“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” she says.
Damn, this is going to suck, really bad…
“You know what fruit to choose?” Marcus asks.
“Yes.”
“Pretty, tell us.”
“Can’t we just say I know which one it is and let it go at that?” she asks desperately.
No one answers but she knows that we will need her to tell us about the fruit to make sure it’s the kind of secret the Shoma would choose as a clue. And even if that wasn’t the case, she is so desperate for us not to know that, we are all dying to get details.
I already know her secret, I was just really hoping she told Jay before the Shoma had a chance to do it for her. But there is no such luck. Now she’s looking into Jay’s eyes and he’s looking back at her clueless about what’s coming next.
“Miku, what’s up?” Jay asks growing concerned.
“It’s the peach. There’s a hideous looking peach tree painting on the wall of this place I know,” she replies.
“What place?” Jay asks.
“A motel. I spent the night there a few times with other guys; demons.”
Marcus bows his head. Rage looks away and Miku is frozen in regret and guilt. I inhale deeply and avoid Jay’s heated glare. Everyone in the room falls silent. It’s like we are all watching Jay and Miku’s relationship implode. We don’t talk or move fearing we would somehow make it worse.
“You cheated on me—with demons?” he asks.
“I’m so sorry. It was just a few times. I was getting over Rio’s death and I didn’t know what else to do,” she pleads.
Jay looks like his soul has been sucked out of him. He opens his mouth but words don’t come. He is speechless and more broken than I have ever seen him. Without saying a word, Jay exits the room. We then watch him through the window. He gets on an Auto Port and leaves everything behind.
Marcus is torn. On one hand, I know he wants to give Jay some space but the fact is a week is all we have. So he can’t allow Jay to go off on his own for days. Also we have no idea how Lucy is planning on getting the third Alpha but we need to get ahead of her.
That means there is no time for relationship issues at all.
However, Miku has always held a soft spot in Marcus’s heart. I can tell because he’s always checking in on her. He won’t ask her any questions but he studies her when she’s not looking. And if he feels like she is missing Rio or feeling down, he’ll allow her to kill a demon any way she wants or let her spend extra time shopping.
Now with Miku in the garden with her head in my lap, Marcus is even more concerned.
When Miku starts swearing she’s the worst Angel that ever lived, Marcus comes over to her. His expression is severe at first. But now, after seeing how devastated she is, his face softens.
“Pretty, sit up and talk to me. What happened? You love Jay, why would you hurt him?” Marcus asks.
“I wasn’t trying to. I just…I wanted an escape. I didn’t want to think about being a Guardian or the sacrifices the job called for. Is that so awful?”
“No. Look, I did CP so I am no better than anyone when a decision is stupid and dangerous. And being with another guy, a demon no less...”
“He’s never gonna forgive me. Our wedding will be off. He’ll want his Rah back,” she says miserably.
“What happened, I mean…how did you end up hooking up with demons?” Marcus asks.
“I don’t know. It’s like this craving; I can’t help myself. It gets worse when I am missing Rio. And before I know it, I’m with some guy. What’s wrong with me? How could I hurt Jay like that? I love him, I love him so much,” she groans.
Marcus and I exchange a look of concern. Miku jumps up when she sees Rage enter the garden. He had gone out looking for Jay.
“Did you find him?” she asks.
“I had him until he reached New York. He used his powers and was able to Glide right past me,” Rage says.
“He didn’t say anything to you?” Miku asks him.
“Ah…well it was so loud in the city. You know traffic and crap. It’s hard to make out anything. I could have heard wrong. And demons notoriously have bad hearing,” Rage says.
“Rage, what did Jay say?” Miku pushes.
“He said to give him his Rah back.”
Devastated, Miku races out of the garden and back inside the castle. Rage shrugs his shoulders helplessly.
“Maybe we should have told him sooner; they could have worked it out by now,” Rage says to me.
“Wait, you and Rage knew what Miku was up to?” Marcus asks.
“Yes. We saw her, when we went to the club,” I reply.
“You went to a club?” Marcus asks.
“Yeah, she was shooting things, picking fights and being a real badass. I was so proud. But then I had to stop her when she climbed the pole and started taking her clothes off.”
Marcus looks at me in total disbelief.
I’m going to kill Rage.
“Oh, so you never told him?” Rage asks, regretting his words.
“No, we never got around to it,” I confess.
“Okay I would love to know more but we really have a situation here. We need Jay. And we don’t have time for them to wait—Miku said that she felt a craving to be with the demons, right?” Marcus says.
“Yeah, she said it’s like she couldn’t help it,” I reply.
“What if she couldn’t?” Marcus asks.
“What do you mean?” Rage wonders.
“I mean maybe Redd isn’t really gone.”
“Marcus, I saw her at the club. She was herself. She didn’t turn into Redd,” I reply.
“Not physically but maybe Redd still has a hold on her. I mean, Miku loves Jay, a lot. I don’t see her being this reckless. Do you guys?” Marcus asks.
“So what are thinking?” I reply.
“I think we need to go back to New York and have Miku looked at by a Healer. If this is out of her control maybe Jay will forgive her. Then we can get back to finding the Alpha.”
