“Move,” I shouted when one man struggled to get a body out from under the stage.
Taking hold of the deceased male’s arms, I pulled gently as snot ran from my nose. Sobs escaped me as the man who had been trying to help got hold of the dead man’s waist and together we tugged him out.
All of them had suffocated from lack of air. Being trampled must have been horrendous. As we lined him up, my gaze met the human’s. His eyes were red, his hands shaking badly. Going over to him, I threw my arms around his neck. He squeezed me as tightly as I was holding him. Two strangers, two species, united in tragedy.
“Gemma?” Dave’s voice was soft behind me.
Letting go of the human, I turned to him. His hair was messed up from where he’d tugged on it. Worry lines were edged in the corners of his eyes as he watched me, his hands fumbling together in front of him. He was right, we needed to get on with our job.
“Let’s go.”
Marching towards the stage, I ignored the rest of the humans. Blocking out their cries and their words, I set my mind on the goal. Get the evidence, get the killer.
“I couldn’t have done that without you,” I said when Dave fell into step beside me.
We worked our way backstage, hunting for the stage manager who we’d been in contact with earlier in the day. He wasn’t answering his phone, although that was pretty understandable.
Clearing his throat, Dave nodded abruptly. “You’re welcome.”
I wasn’t lying. In the past, I would’ve easily been able to cast the spell on my own. I never would’ve struggled to harness the power needed to control the energy of an entire arena. And yet, I’d had trouble to keep hold of my link at times. My heart thumped hard in my chest. I wasn’t alive. My link to the ley line was superficial, which was why I was weaker.
“I’m running out of ideas.”
“Maybe you’re in denial.”
Huh? My boots skidded to an abrupt halt in the corridor leading to the office. What was he talking about? Why would I be in denial?
“Now is not the time,” he said, not bothering to stop. “We’ll have a heart to heart later.”
Why did he have to be so right? We had to get on with our job, not talk about me being in denial. Which I wasn’t, by the way.
“There you are!” the stage manager called down the corridor as we started to jog. “You need to come and see this.”
Rushing towards the door he indicated, we followed him inside. Two security men were standing by the equipment. A screen on the wall played a video of the stage. Wait, it wasn’t in real time, it was a recording.
“See there?” The stage manager pointed at a shadow just under the big screen. “It’s a woman. She’s planting something. My team are on their way to check it now, but look...”
As the woman turned, I caught the profile of her face. I knew that nose, it was regal, almost snobbish. A bright red light flashed before the darkness enveloped her.
“I’m sure she’s just planted a bomb.”
Leaning further towards the screen, Dave coughed loudly. “It is a bloody bomb. We need to get everyone out of the building.”
“That’s exactly what we’re doing.” The stage manager’s back was straight, his glare ignored as Dave asked the tech guy to email him the footage so we could use our system to get a reading on the culprit. Not that I would need it.
“It’s the PFF,” I told Dave when he started tapping on his phone.
He frowned, not bothering to look up. “How do you know?”
Sighing, I ran a hand over my ponytail when it flicked into my face as I spun to leave. “Because that was Helen Cambridge. We need to disarm the bomb.”
A hand yanked me back before I could get through the door. Dave’s growl was low in his chest as he pulled me close to him. I snarled as I attempted to dislodge his fingers from around my wrist.
“The bomb squad is here,” the head of security announced as he joined us. “They said that the timer is set to go off in two hours’ time. They think they’ll have it disabled within ten minutes. We just need to get the evacuation finalised first. Looks like the killer actually did us a favour.”
Every pair of eyes in the room stared at the hulk of a human. Not one of us laughed, but the irony in his words was apparent to everyone.
“Well,” he muttered, ordering some of his men to join the escorting efforts. “You know what I mean.”
“We need to leave,” a police officer shouted into the room. “Evacuation order is for everyone.”
Ducking out of the room, I grabbed Dave’s hand as we walked. He was watching something on his phone, his brain analysing the footage.
“Shit!”
“What is it?” I asked, tugging my phone out and messaging Jake and Kate.
We all had to get together so we could flash out of the building. Jake replied, they were already outside, the police forcing them to leave.
Taking Dave’s hand, I flashed us to their side, not bothering to let him know what I was doing. He almost stumbled when we landed, although his eyes never left his phone.
“There you are!” Kate went to throw her arms around me, but I held out a hand.
No time for theatrics, we had work to do. I was done feeling sorry for myself. Dave’s denial comment had hit a nerve, one that I’d have to explore at a later date.
“Guys,” Dave said when I indicated that we should head back to the office. “There’s something you need to see.”
Bending over his phone, we watched the video that had been playing on the screen of the arena stage. Fast forwarding it, Dave tapped
