Authors: Lynnie Purcell
For some reason I felt as if he weren’t talking about Reaper. It felt directed at another Watcher, who had abandoned him for seemingly no reason. Eli had left deeper scars than I had thought. Spider seemed to realize he had given his thoughts on Eli away. He went back to watching the street and didn’t say anything else.
“What if no one is leaking the information?” I asked around the awkward silence.
Daniel and Reaper exchanged a strange look but didn’t elaborate.
“How do you mean?” Daniel asked.
“With all the Watchers out there and all their skill-sets, isn’t there a single one who can track people really well? It could be they’re just finding us after we leave the school…”
Daniel and Reaper exchanged another look. It was as if I had confirmed something they had already discussed.
“What?” I asked, not in the mood for cryptic looks.
“There are Watchers who can track people, yes,” Reaper said.
“And?” I demanded.
“I was trying not to make any judgments,” he said.
“There’s a time and a place for not making judgments. One of those times is not when you’ve just been shot at,” I pointed out.
“Quinn has the ability to track people,” Daniel told me, craning his neck to check his wound again. “It’s why he’s so valuable. He can find people for Reaper…Watchers are easier for him to find, but people in general are easy, too.”
I frowned. “Well, that fits. I don’t think he would cry much over any of us dying…especially Reaper. It seems like he’s after the Saints…and Spider.”
“The only way the Saints would let him take control is if he fought me man to man. If I just died, it would be more likely River would take over,” Reaper said.
“Well, maybe she’s in on it, too,” I said. “Or he’s planning on killing you all from the top down, until there’s no one left but him.”
Reaper sighed. “This is exactly why I can’t let my suspicions run away from me. If I suspect everyone, it will cause more problems than it can solve.”
“What are you waiting for?” I asked. “Just challenge Quinn. Seems like you can take him.”
“If I challenge him for no reason, it will look like I fear him. He is gaining support in the group – his brutal methods make sense to most of our kind. I can’t show weakness, or the others will start to doubt my abilities to lead and will abandon the group…or worse, side with him. I need people, if I am to succeed with the plans I have in mind.”
“How do you plan to deal with it?” I asked.
“I have to get proof, without looking as if I actively am searching out proof. He has to show his mistakes, show his hand, then feel forced to confront me. There’s no other way,” Reaper said.
“How about I challenge him?” I asked.
A cold surge of happy adrenaline surged through my body. Fighting Quinn would be satisfying. It was something I had wanted for a while now. It wasn’t just that he was a bully and an ass; I was suddenly certain he was the one who had shot Daniel. He wasn’t going to get away with that – not while I still had breath.
“Absolutely not!” Daniel said.
“It has to be my fight,” Reaper agreed. “People will know why you are fighting him…”
“And will think you’re trying to get out of a fight, by sending me to fight him…” I said unhappily.
“Exactly,” Reaper agreed.
“Passive aggressiveness seems like a dangerous way to go,” I said. “Especially if more bullets are pointed in your direction…or Daniel’s.”
I didn’t mean for it to sound like a threat, but, somehow, it did. Reaper shrugged, while Daniel smiled his boyish smile at me. Apparently he liked me threatening others on his behalf.
“I’m stuck,” Reaper said. “I need him in the group for his powers, but I also need to get rid of him, if I am to continue with the plan I have in mind.”
“What plan?” I asked.
“The one that involves ending the war,” Reaper said.
He didn’t have to say the plan that involved Anna; I could sense the truth from the expression on his face.
“So what do we do?” I asked.
Reaper made a face. “I don’t know.”
“I know that we don’t need to discuss it here in the middle of South Central,” Daniel said. “I think it’s safe to call Sara now.”
Reaper pulled his phone out and hit speed-dial. As he talked, I thought over what had just happened. From what I knew of Daniel, and from the expression on Reaper’s face, I knew that the attack would not be something I would be forced to dwell on long. They would find a way to get payback. And if they didn’t take care of business soon, I would.
I had never felt more committed to violence in my whole life.
Chapter 15
The school was quietly buzzing with electric energy when Sara dropped us off. Whispers and worried conversations floated down the hall. I sensed everyone wondering who would be bold enough to attack Reaper. I sensed their uncertainty and their fear. It made them doubt things they shouldn’t doubt – like if it was safe to stay. Reaper was just as aware.
He stepped in to the middle of the crowded hall, off the room Sara had set us down in, and spread his arms wide. His face was full of amusement.
“Come now, you can’t get rid of me that easily.” He smiled as the others laughed. His face lost some of its amusement as he spoke again. “Yes, it is true we were ambushed. Believe me when I tell you that I will find the person responsible, and they will pay. There is nothing to fear...it is like any other fight gone bad. And we’ve sure seen plenty of those.”
People’s conversations started to buzz around again; his words soothed some of their anxiety. The hidden message was that the danger would not last long. No one missed it.
Ethan, Cora, and Sprint were gathered next to one of the large windows, doing their best to stay out of the way of the others. Their faces, more than the others, reflected their worry. I realized - if the attack had been successful - there would have been no one here to make sure they were safe. I wasn’t even entirely certain where Alex was, or what she was doing. Our lack of communication could have been their undoing. Spider went to them and they gathered in a small circle of seclusion, checking in and going over what had happened. Even Twitch was hanging on to Spider’s every word.
I pulled Daniel out of the way of the others and in to an alcove. I made him sit on the edge of a window and took away Spider’s tattered jacket. He allowed me to look, the expression of pain on his face overdone for my benefit. Now that he was safe, he wasn’t above hamming it up. I looked at his shoulder, feeling helpless. I had done nothing to prevent his wound. What if the shooter had been a better shot? It would be his body burning on the pyre. He noticed my expression and dropped the act. He put his hand over mine, a silent gesture that everything was okay, that he was okay. It made me feel better, but I still had worry.