We take Miku to a Healer in New York. We could have used a Healer in the castle but Marcus wanted to be as close as possible to both the address on the clue and to Jay. We found a Healer to take a look at Miku, his name is Trent and he requires that we leave her with him all night for a full examination. Marcus was not about to let yet another member of his team out of his sight. Rage volunteered to stay with Miku while Marcus and I try to find Jay.
As it turns out finding Jay is not difficult at all. Jay is everywhere. It’s only been a few hours since he found out Miku cheated on him and Jay has been partying. And I don’t mean going to a few clubs. Jay has used his powers and has visited dozens of clubs in a matter of hours.
The late edition of the Splash has pictures of Jay drinking Coy with a slew of girls. They are all over him while he downs bottle after bottle. We get a call from Rage who tells us the good and the bad news about Miku. I relay the message to Marcus. He’s not happy at all with the news.
“Are you sure the Healer is right?” Marcus asks me.
“He brought in another Healer to give a second opinion. They both agree. Miku has to have the surgery to get rid of Redd forever.”
“Yeah but we can’t allow her to go ahead with this knowing what she could lose,” Marcus protests.
“I think it sucks too but this isn’t a Guardian decision. I think it’s a personal one between Jay and Miku,” I inform him.
“You think Jay would let her go through with it after he learns the consequences?” he replies.
“Normally I would say Jay would never go along with the surgery. But Jay is so angry right now, that there’s just no telling which way he’ll go.”
“Well, first we have to find him then give him the bad news,” Marcus concludes.
We head to yet another club in hopes of getting to Jay. But before we walk in, I turn to Marcus and ask him about a subject that’s still on my mind.
“Hey, what’s the ‘Da
y of Grace’ thing Ameana was talking about?”
“What? Oh, yeah. It’s nothing important,” he replies.
“Yeah, but what is it?” I ask.
Marcus never gets a chance to answer because at that very moment Jay comes stumbling out of the club barely able to keep his balance.
“Jay, are you okay?” I ask going over to him.
He laughs and tells me he thinks I’m pretty. In fact he thinks everyone in the world is pretty.
“Jay, Miku wants to talk to you,” Marcus says.
“Who?”
“You know who,” I reply.
“Oh her, yeah, that shit is dead. I don’t give a damn about her. But I do want to thank her,” Jay slurs.
“Thank her for what?” I ask.
“She made me see how stupid I was, agreeing to be with one angel. I mean, why would the kid give up all these fine ass girls for one angel?” he says laughing again.
“Jay, she’s sorry,” I reply.
“I’m sorry too. Sorry I ever believed her ass in the first place,” Jay counters.
“You have to give her a chance to explain. It wasn’t really her fault. She’s been influenced,” Marcus reasons with his friend.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jay replies.
“We took her to a Healer. He’s been examining her and Redd is definitely influencing her decisions,” I tell him.
“Bullshit! Miku played me,” Jay shouts.
“No, she is seeking out darkness because Redd is still very much in her,” Marcus says.
“Great so we’re just supposed to get married and set a place at the table for her demon lovers? Really?” Jay asks.
“She’ll do anything to make it right,” I reply.
“I have never been with another girl. I may smile and bullshit but I am faithful. And she played me!”
“There’s a procedure the Healer told her about. It’s a way to get rid of Redd forever. She wants to get it done but you have to talk her out of it,” I inform him.
“Wait, what?” Jay pushes.
“It’s a procedure called a Kage. It’s where the Healer would have to remove her soul and strip it of the darkness inside it. It’s very risky,” I reply.
“Is she gonna do it?” Jay asks.
“She wants to, yes,” Marcus says.
“But you have to tell her not to do it,” I reply.
“Why the hell shouldn’t she do it?” Jay asks.
“If she has the operation, she’ll lose her powers.”
Jay agrees to come back with us, reluctantly. Once we are inside the Healer’s Manhattan loft, we pay him for his work and leave Jay and Miku to talk alone.
“Let me know if she decides to perform the Kage. The sooner we get it done, the better,” Trent tells us.
“Okay, thanks,” I reply.
“Hey, be careful out here,” he warns us.
“Why?” Marcus asks.
“There have been a lot of attacks on the east coast from the Believers,” Trent replies.
“Seriously, Sage has been dead forever,” I protest.
“That’s just it. While they lost the war, there are still a few Sage followers who believe in his message: Omnis is weak and should be overthrown. Worse, they want to avenge their leader.”
“So the few Believers left are full on fanatics?” I ask.
“Yes and you won’t know who they are until it’s too late. So be on the alert. And don’t trust anyone,” he warns again as he heads uptown.
“You think Jay’s going to tell her to have the operation?” Rage asks me.
“He can’t. Miku would be defenseless without her powers,” I reply.
“Knowing that she was with someone else is a pain that makes you do crazy things. If having the operation means she would stop being with others guys, Jay might go for it,” Marcus replies.
“That would be selfish,” I tell him.
“Maybe, but it’s the only way for them to make sure it won’t happen again,” Rage replies.
