Broken: (Ignite, Book 2)

by Fleur Camacho

  ❦

  After shooing Jace out and taking a proper shower, she got dressed while waiting for Jace to take his shower. She sat on the bed, her thoughts tumbling around. How are we going to escape? And what would keep them from coming back for her even if we managed to get out of here alive? What if she returned home and she put her family in danger?

  She fell back onto the bed, frustrated. Her brain could only think of more questions, no answers. What did Unland mean when he said that they could only trust him? What if Seaman gave Jace the wrong information? How would Jace know who to trust?

  As soon as Jace walked in the room, Laura sat up. “Jace, why did you fire Unland like that? It seemed kinda…” She struggled to find the right word. “Rude.”

  He sighed and sat next to her on the bed. “I fired him like that because I need someone by my side who is familiar with humans enough that he knows how to properly train the team. The human lives depend on this.”

  She traced a drop of water running down from his hair. “But what about all his hard work? Couldn’t you just have trained him?”

  He nodded. “If I had more time, I could’ve trained him. But in a way, this is better. Humiliating him the way I did, in front of all his men, is a test. He’ll either rise to the occasion and if he does, then I’ll promote him again. Or he’ll try to undermine me. If he does that, then eventually he’ll show his hand. And I’m hoping that if that happens, he’ll give me information that will be useful to us.”

  “I see.” Laura stared at him thoughtfully. “He told me that he was the only one you can trust.”

  He nodded. “We’ll find out, in time. Don’t worry, I’m keeping an eye on everyone.”

  She opened her mouth to speak but he interrupted her. “Including Seaman, I’m watching him too.” Jace tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear and smiled. She stared at the glowing red bracelet on his wrist. She pulled his wrist towards her.

  “What’s that for? Why did you do it? I know it’s nothing good.”

  “It’s just something I have to keep on my wrist. In exchange for Jezzie’s word that she would keep Cherry away from you.”

  “That doesn’t tell me what it is.”

  He smiled. “It’s nothing I can’t handle. Don’t worry about it.”

  “Tell me why, then.”

  He shrugged. “Don’t worry. I can take care of us.”

  “Jace.” Laura was getting angry. “You have to tell me something.”

  He rubbed his chin. “I agreed to it because I’m willing to take some risks to keep you safe.”

  She thought about what Jezzie said. About Jace putting her safety in jeopardy for information about what was going on. Laura shook those thoughts out of her head. She knew that Jezzie was trying to make her distrust Jace.

  Jace stood up. “It’s time to go, but let’s go eat first. I’m sure you’re hungry.”

  She stood up and sighed.

  “What?”

  “It’s just that, the floor is cold and I would like some shoes.”

  Jace nodded. “We’ll get you some.” She turned to leave but Jace pulled her close, kissing her. Then he tucked her hair behind her ear again. “Oh, and I should probably tell you.” He looked nervous.

  “What?”

  “Well, it’s not really polite to ruffle someone’s feathers.”

  “Oh.” Laura put her hand to her mouth, embarrassed. “Whoops.”

  He laughed. “It’s okay. It’s just, we use those for flying and we only allow those we trust to touch them.” He hesitated. “And it’s also more of an intimate gesture.”

  She leaned over, completely red now. “Oh my heck, I don’t believe it.” Then she punched Jace in the arm. “Why didn’t you tell me that before? Jeez!”

  He laughed. “It’s okay. I think Unland wanted to touch your hair too. Just plain curious, I think. So he probably understood.”

  She began to walk towards the door, still embarrassed. “I don’t believe it.” She stopped. “Can I ruffle yours then?”

  He grinned. “Ruffle away, baby.”

  She turned even more red, if that was possible, at the endearment and he laughed. “I love it when you’re embarrassed. So vulnerable and beautiful at the same time.”

  She rolled her eyes, pulling at his hand. “Come on. Let’s get something to eat.”

