[Phoebe Pope 01.0] The Year of Four

by Nya Jade

  “—I enrolled to see how I could foil the plan,” Colten finished, exhaling with a small cough.

  Phoebe mulled over all she’d heard, until something clicked “So that’s how you knew who I was . . .” her mind drifted to when they’d met on a bench similar to the one they were sitting on now.

  “I knew your name, but I didn’t know what you looked like.” Colten smiled to himself. “When I approached you at the bench it was for entirely different reasons . . . then I sensed your physical energy as not being . . . wholly Shaper or human. I realized you must be a Hypha, and then by process of elimination figured that you had to be Phoebe Pope.”

  Phoebe raised an eyebrow. “Process of elimination?”

  “Well, it seemed unlikely that you were Mariko Higashi, but I guess I had a fifty-fifty chance of being right.” He winked at her, and his eyes glittered, a bit of the ferocious intensity from before having died down since their conversation moved past his hunting. And killing.

  “So hanging out with me was about getting information on my school?” Phoebe couldn’t believe how disappointed she sounded. She needed to pull it together.

  “I told you,” Colten said. “I first approached you for other reasons, but once I knew what you were, I tried to discard those thoughts and focus on how I could protect you from whatever Alexori had planned.”

  “What did you think you could do?” Phoebe said bitterly, knowing her attitude was misdirected. He had genuinely meant to protect her; she should be grateful.

  Colten shrugged. “I figured I’d patrol the campus at night and try and figure out how a Vigo could get around a security system that was specifically set to detect Vigo physical energy. For obvious reasons, I knew that my own movements would go unnoticed. During my first night of patrolling I saw a group of you entering the forest. So I followed you to the game . . .” He broke off and scrubbed his face again. When he continued speaking, his voice had hardened. “I let myself get so distracted with watching you that I didn’t sense the triad in time to stop the arrow.”

  Phoebe gasped and thought of the girl who had gone home to recover. It had never occurred to her that it was even possible that someone could have prevented the whole thing.

  “In the chaos of everyone running off,” Colten continued, “I lost track of you and the other three. At the risk of exposing myself to the Vigos I couldn’t see, I took my Tiger form and broke into the clearing just as that Closer was pulling you toward the forest.”

  Phoebe shuddered and the memory in all its horrid detail assaulted her mind. She had tried so hard to put that night behind her, and had genuinely been so caught up in everything that had happened since—the kidnappings, and Colten himself—that she’d all but expelled it from her mind. Until now. She clasped her shaking hands in her lap. “What happened when you left the clearing?”

  Colten’s voice was tight. “I tracked and killed the others.”

  Phoebe’s throat closed. “Others?”

  “The triad. They’d seen me try to rescue you and Tiger stripe patterns are unique to each Vigo. I couldn’t let what happened in the clearing get around . . . I waited a few days after that to see if there would be another attack, and then when nothing happened I went down to L.A.”

  “The audition?”

  Colten nodded. “I planned on also seeing if I could get any details on what Alexori was up to while I was in town. But when I heard that he’d successfully acquired two of the four Hyphas, it made me sick. I was so angry, I couldn’t see straight. I chartered a plane and came back right away. I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself if anything had happened to you because I’d left. And, Phoebe, it was a relief to see you, but I was still so frustrated because I couldn’t tell how he’d done it. It was almost as if . . .”

  “—he had help from the inside?” Phoebe finished, her voice cracking.

  Colten glanced at her sideways, caught off guard. “Did he?”

  “That’s what the Blackcoats think. That’s why they let me go to the premiere. They thought they could flush the traitor out.”

  “Ahh, so they are Blackcoats,” Colten said with a knowing smile.

  Phoebe looked at him surprised. “You mean you didn’t know?”

  “I had my suspicions at the premiere, but I wasn’t sure how far up the food chain your security went.” Phoebe narrowed her eyes at Colten, a thought coming to mind. “If you knew I was in danger, then why did you invite me at all? I mean, if your whole purpose was to protect me and thwart them . . .”

