Lance is suddenly at my side helping me stand back up. “No one’s here, Libby. The house is empty.”
“The Guardians took him, Lance. This is my fault.” I break down and sob into Lance’s chest. I did this.
“Libby, Mr. Walters is gone, too,” Lance says.
I don’t care. Braden is the only person I can think about. I know that is his blood growing cold on the carpet. The blue shirt he was wearing earlier is draped over a chair, still wet from something being spilled on it. I don’t have to look in his closet to know he put on the brown one I saw in the vision. Why didn’t I warn him? I’m so stupid! This is my fault. He never should have helped me. I can’t fix anything. I can’t make anything better. All I can do is ruin things, destroy lives. Why did I ever think I could do anything good? I keep repeating over and over again that this is my fault.
Lance shakes me, hard. One of his hands grabs my chin and forces me to look at him. His fiery eyes startle me enough to snap me back to reality. “Libby,” he snaps, “stop it!”
“He’s gone,” I cry, “we have to find him!” I struggle to get away from him but I can’t find the strength. Struggling only gets me turned around in his arms. Lance crushes me against his chest and refuses to let go. I can’t let him stop me. I have to find Braden! My arms are still free and in my desperation to get away from Lance, I start beating against him, yelling at him to let me go.
I don’t even see Milo and Dean rush into the room until Milo pulls me out of Lance’s grip and grabs my face. The sudden lack of restraint catches my desperation and I dart away from him. Lance yells for them to stop me. I try to reach the door, but Milo catches my leg and I fall to the floor. My hand lands in something wet and warm. My eyes squeeze shut against the image of my hand coated in red. The smell of Braden’s blood down on the floor suffocates me. Panic makes me kick out. I connect with something, and suddenly I’m free. But I only get one foot under me before I’m pinned again. The weight of three bodies crushing me is too much for my depleted strength.
Angry, terrified tears spill into the blood-marred carpet. “Let me go! Let me go! I have to find him. You have to let me go!” My voice cracks as everything becomes too much. I try once more to push off the floor, but they have me trapped.
Milo’s head lowers next to mine. A bruise is already forming on his left cheekbone. “Libby, you have to calm down. You can’t just run off like this. It’s too dangerous. If the Guardians have Braden, you can’t just go barreling into their compound. They’ll kill you!”
“I don’t care,” I sob.
The sudden lightening of pressure on my body is too startling for me to react to it. I’ve lost my strength entirely now. I hang like a ragdoll as Milo pulls me back up to sitting. He lifts my head to look at him when I don’t do it on my own. “What did you just say?” Milo asks, his voice stiff.
“Milo, we have to find Braden. The Guardians took him!” I’m begging him. He’s not really listening, though. He’s not looking at me either. He stares at nothing as he thinks.
“You said you didn’t care. I said the Guardians will kill you, and you said you didn’t care.” His eyes meet mine, hard and unbending. “Libby, I know Braden was part of our team. I feel bad that he was taken, but we can’t risk everything for him.”
“I’m not abandoning him!”
Milo rocks back on his heels when I scream at him. “Libby, I’m not saying we’re going to write him off. I’m just saying we need to stop, make a plan. Assess the risks. We’ll try ...”
I start to say that trying isn’t good enough. Lance speaks first.
“No, we won’t. We’re not going after Braden, Milo.”
Milo looks startled, maybe a little glad, but I have a different reaction. “Shut up, Lance!” I reach forward to grab him before he can say anything else. Dean, who I had forgotten about entirely, clamps down on my shoulder and holds me back. Milo shakes his head at the bizarreness of my hysteria.
“What do you mean?” Milo asks slowly.
“We can’t go after him, Milo. Braden and Libby both told me what would happen to him if he were taken. We can’t go after him.”
“Why not?”
My body pleads with Lance to stop talking. Why did I ever promise not to lie to him? He doesn’t even acknowledge me.
