Empower: Violet Eden Chapters: Book Five

by Shirvington, Jessica

  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 defences 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 towards 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 towards 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.

  CHaPteR tweLve

  ‘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, marvelling 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 blonde hair was styled into 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 set-up 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 to 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 towards 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 neighbouring 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 oppose
d 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 realise,’ he said as we made our way to the side of the ten-storey 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 towards 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 ways 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, realising 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 towards 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.

  Mum’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 towards 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 towards us. We let the two men walk straight by us into a nearby office.

  Before the door swung closed, my foot was stopping it and Gray had his arm around the first human’s neck from behind. I followed in time to see the second man already with his hands raised in surrender. They didn’t scream or try to fight.

  I hesitated. Alarm bells were already going off.

  They’re expecting us.

  I looked at the man standing with his hands up. He was calm. No more than forty and typically good-looking in a tall, neat, tailored kind of way. He wore a gold ring on his wedding finger and on the desk before him was a framed picture of him with a woman and two children.

  He smiled in a businesslike manner, one that said he was a smooth talker and accustomed to getti
ng his own way. But his eager eyes told a less predictable tale.

  ‘He told us you might come. I’d hoped I’d be the one to get to see you,’ he said, his eyes skimming me and lingering on my wrists. ‘He wants you to know that he’s looking forward to seeing you.’

  I knew he was talking about Sammael. I remembered that Lincoln was listening to all of this.

  ‘Where is Spence?’ I demanded.

  The businessman smiled again, well aware he held a trump card. ‘He has your friend and he wants you to know that if you want to see him again he will be in New Orleans the night before the next full moon,’ he replied.

  Gray groaned.

  I glanced at him but he just shook his head. ‘Nothing good ever happens in New Orleans.’

  Gray nudged the first human towards the door. ‘Let’s take these two back with us. They clearly know more, and Lincoln wants to question them about the tournaments.’

  ‘It’s all him, isn’t it?’ I pushed, keeping my eyes on the man behind the desk. ‘Sammael? He’s running the tournaments through your companies?’

  The man shrugged. ‘There are a lot of wealthy people who are willing to bet large amounts of money. It’s profitable entertainment.’

  I stared at him in disgust. ‘Humans go to the tournaments? Willingly?’

  He nodded and pointed to his computer. ‘Live feeds. One of which you two starred in recently, if I recall.’

  They’d watched us in London. But that realisation paled in comparison to the appalling reality of what was going on in the tournaments. ‘You watch people slaughter one another?’

  He smiled coolly. ‘They are all willing participants. We merely provide the arenas.’

  ‘And what about the humans who are murdered for sport?’ I spat out. ‘Are they willing participants too?’

  The businessman’s expression did not falter, not even for a second, and it made me sick.

  Does he even have a conscience?

  ‘Violet, we should move them out of here,’ Gray said.

  I nodded, stepping closer to the businessman, but before I had a moment to react, he raised his hand, revealing a gun we hadn’t spotted. He aimed it straight at Gray and fired, and I gasped when I saw he’d shot not Gray but the other human right between the eyes. In the time it took to look back at him, he had the gun to his own head.