The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies

by Kimberly Loth

  I forced a smile and inwardly cringed. Forever away from Puck. No way.

  I looked back at my dad. He hadn’t said a word, but I wondered what he was thinking. He smiled a sad smile. “If that’s what you want, you could do worse.”

  I shook my head. I never thought my dad would be encouraging me to run away with a boy. But Kai didn’t really want me to choose that option. He wanted me to take care of his problem.

  “I’ll go with you to see this person, but I’ll be the one to decide if it’s worth it or not.”

  Relief flooded his face. “Fair enough.”

  He kissed me on the cheek and pulled back on the road. Twenty minutes later, we turned down long dirt driveway. This could’ve been any farm in the county; they all looked the same. To my surprise, Kai drove past the house and pulled up in front of the barn instead.

  He took a deep breath. “Naomi, I have to give into the Destroyer energy. I’m one of the few Guardians that still has complete awareness of my actions when I turn Destroyer so I won’t do anything to you, but you’ll probably see me do things to others that might bother you. This is going to be different than the Destroyer meeting. There I was shielding quite a bit. I won’t do that today.”

  I nodded. It couldn’t have been any worse than when Puck tried to play Destroyer.

  He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, I could see and feel the change immediately. There was a hunger in his eyes when he looked at me that wasn’t entirely proper. His energy was dark, electric, and a bit seductive.

  He touched my cheek. “You look way too innocent to be my girlfriend. Come on.”

  I rolled my eyes. This was not the time or the place for him to be thinking those things.

  I followed him around the back of the barn. The wind blew from the direction of the barn, and I smelled death and decay. It wasn’t an unusual smell in the country. Any slaughterhouse or deer processing plant smelled the same way.

  We found Jason there with a couple of other Destroyers. I could feel them immediately. The smell of feces and the feel of maggots on my skin. The Destroyers narrowed their eyes as we approached. Jason scowled at me, but he didn’t say anything.

  “Why’d you bring the girl?” The man to Jason’s left wore a police uniform. I recognized him from the council meeting. He and Jason both held onto another man, who struggled against them. His hands were behind his back.

  “She’s my secret weapon.”

  “What the hell can she do?” asked the cop.

  “Just wait and I’ll show you. She’s still not convinced we should do away with him.” This was interesting. Puck was intent on keeping my power a secret, and now Kai was flaunting it before these Destroyers. I wasn’t convinced this would be worth it.

  The restrained man laughed. “Come here, pretty girl, I can show you all kinds of things you can do with me instead of killing.”

  I backed away. The man continued to taunt me. “What’s the matter, little girl, you scared of me? Some weapon.”

  Kai raised his hand and punched the man in the face. I jerked, unprepared for the violence in spite of Kai’s warning.

  The man’s nose burst with blood and he fell limp.

  “Naomi!”

  My dad stumbled out of the barn. I ran to his side, and he put his hand on my shoulder. He looked pale; his breathing was heavy.

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch. Kai doesn’t even have to ask.”

  Kai put his hand on my Dad’s shoulder. “You may not have to. Naomi can take care of it.” He seemed awfully sure I’d do this. “Come on, Naomi, let me show you why we are here.”

  My dad grabbed my hand. “Don’t go in there.”

  “I have to see. I can handle it.” I gently freed my hand and followed after Kai as he entered the barn through a side door. The smell of decay grew stronger.

  We walked along a dark pathway that eventually opened up into a large room. The walls were lined with cages, big and small. In every cage was an animal. I approached the first cage and found a rabbit. Or what was left of it, anyway. All of its legs were missing. I thought it was dead, but then it blinked at me. The skin where its legs should’ve been was red and raw, but not bloody. I covered my mouth and moved to the next cage, unable to force myself to look away from the horror.

  This cage was larger and inside was a cat, I think. Its fur had all been burned off, leaving angry blisters covering its body. It, too, opened its eyes when I walked past, blinking at me. When I moved closer to the cage, it opened its mouth and meowed.

