Undone (The Guardians Book 1)

by Jessica Roe

  “It's a long story, ducks, but I'll make it as short as possible.” Messor folded her arms in front of her stomach. “Pablo found out about Sacha being a Werewolf, and of course he had to have him. You and I both know how rare Werewolves are. After he had Sacha, he was informed by one of his men that you were on the streets asking all kind of questions, causing trouble over the disappearance. He couldn't have that. He was always very careful who he took, you see? Runaways, strays, Outcasts with no family or no tribe. One time he even took a Fire Elemental who was travelling the world and made it look like he'd drowned at sea so his family wouldn't come looking for 'im. I think he thought Sacha was alone, but there you were, making noise. He couldn't afford to let Sacha go; it was unlikely that he'd get a chance with another Were. So he was going to have you quietly killed off. That day on the bench—he was there to kill you. He would have had someone else do it like he usually does, but he wanted to make sure Sacha hadn't bit you first. You were on my list, I was all ready to guide you over.”

  “But that's just a myth. Werewolves can only be born to other Werewolves, they can't be turned, not even by a bite.” She remembered all the times she and Sacha had messed around, play fighting and rolling around on the floor like kids. The first time he'd bit her—on the shoulder, not even hard enough to leave teeth marks—she'd freaked out. Sacha had found it hilarious.

  “He didn't know that then. But anyway, that's why he checked on you. A Werewolf bite was too important to leave to his men. You didn't notice, but he watched you for a long while before sitting down next to you that day. When he looked at you, for the first time in centuries he felt something inside his heart that wasn't dark or broken. Do you remember what he said to you that day?”

  Because I know what it's like to be alone

  “You were so lonely, just like he had been all those years. And something inside him wanted to take care of you. In that instant, you disappeared off my list.”

  It was strange to hear her own history from the view of a bystander, an all knowing one at that.

  “Pablo loves you,” Messor confided. “probably more than he's ever loved anybody. Even if it is a sick, twisted kind of love. And I know that you still love him too, despite everything. But you know he must be stopped. And one day he will, hopefully before he takes down half the world.”

  Gable blanched. “He wouldn't—”

  Before she could even finish her protest, Messor waved a hand in front of Gable's eyes and suddenly she was standing in a very different world.

  It was still New York City, she'd recognize it even if she'd been gone a thousand years, but it wasn't the New York City she was used to. Most of the buildings around her were falling down, smoking and on fire like they'd been attacked by bombs. Bodies littered the street, some rotting, but some still alive, groaning and screaming as the fire burned off their flesh. All powerful beings with red eyes marched, and Pablo stood at the centre of it all, smiling.

  It was so real. She could feel the heat, smell the smoke.

  An apocalypse, the end of the world, hell on earth.

  She blinked and she was back in the hospital room. A tear escaped her eye and trickled down her cheek. “That's what he'll do to the city?”

  Messor shook her head. “Not just the city. He'll destroy the whole world. If somebody doesn't stop him first.”

  “Will someone stop him? Who?”

  “Sweet Gabrielle, that's not your problem any more.”

  Pablo's raised voice startled Gable out of their discussion. While they had been talking, so had he and Nicky. “—and while you were busy killing Gable,” Pablo spat. “my men were capturing the scientist you were so determined to save.”

  Nicky flinched, his fists clenched so tightly his knuckles had whitened.

  His reaction seemed to please Pablo. “Oh yes, he wasn't alone, was he? You left him in the care of the pretty young scientist and the lanky genius, didn't you? Not a smart move, Nicholas, not a smart move at all. Oh, look at you, practically oozing guilt. I will kill them,” he stated, and no one listening to him would doubt the truth in his words. “painfully and gruesomely. I think perhaps I'll leave the darling girl until last. I wonder how loud her screams will be as I slice off her skin, strip by strip.”

  Nicky lunged for Pablo like a wild man, but Pablo easily intercepted him. He twisted Nicky's arm around his back in a painful looking manoeuvre, his movement quick like a snake bite. Nicky dropped to his knees, his face contorted with pain.