“Have you thought about who would replace you as Kon?” I ask him.
“No. I don’t know any of them well enough to know who would do a good job. I did meet this one girl, Mia. She’s nice. She had some good theories about what direction the Paras should go in,” Marcus adds.
“You mean Mia as in Wolf’s sister?” Rage asks.
“Blonde, pretty with gold eyes?” he asks.
“That’s her,” Rage confirms.
“I didn’t know who she was,” Marcus replies.
“She’s rarely around, always doing charity stuff for humans from what I hear. How do you know her?” Rage inquires.
“She gave me her number.”
What???
“She wants to go out with you?” I ask, trying to sound casual.
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“Oh, what did you say?” I ask.
“Nothing, yet. We’ve been a little busy,” he reminds me.
Rage takes a look at us and decides we need to be left alone. We tell him we’re fine but he goes back upstairs to check on Miku and Jay. Now I’m standing outside the building with Marcus, in odd silence.
“Are you going to go out with her?” I ask.
“I don’t know. I’m really more concerned about finding the third Alpha than I am my dating life.”
“Are you saying I’m not concerned about this mission because I’m dating Alex?” I snap.
“I didn’t know you two were officially ‘dating,’” he replies.
“Well, we’re not. I mean…sorry. It’s your life and I shouldn’t pry. I just wasn’t expecting to hear you had…a girl.”
“I don’t have a girl. I have a phone number and actually I don’t even have that,” he says.
He tells me how she wrote her number on his palm and that as long as he was thinking about being with her it would stay on his hand. He shows me his hand and the number is gone.
Just as I open my mouth to reply, an explosion goes off in the loft above us. We take cover as flames and debris rain down on us.
He makes me stay where I am and dashes into the burning building where Rage, Miku and Jay are. A few moments later, Marcus comes back without the team. I look at him frantic, and ask what happened. He doesn’t answer; he just stands there looking blindsided.
“Damn it Marcus, talk to me. Where the hell is the team?”
“Lucy has them.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE
“You have to stop punching and breaking things and talk to me,” I shout to the First Guardian.
“THEY’RE GONE, THE WHOLE TEAM IS GONE!” Marcus raves furiously.
“Yeah, I got that part but what happened?”
“Lucy sent demons on a Port with some kind of attachment. I got there just in time to watch them place my team in Holders, attach it to the end of the Port and disappear,” Marcus says wrathfully.
“Marcus—”
“I tackled them and I was able to take three of them out but the rest got away. They took the team with them. They’re dead, Lucy’s already killed them by now.”
“ENOUGH!” I shout.
My outburst stops the Guardian in his tracks. I look around and see emergency vehicles and police everywhere.
“The first thing we need to do is get off the street. We need a place to go and think,” I tell him.
“Think? Did you hear what I said they are all gone. Lucy has killed them.”
“No, she didn’t.”
“Emmy, how do you know that?”
“If she wanted to kill them, she would have done so and left the body for you to find. Instead she took them, which means she knows you’re going to come after them.”
“You’re right. This was her plan all along. She knows she can’t assemble the council without me so she is trying to get me to come to her.”
“Exactly. I’m sure she wants to trade the team for the third Alpha. That means she can’t kill them, they are her bargaini
ng chips,” I reason.
“Okay, okay, that’s good. They’re not dead,” he says mostly to keep himself calm.
“No, the team will be fine. But you and I need to go somewhere, now,” I take his hand and we run for several blocks. It’s too crowded to take to the sky from where we are. We finally get to a dimly lit diner near Hudson Street. There is only one other being there; the waitress.
She cleans the counter top, carelessly as she focuses on what’s happening on the TV mounted on the counter; it’s reporting on the blast at the loft. We enter the shabby diner and take a seat in the back.
“What I don’t get is how Lucy knew where the team was and when would be a good time to strike,” Marcus says.
“It’s crazy. It’s like she’s tracking us somehow,” I reply.
“We don’t have a tracker on us,” Marcus replies.
“Then how does Lucy know where we will be and when?”
“Strike two,” Marcus says in deep thought.
“What?”
“I think I know who’s helping Lucy, let’s go,” Marcus says as we run out of the diner.
He texts someone and tells the person to meet us in the alley. A few moments later, Eta stands before us.
“You guys said it was an emergency. What’s happened?” she asks filled with concern.
Marcus addresses her with a harsh and impatient tone.
“Eta, when were you going to tell us Bianca had another power?”
I am blindsided by Marcus’s revelation. But I guess he’s not wrong because Eta can’t look us in the eye. Marcus shouts at her to come clean. He looks like he could strike her at any moment. Fearing that Marcus is just pissed enough to treat Eta like a demon, I intervene.
“Eta please, we need to know everything,” I tell her.
“You have to understand; she’s family. And as much as I hate it, we have to keep each other's secrets,” Eta replies.
“My whole fucking team is gone!” Marcus barks.
“How? What happened?” Eta asks.
“What happened is Bianca found a way to betray us and you withholding information is the same thing as you helping her. If you are on her side then you are not on ours. And believe me Eta, you don’t want to be against us,” Marcus warns.