  I gasped and took a couple of steps back, nauseous. I turned to Kai. “Heal it. Heal them all.”

  “My healing powers only work on humans.”

  I turned back to the cages. They were all filled with mutilated animals. All alive, but disfigured. Some had missing limbs, some had missing eyes or ears, or red scars puckering their bodies where they’d been cut. It was all I could do not to vomit.

  “This is what this man has been doing? Why? What does it have to do with his power?”

  “He feeds off of the pain he inflicts. It increases his power.”

  “This is sick.”

  I strode quickly to the door. Once out in the open air, I could see the wretched man and my dad standing in front of him yelling unintelligible words.

  I took my time weighing my options. I could feel my mother stirring beneath my skin. She’d been dormant since I got rid of Dwayne. Her power reared and yearned for the high that came from drawing out another’s power. She wanted it and so, by default, I wanted it. I couldn’t let this man continue to torture animals. I had to rid him of his gift.

  I tapped my dad on his shoulder. He jerked and looked at me. I could see relief in his eyes.

  “Let me take care of him,” I said.

  He nodded and backed away.

  “Let go of him.”

  Jason complied right away, but the cop did not.

  “He’ll run.”

  Jason spoke before I could. “No, he won’t. Trust me, you don’t want to hang onto him when Naomi does her thing.”

  The cop complied and I gripped the foul man’s hands. He sneered. “Like that, do you? I’ve got a few other things you can hang onto.”

  I ignored him and listened to my mother’s voice in my veins. Pull. I drew on his power and immediately the sneer fell from his face. “What the hell are you doing, bitch?”

  I continued to pull his dark and foul energy into my hands. After a minute he went limp and fell to the ground, but I did not break my grip. I was almost done, only a few more seconds.

  The connection severed and I fell backwards into the grass. I sat with my head between my knees, too worn out to even stand up. Kai put his hand on my shoulder. “Are you okay?”

  I shook my head. The Destroyer’s creepy power snaked through my body and I could hear thousands of screaming animals in my head.

  “Kai,” I whispered. He knelt down in front of me. “I need you to kiss me. I need you to push these horrible feelings away.”

  He leaned over and whispered in my ear. “Don’t tempt me. What you want is a Guardian’s kiss and I can’t give you that or my secret will be out. Can you wait a few minutes?”

  I nodded, even though I wanted to scream. I could still smell death and the animal cries in my head would not go away.

  Kai stood.

  The cop was mortified. “What did she do to him?”

  “He’s no longer a Destroyer.”

  “How the hell did she do that? Is she a Guardian?”

  “No, she’s actually a Shade. She can drain anyone of their power.”

  “Shit, Kai, if she can do that then why are you still having problems controlling the Destroyers?”

  “I can only use her in emergencies. You can’t tell anyone. If any rumors fly, you’ll both be out of the running to replace me. Do I make myself clear?”

  I didn’t hear their response. But Kai contin
ued.

  “You have enough evidence to arrest him, right? If you can lock him up, Jason and I can take care of the animals.”

  “Yes, sir. We’ll meet Saturday?”

  “At seven. If you want to talk about Naomi, come early. I don’t want the rest of the council knowing.”

  I didn’t look up, but after a few minutes, I heard an engine start. The screams were still loud in my head.

  Once the car was out of sight, Kai knelt in front of me again. His hands found my face and he forced me to look at him. His lips met mine and immediately my mind calmed.

  I was so grateful, that I kissed him back hard, knocking him over in the grass. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me with him. He brushed my hair out of my eyes and looked at me, concerned.

  “Are you okay?”

  I nodded. “But I gotta release his power as soon as possible.”

  “We have to take care of the animals first.”

  Of course, the animals. How could I be so thoughtless?

  “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to have to put them out of their misery. They are all in serious pain and torment. He did more than just torture them physically. When I first came here, he didn’t know I’d abhor it so much. He was so proud of what he could do. He wanted a place among my leadership. I was mortified.”