“The Guardians have a way of forcing an Oath on another Guardian. They can change it so that instead of protecting someone, that person is bound to hurt them, to kill them,” Lance says. His grave voice sinks into Dean and Milo both. “Braden was sure that if he was taken by the Guardians they would turn him against Libby. If they don’t kill him, he’ll try to kill Libby.”
Dean sighs heavily. He latched onto Braden from almost the first day. It cuts me deeply when he says, “Maybe they’ll just kill him. It would be better.” He falters before continuing. “Maybe he’s already dead. There’s a lot of blood on the floor.”
“No,” I snap, “he’s not dead.”
Milo’s hand reaches out to me, but I turn away. “Libby,” he says, “there is a lot of blood. Maybe it would be for the best if he’s already dead.”
“He’s not dead! I know he’s not.”
Milo’s patience is beginning to run out. “I know you want to believe that …”
“He’s not dead,” I said with finality.
Dean’s grip on me doesn’t lessen at all, but he asks, “How can you be sure?”
His question makes me close my eyes. Over the past months our connection has developed into something more than the sudden explosions of familiarity. Those still happen quite frequently, but now I can always sense him. It isn’t like what Lance gets from me. It is more of a subtle reminder that he is there waiting for me to make him a part of my life, my soul. And I should have. Regret deeper than I have ever known festers under my skin.
“I know because I can feel him. He’s still alive, Dean. I won’t give up on him if he’s still alive.”
“What do you mean you can feel him?” Milo demands. “Did he give you his Oath and you didn’t bother to tell me?”
It’s the insanity of this moment that makes him ask. He knows Oaths don’t work that way, but I answer him all the same. “No, Milo, that’s the problem.”
He stares at me in confusion. Nothing is making sense to him right now. I know nothing will make sense to me again until I know Braden is safe, and beside me. I wipe my eyes and say, “If I had let him give me his Oath as he wanted to do, the Guardians wouldn’t be able to turn him.”
“Then why didn’t you?” Milo asks. Frustration and anger build around him. It very nearly crackles in the air. “If he was willing, and you knew this was a possibility, why didn’t you take his Oath? That makes no sense!”
“Because I was afraid of losing you, Milo.”
He’s finally had enough. His hands fly up in pure aggravation. “That is the most idiotic thing you have ever said! What are you talking about?”
He saw it right before Braden was taken. He was about to figure it out if he hadn’t already. He had been suspicious that there was more than training going on between us. The chaos of the last few moments has only pushed all of that to the back of his mind. All it will take is one small reminder to bring it back. I have to do it, if I have any hope of convincing them to help me. I have to do it. I bring my hands up in front of him with my palms up. He frowns at the gesture before looking at his own hand, the one that grabbed me when he saw the filament. It’s torture to watch the recognition blossom in his eyes.
“No,” he says. “No, it’s not him. Libby, it can’t be him.”
“It is,” Lance says. “Braden is Libby's Spiritual Companion.”
Milo shakes his head at me. He knew from the first time we went to the spirit world together that he wasn’t my Companion, but that doesn’t stop his face from twisting into disgust as this revelation sinks in. It must make him sick to know Braden has such a connection to me after what Braden did to him. Even still, confusion momentarily overpowers the hatred I
know must be poisoning him. “But, why did that stop you from taking his Oath?”
I can’t bear to answer him, so Lance does it for me. “Every power Libby has, including emotions, would be amplified ten times or more if Braden had given her his Oath.”
The confused frown developing on Milo’s face brings back Lance’s combative side. Milo knows. He just doesn’t want to admit. I don’t want to admit it, either. Tears spill down my cheeks, but Lance has hit his limit of patience.
“For crying out loud, Milo! Do I have to spell it out for you? You should have seen it before any of this even happened. I’m pretty sure everyone else did! Dean figured it out the moment he met them in Dallas. You can be so dense, sometimes, it’s a freaking miracle you avoided the Guardians as long as you did! Wake up, Milo! Braden is in love with Libby!”
Milo’s eyes snap up to mine as his vague suspicions are confirmed. The murderous glint in them makes me cringe. His mind seems to have suddenly cleared, the details he knows of both Oaths and Companions, and my odd behavior the last few days—everything is now fresh in his mind.
