“None of us deserve any of this, Lance, but that doesn’t stop it from happening.” He’s the one who likes to remind me about how life isn’t fair. “But it’s not going to stay that way. We can’t let his family suffer there. We’ll get them out, too.”
Lance nods slowly. Of course we’re planning on rescuing the Ciphers for the second time, but he knows as well as I do that Braden is in the same Guardian compound. He doesn’t bring it up. I think he’s trying his hardest to make me forget Braden even exists. As if simply not mentioning his name will disintegrate the constant pull I feel toward him, or will bury my fear and my guilt for letting this happen to him in the first place.
“We’ll have to find out where they’re keeping everyone. The schematics Br … uh, the schematics we have aren’t going to tell us where to find the Ciphers or Mr. Walters’ family. Nothing was labeled so plainly. We need someone who can tell us where to look,” Lance says.
“We need Braden.”
Lance’s arm tightens around me. “Well, we don’t have him.” The coldness in his voice falters more, the longer he has to think about Braden being tortured by his own brothers. Milo may never have really warmed up to Braden, but Lance and he became friends over the summer. “We have to find someone else,” he says more softly.
“We will.” I need another Guardian, no, a Seeker this time, for more than just information about where the Guardians are holding everyone. Mr. Walters said there is more to the prophecy, and the only way I’m going to find out what else I’m missing is by pulling it out of one of his brothers. I’m going to enjoy doing it, too.
Lance’s body softens next to mine. He must be watching my emotions very carefully right now. He’s worried about me. His sudden warmth actually manages to reach me and I lean against him. “You know,” he says, “maybe it’s a good thing you didn’t let Braden give you his Oath.”
“What?”
“They want to use Braden against you, right?”
I nod, not sure where he’s going with this.
“Well, if they had taken him and tried to force an Oath on him to kill you and found out he’d already given you his Oath, what use would he be to them? If they couldn’t have used him, they would have just killed him. He’s alive right now because he’s still useful.” His mouth turns down in a frown. “I really don’t know whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing.”
I do. “It’s a good thing, Lance. It means there’s a chance of getting him back.”
“But if you get him back, he’s going to try to kill you.”
It’s twisted and bizarre, but I laugh. “Well, it wouldn’t be the first time a guy I was in love with tried to kill me, now would it?”
Only Lance could ever laugh with me about something like that. He knows I’ve forgiven him. Still, it’s not a very deep laugh. “Libby, are you really in love with him?” Lance asks.
I was falling before all this happened, and maybe it’s the need to save his life that has pushed me over the edge, but I can’t deny it anymore. “Yes.”
Lance frowns. “What about Milo?”
“I still love him,” I say. My heart twists in on itself every time I think of Milo. “I never wanted to give him up, but I don’t think that’s even my choice anymore. Milo hates me. I don’t think he’ll ever forgive me.”
“No, he doesn’t hate you,” Lance argues. “He’s just angry. Eventually he’ll see that most of what you did was only you trying to protect him.”
“Only most of what I did?”
Lance snorts and rolls his eyes. “You know I felt it every time you were with him or kissed him. That day you spent with him in the Bosque, I could barely even focus on the baseball game or my brother. It was great to know you were so happy, but it was very distracting. Nothing about that day was for Milo.”
The guilt I have been battling since that day assaults me worse than ever before. It was my choice to spend the day with Braden. I tell myself I should banish every thought of it from my mind, but those sweet memories may be the last I have of him. I can’t force myself not to look back on them with pleasure.
The silence in the jet seems to layer itself around us. I feel utterly buried by it when Lance finally speaks again.
“I’ll help you get him back,” he says.
I turn and stare at him. “What?”
“You’re going after him, aren’t you? I know you too well. You’re not going to let him suffer because of something you think you did. You’ll try to rescue him, and there’s nothing I’m going to be able to do to stop you. So, I might as well help you and attempt to keep you from seriously injuring or killing yourself in the process.”
“Just like when we were little,” I say softly. That was always his job. When he and I would go outside to play my dad would always tell Lance to make sure I didn’t hurt myself. Given how many times I ended up in the emergency room, some people might say Lance didn’t do a very good job. Just like now, Lance always did his best to protect me. The problem always was, he never could talk me out of trying something.
Lance pulls me back under his arm, and asks, “When?”
I take a deep breath knowing he isn’t going to like this, but it’s really the only way.
“Tomorrow, when I turn myself over to the Guardians.”
End of Book Two
###
Keep reading for a sneak peek of Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy
Darkening Chaos
Chapter 1
Jeopardy
There have been very few times in my life when I thought I had everything figured out. The problem is that even when I think I have the puzzle solved, there always seems to be a piece missing, the one piece that will make the difference between utter failure and complete victory. This is my last chance to get it right. Now more than ever, failure means death. And not just for me this time. For everyone.
