Lead Heart (Seraph Black Book 3)

by Washington, Jane

  “Yeah, the Klovoda helped.”

  He was silent for a moment, and then he let out a resigned sigh. “Do you think they’ll help with the messenger?”

  I glanced to Jayden, who was silently listening to every word that I spoke, but I doubted that there was anything that I could say that he wasn’t already aware of, so I went with the truth.

  “I don’t know who to trust yet,” I told Tariq. “I’m sure I could discover his name if I tried hard enough, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without alerting him to the fact that I’ve figured him out. That would force his hand, and I don’t want that to happen until I’m ready. But I will be ready, and soon.”

  I would have to be. Soon, the messenger would figure out that I had formed the bond, and he would come for me.

  “You will be,” Tariq confirmed, his words quiet but strong. “We all will be.”

  “On that note…” I hesitated, gripping the phone a little harder, hoping that I was making the right decision. “I want you to come and stay here with me. I could ask the Klovoda to put you up somewhere, but that’s too exposed, the messenger could easily get to you. I don’t think this place is so easy to spy on. I know the guys will look out for you, but I have a feeling some of them will come back here with me too, now that I’ve been…disarmed.”

  “You want me to stay at Weston’s? With… Weston?”

  “I’m not going to force you to do anything. Everyone would be happy for you to stay where you are. I just want you to be safe, and I think the safest place is with me right now.”

  “Okay then,” he agreed quickly. Maybe too quickly, but that was Tariq. He never resisted for long when I asked something of him. “I’ll pack up my stuff. Can you pick me up from home after school tomorrow?”

  “Sure. Thanks, Tariq.”

  “Wait—don’t you need to ask Weston first?”

  “He told me to treat this place as my home. Home isn’t complete without my little brother.”

  He breathed out another sigh, and I could hear a smile in the sound. “Okay then. I’ll see you tomorrow. Stay safe, Seph.”

  “You too.”

  I hung up the call and handed the phone back to Jayden, my expression pensive. “Can I ask about Eva? The other test subject?”

  He busied himself tucking the phone away while he considered a response, and then he finally folded his arms and nodded, once. “What do you want to know?”

  “What’s her ability?”

  “She was given an Elementalist ability, like you, but hers is water. In Zev terms, we call it flux; the ability to create water out of nothing, and manipulate any existing body of water.”

  “That’s a nice power.”

  “Don’t let it fool you. She’s vicious with it. I wouldn’t want to get on her bad side. She’s a nice enough girl, but Dominic and Weston have asked too much of her over the years… she’s a little damaged now.”

  “Damaged?”

  “She’s bat-shit crazy. They had to lock her up in an institution.”

  I felt a deep-seated uneasiness, and I couldn’t believe that Jayden was as careless about it as he looked. He had said, earlier, that I was one of his own, and if my newly-reinstated memory was to be trusted, he and Eva had been even closer in their youth than he and I had ever been.

  “Which institution?” I asked carefully.

  “If you want to go and see her, I can take you the next time I go to visit.” He moved back to the door as he spoke, hiding his expression from me, and leaving only the barest hint of vulnerability in his voice. I wondered if anyone else ever went to visit Eva.

  “Sure,” I muttered. “Thanks, Jayden.”

  “Anytime, Wonderkid.”

  I sat inside Weston’s limousine, running my sweaty hands over a pair of stretchy work-out pants. They were bunched up around my hips and tied off by a string, but thankfully Cabe’s shirt fell to my thighs, hiding how ill-fitting the pants were. I was so nervous, I had asked the limousine to pull over several times already, the need to vomit rising in my throat before I managed to calm myself down.