“Oaths are one-sided, Libby. You wouldn’t have felt anything from him. The past few days … I wondered, but I didn’t think …” His eyes close briefly and I know he must comprehend what Lance was trying to tell him, that I would be affected by the Oath, by how it would amplify my feelings. My absolute panic to get to Braden. My confession that I would risk death to get him back. I’ve even already admitted I pushed Braden away because I was afraid of losing Milo.
I know everything has come together when he asks through clenched teeth, “Why didn’t you let Braden give you his Oath?”
A betraying tear slips down my cheek. “Because I think I’m falling in love with him, too.”
He purposely drops his blocks to let me feel exactly how much I’ve hurt him. Agony so rich it smothers me rolls off of him. Furious, white hot rage scorches me, blackens me under his barrage. I break under it, crumbling in on myself.
“Milo, please. I am so sorry. This is all my fault. I know I should have tried harder, stayed away from him. I tried to push him away, but I couldn’t. I never wanted to hurt you. I love you! I know I’ve screwed up. I’ve messed things up so badly I don’t know if I can ever fix them, but I’m begging you to listen to me right now. I didn’t want to give you up, so I refused to let him give me his Oath. I was trying to hold onto you, but I may have cost Braden his life. If they don’t kill him, they’ll change him because of my choice. I have to find him. I can’t let him be hurt because I wasn’t strong enough to make the right choice. Maybe it’s not too late yet.”
Milo turns a vicious glare on me. “What, you regret not letting him give his Oath now?”
“Yes, I mean no. Milo, I didn’t mean for this to happen. I was trying to hold onto you, but I have to help Braden.” Am I the only one who understands this? I have to find him!
“How could you let yourself fall for him, Libby? I trusted you, and all of this was going on behind my back?” His anger doubles my guilt.
“I know I lied to you. I lied to you constantly, about so much. I told myself I was doing the right thing by lying about us being Companions because I didn’t want to hurt you. I was trying to protect you. I know I hurt you, Milo, and I am so sorry for all of it, but I can’t just abandon Braden. I can’t make him pay for my mistakes.”
“I don’t care about Braden!” Milo yells.
“Milo, please,” I beg, tears pouring down my cheeks.
His voice is hardened steel as he says, “No. We’re not going after him. We are done with Braden.”
I try to run. I try to keep my promise to Braden. But the second my exhausted body tries to move, Lance and Dean pounce on me. Milo turns away as I struggle and sob.
Chapter 3
3
Twenty Questions
They actually tie me to a chair.
A rope found in the garage has me bound in such an uncomfortable position that I can’t find any leverage to try and break out of them. They can’t keep me here forever, though. Eventually they’re going to free me. I’m mentally sending death threats to Lance as he stalks back and forth in front of me. Someone called him a few seconds ago and even I am forced to put aside my grief to listen. Something’s wrong.
“How many got out?” Lance asks. He waits and listens for several seconds. “No, they should have all made it out by now. The entire route could have been taken in less than fifteen minutes even if their physical abilities were compromised.”
Everyone is very still as we listen to the garbled words leaking out of the phone. Lance’s brow furrows as the speaker says something I can’t understand. He motions for Milo and Dean and mouths an order for them to check in with the other Cipher handlers. They speed through the ten other groups rapidly, giving a thumbs-up for each one. Only one handler hasn’t seen any sign of the Ciphers he was supposed to pick up. He is waiting outside the Albuquerque compound wondering what went wrong.
The fact that it’s the same compound Braden was most likely taken to doesn’t escape my notice. Something happened with this compound. They found out about Braden, and now eighty-seven Ciphers are unaccounted for. My desire to rush over to the compound has little to do with the Ciphers at the moment. Lance glances over at me, and I can tell he knows exactly what I’m thinking. He is not leaving me behind. I’ll find a way to make sure I go to the compound with him. Lance listens, delaying making the decision that should be mine in the first place.
