by Sarah Jaune
THE PURSUERS
CHILDREN OF THE GUARD BOOK 2
SARAH JAUNE
COPYRIGHT 2016 SARAH JAUNE
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WE ARE THE APEX
DEDICATION
Dedicated to the one who climbs my walls, cooks amazing food, and can’t seem to stop rewiring the house. Your stubbornness and determination are your best traits. I hope you love this story.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I really need to thank all the kids who have read and reviewed for me, giving me feedback before it goes to print. Your advice is crucial!
A big thanks to my editors, S, A, and C! I will stop with the wrong words at some point and until then, thank you for helping catch them. You worked double-time for these deadlines!
Also, thank you to James for loving this book best and making it through at lightning speed.
Thank you again and I'll see you for book three coming May 5th, of 2016!
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CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
AFTERMATH
PROLOGUE
THE LONG ROAD HOME
March, Year: BTE221
Cole Sullivan didn’t see the road as he drove endlessly, mindlessly, back towards home. Chicago had been a waking nightmare, full of things he didn’t want to dwell on, but that wouldn’t leave him alone.
His eyes flicked down to the wedding band on his left hand and his heart ached horribly. He didn’t know what to tell his wife. He didn’t know what to tell Beth about her twin brother. He’d been trying to think of what to say since he’d snuck out of Chicago after seeing Elijah Hunt burn down his father, Campbell Hunt’s, boat and escape from the family mansion in one of his father’s jeeps. Somehow Eli had made it out with his two friends. The one boy’s name was Zen and he was the younger son of the Overseer of Savannah. Cole had secretly inspected the kid a few years before to make sure that he, and his older brother, Pistol, weren’t being abused. They weren’t. That was Cole’s job, at the moment. He was a pursuer for the Guard. The Guard had been set up many years before to protect the children of the Overseers.
In their land, magic was the Overseer’s weapon of choice. Each zone in their world was an outward circle from the closest major city. There were around two hundred zones in all. The Overseers, usually the man of the house, ran their zone as lord and master. It was their territory, their kingdom. No one could oppose them. It was how Cole had met his wife, in fact. He’d been called in to save her and her younger siblings.
Cole had arranged to get a job on the household staff as a gardener. He and Naomi had locked eyes and they’d simply known. Their attachment, their magical bond, had been instantaneous. It had killed something inside Cole to see the bruises on her beautiful, fifteen-year-old face, and not be able to do more than form a plan to remove the children weeks later. Eli and Beth had been only ten-years-old then. It was still difficult to imagine it had already been five years since he’d taken the Hunt children away from their horrible home. They’d been forced to sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, just to make sure their father didn’t catch them.
Cole shook his head, trying to stay focused. He had only another twenty minutes or so before he’d be home and he had to put together what had happened that day with Eli and his friends. Cole had only been able to witness parts of what had happened, so he didn’t truly have the full story. It was the girl who had been with Eli that had intrigued him the most, though. She was completely unknown to Cole, but magical with the power to manipulate water. She’d been a blonde, and from what Cole had been able to gather, she was the least in shape of the three teenagers. Somehow, though, she wasn’t afraid of Eli’s magic. She’d stopped Eli from nearly killing a man.
Eli’s magic… it still left Cole speechless to think about. Elijah was the same as Elizabeth, Eli’s twin sister. It made sense, as long as one considered that nothing really made sense anymore.
They were only supposed to have one power. If a person was born into a magical family, they only had the chance to have one power, and one power only. Not everyone was born with a magical power. The child would either inherit their father’s power or their mother’s. Typically, the power came from the father, but not always. Sometimes a child was born with no power.
Sometimes, in the case of Zen, the child was a healer. Healing was the only power that didn’t require a magical parent. Somehow, despite Zen’s two magical parents, he’d been born a healer. He didn’t end up with his father’s power to create fire, or his mother’s power to manipulate electricity. Zen was a curious kid, no doubt about it.
But more than one power…
Beth had changed everything, or so Cole had thought. She’d hit thirteen the year that Cole had married Naomi, and all three of her powers came in. At first they’d thought she was strength because it was obvious. She was unbelievably strong. Then she threw a pot across the room when she’d been upset about something. The thing that was odd about the pot being thrown was that she’d never touched it. They’d learned then that she was also telekinetic. Last, but absolutely not least, Beth was fast. She was speed. Now, at fifteen, Beth was a force unto herself. She was headstrong, willful, brilliant, and determined to give Cole gray hair before his time. There were times when she made him feel a lot older than his twenty-three years. After he and Naomi had married, Beth had moved in with them and not even six months later they’d needed to move on from their previous hiding place in the Denver Zone.