“Daniel…” I said, dabbing at the silver blood with the jacket.
“Yes?” he asked, watching me with serious eyes.
“I need a car.”
His eyes lit up. “I thought you would never ask.”
I shook my head. “Not for me. For the kids. If something goes sideways again, I need to know that they have a way to escape the school. I need something that will fit all of them, something that Ethan or Spider can drive.”
“Neither have a license,” he reminded me.
“Oh, gosh, really?” I said. “Cause that’s stopped them so many times before…”
He smiled at my sarcasm. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Thank you.”
“I need a favor in return,” he said.
“In that case, I take back my ‘thank you,’” I said.
“Fair,” he said.
“What is it?” I asked.
He reached in to his pocket. His face was a curious mixture of hope and doubt. I wasn’t certain where the contradiction was coming from, or why he looked so unlike himself in his doubt.
“After tonight, I realize waiting around for fate to catch up to us is dangerous…I…”
Just as he started to pull his hand out of his pocket, Elizabeth and River came out of the room that held Anna. I hadn’t realized we were right in front of it. The people crowding the corridors had made me lose track of location. River waved at me as she passed, a small smile on her face, while Elizabeth looked too angry to notice anything. They kept walking toward the stairs, not stopping to talk.
Moira stood in the door for a moment and watched them as they left.
“What’s up with her?” I asked Moira.
“She just found out about the attack,” Moira said.
It felt like a partial truth.
“Oh,” I said.
“She’s been trying to find the spy,” Moira added thoughtfully. “It’s dangerous. Searching for someone who does not wish to be found is a good way to die a quick death.”
My eyes widened. I wasn’t sure what message Moira was sending: to be careful or to not look for the spy – because she was the spy and she would kill whomever came looking. Daniel’s face was impassive, but I sensed him wondering the same thing.
“The traitor must be found, if Reaper is to continue his mission,” Daniel said.
“Yes, but blundering around, as Elizabeth is doing, will not end well. She is foolish to be so obvious,” Moira said.
“We’re all foolish at times,” I said.
Moira’s lips lifted up in to a half smile. It was a smile of knowing; it was a smile filled with caution.
“Indeed.” Her eyes moved beyond us, to where Elizabeth and River had disappeared down the stairs. Her expression was strangely sad. “I must get back.”
She gestured toward the room and the box I had been avoiding looking at; the box that held Anna.
“Certainly,” Daniel agreed.
I had more questions, but Moira had already shut the door. Daniel stood and looked down at his shoulder. The wound was starting to shut, though it looked as if it was having a difficult time healing the way it should. He rolled his shoulders, putting his injury to the back of his mind. It wasn’t the only thing he put to the back of his mind. Whatever he had been about to say to me, he didn’t mention again. The moment was lost.
He stood and started toward the stairs, searching out a change of clothes and a shower.
“How has Elizabeth been blundering around?” I asked as we walked.
“She’s been asking around about the attack…not being very subtle about it,” Daniel said.
“How not subtle?” I asked.
“Your kind of not subtle,” he said.
“I knew I liked her,” I said.
“What happened?” a new voice interrupted us.
Alex met us outside her room. She held a phone in her hand, and it looked as if she had just heard about the attack. Her x-ray eyes were filled with worry and tension. They held a worry I hadn’t seen shaped in her eyes before. It went beyond ‘normal.’ I wasn’t sure who she was worried about; her blue eyes were a mystery.
Daniel told her about the attack, his details vague enough so I didn’t feel as if I were reliving the moment but vivid enough to give her the big picture. She stared at the wound on his shoulder as he spoke. Her worry intensified with the proof of his injury.
“Holy frak!” she said. “So that coin was for Spider after all?”
“It was for all of us, I think,” I said dryly.
“And do we still think it’s…”
Quinn appeared at the end of the hall, as if he had known she was about to say his name. Behind him were the two flunkies, who followed him everywhere. They were mocking Reaper’s speech, insulting him openly. When Quinn’s eyes connected with mine, he smiled. It was the sort of smile that said ‘I’ll get you next time.’
My first thought was of Daniel and how close the bullet had come to taking him from me. Quinn could threaten me all day long, but to threaten Daniel? Unacceptable. His expression reinforced the fact that Daniel’s life hung in the balance, so long as Quinn was breathing. Anger surged up at the thought.
Burning, skin-tingling, heat surged through my body. The heat channeled through my skin and a film of dangerous haze swirled in front of my eyes. It was the sort of haze I knew was deadly. Daniel, who was holding my hand, felt the change.
“Clare…” he warned me.
I ignored the warning. The building started to shake. Parts of the ceiling started to fall to the floor. Quinn and his bodyguards rocked in time to the shaking building.
“Get out of here!” Alex yelled at Quinn. “Go!”
Quinn had lost his smug smile. He pushed his bodyguards out of the way and hurried to the stair door. His retreat wasn’t enough to stop me. I started after him. The shaking of the building grew worse. Without hesitation, Daniel circled around me to block my path. I started to move past him again, but he put his hands on either side of my face to stop me.
“Stop,” he commanded.
I glared at him. His green eyes were unrelenting. They bored in to mine unflinchingly. They told me to calm down; to not take vengeance. Not like this. Not now.
His eyes said enough. I remembered his training. I remembered my commitment to control. I focused on my breathing; I focused on not killing everyone in the building. Another breath and I felt my racing heart calm down. One more breath and the building stopped shaking. Daniel kept his hands in place, to see through our connection if I was really calm. I finally nodded at him, and he smiled. I sensed he was proud of me; it was the first time I had controlled my temper without a fight.