Dissever (Unbinding Fate Book One) (15 page)

Tanner pointed at Addy. “She has one too.”

Addy’s jaw dropped—he sounded like he was tattling.

“Interesting.” Mystery house guy raised his eyebrows and
motioned for them to show him.

“Why?”
  Addy put her hands on her hips. “What
do you know about them?” 

“Don’t then,” he said and shrugged. “The burning has
to be killing you by now—but it’s your choice.”

He was right. The pain was making her feel sick and
she could tell by the way Tanner looked he couldn’t take much more either.

Tanner turned around and showed him. Mystery house guy
reached up, and with a flash of blue light, the symbol stopped glowing.

Addy stared at him wide-eyed. “How did you do that?”

“I can do a lot of things,” he said, moving closer to
her. He was standing only inches in front of her and held his hand up. “May I?”

Addy reluctantly nodded, lifting her hair.

His hand slipped around the back of her neck just like
he’d done to Tanner. There was a flash, and the burning on her neck and sick
feeling in her gut went away. When he pulled his hand away, she noticed he was
wearing a silver bracelet; each link had an Akori symbol engraved on it. She
also noticed that he didn’t have any symbols on the top his hands, which meant
he was a human.

“Thanks,” she said, waiting for him to move.

He took a few steps back and looked at Tanner. “I
expected you.” He shifted his eyes to Addy. “However,
you
,” he said,
pointing at her, “I did
not
expect.”

Addy and Tanner looked at each other, and then gave
mystery guy a puzzled look.

“Please don’t tell me neither of you know anything.”

“I’d like to know who you are,” she said.

He sprawled out casually on the sofa and leaned his
head back. “I hear that from a lot of girls.”

Addy made no attempt to hide her irritation. “Tanner, this
is a waste of time—
let’s go
,” she said, turning to look at mystery guy. “Thank
you for doing
whatever
it is you did.” She grabbed Tanner’s arm and
tried to pull him toward the direction they’d entered from.

“Hold on, girlie.” Tanner moved from her grasp and
turned to the guy. “I’m supposed to find you and bring you back to Addy’s
house.”

“Exactly,” mystery guy said, pointing to Tanner but
looking at Addy. “He’s obviously the brains, huh?” He stood up and walked over
to where she was standing. “I’m Jackson.” He put his hand out to her.

Before Addy could respond, a young woman with shoulder
length red hair came barreling into the room. She had blue Akori marks on her
hands.

“Jax, we gotta roll. The
Mesen
found us.”

His posture changed and suddenly he looked serious. “How
many?”

The woman turned her palms up. “At least a dozen—maybe
more. Angelica said they’re only about five miles out.”

“Who’s coming?” Tanner asked, looking between them.

It looked like they’d forgotten Tanner and Addy were
in the room.

“People who’d love to take out the new Overseer,” the
woman said.

Addy took a step forward and looked between them. “Oh,
well I’m not the Overseer—so there’s actually nothing to worry about.”

She tilted her head and grinned at Addy. “Of course
you’re not.”

“Addison Sanders, this is Juliette,” Jax said,
introducing them with a smirk on his face.

“This is
her?”
Juliette took a long look at
Addy.

Addy glared at Jax, completely disregarding Juliette.
“How’d you know my name?”

He gave her a smile and turned his back to her. “Let's
move.”

Jax and Juliette led them outside to the driveway and
they tossed a couple of bags onto the passenger’s seat of the Spyder. He pulled
on a white t-shirt and shoes while Juliette got into the driver’s seat.

 “I don’t understand what’s going on with the Mesen.”
Addy stopped and looked between them. “I thought they were just Akori who
didn’t come to the estate.”

Juliette turned to Jax with her mouth gaping. “He
didn’t tell her
anything
? Unbelievable…”

Jax’s face tensed and he leaned over, whispering
something to Juliette. She threw her hands in the air and started the car.

“We need to get to Tremain,” Jax said to Tanner. “We’ll
follow you.”

“What about Kim?” Addy turned quickly to Tanner in a
panic. “I can’t just leave her.”

Tanner pulled his phone out. “I’ll take care of it.”

Addy listened as he gave instructions to someone on
the phone. About a minute later, he slipped his phone back in his pocket. “Oliver’s
making sure she gets home.”

