Hunger

and wrapped around Brittney’s wrist. The gun fired, but the bullets hit wall and ceiling.
    Caine, enraged, aimed his full power at the girl. She skidded across the floor and hit the wall, so quickly that Drake was still attached and was drawn along with her.
    Caine jumped to his feet, holding his focus on Brittney, raised her from the ground, suspended in midair.
    “You piece of—” Brittney said, and then she was a bullet herself, rocketing through the air.
    She flew through the hole Sam had burned earlier.
    That had not been Caine’s intention. The girl was lucky.
    Or someone was looking out for her.

    Outside, standing faithful guard, Dekka heard the eruption of gunfire from the control room.
    She leaped toward the wall just as something flew through the burned-out hole. It landed with the unmistakable sound of a human body hitting the ground.
    Dekka stared, too stunned to react.
    Then, off to her right, gunfire from inside the turbine building. Bright yellow flashes outlined the doorway.
    She broke her trance and ran toward the door. Edilio’s soldiers jumped up off the ground and fell in behind her.
    “Orc! Orc!” Dekka shouted.
    She heard rather than saw the monster stir. He’d been asleep in the back of the SUV. The springs squeaked as he clambered out.
    Two of Caine’s gunmen appeared as shadows in the doorway. Their guns aimed at the fleeing forms.
    Gunfire and one of the shapes fell without even crying out. Collapsed onto his face and did not move. The other ran, ran, ran.
    “I got him! I got him!” someone cried, more terror than pride in his voice.
    “Taylor!” Dekka yelled. “Distract them!”
    “Bouncing!” Taylor yelled back and disappeared.
    “Oh, my God, I think I killed him,” the voice moaned.
    Dekka raised her hands and both gunmen floated up off the ground. One smacked the top of the doorway. The other slid back inside, out of Dekka’s reach. The firing stopped. The running hostage collapsed, gasping, behind a vehicle.

    One second Taylor was running beside Dekka.
    A split second later she was staggering, still half running, across the control room of the power plant.
    “You stupid psycho!” Caine screamed at Drake.
    Drake had gone bone white, all but his cold gray eyes. “I just saved your life!”
    “You were being an idiot! You pushed Jack just to watch him squirm,” Caine yelled. “And look what happened. I’m busy keeping you two apart and look what happened, you stupid thug!”
    “Hey!” Diana yelled.
    It took Taylor a moment to recognize her. Her head was practically shaved.
    “Hey!” Diana yelled again, pointing at Taylor. “We have company!”
    Caine whirled and swung his deadly hands up, but Taylor bounced across the room to appear in a far corner, behind him.
    “Jack, you traitor!” Taylor yelled, and bounced out of the room.

    Taylor popped back, right in Dekka’s face. “They’re freaking out in there. We should hit them now!”
    Dekka came to a stop. She added quickly in her mind. She had Orc and Taylor and herself. She had three of Edilio’s guys. The hostages were no longer an issue.
    But Caine and Drake were still alive. Still very, very dangerous. Plus at least two gunmen, maybe more.
    “No,” she said, feeling deflated. “Not without Sam.”
    “We should go now, right now!” Taylor yelled. She pointed at the bloody mess on the ground. “Look what they did. Look what they did! Look at what those animals did!”
    Dekka put a calming hand on the girl’s shoulder. “We go in now, we’ll lose,” she said. And even if Sam were there…She’d never seen Sam acting the way he had earlier. Like the fire had gone out in him.
    “You’re just scared,” Taylor said.
    “Don’t be up in my face, Taylor,” Dekka warned. “We don’t have the power. Simple as that. We attack now, we’ll lose. Sam will have more bodies for Edilio to bury. I don’t know if Sam can…” She stopped herself. Too late.
    “What about Sam?” Taylor demanded.
    Dekka shrugged. “Nothing. Boy’s just tired, is all. I think maybe he doesn’t need another fight tonight.”
    Taylor looked like she might argue some more. Then her shoulders sagged. “Yeah. Whatever.”
    “You head back to town. Tell Sam what went down. Tell him what you saw inside there.”
    “It’ll take me a few minutes. I can’t do it all in one bounce,” Taylor said.
    “Then get going.”
    Taylor disappeared and Dekka kicked furiously at the dirt. It had all happened too fast for her