Mind Storm by K.M. Ruiz Read Free Book Online

They noticed the emptiness first, the body second. The corpse was sprawled on the steps leading up to the chancel, white and crimson-edged vestments fanned out around it.
    Quinton caught Kerr’s eye and the two of them approached the body, Jason’s telekinesis wrapped firmly around them in a shield. Quinton rested his finger lightly against the trigger guard of his gun as he kept an eye on their surroundings while Kerr knelt down beside the corpse. Kerr lowered a few of his mental shields, reaching out with his telepathy.
    There were no physical wounds, no blood, to mark the bishop’s passing. It took heavy, extensive trauma to the mind for the wounds to translate to the body. When they did, they showed mostly above the neck. Kerr studied the dead man’s twisted face as he withdrew from the edges of the gaping hole that existed where personality had once resided.
    â€œSix hours,” he said. “Judging by the echo left behind on the mental grid, his mind was ripped apart from the foundation outwards. Hard telepathic strike.”
    â€œI thought we were dealing with a telekinetic, not a telepath?” Quinton said slowly. “One strong enough to teleport. That’s the only explanation we were given for how the target has managed to appear and disappear so quickly from one place to the next across continents.”
    â€œSometimes the mental grid can be made to lie.”
    Quinton stared at Kerr. “That takes a lot of strength and a psionic power that’s not telekinesis.”
    â€œWhat about the Warhounds who just arrived?” Threnody asked as she and Jason approached.
    Kerr shook his head. “This wasn’t them. This is—the wound’s too deep. A Class II telepath didn’t do this. Couldn’t do this.”
    Threnody, trained to have a tactician’s mind, snapped through all the possibilities in seconds, coming up with the only one that made any sense. It left her cold, breathing too fast, as she turned to face Jason.
    â€œGet us out of here. Now .”
    Jason didn’t bother to second-guess her order, just tapped into his telekinesis, visualized the ’port out of there, and let his mind carry the weight of them all out of the Slums.
    Or tried to.
    The world shifted in an instant, their kinesthesia stretching past the point of stability for a long millisecond before snapping back into the same reality they were trying to escape. The backlash ricocheted through their minds, the worst of it burning hard and fast through Jason’s mental channels as they all hit against a telekinetic wall that he couldn’t break through.
    Jason doubled over, falling to his knees as a crippling headache nearly blinded him. The rest of them struggled to get their balance back even as a voice filled the silence of the cathedral.
    Rude of you to leave so soon when it’s taken forever to get you here.
    A tall young man, with dark blue eyes and a messy tangle of white-blond hair, appeared on the dais above them. They recognized him instantly. It was who he was, and what he wasn’t supposed to be, that shocked the Strykers into silence. Four pairs of eyes were riveted on a face many had only seen in news streams over the years, a young boy growing into adulthood with the world at his feet, the poster child for the privileged elite.
    Where’s a fucking precog when you need one? Threnody thought in some distant, bitter corner of her mind as she tried to struggle, but couldn’t, in the Class I telekinetic grip Lucas Serca had her in.
    Usually dead, Lucas said telepathically for all of them to hear. Personally, I consider them a pain in the arse.
    Kerr’s telepathic shields slammed up between them and Lucas as he readied for an attack, but it was a useless gesture. Kerr didn’t stand a chance against the man who would one day run the Serca Syndicate, he only knew that he had to try.
    Lucas’s smile stretched wider.
    Psions were ranked for a