  With his men usually doing the fighting for him, it was easy to conclude that Pablo was unable to. Gable knew differently. He had been alive over half a millennium and he was as deadly in combat as any of them, even if he preferred to avoid getting his own hands dirty. There had been many a time over the years that he'd needed to fight his way through the world. Pablo had even been the one to improve the skills that Sacha had already taught her.

  Just because he didn't like to fight, didn't mean he couldn't. That was a mistake most never got to make again.

  “Ah ah ah,” he said with a smirk, yanking Nicky's arm so hard that he hissed. “We can avoid all that unpleasantness if you do what I say. I want to kill you, Nicholas, very badly indeed. But I won't, for now, because I want you to go back to your boss and give old Charlie boy a message from me. Okay?”

  Nicky bared his gritted teeth, but nodded.

  “Tell him that if he wants the two of them back, he needs to bring the Box of Creation to me at The Serpent.” Still holding Nicky with one hand like it was no effort at all, he checked his golden wristwatch. “Hmm... it's eight forty five. He has until midnight. I do believe that's fairer than you deserve. Be grateful.”

  “What about the scientist?”

  “He stays with me.” His tone of voice left no reason for discussion. He released Nicky, who with one last tortured look at Gable's body, hurried out of the room.

  “Pablo barely knows Nicholas, but he hates him more than he's ever hated anyone,” Messor told Gable. “And he's had his reasons to hate a fair few people over the years.” There was a hard look in Messor's eyes, and Gable knew there was more to Pablo's life than he'd told her. Things she hadn't dared to ask, like how he'd become an Immortal, or what had happened to his family. Messor would probably tell her if she asked.

  But all she said instead was, “Why does he hate him so much?” She wondered if needing to know that made her selfish.

  “Because it was when Nicholas came back into your life that he began to lose you,” Messor said simply. “That's why he sent you to kill Heidi. He didn't need her dead, he didn't care about testing you, and it wasn't even a punishment. He wanted you tainted, so that nobody else would have you but him. So that Nicholas wouldn't have you.” She crossed her arms sullenly like an angry little teenage Reaper. “Don't you want to leave all this darkness and betrayal behind. Come with me, Gabrielle.”

  Gable hesitated. She was so tired. So, so tired. Tired of life, of lies and hurt and anger and loneliness. Tired of being. But there was just one thing... “If Sacha really is alive, I can't just leave him...”

  “Listen to what I'm telling you—you don't have a choice. You've already left him. Even if you don't let go of your body and come with me now, you still can't get back in it. You'll never wake up, you'll never find Sacha and save him from imprisonment. It won't happen. It can't happen. You can't get back in that body. So you either come with me now and find out what happens next, or you stay here and haunt this room until they turn off the machines and let you die. Once that happens, I don't think you'll find me again. You'll end up in the Shadow Lands, drifting, forever searching for light. Maybe one day you'll find a Shadow Guide just like Nicky and he'll finally send you back to me, but who knows how long that'll take. A hundred years? Two? You'll wander, listless, until you forget everything that made you stay here in the first place.” There was a long, pregnant pause as Gable digested the words that made so much bitter sense. “It's time to chose your fate, Gabrielle.” Messor held
out her hand. “Well?”

  Gable stared hard at Messor's hand. It was pale and small and her fingers were kind of chunky. She knew, with a foreboding that reached right down inside her stomach, that the moment they touched skin, nothing would ever be the same again.

  Slowly, oh so slowly, she reached out. Their fingertips touched, feather light.

  Nothing happened.

  She'd expected something. Perhaps a flash of white light, or maybe even the clanking of chains and the searing flames of hell, but no. Nothing.

  Messor frowned. She reached out and gripped Gable's hand. Still nothing.

  After a moment, she closed her eyes, squeezing them shut in sadness. When she opened them again, they were filled with a resentful understanding. “Oh, that's not playing by the rules.”

  “Wait, what?” Gable began to panic. She was ready, she wanted to go. “I'm going with you, right? I made up my mind!”

  “You're not on my list any more,” she replied. “Goodbye, Gabrielle.” And then she was gone.

