Page 131 of Sin

He patted my back. “Hopefully.” Rolling his eyes, he waved me back a couple steps. “Okay, give me some space.”

While he worked, I tried to listen for any sound of the others, but I couldn’t hear anything. At least there hadn’t been any more explosions.

Lewis’s brow lined with sweat, and he breathed hard and fast as energy cracked under his palms. He focused, his eyes closed as he worked on breaking the wards. When his hands passed through the previously invisible barricade, it struck me just how powerful Lewis was.

He smirked at me, but I noted the exhaustion lining his eyes. “Easy peasy.”

“Okay, show off. Let’s do this.”

Sucking in a breath, I yanked on the handle, and the door groaned open.

The moment the room, no bunker, came into view, my mouth opened in surprise, and I tried to close the door.

Because standing behind an unconscious Lucas, was Keith. He smirked at us from where he had one of Lucas’s arms aimed at the opened doorway, Lucas’s grenade launcher activated.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to close the door fast enough. It was too heavy and slow. And as Keith pressed the button to launch the grenade, I met Lewis’s wide, blue eyes.

Everything happened so fast after that.

Lewis’s nanobots arced over us in a dome, and Lewis tackled me to the ground. The explosion knocked into the dome. It mostly shielded us, but heat and sharp pieces of metal broke through.

Lewis moaned in pain, still covering me from the worst of the heat. His nanobots fell away as he used the last bit of his power and he tried to sit up.

Then he stilled, looking confused. Something hot and wet splattered my face. It took me a too-long moment to notice something silver poking through the front of his neck. Then in the next breath, it disappeared. Blood poured from his mouth, and he sucked in a wet, ragged, and pained breath as he clutched at his crimson-soaked throat.

Lewis collapsed on top of me, revealing Keith standing behind him, holding a knife dripping with blood.

It was hard to think. My brain struggled to focus, and there was a bitter taste of copper on my tongue. I didn’t understand what had happened at first because my brain was too damn slow.

But then Lewis looked at me, fear and agony shining in his gaze. “L-like I s-said,” he garbled, blue eyes glazing as he made several choking noises like he was inhaling liquid. “Eas…Easy.. P-p…”

His words ended on a rattling breath as his body stilled.

I understood then. And it hurt. It hurt to understand.

“No!” I struggled to move beneath his weight, but I finally managed to shift him off of me. His open eyes stared blankly. His chest didn’t rise. “No!”

But Lewis didn’t respond. Would never respond.

“Well, that’s too bad. I was hoping that grenade would have taken you both out.”

Tears in my eyes, I flashed Keith a glare. He still held the knife in his hand and was frowning down at Lewis with a putout expression.

“I’m going to kill you!” I screamed at him, lunging.

But midair, hands grabbed me, pinning my arms behind my back and causing me to fall painfully to knees. I twisted, and flinched as I came face to face with Lewis.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Keith said, but I noticed the sweat on his brow as he concentrated. He was definitely struggling to use his power, close to burnout.

“Let me—”

One of Lewis’s hands slammed over my mouth, stopping the command. I shouted against his fingers, still slick with his blood, and Keith smirked. “Were you hoping to make me stab myself?” He tutted. “I already told you, you’re not going to kill me. But I have half a mind to kill you.” He frowned back at Lucas.

“Then why don’t you?”

“Ah, because then you’d miss the show!” He pointed to a monitor off to the side of the… was this a bomb shelter? But then I saw what the monitor was showing, and I froze. There were cameras angled into each room, and in one, I spotted the team attempting to pry their way through the fallen debris leading to the hallway Lewis and I had gone. But several of the others showed various animals slinking into the rooms, vests with blinking lights and a timer counting down from one minute.

I understood why he was hiding down here. He’d planned this. He’d known we’d come back for him once we knew he was involved, and he’d fucking planned this. He was going to bomb the house, and let everyone die.

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