Guild of Truth 01 - Silent as the Grave (20 page)

Cali felt sick to her stomach.

She focused on the road, forcing her eyes to stare straight ahead.

Her gaze wandered.

She pulled them back but that didn’t stop the questions. What was Niella Dreaming? Were they in danger? Was Felix in danger?

When Niella moved Cali nearly screamed.

Just like that Niella was awake. Cali spared a glance her way and almost wished she hadn’t.

She was crying.

Felix
.

Cali’s first thought was that something horrible had happened to him. “What’d you see?” Her first instinct was to stomp on the gas but the cars ahead of her were blocking her path.

When Niella didn’t answer she gritted her teeth. “Well?” she pressed.

“Nothing.” Niella wiped at her face.

“Bullshit,” Cali spat. “Is it Felix? Is he hurt, going to be hurt?”

She turned the wheel sharply to cut across the street. Horns blared. Niella screamed, her hands shooting out in front of her to brace herself on the dashboard.

Cali nearly took the Hummer up a curb. She threw the huge vehicle into park and got up in Niella’s face, sick of being left in the dark. “What did you see?”

Niella’s eyes were shut tight, fresh tears leaking through her shut eyelids. When she finally cracked them open, Cali got a good look at the stark terror before anger burned it away. Niella shoved her back in her seat. “What the fuck is wrong with you?” she yelled. “Are you trying to scare me into answering you? Traumatize the woman who was in a car crash even more? Huh? Is that your plan?”

So she had been in an accident.

Cali pushed her pity aside. Something told her Niella wouldn’t want it anyway. “I’m sick of being in the dark, Niella. I really am. I’m going out on a limb here and trusting you guys. If you know so much about me then you know how much this blind trust is costing me. I need to know what you saw that day. I need to know that I’m not just being played by anyone and everyone around me. Please.”

After a few seconds of silence Niella finally spoke. “I saw a cage. I felt pain, both from you and Felix. I got flashes of your powers, of you and Felix, something connecting you two together. There were others there, more pain, more blood.” She sighed as if weary. “It’s really not much help, and I still don’t know when this is supposed to happen. You may have already avoided it, but that’s all I can tell you.”

She’d take it. “And what about what you saw a few minutes ago?”

“That doesn’t concern you.”

Cali temper flared. “The hell it doesn’t. Stop alienating yourself. Whatever the hell it is you saw had to be something powerful to make someone like you cry.”

“Someone like me?” She gave a humorless laugh.

Cali didn’t let it faze her. “Yes, someone like you. Someone strong. You’re a hard-ass, Niella. I know them when I see them. You can stop acting like the whole world is against you. Trust me, it gets old very quickly. You may not think the others care for you, but they do. I can tell. You’re little group dynamic is something I’ve craved my entire life. And you better not fucking tell anyone I said that to you.” That pulled a small smile out of the Dreamer. “If you expect me to trust you then you’re going to have to trust me too. I won’t judge you. What did you see?”

Niella inhaled deeply and stared her dead in the face. “Myself.”

Oh.

That was the last thing she’d expected to hear. Had she seen herself killed? Cali didn’t even want to think about that. But what else could have been so bad as to make her cry?

She swallowed the lump in her throat and forced herself to speak. “What happened?”

Niella’s hands rubbed absently along her thighs, as if they were paining her. She caught what she’d been doing and stopped. She opened her mouth and shut it. Cali didn’t push. She’d speak when she was ready.

“I was walking.”

Cali was momentarily stumped. “And that’s a bad thing?”

Niella jerked the waistband of her pants down. Her whole lower half was covered with scars, some big, some small. Some puckered and thick, others white and thin. It was like a road map on her skin. “I’m never going to walk again,” she seethed. “They did everything they could to try to put me back together again.”

“Maybe the doctors were wrong,” Cali ventured.

Niella rubbed her forehead. “I doubt it.”

Cali wanted to push the issue but Niella’s cell phone went off before she got a chance.

“Yeah?” Niella answered, her voice defeated.

Sydney’s bubbly voice was muffled on the other end.

Cali started up the Hummer and pulled back out into traffic. There was no way Niella would broach the subject of her walking again. That window of opportunity was now closed. She didn’t blame Niella, not really. She could understand the need to forgo hope. After what Niella had been through, holding out for the dream to walk again was probably exhausting. No wonder she was so bitter all the time.

