“Here, sit down,” she pulled away and dragged a chair over from one of the tables. The crowd around them had dispersed a little, some of them sitting on the floor and others leaving, but some still watched them warily. Emma knew the police would probably want to question everyone and she frowned. How were they going to get out of there? They were the only ones who knew what was going on. The police would only hold them back at this point, even if they believed their story about kidnapping and drugs and bonding.
“Here, drink this.” Duncan shoved some punch at Jake. He took it and downed it in one gulp. Emma saw his color improve as the sugar hit his system.
“Thanks.” Jake shoved his hands into his hair. “We need to make them all forget.”
“Forget what?” Emma asked, confused. She was still thinking about how to find her students, but she could feel Jake’s brain going a million miles an hour.
“If people find out that bonded triples have this kind of power, everyone is going to freak.”
Duncan stared at Jake, then looked down at his hands. Tiny sparks danced from finger to finger for a moment, then he clenched them into fists. “Can you do that? Make them forget?”
Emma shook her head, the realization of what Jake intended growing inside with her horror. “Jake, no, you’ll hurt yourself trying to do that!” She grabbed his arm, terrified, but he shook her off.
“I’ve got to do it now while their memories are fragile.” He looked at Duncan. “Maybe your ability to manipulate energy can help. Do you think you can feed it to me?”
Duncan looked worried. “I’m not sure. I can’t feel your telepathy. Can you sense my energy?” Jake shook his head, frustrated.
“You can’t do this,” Emma repeated, but she knew Jake wasn’t going to listen. Both men avoided her eyes. Much as she wanted to deny it, Emma knew they needed to do this too. Reports about bonded couples were already dropping off the information grid. If people got wind of what a triple bonding really entailed—she shook her head, steeling herself for what she was about to offer. She instinctively knew that she was the catalyst for the trio. If the men used her, they could work together and access triple the amount of energy for Jake to do what he needed. “Okay, I think I can help.” Both men turned to look at her. “Both of you are part of me. If Duncan sends the energy to me first, I can filter it to Jake as he needs it. I can feel Jake’s telepathy and Duncan’s energy. Can you feel it in each other?” Both of the men shook their heads. “Well, that’s that, then. Dammit.”
“Emma, you don’t have to do this,” Jake said and she laughed, tense.
“Yes I do, and you know it.”
Duncan didn’t even speak. He sat down on the floor and rested his head against Jake’s knee, resigned. Emma sat down next to him. “Ready?”
Jake nodded shortly and closed his eyes. Emma felt Duncan begin to draw power to the surface and she grabbed his hand, absorbing it into her body instinctively. She smiled. This is part of what the bond is for, she thought and felt them agree. She leaned her cheek into Jake’s thigh and started to feed him the power, sensing his mind opening up, spiraling into the crowd. He grinned at the rush, and she couldn’t help but smile back at him, even as she concentrated. Jake riffled through their surface thoughts first, trying to find out how much each person saw. Then he concentrated, drawing more and more of the energy from Emma. Duncan held onto her, feeding her the crackling power and she bit her lip, trying to keep the wild energy under control so Jake could harness it. Duncan sparked wave after wave of the energy into her mind but after a minute, she realized that working with it felt just like smoothing out auras and she relaxed, finding it easier and easier to spin threads of it out and into Jake.
Finally, after what felt like hours, Jake slowed his work, then pulled his consciousness out of the last of the people in the ballroom. He looked down at Eric and abruptly Emma realized the man wasn’t breathing. Was he dead?
“Yeah,” Jake said tiredly. His eyes were red and Emma could feel the bone-deep weariness in him. She didn’t feel much better and Duncan groaned agreement.
“You don’t think the cops are going to think you killed him, do you?” Emma felt a prick of worry worm its way inside her.
“I can remove all traces of us from him.” Duncan raised his arms and called some sparks forth. He sent them to the body and Emma watched as they danced around, presumably scrubbing all traces of Jake and Emma’s DNA away. Emma stared at him.
“I didn’t know you could do that.”
“Neither did I until just now,” Duncan said, letting the energy fade as he slumped against Jake. “It wasn’t hard. It would’ve been easier if I wasn’t so damn tired.”
“How did you know you could do that?” Emma asked.
He shrugged. “I just knew. Instinct, I guess.”
Emma sighed and looked away, feeling overwhelmed with everything that had just happened. “We have to find my students.” Emma tried to stand up but couldn’t.
Jake pressed down on her shoulder. “We don’t have to do it right this second. Give it a minute. We should eat something.” He looked around then spotted the buffet table near the wall. “There. Let’s get some food.”
Emma leaned against him for a moment, trying to relax even as her worry for Jonathan and Samantha grew. Then Duncan staggered to his feet and helped Emma up. Jake grabbed onto Duncan’s arm and the three of them lurched to one of the tables that had a cheese and fruit tray. They sat down and Duncan passed a grape to Jake. Emma smiled as Jake opened his mouth and let Duncan feed it to him. She took a piece of cheese for herself. At least the food seemed to be helping her headache. The throbbing in her ear was almost gone. They ate in silence for the next few minutes as Emma watched the police come into the ballroom and start methodically questioning people on the far side. She could see several of them pointing towards Eric. She was glad they’d managed to make it to a table a fair distance from the body as she realized some cops were coming over, presumably to keep everyone away from the scene of death.
“We have to get out of here,” she muttered, shoving another piece of cheese in her mouth. She grabbed one of the untouched waters on the table and drank the entire glass. “If they start questioning us, the memory wipe will be for nothing and we’ll never find Samantha and Jonathan.”
“We can’t just leave, Emma,” Jake said. “Look, they’re letting people go as soon as they take their statements. We’re nothing more than another three guests. They’ll talk to us and then let us go.”
Emma narrowed her eyes at the officers spreading out in the room. She hoped Jake was right. One cop looked at them, then pulled out a notebook and walked over.
“Hello, folks. I need to ask you a few questions and then you can go.” The woman pulled out a pencil and flipped open her notebook. Of course it’s a female officer, come to drool over Duncan. She watched the woman looking Duncan up and down and wanted to growl at her. Emma wondered if the woman found the uniform uncomfortable since she seemed to be adjusting the top quite a lot, then realized she was probably just trying to get Duncan’s attention on her boobs. Emma flushed slightly as she felt Duncan laughing at her in her mind.
“I need your names and then if you could tell me what you saw, it’d be really helpful.” the cop said, clearing her throat and looking away from Duncan guiltily. Emma could tell she was smitten.
Get used to it, Jake thought, chuckling in her head, and Emma threw him a disgusted look.
After they dutifully gave their names the cop looked up from her writing to focus on Duncan as though Emma and Jake weren’t even there. Emma sensed Jake and Duncan’s amusement. She glared at the cop. “He came in waving a gun, then he grabbed me and started babbling something about needing more. I think he was high.”