An arm snaked around my waist from behind, its path warm and strong when there had been no warmth, no strength. Without being able to think or control my actions, my body leaned back into the embrace, craving more. The sanity. The small reprieve. His other arm moved into position loosely around my neck, and as I felt him press over my heart, I wanted to cry out again, this time in relief.
“Kill shot.”
His voice was so steady.
My legs gave out completely, but he held me up, his hand gliding slowly down my rigid arm until his palm slid into mine. His fingers lined up with each of mine and then, unmercifully reminding me of moments I could never have again, his fingers slowly—warmly—closed and squeezed tightly just as his lips grazed my ear and he whispered, “Put them back up.”
He braced me as I trembled and started to do just as he’d instructed, rebuilding the walls that protected me from the truth.
As soon as I was strong enough to stand, Lincoln stepped away from me.
I turned to face the Assembly again, refusing to look any weaker than was already obvious to the entire room.
I could feel Lincoln studying me. I glanced in his direction defiantly to see his brow furrowed as if he was confused by something. He opened his mouth to speak but just as quickly closed it and turned back to the Assembly.
“I’ll lead a team out tomorrow,” he said, not looking back at me.
The room remained silent.
I took a deep breath, feeling more in control by the second. Overwhelmed by the whole thing and, more than anything, simply sad, I shook my head. “You really have turned into one of them, haven’t you?” And suddenly I was completely exhausted.
What have we done to one another?
Lincoln flinched, and I looked up at Josephine. “You’re making a mistake doing things like this, and I won’t stay around to watch you put Spence’s life in unnecessary danger. That’s the beauty of being a Rogue. I’ll bring Spence back when I have him.”
With that, I turned around and started to walk out.
“You’ll do no such thing!” Drenson yelled. I didn’t stop. They didn’t control me and I could already tell that Gray was walking out behind me.
“Violet!” Josephine called. I glanced over my shoulder, and something about the way she looked at me, almost imploringly, made me pause. “The way I see it, the outcome of that challenge was a tie. You and Lincoln will work together, assemble a team you both agree on, and share the leadership.”
I shook my head. “No. I can’t work with him,” I said, knowing the full truth of my words.
“Then I guess it will come down to how much you want to find your friend, because we all know this is the best solution.” With that, she looked at Drenson, making it clear there would be no argument.
I looked around me. Gray rolled his eyes and Steph nodded me on at the same time that Lincoln glanced at Mia for counsel. A shot of jealousy speared me when I saw her give him an encouraging smile.
Finally, I shrugged. “We should get into the building tonight.”
Lincoln shook his head instantly. “We’ll go during the day tomorrow and make sure no one slips away before we question them.”
I sighed and looked straight into his eyes. “I get that you are used to charging through the front doors, having nothing to fear, but there is a value to having the defenses we do. These walls you were so keen to tear down keep us guarded from exiles. Trust me, if there are big players in that building, they’ll be there at night, and if there are exiles, we’ll find them before they find us. Give Gray and me an hour in the building tonight. If we don’t come out with anything useful, storm the place until your trigger-happy heart is content tomorrow.”
He dropped his head. “You say that like it’s a possibility.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Contentment.” He said it like a throwaway comment and looked toward Mia again. “We’ll give this a go. Get the conductors on it. Set up a perimeter and we’ll cover them for an hour.”
Mia nodded and moved away toward the doors. Lincoln turned to me, shooting a sharp glance in Gray’s direction. “You and your…partner should be ready to move in half an hour,” he said before marching out of the room.
I wanted to scream after him, but his words had hit so hard, they had sucked the air right out of my lungs.
“Did he just call me your partner?” Gray asked, now beside me.
“He did,” I replied, still staring at the door Lincoln had just slammed in his wake.
“The quarrels of lovers are the renewal of love.”
Jean Racine
While everyone else went into research mode that afternoon, I slipped across the glamoured walkways, marveling yet again as I walked between buildings on an invisible bridge over to the Academy classrooms in Building D. I found Simon eating his lunch in the cafeteria.
It was strange to look at him. Just two years older than when I’d last seen him, looking malnourished and far younger than his age, he had changed from a boy to a young man. His blond hair was styled in a messy heap and his glasses made him look more Clark Kent than Wimpy Kid. He glanced up from the book he was reading, and when he saw me, his fast-changing expressions from wide eyes to mouth agape to huge smile made me laugh.
I sat down beside him. “Hey there, stranger,” I said.
“You’re really here,” he said, keeping his eyes on me as if worried I might disappear if he blinked.
“Passing through,” I explained. “I wanted to see how you were doing.”
He put his book down. “Great. I’m great. I mean, it’s…you know, life is different and I miss my family, but…I like it here. I embrace in a year—well, actually closer to two years, but still…” he said, stumbling over his words.
“I heard that. It sounds like you’re pretty excited about it all.”
