Undone (The Guardians Book 1)

by Jessica Roe

  “But...they were helping us. They were going to get us to safety.”

  “I'm sure they thought they were.” Gable looked Heidi right in the eyes, trying to convey her honesty. “But now they need to believe I killed you. Everyone needs to think you're dead or Pablo will find you. He'll hunt you down, no matter where you run, I can guarantee it. And what I was supposed to do to you tonight will seem like a picnic.” When Heidi still looked unsure, Gable held out her hand. “Take it. You can tell if I'm lying, right?”

  After only a moment of hesitation, Heidi took her hand and closed her eyes. She was still for a few seconds, and when she opened her eyes again, they were filled with fresh tears. Whatever she had seen had affected her deeply. She nodded. “Okay. I believe you.”

  Time to put her plan into action. Gable looked down at the red gash in her arm where Walker's bullet had grazed her; it was still bleeding, but not nearly enough for what she needed. Biting her lip so that she wouldn't cry out in pain, she dug her dagger into the cut until it deepened and her blood gushed freely. She glanced up when the kid screamed. “Oh, my bad. Maybe I should've told you to look away. It's um...just pretend it's cherry juice.”

  Heidi shook her head, wiping her blotchy, tear stained face with the back of her hand. “You don't spend a lot of time with kids, huh?”

  “Yeah, I'm a regular evil minion nanny.” She shook her head and stood so that she could press her arm against the wall where Heidi had been standing. Blood trickled down the wall in long, gruesome trails, and Gable knew that once the adrenaline wore off she was going to feel weak as hell from blood loss. She dragged her arm down the wall, smudging the blood, and pulled back. It looked like a morbid horror scene from a movie. “Not bad, huh?” she asked the other two cheerfully. They watched her like she was crazy. “Totally looks like someone got stabbed here, right?”

  Heidi's fear seemed to dissolve—only temporarily, probably—and a steely, determined look came over her face. “If we're really doing this, let's do it right. Becky, look away, honey.” She plucked the dagger from Gable's fingers and wiped it clean on her shirt before slicing into her own forearm. Unlike Gable, she couldn't do it without whimpering. The cut was deep and as she held her arm out, the blood flowed and dripped into a pool on the floor right next to the wall.

  Gable couldn't help but admire her bravery. She looked like such a weak, helpless woman, but she wasn't, not really.

  “I know a Healer,” she told her, hoping to give her courage.

  “Good,” Heidi said, her voice breathless with pain. “We're both going to need it. People aren't supposed to lose this much blood all at once.” She analysed the puddle on the floor. “No, it's not big enough.” The dagger was thrust in Gable's direction. “Here, do my other arm.”

  THEY FINISHED UP by smearing blood under the desk where the kid—Becky—had been hiding. It looked way too real and serious and all kinds of wrong, and Gable could only imagine what the Guardians were going to think when they woke up and found the bloody scene. She almost felt bad for them. She did feel bad for Nicky. He was losing more than just Heidi and Becky; he was losing their whole history together.

  The Guardians would be after her with a serious case of vengeance, she knew that. And she deserved it in all sorts of ways, but she couldn't think about that—she had lives to save.

  “How are we getting out of here?” Heidi questioned. “They'll see us if we leave downstairs. Charles is waiting down there for us.” Her voice broke when she said Charles' name, and Gable suspected there was a story there. She didn't blame her—the leader of the New York City Guardian Division was hot for an older guy.

  Gable took them up to the roof. There was a sizeable gap between the building they were on and the next—almost five feet, though it seemed much more when looking down from so high up. There was a plank of wood leading from one ledge to the next, less than a foot in width. Gable had put it there earlier in the evening when crossing over, back when she'd been so sure that she could become a killer.

  It was still raining heavily, and every now and then, lightening flashed. Becky screamed each time the sky lit up, and Gable kind of wished she'd shut up. Luckily, the sound of thunder drowned her screams out.

  But she had to give the kid kudos, she walked the damn plank like a pro.