“We’re almost there. Don’t worry. See you soon.”

Niella hung up and tucked her phone away.

“They think I kidnapped you?” Cali couldn’t help but ask.

Niella shrugged. “You didn’t. I highly doubt you could.”

They exchanged knowing smiles.

The rest of the drive Cali felt lighter. Niella didn’t seem to be in too much of a bad mood either. She didn’t complain when Felix helped her out of his Hummer or when Joel wheeled her inside.

Sydney was already waiting for them as they entered the sitting room. She was leaning over the counter in the kitchen. She came around the island to take a seat on one of the couches with Joel. Felix took a seat opposite them with Niella positioned as if at the head of a table.

Cali sat next to Felix, dropping down onto the couch so she was pressed against him. She craved contact with him, wanted to sink into his skin.

He’d donned a shirt since she left but she remembered all too clearly the look and feel of all those muscles. She pushed deeper against him. Felix gave her a questioning look but she ignored him, giving no outward appearance that she knew what she was doing.

His hand slid lazily over to her thigh where he absently started to trace random symbols on her leg.

She suppressed a shiver.

“Why are we all here?” Felix asked.

She forced her mind to concentrate on things other than Felix’s hand on her leg, his body pressed against hers.

Just the thought of Vander Donahughe was like a bucket of cold water. She leaned into Felix again, only this time for comfort.

“I went in for my job interview today. I was supposed to meet with Vander Donahughe of the Kratos Corporation.” She dug out the business card and handed it over. “But it turned out the interview was a fake.” It hurt to say the words. Again she felt humiliated, as if everyone else would have realized what was really going on except her. “Collette was there.” Felix’s body went stock-still. “I overheard her talking with this other guy named Jente.”

“It was a ruse?” asked Sydney.

Cali nodded. “Apparently one three months in the making. Vander approached me back in April during one of the festivals I attended in the Inland Empire.”

“Shit,” said Joel. “If he’s spent that much time and effort on obtaining you, he’s not going to sit by and let it all fall apart.”

Cali’s stomach clenched. Felix’s hand tightened around her knee protectively. “That wasn’t everything.” She locked eyes with Niella and continued. “Collette and Jente kept talking about matches and a cage.” Niella’s eyes grew wide. She’d had her own sneaking suspicions after Niella told her about her Dream but now she was certain. The cage Niella had seen was tied in with the Kratos Corporation. “I know Vander Donahughe was the one responsible for trying to kidnap me, but I also think he’s holding some kind of underground fighting arena using people with powers.” Which meant that even though Cali had avoided him, there was still a huge possibility she’d find herself back in his possession. Niella’s Dream could still come true.

Sydney was horrified. “Is that why he’s after you? So he can pit you against someone in a fight?”

If only. “I don’t think so. If that was all he wanted, he would have had Collette take me out and bring me to him. But for some reason he doesn’t want me harmed. He must think there’s something special about me.”

“Could there be something we haven’t been made aware of?” Felix asked Niella.

She shook her head. “I think I would have seen it or at least have felt it. Cali’s the same as any of us. I don’t know why he wants her.”

“I could try to find out,” Cali volunteered.

Joel, Sydney, and Niella gave her looks of disbelief. Felix said quite firmly, “No.”

“Felix is right,” said Sydney. “You can’t go barging in there, Cali. You manipulate sound, you can’t go invisible.”

“But aren’t you the least bit — ” Something clicked in her head. “Are you using your powers?”

Sydney drew back. “No, why?”

Cali waved her hand frantically. “Put them on. Now.” A few seconds passed. “Well?”

“I’m using them, now are you going to tell me why?”

She turned to Felix. “That man, the one I thought I saw in Sydney’s clinic, the one you thought you saw outside your house? I bet you anything it was him. That’s Jente’s power, he can turn invisible.”

“Hold on a second,” Joel interrupted. “There’s someone who can turn invisible? Someone who was inside Syd’s clinic and you didn’t tell anyone?”

Note to self: if you ever endanger Sydney, Joel will kill you.

“She wasn’t there and I thought I was hallucinating.”

