Darkening Chaos: Book Three of The Destroyer Trilogy (7 page)

“Lose
your way, little girl?” he says after seeing that I’m alone and not leading out
the captured Ciphers.

I’m
in front of him a second later, my fist smashing into his pretty jaw. Startled
gasps pop around the room. Even Blackwood looks surprised when he manages to
look back up at me. He spits out blood and moves his jaw experimentally. I had
every reason to hate him before seeing what I just saw, but Blackwood seems to
realize that something has changed. I was fine leaving him pinned here like an
ant in molasses before. Now, I want him dead. I want to feel his lifeblood pour
over my fingers as I slit his throat. He can see it in my eyes and he shrinks
back warily.

“You
killed them,” I say hoarsely. My fingernails cut into my palms as I glare at
him.

Blackwood’s
fear deepens, making his voice crack when he speaks. “Killed who?”

My
fingers bite into his hair and yank his head back. He struggles to choke in
another breath. Just a little more and I could snap it clean off. His Strength
is no match for mine and he knows it.

“Killed
who?” he wheezes again.

“The
Ciphers,” I spit, “you killed them all, you miserable piece of-”

“What?”
Blackwood gasps. “What do you mean they’re all dead?”

“Dead!
Not breathing! Zipped up in body bags!” I scream at him. My hand grabs at his
throat and squeezes. In the corner of my vision, I can see Daniel going pale
and shaky. “You tricked me into coming here, promised me you’d let them live,
and the whole time they’re already dead!”

“No!
They weren’t supposed to be dead.” He shakes his head. His panic is palpable,
sour against my senses. “I … I never authorized killing them. Even after I
killed you, I wasn't going to kill them. I just wanted you.”

“You’re
lying! You wanted them dead all along.”

Blackwood
quivers with fear. “No, no, I’m not lying. I could have used them.”

A
sound behind me snaps my head around. Milo stands at the edge of the room, his
face a cold slate of fury. My fingers tighten around Blackwood’s neck as I see
my own pain reflected back at me in Milo’s expression. I want to inflict our
combined agony on him. Make him choke on it. Milo won’t stop me. His eyes
narrow and I know he wants it, too. Daniel isn’t standing in my way, either. Trapped
and defenseless, I don’t care. I want Blackwood dead. I start squeezing.

The
slimy feel of someone’s smug pleasure slithering across my skin makes me stop,
makes me think. I look down at Blackwood. It isn’t coming from him. For the first
time since barreling into the room, I open myself up to the emotions
surrounding me. Fear drowns me instantly and I have to push it away to feel
anything else. I focus on Blackwood specifically. Underneath the terror that he
is about die, I can feel his honest assertion that he didn’t know the Ciphers
were dead, playing over and over again like a desperate mantra. I search and
scour, thrust my Perception into him for any sign of deceit. Nothing.

My
hand slips free of his already bruising neck. I feel Milo move up behind me. Daniel
has moved next to me as well.

“Did
he do this?” Milo demands.

The
ferocity in Milo’s voice isn’t surprising. When I pause to recheck, just in
case I missed some hint of a lie, I expect Milo to question me, maybe take over
himself, but he waits impatiently for my verdict. “He’s telling the truth,” I
say.

“Somebody
here ordered their deaths,” Milo hisses.

Yes,
someone did. “One of the Seekers,” I say.

“I
can’t tell which ones are which.” Milo’s frustration bristles around him. He is
better than anyone I’ve ever met besides me at hiding his own emotions, a brute
force blockade, but he still struggles with the more subtle side of Perception.

I
don’t have that same issue. Perception is my strongest talent. One sweep around
the room and I’m able to identified every one of them, seventeen in all. I walk
over to the nearest one and tap my Naturalism again. He yelps out in fear as
his body starts sliding deeper into the marble. His wild eyes jump up to mine.

“Who
ordered the Ciphers to be killed, Seeker?”

His
eyes bug out as I reveal his secret profession.

“That’s
right,” I say more loudly than before, “I know exactly which ones of you are
Seekers.” Every one of the Seekers starts sinking. “I’ll kill every last Seeker
unless someone tells me who murdered the Ciphers.”