  Colten looked away. “When none of my efforts to foil the plan were working, I realized I needed something more public. If I could get you to the premiere, I could monitor any Vigo attempts to approach you, make note of their faces, and seek them out later. Get them to lead me to Alexori.”

  “You were using me?” This was a new thought to Phoebe. She had almost reconciled the idea that she was just another victim to Colten, someone to protect. But the idea that she had been “bait” in his eyes, just as the Blackcoats had seen her—it was too much.

  “I wasn’t doing anything different from what the Blackcoats were doing,” Colten said quietly. In fact, he and the Blackcoats had shared a very similar plan; still, she was hurt. Phoebe opened her mouth to say something, but Colten spoke over her. “It was a dangerous gamble. I know. But I also figured when you changed your mind about going that the Blackcoats wouldn’t have allowed it unless they had a plan in place to ensure your safety. And it seems like my guess was right. I just didn’t anticipate you finding out the truth about me that very night. Or that way. . . .

  “After the premiere, I just sat in my hotel suite and waited. I figured if you’d turned me in it was only a matter of time before the Blackcoats came for me. Secretly, I think I even wanted them to come and take me—not for being Vigo, but for what I’d done to you. The look in your eyes before you ran was . . .” he shuddered, “It was almost unbearable. But then the Blackcoats never came.” Hesitation crept into his tone and he paused.

  “I tried to convince myself that maybe you didn’t turn me in because you . . .” His voice got thin, and then trailed off, as he looked at Phoebe with the most unbelievably tender eyes that she’d ever seen. Finally, he lowered them and scuffed at the ground. Phoebe was relieved that he didn’t say it.

  “Not seeing you was driving me crazy, so I finally came back to campus. I thought that maybe I could make you hear me if we were somewhere private, that if at least you understood what I’d been doing then maybe you’d forgive me. . . . But when you told me that a Vigo had killed your father . . . I realized there was no hope.”

  Colten lifted his gaze to the sky, watching clouds drift toward the moon. He looked as though he was suffering from the weight of all Vigo sins, and Phoebe found herself beginning to feel empathy for him.

  “I fought hard not to fall for you, Phoebe, I really did. I knew what my being a Vigo would mean to you. But I needed to see you all the time, be with you. And then there was that day you laughed so freely and uncontrollably at my miserable tomatoes . . . I know it sounds silly, like infatuation or a kid’s crush, but the truth is, even though I was still just getting to know you, I couldn’t fight it anymore. You had this moment of unguarded openness that was . . . so delicate and I just had to love you, protect you. I had to.”

  Shocked, Phoebe sat back dumbfounded and stared at Colten anew. And then Phoebe decided to break her own rule: She had told herself again and again that she would never trespass into Colten’s emotions, but now, more than ever, she simply had to know. She needed to understand what he felt and know whether his words were true. Phoebe could never have imagined all that she’d heard in the last few hours, and she was still having a hard time taking it all in. She needed an assurance that this was not just his actor’s skills fooling her into believing some invented madness. She couldn’t subject her hearts to another beating, and if she found out later that he’d been toying with her, she knew it would break her.

  Ever so
slowly, Phoebe bowed her head and opened her mental gate. The immediate strength of Colten’s love pouring into Phoebe almost choked her, for it mirrored a certainty she’d suppressed in herself. She allowed herself to absorb the intensely sweet emotion. To find peace in its promise of comfort and support. It overwhelmed her.

  Phoebe realized, with a torrent of relief, part of what had been exhausting her all these weeks—it wasn’t just the Vigos and her fear she had been fighting all this while. She hadn’t imagined that it was possible that Colten could feel for her so deeply, or that a Vigo could feel at all. She hadn’t wished for this, to love a Vigo who loved her back more furiously than she’d even thought it was possible to love. The balance of things she knew had slipped away, and she gripped the edge of the bench to steady herself. Unable to look at him just yet, she kept her gaze down, for she knew what she’d see in his eyes. Hope. She’d felt it laced in his love.

  “Are you okay?” Colten asked, surveying Phoebe with concern. “You kinda zoned out for a moment there.”

  “No, I’m not okay,” Phoebe said. “But I believe you. . . . It’s a lot to process.”