“There’s a car pulling into the compound?” Lance asks suddenly. My attention snaps as tight as a piano wire. “What does it look like, Cory?” Silence.
“Black sedan. Can you see anything else?”
He waits again, his fingers tapping anxiously against the phone. His eyes meet mine as he repeats what Cory is telling him. “They’ve stopped at the main entrance. Four Guardians with two prisoners. The prisoners are hooded, but one is tall and the other is short. They’re taking them into the compound.”
“How do they look?” I demand. I know he has to be looking at Braden and Mr. Walters.
So does Lance. “Braden is stumbling, but walking under his own power. Mr. Walters looks fine. They’re being pushed into the building now.”
“What about the Ciphers?” Milo asks impatiently. He’s already written off Braden and Mr. Walters. Lance starts to ask Cory, but flinches and moves as if he’s expecting an attack.
“Get out of there, Cory! No, we’ll find out what happened to the Ciphers later. If they’re not out yet, they aren’t coming.” He’s crushing the phone as he waits for his order to be obeyed. The sharp slash of his free hand startles me. “I said get out, Cory! Forget the Ciphers and get out!”
We all hear the scream that rips through the speaker.
Silence fills the room. Cory was the lead handler here in Albuquerque, but he had a whole team with him. I don’t think any of us believe the others haven’t just suffered a similar fate. Lance’s hand drops to his side. His whole body looks wilted. The phone hangs loosely from his hand until an unfamiliar voice sounds from it. Lance moves so fast I don’t even see the motion.
“Who is this?” he demands.
I don’t hear what the speaker says, but Lance’s angry refusal isn’t a good sign. Furious red spreads through his face. The creak of plastic slowly breaking doesn’t reach his ears. Thankfully he relents before crushing his phone completely. When he holds it out to me I lean forward eagerly.
“Hello?”
“Libby Sparks, my name is Linden Blackwood. Do you know who I am?”
Hatred explodes through my body. I can barely speak through my clenched jaw. “Yes. I know who you are.”
He chuckles and the rope binding me creaks under my angry push to rip him apart. “Yes,” he says, “I thought you would.”
“What have you done to Braden?” I demand.
“Open Braden’s work email.”
That’s all he says. The line goes dead after the last word.
“Untie me!” Nobody moves. “Please, Lance, just untie me. I promise I won’t run. I promise!”
Lance hesitates for a second. Milo shakes his head, which hurts more than I care to admit, but Lance has learned to trust my promises. He steps behind me and tugs against the rope. I leap out of the chair the instant they are loose enough to let my hands slip free. Lance jumps away from me as I barrel past him to get to Braden’s laptop. As soon as I open the lid the screen flickers to life. My fingers fly across the keyboard and bring up his inbox quickly. As soon as the page loads, a small box pops up at the bottom, an invitation for a video chat.
The box blinks at me. Its sinister flashing promises more agony. I can feel the other three moving in behind me. My finger trembles as I accept the invitation. With a flicker, the monitor fills with an image of a man’s face. I have never seen him before, but apparently he knows me. He turns away from the camera, and says, “She’s here, Captain Blackwood.”
Whoever he is, he moves out of the way and Captain Blackwood takes his place. His arrogant smile and handsome features are revolting. It takes all my control not to smash the screen so I don’t have to look at him anymore.
“Libby,” he drawls.
“Where’s Braden?”
Blackwood’s mouth twists into a snarl. “He’s no concern of yours anymore. That traitorous son of a …” His fist slams down on the table, rattling the computer. “I’m not here to discuss Braden. You shouldn’t be nearly so concerned for him as for the abominations you just tried to rescue. They need you so much more.”
“What have you done to them?” I ask.
Instead of answering, he stands up and turns the computer around. Eighty-seven frightened Ciphers huddle against a wall. No. Not eighty-seven. Blackwood steps back, widening my view. At the feet of the Ciphers are six bodies that will never move again. Lucas’s face is turned toward the screen. His lifeless eyes accuse me of failing him. My hand covers my mouth as tears slip down my cheeks.
Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy Page 33