My
gaze stops on each sinking Seeker as I turn around the room. Milo’s finger
twitches on the trigger of his handgun as he looks at each one. When I come
full circle, my glare rests on the still sinking Seeker I started with.  “I’ll
ask you one more time. Who gave the order?”

His
mouth opens, but nothing comes out. Panic grips him so tightly I think it might
strangle him before I get the chance. Again, that grotesque feeling of pleasure
ripples across my skin. I forget the Seeker at my feet instantly and latch onto
the floating emotion. My eyes close as I block out everything but this one
singular feeling. I’ve never tried to trace an emotion back to someone before,
but as I step blindly across the marble floor, I know I will have to practice
this more often. The feeling lessens as I turn in the direction of its source.
The Seeker has realized his mistake and is trying to hide his identity. Too bad
for him I already know his emotional signature. I can find him now, whatever
he’s feeling. My heels click to a stop right in front of him.

I
feel a rush of satisfaction when I open my eyes to his middle-aged, ghost white
face. “You,” I say through my teeth, “you lead the Seekers here, don’t you?
You’re the one that ordered the deaths of eighty-one of my friends.”

He
tries to deny it, and I slap him hard. His head whips back and rolls forward
slowly. “They’re too dangerous to let live,” he says. “The chance that you
would get to them was too high. We couldn’t let that happen.”

The
gun I forgot I was holding snaps up, muzzle pressed against his forehead. Daniel’s
hand on my arm stops me from pulling the trigger.

“Look,”
he says, pointing back toward the elevators.

The
gun stays where it’s at, but I turn away from the Seeker. Dean and the two
Canadian Ciphers stand at the back of the room, each one leading a member of
Mr. Walters’ family. Terrified, but otherwise in good condition it would seem,
Helen, her husband, and her daughter gape at the scene before them. Helen grabs
for her husband and holds onto him like she never plans on letting go again. He
looks just as shaken as she does. Only Helen’s daughter, Hope, looks more angry
than frightened.

I
can’t believe they’re not dead. Maybe they’re not the only ones. I look at Dean,
and ask, “Was there anyone else? Did you find Braden?”

“No,”
Dean says, “the rest of the cells were empty. Sorry, Libby.”

The
image of the dead Ciphers flashes back into my mind. Fear for what these
monsters have done to Braden strangles me. I turn back to the head Seeker and
slide the gun down to right between his eyes. “Where’s Braden?” I demand.

A
bead of sweat rolls down his face. “I haven’t a clue,” he says, “but I’m sure
you’ll find out soon enough.”

“What
do you mean?”

“I
never trusted Blackwood’s plan would work.” He’s still scared enough to pee
himself, but unquenchable malice keeps it from bubbling up into full hysteria.
He even manages to twist his bleeding mouth into a smile as he says, “Braden
was released this morning with explicit instructions to call in reinforcements
if he didn’t hear from me by ten-fifteen. He was also instructed to hunt you
down and kill you if you should happen to escape.”

Oh,
no, they’ve already gotten to him. My chest starts convulsing as I try to
breathe. The air just won’t cooperate. I thought for sure I would get here in
time to stop them from breaking him. He can’t be lost to me. He can’t. The gun
trembles against the Seekers skin. Sweat breaks out all over his forehead, but
he still laughs. My finger fumbles at the trigger. This pig deserves to die.

“Libby,”
Daniel says anxiously, “it’s ten-thirty. If Braden really did call for
reinforcements, they could be here any minute. We’ve got to get out of here.
There’s nothing else we can do.”

“We
can kill them.” If I had any strength left after what the Seeker said, he’d
already be dead. I’m not sure I can even pull the trigger, I’m shaking so
badly.

I
see the way Milo’s hands tighten into fists. He wants me to do it. So many of
our friends are dead because of them. The thought of having to tell Casey and
Cole that no one is coming back with us makes me sick. I don’t know if I can
bear telling them. Eighty-one families will have to be told that the people
they already lost once to the Guardians are now lost forever. I want to see
them pay for what they’ve done.

