Caleb appreciated the heroic offer, but it went over about as well as he expected, earning several amused snorts and even more firm “No ways!” and “Like hells!” Jes especially looked like she wanted to smack her mate. And it was obvious Forrest wasn’t going anywhere without Misty.
Jake scowled. “If we all stay and that nuke goes off, it’s over.”
Before anyone could argue, Brielle sat in the chair beside Misty, slamming one hand on the side of the computer and the other on Misty’s. Then Brielle’s eyes went cloudy white, and her body went totally still, her face as expressionless as Misty’s. To say Caleb was as stunned as everyone else in the room was an understatement.
“What did she just do?” Hudson asked, his eyes wide.
“She went into the computer to get Misty,” Caleb said.
Grabbing a chair of his own, he flopped down in it. If he was going to go out in a brilliant flash of light, he might as well be comfortable.
Chapter 7
“Oh crap, Brielle. What the hell have you gotten yourself into now?”
Brielle carefully opened her eyes and slowly looked around, her head spinning as she tried to make sense of what she was seeing. One thing was for sure. She wasn’t in the control room anymore.
Everything around her was in darkness, lit only by pulsing lines of white and blue neon that seemed to stretch away in every direction as far as her eyes could see. For a moment, she thought she was in another tunnel full of boxes, pipes, and cables. Then realization hit her, and she began to tremble.
She was inside the computer she’d just touched.
She moved to put her hands on her hips to keep from hyperventilating, only to quickly discover that losing her breath probably wasn’t going to be an issue since her body apparently hadn’t come with her on this trip.
She couldn’t put into words how mind-numbingly terrifying it was to look down and see nothing but a vaporous collection of light where her body should be and arcs of crackling energy in place of where her arms, legs, and fingers should be.
Touching Misty and following her into the computer might end up being the biggest mistake of her life. But standing there waiting with everyone else as the countdown timer had clicked closer and closer to zero wasn’t an option any more than leaving Misty behind to die in a nuclear blast. So she’d done the only thing she could do. Touched Misty’s hand so she could bring her out of her trance—or whatever she was in.
Brielle hadn’t been sure what she’d expected. Suffice to say, it wasn’t this.
Knowing she had no time to waste if she was going to find Misty and get the both of them out of this place in time, Brielle forced herself to calm down and focus, trying to let her gift take control and guide her.
That’s the way it had always worked with her supernatural ability from the very first time it had manifested itself when she was a kid. She’d never understood how touching a person could let her use their skills and knowledge, be it understanding a foreign language or firing a weapon she’d never even seen before. She touched them and simply knew what to do.
She only hoped it worked that way this time.
“Find Misty,” she murmured, holding her nonexistent breath until she saw a little wisp of neon appear ahead of her, trailing off into the distance like a trail of breadcrumbs. She didn’t know what the lights were or where they might lead her, but she moved to follow them anyway.
Brielle hadn’t given any thought to how she could walk in her present form, seeing as she didn’t really have legs to speak of. But before she even had a chance to worry, the bizarre alien landscape was zipping by beneath her, the little balls of light disappearing with an inaudible pop as she passed them. She seemed to be moving fast, into and out of little boxes that a corner of her mind recognized as microchips, processors, and network server components. But for all her speed, she didn’t feel any wind. In this place—in this form—she guessed that concept didn’t exist.
Many of the things she moved past and through probably would have made sense to the part of her that had access to Misty’s gifts, but at the moment, she was too focused on finding Caleb’s teammate to pay much attention to the landscape.
Brielle almost missed Misty in her rush to move fast, mostly because the young woman’s amorphous shape was almost lost in the tangle of circuit board traces and wires she was lying among. Brielle wasn’t even sure what it was that convinced her that the dimly glowing figure was Misty.
She just knew.
Brielle moved closer, alarmed at the scurrying…things…roving over Misty’s form. They were glowing wisps similar to the balls she had followed but darker in color, almost menacing. Intruder protection software, that little voice told her as she jumped down and began to smack at the blobs, the arcs of energy that made up her fingers flicking them away as fast as she could. Even as she worked, she swore she could see the light coming from within Misty dimming even more. The fact that the things trying to kill Misty were kind of like bugs was enough to make Brielle’s not-really-there body shudder. She hated bugs.
Once all the gnawing creatures were gone, it was impossible to miss the damage they’d left behind. There were little tears in Misty’s virtual form. Like the things had been eating her. Brielle shivered all over again.
She’d hoped Misty would wake up—or at least moan or something—but she didn’t so much as move.
Praying Misty was still alive, Brielle leaned closer, mentally picturing herself scooping Misty into her arms. It didn’t quite go the way she’d planned. She melded with Misty more than picked her up. But the important thing was that Misty was off the ground…or circuit board…or…whatever. That was the only thing that mattered.
Brielle turned and started running again. Or whatever you’d called an amorous shape zipping through a digital world at light speed. Regardless, she moved fast, letting her instincts guide her, hoping she got the two of them out of this computer hellhole quickly. Brielle had no idea how long she’d been in there and really had no desire to finally pop out only to discover the countdown timer had reached zero.
One second, she was zipping and praying, and the next it felt like she was being shoved through a spaghetti strainer. Light flooded her eyes, overwhelming her senses until everything began to darken again. Then there were strong arms wrapping around her and a warm, deep voice calling her name.
Her eyes fluttered open to find Caleb leaning over her, his beautiful eyes filled with concern. “Caleb?” she whispered, the sight of him almost taking her breath away.
“Brielle is back with us,” he called out, lifting his head to look at someone off to the side, out of her line of vision. “What about Misty?”
“She’s a little out of it, but she’s okay,” Forrest answered. “Let’s move!”