United (The Guardians Book 2)

by Jessica Roe

  Hue dwelling on a blond guy. Young, maybe in his late teens. He was. . . Oh, he was Hue's brother. He was dead.

  Nicky thinking about Gable. No, not Gable. Nicky was thinking about Gabrielle. Back when she'd been young and blonde and they'd been so in love.

  Cadby slipped his hands from Gable's with a sigh. “Sorry about that. I seem to be projecting.”

  “Don't worry about it, Queenie did the same thing last night. Do you really hear that all the time?”

  “I'm usually able to block it out. Damn this island.” He shook his head and glared at the others, still packing up. “Can you all stop thinking so loudly, just for a minute? Please!”

  Everyone paused, turning to stare at him with open mouths. Cadby never got mad. He was always that guy, the one that took everything in his stride with a big smile on his face, no matter how big or small the circumstance. So if someone as friendly as Cadby was telling them to shut the hell up, they were going to listen and obey.

  “Sorry, man,” Hue apologized. “Is there anything we can do to make this easier?”

  Cadby shook his head, his shoulders stooping in remorse. “No, I'm the one who's sorry. I think I just need some space if I'm gonna make this work.”

  “We can't split up,” Zay pointed out. “Too dangerous. We need eyes and ears on each other at all times.”

  “I know. Okay, Gable and I will just have to move as far away as we can while still being in visual contact, and I need the rest of you guys to try and clear your minds for a little while. Try reciting song lyrics or number patterns in your heads.”

  Gable followed Cadby further away through the trees. When he was satisfied with the distance, they sat once more, repeating their earlier actions. This time when they touched hands, unwanted thoughts and images filled her mind immediately, hitting her like a static shock.

  She realized then, as she caught an unguarded look into Cadby's mind, that he was powerful. Way more than he ever let on. There was so much power inside him that it made Gable's head ache just to witness it. He was even more powerful than Terelle, though the idea of ruling the Outcasts at Yarmac & Bogely's didn't appeal to him in the slightest. He didn't care about power, he just wanted to live, be happy, be free.

  And then there was an image. A woman. Cadby's mother. She was weak, timid, fearful. A human. Afraid of her own son, even when he'd been such a young boy, just five or six. Afraid of the way he'd known so many things he shouldn't.

  The pictures faded away only to form something new. A small boy, no older than ten, his bright blond hair making him look like a little angel. It was Cadby, of course. He was crying. Sent away by his mother to live with the father she'd ran from in fear years before just because she couldn't understand her son. His father was a powerful psychic with a terrifying thirst for power. He'd wanted Cadby to help him do terrible things to sate his cravings. But by the age of twelve, when Cadby had already surpassed him in power, his hatred formed and grew, all aimed at his son.

  Cadby at fourteen, having finally escaped his father's wrath, discovering Yarmac & Bogely's for the first time. Being free to be himself for the first time. Feeling happiness for the first time.

  And then a picture of Gable's own face. How Cadby saw her through his eyes. She was. . .beautiful. The most beautiful girl he'd ever known. He longed for her, ached for her, and he hated himself for those feelings because she would never be his. She belonged to another, his best friend, and every time he wished she was his he was only betraying Sacha in the worst way. But that kiss he'd given her the day before, it hadn't been playful, not for him. . .

  With a gasp of horror, Cadby yanked his hands away from Gable's and stared at her with wide eyes. His unstable powers had caused him to push a little of himself into her and neither of them had been prepared for that.

  Gable's heart cracked a little at the look of shame on his face. “Cadby, I-”

  “Please don't,” he begged, his voice coming out harsh as he averted his gaze. “Please don't ever talk about that again. I know it's not what you. . . I know I'm not. . . Please, never mention it again.”

  She nodded, though something inside her was aching. She'd never known about his past because he'd never liked to talk about it, and now she knew why. He wasn't the kind of person who wanted others to feel sorry for him.

