Destroyed (24 page)

Don’t hit back.

He shook his head. “Damn Master. I can’t wait for him to die. How the hell does he know what’s going on here, anyway? Where’s the camera?”

“What are you talking about?” I asked, thoroughly confused. Who did they think the Master was?

He grinned.

“You two have done such a good job at protecting him. Except now he’s going to die and the real Master can take over once again. All because we lured you to Florida. We are going to be rewarded beyond our wildest dreams.”

I stepped back. Nothing he said was making any sense. It was time to pull the story out of him.

Tell us everything you know about the killing of the Guardians.

He gripped his head. He concentrated very hard for a second and then groaned.

“It was never about killing Guardians.”

“Keep going. Start from the beginning.”

Romeo fidgeted with his phone for a second, and then he started pacing. Kai watched his every move, and Frankie stood by the door. But I didn’t worry about it. He couldn’t leave until he told me what I wanted to know. That was the power of the Master Destroyer. Romeo gripped his head and moaned again. Finally, he started talking.

“I’d always played both sides. Destroyer and Guardian. The Guardians appealed to me because they lead a more sophisticated lifestyle. I don’t like getting my hands dirty. But then Alejandro gave Las Vegas to Puck instead of me. Bastard.”

“He told me that San Francisco would be open in a couple of years and I could have that one. But I didn’t want to wait. I’d heard rumors of a powerful Destroyer who had lost all of his power and just needed a little help getting it back. I was training Hayden at the time and he was willing to come along for the ride.”

“That’s right, bitches.”

“Shut up.” Kai and I both said at the same time.

“I met with this Destroyer and he told me of his plan. He was angry and his plans revolved around revenge. Which was fine by me. He wanted Guardians killed. A lot of them. He wanted to take out the leadership so that when he took over, the Guardians would be weak. Plus, power is transferred in the killing. He wanted to take their power.”

“Did it work?”

He looked confused.

“When he killed a Guardian and took their power, did it work?”

“Oh, no. It didn’t. Pissed him off so bad.”

“What is his name?”

“Don’t know. Little guy though. Skinny, high pitched voice. Always wore a hoodie and a mask when he met with us.” He stopped for a second and scratched his head. “Where was I? Oh, yeah. We killed Alejandro.” He grinned. “That was a pleasure. They let me try to take his power. Wanted to see if would work for me.”

“Did it?”

“Yeah. What a rush.” He frowned.

“Wait,” I said, turning to Kai. “Why did that work? I thought that only…”

Kai cut me off. “When a Destroyer kills anyone with power they get the power from the dead Destroyer, Guardian, or Shade.” This was not good news. But also explained why the leader of the Destroyers needed to be strong. He wouldn’t want his followers killing each other or us because then they might become more powerful than him.

“Keep going,” I said to Romeo.

“I had to bring Alejandro’s head to you. The man insisted on it. But the idiot Master sent out a new command and we couldn’t kill them anymore. But the man said that if we couldn’t kill them, then we could influence others to do it for us. The leaders were hard to get at though, so we just found minor Guardians instead.

“But then a new command said we couldn’t do that anymore either. By then, we’d found another Destroyer, Dwayne, whose power had been taken, and he was more than willing to kill Guardians without any influence from us. He’d kill them and then let Hayden and I take the power. I’m more powerful than most Guardians or Destroyers at this point. Hayden as well.”

Hayden grinned. Holy crap. My stomach tensed. Would this problem ever end? Or would it just be chasing one murderer after another? I squeezed my eyes shut for a minute and tried to focus on the problem at hand. The one I could take care of now, instead of the ones that were out of my reach.

“Why’d you lure us out to Florida?”

“That was the man’s idea. He said that if we killed a couple of minor Guardians in Florida, you two would come running to investigate. Then he could murder the Master Destroyer, because you wouldn’t be there to protect him anymore.”

My dad. I whipped my phone out and dialed. The phone rang and rang. No answer. Dammit.

“Kai, we have to go. Now.”

He nodded. “But first you need to take care of these two.” Kai was right. We’d get to my dad in time, but if we left these two with their power, worse things could happen.