  ❦

  Laura stared in horror at the soldiers around her. The room roared with the conversation of the Fallen. Here they weren’t as disciplined as in their units. A couple made out in the middle of the room. They were on top of the table; her shirt was off, her breasts were practically bursting out of her bra, and the man was shoving his tongue down her mouth. Laura tried to ignore them, seeing as that’s what everyone else was doing. Jace steered her towards the front of the line as Laura looked around the room.

  Men and women both mingled among the tables and their plates were piled high with the strangest things. Fish mixed with ice cream, lasagna that included crab legs - shell included - and raw beef and lemons. And bottles of table salt everywhere, which they lavished on their food. Laura was beginning to get used to the smell of the Fallen but the cafeteria was rank with the mixture of the rotten smell of the Fallen and their disgusting food. Laura tried to swallow the bile rising from her throat, although she thought her barf would be a welcoming smell to this room. She imagined they may even be interested in licking it up. With that thought, she fled the room, holding her hand over her mouth. She ran to a trash can, waiting for something to come up, but she was able to hold it in.

  Jace led her to another room and then shortly one of his men came to the room with a slice of pepperoni pizza and some macaroni and cheese. Laura then realized that she was starving, she hadn’t eaten since the night before. She inhaled her food and Jace smirked from the seat across from her. She waited for him to tell her ‘I told you so’, but he never did.

  When she was done, he got up. “Want to go find some shoes?”

  She jumped up. “Yes, please.”

  He smiled. “I think you should eat your food in here from now on.”

  “Do you ever eat?”

  “No. It’s not necessary for any of us, Angels or Fallen. But they like it, so they do.”

  She nodded as she followed him to another room. Seaman and a couple other soldiers were at the far end of the room with piles of boxes behind him. There was a line of men waiting to be fitted for shoes. Seaman was efficient, if anything. It had only been a few hours.

  When they reached the boxes, Jace turned to her. “What size are you?”

  “Eight.”

  He pulled out a box and motioned for her to sit in the chair. The boots had brass buttons that ran to her knees. Jace delicately slipped her feet in and buttoned them up. They were the most comfortable shoes she’d ever worn. She walked around in amazement and Jace glowed, watching her astonishment. “You like them?”

  She nodded, grinning. “I love them.”

  He grabbed her, pulling her into his arms, and twirled her.

  “Jace, everyone is watching.” She was right, all eyes were on them.

  “Who cares?” He put her down and kissed her deeply on the mouth. “I want everyone to see.”

  “What the hell are you doing? Putting shoes on all the men? Nobody ran this through me.” Kean pulled a box out of the pile, causing it to come crashing down, and threw it at Jace.

  Jace caught it and took a step forward. “The men need shoes if they want to assimilate properly.”

  “Who cares about assimilating? We go in, kill everyone, blow everything up and get out.”

  Jace’s face hardened. “Not under my command, we don’t.”

  Suddenly Kean was inches from Jace, and Jace’s hand was at his chest. “You’re not in command here. I am. And I don’t take orders from you.”

  Jace calmly replied. “Apparently, you haven’t spoken to Jezzie recently.”

  Kean swallowed hard. “And why would I need to speak to Jezzie?”

&
nbsp; “Because you’re not in command over this unit.” Jace’s eyes shot daggers. “Or me.”

  Kean’s eyes darkened and a chill came over Laura. His black eyes shot from Jace to Laura. “You’d better watch her every second of every day. Or night. And pray to your pitiless God that she doesn’t have to go to the bathroom alone.”

  Suddenly Kean was on the floor and Jace was pounding into him. Everyone, including Laura, stepped back, not wanting to get in the way.

  Kean pushed Jace off and Jace flew into the pile of boxes. Kean pulled out his knife and jumped into the pile. Jace grabbed a box and the knife slid cleanly threw it. Kean reached back in a stabbing motion and Laura yelped. Jace rolled and the knife stuck in the ground. Jace grabbed for the knife, and yanked it out of the cave floor. Laura saw blood running down Jace’s arm.

