Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy (35 page)

“Hope
is strong, though, scary even. When would she ever need Lance to rescue her?”
Celia argues.

“Hope
needs to be rescued from herself,” I say. Her anger has calmed some since the
day we got her out of the Guardian compound, but it still threatens to swallow
her whole every once in a while. “Lance is the only person who’s been able to
make her smile since we found her.”

Celia
frowns and goes back to working on my hair. I hope she’s getting the message.
She’s such an amazing girl, I would hate for her to waste her time pining for
someone who is never going to be interested in her. Just to give her another
reason to look elsewhere, I say, “And just a heads up on Hope, even though
she’s yet to kiss Lance, that doesn’t mean she doesn’t already consider him
hers. I can feel everything she feels when they’re together. Believe me, you do
not want to try and take Lance from her. It won’t end well.”

“Oh,”
Celia says.

Disappointment
hovers around her, but resignation to the truth is even stronger. Thank
goodness.

“I
don’t really have time for boys right now, anyway. I’ve got too many other
things on my mind.”

I
laugh and shake my head. I never thought I would hear those words come out of
her mouth. Celia keeps working on my hair and makeup, telling me about the
healing techniques her dad has been teaching her. I listen with interest,
noting the odd tenor of Celia’s voice as she finishes her work and starts
cleaning up slowly, as if waiting or hesitating. When she accidentally knocks
over a bottle of foundation because her hand is shaking, I touch her shoulder
gently.

“Celia,
I didn’t mean to upset you by talking about Lance,” I say.

She
shakes her head roughly. “No, it’s not Lance, it’s Milo.”

“What
do you mean?” I ask.

“I
don’t know, but he hasn’t been coming home at night. I don’t know where he’s
been going, but I’m worried.” She bites her bottom lips nervously, waiting for
my response.

“How
long?”

“He’s
been gone a lot since the thing with Drake, but he hasn’t come home the past
two nights.”

“Could
it be a girl?” I ask, not very hopeful.

Celia
scoffs. “Are you kidding me? The way he’s been acting lately, I can’t imagine
any girl wanting to be around him. He’s been even worse than after his first
Inquest the last few weeks. He doesn’t talk to me anymore, or even fight with Mom
and Dad. He’s been a ghost. Lance and Braden said he’s been missing a lot of
training sessions here, too.”

He
has. I already knew about that, and I’ve been trying to find out where he’s going
instead of training without success. I thought maybe he was doing some training
on his own, wanting to be away from everyone else. Maybe I was wrong. “Celia,
do you have any idea where he might be going?”

“No,”
she says slowly, hinting that she might know something else.

“Celia,
I know Milo’s your brother, but if you think there might be something wrong …”

She
bites her lip again, hard enough that I’m afraid she’s going to draw blood.
Tears well up in her eyes. “Libby, please don’t be mad at me, but you know what
you told me about Braden?” she asks.

My
breath catches. A month or so ago, Celia and I were talking through some ideas
of how I could give Braden his talents back. When she asked me why I was so
intent of giving them back when having more power could only help me against
the Guardians, I broke down and told her about Braden possibly being the Socius,
the one person who could help me defeat the Guardians. She made the connection
of Braden not being my Companion without his talents and redoubled her efforts
to help me find a solution. I stare at her and pray she isn’t about to tell me
what I think she is.

“I’m
so sorry, but Milo knows. He found the research I was doing to try and help you,
and he figured it out.”

“When?”
I whisper.

“A
couple days after Drake died. I’m so sorry. I should have told you when it
happened, but Milo didn’t freak out like I thought he would, and I was afraid
you’d be mad at me. I’m sorry.” Her shoulders quiver, her tears spilling over
and dripping down her cheeks. I reach up and numbly pull her into a hug.

“It’s
okay, Celia. It wasn’t your fault. I’m not mad at you,” I tell her.