The men who want to kill me are right behind these double doors. I am well aware of that fact, but I open them anyway. Their cameras have been trained on me since I reached the compound parking lot. So, the pack of rabid-looking Guardians filling the lobby is no surprise. Neither is them being completely unarmed. They don’t need any weapons to kill me. They are weapons. Faster than any animal, stronger, too, and every inch of their bodies is honed to murderous anarchy. There are dozens of them glaring at me, probably close to fifty. Thank goodness this is a relatively small compound. I can pick out which ones are Seekers, Guardians with Vision to see what’s about to happen, and a vindictive pleasure rises in me as I see their faces screw up in confusion. The only thing that does give me pause is the look on Captain Linden Blackwood’s face.
Barely restrained ecstasy glares at me from his eyes. The pure, red hot hatred roiling off of him doesn’t do a whole lot to steady me, either. Sometimes I really hate having Perception. There are plenty of times I would rather not have to feel everyone else’s emotions. I have to tap my Naturalism talent to control my muscles and keep them from quivering in the face of his raging desire to slit my throat. Blackwood is the one who gave me the ultimatum. I could either turn myself in, or save my own skin at the price of eighty-one Ciphers losing theirs. It was an easy choice. He knew it would be.
No one says anything, as if none of them really believes I, the most hated person in the world, the prophesied Destroyer, has just turned myself in to them. I take advantage of their shock, and frantically scan the crowd. Foolish hope makes me search for him. My eyes touch every face, but he isn’t here. Part of me is relieved. The rest of me is terrified of what that might mean. It might mean they haven’t turned him into an assassin aimed at my throat, yet. There may still be hope to rescue him. Or, I could be completely wrong, which wouldn’t be all that surprising, really. He may have already been twisted and they’re simply holding him back to deliver the final blow in the most devastating way possible.
Leave it to the Guardians to want a dramatic finish.
The only thing I do know for sure about Braden, is that h
e’s still alive, thanks to our connection as Spiritual Companions. That one thought gives me enough strength to keep from trembling and showing my utter terror at being here. He’s still alive. The man I love, well one of them, is still alive. Even in this moment of being so scared I can barely move, I am struck with how screwed up my love life is right now. Somehow, I managed to fall for two guys at the same time. Milo, for loving me when no one else would, and Braden, for bringing happiness back into my world. But even worse, one of them hates me for the necessary lies I fed him, and the other one is probably working out the best way to murder me right now. World’s best girlfriend I am not.
My heart starts pumping harder as the Guardians begin to shift, whisper.
I can’t think about my monumental list of mistakes right now, so I focus on Braden instead. I can feel his life force pulsing inside of me. I wish I knew whether he’s hurt or where he might be. I won’t know until I am faced with him, until he either kisses me, or tries to kill me. I’m really hoping it’s going to be the first one, but I know how unlikely that option is. He knew what his brothers would do to him if they ever found out he betrayed them to help me. And judging by the ferocity in every one of their expressions, I don’t doubt him. That doesn’t mean I’m giving up on him, though.
Finally, the spell of having the one thing you have worked your entire life for being dropped into your lap finally wears off, and Blackwood steps forward. “You came,” he says.
Well, duh. I want very much to smack him and call him an idiot for mouthing such an obvious statement, but I don’t. My heart is racing and my mind is fighting to keep control of my building fear. It is a concentrated effort to look calm and in control. I face him squarely and say, “You knew I would.”
“Yes, I did.” He knew I could never let eighty-one people die when I had the chance to save them. Some Destroyer I am.
“Where are they?” I demand.
“Your pets?” Blackwood asks in his most disgusted tone. “Where do you think they are, Libby? In their cells, where they belong.”
He is such a creep. Anger starts seeping into my body, slowly overpowering the panic and fear. My hands ball up into fists at my side. Blackwood sees the movement and snorts derisively. The Ciphers, once talentless freaks they hunted and locked up in the spirit world where they had no hope of escaping, are still their prisoners after our rescue attempt didn’t quite work out the way we were hoping. My friend and teacher, Mr. Walters, betrayed our plans at the last minute and left them all trapped here. Mr. Walters only did it to save his daughter and her family, which I understand completely, but it still left me with the responsibility of rescuing them for a second time.
“Bring them out here, now,” I demand.
Blackwood oozes toward me, a snaky smile showing the perfect white of his teeth. “Now why would I do that?”
“We had a deal, Blackwood! I turn myself in, you let the Ciphers go.”
He stops right in front of me. I can see his cronies behind him. Knowing, sickening smiles creep onto their faces. “Libby, Libby, Libby,” Blackwood says as he shakes his head sadly, “you should really work on your listening skills, little girl. The deal was, you turn yourself in, and I don’t kill the Ciphers. I never said anything about letting them go. That’s much too dangerous.”