  Phoebe felt the touch of Colten’s fingertips against her cheeks as he cupped her face, raising it to meet his eyes. He leaned in, close and then closer still, stopping just short of touching his nose to Phoebe’s and she could hear the staccato of his breathing. His lips brushed against hers ever so gently and Phoebe took a breath as she felt them tremble against hers and pulled back.

  “I’m sorry.” His eyes were soft and a little guarded as they watched hers.

  “Too soon,” she said. It was all too much for her at once. In Phoebe’s mind she knew that her hearts belonged to Colten, but at that moment she couldn’t bring herself to express it in that particular way. Not yet. Resolving within herself never to tell anyone what he really was would have to suffice for now.

  “I understand,” Colten said sadly, his hands dropping from her face.

  And then Phoebe began to sob and Colten’s hands were back on her face, wiping away the tears that dropped to her cheeks. He searched her with those gentle green eyes, eyes that had never been so beautiful, so completely honest and genuine before. “What’s wrong, Phoebe?” The way he said her name just about undid her. She had never heard anyone give it such fullness, such a complete sound before.

  But Phoebe couldn’t tell him what was wrong, for at that moment she was thinking of her father, and hoping that Colten’s love for her was enough to push the memory of that night away.

  Colten wrapped his arms around Phoebe and she felt a splinter of joy that she couldn’t quite revel in. It wasn’t the right moment, but just knowing that there might be a right moment was enough for right now. “We should go,” he said brusquely, bringing Phoebe back from her thoughts.

  They didn’t speak the rest of the ride back to campus. But even as he kept his eyes on the road, Colten kept finding Phoebe’s cheek with his hand and brushing it softly with his fingertips.

  “Can I ask another question?” Phoebe said with a curious twist to her lips as the car made a silent stop near Hayley’s dorm.

  “You can ask any question, always,” Colten said, a wan version of his usually effortless smile having returned for the first time Phoebe could recall in a long while. His teeth almost lit the dark.

  “I guess I don’t understand how you’re getting away with it. Wouldn’t the Vigos you trained with growing up recognize you?”

  Colten shook his head. “Not even if I shook their hands.”

  “Why not?” Phoebe said.

  “Let’s just say I’ve evolved.” Colten flushed and gave a sheepish grin. “I sort of went through puberty late and look nothing like the short scrawny kid I was when I left the crèche at thirteen.”

  Phoebe stared at Colten, unable to picture that version of him. Another thought came to her. “What about now? I mean you have one of the most famous faces in the world.” Phoebe stuck her tongue out at Colten then, her own playfulness returning for an instant.

  Colten smiled wider. “Hollywood Vigos don’t know I’m Vigo because I keep my mark covered up and my physical energy human. But when they talk to each other in code at parties, unbeknownst to them, I understand what’s being said. And whenever I do need to show my mark in situations that require it, I never go as myself. I’m an actor, remember?” Colten said with a trace of sarcasm when Phoebe furrowed her brows. “I get paid to change my appearance. I have a skilled prosthetics makeup artist who asks no questions.”

  Phoebe shuddered. “It still sounds dangerous. How can you do that day-in, day-out?”

  “Deception is in the details,” Colten said. “I take all the necessary precautions. Besides, you’re the one in training to become SIS. And you’re lecturing me about taking chances?”

  “Fine, fine,” Phoebe said nodding. Then, seriously, “So what are you going to do now?”

  “There’s a lead I’m following about Vigo-owned warehouses that I’m hoping will take me to the others. It’s what I was doing when you followed me,” Colten said.

  Then, with a start, Phoebe remembered what she’d heard back at the warehouse. “They’re at a crèche!” she gasped. “That’s where those Vigos were planning on taking me.”

  Colten leaned toward her abruptly and grabbed Phoebe by the shoulders. He looked into her with a piercing, nervous gaze. “Are you sure?”

  Phoebe nodded fearfully.

  “Did they mention a name? A location?”

  Phoebe shook her head.

  “Think!” Colten urged, running his hands through the back of his hair, and growing more disheveled by the second.