  Afterwards, she took them to Keston's tiny apartment and left them there to call Terelle, the only person she knew who could help her. Gable felt crappy for involving Keston and her family, but she was sure that nobody would find them there. To make up for it, she ran out and bought them so much damned food there was hardly any room for it all in their mismatched cupboards.

  Terelle showed up with two other Outcasts—Starla the Witch and Fabian the Healer, both of whom vowed to keep her secrets. She trusted them—she trusted all of Terelle's Outcasts.

  Fabian worked quickly and quietly as he healed their wounds and replenished their blood, so at odds to his usual playfulness.

  “You're gonna do great things when you grow up, you know that?” Gable commented quietly as his purple sparkles healed her arm.

  He grinned, and with his black hair and cheeky youthfulness, he reminded her so much of a teenage Nicky. “You think?”

  “For sure. You gonna train up for the Guardians?”

  “Definitely,” Fabian said with a nod. “I turn sixteen next year, I'll be old enough for Guardian School then.”

  As a Kitchen Witch, Starla wasn't used to casting protection spells. But she was, however, the only Witch that Terelle truly trusted, which meant she was the only Witch that Gable trusted. After an hour she had managed to cast a reasonable protection spell so that nobody using magic would be able to track Heidi and Becky down.

  And then one of Gable's most beloved Outcasts arrived, looking super cool in his little black sports car.

  Race Zickefoose.

  Growing up, Gable had always imagined Pixies to be small, mischievous creatures with pointy ears. Actually, she'd been almost right.

  Race the Pixie was charmingly mischievous, and his pointy ears poked out of his wild, curly black hair, but he most certainly wasn't small. His lean form was well over six feet and packed with strong, steely muscles, though not so much that they bulged. In fact, he almost looked wiry. A handsome, wiry Pixie.

  Pixie's came from Zawavia, the Faerie Realm, though they were born and raised as slaves. Each Pixie was assigned to a Faerie, and they would serve that Faerie until the day they died. They were faster than Faeries, but not as strong or as deadly and they were without wings. In the Human Realm, they were stronger than most other Outcasts, weaker only than Angels and Faeries. Pixies were joyful by nature, and served their Faeries with love and happiness.

  Race had been Terelle's Pixie slave back in Zawavia and when she'd been banished to the Human Realm, he had been sent with her. He loved the Human Realm much more than Terelle did and he thrived in his new surroundings. Terelle had given him his freedom, and he'd spent his years—for he would live exactly as long as Terelle would, and Faeries aged four times slower than humans—exploring the world until he finally settled down in the one place that had captured his heart, Ireland.

  He visited Terelle every few years—a Pixie became anxious when without their Faerie for too long—and he'd been instantly enchanted with Gable upon meeting her.

  “It's my favourite wee minion!” he called out gleefully in a newly acquired Irish brogue when she ran out to greet him. It had been two years since they'd last seen one another, and she hadn't been in Pablo's employ back then, so she could only assume he'd gotten his information from Terelle. He scooped her up into his arms and span her around in a circle. Without putting her down, he nodded respectfully to Terelle, who had joined them. “My lady.”

  “Race has gracefully agreed to watch over Heidi and Becky,” Terrelle told Gable with a smile. “I can't think of anyone I'd trust more than him to do this.” Unlike most Faeries, she held a high regard for her Pixie. “He'll protect them if anyone finds
them.”

  Race set Gable down and they hurried Heidi and Becky out of Keston's door and down the alleyway to where Race's car sat waiting.

  Before she climbed in, Heidi turned to Gable, her expression contemplative. She'd washed the blood off her skin, but it still coated her clothes and pink streaks ran through her bouncy blonde hair where she'd ran her hands through it. She looked kind of bad ass for a middle aged mom. “Why are you helping us when Pablo wants me dead? You're risking your life...for us.”

  Gable didn't have an answer to that. It was just something that she had done. Something she hadn't had time to even really think about, and she didn't want to look at it too closely. She shrugged, and hoped that was enough of an answer.

  Of course, it wasn't. Broads like Heidi always wanted to discuss undiscussable crap. “It's because you're a good person,” Heidi said knowingly. She reached out and squeezed Gable's hand before she could stop her. “Underneath it all, you're a good person. Trust me, I can tell.”

