I CLOSED MY EYES, thinking of Ryker, his laughter when Hannah teased him, the sound of his voice, what it felt like when he shook my hand.
Relax.
Keir was thinking about Anstice.
Focus.
Jedrik’s mind was contemplating what movie he wanted to watch next. It was between Underworld and Hook.
Ryker. I have to focus on him.
Kilter’s thoughts overwhelmed all the others—she’s useless. I should’ve known. Fuck, she can’t do it.
My eyes flew open and I stared directly at Kilter. “I can’t do it when you’re in my bloody head.”
Kilter came at me with a ferocious growl.
Balen leapt from the bed and pushed him in the chest. “Back off.”
I raised my voice. “You’re the reason,” I said to Kilter, “I can’t concentrate when all I hear is your negativity.”
“Out. Everyone out,” Balen said.
“But I didn’t do—” Jedrik began to say.
“In the other room,” Keir said. “She is a Reflector and has yet to learn how to harness thoughts. If she’s focusing, she could be getting through some of the blocks in our minds.”
Kilter crossed his arms and stood hovering at the foot of the bed. Balen glared. Kilter glared back, refusing to budge.
“Leave or I don’t do this.” This was the biggest dickhead I’d ever met. And I’d at one time thought Keir was controlling. This guy’s name was controlling.
“I want to know everything he says. Word for word.” Kilter was furious, but he knew when to back down. He was dangerous and intelligent, a deadly combination.
I waited until the connecting door shut before closing my eyes again. I felt Balen on the other side of the room, lending me his strength with his steady rhythm of his heartbeat, but he kept his thoughts blocked.
“Ryker?”
Relax. Breathe. Feel him. I repeated over and over. I pictured him with Hannah in his arms, a grin on his face. Relaxed, comfortable, and totally in love.
“Ryker?”
I remembered his dark brown eyes, sharp and inquisitive. I recalled his voice, how deep and soothing it was when he spoke to Hannah.
“Ryker?”
His voice was different as it reached me with a sharp agonizing pain. “Who the hell are you? No Scars can reach me in this place.”
“It’s Danni. And yes, I can. We need to know—”
“Leave me the fuck alone,” Ryker said. “Blow this place sky high.”
I gasped as a sharp pain shot through my body. His pain. His loss. Hannah was dead and he wanted to die. “She’d want you to live.”
“You know shit about her or me.”
I ignored him. He was hurting; the guy had just lost the woman he clearly loved more than anything. “We have Hannah’s amulet,” I said, wondering if he knew about it.
“Fuckin’ Kilter. He owes me nothing. Tell him to take the amulet and leave.”
“I think you know already he won’t do that,” I said.
I heard him groan and then a fierce growl of pain.
“Ryker? Ryker what’s happening?”
“Do . . . not . . . come . . . for . . .”
“Ryker? Ryker?”
“Damn it.” My eyes flew open.
Balen sat on the bed beside me, holding my hand. I hadn’t felt him. It was as though I was away from my body when the telepathy was so intense.
“He wants us to leave him,” I said. “He’s so hurt with loss that I don’t think he really cares about much at the moment. But—” I hesitated and sighed, “—they were doing something to him. I don’t know what. He had trouble speaking, and then he was gone. I don’t know whether he passed out or what.”
“Which building is he in?” Kilter demanded from the doorway.
Asshole had been listening—figures. “He didn’t say. He wants you to take the amulet and leave. He said you owe him nothing.” I watched Kilter’s expression and it pissed me off that he could remain so impassive. I tried my newfound ability, but right now Kilter’s mind was a blank slate.
“He would say that,” Kilter said. “Tomorrow, we get him the fuck out. I expect you to have a location by then.” He turned and walked out.
I felt like sticking my tongue out at him. I wouldn’t put it past him to cut it off if I did.
Balen pulled me up next to him, smoothing my hair back from my face. I closed my eyes, shivers coursing over my skin at his gentle caress. He kissed my temple and his hand pushed my head onto his shoulder.
“We’ll sleep for a few hours, and then try to reach him again,” Balen said.
I curled up next to him, my head resting on his chest, my hand over his heart.
I woke with Balen’s arms around my waist; his head nestled in the crook of my neck. Kilter’s annoying, raspy voice came blaring into my mind like a car horn.
“Get hold of him now. I’m in.”
I bolted upright. “What?”
“Which building?” Kilter demanded.
“Ah, crap,” I said. Balen woke beside me and was instantly on alert. “Kilter went in. He wasn’t supposed to go yet, right?”
Balen ran his hand through his hair. “Fuck.” He yelled to the next room, “Keir, get your ass in here, we have a problem.”
“Ryker? Ryker, please. Kilter is in the compound.”
Nothing.
“Ryker! Wake the hell up!”