“Me too,” she says. She already knew her brother and I had broken up, it’s been a couple of months now, but I suppose being faced with it for the first time is still a little shocking. I remember the first time we hung out and she told me about how Milo was finally happy again since he met me. I just wish that could have lasted. Celia looks up at me after composing herself and glances at my bruised cheek. “Sorry about your face. Jen already posted what happened. Does it hurt?”
“It’ll be okay,” I say, “but you didn’t come here to ask about me and Milo or my bruises, did you?”
“No. I came here because Milo can’t keep me away anymore. He wouldn’t let me come because I don’t have any talents to protect me, but he can’t do that anymore,” she says. I glance down at her right wrist and don’t see anything. She sees me looking and finishes her explanation. “Not after tonight, anyway. Today’s my birthday. I want you to try and perform an Inquest on me. I have an appointment with Inquisitor Moore in a few hours, but I want you to try first.”
She’s sixteen today. I haven’t even thought about Celia in weeks, which doesn’t make me the best friend in the world, but I don’t think I even knew exactly when her birthday was. I knew it was sometimes in October, but it hadn’t even crossed my mind. Braden helps me over to the couch and I sit down next to her. “Celia, just because Milo is a Cipher doesn’t mean you will be, too. It doesn’t work like that.”
“I know, I just thought you could at least try. Maybe it won’t work, but I’d rather have you do it than anyone else. Will you try?” she asks.
She and Milo both told me about how horrible of a night it was when Milo’s first Inquest didn’t work. Their parents panicked, knowing what he was and that he would be taken. Celia had to watch as they pulled Milo away from her and sliced open his wrist trying to forge diktats and keep him from being abducted. A slip of the hand, and Milo very nearly died that night. Celia must be reliving that moment again because her hands are trembling.
I take them in mine, and say, “I’ll try, Celia, but if it doesn’t work, Inquisitor Moore is a good man. He’ll take care of you.”
She smiles thankfully and takes a deep breath. I can feel Braden move up behind me, no doubt staying nearby to keep a close eye on me. My wounds aren’t that bad, but any physical problem makes using talents harder. I close my eyes and start the Inquest. After the initial burst of energy from using my talents fades away, I start pushing my way through Celia’s body and mind. I search, looking for the usual signs of talents, but I can’t find anything. It feels like it does every time I’ve tried searching Braden lately. I don’t like the sensation at all.
I push harder. My Perception becomes more finely tuned, and I delve even deeper. My body is struggling to keep up. Finally, I catch a glimpse of something. It’s faint, but the hint of spiritual energy drifting away from her is there. So is the downward pull of her spirit connecting with the natural world. No matter how hard I try, though, I can’t unlock them. I can sense where each of her talents originates, and how they access her body and senses, but that’s all. What does feel different than when I’ve tried this with Braden is that with him, when I find the place his talents should be, it’s like there’s a hole waiting to be filled. Celia’s are already full, just not open to me. With Braden, they’re open and waiting. I just can’t figure out how to fill them.
I pull my Perception back in and open my eyes. Celia’s eyes blink open as well. “It didn’t work,” she says sadly.
“I’m sorry, Celia, but you’re not a Cipher.” Who would have thought I’d ever be apologizing for that? She looks honestly disappointed. She’s got to be the first. “I can tell you what your talents are, though, if you want.”
“Really? Sure.”
“I couldn’t unlock them, but I could see that you have both Spiritualism and Naturalism, one from each other your parents. I can’t say for sure, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet to say you’ll be in the Creator class. I have no idea what your name will be, though. You’ll have to come back and tell me tomorrow.”
Celia nods happily and assures me she will. That might cause a fight with Milo, but what’s new about that? It’ll be nice to have Celia around again. Celia looks like she’s about ready to leave, but she turns thoughtful as she stands up. “You know, it’s too bad I never got to see the spirit world when all the Ciphers were still there,” she says.
