We sat down on the rocks. I picked up a flat stone and skipped it. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“If I had learned to control the Master Destroyer power earlier, I could’ve prevented many deaths. Including Alejandro’s.” Naomi pulled up her knees to her chest. She was carrying so much death on her shoulders. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. Not that Naomi was responsible, but she still felt like she was.
“You know, Puck thinks if you become a Guardian, you can help prevent a lot of bad things that Destroyers do,” I said.
She grimaced. “I’m not going to become a Guardian.”
This wasn’t really news to me, but it was the first time she’d ever said it out loud.
“So what’s your plan? To stay a Shade?”
“Yes. But there’s more than that.”
“Okay. What’s that?”
She hesitated and wouldn’t look at me. “I’m going to start my own group. One that is just made up of female Shades. We are going to mediate between the Guardians and the Destroyers.”
I creased my eyebrows. “Did Puck agree to this? What about Jason? I know you’ve been talking to him.”
She sighed. “Puck doesn’t know and Jason thinks it’s a stupid idea.”
“Why’d you tell Jason and not Puck?”
She paused for a second. “I had less to lose by telling Jason. Based on his reaction, I knew I couldn’t tell Puck.”
“So why are you doing it?” This didn’t make sense. If she wasn’t going to have the support from anyone, then she risked losing everyone she loved.
“Because I don’t feel safe with either the Guardians or the Destroyers. I want women to feel safe using their power.”
“You don’t think Puck and Jason are going to fight you on this?”
“Of course they are, but they’ll get over it.” She shrugged and fiddled with a few rocks.
“When are you going to tell them?”
“After I have enough Shades to make me a threat.” She’d need a lot. There were thousands of Guardians and Destroyers.
“And exactly how are you going to do that?”
“Hopefully with you. I haven’t talked to Elizabeth yet, but I expect she’s going to be a huge help. I’m done keeping secrets from you though. From here on out, we are in this together. I completely underestimated you before and I won’t make that mistake again. What do you say? Will you be my partner in this?”
“Yes,” I said a little too quickly. I wiped the sweat off my forehead and looked at the creek. I wish I had brought my swimsuit because I would totally be in the water right now. It was so stinking hot.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about her plan. I thought it was a good idea, but I had a secret too. The power Naomi gave me came from a Guardian—not a Shade. It didn’t take me more than two minutes to realize that I was different. The power itself was different from a Shade’s. When I was a Shade, I knew I was strong. I could do more than most. But this felt different. I felt warm and sunny and I didn’t have to work for it. There was no darkness. Shade energy has an edge to it. But this one did not. I was a Guardian.
Which was exactly what I wanted. Though this power was far weaker than I was used to. I wanted to be excited by this, but given that Naomi couldn’t tell meant that I’d be keeping it a secret. At least for now. Puck would be thrilled. I was too, to some degree, but for some reason I was dreading keeping this stupid secret. Maybe I should just tell her.
Why couldn’t Naomi sense it? Did she just assume I would still be a Shade? Maybe my new power was too weak for her to detect a difference, plus she really didn’t seem to be focusing on it right now.
Naomi exhaled. “So if Puck brings up this nonsense about you becoming a Guardian, you’ll tell him to drop it?”
Of course, that was the first thing she asked me. How could she not see that I was already a Guardian?
“I’ll tell him I’m not ready.” He’d probably be able to tell though. Just when I thought I was done keeping stupid secrets.
A blue crane flew along the creek and we both watched him for a moment. He was beautiful and graceful. There were times when I wished I were a bird or an animal. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with all this.
“Are you ready for a job?” Naomi asked.
I snorted. “I’m not sure I’ve recovered from the last job yet.”
She nodded. “I know, but things will move fast. Leadership sucks sometimes but I meant it when I said we’re in this together. I want to lead the Sister Shades with you by my side.”
I giggled. “Is that what you want to call us? Sister Shades? It sounds like a nunnery.”