  One night. I had been gone for one night. It was nowhere near enough time. Quillan, Noah and Cabe would be at the height of their fury, and the messenger had meant to banish me, not simply send me away for a sleepover. Hopefully Silas would still be too sick to flip out. Or was that a horrible thing to hope? I cast a quick glance to the two men seated opposite me, briefly taking stock of their appearances. They were both in their thirties, and blond. When they had spoken that morning, I had sensed some kind of European accent, and their names—Hans and Andrei—had further hinted at their heritage. They didn’t seem to be particularly communicative, but Hans had laugh lines around his mouth, and Andrei seemed more shy than cold. Considering the silent shadows Jayden had glued to me over the last few months, these two were a breath of fresh air. Hans had even patted my back as we stopped for the third time and I contemplated vomiting for a few more minutes.

  When we arrived on campus, I was sweating so profusely that I could feel the droplets on my spine. The frigid wind seemed to bounce right off my cheeks, but I forced my head up and marched toward the building anyway. A quick glance over my shoulder proved that Hans and Andrei were following a few steps behind, their eyes wary and alert. It didn’t make me feel any better. The messenger rarely assaulted me in the physical sense—he didn’t jump out from behind buildings, shouting boo! Most likely, Hans and Andrei would melt in the very same explosion as me, and the messenger wouldn’t be within punishing range when it happened.

  I sucked in a fortifying breath, filling my lungs with the sweet, icy mountain air before I marched in the direction of the ‘Kingsling’ building for my first class. I was hardly surprised that students scattered out of my way and whispered things as I passed, and I doubted that any of what they said was good, but I couldn’t bother myself with my college reputation when so much else was at stake. No matter what Weston said. At least people weren’t shouting things at me, or throwing things at me—but that probably had less to do with me and more to do with the two giants that marched along behind me. Since my visual arts subject seemed to have been scheduled for an hour each morning, I was expecting to find Quillan in the lecture hall when I pushed open the door. None of my other subjects needed five hours a week.

  The room was as dark and quiet as it had been on my first day, but this time there was no Quillan waiting by the podium. I did a quick search anyway, even looking into the paper room—which had been converted back into a normal room—but there was no sight of him. With a frown, I slumped into one of the seats. Hans and Andrei sat down in the row behind me, one of them clearing his throat. They were clearly confused about the empty lecture hall, but I doubted that sitting by myself in an empty room could possibly get me into trouble with anyone.

  I sat there for the entire hour, and then I checked the wall clock, noting that it was time to move on. I started climbing the stairs back to the hallway and my two silent bodyguards followed, one of them clearing his throat again. I grimaced a little, but otherwise continued to ignore them as I made my way out of the building and to my next class. Since it was a musical theory class, I quickly scanned the backs of the heads as I entered the classroom, wondering if Noah would be there. It was a small group; I remembered reading somewhere that it would be split into study groups of no more than ten people. I caught the side of Danny’s profile, but he hadn’t noticed me yet, and then I suddenly pulled up short. I had expected Noah to be absent like Quillan, but he was sitting right there, frowning at the cover of his textbook while his fingers tapped against the phone that was sitting in his lap. The professor walked into the room behind me, almost bumping into Hans, who quickly stepped out of the woman’s way.

  She opened her mouth, probably to question the men, but paused upon seeing me, her teeth pressing together. She gave me a short nod and moved past, approaching the front of the room and calling everyone’s attention. I gave Hans a questioning look and he arched a brow in r
eply.

  They took up positions by the door as I shuffled toward Noah, trying to keep quiet as the professor launched into a discussion with someone sitting right in front of her. I pulled out the chair and sat down, keeping a firm barrier over my emotions so that Noah couldn’t feel the nervous hum of energy that spun through me with a sickening whir. He moved his chair slightly away, as though annoyed that I had chosen to sit next to him, and I laid my bag gently on the floor, folding my hands in my lap. He didn’t look over. I reached out with shaking fingers and poked his arm. He jerked his head in my direction, a scathing remark clearly on the tip of his tongue, but it died as he made a choking sound and grabbed my retreating hand. I quickly pulled away, conscious of the windows around us and the other students in the room. I would have to act as though the messenger were watching at all times now.