I look at her with a confused expression.
“Not that I wish they were still imprisoned, but what’s the point of going there now? You can do other neat stuff with Spiritualism,” she says, “but I always thought getting to go to the spirit world was the best. Now it’s just an empty place. Oh well.”
She says goodbye and heads off for her second Inquest of the day, leaving me wondering. When she’s gone, I turn to Braden, and ask, “Do you think that’s true? Is the spirit world just an empty place now?”
“I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t think anyone’s been back since you released the Ciphers. I don’t think they want to, for obvious reasons, but I don’t think they see the point, either. Before the Ciphers were put there, it was just a place to meditate and think. That’s what we’ve been told, anyway.”
We’ve been told a lot of things, though, a lot of things that aren’t true.
Chapter 21
Creative Uses
It turned out I was right about Celia being in the Creator class. Over the last month, she’s been one of the most dedicated recruits. When she’s not at the training house with us, she’s usually with her dad having him help her learn even more about healing. She was determined to be on the team with us tonight to finally collect Drake, but that sparked a huge argument between Milo and anyone who supported her. I only wanted her to come along and stay on the perimeter just in case we needed her healing abilities, which are developing rapidly, but Milo wouldn’t even agree to that.
The argument was threatening to put off the maneuver even longer than the three months it’s already been since we found out where Drake is hiding. Eventually, I had to give in and tell Celia she couldn’t come. Knowing her brother better than anyone, she knew it was his fault and didn’t hold it against me. Milo didn’t appreciate that, and thought my caving was a sign of things to come. Not even close. I look over and smile at Braden, which he returns enthusiastically. There were some fights I just wasn’t willing to give in on. Milo pitched a fit when I suggested Braden and Lance come along. Agreeing to Lance didn’t take long once Hammond perfected being able to shield a second person. For Braden, it took what basically boiled down to a massive game of hide-and-seek where Braden was the finder trying to sneak up on people to find out if they could sense him coming with their talents. Nobody could, well almost nobody. Just like with the Inquests.
The funny thing is, I was the only one who could use any of my talents to sense him. Speed and Strength, yeah, Blackwood already proved those could be used against Braden, but those are solely internalized talents. Nobody could sense him coming. Only me. It could be just another weird thing with me being the Destroyer and the Ciphers belonging to me, but Braden wasn’t a Cipher. He isn’t even one now, not really. Ciphers always had talents. They just couldn’t access them until I unlocked them. Braden actually has no talents at all. I secretly believe it has something to do with us being Companions. Maybe that isn’t lost completely. Everyone but Milo was pretty hyped about Braden’s “Invisible Man” qualities.
The only way Braden could be affected by the external talents, the ones that require extending some part of you into the other person’s body or mind, was when the use actually caused them to physically invade him. Not a single one of them could sense his emotions from a distance or use Naturalism to track him, but they could touch his spirit, tell when he was lying, and manipulate his physical body once their talents were pushed into him. I really had no idea what to make of it, but it certainly was an interesting phenomenon. One that proved he could get into Drake’s hacienda without being detec
ted.
Milo hasn’t brought up any of the stuff we fought about again, but his disdain from me and Braden makes it obvious he hasn’t forgotten it, either. We do our best to avoid making a display of our relationship in front of him, but it makes him angry that Braden and I go out with Lance and Hope on the rare times we aren’t neck deep in Destroyer business, but not because he’s jealous. If he even thinks I’m not paying enough attention to handing him the Guardians’ heads, the fighting starts. And Lance thought Hope was going to be worse than Milo.
Hope still spends the majority of her waking, and probably non-waking, hours hating everything about the Guardians, but I do catch her watching Lance with a smile every so often. I didn’t think anything could make that girl smile. It makes me happy. Milo couldn’t care less about Lance and Hope, but he definitely disapproves of Braden staying in my guest bedroom more nights than not. Braden has yet to repeat that first night, unfortunately, but having him close by keeps my anxiety level down at a reasonable notch. Tonight is no different.
