Jason reached over and took a piece of chicken off of Tiffany’s plate and popped it into his mouth.
“Hey,” said Tiffany. “What are you doing? You hate orange chicken.”
He chewed and swallowed. “Just thought I’d try it again. Still disgusting.” At that point he glared at Naomi and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Weird.
On the way out, while Naomi and Tiffany walked ahead and Jason and Jordan were deep in a conversation about the east coast since Jason was born in Baltimore, Puck pulled me aside.
“Don’t say anything to Naomi about what you overheard at dinner.”
I stomped my foot. “Puck, I hate keeping secrets. I’m not good at it. What does it matter if she knows that Jason has a few female Destroyers?”
“Because she’s already feeling pressured enough to join the Guardians. I don’t want her to do it because she feels like she has to. If she knows there are female Destroyers working with Jason, she might feel obligated to give in. When she becomes a Guardian I want her full commitment.”
“Okay,” I lied. I had every intention of telling Naomi. I’d tell her Puck’s excuse for not wanting her to know as well. Maybe then she’d consider ending this ridiculous game of secrets.
Naomi
We walked down the strip after dinner. Tiff had never been to Vegas and she wanted to see it all. I avoided Jason as much as I could, but it was impossible to do without raising suspicion. Eventually he made his way to me when Tiff had dragged Puck over to the Bellagio fountains.
“Did you know I hated orange chicken?” he asked.
“No.”
“Then why the did I eat it?”
“Because I needed to see if you would.” The fact that he hated it was just lucky.
“Last I checked, I could still control my Destroyers, so what the hell is going on?”
“I can’t tell you that.”
“You better, or I’m going to tell your boy over there what you’ve been doing.”
Already the deception was starting. Well, I supposed it started a long time ago, but this would make it official. Would I become the same person I had been when I was the Master Destroyer? For a second I wished I had Kai by my side to keep me grounded. But this time I’d have to figure out things on my own.
“You will tell no one of what I am, or what I can do, or even what you suspect I can do. No one.”
He thought for a second and got right into my face. “Damn you. You stay away from me and my men.” Jason was usually so level headed. It was rare to see him so worked up. If he wasn’t careful, someone might notice. Instead of cowering though, I smiled at him.
“Keep your men in line and you won’t even know I exist.”
His hands clenched into fists. “This won’t work.”
“Actually, it will.”
He turned to walk away, but I called after him.
“Jason, one more thing.”
“What’s that?” he said, spinning back around. His eyes threatened murder.
“You can’t train any more girls. They belong to me.”
Sunday
I didn’t see Naomi again until late. It was near midnight and I was sketching a picture of Lincoln when she knocked on my door.
“Come in,” I called.
She pulled a few bobby pins out of her hair and sat on the edge of my bed.
“What’d you learn?”
“Jason’s got a few girls who are Destroyers.”
“I already knew that. Asshole. He only did that because I told him what I was planning to do. Oh well, he still doesn’t know his wife is a Shade, which means he’s not that good at finding them.”
“Tiffany’s pretty strong,” I said. I had noticed her Shade energy at dinner.
“Yeah. If things go the way I think they will, I’m going to train her.”
“You know, Puck didn’t want me to tell you about the Destroyer chicks because he didn’t want you to feel pressured into joining the Guardians.”
She gasped. “Oh, I am in so much trouble. Do you think he’ll forgive me when he finds out what I’m doing?”
I shrugged. “That depends on how far you let this go before you tell him. I also think you need to be the one to tell him, before he finds out from someone else.”
“I just want to train this group of women from Jena. And the rest of the girls from Tombstone. Once I’ve figured out what I’m doing, I’ll tell Puck.”
“That’s too long. You need to tell him now. Seriously.”
“I can’t. He’ll take it all away from me.”
“Are you sure about that?”
Naomi shook her head. “I can’t risk that. This is too important to me. We’ve got other things we need to talk about. The group going to Jena and the one heading to Tombstone are leaving early in the morning. I need you to keep a close eye on Elizabeth. You guys will probably spend a lot of time at the hotel. Work out a training program for the women with her. I want you to be in charge of it.”
“I’m not much of a teacher.”
Naomi grinned. “You’ll be better than me. Plus you seem to have a good grasp on what people need to learn. We didn’t train you properly because we kept thinking you couldn’t handle it. That was wrong. We won’t have years to train the girls. We need to focus on the important things. You know what those are. Brainstorm with Elizabeth, find out what kind of training she did with her girls back in Tombstone. We need to make sure our purpose is clear so we aren’t too much of a threat to the Guardians or the Destroyers. The training should focus on defense and espionage, not combat.”
“I still wish I was going with you guys.”
“I know this isn’t as exciting as going on a rescue mission, but I assure you I need you here much more than you need to be in Jena. Your assignment is important.”
She reached over and gave me a hug.
“I know I don’t tell you this very often, but I love you. We may not be related, but I hope you come to think of me as your big sister. I’m very proud of what you’ve accomplished.”