  Kean tackled Jace and they rolled around, knocking over tables, chairs and boxes of shoes. Suddenly Kean held very very still. Jace was on top of him, the knife to his throat. They both breathed heavily and Jace’s hand trembled, trying to control his anger.

  He leaned over, and the knife pricked Kean’s neck. The knife was sharp and blood slithered to the ground. “If you ever think of threatening her again, you won’t have time to take your next breath, except at the bottomless pit in the presence of Abaddon. Your angry god. You got it?”

  Kean nodded. The whole left side of his face was bruised and he was missing a tooth. His eyes went to Jace’s wrist and his eyes narrowed at the red glowing circulo.

  “It looks like we know where you’ll be at all times. And you can’t call your little buddy for help. Whatever will you do when things go bump in the night?”

  Jace studied him. “If that thing that goes bump in the night is you, I won’t need Michael for help.”

  Kean’s eyes narrowed. “There are more dangerous things than me in the night.” He pushed Jace off him and spit out a tooth. Jace stood up, looking for Laura. She stood, shocked at the edge of the crowd. He threw Kean’s knife on the ground and Kean raced to grab it.

  Laura raced to Jace’s side. “Are you okay?”

  Jace nodded and headed towards the door. “Let’s go.”

  Instead of following him, she turned towards the boxes and shoes strewn about the floor. She began to pick them up, putting the shoes back in the boxes and started the pile over again.

  Jace sighed. “Laura, you don’t need to do this. They can clean it up.”

  Laura shrugged. “I know. But I want to help.”

  Jace kneeled down and began to help her. She glanced at him; he was grinning and shaking his head.

  Seaman stood at the front of the room. “Men, back in line, according to your station. Layton and Wotton, help clean this up.”

  Laura noticed a familiar face next to her. Unland was grabbing shoes and throwing them in boxes. She smiled at him but he just looked grumpily back at her. “Mph.”

  ❦

  Jace and Laura faced the large cavern, watching the way the light reflected off the cave walls.

  Laura tried not to stare at the gash on his arm, which was already starting to heal. “Are you really okay?”

  He nodded and smiled. “Sure.” Laura looked at the glowing red circle around his wrist.

  “Jace, what is that thing? You have to tell me.”

  “What’s, what?” He wiped the blood off his arm with his shirt.

  She stared him down. “Really?”

  He sighed and gave in. “It’s a circulo.”

  She grabbed his shirt and finished cleaning the blood. “But what does a circulo do?”

  He took her hand and traced her fingers. “It blocks my communication with Michael. Plus, it’s a tracking device. Well, at least in the cave. They’ll be notified if I try to leave. And she may be able to track me once I’m gone, although it would be much harder. I can’t take it off unless she and I both give our blood.”

  Laura’s mouth dropped open. “How are we going to escape then? She’ll know it if we try to leave. And how are you ever… How can we be together after this? She’ll never let you take that off.”

  His eyes hardened. “Oh, she’ll let me take it off, when I need her to. She thinks she’s got me pegged but I have my ways.”

  A feeling stabbed Laura in the gut. “You both think you’ve outsmarted each other. And what about all this?” She gestured towards the room. “Where’ve all the weapons gone? What’s their plan here? While you’ve been playing mind games with her, someone is out there trying to kill people.”

  Jace was quiet, and he stared at the ground.

  A heaviness weighed on her and she knew that Jezzie’s words had affected her. “I’m sorry.” She traced his cheek. “Jezzie just… messed with my mind. I know you want to help everyone.”

  He looked up. “Of course I do. Why do you think I’m doing all this? It’s my fault that everyone here is in danger, and I need to get us out of this.”

  “Ugh, it’s not your fault.”

  “It is my fault. Well, at least partially.” He studied her face, although he wasn’t really seeing her. “They’re going off course. This isn’t in the plan. And it must be because I’m here. That’s the only reason I can think of.”

  “Jace, what are you talking about?” She pulled his chin to refocus and his floral scent drifted over her, calming her.

