Free True Born by L.E. Sterling Page A

door off its hinges and slings Margot up into his arms. She looks like a fragile doll as he hurries down the hall, like she’s no weight at all. The minute we’re out of the small room I’m no longer swamped with the iron-tinged scent of blood. I take a deeper breath, feeling slightly less nauseous.
    Mohawk and Storm approach as we turn the corner.
    “What the hell happened to you?” Mohawk flashes a quick grin. A hint of gray floats over her eyes as she takes a deep whiff of the three of us. “ Never mind, ” she says darkly.
    Beside her, air shimmers around Storm’s uncannily still body. His fists clench as he tersely orders, “Get her into the van. Lucy, are you all right?”
    I nod automatically, but I consider revising my answer. My legs are shaking badly. I sag against the nearest wall. Jared sighs and hands Margot to Storm before plucking me up into his arms. He glances down at me only briefly. It’s not an expression I understand: annoyance and a dollop of confusion mixed with something territorial and just a bit smug, like I’ve been indelibly stamped as his property but he can’t figure out how it happened. If it helps, I can’t either.
    We head back toward the loading bay doors. I don’t say a word, even though he’s got me pressed against his gory shirt, and neither does he. My arm curls around his neck instinctively. I want to close my eyes and disappear, but I’m too jacked up, my heart hammering away inside my chest, so I stare at the spot in his neck that pulses frantically and listen to the slow, steady beat of his heart. The deserted hallways echo with the tinny, generic sound of horns and strings as we walk.
    I expect Jared to dump me outside the van and get as far away from me as he can. So I’m surprised when he opens the back door one-handed and settles me in the middle of the seat so gently I want to weep. He crawls in after me, his body hot and pulsing as he presses himself up along my side. A second later Storm buckles Margot in place beside me and hops into the driver’s seat while Mohawk slides into the front passenger seat. Margot’s head lolls back. I put an arm around her. The car jumps to life, and I start whispering in her ear, telling her she’s safe, that we’ve got her. But despite the furnace of Jared’s heat beside me, a coldness spreads inside my body. I am frozen to the core, and it starts in Margot.
    “We’ve got to hurry,” I say to no one in particular.
    Storm glances at us through the rearview. “Fifteen seconds,” he says enigmatically. As if on cue, Torch opens the back and rolls himself in before pulling the hatch down over him.
    “Go.” There’s an urgent note to his voice. Storm steps on the gas, and we race down the long road that winds back into the heart of the city. Margot shivers fiercely. I hug her close to me and shiver myself. Jared stretches an arm around us both and with his other hand produces a blanket. He unfurls it one-handed and settles it over my sister, then me. I can’t look at him as I murmur, “Thank you.”
    Jared says nothing. My body is such a confused mixture of heady awareness, shock, and terror that I keep my gaze, wide-eyed, locked on my sister. I will her to come back to me. I need you, Margot , I whisper into the space between us, the now silent and empty room of our bond.

Chapter Seven
    It never occurs to me to ask where Storm is taking us. Still, I reckon I’m not surprised when his van pulls into the underground parking garage under the immense cobalt skyscraper in downtown Dominion. Storm takes my sister again, and we all climb into a private elevator. Mohawk opens a small black keypad, punches some numbers into the identi-pad, then puts her thumb to the scanner. The doors close silently. As we zoom toward the 60 th floor, I try to stop my knees from knocking together. Jared holds my upper arm like he’ s certain I ’m going to fall down. I don’t pull away.
    My throat is raw as I croak, “Do you think