Rage boils around me. I can feel my face turning red. “Let them go, Blackwood, or you can kiss my surrender goodbye.”
For a moment, I can see and feel the doubt in him. It bursts through him like a party balloon stuck with a pin. Unfortunately, it clears just as quickly. “Refusing to surrender will get them killed, Libby. You will practically be killing them yourself, then. At least if you turn yourself over to me, they will stay alive. And you can die knowing your precious little pets won’t be harmed.”
“I don’t believe you,” I snap. “You’ll kill them right after you kill me.”
Blackwood tsks at me and shakes his head. “Given how Braden and Walters both betrayed their promises to you, I guess I can see why you would doubt me, Libby, but even you cannot doubt this.”
I watch as he presses the first two fingers of his right hand against the emblem of the Guardian blade strapped to his left wrist. My breath freezes in my chest. A Guardian promise is unbreakable. Nobody really understands it, but something physically binds you to a promise made on your Guardian emblem. But he has to speak the words. Hope that I haven’t come here in vain makes me lightheaded as I stare at him.
“I promise that I will not kill even one of the captured Ciphers after I have killed you, Libitina Sparks,” Blackwood says plainly. He waits for my sigh of relief, but he doesn’t get it. Milo’s continual paranoia about the Guardians has taught me better than that.
“What about the rest of these goons?” I ask. “Do you promise none of them will kill the Ciphers, either?”
Blackwood’s jaw grinds against itself. I can actually hear the grating enamel. I hope his teeth all break in half and fall out of his pretty little head. I give him a full ten seconds to assure me that his promise actually means something. Silence.
“That’s what I thought,” I say. “I’m not as stupid as you think I am, Blackwood.”
“You won’t let them die,” he says through his teeth.
“Why? Because Braden told you I wouldn’t?” I’m still terrified, and angry as anything, but my fight to not run away screaming lessens dramatically as Blackwood’s facial expression starts to change. I push a little more.
“Braden thought he was playing me, seducing me to win my trust.” Not at all true, but I’m not going to tell Blackwood that. I smile and shift my stance from scared and defensive to just a little bit seductive. “Didn’t you ever even consider that I might have been playing him, too?”
His dark eyes harden into the mahogany they resemble. Fear that he is about fail is wrapped so tightly around him, I’m not sure how he can even breathe under the pressure. Blackwood is ambitious and immoral. Killing me and claiming the glory and prestige that will go along with it are all that matter to him. And I’m putting all of that in jeopardy.
The slow change in his demeanor from furious to smug sets me on edge. His emotions are still boiling with rage, but there’s a steady stream of pleasure riding the wave now. “Whether you were playing him or not, you’re already in my hands, on my turf. There’s no getting away from me now.”
I don’t miss the subtle flick of his right hand, but even if I did, the host of Guardians moving into a circle around me would have given away what he was thinking just as clearly. I can’t help flinching back into a worried posture. Blackwood steps closer. I don’t move a muscle and neither does Blackwood. We are locked in an infantile staring contest as his men cut off my escape.
Or at least they think they have.
Blackwood watches me, but his hungry expression doesn’t fall away until I rise from my defensive crouch and smile my very best smile at him.
###
About the Author
DelSheree Gladden lives in New Mexico with her husband and two children. The Southwest is a big influence in her writing because of its culture, beauty, and mythology. Local folk lore is strongly rooted in her writing, particularly ideas of prophecy, destiny, and talents born from natural abilities. When she is not writing, DelSheree is usually teaching yoga, coaching gymnastics, reading, painting, sewing, or studying about teeth as a Dental Hygiene student. Her works include Escaping Fate and the Twin Souls Saga. Look for the next two books in The Destroyer Trilogy, Secret of Betrayal and Darkening Chaos, in winter 2012 and early 2013. Follow sixteen-year-old Libby Sparks as she tries to escape her destiny to destroy the world.
Connect with DelSheree online at:
http://www.delshereegladden.com
Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/DelShereeG
Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/TwinSoulsSaga
http://www.facebook.com/TheDestroyerTrilogy
Book Blog:
&nbs
p; http://theediblebookshelf.blogspot.com/
Goodreads:
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4305414.DelSheree_Gladden
Also by DelSheree Gladden
Escaping Fate
Twin Souls
Book One of the Twin Souls Saga
Shaxoa’s Gift
Book Two of the Twin Souls Saga
Qaletaqa
Book Three of the Twin Souls Saga
Inquest
Book One of the Destroyer Trilogy
Secret of Betrayal
Book Two of the Destroyer Trilogy
Wicked Hunger
Book One: SomeOne Wicked This Way Comes
Coming July 2013
Secret of Betrayal: Book Two of The Destroyer Trilogy Page 35