her middle, as if the action could hold the Light in. But it was at my mercy; she was powerless to stop me now.
The branch around my middle loosened, making it easier to breathe, and the vines circling my wrists were no longer cutting off circulation.
I’d never pulled Light like this before—from a single, direct source that wasn’t one of my Bonded Variants. Sure, I’d pulled it from other Variants in Davis’s lab and in the gun fight as Alec lay dying at my feet, but those times I’d simply pulled from all directions, letting the Light drain anyone it recognized as a threat.
This was different—it was personal. I wasn’t trying to boost my guys’ powers, to give us the upper hand in a life-or-death situation. I was using my glowing ability as a weapon, homing in on the one person who posed the biggest threat to me and coaxing the Light right out of her.
It was almost too easy.
She fell to her knees and sat back on her heels, folding in on herself. Her arms stayed wrapped around her middle.
As several Melior Group guards ran toward us, she completely lost her grip on her ability. The branches and vines detangled and retreated slowly.
The guards had their guns drawn, yelling at everyone to get down on the ground, but they didn’t seem sure of whom to point the weapons at.
On the one hand, it looked as if I was being attacked, but on the other, I was glowing like fucking plutonium as the plant life lowered me to my feet. Meanwhile, the agent who’d turned on me was yelling that I needed to be restrained, confusing the crap out of his colleagues.
The girl—Elena—wavered and toppled to the ground.
“No!” I shouted, dread crawling up my spine to grip my throat. I shut my glow down immediately and stopped pulling Light from her.
I’d wanted to defend myself—I couldn’t just hang there and let them kidnap me. It was never my intention to kill her.
I rushed forward, but a black-clad woman stepped into my path, pointing a gun at my chest. “Do not move!”
I froze and put my hands up, but I shifted from foot to foot, my darting eyes trying to take it all in, trying to see if I’d just killed someone.
One agent had a gun trained on me, and the other was checking to see if Elena was OK. When she coughed and moaned, I breathed a shaky breath of relief as my tears spilled over.
Other people started pouring onto the narrow path from both ends, drawn by the shouts and commotion. The two agents were struggling to maintain control of the situation.
“She’s the dangerous one!” Elena’s friend gestured to me, his other hand in a fist by his side. “We should be tying her the fuck up. Handing her over to Davis Damari. Don’t you assholes want abilities?”
“I’m human, dumbass!” another guy shouted.
People started yelling over one another, ignoring the firm demands of the armed guards to remain calm and step back. Some of the Variants seemed to know the couple, and most of them wanted my head—or my Light, as it were.
As more and more people piled into the tight space between the trees, it started to feel like the beginnings of a mob. Someone should really run and get the torches and pitchforks.
I took tentative steps back, the leaves and twigs crunching under my feet, as the angry, arguing crowd closed in. More guards arrived, but short of firing weapons, there wasn’t much they could do to stop what was fast turning into a riot.
A Variant with super speed blurred through the crowd, and I suddenly found myself restrained once again, my wrists in a tight grip and my shoulders pulled back.
People in the crowd cheered, started pushing forward.
The guard pointing a gun at me faltered, looking between me and my captor with uncertainty. “Everyone calm the fuck down and step back!”
But the yells and angry words of the crowd drowned out her voice. Scuffles began to break out.
“Let me go or I’ll drain you,” I growled, doing my best to look at the asshole holding me. I caught a glimpse of stubble, a sneering mouth. “I’ll drain you like I drained her.”
He hesitated, the hands around my wrists loosening just a fraction, but then he yanked me back roughly.
Whatever he was about to say was interrupted by a deafening roar behind us. The crowd immediately quieted down, looking around warily and shuffling backward.