The change had been a lot for all of them, but he was handling it. They all were.
He ran his hand through his short, even blonde locks. Cole had favored a buzzed side when he’d been younger, but after he had married Naomi, Cole realized he stood out more when his hair wasn’t just like everyone else’s.
The key to survival for magical children on the run from their abusive parents was to blend in and hide. So he’d gone for a more conventional hairstyle. At least his wife liked it. He glanced down at the same jeans and t-shirt that everyone, except the ruling magical families, wore. No one wore fancy clothing, not unless the person was trying to make a statement. Cole wasn’t. He wanted nothing to do with his magical family, not anymore. As the younger son, he’d been expendable. His older brother was groomed to rule, while Cole was kept around… just in case. It still left a bitter taste in his mouth. They didn’t want Cole to try to usurp his older brother, so they’d beaten him down to try to break his spirit.
Cole’s power was invulnerability. Nothing could break his skin or his bones, at least not after the age of thirteen when his magical power had come in. It had meant that he hadn’t been abused like Naomi, Beth, and Eli had been. His father hadn’t ever struck him, because there was no point in striking someone who
could not be hurt, but there were more ways to hurt than with fists.
Cole was proud of the man he’d become, despite his birth family. He’d been removed by the Guard and rescued from his Overseer father by a pursuer named Pablo. He then took him to his Guardians, his foster family. His life had appeared perfect on the outside in the seat of the Overseer. But the pretty house on the hill in the prosperous zone was a nightmare within. His foster father had told him he could grow up to be a man who was respected, or grow to be one who was feared and never made it through the trauma of his childhood. Cole had to make a choice on which he was going to be.
It had been difficult learning to control his temper. He’d had to practice not shouting out hurtful things when he’d been upset. It was a skill to learn to not run and hide when things were difficult or painful in his foster family. He’d worked so hard to be the kind of man that could be in a family, one who could lead and protect a family.
Cole would never forget his foster father saying to him that it wasn’t his mistakes that defined him, but what he did with them that showed his true character. It hadn’t made much sense at the time, but Cole understood now. He understood the first moment he’d held Naomi’s hand. He’d seen her fear, the fear of him, or maybe it was still fear of her father. Whatever it was, this was what mattered. It didn’t matter that he’d lost his temper before he met her.
It mattered now that Naomi would know that he wasn’t going to lose his temper with her.
It took her a long time to learn to trust him, but that was okay. The wait helped them both grow up and mature. She and Beth had lived with their own Guardians, the family that lived in the same city as his foster family.
That was the way most of the Guardian families worked. It helped to keep the siblings together… most of the time. Eli had been the exception…
Cole turned into the small driveway of their tiny house. It only had two rooms, but they’d be moving soon. They needed more space, and it was time to relocate. They’d stayed here too long as it was, and they were too close to the Chicago Zone. When he saw the soft light behind the curtains of the living room, he sighed heavily. Naomi should be in bed by now. She needed the rest, but he could understand her need to wait for him.
He climbed from his old truck, quietly closing the door so as not to alert the neighbors that he’d just made it home and moved as though through thick mud to his front door. He still didn’t know what to tell her.
The sight that greeted him as he made it through his front door caused him to smile. Naomi, with her long, dark hair falling softly around her face, was asleep on the couch. She was curled under an afghan that she had made just the year before. It was a soft, dyed wool in a light blue. She was so tiny. She’d been small at fifteen and hadn’t really gained any more height. Her power, her telekinesis, was strong, but she was nowhere near the power level of Beth. Beth made them all appear weak. She’d once panicked, when he’d startled her in the kitchen, and she’d sent him flying through a wall.
Literally through the wall. He’d destroyed drywall, wiring, and ruptured a pipe. He’d left a Cole shaped hole that connected the kitchen to the living room.
Thankfully, because of his own power, he hadn’t been hurt. Unfortunately, Beth had spent hours crying afterwards. All Cole had done was walk into the kitchen when she hadn’t known he was in the house. Cole hadn’t been upset with her. He’d scared her, and she’d defended herself. Thankfully, it had been him and not someone else.
That’s what scared Beth. She didn’t want to accidently hurt someone.
Cole went to readjust Naomi’s covers, but her blue eyes popped opened the moment he touched her. Cole knelt at her side and cupped her cheek, running his thumb along her soft skin. “You need to be asleep and not on the couch.”