  My dad stood over us. “We’re not killing all of them.”

  Kai stood up and helped me up. “It’s the humane thing to do.”

  “I’m a vet. I’ll take care of them, I just need supplies from my clinic. Some of the animals will have to be put down, but I’ll save as many as I can.”

  Jason stood outside the barn. “This is gruesome.”

  “Naomi, can you and Kai go to my clinic and bring some supplies? It shouldn’t take long. I want to stay here and see how I can help in the meantime. Also, you’ll need to hook the trailer up to the truck so we can haul back as many animals as we can.”

  Kai shook his head.

  “I need to stay here. Jason can go with Naomi. He’s better at driving a truck anyway.”

  Oh, no way. But this was not the time to be a baby about Jason, so I didn’t say anything. Dad dug around the car and found a napkin and a pen. He wrote out a list and handed it to me. Even after he went crazy, he sometimes still asked me to help in the clinic so I was pretty familiar with the supplies.

  I climbed into the passenger seat of Jason’s truck.

  “That was some scary shit back there, huh?” He drove out the driveway.

  I didn’t even look at him. “Let’s not talk.”

  “Come on, Naomi. Do you want me to tell Puck what you did back there?”

  “Drop the act.” I turned and faced him. “Seriously, what is your game? I can’t figure this out.”

  He smirked. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  “How come you aren’t on Kai’s council? He told me you were his best friend, but he obviously doesn’t trust you.”

  He scowled and shut up. Thank goodness. I stared out the window. I couldn’t get the image of the mutilated cat out of my head. In spite of all my father did to me, at least I’d never suffered like that. These Destroyers were sick.

  Dad’s clinic was on our property, but in a separate building. Jason hooked up the trailer and I gathered all the things my dad needed. It made me sad to take so many vials of pentobarbital, which my dad used to euthanize animals. I knew there were many that couldn’t be saved, but still.

  We made it back to the farm twenty minutes later and loaded up the animals. My dad examined all of them and did what he could to make them comfortable for the ride. It was nice to see him working on something useful again.

  Loading up all the animals took three hours. Only one cage went into the car with me. The cat. My dad had given him a sedative and he was asleep. When he recovered, he would be mine.

  Rose breeding took on a whole new life after I discovered my abilities. Instead of waiting for months to see results, I can see them instantly. I combined roses together all the time and had some gorgeous results. The only time I failed was when I tried to combine a Kaiser Wilhelm and a Tuscany Superb. It was a stupid combination anyway, because they are such tricky roses. I never got a single bloom.

  WE CARRIED ALL THE ANIMALS into the clinic. The stench was overwhelming. Most of the animals were doped up on painkillers, but it was still hard to look at them. Jason left as soon as we were done. He hadn’t said much since I reminded him that he wasn’t allowed on Kai’s council.

  Kai and I drove back to the house and headed out into the garden with flashlights. I found the Jason rose and knelt down by it again. Kai put his hand on my shoulder.

  “Are you gonna be okay?”

  “Yeah, but I don’t think you should be touching me when I get rid of the power. I don’t know what will happen.”

  He stepped back but kept the flashlight pointed at the rose.

  I placed my hands in the dirt next to the flower. Once more, I gathered the energy into a ball. This was evil power, a dark blood red. I shot it out through my hands. The burning was worse this time, but more satisfying. I knew that the psycho that tortured the animals got what he deserved. The burning sensation was a small price to pay for the safety of the animals.

  Kai caught me before I fell over, and healed my hands. I couldn’t see the result in the faint shines from the flashlights, but I’d come back and check on the rose before school in the morning.

  The next morning, I left Kai in bed and dressed quickly. I found my dad in the kitchen. He was pouring a cup of coffee.

  “You want some?”

  “No, I’m fine, thanks. How late were you in the clinic?”

  “I came back at about three. I needed to sleep or I would’ve made mistakes and they can’t afford mistakes. I’m heading back out. You wanna come help?”

