Draco and Ace had spoken to him…. Was that even possible?
“You don"t really want to save anyone. You never did. Playing hero was Draco"s dream.”
Lael shoved his father and had the satisfaction of watching Ben smack into the wall. “If you gave a shit about any of us, you"d use their real names. I bet you don"t even remember them.”
Truth was, his brothers had used their fake ones for so long, even their spouses called them Draco and Ace, but Ben was their father. He should think of them with the names he helped give them. His father"s lack of parental feeling was a small thing considering the situation, but Lael saw red when he heard his father call them Draco and Ace. Maybe it was the proverbial straw breaking the Guardian"s back.
Margot screamed, and Lael whirled around. A giant spider of a machine approached her. It had fangs coming out of its mouth, and the closer the metal arachnid got to Margot, the more the fangs moved in a pinching motion. The intention seemed clear—hurt Margot.
He surged forward. It was bad enough she had to endure the green light. He wouldn"t let her get hurt. No way, no how. She"d become very important to him in a very short period of time.
Ben slammed into him with the force of a run-away train, and together they banged into the wall so hard concrete came down around them. He was covered in the white stuff and breathing hard. The pain of the assault would come later. For now, his body was really good at holding off the feelings until he could deal with them.
His head rang, but he didn"t let it stop him. Using his strength in a way he never let himself for fear of harming others, he threw his father over and whirled around.
“Margot.” He shouted. “Get up and run.”
She didn"t turn to look at him, and he screamed his instructions again. Instead, she rose and placed her hands out in front of her similar to a conductor managing a full orchestra. What the hell was the girl doing?
He rose into the sky and stopped short of flying toward her. The metal creature threatening Margot stopped. Instead, her hand movements controlled it. The bug-like creation sat on the floor and powered down.
Behind him, Ben laughed hysterically. “I told you. I got you a present for abandoning Draco.”
A loud popping behind him was Lael"s only warning his father had vanished. A people transporter always sounded similar right before it went off. If Ben had tried to fly away, Lael could have caught him, but not if he sped up his departure electronically. The machines in the room immediately powered down, confirming his suspicion. His father had been controlling them all personally. Without him there to spur them on, they"d simply shut down. Lael preferred limited monsters to ones who could be controlled remotely.
The green light in the room faded, and Margot smiled at him. Her grin would be infectious if it didn"t feel like someone had punched him in the gut.
“Did you see? I controlled it.” Pink dotted her cheeks, and her eyes were a brighter blue, as if she"d been infused with energy.
Lael landed next to her. “So tell me, Margot, if that"s even your name, how long have you worked for my father and did you really think you could make this ruse last indefinitely? You both must think I"m the biggest asshole on the planet. Aliens. Nothing could have been more perfect.”
They had played him well. He had to give them credit. His father had left him a present—a lost girl living blocks from his new home. She claimed aliens abducted her. What more of a protective trigger could they have given him? His mother had gone on about aliens for years. He shook his head. How much more pathetic could he be?
****
Margot stared at Lael as if he had two heads. He had just taken all her newfound confidence and stomped on it. Hard. What the hell was he talking about? She"d thought she would get killed by a mechanical insect, and the next thing she knew she had managed to make the thing sit down.
It must have had some kind of machine language she"d stumbled upon. Maybe her luck was finally changing.
“Are we having a conversation I"m not aware of? Because I have less than no idea what you"re talking about.”
She stood up. Without the green light to oppress her, she felt lighter, more in control, as if she could finally take a deep breath. Now she had to make sense of Lael. Was such a thing even possible?
“You. Are. In. League. With. Ben.”
His words sunk in even as she couldn"t believe she heard him. She"d gathered enough from listening to glean Ben was Lael"s father. And also the father of Draco Powers and Ace Hudson, it
seemed. Lael Hudson. She should have put that together sooner, except she"d not really been focusing on details.
Except for the chiseled way Lael"s cheekbones looked in the sunlight.
“You"re crazy.”
She pushed at him, wanting out of the warehouse, wanting away from him. Her skin itched.
Maybe it was some kind of residual issue from the light. Or maybe she"d suddenly become allergic to overbearing men who accused her of nonsense.
He grabbed her arm. His grip was tight but so not so aggressive it hurt her. Still, she tried, and failed, to pull out of his hold.
“Let go of me, asshat.”
Lael smiled. Why did he find this amusing? “You"re so convincing. I"m almost tempted to believe you. Is it possible? Could you even not know who you are?”
“I know who I am. I"m Margot Fox, and whether or not you want to believe it, aliens abducted me. You can get into what conspiracy you want, but I"m done with accusations.”
“Same old refrain, over and over again. Do you even hear yourself?”
His words jarred her. Was she saying the same things over and over again? Did that mean something was terribly wrong? Or was it only because she was still so limited in what she knew about herself?
Lael dropped her arm. “Margot. You look pale.”
“I"m not feeling so well.”
The room spun, and her stomach threatened to turn over. Hell in a hand basket, she really didn"t want to puke on Lael"s shoes.
“Okay.” His tone was softer. “Put your arms around my neck.”
