“Are you not the Master Destroyer? Summon them,” said Kai.
“Why didn’t I just do that from Arkansas?”
“Because people like that could do a lot of damage, on their way from Orlando to Arkansas. There is a reason they are here. We need to find out what it is first.”
“Where should we meet?”
“That depends. What’s our goal?”
“Bleed them dry of information and then suck out their power.”
Kai grinned. “You are turning into quite the little vampire. I think you enjoy this a little too much.”
“These are the guys who killed Alejandro. They deserve to have their power sucked dry. I’ll persuade them to confess to the police as well. I won’t pull a Mr. Yerdin again.”
“Okay. But I want to do a little recon first. I’m curious, why Orlando? We are going to go visit one of my contacts, then I’ll have you summon them.”
Kai rented a car and we drove out to the suburbs. Technically, he wasn’t old enough to rent a vehicle, but Guardians and Destroyers could influence people to overlook silly things like age. Neighborhoods sprawled in all directions. It looked a little like Fayetteville. The Walmart boom in Arkansas had brought in a lot of new neighborhoods just like this.
Eventually, Kai turned into a gated neighborhood and punched in a code to open the gate.
“You are very familiar with this area.”
“Yeah, I come down here quite a bit. My contact lives with my mom.” He frowned. “Not that I approve of their relationship, but it is what it is. He’s on the Guardian council. Neal. You’ve met him, right?”
“Yes. Why didn’t you tell me you were meeting with other Guardians?”
“I didn’t see the point.” He parked the car in the driveway but didn’t move to get out of the car. “There’s something else you should know.”
“What’s that?” I asked, looking at the sprawling ranch.
“Ruth lives here, too.”
“What?” I flung open the door. Questions flew through my mind. Why was Ruth living with Kai’s mom? Why didn’t Kai tell me? What the hell was going on? But at that moment, I didn’t care. I wanted to see her. More than anything.
Kai scrambled out of the car after me. “You know about Ruth’s condition right?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You didn’t know?”
“Know what?”
“That bastard of a father of hers got her pregnant. She’s about ready to pop. She’s giving the baby up for adoption. She said she would never be able to look at it without thinking of her dad. Plus, since the child’s dad is also the grandpa, there could be some unforeseen medical problems. It’s better this way.”
I had forgotten. When I found out that Ruth’s foster parents had been killed, I had also found out that Ruth was pregnant. It was a detail that didn’t register until now. That was several months ago. She must be close to having the baby.
“You seem to know an awful lot about her.”
“Yeah, I’ve kept pretty close tabs on her.”
“But that’s not what you said…”
Kai pushed open the door and I followed him. Of course, I had a gazillion questions. He lied to me. A lot. But it would have to wait until after I got my arms around my very best friend.
We found Ruth struggling to get out of a chair. She heaved herself up and flung herself at Kai. He hugged her and then stepped back. She beamed at me.
“Naomi,” she squealed. She hugged me tight, her curly hair suffocating me.
“How much longer do you have?” I asked, pointing to her enormous stomach.
“No more than a week or two. I’m so ready for this to be over. Then, I can get back to normal life. School’s been a royal pain. Everyone always assumes the worst.”
A tall woman appeared in the doorway. Kai gave her a hug and introduced me. “Naomi, this is my mother. Mom, this is Naomi, my girlfriend.”
His mother scowled. “Puck says she’s his girlfriend.”
“Well, Puck is mistaken.”
I kept my mouth shut. I was surprised by how much she knew. Neither Kai nor Puck ever talked about her, but she knew enough about their lives to know they both wanted me.
Ruth seemed oblivious to the whole conversation. She sat back down, breathing hard.
“You okay?” I asked.
“Yeah, it’s just hard being this big. Truthfully, I can’t wait for it to be over. The family that’s going to adopt is fantastic. They are going to be in the delivery room with me and everything.”
“Do you know if it will be a boy or a girl?”
“It’s a girl. They said they are going to name her Katelyn.”
She seemed to be taking it extremely well. Though, she’d had a lot more time to get used to it than I had. I could hear Kai arguing with his mom in the background. Then, the front door opened and everyone turned to look.
“Neal,” I said and nodded at him.
Neal went over and kissed Kai’s mother on the lips. Kai left them alone and sat on the edge of Ruth’s chair. His face softened when he looked at her.
“How are you doing?”
“I’m fine.”
“Kai, how do your mom and Neal know each other?”
He frowned. “They’re married. It’s ridiculous. He’s like twice her age. I don’t know what she was thinking.”
Ah. So that’s where the animosity came from.
“I want ice cream, will you guys take me out?” asked Ruth.
“Of course. But first, I need to talk to Neal. Will you two be okay?”
He was trying to leave me out of the conversation. Not going to happen. As much as I loved Ruth and couldn’t wait to catch up with her, this was more important. We could go get ice cream later.
“I need to talk to Neal, too. Ruth, we’ll catch up when we are done.” The smile fell from her face and she sank back into the couch. I leaned over and gave her a hug. “I missed you so much. I promise we’ll have a chance to talk, but I’m caught up in some pretty intense stuff that I have to take care of.” She nodded, but I could still see the disappointment on her face.