I’m
honestly not, but I am scared. More scared than I was when I was sure Howe was
going to take a shot at me. Milo’s one goal in life is to destroy the Guardians
for what they put him through. He hates me for what
I
did to him, but he
trusted me to give him the Guardians on a silver platter. It’s really the only
reason he hasn’t abandoned me. He knows, now, that there is a very real
possibility I can’t deliver on that promise anymore. What will he do when he
loses faith in me completely? I don’t know, but I have a terrible feeling I’m
going to find out soon enough.

Chapter
27

Morbid Curiosity

I leave Celia alone in the
bathroom to freshen up her makeup after crying half of it off. It took some
work to calm her down and convince her I wasn’t upset with her. The thing is, I
should have been able to tell Milo about Braden and the Socius story and asked
for his help. I knew right away I couldn’t risk him doing something we would
all regret. He would blame me for taking Braden’s talents and destroying our
Companion bond regardless of the fact that killing Braden was my only other
option, and I still would have had to face the Guardians without a Companion.
Until I could figure out how to give Braden back his talents, I refused to tell
him. I’m not even sure the story is right. I hurry down the stairs trying to
figure out what Milo will do with the knowledge Celia accidentally gave him.

I
hit the landing and Lance sweeps me into his arms and plants a kiss on my cheek.
“The place looks amazing. Thanks for this, Libby,” Lance says. “You look
fantastic, by the way.”

“Yeah,
great. Thanks,” I say distractedly. “Have you seen Milo, or talked to him
lately?”

Lance
shrugs at the odd question. “Not really. He’s been keeping his distance since
Drake. Why?”

“He
found out about the Socius story.”

Hope
walks up behind Lance and takes his hand. She obviously heard what I just said.
Her frown is thoughtful and glaring at the same time. “I don’t like Milo. He’s
too angry and unpredictable.”

Lance’s
twitches as he struggles to contain a laugh. I’m doing the same—thinking Hope
is the last person in the world who should be making that judgment—but Hope
isn’t paying attention to me. She narrows her eyes at Lance. “What?” she
demands.

“Nothing,”
Lance says, pulling her hand up to his lips in an effort to distract her. It
works. She pulls against him a little more tightly with a slight smile. Lance
looks back to me. “You think that’s why his been such a prick lately?”

“Maybe.
I’m not sure, but keep an eye out for him, okay?” I ask.

Lance
nods.

I’m
about to walk off to find Braden when I notice Hope isn’t wearing the dress she
showed me a few days ago. In fact, she isn’t wearing a dress at all. I take in
her dark blue leggings and matching layered miniskirt curiously. The black belt
around her waist has a beautiful silk flower attacked to it that goes perfectly
with her sequined navy tank top. She looks great, but I can’t help ask. “What
happened to the dress you were going to wear, Hope?”

“Change
of plans,” she says, looking up at Lance with a brilliant smile. Lance is
grinning as well.

Okay
…. Shaking my head at them, I tell Lance happy birthday and excuse myself to go
find Braden. Guests are already milling around the ballroom, but I skip by it
when I spot Braden coming out of the kitchen. He notices me hurrying toward him
and picks up his pace. The tray of mini quiches he’s carrying keep him from
greeting me too enthusiastically, but even still, it takes me a couple of
seconds to recover from his kiss. I mean to tell him about Milo and ask him
what he thinks about it, but I spot Jen marching toward us, and all I have time
to say is, “Watch out for Milo.”

Braden
looks at me oddly, but he saw Jen when I did and doesn’t say anything.

What
I think are Jimmy Choo stilettos click along the hall, announcing Jen’s
presence if her bouncing hair and flamingo pink dress didn’t do that well
enough on their own.  She’s carrying a clutch in her hand that no doubt is
equipped with one, if not several, recording devices. The sight of her smiling
like everything in the world is gumdrops and lollipops makes me want to slap
her. There is only one reason I invited her. To instantly blog anything that
the Guardians might try to do tonight. I’m hopeful everything will go off
without a hitch, but I’ve learned not to be too optimistic.