Team members start to check in as they reach their positions. There are ten pairs, plus one new Cipher we picked up in Tampa a few weeks ago named Carlos, who happens to be a savant when it comes to electronics. He’s in charge of hacking Drake’s security feed and looping it. It sounded a little too Hollywood-easy-and-totally-fake when he first suggested it, but he tried it out on one of the malls in town and it worked perfectly. Let’s hope that goes for tonight, too.
I wasn’t so sure about having such a large number, at first. We had to fly in Ciphers from the other safe houses to even manage so many. I’m more accustomed to working with a small team of people I know very well and trust completely. Once we started going over the information about Drake’s fortress—I mean fortress literally—I had to admit that I couldn’t do this with just two or three people like we did rescuing Hope. Now, I’m not sure twenty people will be enough.
“Hey,” Braden says, slipping his arms around my waist, “everything’s going to be all right. This will work.”
“I hope so, Braden.” At least he has faith in me when it comes to this. After weeks of poking around in him to try and find something, I still haven’t a clue about how to give him back his talents. I’m going to figure it out, though.
“I feel like time is starting to eat away at me,” I say. “It took three months just to prepare for this. There’s only nine left, now. And we still have so much to do. This is only the first step. Even if we find out the rest of the prophecy, and what the Guardians are creating to fight me, are we going to have enough time to do anything about it? I’m worried that we’re going too slow.”
Braden pulls me against him until I’m leaning my whole body against his. “You’re not going too slow, Libby. You and everyone else spend nearly every waking minute thinking about ways to defeat the Guardians. Hope is already almost all the way through three decades of her grandfather’s notes on you. You’ve learned more about how the Guardians work from those notes than staring at their compound for hours on end. You’ve all been training hard as well, and that isn’t just for getting Drake. Every minute you train brings you closer to defeating them. You’re doing everything you can.”
“Well, it wouldn’t be the first time my all wasn’t good enough.” I’m much more familiar with failure than success.
The last team checks in and Braden looks at me seriously as he tightens the straps on his pack. “This is going to work, Libby. Now, let’s go.”
There’s no point in arguing, I suppose. Either it will work, or it won’t. Either I’ll get the information I need from Drake, or we’ll all end up murdered by the Guardians. It’s time to get started. I visualize the hacienda below us as we crawl down the fifteen foot cliff face. Having only slippery sandstone to use for grip makes it a treacherous climb. When we reach the dark lava rock on the lower half of the bluff, it’s much easier to hold on, although more painful too, and we make it to the bottom without incident.
The crunch of boots on the rocks sends us to our stomachs. Our black clothes let us blend into the rock, and my Concealment does the rest. The guard passes us by. Right now, at seven other points along the perimeter of Drake’s hacienda, the other pairs are slipping into place. The remaining two teams are watching our exit, prepared to help us get away quickly if things don’t go well, and likely even if things do. As soon as the guard is out of range, Braden and I start forward with all my talents flaring.
Three other teams begin moving toward the house as well. Dean and Hope, Milo and Daniel, Kayla, Hammond, and Lance all chirp in my ear about their progress. The remaining four teams will start circling the perimeter to discreetly take care of the guards there. If things get dicey inside, I don’t want anyone left out here to raise the alarm.
Not all the guards are on the perimeter. The ones who aren’t are our prize. We cross into the light spilling out of the house unseen. Well, I do, anyway. Braden stays back. I can extend my Concealment to another person, an idea Hammond gave me that only the two of us have been able to implement so far, but it thins my own shield when I do. I leave him in the dark behind a column and stalk right up to the Seeker guarding the door.