  Noah shifted his seat next to mine, the backs of our chairs meeting up and forming a barrier from behind as he slipped a hand beneath the table. I felt a touch against my leg, moving gently to settle over my thigh, palm facing up. My throat was suddenly too thick for speech. I turned to the front of the classroom just as the tears gathered in my eyes, warping the image of the professor’s face into a flesh-coloured blur. I reached beneath the desk and laid my trembling hand in Noah’s, my fingers naturally fitting between the gaps in his. He gripped my hand so hard that pain shot up my arm, making me wince. He glanced sideways, taking in the bandages tied off at my wrist, and his grip eased immediately, his face pulling into a scowl. The bitter joy in my heart only swelled further, forcing a new torrent of tears to track down my face. The professor glanced over, blinking a few times at my silently crying face. I could tell that she was about to ask what was wrong, but I didn’t want the other students turning around and noticing, so I shook my head, imploring her quietly. She hesitated, but eventually turned away, engaging another person in conversation. As it grew time for the study group to end, I flexed my now-numb hand and Noah released me. I quickly gathered up my things and slipped out of the room before anyone else could even notice that I was there.

  “Seph, wait.” Noah was right behind me as the door fell closed, pulling my shoulder so that I spun to face him. Hans and Andrei took a few more steps until they were behind me again.

  Noah swallowed several times, his electric eyes flicking over my face before settling somewhere over my shoulder. Behind me, I heard a familiar throat clearing.

  With a sigh, I waved a hand over my shoulder, indicating the silent giants. “That’s Hans and Andrei. They’re—”

  “Klovoda agents,” Noah interrupted, “I know. We’ve met.”

  One of the giants grunted, but it was a friendly-sounding grunt, and Noah quickly turned his attention back to me. I didn’t want to be waylaid in the corridor because people were beginning to stare and whisper again, so I grabbed Noah’s arm and pulled him after me, heading back in the direction of the administration building, since I had a few hours break until my next lecture. Noah came along with me easily, but he pulled his phone out of his pocket, and I knew that he was alerting the others. My stomach flipped again and I stumbled for a moment before regaining my footing and walking even faster.

  “Do you…” I swallowed, biting the question back as we passed from the busy corridors to the quieter admin area. I couldn’t stomach the thought that I had bonded to him and he still didn’t remember everything.

  Noah suddenly decided to take the lead, pulling me up a staircase, and down a corridor. He didn’t prompt me to finish my question, merely dragged me along and then stopped without warning, causing me to smack into his back. I didn’t exactly expect it to be a soft collision, but his body was hard enough that a sharp pain ricocheted from my nose upwards, and I hopped back, clutching at my face. He rolled his eyes a little, a smile quirking his lips, and then he was pulling me into a room, slamming the door solidly behind him.

  I saw the silhouettes of my two giants just outside, and then heard Hans grumble, “Guess we’ll just wait out here.”

  I glanced around the room—an office, it looked like—but I didn’t have time to take in any details because Noah was pulling me into his arms, crushing me into a hug that stole my air supply and curled warmth into my nervous stomach. He wasn’t ranting and raving and pulling out his hair as I had expected, but there was a slight tremble in his limbs, and he seemed to be even more tacit than usual.

  “Thank god,” he grumbled, burying his face in my neck. “Thank god you’re safe.”

  I felt the tears welling again, and I quickly refocused my attention on hugging him back so that I didn’t start bawling in earnest. I clutched at his shoulders, passed my fingers through his hair and whispered nonsensical pacifications into his ear until he seemed to calm, lowering me to the floor.

  “I should… ugh… you need… damn, I’m pissed at you. I’m really pissed. But I’m more pissed at myself, for obvious reasons. And… I thought you left us. I thought you ran away, and then we found Miro’s car, and I was sure you ran away… but then… then Silas…”

  Noah wasn’t the most lucid speaker, and I was already aware that his speech became even more stilted when he was particularly emotional, so I filled in all the blanks for myself and then sat down on the desk, pulling my arms loosely over my stomach.

  “I’m not back, Noah,” I said gently. He stopped talking immediately, and started pacing, his forehead pulled into a fierce frown.

