothing of his emotions away. From seething statue of granite to average citizen with not a care.
Well, as average as a guy like him could look.
"We'll give you our report at the lunch meeting," he said. "We've got a few more people to talk to first, and I want to confirm a few things before they're bandied about."
"All right." I nodded. That had always been Rome's style. "Tanner and I should go. We've got a few people to interview ourselves."
Rome frowned again, a hint of concern pushing through that blank mask. "Who? And why together?" Was that concern for me? And maybe more of the jealousy I'd sensed earlier? "Elaine Daringer, for starters. And because we work well together."
"Rome." Lexis tugged at his arm impatiently. "We really should finish speaking with Tobin. He's growing restless."
Rome ignored her. "Elaine is an energy vampire," he told me.
"I know. I read her file." I flicked Lexis a glance. She pinched one of her shirt's buttons and rolled it back and forth, the motions agitated. Didn't like the attention I was getting, I supposed.
"Have you ever dealt with an energy vampire before?" Rome asked.
Still talking to me, I realized happily. "No, but I've studied the PSI manual and know what to do. She'll be strapped down and I won't touch her."
"Besides," Tanner said, his chest puffing up, "Belle will have me. She'll be fine. Better than fine." That frown grew in intensity. "Let me talk - "
Boom!
Plumes of plaster and rock suddenly bathed the air, debris flying in every direction. Tanner was knocked flat on his ass, part of the wall and window that had exploded pinning him down. Lexis and Rome were propelled to the ground, as well.
Me, well, I was knocked backward and scooped into a viselike grip before I could kiss the tiles.
Tobin had broken through the wall.
A high-pitched alarm screeched to life, echoing all around. When I realized what had happened - and what was happening - I kicked and punched with every ounce of strength I possessed. When that failed to gain my freedom, I jabbed Tobin's trachea and poked his eyes just like Rome had taught me.
Nothing slowed him; nothing relaxed his grip. He barreled down the halls, past shocked agents, shoving them to the floor and going straight through walls. He didn't mist, though, a form of teleporting. No, he simply shattered the plaster and wood. The agents would jump to their feet, use their powers or human abilities - a lightning bolt whizzed past, a slew of knives and throwing stars, even a thick, choking smoke that clouded the air - but Tobin dodged everything effortlessly, as though he'd trained for just such a thing.
"Let me go!" Every time he slammed through those planks, I felt as if a thousand fists were punching me.
The impact was compounded as his heavy feet slammed into the floor one after the other, bouncing me up and down. At least I was able to cough some of the smoke out of my lungs. "You're killing me!"
"Be still," he snarled.
"I will when you tell me where you're taking me!"
"My friend wants to chat with you, okay, and my friend gets what she wants." She. Desert Gal? Desert Gal's friend? I increased my struggles. "For God's sake, if she wanted to talk to me, she could have called me!"
Another wall. More fists, more vibrations. "This way, she can ensure you answer her questions properly."
Great. Torture was on the horizon.
By the sixth wall, I was cut, bleeding and coughing from more than smoke inhalation. I wouldn't be able to stop him through regular means, I realized. I'd have to use my powers. What should I use, then? Rain?
No, he'd slip but keep running. Fire? No, I might burn the entire building down. Ice?
Yes! Ice. I could freeze him in place. And maybe, just maybe, since Rome, my filter, was in the building, I wouldn't mess this up and refrigerate the entire city of Atlanta. Come on, Belle. You can do it.
Fear, I needed fear to create ice. I was scared right now, but it was a numbing fear, which meant the emotion was there, it just wasn't accessible, as though this was simply a dream and I wasn't really involved. I needed to break through that numbness just like Tobin had broken through those walls.
Okay, so. What scared me so much I couldn't pretend everything would work out in my favor? The thought of the upcoming torture, for sure. Knives under my nails, fingers removed, ears bitten off. As I thought them, I pictured them happening. A cold mist began to drift through my veins. It was a good start, but not nearly enough to immobilize my captor.
"Don't kill me," I shouted, hoping that would help. I'd read somewhere that hearing oneself beg for mercy could start a domino effect inside one's body. Supposedly the sound sparked a terrified tremor and that tremor unleashed a torrent of endorphins. Wait. Endorphins numbed fear. I think. Argh! Things weren't supposed to be this complicated. I was going to screw this up.
With that last thought, my fear kicked up a notch, the mist solidifying into an icy rain. Oh, excellent!
Failure must frighten me stupid.
"I'm such a failure," I wailed. Another notch.
"Shut up, woman."
"I can't do anything right." Another notch. Sadly, I couldn't refute the words. Not only was I facing potential death, but there was a very real possibility that Rome was going to stay with Lexis forever, that I'd lose him, never hold him again.
Ice spread over the floor, and Tobin lost his footing. As he slammed into an office, people screaming, debris raining, an animalistic roar suddenly ripped through the air. Both Tobin and I were propelled forward at a faster velocity. When we hit something solid - a desk - Tobin grunted and released me. I went skidding across the floor, once again losing my hold on the ice-inducing fear.
