"Stop it," Jared says, pulling me out of my downward spiral of terrifying thoughts.
"Stop what?"
"Thinking about all the what ifs."
"How do you know that's what I'm doing?"
"Because I know you and you always what if everything." He smiles just a little. "And when you do this little vein starts to pop out right here." He pokes his finger at the center of my forehead.
I gasp and take a step back covering my forehead with my hand. "Really?"
He starts to laugh. "No. I'm totally messing with you." This whole situation is so absurd I start to laugh too. "Finally. I just wanted to hear you laugh one more time before we go in there and...." He doesn't finish, but I have a pretty good idea of what he was going to say anyway.
We're half way up the red sticky stairs when I stop and hug him tightly. People behind us huff in irritation but I don't care.
"Go around," I tell them.
We get shoved to the side against the wall. It makes no difference to me as long as I get to hold my arms around Jared for as long as possible.
Keeping one arm held tightly around my waist, he strokes my hair with his free hand. "It's going to be okay," he tells me for the millionth time. Maybe if he says it a million more this horrible seed of doubt sprouting in my belly will die and I'll truly believe him, because I want to, so much I want to.
I pull away just enough to look up at his face.
He stares down at me then kisses my forehead. "We have a plan and a club full of Guardians in there right now to protect us. All you have to do is have faith."
"Do you?" I ask seriously.
"I have nothing but faith. Faith in you, faith in us, and faith that our Guardian friends in there," He nods his head toward the club at the top of the stairs. "Will kick some serious Fallen butt tonight."
It's hard not to buy into what he's saying, especially when he's looking at me the way he is. If he can have faith, then maybe I can too. Maybe faith is all we can have.
I just hope it's enough.
I kiss him one last time, savoring every precious moment of it. "Here's to keeping the faith." I hold out my hand for him to take and when he does we climb the rest of the stairs and enter the main area of the club where pulse-pounding music is the first thing to greet us.
The place looks exactly how I remember it. Dark walls, blood red floors, and bikini-clad dancers in iron cages in the four corners of the room. To my left - a full length bar, and to my right - tables and chairs, and directly in the middle - a dance floor filled with swaying bodies grinding to the sounds pumping from the massive speakers lining either side of the house DJ set up on the stage. Above us low hanging fans spin without ever actually cooling the room.
Moments later Eric appears behind Jared and I. He places one hand on each of our shoulders. He looks back and forth between us before settling his gaze on me. "Everyone is in position. Will and Logan are looking for Adam as we speak and Owen, Luca, and Cassidy are covering the exits. The rest is up to you two. Are you ready?"
I nod, but what I want to do is scream, Hell No I'm Not Ready, at the top of my lungs like any sane person in my position would do. I thought I could come in here all badass like in my leather get-up, but what I am is terrified of losing everything and chafed in places I'd rather not mention. Our plan to outnumber and outsmart The Fallen may have seemed like a good idea when we came up with it, but now it just seems stupid and completely under thought. I mean, they're fallen angels for Heaven's sake and we're nothing more than puny—although supernaturally gifted—humans. What chance do we really stand against them?
Jared gives my hand an encouraging squeeze. It's not as encouraging as he thinks.
"We can do this," He tells me. I hope so.
Eric disappears somewhere in the crowd as Jared and I make our way towards the middle of the dance floor. Dead center, Blondie's bright yellow hair stands out like a beacon in a sea of brunettes.
The closer we get, the more intense the feeling that we're the one's walking into a trap burns in my gut. Suddenly, I don't know if I can do this. Everything in me wants to grab Jared and flee. We could just turn and run as far away as we can without ever looking back. But then that little voice in my head whispers Adam's name and I know running isn't an option. At least not until I get my brother back.
I steel myself as we approach. Blondie's back is to me, though I have no doubt he's fully aware we're here. In front of him is a girl with a short pixie cut who's face I can't see because—eew. I gag a little at the sight of seeing Blondie kissing this mystery dark haired girl.
