The Belial Ring (The Belial Series 3) (34 page)

Amanda smiled.
“He took me to the park and we climbed the rock face. Or rather, Dad jumped up it with me on his back. We sat on top and watched the dawn. I was five. It’s my best memory of him.”

Her smile disappeared.
“But when we reached the ground, he warned me not to say anything about our climb. At the time, I thought it was because we’d get in trouble with the police. But now I realize he was making sure I didn’t mention his abilities.”

Laney
looked at Clark. “Was he actually a Fallen or a nephilim?”

“
He was a Fallen,” Clark said. “In fact, at the SIA we identified him as Baraqel.”

“
The teacher of astronomy,” Amanda said with the ghost of a smile. “My dad loved the stars.”

“
So they can be good?” Surprise was written across Jen's face.

Laney knew Jen was asking out of more than idle curiosity.
One of her parents was a Fallen, although Jen had no idea which one. But the idea that her parent could be good must be comforting. Especially considering the alternative.

And Laney hadn
’t had a chance to tell her about their previous conversation with Clark—about how he’d said that some Fallen spent their whole lives as good, decent people.  In fact, she was having some trouble believing it herself. She knew they had discussed the possibility of Fallen being good, but it was still hard to believe. 

Amanda shrugged.
“Mine was. Maddox is, too. Anyway, when we were teenagers we were recruited by Samyaza’s group. We didn't know at the time what their end goal was. We just thought it was somewhere safe.”             

Amanda went silent. And although her facial expression remained unchanged, her knuckles went white from gripping her hands together. 

Laney knew this group was not warm and fuzzy but Amanda sitting here suggested they had let her go, which didn't make any sense. 

“So, they just let you go when they realized you didn't have powers?”  Laney asked.

Amanda shook her head. “No. To get out, my brother had to kill me.”

CHAPTER 76

A
manda glanced around the room, no doubt realizing the shock her words had caused.  Taking a breath, she continued. “Maddox was sixteen when they first contacted us. I guess Maddox’s reputation got to the wrong ears.” She went quiet. 

“
They asked you to join them?” Henry prodded gently.

She shook her head.
“No. First they killed our mom.”

Laney gasped, her eyes flying to Clark.
Just like they did with Clark
.

Amanda pushed a stray hair out of her eyes and Laney caught the tremble in her hand.
Her heart went out to her.

“
Of course, at the time, we didn’t know it was them,” Amanda said. “But that’s their M.O. They take people they think are nephilim or Fallen, and they isolate them. Make them want to belong to something. Maddox and I were in foster care for a year. It wasn’t a good year. We went through three foster families. The last placement, they separated us. I think that was the last straw for Maddox. So when Amar’s people came to him, he listened.”

Amanda sighed.
“He thought he was doing the right thing for both of us. They promised us a place to belong, with people who had the same powers. People who could teach him how to use his abilities.”

“
And what about you?” Jen asked.

“
That was the icing on the cake for Maddox. They wanted me, too. After all, I was Maddox’s full sister. There was a chance I had abilities, too.”

“
Where did they take you?” Laney asked.

“
Actual location? I didn’t know. It wasn’t until later that I learned we were somewhere in Oregon. It was a compound. There were a bunch of us, maybe twenty.”

Jen inched forward in her chair.  “
Did they all have powers?”

Amanda shook her head.
“No. Only five did. The rest were like me. Normal. They gave us two weeks to demonstrate what we could do. Those that passed, lived. Those that didn’t . . .” Amanda shrugged, letting her words hang in the air.

“
So . . . how are you still here?” Laney asked.

“
Maddox recognized the situation as soon as we arrived. He warned me that he was going to act like he didn’t care about me. He knew he had to make it look like he was part of the program. So he became the star pupil, ruthless. He even”—she caught her breath—“he even hit me once, broke my arm. But it worked. They believed him.”

Laney knew there was horror on her face.

Amanda glanced at her.
“I know how it sounds. But he needed them to believe he was committed. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to save me.”

“
How did that come about?” Henry asked.

“
Graduation Day. And one last test. The candidates with abilities had to kill the rest of us.”

Amanda
paused. “After my dad left, Maddox met this old vet on the streets. He’d been in Vietnam. He taught him this way of stopping blood from flowing through the carotid artery. It knocks a person out for hours. I could never figure out how he did it. It always seemed like something Spock would do. Anyway, he knocked me out. When I woke up, there were bodies piled on top of me. And it was dark. First thing in the morning, they were going to burn us. But Maddox got me out, hid me away. When I made my way to the police station, SIA showed up a couple hours later, before the police could haul me off to the loony bin.”

“
And Maddox?”  Laney asked.

Amanda
’s jaw tightened. “He’s still with them. It’s been nine years.”

Jen turned to Clark, her voice filled with indignation.
“Couldn’t you guys offer him protection? Get him out?”

“
We could and we did,” Clark said. “He refused. He gives us intel, but that’s not why he stays. He’s saved dozens of kids.”

“
But he’s had to take a lot of lives to do that,” Henry said.

Clark nodded.
“Yes.”

Laney wondered what that did to a person
’s soul. Did it rip it to shreds? Or did the saving of lives help balance out the scales?

