The Guardians (MORE Trilogy) (15 page)

“Pay phone,” she said with an almost irritated huff. “I’m not an idiot.”

“I know that—”

Lucy continued talking as if she hadn’t heard. “The police came to our room, Av. They said you killed that campus police officer. They went through all your stuff. Asked all these questions. They called your parents.”

“Oh, no way. They talked to my parents?”

“Yeah, and they are freaked out. Haven’t you called them?” Lucy took a breath. “Ava, what is happening? Are you all right?”

Am I?

Ava wasn’t exactly sure how to answer that question. “I didn’t kill anyone,” she said.

Lucy snorted. “I know that. That’s what I told the cops. There was no way you were sleeping with that guy. I told them you had a perfectly hot boyfriend, and Av, not to speak ill of the dead, but that cop was
old.
”

Lucy believed her. So whoever had tampered with the witnesses hadn’t gotten to her. Ava supposed she had Katherine to thank for that. She suspected the Protector was still keeping watch outside her dorm, even if she wasn’t there.

Katherine.
 

Ava couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of her before. Katherine had been with her. Katherine had
always
been with her.

“But why do they think you did it?” Lucy asked, interrupting her train of thought.

Ava let out a heavy sigh. “I don’t know, Luce. Someone else killed him and made it look like I did. I don’t know who and I don’t know why, but I’m trying to figure it out.”

“Are you crazy? Ava, you need to get back here and talk to the police. You can’t handle this on your own!”

“I’m not alone,” she said, casting a glance at Tiernan.

“Is Caleb with you? The police were looking for him, too.”

“No, not Caleb. I have a . . . friend in law enforcement. He’s helping me get to the bottom of this, and he’s keeping me safe, Luce. You don’t have to worry.”

“I don’t know, Av—”

“The cops think I’m guilty, Luce. And there’s too much evidence against me right now. You know they’ll lock me up if I come back, and I’ll never be able to figure out what’s happening.”
 

Tiernan crossed his arms over his chest and tapped at his watch.
 

“Look, Luce, I have to go. Just . . . trust me, okay?”

“You know I do.” She could hear tears in her friend’s voice, and it broke her heart.

“I’m going to fix this, but I can’t come home right now. It’s not safe.”
 

“What are you going to do?”
 

“I’m not sure.” Ava swallowed thickly, trying not to cry herself. “But if you talk to my parents, let them know I’ll call them when I can. I’ll have to destroy this phone, or the police will find me.”

“God, Av . . . be careful. Please?”

“I will. You too, okay?” She considered her next words, but only for a second. “And you know that woman you saw with Caleb? The pretty one with black hair?” Tiernan raised a brow, but she ignored him.

“Yeah,” Luce said.

“If anything weird happens, you’ll probably see her around—”

“But—”

“Don’t ask,” Ava said sharply. “Please listen, okay? If you ever feel scared or think someone’s around, you can trust her. Her name’s Katherine. She’ll . . . protect you.”

“I don’t understand any of this.”

“I know you don’t,” Ava said softly. “Just don’t forget, okay? It’s important.”

Lucy was quiet for a long minute. “Okay. Katherine. Got it.”

“I’ll be home soon.” And with that, Ava hung up.

Tiernan shot her an exasperated look. “Katherine? Are you crazy?”

“Maybe.” Ava waved off his question with a distracted hand. “But that’s beside the point.
Katherine,
Tiernan.” She reached out without thinking and grabbed his beefy arms tightly. “She was with me when I went to see Nick Simmons!”

Tiernan did not seem as impressed with Ava’s epiphany as she’d hoped.
 

She huffed in frustration. “Don’t you get it? She or you or one of the others has been monitoring my every movement. She can clear my name!”

“It’s not that simple—”

“Why not? She can go the police and tell them—”

“Tell them what, exactly, Ava?” Tiernan pulled away and scrubbed a hand over his head. “That there’s no way you could have killed that police officer, despite the witness who put you at the scene? That she knows this because she’s assigned to follow your every movement to ensure you don’t expose the existence of a Race of super beings?”

“Well, no. Not that. Obviously.” Ava faltered a bit, but pressed on. “She could say she’s a friend who was with me at the time of the murder. It doesn’t matter; we can figure it out—”

“The Council will never allow it.”

Ava couldn’t understand why Tiernan was being so difficult. “But—”

“But nothing!” he snapped. When Ava blinked at him, stunned, he drew a deep breath. “Try to understand, Ava, there is nothing—
nothing and no one
—more important to the Council than protecting the secrecy of the Race. They will never agree to allow one of their Protectors to expose herself to human authorities, let alone get involved in something as high-profile as the murder of a police officer. And Katherine will never go against the orders of the Council.”

“But we could at least try
 . . .
” Ava’s voice trembled as Tiernan turned his back on her.

“That’s only part of the problem,” he said, surveying the landscape. “Even if we could get you cleared of this, we still don’t know who’s behind it. Which means they know more about you than you know about them.” He glanced at her over his shoulder as if waiting for her to finish the thought.

“So if we don’t figure out who it is—
why
they’re doing all of this—they could do something else,” she said quietly. “Go after me in some other way.”

“Or those you care about.”