They pulled out of the driveway with Juliette behind
them and Jax following on the CanAm.

Chapter 14

Tanner made the drive back much more quickly than Addy
and Kim’s drive up. Without the symbol pulling her, she was finally starting to
feel tired. They stopped for gas and Juliette told Jax she was going to wait
for someone named Angelica and would call him later.

They’d been on the road for hours and were getting
close to Tremain. The anxiety about seeing Gage was building, not to mention
facing Bernard and Stubbs.

As Tanner turned into the driveway, she could see her
car parked outside of the garage. She breathed a huge sigh of relief that Kim,
and her car, had made it back safely.

The current problem was that the gate, which was
hardly ever closed, was inconveniently shut, and she didn’t have her remote to
open it. She reluctantly reached over and hit the buzzer.

Gage walked out of the garage. He doubled back and a
second later the gate slid out of their way.

Tanner pulled up near her car and Jax parked next to
him. Gage stood watching as her and her new friends walked toward him. She was
happy to see him even though she could see he was irate. Addy hadn’t seen him
look that mad since she took out one of his snowboards without asking and
cracked and chipped up the nose.

“Gage, this is Tanner and Jax.” She gestured to the
guys.

“Hey.” He gave them the head nod guy greeting.

 “I saw you at the beach, but we weren’t introduced,” Tanner
said.

“Yeah, I remember.” Gage turned toward Addy, but
didn’t look at her. “I gotta go see Josh,” he said and immediately walked away.

She quickly walked after him, pointing for Tanner and
Jax to stay put. “Gage, wait.”

“Not now, Addy,” he said loudly over his shoulder.

She stopped walking, feeling like she got kicked in
the chest. After taking a deep breath to compose herself, she turned back to Tanner
and Jax.

“
That
was awkward,” Jax said, looking around
her in the direction Gage stalked off in.

Addy stepped over so Jax had to look at her. “You
wanted to come here—now tell us what’s going on.”

Jax’s demeanor became serious and he turned toward her
and Tanner. “Neither one of you is to mention that Mesen were attacking us—
got
it?”

She exchanged looks with Tanner and they both nodded.
She started to question Jax, but decided against it after seeing the look on
his face.

Addy led them through the house the long way, trying
to avoid taking any hallways that could cause them to run into anyone. The dogs
were lying in their bed outside of the door when they walked up and Stubbs and
Bernard were inside.

Bernard jumped to his feet when they saw her.

“Addison!” He hurried over and scooped her up. “Are you
ok?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry for worrying you,” she said and then
backed up, gesturing to the guys. “This is Tanner Sutherland and Jackson…” She
looked at Jax. “I don’t know your last name.”

Jax stepped forward. “Sanders,” he said, as if he had
been waiting all of his life to drop that bomb.

Stubbs was on his feet and Addy was about to hit the
floor. Bernard gasped, and Tanner stood there wondering what the big deal was.

“You’re a Sanders—does that mean we’re
related
or something?” She knew the question came out sounding dumb as soon as it left
her mouth.

Jax raised his eyebrow and nodded his head. “You could
say that.”

Somehow, she knew what was coming next.

He took her hand and moved to look her in the eye. “You’re
my twin—
fraternal
twin, that is.”

Addy staggered, letting go of Jax’s hand. Bernard
helped her to a seat.

“That’s not possible,” she said, feeling sick as she
dropped down into the chair. She shifted her eyes to Jax. “Not possible.”

Tanner moved over, putting his hands on her shoulders.
It snapped her out of the daze she was in, but her heart was still pounding in
her chest.

“Take a few breaths,” he said, leaning down near her
shoulder.

“There were not
two
children!” Stubbs said,
waving his hands in front of him. “We would’ve
known
.”

Stubbs looked about as sick as Addy felt.

“No one knew,” Jax said, turning his hands up. “Well,
at least no one
here.
I lived with the West family—Juliette and
Mitchell. Grandfather separated Addison and me to keep us safe after what
happened to our parents.”

“I didn’t know either.” Bernard shook his head in
disbelief, looking at Stubbs. “I just thought Fate was particularly close with
Mitchell West.”