  “I'm really not.”

  “Hello? Telepath here. I know things. I saw it when I first touched your hand. Why do you think I trusted you so willingly?”

  “Remember, you can't tell anyone that you're alive,” Gable warned, changing the subject before things got sappy and uncomfortable. “Not even the Guardians. Not even Charles Quinn. The only way you'll survive is if Pablo doesn't have a reason to look for you. And he won't have a reason if he thinks you're already dead.”

  “I'll tell no one,” Heidi promised. “Not even Charles.” She seemed sad at that, but when she looked at her daughter, her expression changed to one of resolve. “Some things are too important to risk. Thank you,” she said sincerely. “So much.”

  Becky tugged on the hem of Gable's black vest. “Are you comin' with us? You're comin' with us, right?” Somewhere in between the violence and the blood and the building hopping, the weird kid had gotten attached to Gable. It was annoying.

  Gable msde a face and tried to discretely pull her vest back. “No.”

  “Pwetty pwease?”

  Why did kids think it was cute to talk like babies? From the corner of her eye, she caught Race laughing silently at her discomfort. “No. And please stop touching me.”

  The kid seemed to find this highly amusing. She pulled off a gaudy plastic ring from her finger and held it out to her. “Will you wear this to remember me by?”

  Gable rolled her eyes. “God, no.”

  “Keep it, keep it, keep it, keep it, keep—”

  “Fine! Jeez!” She snatched the ring and heaved a sigh, pretending not to care. “How does your momma put up with you?”

  Becky giggled and hugged Gable—a highly uncomfortable experience—before sliding into the car with Heidi.

  “Ye heard any news from yer man?” Race asked Gable, slinging an arm around her shoulders. He sighed when she shook her head. “Tis a damn shame. I liked the Werewolf.” Without another word, he placed a sweet kiss on the top of her head and swung his long body into his car.

  Gable watched them go. She felt relived and nervous and scared and even happy, and all those emotions were bubbling away inside her until she felt like the fizz would melt out of her ears and nose.

  When she was sure the car was long gone, she slipped Becky's ring on to her pinky finger and fiddled with the sparkly orange flower.

  Terelle stepped up next to her and grasped her hand, and Gable leaned her head on her shoulder. No words were needed, they both knew what the other was thinking.

  If Pablo ever found out about what Gable had just done...she was fucked.

  IN THE EMPTY store, on the dusty, hard floor, as Walker hit her again and again, Gable smiled.

  “WHAT DO YOU mean?” Nicky demanded harshly. He'd never usually have talked to Queenie that way, but she was freaking him out. “Of course Gable killed Heidi and Becky. We saw their blood. They were gone.”

  “Get inside the car so we can talk,” she said, winding her window up. Nicky scrambled into the back next to the scientist and waited. “You remember the other day when I had that vision?”

  “Yeah, sure.”

  “It was of them! They were on a busy street and Heidi was screaming for Becky because she was in the road and a car was coming. I saw Kain snatching her out of the way and saving her life. It was raining in my vision, a real heavy summer rainstorm. I could see the London Eye in the background, and across the street there was this bright pink store front with a giant plastic cupcake in the window. I figured we needed to be in London if Kain had any hope of saving Becky.”

  “Why didn't you tell me? You just let me go on believing Gable was a killer. You knew how much that was breaking me!”

  Queenie looked pained, and guilty, and a little bit stubborn. “Sometimes my visions are totally messed up and things don't happen the way they're supposed to. I see things, and it turns out it's only a metaphor for something else and I have to figure out the true meaning. If that was what it was...I didn't want to give Charles false hope. I thought if I told him Heidi was alive and I turned out to be wrong...it would be like losing her all over again.”

  Well...he couldn't quite bring himself to be mad at her when she put it like that. Queenie was just too...nice for her own good. And too nice for his own good. He felt himself calm down just a fraction. “Go on.”