Ava’s throat closed up as it hit her once again that Officer Simmons had died in some kind of twisted ploy to get at Ava.
 

Who would be next?
 

“Do you think they’d hurt my parents?” she asked after walking a while in silence.

“I think, right now, they think they’ve got you right where they want you,” he replied. “As long as that’s true, there’s no reason for them to hurt anyone else.”

“So we have to be careful.” Ava pushed aside a branch to duck under it. “Stay a step ahead of them.”

“Well, we have to
get
a step ahead of them first.” Tiernan shot her a wry look, and Ava couldn’t keep back a small smile.

“In the meantime, you think you could ask Katherine to keep an eye on Lucy for me?” she asked. “I’m still a bit freaked to think they’re in Witteville. Whoever they are.”

Tiernan watched her for a long moment before taking out his phone and sending a quick text message. Without waiting for an answer, he tucked it back into his pocket.
 

“That’s it?”

He shrugged. “She won’t ask questions. I told her it was import—” He stopped abruptly, tilted his head back, and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply.
 

“What is it?” Ava asked.

He took another breath and opened his eyes, his gaze darting around the trees and settling on a spot near the base of a large rock. He approached it and knelt to run his palm over the soil.

“It’s him,” he said. “Or it was, not too long ago.” He stood up and scented the air again. “I have the trail.” He spared a moment to grab her cell phone and smash it under his heel before striding away.

Ava felt a rush of panic as she hurried after him, up another hill and finally following a narrow path through the trees. A few clouds obscured the sun overhead, and Ava shivered and stiffened as her gift flared to life.

“I feel someone,” she said, reaching for Tiernan’s arm. “Not Caleb, but someone else.”

“Where? I don’t sense anyone.”
 

She pointed forward, along the trail. “We’re not that close. Not yet.”
 

Tiernan nodded, and they continued forward, both tense and on high alert. After a while, he glanced back at her. “How many?”

Ava swallowed. “At least four,” she said. “Maybe five or six. But I don’t sense Caleb.”

“He could be shielded.” Tiernan said, as if she needed the reminder. He scanned the area around them and pointed to a high outcropping of rocks. “That might give us a better vantage point. We can’t get too close without tipping them off, but maybe we can get a better idea of what we’re dealing with up there.”

They circled around and up the rocks, Ava guiding them along the way. The Rogues were still on the edges of her intuition, so she knew they probably couldn’t feel her yet, but they climbed in silence anyway, unwilling to take any chances. When they reached the top of the outcropping, they slid to the edge, flat on their stomachs, and searched the area below.

Ava closed her eyes for a moment and pointed off to the left. “That way.”

Tiernan squinted, and she knew he was trying to focus through the trees. “Ah,” he said after a moment. “That explains it.”

“What?” Ava peered through the trees, focusing her own vision. “I don’t see anything.”

“It’s there, hidden behind some brush,” he whispered. “Between those two big trees.”

Ava stared for a long moment, then a breeze blew at the branches, and she spotted a dark opening. “Is that a cave?” she asked.

“They’re underground,” Tiernan replied. “That would explain why the sensor had so much trouble and why even you couldn’t feel them until we were almost right on top of them.”
 

Ava bristled slightly, but there was no accusation behind his words.
 

“Fortunately, they’re in the same boat,” he said. “Let’s hope they don’t sense us.” He glanced at her. “You sure Caleb isn’t in there?”

Ava frowned. “I don’t feel him. But if he’s shielded underground, maybe there’s too much interference.” She wasn’t sure if she should hope he was inside or not.
 

Tiernan slid back from the edge of the cliff and leaned against a rock. “We need to lure them outside,” he said. “Get them away from the cave so we can search it and see if we can find him. Even if he’s gone, there could be intel that would be valuable to the Council.” He eyed her carefully. “We’re going to need a distraction.”

Ava felt a slow smile tug at her lips and let it develop into a full-blown grin. “Well, that is something I can definitely provide.”

Tiernan left Ava on the rock outcropping and climbed back down to the edge of a clearing. He could make out the entrance to the cave from where he was but was far enough away that the occupants wouldn’t notice him unless they were looking.

He sincerely hoped they weren’t looking.

He slid his bag off his shoulder, removed his pistol, and tucked it into his waistband before hiding the bag under some leaves. He checked the knives sheathed at his ankles and waited for Ava to make her move. He’d told her to count to a hundred, but he had no idea how fast she counted.
 

Is she a ‘one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two’ counter . . . or maybe an ‘and-one, and-two’ counter?

A large rock flew across the clearing and smashed into the brush covering the cave opening.
 

Apparently, she’s a straight ‘one-two-three’ counter.
 

Tiernan breathed steadily, every muscle tensed as he waited to see what would happen. After a few moments, another rock flew into the cave, and then a larger one smashed into a tree to the side of it. He heard a shout from inside the cave and stiffened, fists clenched and eyes focused on that sliver of cave opening.

A man emerged—not one Tiernan recognized, but definitely Race—and Tiernan ducked behind a tree out of reflex, and peered around the edge. The man walked hesitantly, firmly gripping a rifle as he scanned the surrounding trees.
 

A crash sounded in the distance, and the man whirled about, aiming into the forest.
 

Tiernan smirked. Ava was good at distractions.