I blushed. “I keep screwing everything up.”
“Do you really think that?”
“Yeah, I lost my power in Tombstone, nearly got taken advantage of in Jena, and lost Raven and Julian on our way from California.”
Naomi smiled. “That’s not you screwing up. That’s you sniffing out huge problems that need to be fixed. You’ve forced Puck to take off his rose-colored glasses and actually deal with problems. That’s a talent that you should be proud of.”
She kissed the top of my head and quietly slipped out the door. I went to sleep that night content with life. Tomorrow, the girls would be rescued from Jena and Wyatt and Morgan would rejoin us. It all seemed too nice and easy.
I should’ve known things were about to fall apart.
Sunday
There are 27 species of cacti that are critically endangered, according to the Worldwide Fund for Nature. I want to find and sketch them all before they disappear. That is, if I don’t disappear first.
I WAS OUT BY THE POOL, sketching, when Elizabeth found me the next morning.
“What are you drawing?”
“Some things I remember from Tombstone.” I showed her the picture. “I miss that place. I was only there a few weeks but it feels like home.”
“I miss it too. I tried to convince Naomi to set up headquarters down there, but she wasn’t having any of it. She refuses to be that far away from Puck.”
I sniffed. “If Puck even talks to her after he finds out about all this. I can’t believe she is hiding our group from him.”
Elizabeth laughed. “Love is a funny thing. They’ll get over it. Though Naomi needs to tell him soon. Aside from keeping it a secret, she is doing the right thing. I wanted Evelyn to start training a group of women when she became the Master Guardian, but she wouldn’t listen.”
I nodded. “What’s the agenda for today?” I was worried stiff about all my friends and knew we wouldn’t hear news for at least twenty
-four hours. I had to do something in the meantime to keep busy.
“I figured we’d head over to the headquarters, check out the training rooms, and maybe make a plan. Naomi wants a structure that mirrors the Guardians with a Master, Council, Majors, and Minors. We will train them first, and then when they are ready we will send them out to different parts of the world. Obviously Naomi will be in charge and she’d like us, including Beth and Andrea, on her council.”
Naomi had told me all of this before but it was nice to review it with Elizabeth.
We drove over to the new headquarters and once again I was amazed by the size of the building. Naomi dreamed big.
No one was in the foyer.
“Where’s Dante?” I asked.
Elizabeth shrugged. “Who cares, as long as I don’t have to talk to him.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t see eye to eye on the design at all. He wants everything to be pretty and shiny and sharp and I think things need to be soft and comfortable. Especially the training rooms. Can you imagine if it gets out of hand and someone passes out? They’d impale themselves on those things he wants to install in the rooms. Naomi said I get the last word, so he’s furious.”
I laughed. “Well, I might go hunt him down later, to say hi. But for now, I’d like to visit the training rooms.”
Elizabeth had indeed won that fight. The first room she brought me to was decorated in soft greens and blues. The carpet was unbelievably plush. Squishy couches and chairs were scattered around the room. The walls were covered in whiteboards and there was even one huge Smartboard. There were also a couple of bookcases, but they were empty for now.
“What do you think?” asked Elizabeth.
“I think it’s perfect. How many of these rooms do we have?”
“Five. They have slightly different color schemes but same setup, except one that has no furniture and a hard floor.”
“Is there a gym? We’ll need to be physically fit, too.”
“Down in the basement. It’s huge and has another pool.”
“This is really going to be like a school then.”
“Yep, and you’re in charge.”
I giggled. “I’m only sixteen.”
“But you know what’s necessary to learn. Plus you have me to assist you, and I’m much, much older than sixteen.”
“Can I see the other rooms?”
“Sure.”
There was one room that really surprised me. It had a raised dais with a long bench and very formal looking chairs. The rest of the room was filled pews, similar to those in church buildings.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“A courtroom.”
“Why is there a courtroom here?”
“You do understand Naomi’s purpose for her new group, right?”
“We are going to be spies.”
“That’s one aspect of it, but we are also going to police the Guardians and Destroyers.”
“So this is for trials?”
“Yes.”
“What happens to those who are found guilty?”
Elizabeth shrugged. “I suppose that depends on the crime. What do you think should happen to Julio when we catch him?”
I squirmed. I didn’t like to think about that. I wasn’t fit to judge anyone, but I wanted someone to serve Julio some justice. He couldn’t go around taking power from other people.
“I don’t know.”
“Well, sweetie, you better start thinking about it. You’ll be on the council. The hope is that we don’t have to use this room too often. But that is the whole point of all this. We aren’t training the girls to be Guardians or Destroyers. We’re training them to be investigators.”
Pieces started to come together in my head.
“That’s why Naomi wants me to be a trainer. I’m good at snooping.”
“Yes. She wants the Minors to be the ones who go around finding info and spying on both Guardians and Destroyers. The Majors will head up bigger cases. She’s thought through a lot of this, but it’s still in its infancy. I expect once we get going, things will morph and change. And there’s still no telling what will happen when Puck and Jason find out.”
