Oblivion (The Watcher Chronicles #3) (26 page)

“I need to leave,” Mason tells me, coming to stand in front of me.

“What’s wrong?” I ask, standing from my seat on Zack’s bed.

“I have to go coddle the President again.  Apparently he got upset about what happened with the Tear last night and he wants me to explain to him what exactly did happened.”

“Ok, well, will you be able to take me home when I’m ready to leave?”

Mason sighs.  “I have a feeling he’s going to keep me there longer than usual.  I’ll let Isaiah know to expect a call from you.  He can take you home when you’re ready to leave.”

Mason leans in and kisses me lightly.  “I’ll come home as soon as I can.”

I smile.  “Ok.  I’ll keep the home fires burning for you.”

“Should we plan on getting matches later then?”

“Yes.  Plan on getting matches later.”

Mason winks and then phases, taking a large part of my heart with him.

“Matches equals sex right?”

I turn to look at Zack and feel myself blush.

“Were we that obvious?” I ask him.

“Yeah,” Zack says with a smile, “you kind of were.”

“Sorry,” I tell him sitting back down beside him.

He reaches for my hand again.  “Don’t be.  It was cute.”

Zack and I talk for a good two hours as we share things about our past, our present and our future plans.  I learn that he has lived in California all his life with his mom and dad.  He has a sister named Maggie.

“I think she’s the one we heard when we were searching for you,” I tell him.

“Yeah, she’s great.  She came to spend time with me every day after the accident.  She never gave up hope I would wake up.  Rafe met her when he was here.  Hopefully, I can introduce the two of you sometime.”

“I’m sure I’ll get to meet her.”

  My phone buzzes.  I look at it and don’t recognize the number that’s calling.

“Hello?” I answer.

“Is this Jess?”

I sort of recognize the male voice on the other end of the line but it takes me a moment to place it.

“Horace?”

“Yeah.  Hey, you happen to know where Chandler is?”  He asks in a rush.

“No.  Why?”

“None of us can find him.  I thought maybe he was with you.”

I can hear the worry in Horace’s voice which makes me start to worry too.

“Are you sure he didn’t just step out for lunch?” I ask.

“No, we had lunch together,” Horace tells me.  “The last thing he said to me was that he wanted to work on a new song.  Usually he does that in the bathroom.”

“The bathroom?” I ask, sure I heard Horace wrong.

“Yeah, whatever city we’re in, he always goes into the bathroom to write.  He says the acoustics are better in there.”

“I assume you’ve tried calling his cell phone.”

“I’m looking at it right now.  It’s sitting on the coffee table in the living room.  That’s weird too because he almost always carries it with him wherever he goes.”

“You keep looking for him, Horace.  I’ll see what I can do on my end.  Tell him to call me if you find him.”

“Ok.”  Horace doesn’t hang up so I wait for him to say something else.  “I have a bad feeling about this, Jess.  I think something’s happened to him.”

“We’ll find him,” I promise.

I tell Zack what is going on and immediately call Isaiah to explain the situation.

“Let me come get you and bring you to headquarters.  I’ll have Joshua pull up any security footage he can find at the hotel.”

“Ok.”

Isaiah appears in Zack’s room five minutes later.

“Let me know what happens,” Zack tells me.

I nod.  “I will.”

When we get to headquarters, Joshua has a mosaic of surveillance video up on the holographic display.

“Have you been able to find anything yet?” I ask.

Nick, who is standing by Joshua’s chair, is studying the different videos intently.

“Not yet,” Nick tells me.  “But we just started.  It took a bit to break through the hotel’s firewall.”

I’m not sure how either of them can tell what’s going.  It looks like a jumbled mess to me.  There have to be at least a hundred different cameras stationed around the hotel.

“There,” Nick says, pointing to one particular camera angle and pulling the video forward with the motion of his hand.

“Wow,” I say, “I didn’t know you could do that.”

Nick smiles, a first for him I think.

“We upgraded during the move,” he tells me.

I look at the video Nick’s pulled forward to separate it out from the others and feel my breath catch in my throat.  It’s not hard to recognize Baal.  He would stand out in any crowd with his boy next door good looks.

“Do you think he would have killed Chandler?” Nick asks me.

“No,” I say, my heart sinking into my stomach.  “He’ll use Chandler to make me tell him what I am.”