  “We got to London just in time,” she continued. “When we arrived it was raining just as heavily as in my vision. Kain had already researched bakeries on his laptop in the airport and there was only one that matched my description so we knew just where to go. All we had to worry about was whether we'd get there in time. We waited in the rain for three hours before we finally spotted them. They were hurrying down the street when Becky started yelling all excitedly because she'd seen a dog walker across the road. He had a little pug with him—totally cute. Becky ran across the road before Heidi could stop her and a car just came out of nowhere! I mean, God! You'd think the rain would make folks drive carefully. It's such an outrage!”

  “Queenie, quit rambling.” She tended to do that when she was nervous. Or happy. Or tired. Or hungry. Or all the time.

  “Yeah, okay, yeah. So Kain saved her. He just ran out into the road and snatched her up a second before the car hit her. He was such a hero.” She sent him a glowing look and he blushed beetroot red. “Heidi cried for a while—what momma wouldn't?—and then we went to the bakery to sit and talk. She told us Gable saved them, Nicky! She was supposed to kill Heidi, but she didn't do it. Do you know what that means?”

  That all those bad thoughts he'd been having about her were unjustified? That she was still the good, kind, sweet girl that he remembered? That maybe even it was his sudden influence in her life again that had stopped her from killing them in the first place? Yeah, his head was spinning like a spaceship. “What?”

  With a movement so sudden that it made all three men in the car jump, Queenie leaned over the front seat and grasped Nicky's hands. “It means you were right about her. I mean, she's still got some work to do before she gets off Santa's naughty list, and she's done a lot of bad stuff, like...well, I don't even wanna think about it. But when it came right down to it, she chose the right path, even though it was harder and a gazillion times more dangerous. She risked her life for them, and that's...huge. All those times we insisted that she couldn't be helped—we were wrong.”

  “Sorry, man,” Kain said, glancing at Nicky in the rear view mirror. “I feel like if we'd just listened to you, we could've...I dunno, grabbed her or something and shook some sense into her before it had to escalate this far.”

  That was exactly what Nicky was thinking. He pulled his hands back from Queenie's. “What else did Heidi say?”

  “She said that Gable sent her to England with a Pixie.” Nicky was so stressed out that he couldn't even quip at that. “Heidi felt so bad. The Pixie guy was keeping them indoors to be safe, but they wanted some fresh air so they sneaked out for a walk while he was sleeping. She kept saying that she'd almost lo
st Becky 'cause she didn't listen to him.”

  “Will someone please tell me what's going on?” the scientist demanded. Nicky started, he'd almost forgotten the guy was even there.

  He ignored him. “I don't understand why Gable didn't tell me this? She must have known it would...She knew how I felt, I...I kissed her. She kissed me back! I told her I'd help her get away from Pablo.”

  Queenie raised her eyebrows when he mentioned the kiss, but wisely chose to say nothing about it. “Pablo needs to think Heidi is dead. That's why Gable did it, that's why she left all the blood. She must've known that if we thought the girls were alive, we'd cause havoc searching for them and Pablo would know she hadn't killed them.”

  “And he'd just send someone else to do it,” Nicky acknowledged, catching on with a heavy heart. “And he wouldn't be happy with her, either. God, she risked a lot.”

  “Nobody was supposed to know. If I hadn't had my vision...” Queenie bit her lip guiltily. “We were all supposed to believe they were dead, and maybe I shouldn't have told you or Charles...but I had to! I couldn't keep watching you guys waste away over the guilt.”

  “I'm glad you did.” God, did he mean it. Her news had him stunned, and yet so relieved that every moment spent loving Gable didn't make him some kind of sick masochist. She hadn't killed Heidi or Becky, and she had dropped her hand from the gun before shooting the scientist. She hadn't been about to kill him either. Nicky had been right from the beginning; she wasn't evil, and deep, deep down, she really did want to be saved. He hated himself for doubting her, for turning his back on her, but the evidence had been overwhelming. Damn, but she was fucking clever.

  She needed him, he knew that now.

  And he'd left her alone with a homicidal Walker.

  “Get the scientist to safety,” he ordered. “Take him to Charles and get him working on that box.” And then he was out of the car. He rushed through the traffic, ignoring angry horns and muffled curse words thrown his way as he raced towards the empty store, hoping like hell that he got there in time.