Destroyed (18 page)

Two more Guardians died last week. Things weren’t getting any better. They hadn’t started attacking any harems yet, so I hoped Ginny was safe. I doubted Alejandro felt that way, though.

“What’d Ale say?”

“He didn’t talk to me for three days, but he got over it.”

“Well, stay safe. We should Skype on Christmas. Will you be with Alejandro?”

She sighed. “Yes, I’ll be with him. That sounds like fun. I’m not sure he’ll let me go after that.”

We chatted about gifts and her job. As soon as I hung up, Kai climbed into the car.

“I got a lead.”

Finally, our first break in tracking down anyone with information about the Guardian murders.

“Where?”

“Florida. I’m leaving right after school.”

“Why does everything happen in Florida?”

“It’s a hotbed of Destroyer activity. I think whoever is controlling the Guardian murders lives there. Three of my council members are there and keep a close eye on things. Frankie just called and said he had some things to show me. Jason will take you home.”

I groaned. “Why don’t I just come with you?”

“No, not this time, it’s too dangerous. Let me see where it goes. I promise I’ll fill you in on the details, but I need to do this alone.”

He was hiding something from me. “You know I can help you. Besides, I hate Jason.”

The corner of his lips twitched. “You sure have been spending a lot of time with him, considering you hate him.”

“Because of the stupid math project, but I really can’t stand him. Please let me come.”

“Not this time. Come on, class is about to start.”

He refused to discuss it anymore, so I found myself riding shotgun in Jason’s car on the way home.

“You should practice giving specific commands today. “

“What do you mean?”

“You can use your dad and me. Try to get just one of us to do something.” I hadn’t tried focusing my commands on just one person yet. I was more concerned with distance.

“I haven’t told my dad yet.”

“Well, then maybe you should tell him. Unless you can think of someone else we can trust.”

“No, we can use my dad.”

It’d been two weeks and I’d made absolutely no improvement. My commands could travel about a mile out, but no further than that. I’d been practicing at school. Making Destroyers in my classrooms do things. Nothing that brought too much attention, or hurt anyone.
Raise your hand. Cross your legs
. They never disobeyed me. I could also make my commands work in the whole school or in certain rooms. But long distances eluded me. I suspected that’s why Jason wanted to exercise with my dad. He was sick of my whining.

“Dad, we’re home,” I called.

“On the deck,” he called back.

I found him at the grill.

“What’s for dinner?”

“Brats and potato salad. I have the potatoes boiled, you think you can chop them up and put the salad together?”

“Sure, Jason’s here. Do we have enough to feed him, too?”

“Only if you want to. I didn’t think you liked him.”

“I don’t, but we need to talk to you about some stuff.”

My dad winked at me. “Then I’ll make sure to burn his brat.”

I grinned. He was almost back to normal. Another six months, and it might be like the last eight years never happened.

Jason made the sauce for the potatoes and I kept messing with him.
Stir clockwise. Now counterclockwise. Drop the spoon. Sing Old Macdonald.

After the song, he laughed and flicked mayo at me. “This is not a good use of your power.”

“Just practicing.”

My phone rang. It was Tiff.

“Whatcha doing tonight?”

“Homework. Then nothing. Kai had to go out of town for the weekend.”

“Oh.”

I could hear the disappointment in her voice. Poor girl.

“You wanna come over? We could have a campfire down by the creek, and maybe watch a movie.”

“That sounds fun. Desi got dumped today. I’ll bring marshmallows and chocolate, and we’ll help her forget about the loser.”

I looked at the clock. It was five. “How about you come over at seven?”

Once I hung up the phone, Jason sprang. “Can I stay?”

I shrugged. “Sure. But if you are going to use the night to try to encourage things with Tiff, you might want to invite a friend to entertain Desi. A good guy, not a loser.”

He was already scrolling through his contacts.

I was starting on my second brat when Dad asked what was it we needed to talk about.

“You know how you can sense Mother inside of me?”

He flinched. “Yes, but I’ve gotten so used to you that I hardly even notice anymore.”

“It’s not exactly her. It’s her energy.”