“Wait…what?” The last thing she wanted was to embrace Lael right at the moment. Hitting him in the chin seemed preferable.
“Don"t be obtuse right now. Put your arms around my neck or I"ll pick you up regardless.”
Since she thought her knees might give out anyway, she did as he instructed. “You could have asked instead of ordering.”
“Oh? Did the aliens ask you before they used their probes? Lots of permission given?”
He leapt upwards, and it took her a minute to realize they were flying. She wanted to answer his snide remark, but the fact that the ground got further and further away until they were in the clouds took the words from her mouth.
She stared over his shoulder, trying to make sense of the strange experience. The cool air helped some of her lightheadedness. It wasn"t totally gone, but she could think more clearly.
“Lael.” She shouted to be heard. “This is amazing.”
He made a sound that was somewhere between a grunt and a laugh. “Hold on, okay? The last time I took someone with me it didn"t end well.”
She decided not to let the image of her plummeting out of his arms straight onto her death, squashed on the ground, ruin the moment for her. Lael might have lost his mind and made stupid senseless accusations, but she trusted him with this. He wouldn"t let her fall.
Whatever else Lael did, he had a big heart. She watched him at the soup kitchen. He cared about people, and he"d get over his snit so she could figure out what the hell he was going on about. Working for his father?
“You get to see the world from up here regularly.”
“Flying does have its perks.” He tugged her closer, and his warmth made the cool air whipping around them not so hard to take. “It took me a very long time to figure out how to do this. I kept blowing the landing. It wasn"t pretty.”
“I"m sure, like everything else in life, it takes time to master something like th
is. I am in awe right now.” A thought dawned on her. “Where are we going?”
They had been flying a very long time, at too fast a speed to simply be returning to where they had come from.
“Home. I have to figure out what"s happening, and you have become an unknown element. I need to keep you close.”
“Wow, Lael. You say the sweetest things. Unknown element? Just what every girl wants to hear when she"s being flown around by her own personal Guardian.” He laughed, and she felt like she could take a deep breath. “Listen, I"m not whoever you have decided I am.”
“I haven"t decided anything.” His jaw ticked.
“Okay, fine, if you want to play semantics, I"m not whoever you are wondering about. Or whatever.”
Even she couldn"t make sense of any of this anymore. “I know myself. I"m a good person.
Even if I"m not perfect, and I guess no one is, I"m not the kind of person who could work with your father to take down the Guardians. Or whatever.”
“I almost believe you.” Lael"s voice moved through her. “Just rest. I"ll take care of you, and we'll figure it out later.”
That sounded good. There wasn"t much to see anymore inside the clouds, and if she could pretend the strong flying man who held her so tightly might actually like her, then she could relax for a little while, at least.
She closed her eyes, and just let the wind move against her in the safety of Lael"s arms.
Apparently, she could fantasize with the best of them. Margot marked it down in the list she made about herself, but she couldn"t decide if it was a good thing or a bad thing.
Sometime later, they landed. Out of the sky, her head blurred up again, and she couldn"t seem to get it cleared.
Lael still held her in his arms, and she had to admit she liked the sensation. He walked forward and she soon found herself in darkness.
“Lael?” She gasped. Had she gone blind?
“It"s a cave. It leads to my brothers" safe house. It"s meant to be virtually impenetrable by anyone who doesn"t know where they"re going.”
“Right. Okay.”
When Lael had said he was headed home, he hadn"t been kidding. He had brought her to his family. Her mouth went dry. If his brothers were taken, who exactly was his family?
“Who will be inside the cave?”
“No one, I hope. The cave is just the first step of the process. Draco and Ace are nothing if not diligent about protecting their families. We"ve got a ways to go.”
That was a true statement if ever she had heard one.
Chapter Seven
Lael paced the room for the hundredth time. Or maybe it hadn"t been so long. Maybe it felt that long because he hated inaction.
“Let me get this straight.” Alice interrupted his thoughts. “You think she might be in league with Ben, so you brought her to the safe house with your family.”
He"d have answered—but he didn"t know exactly what he could say because she happened to be right…what had he been thinking?
Draco"s wife Wendy interrupted his thoughts.
“He obviously doesn"t think she"s guilty, not in his heart where it counts, or she wouldn"t be staying here.”
Wendy was a romantic, and Alice tended towards pragmatism, but in this case he"d let Wendy act as if he"d known what he was doing instead of the truth, which was he"d never once stopped to think about not bringing her.
More and more, he believed Draco had been correct. He had no business being a Guardian.
But they were all stuck with him until he could free his brothers and the other Guardians from wherever they were being held.
Alice crossed to him. “Are you in love with her?”
“Fuck, Alice. I don"t even know who she is at this point. I"m not in love.” I’m not, am I?
Damn it.
“Watch your mouth, Lael.” Ace"s wife rolled her eyes and took another sip of her coffee.
Both of the women were stressed. He could see it from the dark circles under their eyes and the way Wendy"s hands slightly shook. Between them they had five children, and his niece and nephews all seemed well. Hiding in a big house underground had to seem a game to them.