Sensing Jared and I watching, Mystery Girls eyes spring open and she tilts her head to the side giving us a full view of her face. My jaw clenches, my hands balling into fists as I watch her smile the same way Blondie does, like it's all some big game we're playing for fun.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Zoe.
Looking at that sick smile of hers brings back all the horrible memories of all the horrible things she's done. The mind controlling. The attempted murder of me through the hands of my best friend as well as myself. Her betrayal against her family and friends resulting in the deaths of so many that didn't deserve to die.
Like Sam.
Sam and I may not be linked like we were before, but I'll never forget the way he felt when Blondie stole his life away, or the way the symbol reacted when Zoe touched it that day at the church. It burned and dulled and left a hollow feeling inside as if a piece of me were ripped out with vicious hands, because that's how he felt when he realized it was Zoe who had betrayed him.
Suddenly, Eric is standing right beside me, breath held, eyes glued to a sister he's struggling to recognize. I know he and Will have this notion they can save her, but watching her with Blondie, I don't think there's anything left to save. Whatever Zoe they knew, or think they know, is gone, providing that version of her ever truly existed at all to begin with.
Blondie's lips curve at the edges, his ice blue eyes dancing with pleasure as he watches Eric suffer at his sister's obvious lack of better judgment.
The crowd standing between our two sides disburses without my really noticing until there's no one left separating us from Blondie and Zoe.
The symbol on my wrist glows warm and bright the light visible from under my sleeve. The grin on Blondie's face widens at seeing it and all I want to do is rip that smile, right off his face. One of these times his over confidence will be the death of him and I really, really, hope that tonight will be that night.
"So glad you could make it Hanna." The sound of his voice is cheerful. It crawls over my skin. "And you didn't think she'd come Zoe, but here she is and she even brought what I asked for."
Jared stiffens at my side, the pulse at his neck fluttering rapidly. I tighten my grip on his hand. I have no intention of letting Blondie take him from me.
"Where's my brother?" I demand, surprised at the amount of strength in my voice.
Blondie waves his hand nonchalantly. "Oh, he's around here somewhere. But if you want him..." His gaze turns to Jared, the ever-present malicious smile constantly etched on his face tugging at the corners of his mouth.
"Not until I see my brother and I know he's okay. For all I know you've already killed him." Please, please don't let Adam be dead, I silently pray. Please say Will and Logan found him and he's okay. Please just let him be okay.
Looking offended, Blondie places a hand over his chest. "My, my Hanna, don't you trust me?"
Hell no, I don't trust you, you evil son of a bitch, is what I want to say, but what comes out is, "Those are my terms. And if it turns out Adam's dead, I swear I will kill you right here, right now."
The pupils of his eyes begin to dilate until there's only an icy ring of blue surrounding the darkness. "Promise?"
I dig my nails into the palm of my hand suppressing the urge to release the blade hidden under my sleeve. A flex of my wrist and a step forward is all it would take to stab him right through the heart.
/> Jared squeezes my hand in the tiniest of ways. From the corner of my eye, I see him almost imperceptibly shake his head.
"Hanna!" A familiar voice yells. I look over to see Kat pushing her way through the crowd, angering everyone she's knocking out of the way. It's not until she's standing next to me that she notices Jared.
"Jared? Oh my God." She throws herself at him tearing his hand free from mine. "You're okay. Everyone's been so worried." He awkwardly hugs her back until she pulls away. "Where have you been?" Her dark brown eyes flick rapidly between Jared and I like she's trying to figure something out.
Shifting uncomfortably, Jared doesn't answer and it's only then that Kat seems to pick up on the barely contained tension between everyone standing here. She looks at Blondie and Zoe with suspicious interest then shifts her gaze to Jared, Eric, and I. "What's going on?" Her eyes drop to my wrist. "And why the hell is your arm glowing?"
I tug the hem of my sleeve down, careful not to trigger the mechanism holding the knife there in place. "I'll explain later, but right now you need to go," I say harsher than intended.
She narrows her eyes. "No. I think you should explain now. You owe me at least that much." Not so subtlety, she points to her eye. Most of the bruising from where I'd hit her is hidden under carefully crafted make-up, but you can still see the darker parts bleeding through.
