Empower (30 page)

But then Lincoln was there, opening my car door, and I couldn’t ignore him completely. I stared at him. Yeah, it got much, much worse. The whole thing was starting to feel a lot like déjà vu, and in the most terrible way.

Lincoln’s eyes stayed on mine, sensing my fears, but when his hand reached out to touch me, I shook my head and quickly took a step back. After giving me a long look, Lincoln let it slide and I shoved my emotions back down and forced a neutral expression as introductions were made. Now more than ever I needed to stay focused on the job and on getting Spence back.

Along with Roman were partners Ray and Leila, who appeared to be in charge of their small team.

‘Why don’t we get your gear inside and then grab something to eat? There’s a place down the road that’s safe and has good food,’ Ray suggested.

Lincoln nodded. ‘We’ll set up a team here to watch the house. They can go out in groups when we return. It’ll also give us a chance to talk first,’ he added.

Ray nodded and instructed
Roman to stay behind to help get everyone else settled.

While Lincoln asked Zoe and Sal to oversee and head up the security of the house, I pulled Phoenix aside.

‘You need to stay in the house where you won’t draw any attention to yourself,’ I instructed.

He smiled grimly. ‘You felt them too?’

‘Just enough to have me seriously freaking out. Clearly this is their territory and if they sense an exile of dark here they’ll go mad. We can’t afford for them to storm this place.’

He nodded, suddenly interested in the shrubbery. ‘And here I thought for a moment you were worried about me.’

I opened my mouth to snap back, to tell him that he knew damn well I was worried about him. But the words just stuck in my throat and instead, I sighed. ‘I’m worried about everyone, Phoenix. You included.’

‘And what about you?’ he asked, looking up and holding my wary eyes. ‘Are you worried about yourself?’

My throat ached with the need to have some kind of release – a scream or a cry. Either one probably would have helped. ‘Don’t do this,’ I said instead, quietly, glancing over my shoulder and catching sight of Lincoln watching us intently. The ache dropped to my heart. ‘Just stay in the house, okay?’ I pleaded.

‘Don’t worry. I’ll behave,’ Phoenix said, not looking at me again before throwing his bag over his shoulder and heading into the house.

Lincoln and I left the house with Ray, Leila, Gray, Carter and Chloe. Carter had looked positively miffed when Lincoln asked him to come with us, but I wasn’t. It was a tactical move. Lincoln had marked him as a potential problem and was including him in the inner circle to ensure he didn’t cause any trouble. Carter was eating it up, hook, line and sinker.

As we followed Ray
and Leila down the street I took a few minutes to process – or at least move past – my conversation with Phoenix. I was relieved that Lincoln didn’t ask questions and had chosen to walk with Gray. He was giving me some space.

Still knows me. Still thoughtful.

From what I caught of their conversation, Gray was using the opportunity to smoothly bring Lincoln up to date on his recent call to mobilise the entire Rogue community. Hearing snatches of Lincoln’s heated response, it was safe to assume he wasn’t happy Gray had made this choice before consulting him. But, like me, I could tell he also knew there was little point in dwelling on it now.

‘Whoa! What
is
this place?’ I asked, after turning the corner. I was suddenly dodging crowds of people and thrown off kilter by the scene in front of me. I tugged Chloe’s arm, manoeuvring us to the side. The street was alive with music and mayhem. People spilled out of clubs and bars for as far as I could see.

Leila smiled, guiding us all to a less crowded area. ‘
This
is Bourbon Street.’

When it became obvious I was nervous about being in such a public place, she continued. ‘This street is always busy to the extreme. Exiles are everywhere, but humans are too,’ she said pointedly. ‘Plus, half of them are drunk and it helps confuse the vibe. If exiles sense us and start a hunt, it’s easy to get away, and we have a number of exit strategies. We’re safer here than somewhere secluded, trust me.’

