Lead Heart (Seraph Black Book 3) (39 page)

A beautiful smile cracked through his mask and he captured my hand, closing his fingers around my fist and forcing my pointer finger to curl back inward.

“You don’t get to dish out punishments,” he said. “That’s my job.”

He was still holding me, resting our hands on his lap.

“What’s my job?” I asked him, my eyes on his face. I had asked the same question once before, and they had all considered me seriously, before telling me that they hadn’t decided.

“Staying alive.” Quillan’s jaw was set, his fingers tightening around mine.

They weren’t undecided anymore.

An hour later, I sat before the Klovoda. My hands were clasped in my lap as Poison and Clarin claimed either side of me, shifting around in obvious discomfort. It was odd for me to see Poison visibly intimidated by someone, almost as odd as I was sure it would be for
them
to be seeing her
dressed as a stripper. Quillan, Noah and Cabe were standing shoulder-to-shoulder, blocking off the entire entryway. Cabe and Noah were turned outward, their backs presented, while Quillan faced inward, his arms folded over his chest. He appeared relaxed but I knew that he was on edge; I knew, because it was impossible to
not
be on edge. Every single person currently in the room seemed to be two steps away from an escape.

Yas was looking down at me, her serious brown eyes turned assessing, her sharp features made gentle with the mark of trepidation that pulled at the corners of her mouth and crinkled up her eyebrows. We had told the gathered Klovoda members that we were trying to bring Silas out of hiding, but we hadn’t disclosed the reason why, or the method that we had used to lure him to us in the first place. They had asked remarkably few questions, and that made me suspicious.

The two dark-skinned men—Obasi and Nahab—sat side-by-side again on the same couch, almost as if they hadn’t moved since my last visit. They hadn’t so much as scratched their heads or said a word since Jayden had escorted us inside. Judging by the looks of surprise on the faces of the other Klovoda members when we had entered, Jayden hadn’t cleared anything with them before inviting us into the Komnata. I was sure that if any of the other members had taken such a liberty, it would have been an issue, but nobody seemed to be willing to chastise Jayden. I didn’t blame them. I wasn’t willing to chastise Jayden either… but I wasn’t a member of the Klovoda. They were supposed to be stronger and braver than me, or at least better able to control the other members of their own organization.

Jack and his pair were situated furthest away, their positions oddly deliberate. From where they stood, the faces of every person in the room would have been visible. Jack was watching me. It was unnerving to be his sole focus, free of the mischievous spark that had played in his countenance during our last encounter. This time he was so serious it frightened me. Even the Sophies were frowning, though their focus was on everyone else in the room: Sophia bounced her scrutiny from Poison, to Clarin, to the guys standing in the doorway, while Sophie watched the remaining Klovoda members. I found their unspoken harmonization to be both unnerving and extraordinary. They knew who to watch, where to stand, and how to support each other without even the secret glances that my own pairs used to communicate with each other. They simply
knew
the thoughts and intentions of the other members of their bond as though they were all the same person.

I had been staring at them as I hastily announced to everyone that we were attempting to attract Silas’s attention, and even as I spoke, the Sophies remained diligent in their examination of the others, not once glancing at me. In the five minutes of silence that followed my announcement, I continued to watch them. I finally concluded that Jack had taken it upon himself to observe me because he was an Atmá, like me. My role as an Atmá was important to them in some way; it was a particular point of interest to them. I wasn’t sure why Sophie had taken it upon herself to watch the Klovoda members, but it was interesting to note that her vantage point gave her the best view of Yas, in particular.

Eventually, the hush that had fallen over the gathered people began to stir; Obasi un-crossed his legs and crossed them the other way, while I was pretty sure that I caught Nahab blinking. Yas tucked her elegant-looking fingers into the pockets of her jacket, while Adie—the giant, red-headed man—scratched at his beard.

“We have some bad news,” Yas finally announced.

I waited for someone else to answer her, but it seemed as though she was talking to me.

“Go ahead.” I swallowed. “It can’t get much worse.”

“It can,” Yas promised. She looked to the others for confirmation, and Alice—the Japanese woman—nodded. That seemed to be all the permission Yas needed, for she turned back to me, pulling her hands free of her pockets and squaring her slender shoulders. “We think Silas has Lord Weston. He’s been missing since the night he brought you to us.”

“He…” I trailed off. Yas was right: it
could
get worse. “How is that possible? Weston can control people; I don’t imagine it would be that easy to kidnap him.”

“Silas must have drugged him, or worse.”

“He can’t kill Weston,” I blurted. “It would kill his own mother, and Tabby. They’re bonded to Weston. If he dies, they die as well.”

Yas exchanged another look with several of the others, and I noticed that most of them were now avoiding my eyes, with the exception of the Sophies, Jack, and Jayden. I aimed my next question at Jayden, wanting to re-distribute the sense of leadership about the room. I knew that they hadn’t chosen a new Director yet, and though it was neither my business nor my place to hold an opinion… I still didn’t like the way that Yas appeared to be taking over. She was clearly linked to Weston in some way.

“You know him,” I pleaded to Jayden. “Silas isn’t a monster. He wouldn’t kill Weston if it meant harming people that he loved or cared about. He’s been hurt, tortured, manipulated and broken so many times by Weston, but he will
always
protect the people who mean something to him. Please Jayden, you know—”

“She’s right,” he confirmed, his voice edged in an unassuming boredom that seemed to stem only from superior knowledge, because Jayden knew almost
everything
. “He won’t kill Weston.”

“He might not kill him.” Yas sounded as though she still didn’t believe us. “But there is no end to the things he
could
do. I’m sorry to say it, but Silas has gone too far this time—”

“He’s one of our best agents,” Alice inserted. “The skills he provides are invaluable.”