“Yeah, I knew that. But it was her energy that made me do all those horrible things.”

I cringed. “I know. But wasn’t really her. It was the Master Destroyer energy. And I possess it now.”

My dad stopped mid-chew. He looked from me to Jason. Then he swallowed.

“Exactly what does that mean?”

“I guess it makes me the Master Destroyer.”

To my surprise, he burst out laughing. He laughed for a good two minutes. Jason kept looking at me funny. Dad finally got a hold of himself and wiped tears from his eyes.

“I’m sorry, it’s so absurd. My little girl, the Master Destroyer. You’re nothing like a Destroyer. You must be joking.”

“I’m not. I need to figure out how to stop Destroyers from killing all the Guardians. But I can’t make anyone do anything from a long distance.”

He jerked his head up. “You mean you can control us already?”

Stand up.
Both he and Jason stood up. My dad looked down at me with disbelief.

“I can only send commands within a mile.”

My dad sat back down and fiddled with his food. He didn’t look up as he spoke.

“It took your mother two years to figure out, and I was the first one she learned to control. After that, it only took her a few months to learn how to control all the Destroyers.”

“How do you know it took her that long?”

“Because she told me. She told me a lot. She knew I couldn’t tell anyone. Revealing her secrets is something I still have trouble doing.”

I leaned forward, excited. “Did she tell you how she controlled everyone?”

He shook his head. “No, she said it was instinctual, not something that could be taught or explained. Sorry.”

I slumped, disappointed. How was I going to do this?

“Well, let’s have it. Make me do something again.”

Payback time.

Throw some potato salad at Jason.

To my surprise, not one, but two lumps of potato hit Jason in the face.

Jason wiped the sauce off his face. “Next time, leave my name out. I had no choice.”

I laughed, then looked at my dad. His face was somber.

“What’s the matter?”

“That was incredible. There was no question of what I was supposed to do, or how to do it. I just acted. Your mother didn’t have a tenth of the power that you do.”

“That’s what I said the first time she showed me. When she gives a command, there is absolutely no way to refuse. That’s pretty dangerous,” said Jason.

My dad frowned. “It is. We’ll have to keep a close eye on you.”

“You can’t tell anyone. Kai doesn’t know.”

My dad smirked. “You realize that since you said, ‘You can’t tell anyone,’ I literally can’t tell.”

I dropped my shoulders. “Sorry. You can tell, but please don’t.”

“I won’t.”

“I haven’t figured out yet how to send a command to only one person. I don’t know if I have to use a name, or if it works some other way. Will you practice with us?”

“Of course.”

Turned out, it was easy to single out a person to do something. All I had to do was put his name in front of the command. Sometimes, I didn’t even need to do that; just thinking about that person was enough. We wrapped up with my dad in thirty minutes and went back to practicing over long distances. By the time Tiff arrived, I was frustrated, angry, and ready for a fight. I didn’t have to look far to find one.

Jason’s friend arrived at the same time as the girls. Andrew was good looking, a Romeo clone. I pulled Jason aside.

“You brought a freakin’ Guardian? What were you thinking?”

He smirked. “You said a good guy.”

“This is Destroyer headquarters. You can’t bring him here.”

“You brought Puck.” He strolled away from me, like our conversation was over. I grabbed his arm.

“That was different. This guy doesn’t have a clue what’s going on in either world. What makes you think he’s not going to see something he shouldn’t?”

He jerked away from me. “He’ll only see something he shouldn’t if you’re careless enough to show him.”

I stewed all the way through the campfire. It didn’t help that they all got along fabulously, especially Andrew and Desi. She didn’t even have time to whine about her ex-boyfriend. From the looks of it, she didn’t even remember his name.

The movie was even worse. They were all snuggled up together, and I wanted Puck. About halfway through the movie, I went to bed.

Christmas was not a season for roses. They all lay dormant in their beds, but that didn’t stop rose breeders from trying. Christmas Snow and White Christmas are brilliant white roses, whereas Christmas Beauty and Christmas Cheer are deep red.