I nodded, my mouth
agape as I looked around. I
had
been curious to see New Orleans. I’d heard the stories of its epic nightlife, but nothing could have prepared me for the first taste of craziness. There were so many people, of all ages, and they were all here to party. We passed bars, clubs, restaurants, cabaret places and jazz playhouses. Some guy even tried to drag Chloe inside for a pole-dancing lesson, which sent Carter into hysterics. People not only lined the street but also the balconies that hung over it, all throwing out colourful beaded necklaces, which we had to dodge as we walked through.

And, in the centre of it all, chanting into a megaphone was a preacher standing in front of a large red crucifix proclaiming that the revellers were all going to burn in Hell. He labelled New Orleans the ‘Devil’s playground’; knowing what I now knew and looking around at my first, late-night impressions, I couldn’t help but wonder if preacher-man might just be onto something.

I’d travelled to a lot of cities over the past two years. I’d seen my fair share of red-light districts, and there wasn’t much that affected me any more, but this,
this
street seeped into my bones and I didn’t know what to make of it.

A sideways glance at Carter told me he viewed it all quite differently. In fact, he looked positively thrilled as he appeared to mentally catalogue the bars he planned to return to.

‘Really?’ I commented, watching as he eyed off a girl hanging out of one of the clubs in nothing but a teeny-tiny bikini.

He gave me a wink. ‘When in Rome …’

‘I’m sure even Rome has clothes,’ I mumbled.

Lincoln, who had been walking behind us with Gray and Ray, laughed. I shot him a hard look and he just shrugged, laughing again.

‘I don’t think I
like this place,’ I said.

‘It’s not all bad, Violet. You must be able to sense that, too?’ Gray asked.

‘Yeah, well, right now I’m not feeling it.’

He snorted. ‘Right now all
you’re
feeling like is a prude. You of all people should know that everything has a balance. For all the bad you see here – and you will – there’s just as much that’s good. And apart from that, we could all do with a few drinks to take the edge off.’

‘Hear, hear,’ Carter agreed.

‘What edge?’ I asked.

‘You don’t feel it?’ Gray asked, raising an eyebrow.

I looked at Leila and Ray, who were watching us carefully, and then at Lincoln, who actually shuddered. ‘I feel it,’ he said, looking unhappy about the admission. ‘I don’t know how you guys can stay here. It’s as if …’

Ray nodded. ‘It’s not easy, but you learn to push the sensation aside.’

I let out a breath, relieved that I wasn’t the only one feeling the urge to turn around and run away. And never, ever stop.

‘We aren’t welcome here,’ I said, finishing what Lincoln had been about to say.

No one replied. There was no need.

A shiver of uncertainty ran down my spine and, as if sensing my concern, Lincoln subtly moved closer to me. And damn him because my soul instantly responded, at once both calmed and ignited.

‘Have you been here before?’ I asked Lincoln as we dropped back a few paces behind Ray and Leila.

‘I have. After my
mum died. But things didn’t feel like this back then.’

I couldn’t help but wonder what he’d come to this place for back then. And if he’d found it.

Reading my reaction, he chuckled, which he had started doing quite a bit over the past couple of days. It worried me, the way he seemed always to know what I was thinking. Mostly because it made me feel like we were still just ‘us’. Yet everything had changed.

‘How about after dinner I show you one of the reasons people flock to New Orleans?’ he asked.

I raised an eyebrow. ‘You mean apart from the hard-core nudity and debauchery?’

‘Yes,’ he said, his eyes twinkling. ‘Apart from those.’

‘Okay,’ I whispered, unable to resist, even though I knew I should. But there was something in me that needed to see this other side to New Orleans. And even more so, that wanted to see it through his eyes.

‘For we have already said, that wickedness dwells here …’

Hermes Trismegistus

O
ver dinner,
Leila and Ray painted a dismal picture. Since they’d arrived, their team had been plucked off one by one, leaving them nowhere to hide. Tonight was the first time they had returned to the safe house in months, too afraid to give up the location without the manpower to defend it. As a result they, along with Roman, had been in constant hiding.

