Guardians: The Girl (The Guardians Series, Book 1)(44)
“Look, I could have left you tied up.”
“I could have beat you senseless.”
“The point is, you’re free now.”
“Why did you free me? And don’t give me that crap about not being a total jerk, because you are.”
“When you thought I was in trouble like you, you were willing to help.”
“So?”
“Well, I’ve never had anyone go out of their way for me. Plus, Marcus has had plenty of chances to kill me but he hasn’t. So, I thought I’d do him a favor and help you out.”
“You’re doing this because of Marcus?”
“I’m doing it because I don’t think you would have revealed your secret if just your life depended on it. You only did it to save me. You put my life ahead of yours. That was nice.”
“Had I known you were a traitor I would have told them to roast you and let me dance on your ashes.”
“You have a dark side to you, you know that?”
“I’m not an angel. I can have as dark a side as I damn well please.”
“I can see why he likes you. You’ve got a little fire in you.”
“I had a lot of fire in me moments ago, and it’s all because you helped them.”
“I didn’t tell them to use the Weeping oil. That was an executive decision.”
“Rage?”
“And Lucy.”
“So, you and all your friends just sit around thinking of ways to hurt people?”
“I had nothing to do with that.”
“Why am I even standing here talking to you? Which way do I go once I leave here?”
“You can’t leave. They have a meter at the door. It will tell them if a human has entered or exited. The only one who can come and go is me. I know the code to turn it off.”
“Then get moving,” I say as I head towards the door. He takes my arm. I pull it away from him.
“You touch me and I’ll make you beg Lucy to end it for you right here and now.”
“I’ll help you, but you have to let me go first.”
“You could be setting me up again.”
“For what? You already gave them what they needed.”
“Thanks to you.”
“I did not torture you.”
“Who sold them the Weeping oil, Tony?”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, you’re a swell guy”
“They have something I need. They said if I helped they’d give it to me.”
“What?”
“Never mind. It can only be found in the Hun Market. It costs a lot of money and they were gonna get it for me.”
“So, it’s something to do evil.”
“You do-gooders are so judgmental.”
“Shut up and help me get out.”
“Okay, no need to shout. You know, on TV the guy who rescues the girl gets a kiss.”
“The guy isn’t usually the one who put the girl in danger in the first place. Now move.”
He leads the way, puts a key in the door and opens it. I see a series of dark hallways. We stay low and run down the first corridor to the left. At the end of the hall is a room where the Akons had gathered. Their voices fill the hallway. Tony mouths soundlessly that we need to keep moving. But I move towards the sound. This way I can find out how much they know or how much they think they know.
Tony keeps waving “no” and tries to steer me towards the exit. I won’t go. I have to find out as much as I can. This is my chance to really be of help in this mission. I come as close as I can to the door without touching it.
I hear Frenzy speak from behind the door.
“I’m telling you, this is what we’ve been looking for.”
“So, let’s kill her, then go find her father,” Chaos adds excitedly.
“We have to make sure. After we get the father, then we kill her. Lucy won’t like us jumping ahead of ourselves,” the leader, Rage says.
“I’m sure enough for all of us. The council gave us this guy’s daughter as a starting point. Now we have to find him,” Chaos replies.
“He’s right. We need to wait on the girl.” I think that was Mayhem speaking, but I’m not sure.
“Where’s Tony?” Rage asks.
“He went to get some food.”
“I forget that bastard’s human. They’re so weak. They need to eat several times a day. How pathetic,” Chaos says.
“Weren’t you like that?” Rage asks.
“I always choose job over food. Any opportunity to see the look on the victim’s faces as they cry out and ask you to spare their worthless lives. That was the only fuel I needed.”
“That why you weigh ten pounds,” Frenzy says.
“Oh, you wanna go? Anytime man.”
“Enough. Tony should have been back. Go check on the girl.”
“Tony would never help her. That guy is only two cycles away from being owned by Lucy. There’s no way he’ll make it into the light.”