  And the feelings he had for her. . . She'd had no idea. She'd never meant to hurt him. Out of all of the people in the whole would, she would never want to hurt Cadby.

  Yet they both knew she could never return his feelings. Though she loved him, it wasn't the right kind of love. It never would be.

  Taking a deep, resolved breath, he held out his hands for her once more. “Again.”

  “Are you su-”

  “Again! We can't fail at this. We must put everything else aside.”

  He was right. They both needed to forget what he'd accidentally shared and move forward. Dwelling on it would only hurt.

  Besides, they had a job to do.

  Sliding her hands back into his for a third time, Gable let their energies merge. What had happened seemed to have given Cadby some kind of focus, because this time there were no other voices, no other distractions.

  “Okay, we're on the right track,” he mumbled with closed eyes. She wasn't sure if he was talking to her or just out loud, but she suspected he wasn't looking for a reply. “Sacha is here. . .somewhere.” Gable's heart leaped at his words, but she tried to keep focus. She wished she could see what Cadby was seeing, travel whatever journey he was traveling in his mind. “Dammit, I know he's here, I just can't pinpoint. . . Come on, brother! Where are you?”

  “What's happening?” Gable couldn't stop herself from asking.

  “I know he's here. I can sense his energy, but it's like. . .a wisp of smoke. I can't hold onto it. Something is blocking me.” He muttered a curse. “A leech. I should have known.”

  “You can sense leeches? I thought the whole point of them was that powers didn't work on them.”

  “Most psychics wouldn't be able to.” He quirked a smile. “But then, I am ridiculously awesome. . .”

  Once again, Gable got a renewed sense of just how powerful Cadby really was.

  “So what do we do?”

  “We keep trying. That's all we can do for now. Perhaps the leech will drop their guard.”

  “Is that likely?”

  “Nope.”

  Despite his prediction, they kept trying for another two hours. Unlike Nicky, Cadby didn't tire out after using his powers for a prolonged period of time.

  But still, he got nothing. Sacha seemed to be just out of his reach.

  Gable heaved a sigh and stared up at the tree tops. The golden morning sun was shimmering from leaf to leaf. Around them, small creatures scuttled through the foliage and flitted through trees, but so far none of them had approached. They were strange little things, similar to the wildlife in the human realm but freakishly different at the same time. Like the deep purple snake like creatures with spindly legs that Queenie warned them were very poisonous. Or the large beetles the size of Gable's feet. There had been that one instance she'd really freaked out when a big, black and white tiger like animal had approached her, but when it had opened its mouth to yawn, it had flashed a set of very non lethal looking human teeth her way. It had been just wrong. Wrong on so many levels.

  “Maybe we should give this up,” she said. “We're wasting daylight when we should be covering as much ground as we can.”

  “No, we'll get there. You heard what Zay said – we need a direction. It's not like we have a map to follow.”

  “But we could be walking right now. I feel like we should be walking. I need to move.”

  Cadby grunted. “Gable. . .”

  “We're sure to stumble across something if we keep going, right? A guard we can beat some answers out of, maybe. I mean, how big can one island be?”

  “Seriously, Gable. . .”

  “Then again,” she mused. “I guess America is like on
e huge island. Is it? So-”

  “GABLE!”

  She flinched. “What?”

  “I've got him!”

  “Wait, what?”

  “I've got him, Gable!” he replied excitedly, squeezing her hands. “I've got Sacha. The barrier blocking him has dropped. The leech is. . .gone or something. I've got him but. . .oh crap, I'm really unstable.”

  Gable knew exactly what he meant. He was projecting again, and she could feel second hand power suddenly rushing through her veins, taking her over, consuming her. She felt like she was flying through the sky. No, she was hurtling, and she couldn't stop.

  She needed it to stop. If Cadby would just let go of her hands she knew she'd feel safe and grounded again, but he was holding on tight.

  “Cadby, stop it,” she pleaded, though she knew it wasn't really his fault. It was the island making him feel this way. “It's too much, too intense. Please stop.”