“Libby,”
Daniel says softly. “If you kill them, the Guardians will call it murder.
They’ll come after you and no one will be able to stop them from broadcasting
your execution worldwide.”

Milo’s
anger spikes next to me at Daniel’s words. “Every Guardian in this compound is
responsible for what happened, but
this
man ordered it! We’re not
leaving him alive!”

“We
already broke into their compound and assaulted them. Aren’t they going to come
after me anyway?” I tell Daniel, more inclined to side with Milo. What’s one
more log on the fire at this point?

Daniel’s
hand reaches over and wraps around mine. He slips the gun from my shaky grip in
one smooth motion, making Milo even more furious. “Nobody knows about the
Ciphers being freed, Libby. The Guardians are hiding it. They don’t want to
answer questions about why they were holding them in the first place and what
they have been doing to them. They won’t publicize us breaking into a compound
that’s supposed to be impenetrable, either. But if you slaughter an entire
compound, they won’t keep that secret. You say your destiny is a choice. Well,
it’s time to choose. We can kill them and beat out all our anger on them, but
what are the chances any of us will live long enough to see the rest of them come
down?”

My
arm falls to my side in defeat. Milo’s body clenches in frustration next to me.
“Don’t leave these monsters here to come back and murder more innocent people!”
Milo shouts.

“You
really want me to kill them all?” I ask, surprised by his reaction, but sure
Daniel is right about this.

“At
least this one,” Milo growls, pointing at the Seeker in front of us. The Seeker
tries to remain calm, but Milo’s livid expression makes him tremble. “One life
for the eighty-one he took. I think that’s more than fair.”

Milo’s
body twitches, the gun in his hand rising, then falling, begging to be used. I
agree with Daniel’s argument, no matter how much I wish I didn’t, but seeing
Milo so agitated convinces me even more. It makes me sick to turn away from the
Seeker without making him pay for what he’s done, but if we don’t leave now we
may end up having to fight our way out.

“Daniel’s
right,” I say to Milo, “let’s get out of here.”

Dead-eyed
anger more intense than anything I have ever seen before blasts through Milo’s
expression. “I won’t leave him here to kill anyone else.”

Milo
doesn’t move fast. His gun arm lifts with careful precision to meet the
Seeker’s head. The shot echoes through the room, leaving gun smoke and silence
in its wake. The stench of spent gunpowder burns through my sinuses. My eyes
water, but not from the smell. I stare at the Seeker as his body slumps to its
awkward, final position. The trickle of blood that runs down the side of his
face steals the last ounce of my strength.

Milo
stalks past me without a word.

I
try to follow, but I am too stunned to manage it. Daniel is the one who turns
me away from the dead Seeker and drags me toward the front doors as the sound
of helicopters fill the air. That gets everyone jumping. Dean ushers Helen and
her family through the mess of Guardians and Seekers and pushes them out the
doors. Milo turns back and grabs me from Daniel when he realizes I’m not moving
fast enough. I shy away, but he yanks me toward his car. He only makes it a few
steps before I pull my hand out of his and turn back to the lobby. Every eye in
the room is fixed on me. Panic seizes them as I tap my Naturalism one more time
and set them sinking. I spin away and rush past Milo down the steps. I have no
intention of killing them all. I just hope they won’t be fast enough to stop
the dead Seeker’s body from disappearing and taking along with it any evidence
of Milo’s actions.

Chapter
7

Angry Hope

Milo shoves me into the
Bronco as helicopters start dropping onto the grass around the compound. I pull
away from him reflexively. Guardians dash out in a mad rush toward their
brothers, but we’re already driving away. The air rages with the noise of the machines.
Milo keeps looking behind us as we pull away, but I know we’re safe for now. When
I loosened up the marble again, I didn’t let it go fast enough to completely
cover everyone. In my head I’ve been keeping track of the time and the speed of
the Guardian reinforcements. Most of the trapped Guardians should be up to
their necks by now, and the dead Seeker buried.