I gripped Romeo’s hand. I needed to take it all. He’d told me a lot more than he realized. He’d told me that if someone didn’t have any power, they couldn’t take it from someone. But if they had even a little bit, they could murder for more. I knew this meant he might never confess to the crimes or be served justice for the hand he played in Alejandro’s murder. That was a risk I had to take to ensure he never did anything like this ever again.

He grinned. “Decide to finally ditch the brothers and come with me?”

“No, I’m going take from you what you stole from others.”

I started to pull and I could feel the energy of both Guardians and Destroyers flowing into me. What I didn’t expect was for Hayden to barrel into me from the side and knock me over. I lost contact with him and fell into a heap with Hayden.

He was still fairly small and I was able to push him off, but not before Romeo ran. Kai and Frankie grabbed him before he could get out the door. I didn’t hesitate. I pulled Hayden up by the hand and dragged him over to the struggling Romeo.

“Bitch,” Romeo yelled and spit in my face. I ignored him and grabbed his arm just above where Kai was pinning his hands behind his back. I pulled with all my might. I had no time to waste. Dwayne was going after my father. I pulled and pulled and pulled until there was nothing left. It was exhilarating and horrible at the same time. When it was over, I let go of both of them and stepped back, breathing heavily.

I looked to Frankie. “Will you take care of these two?”

He looked at me with horror in his eyes. “You took my power?”

“Excuse me?”

“My power is gone.”

I looked at Kai.

“Mine too.”

A man by the name of Alex Montgomery made a mistake when he was breeding roses. His mistake turned out to be a gorgeous crimson rose that smelled amazing. He called it Montgomery’s Mistake. I wish my mistake could’ve turned out like that
.

Oh no. No, no, no, no, no. That was not what I meant to do.

I addressed Frankie first. “I can fix this, I think. But first, I have to go save my father. Will you please bring these boys to a police station and have them confess to the murders they committed? Then come to Arkansas, and I will see what I can do about giving you your power back. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

He looked a little lost. “How am I supposed to convince them to do anything?”

“I'm sure you’ll figure it out. Kai, we need to go.”

He nodded and didn’t say anything. Romeo and Hayden were surprisingly subdued.

In the car, Kai kept quiet.

“I’m sorry,” I said. I had a lump in my throat and I couldn’t look at him.

“Don’t. Let’s not talk about this right now. I don’t know how to handle it. Give me some time. Just don’t say anything else.”

I quickly dialed my dad again, but he didn’t answer. That didn’t mean anything. He could be at the clinic or just not paying attention. He didn’t like phones. Kai drove quickly through the streets of Orlando. He was mad, and rightfully so, but I didn’t see how I could fix it. I hadn’t taken just some of his power, I had it all. Now that it was over, I could feel the distinctions in the power. Alejandro was the strongest. His power flowed through my whole body. Kai’s was close. It was strange having Kai’s power inside of me.

I watched the screens in the airport as they refreshed, flight after flight being canceled. A massive snowstorm had moved thorough the Midwest and was heading southeast. Kai came over to me as I tried, in vain, to find some flight that was not cancelled heading close to where we were going. Nothing.

“We can stay at my mom’s tonight and try the airport again in the morning.”

“That’s too long. My dad could be dead by then. Can we drive?”

Kai looked like he was about to say no, but then he nodded and headed back to the rental car counters.

*

We drove in virtual silence for hours. We had just passed Atlanta when Kai finally spoke.

“Can I ask you something?” he asked.

“Sure.”

“Why didn’t you just command them to be still? You could’ve taken their power easily.”

“I didn’t think about that. I wasn’t prepared for the fight. All I could think was that I needed to take their power and get out of there.” I regretted my actions. But I couldn’t think straight with all that was going on.

“That’s the problem Naomi, you don’t think about the consequences of your actions.”

Yes, I do. Except under extreme circumstances.

“Look, I’m sorry. I’ll give you your power back.”

“That’s not the problem. Well, it is, but there is more to it than that.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t respond and he didn’t elaborate.

Huge white snowflakes began to fall on the outskirts of Birmingham. A half-hour later, they were sticking to the ground. The car slid a couple of times.

“We have to stop. It’s not safe right now.”

I nodded and looked at my phone. No call from dad. I’d called him at least five times, left voicemails and sent text messages, but he hadn’t responded to any of them.