  “I can't,” he said, though his voice sounded so far away.

  Gable kept hurtling.

  And then everything went black.

  +++

  Gable awoke face down in the scratchy leaves. Spitting dirt out of her mouth, she pushed herself up to ask Cadby what the hell that had been about, but he wasn't there. Confusion rolled through her in waves as she glanced around, ignoring the twigs digging into her hands and knees. In fact, she welcomed the sharp pain – it brought focus to her fuzzy mind.

  “Cadby?” she called out, sitting back on her haunches. “Nicky? Zay?”

  But she was alone in the rainforest. Even the small creatures had vanished, taking the noises of their scurrying and twitterings with them.

  Her team was gone, as were their belongings. No signs of their camp remained, not even the charred ashes of the fire. It was like they'd never been there at all.

  She was all alone.

  Had she somehow moved herself? Sleepwalked, perhaps? Or had they simply left her there, unconscious?

  No, they wouldn't do that, that she knew for certain. Even Zay, still so unsure of her, would never leave her to fend for herself on this island.

  So where in the hell were they?

  Clambering ungracefully to her feet, she touched her hip, feeling the reassuring outline of her dagger. She'd foolishly left her gun in her missing pack, but she knew her way around a dagger well. It would do. It would have to. Whatever was happening sure as hell wasn't normal, and her perception of normal was already way off.

  Panic arose within her. She took a deep breath in and counted to five, and then blew it back out again. It was a technique Pablo had once taught her to keep her from freaking out.

  The cracking of a snapped twig somewhere behind her had her spinning around and reaching for her weapon.

  Air whooshed out of her lungs and all other thoughts, all other people, vanished from her mind, from her existence. Because Sacha was standing there, not twenty feet away, where he couldn't possibly have been standing just seconds before.

  It was Sacha. Her Sacha.

  He was so thin and pale and gaunt, and the dark rings under his eyes stood out like a beacon against his still ridiculously handsome face, but she didn't care about any of that because he was there!

  She didn't know how or why, didn't care that it should have been impossible, didn't want to know if it was a trap. All she wanted was him.

  He watched her with rapt attention, his eyes taking in every inch of her with a hunger that seemed to possess his very soul. It was clear he was just as surprised to see her standing before him as she was.

  They stood in motionless silence for almost a whole minute as they took each other in. Gable didn't know about him, but she'd forgotten how to move. How to put one foot in front of the other so she could grab him and hold on to him and never, ever let him go again.

  Her heart pounded furiously behind her ribs, her fingertips numb. She must have dropped the dagger at some point, a foolish move probably, because her fists were clenched so tight her nails were cutting into her palms.

  “Gable,” Sacha breathed, and the spell was broken.

  At almost exactly the same time, they launched themselves at one another, running towards the only home that either of them had ever truly known.

  Fifteen feet.

  Ten.

  Five.

  They were just a couple of feet apart when they reached out, but just before their skin touched. . .

  Gable's eyes snapped open and she heaved in a large gasp of air. She was still sat across from Cadby, still in the lotus position, still linked with him.

  And Sacha was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where did you go?” Cadby asked, staring at her in awe. “I mean, you were here physically. . .but you were definitely gone. Where did you go, Gable?” He tried to pull his hands away but she clung on.

  “Send me back,” she begged, not caring about the desperation bleeding through her voice. Sacha had been right there, right in front of her. Losing him again was devastation in its purest form. “Send me back to him, Cadby. Please!”

  He watched her like he was seeing right through her, which he probably was. “You were with Sacha. . . I see it now. Oh, Gable.”

  “I know. So send me back to him.”

  “I can't. I'm so sorry. Even if I knew how I did whatever that just was, we're blocked from him again. He's back with the leech.”

  She opened and closed her mouth, unable to speak though she had so much to say. Finally letting go of his hands, she pulled her knees to her chest, hoping the pressure would ease the hollow feeling in her stomach. It didn't. “Was it real? Did I really see Sacha? Or did my mind just imagine him up?”