“Chaos, shut up and go find him. And if he is anywhere other than in the front door guarding the human, take him out,” Rage orders.
I hear Chaos making his way towards the door. Tony drags me down the hall and into a stairwell. We run as fast as we can. We hear feet running behind us. They’re shouting to each other to catch us before we get to the exit. We go down two flights of stairs and down the hallway. Hand in hand, Tony and I head for the exit at top speed.
At the exit is an alarm code of some kind. Tony goes up to it and punches in a few numbers. Nothing happens. The door remains shut.
“What’s the problem?”
“I can’t remember the code to get out.”
“What? C’mon.”
“Shh. I need to focus. Stop rushing me.”
“They’re coming.”
The footsteps get louder.
“Tony, hurry!”
“I got it.” He keys in the numbers, the alarm flashes green and the lock springs open. We never get a chance to open the door because at that exact moment Rage sends a ball of flames hurtling down the hallway towards us.
We hit the floor as the blaze blasts the door wide open. Flames are everywhere. Tony drags me up off the floor. I get up just in time to see Rage’s next attack. The ball of flames is too close to us: we won’t duck in time.
We brace ourselves as it bears down on us. Suddenly every thing goes black. I hear voices, so I think I’m still alive. How is that possible? I think back to the last time I felt this kind of darkness: it’s Rio. He’s shielding Tony and me from the ball for flames. I am right: when the darkness lifts, Rio hovers above me.
Marcus had attacked Rage while Rio protected Tony and I.
“We gotta go,” Rio says. Tony and I follow him out of the gaping hole that had once been a door. As we get outside, I look up and see Mayhem and Frenzy flying above us. They don’t get in the way of us trying to escape because they’re too busy attacking the other Guardians.
From the roof, Frenzy aims at Miku and shoots a bolt of lightning from each hand. The lightning rocks her body. She shakes uncontrollably. Her eyes are wild and her hands clench. Seeing this, Ameana looks for a way to help her friend. She finds the perfect opportunity when Mayhem shoots daggers at Reese, who has just Blinked in.
Ameana redirects the daggers so that they by pass Reese, go around her and head right for Frenzy’s chest. He sees the daggers coming and has to stop electrocuting Miku in order to take cover.
No longer held up by jolts of electricity, Miku drops to the ground. She isn’t moving. Panicked, Ameana goes over to check on her. War sees Ameana is distracted and blasts a dose of acid directly at her. Reese Blinks in from behind and attacks War causing him to misfire. Jay helps Marcus take on Rage and Chaos. Rio leads us around the corner away from the fight.
“Stay here. I’ll get Reese to Blink you home,” he says.
“No,” I shout after him. He doesn’t hear me. He has already taken off.
“We have to go help them.”
“I’m just a human. There is nothing I can do.”
“Fine, Tony. You stay here and be the coward they all think you are.”
“Wait!” he says.
“What?”
“I learned some information about the Triplex from the Akons that might help you. I was gonna sell it to Marcus for a small fee but….”
“What is it?”
“According to the Akons, Lucy said that each member of the council has a say in where the Triplex is placed on Earth. Even though the council is not made up of humans, they each have traits that are specific to them.”
“So they can be bad or good?”
“No, that’s not what I mean. Take the first member to the council, Death. It acts independently of Omnis, but it cannot oppose the other two members. That means if Death wants to take a man’s life, it can only do so with the permission of Time and Fate.”
“So the Triplex has to be somewhere that can be affected by Time, Fate and Death?”
“Exactly. All three of them have to agree on the hiding place.”
“So the Triplex is going to be somewhere all three can agree on. But that doesn’t really help, Tony. Fate, Time and Death exist in everything.”
“No, Emmy. Think. Where can there be no death?”
“Where there was no life.”
“Exactly. How can something die if it never lived?”
“So Death would want the Triplex in a place where death can occur, like a hospital or a nursing home?”