--------------- Chapter 10 ---------------------

Shalimar took a deep breath, slowing her racing heartbeat. A brief brush with Emma's mind had calmed her greatly, but now she knew that the others were trapped and in danger and she had to help them. Making her way to the edge of the forest she was on full alert for any of the men who might have started to make their way towards her, but she could see and hear nothing out of the ordinary. As she reached the peripheral trees she stopped, immediately aware of the acrid smell of fire. Making her breathing as shallow as possible she fled to the top of one of the trees to look out into the valley next to the main Sanctuary entrance. The fire elementals had shifted so there were two on each side of her, channelling her down towards the men with the tranq. guns at the end of the enclosure they had formed. The fire elementals all held small pyres at their feet that they would use to steer her if she tried to escape sideways. They were trying to herd her towards the guns like livestock. But there was a definite flaw in their technique. There was nothing to encourage her out of the forest in the first place. There was nothing behind her that she knew of and nothing ahead that she would want to run towards, what did they think they were doing?

Just as she was preparing to begin a run out of the other side of the forest and all the way around the mountain to come at them from the other side, she saw something happening on the other side of the valley. Two people were appearing over a ridge that hid the rest of the valley from her. One was the man who had been ordering the troops around earlier, the other was Emma.

The man held no weapon but Shalimar didn't underestimate him. He was in control of all of the others here; he was in no sense vulnerable. He pushed Emma down to her knees and stood over her threateningly. It took all of her self-control to avoid revealing herself there and then. But that would do her no good, and it was exactly what he wanted. A chance for the guys with the guns to take a shot at her. She would have to bide her time and decide what to do.

As she watched a strange liquid glow seemed to emanate from the man, reaching out and grasping at Emma. She felt it's coldness, a shiver down her spine as it touched her love, wrapping her, engulfing her. She saw her wince as it reached over her face, trailing her chin. Then it was over her mouth and she was gasping for breath, panic in her eyes. "Call her." She heard the man say across the distance. "Call out, I know you can. Once she's out here this will all be over." Emma struggled in his grasp, a psionic blast forming only to fade away before she could release it. Emma's eyes met Shalimar's and she knew that she had seen her but she said nothing.

Despairing as she watched Emma's struggles become weaker Shalimar looked around her, taking into careful account the positions of all the people. She could do this, she thought. She took another count. Easy as pie.

She took another quick scan of the area and tensed. One two three...

She pounced, throwing herself from the branch high into the air. The gunmen all shot wildly as the feral sprang unexpectedly over their heads, the fire elementals unable to do much at all before she was long out of range. She was still in the air, almost flying, but she had one target and she knew she would hit. One Target. She was still in the air, would she fall short? She couldn't fall short; she wouldn't get another chance at this. Pulling her self in to position moments before impact, Shalimar collided hard with Rogers, her shoulder hitting first and taking him down. The glow withdrew into him, leaving Emma gasping for breath on the floor and Shalimar rolling back to try and slow herself. The gunmen had run the short distance, but before they could get aimed at the feral laying in the dirt they were taken down by a series of succinct kicks and blows. Rogers still lay unmoving on the ground. Assured of their safety for a moment, Shalimar was at Emma's side, checking on her. Lifting her into strong arms she carried her hastily down towards the others. Pausing as she saw the level of control the enemy had over the valley below them, Shalimar took cover in a nearby rock-fall as several more men with guns spotted them and started shooting. Emma dragged Shalimar's attention away from the others for a moment.

"Tell Jesse he can phase." She managed to cough out, still struggling for breath.

"JESSE!" Shalimar shouted on the top of her voice across to the men in the cage. "PHASE, DAMN IT, PHASE!" The young man looked up, registering what she had shouted. Grabbing hold of the bars he breathed out heavily and grinned as they phased in to nothingness. Seeing his chance Brennan jumped through quickly, fully recovered from the electromagnetic pulse, followed by Adam and then finally Jesse himself.

Brennan grinned as electricity gathered, crackling wildly beneath his palms. "Hell Yeah!" He crowed as it leapt outwards to ground two men who had been taking aim on Shalimar's position. Jesse stepped forward and massed as their attention shifted back to the newly freed men. That was all the diversion Shalimar needed, immediately rejoining the fray.

Her movements were almost automatic; no attention paid to where the next target was coming from or where her friends were, simply opponent after opponent after opponent. Anyone who came up against her fell quickly. When a psionic blast took out a gunman getting a little to close she moved on to the next person without thought as to where it had come from. When a massed form deflected a tranquilliser dart she sped up her movements to avoid their fire. When something sharp in the back of her neck knocked her forward she paused a moment, but moved on when she was sure there was nothing more to come. Her vision hazed, but she didn't need it so she continued, working on sound and sense alone. Her limbs became heavy so she put more effort in, swinging wildly, adrenaline pumping, heartbeat racing.

A familiar voice stopped an impending blow, calling out to her. But she didn't understand the words so she moved on, whirling off to the next threat.

"Emma, you have to stop her, use a psionic blast, before she does any more damage to herself."

A white heat threw her head back, a strange kind of pain which dizzied her for a moment, but she wasn't dissuaded, taking down another enemy, throwing the gun she had removed from his hands as far as she could away from herself.

"Adam?"

The words were offering something, but she didn't know what so she kept going.

"Do it."

And her vision filled with blue electricity and her muscles tensed sharply before she faded into a painless unconsciousness.