"If you were trying to help me, you'd let me go," she pointed out.
He lifted her into his arms. His strength and the sheer hardness of his body were overwhelming, making her feel as though it would be impossible to defeat him.
"You are no longer safe here. These men with me want you for a very different reason than me. Follow my lead and I'll see to your safety."
He was covering ground fast with long strides. Never once did she hear his breath hitch. He moved with fluid steps, with a strange grace for a man his size. He seemed to flow over the ground rather than step, never once jarring her.
"Let me go." Airiana tried to keep the plea from her voice, but it was there. That quiver of fear she couldn't quite suppress.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you. Once I get you to safety, your father wants a few words with you. Then you're free to do as you wish, once the threat has been taken care of."
"I told you, I don't have a father."
"His name is Theodotus Solovyov." He waited a moment as if she might have heard the name.
The fog thinned more, allowing her to make out the helicopter sitting in the middle of Lexi's carefully planted field.
She gasped. "You ruined Lexi's lettuce."
It was now or never. Once he had her in that helicopter, he could take her anywhere. She felt him startle at her words, the beginnings of amusement--it was always nice to have information on one's enemy--and she knew he had a sense of humor.
She hit him hard with her fist right under his chin and leapt out of his arms--or tried to. He caught her before she actually touched ground, yanking her none too gently back against his chest as if she was a rag doll.
"Stop it," he hissed between his teeth. "You keep it up and I'm going to knock you out. It's for your own good. You're in danger."
She knew she wasn't going to get away, that she had no real chance. The knowledge hit her hard. She'd been certain with her gifts she would manage her freedom, but this man was far more knowledgeable than she was when it came to manipulating air. She wasn't going to make it out of this. No one was going to get there in time to save her, and she couldn't save herself.
Visions of her mother, cut to pieces on her bedroom floor, rose up. She would rather die right there. She had nothing to give these people. She hadn't worked on the project in close to eight years. What could she possibly tell them even if they tortured her? She fought back burning tears. The lump in her throat burned as they approached the helicopter.
There were two others beside the pilot inside the helicopter and a third, probably the man who had hunted with her captor, stood outside of it. Her heart sank. They were heavily armed. She couldn't stop her body from shivering and the man carrying her drew her closer to his body as if sheltering her with his heat.
"Maxim, you got her," the man on the ground greeted.
"Of course," her captor snapped briskly. "Was there any doubt? Let's get out of here. This took longer than expected."
He didn't hand her into the helicopter although one of the men inside reached for her. Maxim leveled a look at him and the stranger stepped back. Slinging her over his shoulder, he crouched and jumped, landing softly on the soles of his feet inside the helicopter. He swept past the others, slipping her back in front of him, almost hiding her from the others as he made his way to the back of their transportation.
The moment he set her in a seat, she shrank away from him. He acted as if he didn't notice, but snapped a seat belt around her. "Don't give me any trouble," he said, once again using that thread of sound. "Our lives depend on your cooperation."
The men kidnapping her were definitely Greek. Well, not Maxim, she was fairly certain he was Russian. The men were talking back and forth rather abruptly and she recognized the Greek language. The other man leapt into the helicopter, his weapon in a ready position, as if he was prepared for combat. She was grateful that Levi and Thomas were away from the farm.
She bit her lip hard, not looking at any of the men, knowing that would terrify her more. She kept her eyes glued to her safe haven, the farm where she had finally managed to feel happy and alive.
She couldn't go with them. That was a certainty. Wherever they were taking her would only end in torture and death anyway. She had nothing to exchange for her life, and she wouldn't want to anyway. These men could very well have been the ones who had murdered her mother.
Airiana couldn't prevent the delicate shudder that ran through her body. She hadn't made a sound, but beside her, Maxim turned his head abruptly to look at her, as if without looking, he had still felt the tremor running through her.
"I'll keep you safe," he promised, the sound clear in her ear.
His voice should have instilled confidence. It was strong and commanding, just like the man himself, almost bordering on arrogance, but that only added to her belief that there was no hope of escaping him. The helicopter lifted from the lettuce field, banked sharply and began to fly toward the sea. They had left the doors open so the gunners had a clear shot should they be interrupted.
She doubted they would be. The sound of the helicopter itself seemed to be muffled, rather than the loud ones she was familiar with. Whoever had hired these men to kidnap her had money. Lots of it.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on the air outside. Not the fog this time. A heavy wind could wreak havoc with a helicopter. She knew from the sea rescues performed by the forestry department that it was dangerous to fly in winds, especially when near the cliffs. And they were moving fast toward those cliffs.
She waited in silence, allowing herself to look through her long tangle of eyelash
es at the scenery as they passed over Sea Haven. She tried to reach out to her sisters, to at least encompass them with her love. They meant the world to her. They'd given her back her life.
She built the storm slowly, carefully, not wanting Maxim to notice the difference in the clouds forming just ahead of them. Of course the pilot noticed. He grunted and said something under his breath she couldn't hear.
"Don't do anything stupid," Maxim warned.
She didn't look at him. She didn't look anywhere at all, holding herself still. Waiting. Airiana was a patient person, and there was no need to engage with any of them. She doubted if any of them would make it out of the helicopter alive.
Airiana waited until they were over the ocean, close to the cliffs, and she lifted her arms and called the wind. Using every bit of force and determination in her, she drew the wind from the sea, from the air, from the upper atmosphere. Waterspouts erupted from the ocean, climbing high, spinning like giant fingers reaching for them. The wind slammed into the helicopter and sent it spinning out of control, straight for the jutting bluffs and the sea-stacks.
For the first time, she felt Maxim's anger. It radiated from him, a dark, monstrous entity that enveloped her, swallowing her whole. He slammed his palm into her arm, knocking it down, giving her a dead arm. She thought he might have broken it. His shoulder hit her next, shoving her hard against the wall of the helicopter as it spun madly.
Maxim threw his own hands into the air and wove a pattern quickly, overshadowing her command, taking back control. The helicopter slowly righted itself, although not before the men were thrown around and one nearly was pitched into the sea.
"What the hell, Roman?" one called to the pilot. He was a swarthy man with a dark complexion, the one who had run after her with Maxim in the fog.
"Shut the hell up, Cyreck," the pilot snapped back, clearly still fighting to keep them from crashing into the water below. "Is everyone all right back there? Did we lose anyone?"
"Istvan nearly went out the door," Cyreck reported, "but Deke managed to hang on to him. All of us got thrown around."
"What about the prisoner?" Roman demanded.