“
Maddox is how you knew we were in trouble in Egypt,” Henry said.

Clark nodded.
“Yes. And it was a huge risk for him to take.” He turned to look at Laney. “But he knows how important you are.”

Jen and Henry looked over at her as well.
Laney felt the weight of their stares. Everyone kept telling her how important she was. Funny, though, she didn’t feel important. She felt lost.

Clark stood up.
“I’m sorry we couldn’t get to you sooner. And I’m sorry about Rogan and Detective Martinez.”

Amanda stood as well.
“I’m sorry for your loss as well.”

Laney nodded, but
at the mention of Jake and Rocky, tears clogged her throat. A blanket of grief fell over her. She struggled to keep the tremble out of her limbs.

Henry stood in front of her, blocking her from their view
and gestured to the door. “Let me walk you two out.”

But Amanda moved around Henry to stand in front of Laney.
Laney stood up, feeling a little wobbly.

Amanda looked in her eyes.
“I
am
very sorry for your loss. But I need to ask you something.”

“Go ahead.”

“My brother was my protector for years. And for the last nine years, he’s protected those he could. But now, there’s going to be a fight. I know it. You know it.”

Laney nodded.

Amanda pressed a piece of paper into Laney’s hand. “And now
my
brother needs a protector. If Amar finds out he’s the mole, Maddox will be in real trouble. Agent Clark has told me what you can do. So I’m asking you to be Maddox’s protector. Will you do that?”

Laney felt the weight of Amanda
’s request. Laney was drowning in grief right now, and she wasn’t sure she could even put one foot in front of the other without tripping herself. The additional burden of defending someone else felt like it would break her.

Yet
the idea of saving someone when she kept losing those she cared about . . . it was like a light in the darkness. It was something to cling to and strive for.             

She glanced down at the paper
Amanda had given her. It was a photo of Amanda from years ago. Standing behind her was a very tall boy, his arms wrapped around Amanda, giant grins on both their faces. Maddox.

Laney grasped Amanda
’s hand. “Yes. If he needs it, I’ll be his protector.”

CHAPTER 77

L
aney and Jen sat out on the veranda. Henry was walking Clark and Amanda to their car. Laney had needed to escape outside. The walls felt like they were closing in. The air had felt thin.

Laney lay on the lounge.
She let out a breath, picturing Amanda’s face. Why had she agreed? She could barely take care of herself; how was she going to protect someone who was in Amar’s control?

She glanced over at Jen.
“That was an incredibly sad story.”

“
It seems like everyone with a nephilim background has one,” Jen said.

Laney reached over and squeezed Jen
’s hand, but didn’t know what to say. Jen’s own back story was pretty rough, too.

Abandoned by her
mom when she was young, she’d bounced around foster care for a few years before ending up homeless at the age of nine. After a year on the streets, social services had caught up with her, and she’d ended up with the Witts, who’d adopted her only two years later.

“
You sure that was wise? Agreeing to protect Maddox?” Jen asked.

“
What else could I do? Are you telling me you could have looked in her face and said no?”

Jen sighed.
“No. I don’t suppose I could have. So. We now have a supercharged army hell-bent on world domination. Isn’t that the plot line to every little boy’s favorite comic?”

“
So it would seem. Jake’s favorite is—” The wave of grief blindsided her.

For a moment, she
’d forgotten he was gone. And then she automatically felt guilty for forgetting. Leaning back, she took some shaky breaths.

Jen sat down next to her,
wrapping an arm around her with a squeeze. “It’s okay to cry, Laney.”

Laney let herself be comforted for only a few moments before pushing back.
“No, it’s not. And that seems to be all I’m doing lately. Right now, we need to get the guys that did this to Jake and Rocky. Then I can mourn.”

“
Okay. So how can I help?”

Laney held up her hand with the ring on it.
“Well, I guess I should try to use this thing.” She glanced over at Jen. “I don’t suppose you feel like doing my bidding right now?”

Jen smiled.
“Not particularly.”

“
Didn’t think so.”

A family of deer munched quietly in the grass about fifty yards away.
Laney picked out one deer and focused just on her.
Come over here
.

After a minute, the deer looked up, blinked, and scampered away.
Laney sighed, sitting back. “Oh yeah, I’m the chosen one all right.”

Jen stood up.
“Why don’t I leave you alone to concentrate?”

Laney nodded distractedly, staring at the ring.
How could this little piece of metal possibly tap into some innate power? She shook her head, focusing now on a squirrel that had scampered up the magnolia tree.

For an hour, she switched between focusing on animals
and the weather, with nothing to show for it. Finally she yanked the ring off her finger, ready to toss it as far as she could throw.

“
So, I guess practice isn’t going well?”

Laney
’s heart gave a little leap and she glanced over her shoulder. But it was only Henry. Jake always used sneak up on her like that.

Disappointment and fresh grief rolled through her.
“Are you here to tell me I should practice more?”

Henry walked over to her.
“No. I’m here for whatever you need.”

A stab of sorrow welled up, nearly choking her.
She looked away from Henry, staring at the grass, trying to get her emotions under control. “They can’t be dead, Henry. They can’t be.”