  He tried to explain. “We’re organized into sections. It’s a lot to explain, but basically us Angels try to keep peace on the earth, healing and promoting good. And the Fallen, they try to create chaos and destruction. And lately, they’ve been winning more than we have, because people are more willing to give in to temptation. Temptation can easily cross oceans, and when people can hide their sins from the rest of their social circle, then their base-self wins.” He looked sad. “We’ve lost quite a few and, because of that, our own numbers are dwindling.”

  She looked at the ground. “I’m sorry.”

  He pulled on her hair. “It’s okay.” He grinned.

  She smiled, and thought of something she’d meant to ask before. “What’s the Department of Disease? Unland said something about that. It seems like they’re helping people there.”

  “It’s the department that spreads disease, not cures it.”

  “Oh.” Laura felt stupid.

  Jace continued. “We’re very organized, and we have certain hot spots that we focus on. The Middle East, North Korea, certain parts of Asia and most of Africa, frankly.”

  “Okay.”

  “Those hot spots have a concentrated legion of Angels and Fallen, respectively, and then the rest of the world has a less robust legion of Angels. Basically where there is more peace in the world, there is less activity. And here, Idaho of all places, should have a very sparse legion. But this,” he looked back towards the larger cavern, “this is not sparse. This is… well, this is a beginning.”

  His thoughts were whirling now and Laura couldn’t keep up with his mumbling, so she let him focus on his thoughts. Then his head snapped back and he stepped forward, looking over the cavern. “Most of the guns are gone but the bombs still remain.”

  Laura bit her lip. “You say this like it’s a good thing.”

  “No, not at all. But I think I know what they’re doing. They’re starting a civil war, here in Idaho.”

  “What? That’s impossible. There’s no one here wanting to leave the U.S.”

  “You’d be surprised how easy one is to start. It would be more like terrorism. And these Fallen have plenty of experience. In fact, some of them have been here before, in the U.S.”

  Laura took a step back. “What, like the Civil War in the 1800’s?”

  Jace nodded. “Yes, I’m almost certain of it. Except now—” Abruptly he stopped and his face turned white.

  A pit dug in Laura’s stomach. “What Jace, tell me.”

  He looked into her eyes, not wanting to say it.

  “Tell me.”

  “Except now they have nuclear power. There’s a nuclear power plant nearby. Tha
t’s going to be our target.”

  “The INL?” Her eyes widened. “But it’s just there to create power, electricity.”

  Jace gave her a look and she shut her mouth, then took in a deep breath. “And all the guns?”

  “Just like any other terrorist organization. They must be working on creating an infrastructure to coordinate attacks.”

  Laura was horrified. “Where?”

  Jace shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s what we have to find out.”

  Laura nodded, but something bothered her and she cleared her throat. “Jace, I have to ask you a question.”

  He pulled her towards the wall, a group of Fallen were walking past. They were silent while they waited for the group to pass. The Fallen were laughing at something and the sound twisted Laura’s stomach. Whatever they were laughing at, it wasn’t something nice. After they’d passed, Laura let go of her breath; she hadn’t even realized she was holding it.

  Jace pulled her close, breathing in deeply. “I’m so glad that you’re safe. Did I tell you that?”

  She shook her head and leaned into him. “I know you are, though.”

  He pulled her back, just a little bit. “What were you going to ask?”

  She hesitated. She didn’t want him to think that she doubted him. Because she didn’t.

  He pulled her lip down and trailed his finger down her chin. “Tell me.”

  Her knees wobbled. “It’s hard when you’re doing that.”

  He put his hand behind his back.

  She leaned closer to him. “No, I want you to do it.” She snuggled into his chest and he stroked her hair. It was easier for her to ask him like this anyway. That way she wouldn’t have to look him in the eyes.

  “You can ask me anything, remember?”

  She took a deep breath. “Back when we were tied together, in that room at the bottom of the lake,” she shivered and he rubbed her arms, “could you escape?” Her voice cracked at the end and she tried to clear her throat. “I mean, you broke the angel hair like it was nothing…” She puttered off. She didn’t know what else to say.