I’d really been looking forward to Christmas. This year, the holiday was going to be special. The last several years, it was just another day in my house. When I was little, Santa Claus had been generous and exciting. My father went all out; I was surrounded by presents. My grandma baked cookies that tasted divine, and we had traditions that I loved.

But then Grandma died, Mother became Master Destroyer, and Dad became her minion. After that, Christmas was just another reminder that my family wasn’t normal.

This Christmas would be different. When Kai asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said I wanted a traditional celebration, with all the things normal people do on that day. Baking, decorating the tree, watching football, piles of presents, even oranges in my stocking.

For the past two weeks, he and Dad have been super secretive, planning out every detail of our Christmas. Kai told Tiff what he was doing, and she introduced him to Pinterest. She was a little too eager to show him how it worked, in spite of her budding relationship with Jason. They both were coming over after breakfast today to help us decorate the tree.

In the kitchen, my dad was making bacon and eggs. I sat at the table; Kai sat across from me.

“I got a call last night. We have another lead on who might know something about the murders,” Kai said.

My dad pointed the spatula at Kai. “Hey, we promised no Destroyer stuff today and tomorrow. You get calls every day. Not one has led anywhere useful.” His trip to Florida was a complete dead end. He’s gone on three more trips since then, and we still had nothing to go on.

“Yeah, but this one might be the break we need,” I said.

Dad shook his head. “You wanted a real Christmas. Real Christmas means no work.”

The cat jumped on the table and stole a piece of bacon off Kai’s plate.

“Hey,” he yelled.

I swear Lincoln grinned at him before disappearing around the corner, bacon in mouth.

Kai took a couple more slices. The counter was piled high with chocolate chips, sugar, flour, sprinkles, and everything else we needed to bake cookies. The Christmas tree was propped up in the corner, next to four big boxes full of decorations. We were ready.

The day was truly spectacular. Jason and I didn’t fight that much, and Tiff didn’t spend the entire day flirting with Kai. I noticed she actually stuck pretty close to Jason. We baked cookies, decorated the house, played games, and had a fun afternoon. By the time Jason and Tiff left, I was exhausted and stuffed.

That night, I fell asleep in Kai’s arms blissfully happy.

*

I woke up with my head resting on Kai’s chest, his arms wrapped around me. We slept together every night, by we didn’t do more than kissing. Though I often woke up in his arms.

I had to somehow untangle myself from Kai’s embrace without waking him up. I wanted to make breakfast for everyone. My Grandmother always woke early on Christmas morning and made breakfast, and I desperately wanted to follow in her footsteps.

I gently peeled away Kai’s fingers from my ribcage and removed his other arm from my back. I shimmed away from him and rolled over. He moved; I froze. I waited from him to stop moving, but instead, his arms snaked around my waist and he pulled me close to him. He looped one leg around both of mine so that I was effectively trapped.

He kissed the back of neck. “Merry Christmas.”

“Merry Christmas to you too. I’m going to make breakfast.”

“I’ll come help.”

I sighed. Traditions were meant to be remade, I guess.

“Okay.”

We wandered out into the living room to find my father already building a fire.

“It’s snowing,” he said.

I looked out the window. Sure enough, huge white flakes were coming down. I raced to the door. I wanted to feel the snowflakes on my face. I loved the first snow of the year.

I flung open the door and nearly tripped over a box on the porch. It was wrapped with candy cane wrapping paper and an oversized red bow.

I brought the box inside, smiling. “Someone loves me.”

Kai creased his eyebrows. “Where did that come from?”

“The front porch,” I said, and tore off the wrapping paper. Underneath the paper was a plain cardboard box. I ripped the tape off the seam, pulled open the flaps and peered inside.

Then I screamed. Louder than I’d ever screamed in my life.

Lying in the bottom of the box, facing me, was a human head.

Don Juan Rose = dead.

I backed away from the box, still screaming. I shut my eyes to erase the image, but all I could see was the blood-crusted neck, the blank stare, the complete deadness of it all.

My body filled with rage and I could feel the Master Destroyer energy take over. It filled every cell of my body. My throat was raw and my voice all but disappeared.