Meg took a deep breath, before she spoke. “Is she worth risking the objective?”
“No, the objective comes above anything,” he answered decisively. “If there’s time. If we’re able to even find her. I just wanted to know what you thought about offering her an out.”
“Do you love her?” Oh, shoot. I can’t believe that just came out of my mouth. For half a second, Meg thought maybe, just maybe, she hadn’t just said that out loud. Then she saw the look of horror on Creed’s handsome face.
“Do I love her? What the hell kind of question is that?” he blurted in an irritated whisper, glancing around the plane to see if they had an audience. At this point, Meg didn’t care if the whole world was watching.
“If you expect me or my family to risk anything for her, I’d say it’s a pretty valid question.” She turned angrily in my seat to face Creed full on. Her heart was racing. Stupid adrenaline.
Creed looked completely perplexed. He shook his head for a moment before a smile crept across his lips. “She’s a little kid, Meg. True, she’s a medical genius, but she’s only like twelve or thirteen-years-old!”
Meg looked around frantically for a hole to crawl into. Heat flew up her neck, stopping to pink up her cheeks before bursting out red ears. She wanted to disappear. Why can’t I have a cool super power like that? Why can’t I turn invisible? No instead I get to be all—Meg-like. Argh!
Creed was still smiling at the girl with the dark eyes. Meg resisted the urge to punch him in the mouth.
“In that case,” she tried to sound level-headed, “I think it would be great to help another metahuman escape.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Great. Glad we got that cleared up.” He stood to leave, but stopped. He turned around and leaned over the empty seat between them. His breath was warm on her still-red ear. “You are so damn cute when you’re jealous.”
He moved with the grace of a tiger, even when dodging a magazine hurtling straight for his head. Meg heard him chuckling all the way back to his seat.
Maze looked up innocently at Meg and blinked. “Oh, you just zip it,” she grumbled. He yawned and laid his head back down on her boot.
Men!
Chapter 42 It’s Time
From the moment the wheels of the plane touched the tarmac on German soil, the atmosphere was crisp with anxious energy.
It was time to go.
Margo reached out her hands to the rest of them standing around the motel room that had been turned into a makeshift headquarters for the rag-tag team. They followed her lead and joined hands. Slider and Gavil exchanged uneasy looks, but allowed their hands to be held, joining in the circle.
“It’s time, dear Lord,” my mom began, head bowed in reverence. “It’s our time to fight for you. You taught us there will be times to turn the other cheek, and there will be times for battle. Tonight these children will walk into battle against a true evil. Please be with them, guard them and strengthen them. Help them wipe this world clean of the demon that lives to cause pain. And please, dear Lord, send them all back to me safely. If you are with us, no one can be against us. In your great name we pray. Amen.”
The room filled with “amens” from the rest of the room. Even Gavil mouth the word. and smiled inwardly at the thought they may have saved another meta. Slider, on the other hand, just nodded respectfully and released the hands of those beside him.
Creed had taken on the leadership role in our group. Gavil, though determined to achieve the objective, still kept his distance from Meg and her family. It just seemed natural for Creed to step up and take over.
To the room, Creed spoke. “Equipment check. Evan, you good?”
Evan shuffled through the duffle bag draped across his chest, mail-carrier style. “All good,” he answered.
“Everyone check your side arms.”
A series of clicks and shuffling snaps confirmed the soldiers’ weapons.
“Watches. Everyone set your clocks to my mark,” Creed held his own wrist watch up and glanced around the room at the others to be sure they were ready. It’s 7:45 on my mark…mark.” He called to the room. All seven metas adjusted their watches to the exact same time.
“Comm check, channel one.” He offered an up-nod to the room as he flipped a small switch on his earpiece and walked away from the group. Everyone scattered as far as the two-room suite would allow and turned on their communication devices to perform a roll call.
“Meg?” Creed’s warm voice vibrated in her ear.
He started with me, Meg grinned stupidly to herself before mentally smacking the giddiness out of her voice. Get a grip, idiot!
“Meg, here, check.”
“Gavil?”
“Gavil here, check.”
“Alik?”
“Alik here, check.”
“Slider?”
“Yep, check.”
“Evan?”
“I hear you loud and clear.”
“Farrow?”
silence
“Farrow?”