Jax, Addy, and Tanner took turns filling Bernard and
Stubbs in on what had happened over the last two days. Jax lied when he was
telling Stubbs and Bernard about the attackers. He said they were humans, not
the Akori who called themselves Mesen.

“Where’s the Overseer’s Stone?” Jax asked when they
were done. He spotted it sitting at the end of the table and walked over to it before
anyone could answer. “Grandfather had the oldest and most intelligent Akori
scholars educate me on every aspect of the Overseer’s duties and Akori life.
I’m extremely knowledgeable, but you probably already—”

“Jax,” Tanner said, “when you’re done admiring
yourself
—could
you educate me with your
knowledge
on what the hell I have to do with
all of this?”

Jax pointed at him. “You’re an Akori Shepherd.” He
looked at the others and only Stubbs seemed to understand. “Are you kidding—
none
of you knew what he was?”

Stubbs cleared his throat. “Akori Shepherds are used
when the Overseer needs someone retrieved.”

Stubbs explained that Akori Shepherds were called using
the Overseer’s Stone when the Overseer needed someone found or brought to him
that he couldn’t summon with the stone.

“Well, Fate must have called for you to retrieve Jax,”
Bernard said to Tanner when Stubbs finished.

Tanner and Addy exchanged looks, both realizing that when
she stopped Tanner from getting to Tremain she must have wrecked Fate’s plan.

Jax focused on Tanner. “I’d never met one until you,
but male Shepherds are supposed to have scary good memories.”

Tanner nodded. “I’ve been freaking people out with my
total recall my whole life.”

Stubbs looked at Tanner closely, almost appearing a little
worried. “You’re the only Shepherd we’ve seen around here in decades. I wasn’t
sure if there were anymore.”

Tanner didn’t respond, but Bernard spoke before his
lack of response became awkward.

“You said your last name is Sutherland? What are your parents’
names?” Bernard asked.

Tanner’s hands tensed on her shoulders. “Jasper and
Kathleen.”

“I grew up with Jasper.” Bernard looked dumbfounded. “He
was a friend of Fate’s and mine. They’re a bit old to have a son your age.”

Addy tipped her head back so she could see Tanner. His
face was stone and he looked extremely uncomfortable with the conversation.

“Yeah, they adopted me,” he said without looking at
Bernard.

Bernard wrinkled his brow. “I see.”

Stubbs took a step closer to Bernard. “Are you
thinking Fate
placed
Tanner with them?”

“He trusted Jasper—it’s possible.” Bernard still looked
unsure. “I just don’t know though—it seems like he would’ve disclosed something
like that to you and I,” he said, leaning closer to Stubbs. “Even the situation
with Jackson doesn’t make sense.”

“So does that mean Tanner’s an Akori then?” Addy
shifted her eyes toward his hands on her shoulders. “He doesn’t have marks.”

“Not sure about the marks, but he’s
definitely
an Akori.” Jax said, carefully studying Tanner. “Your parents never told you?”

Tanner rolled his eyes.  “Clearly they
didn’t
.”

His hands were still on her shoulders and he felt
extremely tense. Feeling him so on edge made her feel even more stressed. She
reached up and began smoothing the palms of her hands along his forearms. After
a few seconds, she felt him begin to relax. She tugged on his arm to make him
lean down so she could whisper to him.

“Sit down.”

“I’m fine.”

“Tanner.”

“Girlie.”

She pointed at the chair next to her and tugged his
arm. “Please sit by me.”

Tanner pulled the chair out and sat next to her with a
sigh.

She smiled at him. “Thank you.”

She noticed Stubbs staring at them intently, which
made her feel self-conscious.

“I don’t understand how he and I have the same symbol
on our necks, and why I was pulled to Jax with him,” Addy said, trying to turn
Stubbs’ attention elsewhere. “I’m definitely just a human.”

Jax shrugged. “The pattern our grandfather told you to
use must have given Shepherd powers to you—probably because Tanner didn’t show
up. Maybe it was his way of bringing us together.”

Addy frowned. “But I’m a human.”

“You’re from Sanders blood. That makes you different
from other humans,” Stubbs said. “That’s the only possible reason you could
carry her symbol.”

“Her symbol?” Tanner leaned forward and looked at
Stubbs. “Her
who?”