Her face reddened. “I hadn’t thought that much about it. But we need a name.”
“Yeah, let’s brainstorm that later. Maybe Elizabeth or the girls will have better ideas.”
I took off my flip-flops and waded out into the creek, enjoying the cool flow of water over my feet. I shouldn’t have agreed to lead this with her. Then I could just be neutral. I didn’t want to get between her and Puck or have to worry about saying anything I shouldn’t to Jordan. It wouldn’t be possible to back out now. If I was a Guardian then I wasn’t betraying anyone. But if I stayed on this path with Naomi, I’d be betraying not only Puck, but Wyatt and Jordan too.
“What do you need me to do?”
“Puck’s going to ask you to go on a recruiting mission with him. I want you to go.”
“Isn’t he a little high up on the food chain to go on recruiting missions?” That was Minor Guardian stuff.
“This is no ordinary recruitment. Do you remember when I took you into Puck’s closet before you left for Tombstone?”
“Yeah. All the walls lit up with a massive map.”
“Do you remember the white spots?”
“Of course. That’s why you wanted me to go to Tombstone. It was white, which meant that there were no Guardians there.” I snorted. Yeah, right.
“Tombstone wasn’t the only white space. Alejandro left Puck a list of all the secret Guardian groups that he knew about, told him that if something major happened with the Destroyers then Puck needed to warn them. But after what happened in Tombstone, Puck’s going to bring them all into the main fold.”
“Why does he want me to go?” I felt a tickling on my feet and saw small minnows swarming around them.
“Puck has already sent out Minor Guardians, and not one could find anything. You were in Tombstone for only a few weeks and not only did you find the group of Guardians, you found the girls too.”
That made sense. I was good at finding people, but I didn’t see what Naomi had to gain by my going.
“Why do you want me to go?”
Naomi smiled. “Isn’t is obvious? You’re going to help Puck find his group of boys, but while he’s distracted by them, you are going to find the groups of women and send them to me. But, and this is serious, you can’t tell Puck. Until we can make a stand, he cannot know.”
“What makes you think that I’ll find entire groups of women?”
She shrugged. “A hunch. Honestly, I could be completely wrong. It’s possible they’ll be scattered around. But I think they’ll be there. Look at Tombstone.”
“Do you really think I’m capable of this? My new power is too weak. What if I’ve lost my abilities?”
“You are letting your weak power be too much of a crutch. Trust yourself. I do.”
While I was excited about the prospect of going on recruiting missions with Puck, I was a little nervous about the secrecy of the whole thing. I liked Puck too much.
“Naomi, can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but why are you doing this to Puck? I thought you loved him.”
Naomi ran a hand over her face. “I do love Puck. But I love myself too, and I have to make some sacrifices to do the right thing. Women Shades have been oppressed for too long. If we simply try to join the Guardians it will take years before we are fully represented o
r respected, but if we start our own group, we’ll be a formidable force in no time. Plus there is a serious need for a mediator group. We’ll intervene in Guardian and Destroyer disputes and facilitate peace. It’s the perfect position for us, actually.”
Somehow I didn’t think the boys would see it that way. Plus, that’s not what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a Guardian. I wanted to make people happy. Was that really so bad?
Naomi stood up. “Time for us to go. My dad is going to be upset that this visit is so short, but we’ve got things to do. Come on. Besides, everyone else is dying to see how you do with your new power.”
I groaned. Another stupid airplane.
A few hours after we arrived back in Vegas, Naomi gathered Elizabeth, Andrea, Beth, and I into the library and shut all the doors. Puck and Jordan were out somewhere and Ginny was at work. The only people who could possibly interrupt us were little Ale or Lupe.
To my surprise, instead of telling everyone of her plan, Naomi started with a question.
“Elizabeth, I know virtually nothing about women Shades. I know we can take power from the boys but what else makes us unique? You’ve been doing this far longer than the rest of us.”