  “It was real, I think. For whatever reason, he wasn't with a leech for that brief time and I somehow connected your minds.”

  “So we were really together, but only in our heads?” She didn't know if that made it better or worse.

  “That's right.” He reached over to pat her knee. Their earlier awkwardness was gone, like it had never even happened. “Don't despair. That was a good thing, don't you see?”

  “How? We lost him again.”

  “I may not be able to send you back, but the exchange left an energy trail linking you to him.”

  “What in the hell does that mean?”

  He lowered his chin and looked at her. His eyes were dark but his smile bright. “It means I know exactly which way to go.”

  Chapter 18

  Fortune

  “Stop fidgeting,” Xahlia demanded from her cell.

  Sat on the edge of his cot, Fortune's knees froze for just a second before they began jiggling up and down again. He was so full of nervous energy, and being trapped inside his tiny cell meant there was no way to expel it.

  Sacha had been taken away for testing at first light that morning. Fortune was awaiting his return, praying they didn't keep him for days this time. He was worried – Sacha was usually at his very worst after a round of testing. His friend always arrived back at the cell with dead, lifeless eyes, like they'd stolen his very soul in those labs.

  They had no concept of time down in the cells, not really. There were no windows to tell how high or low the sun was, no clocks, and none of them were permitted such luxuries as watches. The only way for them to really know whether it was morning, noon or night was when they received their meals. If they received their meals.

  Thankfully it was a good day, and at some point – Fortune assumed it to be midday – they were served a lunch of some kind of broth. It was even quite edible, and almost still warm, which was a treat. Small lumps of something floated at the top, a meat that Fortune had never tasted before being locked up in the cells. He guessed it to be a local animal, which meant it wasn't from their realm. Because despite not really knowing where he was, Fortune knew they weren't on earth. When he'd been kidnapped he'd been forcibly escorted through a portal, and if that hadn't been enough of a hint then peeking through the fence when they'd had their outside time had been. The rainforest out there wa
s definitely otherworldly.

  Sacha finally returned when they were mid meal, and instead of the dull, deadened face he'd been expecting, Fortune was surprised to see his eyes were wide and bright, almost feverish. He sat down on his cot and picked up his bowl of broth, eating with such gusto that he practically inhaled it. It had been a while since he'd voluntarily eaten anything; Fortune usually had to beg him just so he wouldn't starve.

  “You okay?” he asked Sacha, finishing the last few drops of his broth and placing the thin, tin bowl and spoon by the bars of their cage so one of the guards could pick it up later. It hadn't been a large meal and his stomach was still aching with hunger, but he was used to that feeling by now. “What did they do to you?” He recalled the last time Gelasius had come back from testing and had been so happy. “Did you overhear something?”

  Sacha's eyes flickered towards the guard strolling down the aisle. Fortune got the hint, impatiently waiting for the guard to pass them by.

  Finishing his broth in record time, Sacha dropped his bowl on top of Fortune's and sat down next to him on his cot. He was practically vibrating with excitement. “Something strange happened to me while I was being tested.”

  “One of the scientists get a little handsy?” Gelasius guessed behind them, and Sacha even laughed at the joke. A real, genuine laugh.

  “No. Something better.”

  Even Moisey edged nearer, interested in Sacha's sudden personality reboot. “What was it?”

  “They wanted to test my healing abilities again so the scientists had their leech leave the testing room for a while.”

  Fortune nodded at that. Sometimes the scientists needed to test the Outcasts without the effects of the leeches sapping away their powers. They were chained down with multiple guns pointed at their hearts so escape was impossible, but it was rather pleasant not to feel empty for a short while – if they could ignore whatever sadistic test was being done at the time.

  “Your healing abilities?” Mosiey wanted to know. He was a grown man, in his late twenties at least, but he'd always seemed younger somehow. Maybe it was his fear of opening up or his nervous, wide eyed stare, like he was a baby deer facing down the barrel of a hunting gun.