Kai and I followed Neal outside.
Neal turned on Kai the second the door closed. “Kai, do you know that coming here is unwise right now? You’ll bring attention to yourself, by meeting with Guardians. I thought we went over this the last time you showed up.”
“This is different. The punks who murdered Alejandro are here, in Orlando. You gotta talk to Puck. They’re Guardians.”
Neal creased his eyebrows. “Impossible.”
“Romeo and Hayden.”
Neal’s face paled. “They were here a couple of hours ago. They asked how you and Naomi were getting on.”
Kai clenched his fist and his face went red. “You let them in? You risked Ruth’s safety?”
“They’re Guardians.”
Kai glared at Neal and got out his phone. He started scrolling through his contacts. “Naomi, go say goodbye to Ruth, we are going to take care of this now.”
I found Ruth on the couch now, with a bowl of ice cream in her lap. I sat next to her and she put her arm around me.
“I’ve missed you so much. I don’t like the girls here.”
I grinned.
“I know what you mean. I can’t find anyone like you. All this time I thought you were dead, and I was devastated.”
She frowned. “I wanted to call you, but Kai’s mom wouldn’t let me. She said it would put both of us in danger. When Kai told me you wanted to talk to me, I realized that I could’ve been talking to you for months. I was so mad, I stopped talking to him for three whole days.”
“Is there something going on between you and Kai?”
She answered a little too quickly. “No. But he’s been my best friend, since I couldn’t talk to you. We talk almost every day.”
More lies. Kai let me believe Ruth was dead, and then pretended he barely knew her. Why did he keep her from me?
Kai
came into the house and I had every intention of confronting him right then and there, but his face was pale.
“Two minor Guardians were just found dead outside the front gate of Epcot. This is bad. Naomi, you need to summon Romeo and Hayden.”
“Where should I call them to? We don’t really want them coming back here.”
Kai rattled off an address. “Tell them to meet us in one hour.” Ruth seemed entirely unbothered by the whole thing. I wondered how much she knew.
I sent out the command; Ruth gripped my hand. “Naomi, my water just broke.”
“What?”
She squeezed my hand harder. “Seriously, I need to go to the hospital.”
Kai rushed to her side. “Are you okay?”
She nodded, her faced pinched. “Hospital, now.”
“Mom!” Kai called
Kai’s mom and Neal came rushing into the room. They helped Ruth into the car. Kai held me back.
“We have to take care of Romeo and Hayden. We can’t go with Ruth.”
My heart ached to help her, but I knew she’d be fine. They’d been taking care of her for a long time.
Kai drove quickly to the place where Romeo and Hayden were commanded to come.
“Naomi, are you going to be okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Well, we are literally going to face the person who killed Alejandro. I saw what you did with Mr. Yerdin. Will you be okay with Romeo?”
“Give me a little credit. Where are we going anyway?”
“We are meeting at Frankie’s house. He’s a good Destroyer and understands the importance of returning to balance. He was actually the first one I considered to take over when I’m done.”
I nodded.
“That choice isn’t mine anymore, is it?”
“No. It’s mine. Loyal or not, I already have the person who will take over when I’m done. Which will be soon. I can’t stand this anymore. As soon as the Guardian killings stop, I’m finished.”
“What if you can’t be?”
“You mean what if I can’t send the Master Destroyer energy into someone else?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I’ll do what I have to do. I won’t be happy about it though.”
We drove out of the nice part of Orlando and into a neighborhood where the houses were small and squat, and the windows all had bars on them. Kai found the house he was looking for and stopped. We were early. Romeo and Hayden wouldn’t be there for another fifteen minutes or so.
We knocked on the faded wood door and Frankie, from Kai’s council, answered. He shook Kai’s hand, then looked at me curiously.
“Why’d you bring the girl? I was under the impression that you were going to knock some sense into a few rogue Destroyers.”
I rolled my eyes. Not this again. “Sir, I don’t mean to be rude, but men aren’t the only ones capable of knocking sense into others. If you watch carefully, you might learn a thing or two about how we do it.”
He laughed. “Forgot how feisty you are. Come on in. Your friends aren’t here yet.”
The house smelled of cigarette smoke and onions. It was almost as bad as Dwayne’s breath. The furniture was old and torn, but fairly clean. I sat down on a loveseat and Kai sat next to me.
“How’s your mother?” the man asked Kai.
“Good. Happy, I think.”
The man nodded. “So, Kai, you never told me how you came to be with the Destroyers. I was under the impression that you were raised by Guardians.”
“I never forgot my father or what he did. I guess it called to me.”
The man leaned back and appeared to think for a minute.
“But you still have some feelings for those who raised you.”
Kai cocked his head.
“What are you talking about?”
“I never felt a command as strong as when you told us to stop killing Guardians. I’m sure glad you figured out how to control the power.”
“What makes you think I can control it?”
The man laughed. “Those men you are waiting for aren’t coming because you asked. They are coming because they were commanded.”
There was a knock on the door. My stomach lurched. This was the moment of truth.