Beth laughed and answered for her grandmother. “For one thing, we aren’t born with it.”
Naomi creased her eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know I can modify memories, right? Well, I wasn’t born with it, I learned it. Because of Wyatt. We gain powers by hanging out with Guardians. That’s why we often take on and mimic the powers of the people we hang out with most often. The effect is even stronger if there’s kissing involved. Some girls are better at absorbing power than others, but basically anywhere you find a group of Guardians or Destroyers, you’ll find female Shades.”
As Beth talked, I began to understand that Naomi’s hunch was more than just a guess. In fact, I got the distinct feeling that she didn’t tell me all of what she knew. But why would she lie to me? I hated not knowing if I could trust her or not. But she was right, I would find groups of girls wherever Puck and I would go. My head began to spin. This had so many implications. Potentially there were thousands of girls who were Shades. Not only that, but if we found a girl that would be an asset but didn’t have any power all we’d have to do is throw her in with a few Guardians and bam, InstaShade. But before I could get a question out, the library door was flung open.
“Sunny!” cried little Ale as he ran into the room and threw his arms around my legs. I’d only been gone a couple of days. He acted like it’d been years.
“Where’s Lupe? We’re having a meeting. You can’t be in here.”
He crossed his chubby little arms and pouted. “But I want to color. Lupe won’t color. Sunny colors.”
“Maybe later, kiddo.”
His nose began to twitch and I knew what coming. Before the first wail, Lupe came running into the room.
“I’m so sorry, Miss Sunday. I put the cereal away in the pantry and when I turned around he was gone.”
I grinned at her. Little Ale was a handful for everyone; I didn’t know how she did it.
“No problem. We’ll lock the door so he can’t get in.”
Lupe picked him up and he began to thrash and wail. She left the room and I latched the door behind her. We could still hear his screams.
I sat back down and thought back to what Beth had said.
“Wait, does that mean that even if Naomi hadn’t given me power, I would’ve gotten it anyway just by hanging out with the Guardians?”
Beth nodded. “I don’t know how long it takes. Now that you have some power, it shouldn’t take you long to build up more. Especially if you go make out with that hottie Jordan.” She waved her hand in front of her face. “But I’m still confused as to who you are with. Jordan or Wyatt?”
My stomach knotted. That was the furthest thing from my brain. But I was excited that I could make my power stronger. “I don’t know. It’s really not important right now. Has anyone heard from Wyatt or Morgan since we left?”
Andrea and Beth both dropped their eyes.
Andrea squeezed her eyes shut and answered. “No. Neither will respond to any of my messages and when I try to call it goes straight to voicemail.”
I looked at Beth. “Have you tried?”
She shook her head.
Andrea sniffed. “Of course she didn’t try. She doesn’t really care about either one of them.”
Beth clenched her fists. “You know that’s not true. What makes you think I could get through if you can’t? Besides, they are doing undercover work. If we keep calling, we’ll blow their cover.”
Andrea stood up and got in her face. “We don’t know that! That is just your stupid theory. For all we know, they could be locked up or dead. Plus, Julio said he had them.”
Beth shoved Andrea away. “Puck said we needed to give them a few more days to see if they are gathering intel.”
Andrea threw her arms up in the air. “So Puck’s a God now? He can see all? Grow up, Beth. You know as well as I do that it’s not true.”
Quite frankly, I was enjoying the show. It’d been a long time since Beth and Andrea had a good fight. But my stomach knotted when I thought of the boys. I wouldn’t say it out loud but I agreed with Andrea. Elizabeth got in between the girls.
“Calm down, both of you. Puck said he wants to wait a few more days. If we still don’t hear anything, then he’ll send a group down there to do some reconnaissance.”
Andrea took a few deep breaths then sat back down. Beth went and leaned against a bookshelf with her arms crossed. I nodded, still uneasy. Aside from the phone calls we’d gotten at Elizabeth’s place, it was like Julio’s group had just disappeared.
