Page 27

I lifted one hand, pointing towards him, and unleased my own power in a channel of pure, brutal force. I targeted one thing, and one thing only—the psychic ability living and breathing in this man.

I’d told Jon about Limiters, about the function of them, but there was another part of a psychic’s makeup. The very origin of their talent, which lived in them like a nestled ball. Depending on the talent, it moved about a little, but this man’s was clearly in his head. My energy hit it dead on, eradicating the ball like it had never existed, and leaving only a shell in its wake of where it once was.

Powell collapsed down to his knees, tears streaming from his eyes. From pain, surely, as I hadn’t been gentle. But the most dominant expression on his face was fear. Raw, aching fear. He stared at the ground as if he couldn’t reconcile what had happened.

I lowered my hand slowly to hang lax at my side. “Being a psychic isn’t some God-given right. You’ve done quite enough evil with yours. I will not tolerate you threatening mine.”

His eyes came back up to mine, and he was shell shocked, breathing in shallow pants. “What did you do? I can’t feel my ability at all.”

“I removed it.”

“You can’t?” He clearly didn’t mean it as a question. More like disbelief.

“Well, clearly I can, as I just did.” Turning my head a little, I addressed the other side of the mirror. “You can use regular cuffs on him now. He might go into shock, so be warned.”

Shaking like a newborn foal, he continued to kneel, staring at me in disbelief. His mouth dropped and he screamed, hands clutching his own head, and he rocked back and forth, emotionally falling apart. Well, I’d expected that reaction. His ability was the one thing he’d hinged all of his plans on. With it gone, so was any chance of resurrecting his father—that’s likely how he saw it.

Not that his plan had had a snowball’s chance in hell of happening, but he’d never be able to admit that to himself.

Borrowman and another cop came in, throwing cuffs on him again. He didn’t fight them, still sobbing and rocking back and forth, like he was trying to soothe himself but failing.

They hauled him out and I was grateful for it. At least that man’s done.

I turned, headed out of the room, and found everyone else waiting in the hallway.

Skylar greeted me with a high five. “When I’m an adult, I’m going to be scary like you are.”

I laughed and high fived her. “It’s a good goal in many ways. I might get into a little trouble for doing that, but I didn’t dare trust in the cuffs anymore.”

“No, he could clearly get out of them.” Jon assured me, “I’ll stand witness for you if someone does take issue with it. I mean, the recording stands for itself as well.”

We now had a secondary problem and as tired as I was, it needed a remedy still. “Jon. You said the second location was tied into his father and the person held captive there, correct? I think I now understand why there’s that mummified corpse next to the power bank.”

Borrowman surprised me by returning. Seeing our alarm, he assured the room, “Man went into shock, he’s heading to a hospital currently with armed officers. It’s more important we find that poor guy who’s held at the other location. How can we find it?”

It was a question. I might have an answer. “Borrowman, before I answer that, here’s my theory. I think the mummified corpse near the power bank was a test to see if they could shift the power bank from the first location to the second. That obviously failed. Their plan was to either bring the captive into the first house in order to do their grand revival of Powell’s father, or there’s a portal connecting the two places and transferring the power. I didn’t think to check, I was too focused on finding the victims first.”

Borrowman frowned deeply, mostly staring at the floor. “It does make sense. If you can’t move it, transfer it. If you’re right, if there is a portal connecting the two, can you trace it?”

“I can.”

His eyes met mine and there was a fierce light in those brown eyes. “Then let’s go look. I don’t want that poor person who’s held captive there any longer than necessary.”

In accord, we all headed straight out the door. With Powell’s goals, I felt sure this person was physically alright, if traumatized.

At least, I hoped to hell that was the case.

8

Donovan would not hear of Abby and Skylar coming with us into the horror show of a house, and the girls weren’t at all keen on the idea anyway, so they split from us at the door. It was a quiet sort of drive following Borrowman over to the cannibal house. I texted Elio some questions and an update, as I might need to soundboard ideas off of him again.

Lachlan’s head came to rest on my shoulder and he let out a weary sigh.

I combed fingers through those soft locks of hair and asked softly, “All right?”

“Tired but mostly fed up. There’s enough evil in the world, men don’t need to add to it.”

I groaned in agreement. “Sadly, I think the worst evil in the world is often manufactured by men.”