He nodded proudly. “And once I embrace, I’m going to come and work for you,” he said suddenly.
I found myself watching him with an odd sense of pride. Simon had been little more than a child, caged and doomed to a terrible fate at Lilith’s hands. I had been there to save them, but even after they were freed, Simon had come back for me, his determination and calmness igniting my will to survive, even though I knew I’d lost everything. To see him now…
See. It wasn’t all for nothing.
Simon was the perfect reminder.
I put my hand on his shoulder and looked him in the eye. “I heard you might be thinking something like that, and that’s part of the reason I’m here.”
Simon smiled.
“Listen to me, Simon. You have a great setup here. You’re going to have more training ahead of you once you embrace, and before long, you’ll have a partner to think of too. Where I am…it’s not the right place for you.”
His smile slid away and I wanted to take it all back, but I knew I couldn’t. He needed to hear this.
“But you’re the one,” he whispered.
“The one?” I asked softly.
His big blue eyes looked suddenly as young as they had the night he and the other children had lifted me through the fire. “The one who changes everything.”
I bit my lip.
And what exactly am I supposed to say to that?
“Okay, well, how about we make a deal? You stay here after you embrace and complete all of your training with your partner, then, and only then, if you still want to come and fight at my side, we’ll talk about it again.”
His eyes narrowed and he pressed his lips together while he watched me. “You promise?”
“I promise.” Now I just had to hope that by that time, he would have lost any interest in getting mixed up in my crazy world.
“So,” I said, standing up. “Are you going to show me around and introduce me to your friends?”
Simon beamed, scrambling t
o his feet.
Hell, even I know I’m quality show and tell.
• • •
Lincoln insisted that Gray and I wear earpieces, so he wouldn’t miss anything.
Let’s hear it for bad ideas.
I rolled my eyes, not seeing why the tech was necessary before reaching the clear-as-day conclusion that it was because he simply didn’t trust us.
Wow. The hits just keep on coming.
The last of the daylight had just disappeared behind Manhattan’s skyscrapers, and Lincoln stood with Gray and me a few blocks down from the building we were targeting on 46th Street. Mia and two conductors lurked behind him as he shoved the earpiece and mic in my direction.
“Put them on.”
I glared at him as I snatched them, walking down the road a little to fit them—and put some distance between us. He was really starting to test my patience. And worst of all, I was mad with myself for being so completely affected by his nearness while he was so clearly immune to mine—especially when I needed to be on my game.
I took a minute to get myself under control, pushing my emotions back. The city was abuzz in the way only Manhattan can be. Taxis dominated the traffic, and lights flickered on in office buildings, where people would continue working long into the evening. Shadows loomed, moving toward me like creeping memories, just waiting for me to step into them, to ensnare me.
I jolted myself away from my thoughts and walked back to the group.
“There’s a perimeter set up in the block surrounding the building, and we have people on the neighboring rooftops. Get in, do whatever it is you think you can do, and get out. If I tell you to abort, you get out of there immediately, no questions asked. Do you understand?” Lincoln ordered.
“Of course,” I said.
Gray cleared his throat, and though he nodded, I could see his nostrils flaring. Gray did not take orders well.
“You have thirty minutes, starting now.”
“We have an hour,” I corrected.
“I reconsidered. If you haven’t achieved anything within thirty minutes, you’re just kidding yourselves anyway. Thirty minutes, and that’s it.”
Desperate for some form of mediation, I glanced at the conductors. “Are you supporting this?”
The female conductor—I didn’t know their names—crossed her arms. “If it were up to me, you wouldn’t be going in at all.”
Mia remained noticeably silent with her eyes cast down.
Perfect.
“I can see why you keep them around,” I said to Lincoln.
“Yes.” He crossed his arms with a look of satisfaction. “As opposed to your fan club, they actually understand rank.”
I shook my head. “They’re not my fan club, Lincoln. They’re my friends. They were yours once too.”
He pressed his lips together, his eyes flicking to Gray. “Many things were mine once. You’re down to twenty-six minutes.”
I swallowed and started to walk. “Let’s go,” I said to Gray, who was already beside me.
“You’re going to have to deal with that, you realize,” he said as we made our way to the side of the ten-story stone building.
“He hates me, Gray. And he has every right. It won’t help him to try and deal with anything at this point. I’m just here for Spence.”
“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t mind if you clarified my role in all of this if you get a moment. I actually value my life.”
Gray was pointing toward the alley that ran behind the building when Lincoln’s husky voice sounded in my earpiece.
“I don’t hate you.”
My breath caught hearing the unmistakable pain that accompanied each tight word.
Shit.
I’d totally forgotten we were wearing mics.
“And I can assure you that I am well aware that you are only here for Spence. And exactly what your role is in all of this, Gray. So while we all appreciate hearing your conversation, I would be immensely grateful if we could please get on with the task at hand.”
Kill. Me. Now.