“If he plans to use Chandler against you,” Isaiah says, “then he should be trying to contact you somehow.”

I call Horace to ask if he found a note or something in Chandler’s apartment which would tell us where Baal has taken my friend.

“No, nothing,” Horace tells me.  “Jess, you have to save him.”

“I’ll get him back,” I tell Horace.  “Don’t worry.”

There’s only one other place a message might be.

“Take me home,” I tell Isaiah.

Isaiah phases us to my living room but I know where the message will be.

I walk out onto the porch and see the note sitting in Lucifer’s rocking chair.

Go to the cemetery and come alone

B

“What does it say?” Isaiah asks.

“Just says Baal has him and to wait for further instructions,” I tell Isaiah.

Isaiah narrows his eyes at me and I know he knows I’m lying.

Stupid Watcher lie detector.  I decide to change tactics.

“Can you go get Mason for me?” I ask, hoping this will diffuse Isaiah’s suspicions.  “I know he’s with the President so I’m not sure how hard it will be to get him away from there.”

“Yes, I can go get him,” Isaiah says.  “But Jess, don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone.  I won’t be long.”

I nod. 

I almost say ‘ok’ but know that will come up as a big red lie to Isaiah.  As I’ve always said, lies get more complicated when you try to elaborate on them.  So I decide to keep it simple.

“I’ll be right back,” Isaiah tells me, his eyebrows raised as if telling me I better be here when he gets back.

As soon as Isaiah phases, I run to my bedroom and grab my sword.

It doesn’t take me long to drive to the cemetery.  Once there, I immediately see Baal.  He’s standing beside Uncle Dan’s grave.  Since it’s still winter, the grass hasn’t grown over the overturned earth, marking his grave until spring arrives.

Baal is dressed smartly in a grey herringbone style sweater, black jeans and black trench coat.

He smiles when he sees me, the dimples in his cheeks do nothing to make it look like much more than a leer.

“I see you found my note,” he says in a friendly tone.

“Where is Chandler?” I ask not seeing any reason to play nice.

“Oh, he’s with Levi.  After what Lucifer did to him, he felt like getting a little revenge.”

“When will you things learn to stop messing me with me?  Whether you like it or not, Lucifer considers me a friend.”

Baal laughs.  “You’re deluding yourself if you think that.  Lucifer can’t have friends.  He betrayed his very best one.  What makes you think you’re anything special?”

“What do you want from me?” I ask, knowing Chandler’s safety will depend on my cooperation.

“I want you to tell me what you are.  The rock star is playing stubborn and not saying anything.  I’ll say one thing for you.  You do seem to instill loyalty in your subjects, even when they’re being tortured.  It’s a talent Lucifer could learn from you.”

“What have you done to Chandler?” I ask, focusing on the one word Baal said which stood out: tortured.

“Take that sword off and leave it here,” Baal orders.  “Then I’ll take you to your friend.”

I unbuckle the baldric and lean my sword up against the back side of Uncle Dan’s grave.  I hold my hand out to Baal and he phases us to Chandler’s location.

Chapter 20

I hear the crack of a whip being struck.

I find myself in a place I’ve been to before: Stonehenge.

I hear the sound of the whip again and look up.

Atop four massive stones compromising one side of the large circle are three slabs of stone pushed together to almost make a bridge like structure.  Levi, now pale with death and the first signs of decomposition, stands on top of the stone bridge.  In the twilight of day, I see him holding what looks like a whip made from a bolt of lightning.  It pulses with energy and as he rears it over his back and propels it forward the light dances along its length as it strikes a target I can’t see.  I feel something spatter onto my face and reach up to my cheek.  When I look at my hand, I see blood and begin to tremble.  I know exactly where Chandler is now.

Levi finally pulls his focus away from his gruesome task as he notices my presence.  He looks down at me with so much hatred I can actually feel the heat of his gaze on my skin. 

“Your friend refuses to tell me what you are,” Levi says, rearing the lightning whip over his shoulder to strike Chandler again.

“Stop!” I yell.  “I’ll tell you what I am.  Just stop hurting him!”

Levi looks down at me and follows through with the motion of the whip.  I hear Chandler moan slightly and know he must have passed out from the pain of Levi’s torture a long time ago because he isn’t screaming.  But he’s still alive.  That’s the important thing, I tell myself.