What the hell?
I jumped to shaky legs, scanning the area. Rome had morphed into his jaguar form, sleek and black and deadly, and had tackled Tobin from behind. The wild black cat tore a chunk from the struggling man's neck. Not enough to kill him, but enough to slow him down.
Tobin raised a meaty fist and batted him across the room - at me. Rome and I were knocked together, oxygen gusting from my lungs on impact. But when we landed, the cat was somehow underneath me. He must have twisted us midair. He rolled me to my back.
There was a warm lick across my face and then the weight lifted and the two men were facing off again, Tobin bleeding, Rome snarling. I gagged, seeing the blood on both of them.
There was no manufacturing fear this time. As I lay there, laboring for every breath, the emotion flooded me. Inhumanly strong as Tobin was, he could snap Rome's neck. Or punch him in the head and crack his skull into a thousand pieces. Perhaps, though, that would be a good thing. Perhaps it would knock some sense into him, as my dad always says.
Wait. Finding a silver lining was not good in a situation like this. Tobin could -
Scream, "Son of a bitch," and launch at Rome. The two clashed together, twisting to the ground, rolling and fighting. Tobin, punching. Rome, biting.
"I didn't take your woman," the strong man growled. "No reason to react like this." Rome gave another of those ear-piercing roars, sharp teeth flashing white.
Okay, okay, okay. I had to concentrate. I hated doing things like this, worrying I'd somehow think them into actually happening, but sometimes it was the only way to work my emotions in the direction I needed them. To jump-start things, I closed my eyes and pictured Lexis walking down the aisle to marry Rome.
That brought anger, not fear, melting the ice. Scratch that.
I drummed up an image of Tanner, warring with the boys. Every day he trained in self-defense and combat, but he wouldn't stand a chance against Tobin. A tendril of fear swept through me, cool but not cold.
In my mind, I threw Sherridan into the fight. Pretty, don't-like-to-sweat Sherridan, and my fear increased. I would have considered my own torture again, but my fear for the others was greater. Quite simply, they were my everything.
Next I planted my dad. Weak as his heart was, he wouldn't survive any kind of physical fight - especially not one where I could hear grunting, groaning and bones snapping. Once more, my fear increased and finally, blessedly I achieved the glacial temperature I desired. My blood thickened and my palms iced over, a crystallized ball forming in the center.
"Rome," I shouted, eyelids popping open. "Duck."
The large cat dove out of the way, and I tossed the ice ball with a shaky arm. My aim was true. The ball slammed into Tobin's chest, frost instantly spreading and coating his entire body. He'd been in the process of swinging his massive fist at Rome's head, but froze in place just before contact.
At that point, everything seemed to still.
Agents had gathered around the area, I noted, each staring down at us, silent. They hadn't jumped into the mix, either too afraid the volatile cat would come at them next or afraid they would hit and kill Rome while trying to slay Tobin. Tanner and Lexis, I noticed, were both absent. Shit. My fear increased, though I no longer needed it, and another ice ball formed in my hand. Were they okay?
Rome remained on the ground, fur slowly falling from him, naked sun-kissed skin taking its place.
Panting, I stood and lumbered to him, keeping the ice ball cradled safely against my chest. Were I to drop it, the ground would be covered in seconds. I fell to his side and stroked his hair with my free hand.
Bruises were already developing on his chest and legs, but his eyes were open and he was breathing.
Just as relief drifted through me, the ice around Tobin began to crack. He was fighting his way free, I realized.
Everyone reacted at once.
With Rome out of the way and Tobin an easy mark, a lightning bolt sailed, a throwing star embedded and that thick smoke billowed. A gunshot even rang out, cracking the ice and leaving a gaping hole.
Blood trickled from it, but I wasn't taking any chances. I tossed the second ball of ice at him. Once again, frost spread.
Everyone waited, time seemingly suspended, but the second layer held firm and kept the beast in place.
"Rome!" Lexis shouted, suddenly pushing her way into the room. Blood dripped from her temple and onto her shirt as she knelt in front of him.
Tanner limped in behind her. He, too, was bleeding. But he was alive, and that was all that mattered. He searched the room until he found me. "You good?"
I nodded, incapable of speech at the moment. My chin was trembling too violently.
"What the hell happened? And why is everyone standing around?" John's voice rang with authority, kicking everyone into motion. Scanning the room, I found him looming in the middle of a giant hole in the wall. "Get that scrim locked in the freezer so he remains immobilized, and get Jamison, Bradshaw and the Masterses to medical. Now!"
Several agents rushed to the block of ice and hauled it out together. Several more helped Rome and me to our feet. Our eyes were locked together during it all. Whatever thoughts drifted through his mind, I might never know. Lexis elbowed one of the agents out of the way and stepped in front of me, winding an arm around Rome's waist and finally blocking him from my view.