Gray cleared his throat uncomfortably and mumbled, “Sorry ’bout that.” Then he looked at me guiltily and pointed to his mic. “Forgot,” he mouthed.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened them, I started walking again. “We should move around the corner,” I said, humiliated and desperate to end the conversation that Lincoln and God knows who else was listening in on.
We chose a well-shadowed area at the back of the building and began to climb the wall, leaping between windowsills, using the stonework as footholds to scale the building. It wasn’t overly difficult. I considered what Lincoln had said earlier, referring to Gray as my partner. I could see how that would hurt, thinking I had replaced him as my Grigori partner—even though that was not the case at all. We worked together but in no way like a partner team.
And then there was the kiss. It had helped me gain an edge in the fight against Lincoln, sure, but if I’d known what Gray was up to, I never would’ve agreed.
I brushed that thought off quickly, telling myself that there was no way Lincoln would think there was more to the kiss than tactics. But maybe Gray had a point. Maybe I should at least set Lincoln straight on the partner issue.
Or maybe I shouldn’t.
Maybe I should just let him think what he wanted to.
It might make it easier for him—hating me. Maybe that’s why he’s been able to move on so completely.
“Head in the game,” Gray murmured behind me as we slid through a top-floor window. I looked down suddenly, realizing I hadn’t even noticed we’d climbed the entire building.
I nodded quickly, silently chastising my runaway mind.
We climbed into an open-office workspace filled with sleek, glossy desks and Aeron chairs, the type my father had obsessed over when he had his own office in the city. Clearly this company was doing well.
While I wiped my dirty hands on my black jeans, we moved toward a doorway at the back of the room and found a small kitchenette. The area was deserted, but all the lights were still on. Someone was home.
“Do your thing, princess,” Gray said, keeping a lookout.
“I really wish you wouldn’t call me that.”
Gray grinned. “And I wish I was lying on a beach in the Caribbean.”
I rolled my eyes, but I was already concentrating on the well of power in my stomach. I mentally willed it up and out of me, sending it through the building.
I didn’t like using my Sight, but I’d also made a point of learning how to control it in small doses. On some levels, it had been successful and become a handy surveillance tool. I could scope an entire building, or even a city block, with little more than a thought. But still…I was ever aware there was so much more in me that remained unexplored. And at that very moment, I could feel the power surge through me, as if it were looking for somewhere to go or even…for something specific to do.
Mom’s warnings on the matter had been clear. She wasn’t certain, and I continued to doubt her suspicions, but she believed that there was a chance that I was some kind of evolution-in-progress. As angels had learned to fall to earth and become human, I might be the first human who could evolve into an angel. She constantly warned me not to separate from my corporeal body for long, fearing that the lure might become so intense that I could forget to return and I would lose myself.
Just the possibility that she might be right was enough for me to limit the use of my Sight, despite the pull.
The furthest I ever ventured was in that time just before sleep, when my soul took over and sought him out.
And that was never a conscious choice.
Using my Sight, I roamed the levels of the building, quickly identifying a number of humans. There was, however, a darkened area on the level below us, which gave me a chill.
I returned to my body.
“There are about two dozen humans in the building. Half a dozen on this level and I think they’re the ones we want. There’s also a dark zone,” I said thoughtfully.
Gray was staring at me and I hit him on the shoulder, breaking him out of his daze. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s just, you’re one weird lass. You know that, right?”
“What’s a dark zone?” Lincoln asked in my ear, causing goosebumps to rise on my arms.
“Something I can’t see through. It could be titanium.”
“Hiding exiles within it?” he shot back.
“Possibly, but I can’t say for sure, and anyway, it’s a small area. It couldn’t be hiding an army or anything.”
“I don’t like it. You should come back out,” Lincoln instructed.
I looked at Gray and he pointed to his watch.
“We still have fifteen minutes. Out,” I said, pulling free my earpiece and shoving it in my pocket. He could listen in all he wanted, but I couldn’t do this with him talking to me. “Tell me if he says anything worthwhile,” I said to Gray.
“Right now he’s using several four-letter words,” Gray said wryly before leaning close to whisper in my ear. “Do you think there are exiles in here?”
I nodded.
Gray threw a little bounce into his step. He was in the mood for a fight. I smiled at him. I was too.
It didn’t take long for us to make our way down the corridor and toward what looked like a large boardroom. Through the glass doors, we could see close to a dozen humans, sitting in an Armani, Prada, and Gucci showdown of who had the slimmest tie and shiniest shoes. Chloe had been spot on; clearly these people were wealthy. And they didn’t display that distant, unaware look that usually accompanied humans under exile control. They looked motivated.
Time wasn’t on our side thanks to our clock-keeper outside, but Gray and I settled back out of sight behind an open doorway and waited for a few minutes. It paid off when we saw two of the humans leave the boardroom and come toward us. We let the two men walk straight by us into a nearby office.
Empower Page 11