“Are they?” Yas snapped back. “Are they really worth so many lives and countless more? He needs to be contained.”

“He needs to be saved.” I pounced to my feet, my limbs trembling with a sudden violent urge to
fight
, to
protect
. Silas was mine; they couldn’t have him. It was as simple as that. “You can’t fight bad with bad. That’s what he’s been doing and it clearly doesn’t work. Break the cycle. Give him something good. Don’t hurt him further.”

“She’s right.” Jack finally spoke up, turning away from me to address Yas. “The only way to fix this situation is to break the cycle of violence. You can’t cure abuse with punishment. He’s been pushed too far; he needs
help
now. He’s been punished his whole life for having simply been born. We all know it—even if we don’t speak about it. Dominic Kingsling is finally dead, and we now have a rare chance to change things. If we break Weston’s hold over Silas and protect him, we’re taking a big step toward reform.”

“Careful.” Yas was now vibrating with anger just as much as I had been. “You’re not the Director yet, Jack.”

“Neither are you,” Jayden intervened calmly. “And in case you haven’t noticed, you’ve royally pissed off the Voda Heir, which isn’t exactly the smartest move for a Director-in-the-running, even if you
are
gearing toward a reform.”

For a panicked moment, I thought that Jayden was referring to me, but his eyes were fixed over my shoulder. I glanced back to the doorway, finding all three of the guys facing inwards and looking furious enough to cause serious damage. I felt a sharp stab of something inside my chest, but it wasn’t their emotion pushing into me, for once. It was mine… and I was proud of them. My own fury had been appeased by the simple apparition of
their
fury, because it evidenced their feelings about the threat against Silas. Though I hadn’t actively acknowledged it, there was a small part of me that had been fearing the moment Silas would go too far—not too far for the Klovoda, but too far for his own brothers. They weren’t particularly vocal in their brotherly feelings, and they didn’t often demonstrate the depth of their own bonds with each other, but I realised now that it was because they didn’t need to. It was a given. An inevitability. A simple, unbreakable fact.

“Silas has never harmed an
innocent
person before in his life,” Quillan stated, his resonating voice smooth enough to trap us into a trance as we gazed at him, before it snuck beneath the surface of our skin and cut right through our vulnerable human feelings. He wasn’t even aiming the words at me, but I felt a sharp sting nonetheless. Yas visibly winced.

“He has hurt people, yes.” Quillan’s voice lost the hypnotising quality and grew distinctly more cutting. “He has killed people, yes… he loses control. He was designed that way; Weston
wants
him that way. Weston wanted Dominic gone, he wanted Gerald gone; is it really a believable coincidence that every person Silas has killed was a person that Weston wanted dead? You all turn a blind eye when it suits you, but
now
it’s too much?
Now
it’s too far? If he really has taken Weston, he’s finally trying to eliminate the reason he is pushed to hurt other people in the first place. He will never kill our father, but he’s reacting on instinct right now. He’s just trying to protect himself, and
her
.” He pointed at me. “The girl you all find so important.”

As the eyes turned back in my direction, I found that I could only stand there, bearing the attention as my heart squeezed painfully inside my chest.

“Silas,” I croaked. I wasn’t sure how long he had been there, but I could feel his heartbeat battering against mine all of a sudden.

“Are we having a party?” he asked dryly, striding into the room as Noah and Quillan stepped aside for him. He passed his dark eyes from person to person, skipping over me. “An intervention? Or are you imitating bait again?”

As he voiced the last question, his eyes landed on me, flickering quickly over my face before gripping my own eyes with unnerving strength. I bristled in reaction, my temper rising in defence against the more panic-inducing emotions that fought for dominance within me. It was my usual reaction to Silas, but the feelings had become amplified with the very uncertainly that stood before me. I didn’t know what was true about him anymore.

“Where is Danny?” I asked without preemption, attempting to keep my tone neutral as I rose shakily to my feet.

“Oh, you want to get it all out in the open right now, do you, Seraph?” Silas quirked a winged brow, his expression sharpening enough that the air gained a distinctly acidic crackle.    

I tensed, because I had begun to associate the use of my name versus my nickname with his violent alter-ego. I squinted at him, but he was so carefully blank, that I couldn’t tell
which
of him I was currently challenging. Nahab and Obasi had been situated closest to Silas, and they both surprised me by standing and moving away, sitting by the back wall instead. They were better protected in their new position, and while it wasn’t entirely surprising that they sought to protect themselves against Silas, it
was
surprising that they had been so obvious about it. Poison and Clarin were the next to move away, but I couldn’t spare them a glance, because I was now certain that Silas wasn’t in control of himself. Everyone else could sense it.

I struggled for a moment, grappling for the courage that I needed. “Yes. Alright. Fine. Something happened and you’re here because of that something and—”

“Something?” He loomed closer and my mouth dried up, my knees locking together.

“Someone get her out of here before she gets hurt,” Yas whispered urgently.

I wanted to roll my eyes and tell her that Silas could still hear her.

“If you want to keep your hands… you won’t touch her,” Silas murmured silkily, warning off whoever had stepped up beside me.

The person backed away silently but my gaze stayed locked on the fire-filled eyes before me. It was probably unreasonable, but I suspected that Silas would lunge for me the second I looked away from him.

“Yes,” I confirmed. “
Something
. You’re the one who decided to go rogue,” I accused. “So what happens while you’re ignoring us is none of your business.”

“None of my business?” His laugh was chilling, sending fingers of ice over my skin. “
You
are my business. Tell me who you were with or I’ll find out myself… and I think you’re better off giving me the name without the details, don’t you?”