“I don’t know about you guys but I’m a little more concerned about some huge conglomerate using our own kind for his entertainment,” said Niella.

“I’m with Ell,” said Felix. “We can’t sit here and do nothing.”

“Wait a minute,” said Sydney. “Since when did we become a vigilante group?”

Felix looked at her as if she’d suffered from some sudden onslaught of amnesia. “Since we’ve operated out of your clinic to help anyone Ell’s ever seen? Come on, Syd, we’re not new to this.”

“Yes, we are,” she countered. “You’re talking about going after a huge conglomerate based on — no offense, Cali — nothing but her word.”

Joel leaned over. “Sydney’s very by-the-book.”

Sydney slugged Joel in the arm. “I’m serious. You guys think this is nothing but some video game you can try and beat.”

“No, we don’t, Syd,” said Felix. “We know how serious this situation is, and we also know that right now we’re probably the only ones who know about it and can do anything.”

“And what are we going to do, huh? Storm the castle? Are you even thinking this through?”

“What’s there to think through?” Felix shot right back. “People like us are being collected like rare sports cards and we have a chance to stop it. I say we go for it.”

Sydney turned to Niella. “Will you please voice some reason for me?”

Everyone seemed to hold their breath as they waited for Niella’s verdict. Cali didn’t know what to expect from the Dreamer. She could understand Sydney’s perspective, but sometimes action needed to be taken against those who believed they were untouchable.

“I felt the pain, Sydney,” Niella started. “I can’t begin to describe it to you, but I know it’s unfair. These people, whoever they are, are helpless.” She stared down at her legs. “I know what it’s like to be helpless,” she said softly. “It’s really all up to you guys. I’m not much help in my wheelchair but if I could help them, I would. No one should have to feel what I’ve felt. Not if it can be helped.”

Sydney fell silent. There was no arguing with that. Cali wondered if Niella realized the weight she carried in their little group. The others, without even meaning to, seemed to look to her in times of disagreement. But she guessed when one was gifted with visions of the future, others were sure to follow her words of wisdom.

“Don’t worry, Syd,” Felix consoled. “We’re not going to run in there blind. We’ll think of something. This way we can help keep Cali safe as well as help those who might be unfortunate enough to be caught in the crossfire.”

The logic appealed to Sydney and seemed to calm her.

They lapsed into contemplative silence that was interrupted when Joel glanced over the business card Cali had handed over. “
Join the Guild of Kratos and help empower the world
. The Guild of Kratos? Really?”

Cali took the card back and stared at it. “What does Kratos mean?”

“In essence it means ‘power.’ So their catch phrase is a little redundant if you ask me.”

“No one’s asking you, Joel,” said Niella.

He ignored her. “We should come up with our own name if we’re going to be combating them. Our own guild.”

Felix perked up at the idea like a little boy. “What should our guild represent?”

Joel tapped his finger against the sofa in thought. “They already took power … ”

“Truth,” Cali spoke up.

Joel nodded to himself. “That’s not bad.”

Cali quirked a brow at him, “Not bad? It fits perfectly. How do you think Collette and Vander got everything they were after? They used Collette’s Illusions or Vander’s lies. They deceive people like they deceived me. We should represent truth.”

“Or justice,” Felix added.

Joel shared a boyish grin with him. “Or the American way?”

“We’re not goddamn Superman,” Niella muttered.

Their grins grew and Cali punched Felix in the arm. “I’m serious about truth.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “I’m just as serious as you are about justice.”

Joel opened his mouth but Sydney gave him a dark look. “If you say the American way one more time you’re going to be sleeping on the couch for a month.”

His mouth shut.

“I’m with Cali,” said Niella. “Truth. We wouldn’t bullshit people who came to us for help.”

“Agreed,” Sydney added her input.

Joel pulled out his smart phone. “If we’re going to use truth then we might as well have a cooler translation of it.”

Sydney stifled a yawn. “Why don’t you finish that at home?”

Cali hadn’t realized how late it had gotten. She was exhausted from the day and starving. She could have gone into the kitchen and made herself something to eat but she didn’t want to leave the comfort of Felix’s body. His hand was no longer on her thigh, but that didn’t stop her from leaning into his warmth.