They"d been asleep when he arrived, so he really didn"t have any information yet how they were holding up.
He"d left Margot asleep in one of the guest rooms. She hadn"t stirred in hours. Whatever she was or wasn"t, the day had taken a lot out of her.
“When was the last time you heard from them?”
Alice set down her drink. “Ace sent out a signal indicating we had to get here. We ran and didn"t look back. That"s the protocol. We hunker down here, protect the kids, and wait. You remember. Once upon a time, you were one of the kids we had to look after.”
He didn"t want to play the sentimentality game. What he needed were details and answers.
Wendy took lead. “After we got here, Draco sent out one more message with just his
father"s name on it.”
“So then you know nothing more than I do.” Alice and Wendy made eye contact for one second too long, and he knew they had more to say. He"d seen them do the eye thing more than once to his brothers. Usually it had to do with wanting them to take vacations.
Somehow he doubted they wanted him to take a cruise.
“Tell me.” He didn"t pretend ignorance. Why bother? Time was of the essence.
“You can trace them.”
“If I could have, don"t you think I would have, Wendy? Despite all evidence to the contrary, I"m not an idiot. If I knew how to track them, I"d have done it already.”
Ace"s wife stepped in front of Wendy before she could answer. “No one said that word but you.”
Alice walked to him and put her arm around him. He"d lived with Alice and Ace during the first years of their marriage. He loved her, but he didn"t appreciate her patronizing him.
“Get to the point.”
“You can use the machine. Ace had the guys at Powers make it a while ago and then he put it here. Frankly, I think the idea was to have Draco be able to track him or vice versa.”
“The idea I"d ever be the one was too foreign to even mention it to me.” He got it, but it didn"t stop the burn. Would it have been impossible to say hey Lael, we have a machine so you can always find us?
“Ace had it done when you were young. I think at the time they were picturing you locked up in here with us. I"m guessing they just forgot to mention it since we never had to lock ourselves up in here before.” Alice smiled.
“Why haven"t you used it?” Lael would never put it past his sisters-in-law to decide they could mount a rescue mission all by themselves. The fact that they had stayed put actually seemed surprising considering the presence of the machine they described.
Wendy crossed her arms. “We can"t. It requires blood. I think Draco said blood calls to the blood. Ace could find Draco; Draco could find Ace. The kids could find them but I"m not hooking them up to some machine I don"t understand how to use.”
“I"m only half-blooded to them.” He stated the obvious because it seemed Wendy and Alice had forgotten that small yet important detail. “Draco and Ace can find each other because they"re actually brothers.”
“I bet it's close enough.” Alice motioned to the doorway. “And, in every way that matters, they"ve always thought of you as their own.” She stopped and grinned. “Too cheesy?”
Lael laughed, releasing some of the tension. “Thanks.”
“Come on. I"ll show you where you can hook in.”
Hook in? He wasn"t sure he liked the sound of that, but he"d go along for now. Finding the Guardians had to be his top priority, whatever discomfort he himself had to endure.
Wendy stayed behind, not meeting his eyes. She must really not like whatever this machine did. He"d known her long enough to tell when she felt guilty. The time she had broken Draco"s favorite beer mug she had appeared quite similar.
Lael stopped and faced her. There were things that needed to be said. Long overdue
st
atements he should have manned up to a long time ago.
“I owe you so much.”
Wendy"s head shot up, and she had tears in her eyes.. Nothing made him more of a coward than sentiment. Lael had no idea how to handle it.
“Lael….” Her voice trailed off.
“Please, Wendy, let me say this. And you, too, Alice.” He took a deep breath to steady himself. “When Draco first brought me home, Wendy, you guys weren"t even married yet.
You"d just gotten together after the incident with the Organization. It couldn"t have been easy to have a surly teenager around.” Before she could answer, he turned to Alice. “And the same goes for you. Ace and you never had a real life without me hanging around.”
“Who said we wanted one?” Alice"s eyebrows shot upwards on her forehead. It was one of his favorite looks from her. That was Alice basically telling the world to fuck off, her "don"t challenge me" facial expression.
“Well.” He cleared his throat. “Just the same. Thanks.”
“This sounds an awful lot like goodbye to me, Lael.” Wendy had always been sharp as nails.
Even if the machine Alice took him to worked and he could find everyone, what chance did he have where others had failed? If Draco and Ace couldn"t take on the Organization, he was as good as dead.
****
Lael stared at the monstrous contraption and gritted his teeth. He did not want to stick himself inside what basically amounted to a medieval torture chamber. Somehow the device, with more wires than he could count sticking out everywhere, was going to read his blood and, using satellites and GPS technology, discover where his brothers were and then input the information into his head so he could find them.
“Are you sure it"s not ready to blow up?” He spoke to Alice who hung near the door. Did she intend to bolt once he put himself inside? “I mean, Ace tested it, right?”
“I really have no idea. Half the time when he starts talking about mechanical stuff I tune out.
I hate to admit that, I mean it makes me sound a bit of a bitchy wife but that"s the truth.”