We pulled into the parking lot of a Holiday Inn. Kai paid and I listened to the conversation between him and the front desk clerk.

“Any idea when the storm is supposed to let up?”

“Supposed to snow all night. You might want to go ahead and pay for two nights. I don’t think you’re going anywhere tomorrow.”

I closed my eyes. This was not happening. I couldn’t protect my dad because of the stupid weather.

I paced around the room while Kai flicked through the television channels. After checking my phone for the millionth time, I finally decided to call someone else. Jason picked up after the first ring.

“What’s up?”

“Can you go check on my dad?” I couldn’t believe I didn’t think to call him earlier.

“Why?”

“They lured us to out so they could attack him. They think he is the Master Destroyer. They are going to kill him, and we can’t get home.”

“I wish I could help you, but I’m completely snowed in. There’s a foot of snow outside, with ice underneath. A lot of phone and electrical lines are down. The good news is that whoever is after him probably can’t get there either.”

He had a point, but it didn’t make me feel any better.

“Is Kai with you?” Jason asked.

“Yeah, why?”

“Nothing, I was just wondering how things went with you and Ruth.”

“What do you mean?”

“I thought that would be obvious.”

“I’m not following you at all.”

“Yeah, you’re pretty preoccupied with your dad, but I’m surprised you didn’t see it.”

The line went dead; I wasn’t sure if that was intentional or just the weather. But I suspected I knew what Jason meant.

“Kai, can you turn off the TV?”

He looked at me with exasperation. He was still mad at me. Of course, he probably should be. I sat on the bed across from him.

“Is there anything going on with you and Ruth?” I asked.

His face didn’t betray anything. “What do you mean?”

“Well, you lied to me about knowing her. And…”

“I lied for everyone’s safety. Especially hers. She didn’t need to be wrapped up in any Guardian and Destroyer drama. So no, I didn’t tell you. Too much murder going around.”

“That’s not what I’m worried about. She said you guys talk every day.”

He ran his hand through his hair.

“Yeah, so?”

“Do you have feelings for her?”

He snorted. “Do you really want me to answer this?”

“I want the truth.”

He dropped his eyes. “Fine, then. I think I’m in love with her.”

My heart nearly stopped. I thought maybe he’d say he liked her or something. I didn’t expect him to be so up front about it.

“You brought me back to Arkansas because you wanted us to be together. I thought you loved me. Even when I was reluctant, you begged me to forget Puck.” I stood up, my fists clenched. I didn’t have the right to be angry. Not really. But things had gotten so comfortable between us in the last few months that I hardly even thought about Puck anymore.

Kai looked up at me, surprise etched across his features. “You mean I actually have a shot?”

“Not anymore, you don’t.” I looked out the window. I’d been so stupid, letting my guard down. I never should’ve come to Arkansas. Kai would’ve been just fine without me. Kai stood up and got in my face.

“You are so hypocritical. Like you have no idea what it’s like to love two different people. Yes, I’m confused. Yes, I have no idea what I really want. But I thought you, of all people, would understand that.”

“Maybe I should, but I don’t. I’ll make your choice easy for you though. You can have her.” I wanted to run. Go anywhere, away from Kai. But there was nowhere to go. We were stuck in this stupid hotel, in this stupid snowstorm, while my dad was probably fighting for his life. Kai looked lost.

“Does she know?” I asked.

Kai shook his head. “She thinks you’re my girlfriend.”

I snorted. “So she might not even like you. It would serve you right.” Yes, I was being mean. I couldn’t help myself.

“I don’t have to stay here and listen to you and your hypocrisy. I’m going for a walk. I’ll get us some food while I’m out. You really should think about the things you yourself have done. I’m not the bad guy here.”

He slammed the door and I collapsed onto the small couch.

This was horrible. I didn’t come out to Arkansas with the intent to fall for Kai, and I hadn’t, but it hurt that he kept something like that from me. Especially since if he had just told me, this whole thing would’ve been so much easier. Kai and I could’ve been friends, Ruth and I could’ve been in touch, and I could’ve still brought Kai back to the Guardians. I stared at my phone. There was only one number I wanted dial. It would be reckless and stupid, but who was being rational tonight? Certainly not Kai.