“I wish she’d just tell Puck.”
“She will, when she’s ready. Come on, let’s go to the council room and start putting together some training plans.”
We spent the afternoon planning. We decided that the initial training period would be six months. We’d start by helping them discover their talents. Then, once they had the basics down, we’d teach them defense techniques, spying, getting the truth out of people, and ethics. Because our group held so much power it was essential that we taught them to use their energies responsibly, and not take advantage of others.
By the time we decided to go home, I was absolutely exhausted. We picked up Chinese takeout and ate dinner with Ginny and little Ale. We were just cleaning up when the doorbell rang.
“Can you get that?” asked Ginny.
“Sure.” I headed for the door. While I was still on my way, they rang the doorbell again. Geesh. Impatient.
I opened the door and found two impeccably dressed men standing there, each wearing a perfectly tailored suit. They looked like they could be brothers, except one was blond and one had slick black hair. Their piercing gray eyes narrowed at me.
“We’re looking for Raven and Julian.”
Oh crap.
I quickly assessed their energy. Nothing. If they were Guardians or Destroyers they were shielding well.
“Never heard of them. I’m sorry, you have the wrong house.” I moved to shut the door, but the black-haired man put up his beefy hand to stop it.
“We know they were with Puck and he lives here. Where are they?”
“Puck’s out of town and I don’t know Raven or Julian, now please go before I call security.”
I was bluffing. We didn’t have any security anymore, which was stupid. Ginny had gotten complacent because there were always enough Minor Guardians around. We were rarely alone.
“You lie. You took them and we want them back. Just give them to us and we’ll go away.”
I didn’t want them coming into the house, not while Elizabeth, Ginny, little Ale, and I were the only people here. I pushed into the man holding the door and stepped outside, shutting the door behind me. I had to figure out a way to diffuse this. Maybe now was a good time for the truth.
But first, I had to feel them out.
I held out my hand. “I’m Sunday, and I work with Puck sometimes.”
The dark haired man took my hand and I focused on his energy. Guardian, which was good. He was also powerful, which was bad.
“I’m Custos, and Julian is my son. I just want him to come home.”
“What do you want with Raven then?”
The blond man growled. “She’s my daughter.”
They were working together. Wow.
“Well, we did have them with us, but they disappeared in Bakersfield. Left a note saying you’d be able to track them as long as they were with us, and disappeared.”
Raven’s dad narrowed his eyes. I couldn’t remember his name. “You’ve done nothing but lie to us. You know where they are, or at least your people do.”
I turned to Custos, since he was definitely more reasonable, but panic started creeping in. These guys were the original Guardian and Destroyer. They wouldn’t be easy to defeat. “I really don’t know where they are. I would suggest you go to Bakersfield and try to pick up their trail there. I wish I could help you, but I have no idea.”
I felt a pinch in my arm and looked over to see Raven’s dad withdrawing a needle. The world went blurry and I couldn’t form words. Then everything went black.
Naomi
Saving a dying rose is very easy for me. People, on the other hand, are a whole different story.
A FEW BEADS OF SWEAT APPEARED on Puck’s temples. This was rare for him; it only ever happened when he was scared. We were about an hour away f
rom Jena.
“You okay?” I asked.
He shook his head. “There are too many ways to screw this up.”
I took his hand. It was clammy. “You’ll be fine.”
“Is there any way you can help me with this?” He looked at me for second, his eyes pleading.
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t force him to do anything. But you can.”
I knew what he meant. “You know I don’t like using that power.”
“I know. But you know what they’re doing. We can’t let this go on.”
“That’s the whole point. Remove the women and they won’t be a threat anymore.”
“Sure, collectively, but they could still scatter and do some serious damage.”
“Then assign some men to keep an eye on them. I’d really rather not do anything so severe.”
His smile was tight. “Okay. You’ll help Andrea and Beth get the girls out to the busses?”
“Yep. Then I’ll wait fifteen minutes and come let you know it’s done.”
The town looked just like Sunday had described it. Puck and I entered the diner and got lucky—Faith and Brad were having dinner.
Brad stood up. “We weren’t expecting you back so soon, brother.”
“We need to talk about some things. Gather your men together.”
Faith jumped up. “You must be Naomi, Sunday talked about you.”
She looped her arm through mine and looked at Brad. “I’m going to show Naomi around. I’ll bring her back later, ’kay?”
She didn’t wait for Brad’s response. His eyebrows went up and he started to say something, but Faith was already dragging me out of the diner.
She waited until we walked several feet away from the door. “You’ve come to rescue us, right?”
I nodded.
“Hold on a sec.” She dug out her phone and sent a message.
“They’re ready to go. Where do we meet?”
“We need to wait until the men are all distracted. Puck’s going to gather them all together. Where do they usually meet?”
The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies Page 69