Naomi spent the rest of the time sharing her plan of starting a new group with Elizabeth and the girls. She didn’t leave out many details, but she didn’t say anything about me going recruiting with Puck. She asked if they would help train the new girls, especially in teaching them how to build shields and defense.
“We’ll need our own headquarters,” Beth said.
“And a name,” I said.
“We’ll get to the name. As far as headquarters, I don’t want be too far from Puck,” said Naomi.
Andrea spoke up. “Our power is strongest when we are around Guardians, so staying close to the Guardian headquarters makes a lot of sense. Course once we build up enough power within our group, just being around each other should be enough.”
“Yeah, speaking of that, exactly how do I make my power stronger?”
Beth grinned. “You need to spend as much time as possible with them. Kissing helps. I knew long before Wyatt did that kissing strengthened both of our powers.”
Naomi’s eyes went wide.
“What’s up?” I asked.
She shook her head. “I’ll tell you later.”
Elizabeth frowned. “No offense dear, but if you expect us to be on your side, you need to be open with us. It sounds like we are entering uncharted territory here. I have no problems letting you lead us, but it’s going to take all five of us to pull this off.”
Naomi shrugged. “I just realized why some girls who never exhibited power before were suddenly buzzing with Shade energy. A few of them are Sunday’s friends. It’s really not important to what we are doing.”
Elizabeth relaxed at Naomi’s explanation, but I wasn’t buying it.
“Now, there is one more woman we need to consult for this work,” said Elizabeth.
Naomi’s head snapped up. “Who’s that?”
“Your grandmother, of course.”
“She’s dead.”
“I know. But she left me with these. I’ve only read a couple of them.”
She handed Naomi a stack of books.
“What are these?” asked Naomi.
“Your grandmother’s journals.”
Naomi
There is a white rose that is called Little White Lies. It’s small, single-petaled, and has no
fragrance. I don’t have any in my garden and don’t plan to. I just wish I hadn’t planted any of my own lies. That would make this all so much easier.
I WAS PROBABLY A LITTLE TOO EAGER to get out of the library, but no one said anything. I rushed back to my room and spread out the journals on my bed. There were four of them. Grandmother had been the Master Guardian when I was a child, but I didn’t know for how long. They were all numbered. I picked up the first one. The date was 1995. That meant she had been the Master Guardian for around ten years. I didn’t want to look at the date on the last journal. I knew that time all too well. It was the year she died.
I cracked open the first book.
Since I’m sure there will be a lot of curiosity as to how I, a woman, became the Master Guardian, I feel it only fair to begin these journals in such a fashion. This is not a happy story, nor is it something I would wish on any woman. I know my sister would disagree with me, but let it be known that I never wanted this position, nor did I even want to become a Guardian, but I suppose it was inevitable with my husband, Gerrard.
For most of his life, he was a Guardian. He told me what he was shortly after we were married, and I embraced it. He was the Major Guardian over Arkansas and we lived a fairly quiet life. We had two beautiful daughters, but then after Ginny was born I noticed some strange things. I had power. I’ll spare you the details on how I discovered it, but I brought it to Gerrard’s attention immediately and he confessed that he struggled with shields and that he was constantly projecting his power onto others.
We kept my power a secret but eventually it became stronger than even my Gerrard’s. While he was good at projecting, I was extremely good at collecting it. Not only did I absorb his power, I collected energy from all his friends. Not in a bad way. I didn’t necessarily take it, but if there was a strong Guardian around I always felt my power increase.
When Gerrard died, Guardians came from all around the world for the funeral. That was when Elizabeth and I met Neal. He was the Master Guardian before me. He recognized the power immediately and offered me the Master Guardian position. In my grief, I accepted. I wanted something to do to keep my mind off of the sadness that engulfed me. In hindsight, I wish I would’ve just let Neal keep it. I lost my girl to the Destroyers not long after that.
The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies Page 62