Blondie watches Kat with an amused interest that's making me nervous. What if he decides to play a little game with her too? What if those inhuman eyes of his turn completely black and bottomless and—
I don't even want to think about it. I just want her to go while she still has a chance at being left out of this mess.
"Kat, you need to leave. Now," I say it through gritted teeth and as mean as I can.
She flinches at the tone of my voice then further narrows her eyes into slits as she places her hands on her hips. Her what did you just say to me, move. "No. No more lies Hanna. I know there's something not right going on with you and I demand to know what it is." I don't answer and she crosses her arm over her chest, the toe of her boot tapping the floor. "I'm not leaving until you start talking, starting with where Jared's been all this time and why you're hanging out with Officer Hottie?"
At being called Officer Hottie, Eric tears his eyes away from Zoe long enough to give Kat a bewildered one raised eyebrow look.
"Kat please, I need you to leave." I try being nice now, practically pleading.
"Well this is boring," Blondie announces. He glances down at Zoe. "What do you say we make things a little more fun?" What's left of the blue in his eyes seeps into the darkness until there's nothing left but deep dark black.
"It's about time." The smile forming on Zoe's face is a carbon copy of Blondie's—cold and calculating. She winks at Eric before closing her eyes. Whispered words move past her lips. Every person who's not supernaturally gifted in some way suddenly freezes. In unison, they turn so they're facing us, their eyes focused yet vacant.
Zoe's mind controlling them all.
Blondie smiles at the now discovered Guardians mixed in among the crowd of frozen bodies. "Now, it's getting interesting." As soon as the words leave his mouth more Fallen than I can count break free from the cover of the crowd followed by total and utter chaos.
Eric takes a step closer to Jared and I and is met with a knife to the lower back from an approaching Fallen. Eric swings his elbow back, slamming it into the side of the Fallen guy's jaw, knocking him back a few steps. Moving swiftly, Eric rips the knife from his back, then stabs the Fallen guy through the heart with it.
Releasing the blade hidden up my sleeve, I pull Jared behind me. "Don't come any closer," I warn Blondie before he can take another step.
"And if I do?" He counters.
I hold the blade out in front of me with a surprisingly steady hand. "Take another step and find out." The smile on Blondie's face widens as I maneuver Jared and I toward the staircase behind us. Blondie doesn't advance and I quickly discover the reason why when I glance over my shoulder. A section of Zoe's mind controlled army of club goers has moved in front of the stairs, blocking our way out.
My heart starts to pound harder in my chest as I look around the room. Everywhere bodies shift blocking every exit until we're surrounded on all sides.
He's trapping us.
Suddenly, Cassidy comes flying through the air over a wall of bodies, landing in a flawless crouch with a long blade held in each hand, separating Blondie from Jared and I. "Hanna, take Jared out through the emergency exit in the back. There are Guardians waiting in the alley to take him someplace safe," she instructs without ever taking her eyes off of Blondie. "I'll handle him." She juts her chin out at Blondie, who smiles welcomingly.
Guardians in the alley? That wasn't part of the plan. Unless...
Thomas.
The Guardians in the alley are the one's loyal to Thomas, just like Cassidy. I bet that's who she's been texting all day long. The nasty looks, the constant staring at Jared like he's a monster. I bet it's been her plan since the beginning to take Jared away from us right out from under our noses so Thomas can lock him up until he turns eighteen.
Or worse. Will said Thomas was capable of worse.
"Go!" Cassidy yells.
I don't know what to do? Fallen and Guardians are fighting everywhere I look. The club goers, including Kat, are under Zoe's influence, blocking every move I make. There's no sign of Will or Logan anywhere, which means my brother is still stashed somewhere possibly bleeding to death. And Blondie. I know there's no way he's going to let us all out of here unscathed. But if I hand Jared over to Thomas, will he really be any safer than he is right now with me?
"Go!" Cassidy yells once again.
There's no good decision to make, but if I absolutely have to choose, then I guess Thomas is the lesser evil out of my limited options.