Romeo and Hayden walked in, looking every bit as cocky as they did when they were in Alejandro’s house.
I’d never really hated anyone before. Not even my mother, but right now, I hated these two.
Romeo spoke to Hayden, “You see. People always do what you expect them to. They walked right into this one. By the time they get home, it will be too late.”
I got right up into Romeo’s face. “What the hell are you talking about?”
He laughed and closed the gap between us, wrapping his arm around my waist. “You are looking lovely, Naomi. Why don’t we take this party to the bedroom? That way we can make sure you don’t get home in time.”
Before I could so much as think, Kai had pulled me out of Romeo’s embrace and punched him in the gut. Romeo grunted and stood back up, looking murderously at Kai.
Don’t hit back.
He shook his head. “Damn Master. I can’t wait for him to die. How the hell does he know what’s going on here, anyway? Where’s the camera?”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, thoroughly confused. Who did they think the Master was?
He grinned.
“You two have done such a good job at protecting him. Except now he’s going to die and the real Master can take over once again. All because we lured you to Florida. We are going to be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams.”
I stepped back. Nothing he said was making any sense. It was time to pull the story out of him.
Tell us everything you know about the killing of the Guardians.
He gripped his head. He concentrated very hard for a second and then groaned.
“It was never about killing Guardians.”
“Keep going. Start from the beginning.”
Romeo fidgeted with his phone for a second, and then he started pacing. Kai watched his every move, and Frankie stood by the door. But I didn’t worry about it. He couldn’t leave until he told me what I wanted to know. That was the power of the Master Destroyer. Romeo gripped his head and moaned again. Finally, he started talking.
“I’d always played both sides. Destroyer and Guardian. The Guardians appealed to me because they lead a more sophisticated lifestyle. I don’t like getting my hands dirty. But then Alejandro gave Las Vegas to Puck instead of me. Bastard.”
“He told me that San Francisco would be open in a couple of years and I could have that one. But I didn’t want to wait. I’d heard rumors of a powerful Destroyer who had lost all of his power and just needed a little help getting it back. I was training Hayden at the time and he was willing to come along for the ride.”
“That’s right, bitches.”
“Shut up.” Kai and I both said at the same time.
“I met with this Destroyer and he told me of his plan. He was angry and his plans revolved around revenge. Which was fine by me. He wanted Guardians killed. A lot of them. He wanted to take out the leadership so that when he took over, the Guardians would be weak. Plus, power is transferred in the killing. He wanted to take their power.”
“Did it work?”
He looked confused.
“When he killed a Guardian and took their power, did it work?”
“Oh, no. It didn’t. Pissed him off so bad.”
“What is his name?”
“Don’t know. Little guy though. Skinny, high pitched voice. Always wore a hoodie and a mask when he met with us.” He stopped for a second and scratched his head. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. We killed Alejandro.” He grinned. “That was a pleasure. They let me try to take his power. Wanted to see if would work for me.”
“Did it?”
“Yeah. What a rush.” He frowned.
“Wait,” I said, turning to Kai. “Why did that work? I thought that only…”<
br />
Kai cut me off. “When a Destroyer kills anyone with power they get the power from the dead Destroyer, Guardian, or Shade.” This was not good news. But also explained why the leader of the Destroyers needed to be strong. He wouldn’t want his followers killing each other or us because then they might become more powerful than him.
“Keep going,” I said to Romeo.
“I had to bring Alejandro’s head to you. The man insisted on it. But the idiot Master sent out a new command and we couldn’t kill them anymore. But the man said that if we couldn’t kill them, then we could influence others to do it for us. The leaders were hard to get at though, so we just found minor Guardians instead.
“But then a new command said we couldn’t do that anymore either. By then, we’d found another Destroyer, Dwayne, whose power had been taken, and he was more than willing to kill Guardians without any influence from us. He’d kill them and then let Hayden and I take the power. I’m more powerful than most Guardians or Destroyers at this point. Hayden as well.”
Hayden grinned. Holy crap. My stomach tensed. Would this problem ever end? Or would it just be chasing one murderer after another? I squeezed my eyes shut for a minute and tried to focus on the problem at hand. The one I could take care of now, instead of the ones that were out of my reach.
“Why’d you lure us out to Florida?”
“That was the man’s idea. He said that if we killed a couple of minor Guardians in Florida, you two would come running to investigate. Then he could murder the Master Destroyer, because you wouldn’t be there to protect him anymore.”
My dad. I whipped my phone out and dialed. The phone rang and rang. No answer. Dammit.
“Kai, we have to go. Now.”
He nodded. “But first you need to take care of these two.” Kai was right. We’d get to my dad in time, but if we left these two with their power, worse things could happen.
I gripped Romeo’s hand. I needed to take it all. He’d told me a lot more than he realized. He’d told me that if someone didn’t have any power, they couldn’t take it from someone. But if they had even a little bit, they could murder for more. I knew this meant he might never confess to the crimes or be served justice for the hand he played in Alejandro’s murder. That was a risk I had to take to ensure he never did anything like this ever again.
The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies Page 42