  The door opened again and I braced myself as Cabe and Quillan stormed into the room, slamming the door again behind them. Quillan halted the second he saw me, but Cabe strode forward, pulling me into his arms with the same ferocity that Noah had. My ribs were beginning to protest, but I hugged him back, and this time I was the one to start shaking. I had been too focussed on my own emotion earlier, but now I was beginning to become more aware, and I could feel the rapid pace of Cabe’s heart against my own. It was too fast, and his emotion swirled with it, travelling straight into me and affecting my body more than what I thought was possible. I could taste his fear and relief on my tongue. I pulled away from him confusedly, attempting to differentiate between him, Quillan and Noah. I could feel their heartbeats, and I could even feel the faint buzz of their emotions, but Cabe was the only one who pushed his feelings onto me like a cloak. Somehow… it made sense to me. Cabe was simply that sort of person.

  “What have you done?” Quillan asked from the doorway, his voice steady. I had always loved the sound of Quillan’s voice, but on this one occasion, it seemed to seal my fate, and I hated that.

  I drew away, retreating to a corner of the office to give myself the space I suddenly needed. I could feel their attention on me, heavy and fearful, and I tried to block it out, my fingers curling over the windowsill, my eyes screwing shut.

  “The messenger put a bomb around my neck,” I said, my eyes trained on inconsequential details in the landscape beyond the school as I sorted through details that I could share and details that I couldn’t share. If we were in Quillan’s office, which I suspected that we were, there was a good chance that the messenger had snuck some kind of recording device in at some point.

  I continued carefully. “He gave me until midnight to leave Maple Falls—”

  “The room isn’t bugged.” Quillan spoke lowly, apparently reading my mind. “I combed it just this morning.” He was still using that tone of voice that dropped dread into my stomach. “You should have told us, Seph. You should have told… me.”

  I could hear his quiet footfalls as he moved closer, and then I could feel the heat of his body hovering right behind me.

  “I couldn’t.” The two words sounded strangled, and I cleared my throat, trying to speak normally. “I couldn’t. You would have stopped me. You would have tried to come with me. He’s never tried to kill me before. I… we… I couldn’t risk his reaction.”

  I spun around, facing Quillan directly. His dark eyes were heavy and guarded, the usual drag of his heart was painful as it slapped against me, a physical reminder
of how much I had hurt him, or maybe how much he had been hurt in general. I hated that I had contributed to it.

  “I would have done it anyway,” I said. “I had to save Silas. You know I did. We all did, and this was the only way.”

  “It’s not saving anyone if Weston figures out what you are. He’ll blow that pretty little head of yours right off your shoulders before the messenger can so much as reach for a detonator.”

  I was aware that Quillan had a point, and I was aware that his intention hadn’t been to compliment me, but… he thought I had a pretty head?

  Not important right now!

  I shook my head a little, pushing back the strands of hair that spilled over my face. There was something seriously wrong with me if I was getting hung up on that fact to the exclusion of others. “Weston’s not going to find out. I know how to keep him out of my head.”

  “Dammit, Seraph!” Quillan jerked away from me, turning and slamming his fist into the wall.

  I was too shocked to act, so I simply watched as he picked his arm out of the debris and leaned his forehead against the damaged wall, breathing deeply. I had never seen him lose so much composure.

  “You don’t know how to keep him out of your head,” he continued. “You tried something once, and it worked. That doesn’t mean it’ll work every time. All Weston needs is a hint of the truth, and we’re all dead. All of us. The Klovoda can’t save you from him, he’s the Voda. They might not agree with everything he does, but they can’t control him. Nobody can.”

  “The messenger put a bomb around her neck,” Noah said, his eyes on Quillan. “She had to leave.”

  “Don’t you stand up for her,” Quillan snapped, pointing a finger at Noah. “You feel guilty for the way you’ve been treating her and for everything you’ve done, but don’t let that cloud your judgement. She should have told us.”

  I frowned, looking between the two of them. I saw the guilt that flashed over Noah’s face before he hung his head.