She knew what the soldiers were feeling before they even took action. She knew they were fighting to put on a show for the cameras, but there was nothing she could do except protect her brother. She had already drawn a crowd watching with captivated curiosity. Their electronic devices were all held in front of them, some surely streaming directly to the internet and social media. Meg had to push her flashes of fear of being found out aside and focus on the attackers.
She wasn’t scared anymore. She was pissed off now. How dare they try to hurt my family and expose us to the world!
“Stop!” she screamed, pushing her influence out of her mind so powerfully, the air around her vibrated like a mirage.
All four of the soldiers held absolutely still. “Drop your weapons,” she growled her direct order. The four immediately obeyed. Her anger and fear for her little brother fueled the strength behind her influence. She had never controlled so many at once without even touching them or locking eyes.
Still standing atop the car, her hands were stretched to her sides as if she were surfing a wicked wave. Meg pushed the vibrations roaring around her even harder. “Now drop to your bellies and put your hands over your head.” All four obeyed immediately. A fifth soldier who had been jogging toward the group near the lawn stopped running and flung himself down to the ground.
“Do not move or make a sound,” Meg commanded. Because each man obeyed perfectly, Meg hopped down off the car landing gracefully and ran to her little brother.
“Evan! It’s okay—no one’s going to hurt you. You’re safe now,” Evan blinked once. Meg couldn’t help but study the burned skin on his left cheek and down the whole left side of his body. His bloodshot eyes blinked once then rolled back in his head. He passed out from the immense pain.
“Gather the stun guns and stay with Evan,” Meg ordered. Sloan was staring at her with saucer-eyes, but Meg wasn’t watching the girl. Her eyes were on the battle taking place twenty yards away.
Meg ran through the crowd and flung herself directly into the mix. Creed was holding his own against two soldiers. Cole was bleeding from the head, but was fighting valiantly against another soldier. Alik had four bodies at his feet, and was fighting two more. Farrow was being strangled, the soldier holding her by the throat from behind. She was elbowing him, but her strikes were getting weaker and weaker.
Meg ran up to the strangler and delivered a roundhouse from behind, boxing his right ear so hard blood spewed from his broken eardrum. She and Farrow exchanged foreboding looks when Meg sensed a shot and swept Farrow’s legs out from under her. Both girls collapsed to the ground, and looked up in time to see taser probes fly like winged demons from the stun guns.
Meg sensed the soldiers’ fury at the missed shot. Farrow was sprawled on her side when another taser probe struck her in the chest. Her body jolted violently as she was pumped with fifty-thousand volts of electricity.
Meg jumped to her feet, eyes tracing the source of the taser and held her hand out and screamed over the roar of the emergency vehicles around them. “Release!” she ordered. Immediately the soldier released the trigger and dropped the gun, now impotent, to the ground. Farrow stopped convulsing but lay still trying to recover. Another soldier climbed atop her and yanked her hands behind her, slipping handcuffs onto her.
In that instant, Meg saw her brother Alik get shot with three separate tasers, and though it should have been enough voltage to down a buffalo, her brother only stood there roaring in annoyed pain. Creed was pinned to the side of a van, blood trickling down his face, shields blocking his blows while teargas exploded at his feet. Cole was restrained by three soldiers with gas masks on.
Meg had never felt the surge of acid-laced rage as she felt in that instant. She stood in the middle of the melee shaking violently and screamed “NOOoo!”
The gift she was cursed/blessed with crashed out of her like a hundred lashes, raining torrents of commanding influence. She’d never felt anything like this before.
The world vibrated to an immediate stop.
Stunned and dazed, the soldiers’ arms dropped to their sides, like useless chunks of flesh. Their faces were slack-jawed and silent. Meg breathed, feeling her small ribs expand to accommodate the energies it now housed. Her mind’s eye was flashing with a kaleidoscope of colors as she felt her gift pulse, undulate and breathe with power.
Meg closed her eyes with the waves of energies tingling throughout. “Enemy soldiers, stand down. Drop your weapons and get on your knees. Your bodies are completely paralyzed. You cannot move from the neck down.” As she spoke each word, her commands were heard and obeyed. Every soldier dressed in SWAT uniform was incapacitated and lying on the ground.