Levi phases off of the rock bridge and comes to stand in front of me.  He holds the whip by his side, his whole body vibrating with controlled rage.

“Tell me what you are!”  He demands.

“If I tell you, what guarantee do I have that you won’t just kill me and Chandler afterwards?”

“Oh, I won’t kill you if that’s what you’re thinking,” Levi smirks.  “I’ll leave that messy little job to Lucifer.  I would hate to deprive him of the pleasure to flay you alive after he learns your dirty little secret.”

“And how do I know neither of you will torture more of my friends after I tell you?”

Baal shrugs.  “Why would we?  The whole point of this is to break your bond with Lucifer and get him thinking straight again.”

I hear Chandler let out a moan of pain.  It’s killing me that I can hear him but not see him.  I have no way of knowing how badly he’s injured or how close to death.

“Fine,” I say, not seeing any way out of this except to tell them the truth.  “My soul is bound to …”

“Jess, run!”

Before I know it, Isaiah is tackling both Levi and Baal to the ground.  I allow myself two seconds of shock at the unexpected rescue attempt before I fly up to the stone bridge to get Chandler.  I barely have time to let my mind register what I’m seeing.  The flesh on Chandler’s back is covered with gruesomely deep slash marks made by Levi’s lightning whip.  I gather Chandler in my arms, being careful not to touch the fresh gashes.  Chandler moans and opens his eyes.

“I knew you’d come,” he says.

“Put your arms around my neck,” I tell him urgently. 

With a grunt of effort and grimace of pain, Chandler does as I ask.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Baal and Levi holding Isaiah down on the ground.

“Isaiah, go!” I yell, not understanding why he isn’t phasing to safety.

Baal looks up at me, the boy next door charm ripped open to reveal the monster underneath the handsome façade.

“He can’t!” Baal yells up to me.  “Not until we let him go.  Tell us what you are!”

“Jess,” Isaiah says looking into my eyes, silently telling me he knows he’s about to die and there’s nothing I can do to stop it.  Levi squeezes Isaiah’s throat tighter.

I feel a warm trail of hopeless tears stream down my face because I know Isaiah is sacrificing himself to give me time to save Chandler.  There’s no way I can save them both.  I have to make a choice.

“Fly!” Isaiah yells with his last breath.

Just as I propel Chandler and me into the air, I hear Baal’s cry of frustration and see him turn Isaiah into a pile of black ash.  As I fly up, I see Lucifer standing just outside the stone circle staring up at me.  Our eyes meet.  His look surprised and mine are full of tears.

I fly as high as I can into the sky and veer off towards the setting sun.  I fight back my tears of grief and concentrate on what needs to be done next.  After flying for what seems like forever, I land us on a grassy knoll and lay Chandler down on his stomach.

There’s only one person who I can call on for help.

I close my eyes and picture him.

“Zeruel,” I say.

My father instantly appears.

“My god, Jess,” he says, kneeling down by Chandler.  “What happened?”

“Can you heal him?” I ask, holding back a sob of grief.

My father looks at the damage done to Chandler by Levi’s whip.

“No, I can only heal you.”

My dad picks Chandler up easily and throws him over his shoulder.  He holds his hand out to me.  As soon as our skin touches, we’re in my bedroom.

We lay Chandler stomach down on my bed.

“We need to get Rafe,” I say, hoping his new power is strong enough to heal Chandler’s wounds.

I fumble for my phone, pulling it out of my back pocket and call Mason.

“Jess what’s wrong?”  He asks, panic in his voice.  “I felt your grief but couldn’t pin point your location.”

“Get Rafe and bring him to my house now!”

“On my way.”

In less than a minute, Mason and Rafe are in my bedroom. 

The look of horror on both their faces when they see Chandler says it all.  Rafe immediately goes to Chandler while Mason enfolds me in his arms.  It’s only within the safe confines of his embrace that I allow myself to completely fall apart.

Mason gently chastises me for not waiting for him to go with me to the cemetery, but I feel sure if he had, he would be dead too.

As we sit on the couch in the living room, Mason holds me close letting me use him to cry out my pain over the loss of Isaiah and the damage keeping my secret from Lucifer for so long has caused.