“So,”
Jen says, flicking her eyes up and down Braden’s body, “this is your new boy
toy. Going through them pretty fast now a days, aren’t we? Lance, Milo, now
this one. What’s your name again? I didn’t get to meet you properly when I was
a guest here a few weeks ago.”

She
extends her hand to Braden, and he politely takes it. “I’m surprised you don’t
already know who I am, given what I’ve heard about you, Jen.”

Her
laugh irritates me almost enough to act on it. “I was just being polite,
Braden,” she says. “And I know a lot more about you than just your name. For
instance, I know you grew up in Rio Rancho, lost you parents and brother,
though not all at the same time, where inducted into the Guardians the day you
turned eighteen—before you even graduated high school, which is impressive—and served
as a Cipher hunter for three years after spending your first year with the
Guardians training in Brazil for a special forces position you later turned
down. Why you turned it down, well that’s a mystery even to me. Care to remedy
that?”

“Not
even a little,” Braden says, still smiling politely. Maybe Jen thought she was
going to embarrass him, or say something I didn’t already know that would upset
me, but she huffs irritably at our mutual unimpressed expressions.

“Well,
you’re no fun at all,” Jen quips.

“Sorry
to disappoint.” He smiles winningly just to show her how
not
sorry he
really is and turns back to me. “Unless you need me, I’m going to go deliver
these quiches to the ballroom.”

He
hesitates long enough for me to shake my head before kissing me chastely on my
cheek and ducking away. I’m not afraid of Jen, but I do watch him walk away
wishing he was still next to me. Jen watches too, for different reasons
entirely. “I never got what you saw in Milo, he was way too moody for my
tastes, but Braden is positively luscious,” Jen says when she turns back to me.

I
just glare at her and fold my arms over my chest. “What do you want, Jen?”

“Just
to talk,” she says. I don’t buy it. Sighing, she opens her clutch and flicks
off the digital recorder I knew was there. She holds it up so I can clearly see
the red indicator light is off and drops it back in her bag. “I know you only
invited me to make sure I blog whatever might or might not happen tonight in
regards to the Guardians, but I’m still glad you invited me. I wanted to talk
to you last time, but you knocked me unconscious before I could. Thanks for
that, by the way.”

“Don’t
walk in on a kidnapping and you won’t get hit,” I say.

She
nods reluctantly. “Still, you didn’t have to hit me so hard.”

I
shrug, no sympathy at all. Jen scowls at me.

“Come
one, Libby. I passed your kidnapping off as a rescue like Lance wanted. You
know I hate lying when I report. Doesn’t that make any difference with you?”

“I
don’t know your motives for going along with the story, Jen. And do you
honestly expect me to forgive you for the photos? You had no right to do that.”

Jen
cocks her head to one side in confusion. “The photos?”

“The
ones you sent to that idiot, Blackwood. Me and Braden. Ring a bell?” I snap.

“You’re
mad about that?” Jen scoffs. “Libby, I was trying to protect you!”

You’ve
got to be kidding me. “How was that protecting me? You nearly got us both in a
lot of trouble.”

“I
thought … well, I’d noticed how he followed you, and I overheard some of the
things he said to you.”

A
faint blush creeps into my cheeks. What exactly did she hear him say?

“I
also saw how you tried to avoid him,” Jen admits. “I thought Braden was up to
something. Manipulating you maybe. I’d heard by that point how much you were
struggling with your Spiritualism. I got scared when I saw you with Braden that
day acting so happy. I was wrong, obviously, but I thought he’d screwed with
your head, so I took the pictures and sent them to the compound hoping they
would get rid of Braden and get him away from you.”

For
a moment, I don’t know what to say. I don’t doubt anything she’s saying, but it
still surprises me. She’s not off the hook, yet. “What about my mom?” I ask
quietly.

“Why
have I been hanging out with her?”