I grab ahold of Jared as tight as I can, pulling him so close it's a miracle we're not tripping over each other's feet as I begin inching us toward the emergency door, though I have no idea how we're going to get through the mass of bodies blocking it once we get there.
I keep my eye on Blondie as we go while simultaneously watching all the mind controlled zombies along with the ongoing battle between the Fallen and Guardians throughout the club. Scary still, like a snake poised for the right moment to attack, Blondie watches my every move. The weight of his eyes slithers over my skin and I shiver involuntarily, but I don't stop.
Jared and I make it another three steps when the crowd around us closes in, pushing us back. From the corner of my eye I see Blondie smile.
“You're going to have to use it," Jared tells me.
"Use what?"
"Your telekinesis."
"I can't. What if I hurt someone?" All the times I've fully unleashed it I've destroyed. For a brief moment my mind wanders back to the way the woods above Lake Haven looked after I had split the ground in two and toppled hundred-year-old trees. My heart starts to beat faster. There are so many people here, so many who could get hurt.
I look at all the innocent people trapped by Zoe's mind control, to Jared, then finally to Blondie. He dances around Cassidy's attacks with ease. His eye catches mine and he winks.
I look at the crowd once more, contemplating how I can get Jared and I through without causing too much damage.
"Maybe you can use it on Zoe,” Jared suggests. “Do to her what you did to Cassidy. Maybe she'll lose her hold on all these people."
I kiss him quickly on the cheek. "Jared, you're a genius."
"I do have my moments."
Taking a deep breath I concentrate on Zoe, focusing all of my thoughts on her. The glow of the symbol on my wrist brightens, energy tingling beneath the surface. Everything around me fades until she's all I see. I squeeze my hand tight imagining that it's her I'm crushing. A scream rips from her throat. I squeeze tighter. A few of the people around me seem to be waking, gaining control of themselves.
It's working.
T
he ground beneath me begins to shake and I stumble backwards losing my hold on Zoe. She falls to her knees, her dark blue eyes bottomless pits of hatred directed straight at me, but it's not her I'm worried about. Standing beside her, Blondie is eerily still and at his feet is Cassidy's body in an unmoving heap. Face completely expressionless, he lifts his hand, his index finger wagging back and forth; a gesture that I've done something wrong and I'm about to be punished.
Blondie's mouth pulls into a wicked grin. He stomps his foot and as soon as it hits the ground a wave of energy blasts out throwing everyone—with the exception of he and Zoe—against the walls. Jared's hand rips from mine and I lose him in the storm of flying bodies.
Completely free from Zoe's mind control people scream and cry, shoving and pushing one another in a desperate attempt to get out. Caught in the chaos, I don't see Jared anywhere and my panic level rises, my heart slamming so hard in my chest my ribs are on the verge of cracking open.
"Jared!" I scream his name hoping to hear a response. I concentrate, focusing all of my energy as my senses sharpen.
I hear him.
I shove my way through the horde of people trying and failing to make it out of exits that now appear to be sealed shut. From the corner of my eye, I spot Jared's ball cap. Turning sharply to the right, I nearly trip over Cassidy crawling on her hands and knees over the floor. Dark reddish black lines are forming on the side of her neck and over the tops of her hands.
I hesitate for just a second, seriously considering leaving her there before thinking better of it. No matter how much I hate her I'm not the type of person who can walk away from someone in her current condition. I scan the people closest to me looking for anyone who can help.
She grabs ahold of my ankle. "Did you get him out?" Her jaw is locked, teeth clenched, face held in a grimace.
"No, we were separated."
"Then go find him!" She yells.
A Guardian ten feet away and to my left sinks his blade into the chest of a Fallen who crumbles to dust at his feet. "Hey you!" I yell gaining his attention. He has blood smeared down the right side of his face with no wound to show for it. "I need you to help her," I say when he gets closer, indicating Cassidy who's now lying face down on the floor. For half a second I think maybe it's too late for her, but then I see her breathe. "Help her," I instruct the guy standing before me. Leaving him to attend to Cassidy, I resume my search for Jared.
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