Page 202 of Victorious

“I don’t suppose you want to walk away?” asked Victor.

The EO’s mouth drew into a gallows smile.

“In that case…”

Victor went to shoot the EO, but when he tried to lift the gun, a force vised suddenly around his arm, pinning it in place. His lungs tightened at the same time, as if beneath a crushing force. The air felt like it had turned to stone, Victor’s body locked inside it.

The EO chuckled. “And Gabriel said you’d be hard to stop…”

Victor’s bones groaned under the force. Sweat broke along his temples, his own nerves already dialed up to keep him from being dragged back into Serena’s hold, now crackling with pain.

“He should have told you,” Victor said through gritted teeth, “that I don’t need to move.”

He took hold of the nerves inside the EO’s injured hand and turned them up as far as they would go.

The EO howled and staggered back, clutching his arm, but the force on Victor didn’t lessen. He still couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe, his lungs collapsed beneath the weight.

“Is that all you got?” snarled the EO.

Victor smiled through the pain. He didn’t have the air to say no, so he didn’t bother, just reached out, and blew the EO’s fuses.

Like the agents in the park, the man went down.

But unlike them, he didn’t get back up.

Victor braced himself against the wall, dragging air back into his lungs, bones aching but heart steady. He was grateful he’d listened to Dani, at least when it came to cardio. The months of training had paid off and—

Electricity shot through him. A sudden, shocking current, bright enough to make the world go white. To make his heart lose rhythm and his body seize, the gun falling as his fingers splayed.

The current disappeared, and Victor reeled, muscles twitching, nerves on fire. He had a lot of practice being electrocuted, but it didn’t make the experience any more enjoyable.

He turned toward his attacker.

Another EO. A woman this time, in matching dark scrubs, blood dripping from one hand. The same hand pressed against the wall he’d just been touching. Electricity crackled visibly around her fingers and beneath her skin.

How many EOs did Gabriel have? He should have asked Mitch for a head count, but right now, the only one that mattered was the one blocking his way.

“Where do you think you’re—” the woman started.

Victor didn’t wait for her to finish. He’d dropped the gun, but he still swung his hand up, finger pointed, and said, “Bang.”

The EO staggered, clutching her heart. It should have been enough to stop her, but just to be safe, he snapped his fingers, and she folded, fuses blown.

Victor’s own body began to hum in warning.

The exertion was taking its toll. He dragged the metal disc from his pocket and brought it to his lips, breathing in as deeply as he could.

His heart regained its rhythm, and the ache receded behind a dozen other shallow pains as he retrieved the gun and continued down the hall. Two more turns, and he made it to Gabriel’s office, felt the EO’s energy beyond the door.

Victor stepped inside.

Unlike the rest of EON, the walls in here weren’t white, but green. The light, warm. The only furniture, a set of chairs facing each other across a low glass table.

But Gabriel Gray wasn’t sitting in either one of them.

His voice came from a speaker, hidden somewhere in the walls.

“Welcome to EON, Victor Vale. I’m so glad you decided to come.”