My Concealment drops away, much to his surprise, and I punch him right in the face. His consciousness winks out, but he doesn’t need to be awake for me to use him. I tug off his glove and flatten his hand against the palm scanner on the wall. A hushed beep acknowledges the palm print, and we hear the soft click of the door unlocking. Braden pulls it open a few inches, just enough to keep the lock from reengaging without being too noticeable. It takes me a few seconds to tie the Seeker up and shove him into the space between a cabinet and bench. No one will see him right off, but they might hear him. I press two fingers against his forehead and tap my Naturalism. He falls into a deep sleep that he won’t wake from for hours.
I hope everyone else is doing the same. My orders were to leave the Guardians alive if we could. I know some of these men are as evil as Drake, but what if they aren’t? We came here tonight for Drake, not for a slaughter. I trust everyone to follow my orders but Milo. I won’t know if he doesn’t, either. Milo knows how to sink a body into the earth so no one will ever find it. I hope that on this one thing he will do as I ask and refocus my thoughts on what I’m doing.
After checking to make sure the other teams are ready to breach the house, I nod to Braden. He lets me take the lead, although I think it puts a little dent in his pride to do it. I flash him a thankful smile to make up for it and slip through the door. Braden follows, and the door clicks shut behind us. Each of the four teams inside the house has a quadrant assigned to them, and a simple mission. Clear the area of conscious individuals. I start forward, questing out with my Vision and Concealment for potential threats. Guards, staff, servants, they all end up unconscious and tied up in closets and such. The first floor is clear.
Our new Cipher, Carlos, gave us a basic idea of the floor plan before we came here tonight by discreetly breaking into the security feed very late at night a few weeks ago, but we had no way of knowing where Drake would be before we showed up. Now that Carlos has full access to the feed, he guides me through the house to a set of stairs coming off a large banquet room. The others meet us there. Milo and Daniel take up position at the base of the stairs without complaint, for once, and the rest of us troop up the stairs slowly.
Dean and Hope go to the right while Kayla, Hammond, and Lance turn left. Braden and I follow them down the longer hallway and check each adjacent room for stragglers. A few of the doors are locked, but since we don’t have time for lock picking, and I couldn’t care less whether the locks get damaged, I simply use my Naturalism to turn the locking mechanism into a blob of goo. We only find two others wandering the upstairs, a young man who looks to be some kind of assistant, and an older woman in the middle of changing a set of sheets. Both are taken care of, and we meet up with Kayla and Hammond in front of a large oak door.
This was the one portion of the house Carlos c
ouldn’t tell us anything about. All the other rooms, even bedrooms, were set up with cameras—talk about giving out a pervert, voyeur vibe—except this one. It is a huge chunk of the upstairs floor, clearly not a bedroom, but has no security cameras at all. My guess is that whatever Drake uses this room for, he doesn’t want evidence left behind when he’s done. Not terribly encouraging, but we’re going in, anyway.
Dean and Hope come around the corner, and I ask, “Did you find any other Guardians?”
He shakes his head. “Just some guy reading in his room. Hope took care of him.”
I shake my head. Hope is amazing. Her astonishing five talents, not to mention her grandfather to teach her, makes her more valuable than most of the Ciphers, most of whom are still struggling to figure out their new abilities. The only talents she doesn’t have are Naturalism and Vision. I’m sure her grandfather was glad for the absence of Vision. She still could have become a Guardian, but at least she never would have been selected as a Seeker like he was.
“I was expecting more resistance on this floor,” Hammond says, which instantly makes me worry, because things never go this smoothly for me. “Especially if this is where Drake’s stronghold is,” he continues. “He must know we’re here by now since none of his guards are checking in with him. Whatever forces he has left are in that room with him.”
“I think you’re right, Hammond.” I know Drake’s Vision can’t have alerted him, but aside from whatever noise we might have made, guys like Drake seem to have a sixth sense for danger. I’m sure he knows we’re here. He’s waiting in there. The lack of misfortune so far plagues my mind, making me wonder what awful surprises he has in store for us.
Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy Page 19