  I gave him a half smile.

  “I need to go check on my roses, then we’re heading to school. I’ll check in before we leave. The cat that was burned, is he going to be okay?”

  “Eventually.” He smiled. “Do you want him when I’m done?”

  I nodded and looked out at the garden. I was itching to see the rose.

  “I’ll see what I can do to speed up his recovery.”

  “Thanks.”

  I left him in the kitchen and went in search of my Jason rose. It had grown another three inches in height. The blooms that held Dwayne’s power remained the same but a new set of blooms appeared on the other side of the bush. They did not retain the stripes. Instead they were of the deepest, darkest red. They smelled the same as before, exotic and dangerous. The thorns on the entire plant had grown another quarter inch. If this continued, pretty soon the thorns would be bigger than the blooms.

  The energy that permeated the bush was so odd, a mixture of both Guardian and Destroyer.

  I sensed Kai before I saw him, since I was in tune with his particular brand of sunshine. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I leaned back into him, knowing I had to play my part better. Yesterday was a turning point for us.

  “I’m sorry you had to do that.” His breath tickled my ear. I closed my eyes for a second and tried to push away my feelings for Puck. That was the only way I’d pull this off.

  “I know. It was worth it though. This rose, I wonder what’s to become of it. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”

  Kai came around me and inspected the plant. “It feels of both Guardian and Destroyer. Is this a rose your Grandmother planted?”

  “No, but I tended it for years.”

  “It’s probably best left alone. We don’t know what powers it holds. We may have to do some research. Maybe a Guardian in the past had some experience with this.”

  The week passed quickly. We hardly saw my dad unless we went out to help him with the animals. I helped with the cat. He needed his IV changed frequently and a few skin grafts, but my dad took care of him while I was at school.

  By the end o
f the week I was exhausted and couldn’t wait for the weekend. On Friday, Kai and I ate lunch together with Tiff and her gang. Jason plopped himself right next to Kai.

  “You look good in the cheerleading costume,” Jason said to Tiff with a wink.

  She fluttered her eyes at him. “Y’all coming to the football game tonight?”

  “I wouldn’t miss seeing you out there.” He was such a suck up. “Kai, you wanna come with me and watch these gorgeous girls do their thing?”

  Kai shrugged and turned to me. “Do you want to go?”

  Jason snatched a brownie off of Kai’s plate. “Man, you’re whipped.”

  He leaned across Kai. “Naomi, Kai is coming to the game with me. Are you coming?”

  Kai laughed and shoved him back. “I’d like to go, but not if you don’t want to.”

  Jason made a whipping noise behind him.

  “I’ve never been to one before.” I was a little curious about a football game. It seemed silly, but I never experienced all the things a normal teenager did.

  Tiff gasped. “You’ve never been to a football game? Kai, you’ve deprived her of America’s favorite sport. Come to the football game, and then we’re having a bonfire at Desi’s place. It’ll be fun.”

  I nodded.

  Kai waited until Tiff and Jason left before he spoke to me about it.

  “We don’t have to go if you don’t want to.”

  “No, I want to.”

  He hesitated for a second, and a fraction of insecurity showed through. It was like he wasn’t sure what I would say. He lowered his eyes.

  “Listen, you and I haven’t had much time together when we can just relax. I’ve been thinking a lot about what you said, about us not knowing each other very well. If you don’t mind, I’d like tonight to be a date. A real one. I’ll take you out to dinner before and maybe we’ll go to the bonfire afterward. What do you say to that?”

  This was what Puck wanted me to do. Right?

  “What about Jason?”

  Kai rolled his eyes. “I’ll talk to him.”

  He looked at me and I could taste sour cherries. Kai was scared that I might say no. I had to convince him that I was in him for real. I leaned forward and kissed him lightly on the lips with the taste of mint. I didn’t have to say anything. Although the briny taste of guilt lingered. What about Puck?