“I need to hear about Eli,” Naomi retorted through a yawn. She smiled sleepily into his hand and Cole’s chest ached as he studied her lovely face. She and Beth both had noses that turned up at the end, but where Beth was pale and blonde, Naomi’s face had a bronze hue that tanned beautifully. She never burned. Her pale, blue eyes, contrasted amazingly with her dark hair and tan skin. As always, she took his breath away. “He’s okay, right?” she asked urgently. “You don’t look like something went wrong.”
Cole sat himself gingerly beside her and took her hand, feeling the warmth of her seeping into him as he studied her small, delicate nails. “I don’t know exactly what happened.” The Guard had contacted them, through a messenger, saying that Eli might have been taken by his father, Campbell Hunt, and that he was possibly being held in Chicago. Cole had been the only person to successfully infiltrate that house before, plus they were closest of the few members of the Guard to the Chicago Zone. He’d left immediately, but had found the house in an uproar. He soon knew the kids were already gone by the way the security guards were shouting and trying to plan a retrieval.
“I went to the house and it was clear they’d already escaped, when—”
“Wait,” Naomi held up her hand. “They?”
“I found out later that there were two other kids with him, a boy and a girl, about his age,” Cole explained on a long sigh. “When I realized they’d made it out, I went for the train station that is closest to your parents’ house to try and intercept them. I staked it out. Unfortunately, shortly before Eli arrived, so did the police. They also had the place surrounded.”
“Just tell me,” Naomi urged him.
She said that as though it was a simple matter, but the pain and fear in her eyes told him a different story. “You know what the report is on Eli.”
Naomi swallowed hard as her lower lip trembled. She didn’t quite meet his eyes as she said, “I need to hear it.”
Cole didn’t want to talk about it. It had been Naomi who had decided that Eli would go to a foster family who was used to dealing with troubled boys. Eli had been lied to and told that boys and girls were split apart. That was sometimes true, but typically siblings were kept together. Naomi couldn’t handle keeping Eli with her. She and Beth had moved one way, Eli another.
Pablo, and his wife, Maia, already had two boys who struggled with anger issues. They were good with getting boys through the worst of it. Pablo had reported not too long ago that, although Eli was improving, he still had a long way to go.
Beth wanted her twin to live with them, but she understood why Naomi had sent Eli away. Beth didn’t remember the time Eli had hurt Naomi, but she’d seen the scar on Naomi’s left side.
Cole drew himself up, trying to find the courage to tell her. There was nothing else to do but tell her what he’d seen. “I saw him nearly kill a man.”
Naomi’s gasp, her quickly indrawn breath, spoke louder than words.
“The girl with him, I think I heard him call her Ivy, shot him with a cannon of water that she pulled from the ground, knocking him away from the man,” Cole went on. He’d never seen someone with the magic of water do anything like that before. It had been very impressive. “After that, the teens went with the police back to the house. I followed, but before I could get into the house, the three of them blew up your father’s big yacht, and not even an hour later, all three of them drove away. I watched as a doctor was fetched to the house, but no one went after Eli. I imagine he’ll head back to Portland after getting the other kid home to Savannah.”
Naomi stared at him in horror, clearly unable to speak.
“People make…” Cole hesitated and raised her trembling hand to press a kiss to her palm. “He was a child, love. He didn’t mean to hurt you. Beth doesn’t mean to get upset and hurt us. They’re both doing better. I wish this didn’t upset you so much.”
“I…” Naomi sat up enough so that he could put his arms around her and hold her close. Tears soaked his shirt as she cried, yet again, for all that they’d lost as children. “I know. I just think he’s better where he is.”
Cole couldn’t disagree with that. They were having enough trouble simply handling Beth, and Naomi wasn’t
exactly out of the woods yet, either. They were all limping along, together, trying to nurse their wounds as they lived as a family.
Eventually, Naomi wiped her eyes and smiled a little. “He blew up the boat?”
He couldn’t help but laugh. “He did. It was a major explosion and no one tried to put it out. I went around and climbed a tree so I could get a better look at it from the fence line with the binoculars. The dogs weren’t even out. I don’t think the security forces were trying to help much.”
“The girl, the one with Eli…” Naomi whispered. “She really didn’t… I mean,” she hesitated as her pale eyes met his and he waited patiently for her to collect herself. “She wasn’t afraid of him?”
Only Cole knew just what that meant to Naomi. He, alone, understood just how afraid she’d been of her baby brother. “She wasn’t afraid. She defended him, stood up to him, made him see sense. It was pretty amazing, actually.”
“Maybe they’re attached,” Naomi said thoughtfully as she gazed across the living room. “That does tend to change things.”
“Maybe,” Cole hedged as he rose and held out his hand for her. It hadn’t appeared that way to Cole, but stranger things had happened. Like Beth and… “Come on, it’s late and you really need some sleep.”