  “That’s all I heard!” Phoebe’s eyes crinkled and she looked down, feeling useless.

  “I’m sorry,” Colten said, loosening his grip and sweeping Phoebe’s white streak out of her eyes. “It’s still helpful. . . .”

  “You think they might still be alive?” Phoebe bit her lip.

  Colten’s expression was grim. “I don’t know. If they’re at a crèche . . . I don’t know, but I promise to keep looking. If I find them at one of the crèches, I’ll leave an anonymous tip with the Blackcoats. In the meantime, my priority is for you to stay alive.” He cupped her cheek with one hand, and turned back to the car.

  Feeling terrified, electric, and overwhelmed by everything she had heard and felt with Colten over the last few hours, Phoebe tried to keep it together as she watched him leave. Slowly, she made her way over to the tree outside of Hayley’s window. The notion of being with Colten again and all she’d learned burned in Phoebe’s mind. She was consumed with such emotion that she didn’t hear a sound as a figure crept up behind her and struck her across the base of her skull. She collapsed into unconsciousness without a single thought.

  TWENTY-EIGHT

  Phoebe’s eyes flew open to complete darkness. Her wrists and ankles had been so securely strapped to a chair that she was sure it hindered her circulation. Anxiously, Phoebe rocked her chair back and forth, trying to loosen the bonds that cleaved into her extremities.

  “You only exhaust yourself doing that,” said a man’s oily, Italian-accented voice from speakers somewhere overhead. The noise saturated the room like surround sound in a theater. Shocked by the sudden sensory input, Phoebe became still.

  “You respond well to advice, I see,” the man said. “This may go molto facile for you.” He laughed. “Excuse me. I meant to say very easy for you.”

  “Who are you? And where am I?” Phoebe yelled, tossing her head about, hair whipping around her.

  “I’m Alexori and I’m—”

  “—a maniac!” Phoebe blurted, rancor in her voice.

  “I’ll try not to take that personally.” Alexori released an easy chuckle that belied a venomous undertone. “In the interest of time,” he said, “let me tell you how I operate. I’ll ask questions and only because I’m feeling generous, you’ll get the benefit of up to two lies.” Phoebe could hear his words slither between his vocal chords.
“After that, things will start to get entertaining—for me only. Are we clear?”

  “Where are my friends?!” Phoebe shouted, her anger rising and her hearts palpitating crazily.

  “You’re a bit emotional, no?” Alexori said icily. “A calmer mind would allow you to process that I’m the one asking the questions and what I want to know is all about your secret.”

  “I don’t have a secret,” Phoebe said through gritted teeth.

  A pause. “That’s lie number one, Phoebe.”

  “I’m not—”

  “Careful now. Remember, you only have one more chance.” The oil in his voice seemed to thicken.

  “What secret do you think I have?” A violent shiver ran through Phoebe. The room’s temperature had dropped significantly and the darkness around her seemed to be pressing in.

  “Tell me who’s been protecting you,” Alexori said, a knowing edge to his voice that caused Phoebe’s chest to tighten and her mouth to go dry. Of course she knew what Alexori was getting at, but it couldn’t be possible. How could he possibly know? Calm down, Phoebe told herself. Telling a lie would only work if she sounded confident.

  “I’ve had Blackcoat protection,” Phoebe said matter-of-factly.

  Alexori warned in a rougher tone, “That’s lie number two, ragazza.”

  “That’s the truth!” Phoebe screamed.

  Alexori spoke slowly, enunciating every word. “Perhaps you need a bit of convincing.”

  Over the speakers came another man’s growling voice. “Don’t try anything stupid,” this man warned. Phoebe opened her mouth to speak, but stopped when she heard the distinct sound of tape being ripped from skin. A hoarse voice squeaked, “Phoebe?”

  “Mariko!” Phoebe yelled, eyes rolling around crazily in her head as she sought Mariko’s image in the darkness, of course finding nothing. She’s not in the same room as me. Stop it. Get a hold of yourself, Phoebe commanded herself.

  A harsh slap, followed by a guttural wail of terror sounded over the speakers.