  “No, please!” Gable begged, but only the thin air was there to hear her cries. “Please don't leave me!”

  Messor never came back.

  “IT'S A TRAP,” Nicky stated, though he really needn't have bothered. They all knew it. None of them were fooled by Pablo's offer. Not Nicky, not Walker, not Zay, and definitely not Charles. “Pablo doesn't plan on letting any of us leave once we give him the box.”

  They had gathered in the living room at headquarters and were trying to come up with some kind of a plan to rescue Queenie and Kain; any kind of plan that didn't end with them all losing their lives.

  Nicky had to keep focussed, because if he didn't then he started thinking of other things. Like how tiny Gable had looked in that hospital bed. Or how she probably wasn't going to make it till morning. Every time he remembered that, pain seared his heart like hot knives and he lost his head.

  So yeah, he needed to stay focussed. He could deal with his grief later.

  Walker nodded solemnly, her head held firmly between her hands as she sat with her shoulders haunched. She looked defeated. “Killing us will start a war with the Guardians, and when he has the box, the Guardians can't possibly win. That must be his plan.”

  “We're getting them back,” Zay said with conviction. “We have to get them back or...we just have to.” He was taking the loss of Queenie especially hard; he'd always seemed extra protective when it came to her. They all were. Queenie was smart as hell, but she was sweet and fragile like sugar glass.

  Nobody argued with Zay. Not going for Queenie and Kain was...unthinkable. Leaving them in the hands of Pablo wasn't an option. They were a family—a weird, dysfunctional family, sure, but a family nonetheless.

  Time was running short and they still hadn't come up with a plan that would get all of them out in one piece.

  “We have to do it, we have to take the box to Pablo,” said Charles. Nicky felt bad for the guy—he hadn't even had a chance to be relieved about Heidi. “It's a suicide mission, I'm aware, but...I don't see that there's anything else we can do at this point.” He sighed. “I have something to say and I think you won't like it but—”

  “You're not going alone,” Nicky interrupted.

  “But I—”

  “No, dad,” said Zay firmly.

  “I'm responsible for all of you!”

  “Charles, shut up,” Walker demanded kindly. “Or I'll have to hit you.”

  He looked like he wanted to argue further, but he closed his mouth when Walker actually raised her fist. Nobody wanted to be on the wrong side of Walker's wrath. He gave a mirthless smile. “We go in together, then.”

  “And we stick together,” Nicky added. “No matter what. No splitting up. And we get Queenie and Kain and the scientist and then we get the hell out of there.” It all sounded so simple. If only.

  Zay nodded. “No man gets left behind, not on our team.” And when Walker glared, he said hastily, “Or woman.”

  Charles smiled at them proudly.

  “Did you call the Elders?” Walker asked Charles. “Maybe they can send help?”

  “I haven't called them,” he confessed. “I don't want to tell them of the situation.”

  “Why the hell not?”

  “Honestly? I'm afraid of what their instructions will be.”

  “Dad, what do you mean?”

  “What we're about to do,” he said in a carefully controlled voice. “is going to have severe collateral damage. Giving Pablo the box is going to have worldwide consequences. And I'm afraid that the Elders will tell us not to do the exchange, to sacrifice Felicity and Kain in order to save the world.”

  The others digested this. “We're alone then,” Nicky concluded finally. “Because there's no way on earth that we're leaving them there.”

  Walker stood and began to pace in front of the television. “Right. So what are our objectives?” It was the same question they asked before every mission. That was good; maybe if they could disconnect their emotions from the daunting task ahead of them and approach it as if it were any other mission, they would be less likely to screw up.

  Charles looked grim. “Weapon up and hope for a miracle.”

  WHEN GABLE WOKE up in the hospital bed, she was all alone. She had no idea how much time had passed.

  Just earlier she'd been a spirit, staring down at her body from another space. To be back and solid again was...strange.

  She lay still a few long moments, brooding. She should never have woken up, she wasn't supposed to have woken up. If only she'd taken Messor's hand sooner, before Pablo had...before Pablo had found a way to fix her, maybe she'd be in a better place already.