‘Why didn’t the Assembly send reinforcements?’ Lincoln asked. ‘How could I not know about this?’

Leila shrugged. ‘We sent out what communications we could. We hoped they got through but you can’t trust anything here and we suspect that exiles control most facets of technology and communication. We sent word out, but we never heard back – not until this morning when the Academy’s navy contact found us and told us you were coming.’

Lincoln, pulling apart his bread roll, listened quietly, but I could tell he wasn’t satisfied. I decided to wait until we were alone to ask him.

Alone. Hell, I need to get a grip.

‘How did they make contact?’ Gray asked.

Ray barked out a
laugh. ‘A military chopper landed on the roof of the building we were hiding out in for the night. They’d locked onto the GPS trackers we keep in our phones. He told us that an evacuation team was headed our way and to have transport ready at the airport within eight hours. We figured it must be something big.’

‘It is,’ Chloe blurted out. ‘I mean, he is. Important, I mean. Spence.’ Her cheeks reddened. ‘I mean, he’s my partner and we have to get him back.’ She pushed her plate away – a rice dish called jambalaya that reminded me of paella – and took a nervous sip of her drink. ‘What’s in this thing, anyway?’ she asked, looking at Carter, who had ordered it for her.

Carter’s smile said it all. ‘It’s called a hurricane. Local speciality. Drink up,’ he said, while Ray and Leila simply shook their heads.

I moved her glass away from her. ‘Maybe stick to water from now on,’ I suggested. Chloe nodded just as her elbow slipped off the table.

Good God. How many of those things has she had?

‘Look,’ Ray said, picking the conversation back up with a heavy sigh. ‘We understand you want to get your man out of here, but this place is crawling with exiles and their armies. You’ve brought an impressive team with you, but frankly …’ He shook his head, making it clear he thought we were lacking in numbers.

‘Armies?’ I asked. ‘Do you mean the Nephlim?’

Ray sucked on a long claw of shellfish. ‘I do. But it’s not just the Nephlim they control. They’ve turned this place into a turnstile. People come to New Orleans from all around the world to let their hair down and have a good time, and that makes them prime targets – susceptible to influence.’

Lincoln nodded. ‘I saw
the shadowing on the walk here.’

Leila’s eyebrows shot up. ‘You’re a shadow finder?’

Lincoln nodded again.

‘I’ve never met one before,’ said Leila, clearly impressed.

‘Neither have I,’ Lincoln replied, reinforcing how rare his skill of seeing the marks exiles leave behind on humans really was.

‘Humans,’ Gray said, putting it together in the same way that I was. By Ray and Leila’s silence, we knew we were right. All the trails led here. All to Sammael.

‘What about the humans?’ Carter asked.

Gray described to Carter the suicidal humans we had encountered in New York, and their commitment to doing Sammael’s bidding. With a look of disgust, Carter put down his spoon and rubbed his forehead. Apparently even
he
wasn’t immune to everything.

‘Do you know where the exiles are?’ I asked.

Leila looked me over, then settled back in her seat, showing her first hint of attitude. ‘You seem young to be in charge of this mission.’

‘I am,’ I said, smiling to see that she had no idea who I was.

‘What’s your strength?’ she asked, cutting to the chase.

I shrugged. ‘I have a few.’

‘How about you give me the highlights?’

Choices, choices.

I could feel everyone watching me – especially Carter and Chloe. Leila didn’t realise she was asking everyone’s favourite questions.

‘Well, for one,
I don’t need direct contact with an exile to strip their power and make them only human.’ I let this sink in, watching Leila’s poor attempt to hide her surprise, then I added, ‘And they don’t have to will it.’

Her eyes went almost as wide as Ray’s.

‘What rank are you from?’ she asked, watching me carefully.

‘Yeah, purple, exactly what rank
are
you from?’ Carter threw in. This was the first time he had heard anything like this from me. Rogues did not share.