  It was time to suck it up. She was alive and she should be grateful for it, despite everything she'd learned.

  When she sat up, her muscles ached, but apart from that she felt fine—like she hadn't fought for her life and then been hit by a car. A quick look under her hospital gown confirmed what she already knew—she was completely healed, no scars or bruises in sight.

  There was a note on the bedside cabinet and she recognized Pablo's elegant handwriting immediately. Pain laced through her heart as his betrayal washed over her again. He had lied to her from the very first moment. He'd taken Sacha from her and kept him all along, testing him and...God, who knew.

  I'm sorry I couldn't be there when you awoke, he'd written. I have business to attend to, I'm sure you understand. I am relieved that you are well, sweet Gable. Come straight to me as soon as you can.

  He hadn't signed it, but then, he really hadn't needed to.

  I am relieved that you are well.

  Such simple, understated words considering what Gable had witnessed after Messor had left her. It made her feel sick all over again.

  A change of clothes had been left for her and she quickly slipped into the leather pants and black long sleeved t-shirt. She zipped up her boots and looked around for a clock.

  Twenty five minutes until midnight.

  Twenty five minutes until Nicky and his friends walked straight to their executions. Because she knew Pablo wouldn't let them go. They probably knew that too, but they'd still go. Nicky would still go. And he'd die.

  She cursed when she realized that she hadn't been left a cell phone, and there was no other phone in the room. Pablo didn't want her contacting anybody.

  Gable peeped through the door and sure enough, two of Pablo's guys were out in the waiting room. One was busy fiddling with buttons on his cell and the other was asleep, his mouth wide open. They hadn't even noticed Gable had woken up. Pablo must have instructed them to escort her back to The Serpent and clearly hadn't anticipated that she might have other plans in mind or he might have left smarter guys.

  The door was out. If she went out there and Dumb and Dumber saw her, they'd report straight back to Pablo and he'd insist on her presence, and she couldn't go to him. Not right away.

  So she rolled up the blinds on the small window and looked out—ground floor, score
! It was a piece of cake to slide the window up and silently climb out, and she sprinted around to the front entrance of the hospital.

  There was a small gift shop in the lobby and a friendly looking girl with blue stripes in her blonde hair sat behind the counter. Gable gave her sweetest, most charming smile.

  “Hey, do you have a phone I could borrow?” she asked. “I'm such a dope. I lost my cell and I need to call my ride.”

  The girl nodded and slid the phone across the counter. “Better make it quick though. My boss is a total tight ass and if she comes back and sees you on it she'll make you pay. She's such a beeyotch.”

  Gable nodded though she wasn't listening to a word the girl was saying. She dialled the only person she knew could help her.

  “Terelle,” she said. “I need you.”

  FORTUNATELY, THERE WAS one thing the Guardians had that Pablo knew nothing about...and that was Nicky. Or his Shadow Guide abilities, at least. He was their secret weapon. He'd never been a secret weapon before; it was kind of cool.

  When they entered The Serpent, the first thing Nicky noticed was that the place was filled with shadows. Overwhelmed by them. Pablo had murdered so many people within the beautiful, fancy walls.

  Nicky closed his eyes and summoned up every ounce of energy he could muster and called out to them. Every single one of them answered, ready to fight with him for his cause, ready to fight for their own justice.

  The hotel was mysteriously empty of guests, and Nicky could only assume that Pablo had sent them away. He hoped that was what had happened, anyway. The alternative was...grim.

  Instead, more than a dozen of Pablo's men attacked them, coming from all angles. The Guardians didn't even have to fight—which was lucky, as Nicky wasn't sure he had a single scrap of spare energy left to defend himself. The shadows swarmed over the men and Nicky had to instruct them to incapacitate, not kill, before there was a pile of bloody bodies laying on the ground.

  The Guardians took the stairs instead of the elevator and with the help of the shadows, they managed to get all the way to the top floor. Nicky was so weak from sharing his energy with the shadows that Zay practically had to drag him up. They entered another grand room—Pablo didn't seem to do anything to a normal scale—with only one other door. Pablo's office.