Bound by Light (43 page)

Merilee imagined his lanky frame, his insincere smile and the lies he spewed.

You bastard. How could you have been so prepared? How could you know exactly when and how to strike—and how did you steal two of the most powerful Sibyls ever trained?

Her teeth clenched so tightly her jaw and temples throbbed.

Pulling her awareness back from August before he sensed her, she breathed in the hot, shimmering breezes emanating from the townhouse’s third floor, flowing down across the front entrance to the sidewalk. The fire Sibyl was dancing on Cynda’s communication platform, opening the channels, reaching out to the Mothers.

A fresh, spicy scent edged out everything else, and Merilee opened her eyes to see Jake standing in front of her.

She shook her head and whispered, "Nothing."

Jake’s devastated expression mirrored her own feelings. When he spoke, his voice sounded flinty, barely controlled. "If you want to grab your bow and hit the streets, I’m beside you. I’ll go until we both drop."

His voice broke, and Merilee pressed a hand against her mouth and swallowed a sob.

She couldn’t stand this. She couldn’t get through it. No way. If anything happened to Riana and Cynda, she’d rip out her own heart.

A few breaths.

A few more.

Pull it back in. Come on. You can do it.

Jake gazed at her like he wanted to fold her in his arms, but thank all the goddesses he didn’t do it. If he touched her right now, she’d shatter, and she loved him for knowing that.

When she trusted herself enough, she said, "I want to do what Creed and Nick are doing. Cynda would run every street and alley in the whole goddamned city to find me. Riana would shake down every building in her way." Strength seemed to flow from Jake like a steady shimmer, touching her even more gently than his hands would. She could swear that something inside him was reaching out to calm her, almost like a direct infusion of light and warmth.

"You’re a broom," he said. "Earth and fire Sibyls charge in—but it’s an air Sibyl’s job to wait, to watch, to sweep up whatever mess they make, right? You fight differently."

"I fight differently." Merilee ran her fingers through her hair. "I do. I’m supposed to see what nobody else sees and use it to finish the job. To win the battle."

Jake remained still and calm, but his eyes flared with urgency. "What is no one else seeing? What can we use to outthink this motherfucker, to get to his next move before he does?"

Merilee’s body ached as her muscles tightened all over again. Her bones hurt—but her mind whirled over every fact, every detail, every tiny piece of information. Images flashed through her brain, especially of the meeting with August. What he said. What he did. What he knew.

And . . . what he didn’t know.

She glanced at the sky.

Jake had his Glock drawn before she knew what was happening. "Are you hearing those things again?" He turned before she answered, looking at the street, searching for threats. "Are those monsters screaming?"

"No, no, it’s not that." She let out a breath as he came out of his wary stance. "There’s no immediate threat. But August—those creatures—I thought they were his, didn’t you?"

Jake holstered his gun and looked confused. Merilee chanced her own self-control by touching his arm. "The Keres. I thought August controlled them, that they were somehow tied to him or his wishes—but he didn’t know what they were."

Jake covered her hand with his and seemed grateful for the chance to comfort her more directly. "August called them your friends. He said they’ve been blocking his attempts to communicate with you privately."

"He had to mean mind-to-mind." Merilee let Jake’s touch steady her even more, and she tried to keep her mind cleared, working at full speed. "I bet that’s what happened with Charlotte and Phila. He invaded their minds first, found their weaknesses, tracked their actions, then picked his moment to attack."

Jake nodded. "With you, though, the Keres have been alerting you to his approaches and his intrusions."

Merilee felt a burst of energy from the townhouse.

The ancient communication channels that had been opened were now closed. The Mothers had arrived.

She extracted her hand from Jake’s and wiped leftover tears off one of her cheeks. "Let’s get to the library and get some help. I know we’ve tried and failed, but this time, we have to succeed. We’ve got to figure out what my creatures are—and see if they can help us find my triad sisters."

Jake, however, didn’t move.

He was staring past her, toward the steps of the townhouse.

Merilee turned and followed his gaze, and the tears she had been fighting started all over again. The brief respite from her agony ended abruptly, shattering the calm center she had managed to find while searching the wind and working with Jake to figure out which direction to take.

Bela Argos was standing on the townhouse steps with a couple of Sibyls and OCU officers, cradling an unconscious Andy in her arms.

"I’m sorry," Bela called to them. "I had to knock her out. She blew up all the water pipes over at the Carter headquarters and flooded the entire neighborhood—we couldn’t get through to her. It was this or drown."

Merilee wanted to run to Bela and snatch Andy right out of her grasp.

Fuck!

Another person she loved down.

Damaged.

Andy looked so pale. So tender and wounded.

Merilee couldn’t begin to imagine how hearing the news about Sal Freeman had torn Andy apart—and Merilee hadn’t even been there to offer comfort, maybe soften the blow.

Jake moved up the steps and took Andy from Bela’s arms as Merilee stood below and cried. She heard him say Andy was okay, saw the truth on his face as he tried to reassure her that Andy would wake, and that they’d help her.

Her chest squeezed and ached. Her tears kept flowing, and her brain was trying to switch off.

Too much.

Absolutely too much.

She didn’t want to hear anything else.

She couldn’t face Andy—or Bela and Jake or anyone else. Not another second. She definitely couldn’t withstand Jake summarizing the disappearance of her triad sisters to Bela and the rest.

Merilee’s legs moved, then her body. Her awareness didn’t catch up until she had elbowed past the crowd on the steps, skirted the taped-off crime scene, and reached the stairs.

By then she was running.

Still crying and running, and she wished she could run forever.

(32)

Worrying about Merilee so fiercely it made his chest ache, Jake carried Andy into the townhouse with Bela and her party following behind. He tried not to look down at the woman in his arms because her ghost-pale face tore him up even worse. He didn’t know if he had ever felt sorrier for anyone in his life.

He had encouraged Freeman to tell Andy how he felt, encouraged the relationship itself—and now look what had become of it.

Death and loss and misery.

Freeman. Man, I can’t believe you’re gone. Andy’s all I’ve got left of you now, and I
swear,
I’ll look after her.

As they entered the townhouse, the Sibyls and officers following Jake gasped and shouted when they saw the dead OCU personnel in the entrance hallway.

Jake tried to keep thinking like a cop, like a cop in charge. If nothing else, the responsibility would keep him sane. "Bela, will you and your people stay downstairs to assist the incoming teams and the M.E.?"

Bela told her team to remain, but followed Jake another few steps. "You’ll need help with Andy when she wakes."

"Merilee had the Mothers called back," Jake said as he started up the stairs. "They’re here. The scene needs to be secured so you can help with the search, because Riana and Cynda are missing."

Bela froze for a three count, horror claiming her aristocratic features. Then she spun toward the entrance hall and started placing her team and arriving officers at intervals to protect key areas of evidence until the crime scene techs could arrive.

Damn, he’d hated saying those words out loud—but it seemed to settle the issue.

Jake carried Andy to the only place that seemed reasonable and safe, and the place he hoped to find Merilee. The door to the fourth-floor library already stood open, and he edged inside, careful not to slam Andy’s feet against the frame.

The moment he entered the room, he knew Merilee wasn’t there. The large space felt too flat and lifeless to contain her, yet almost as fast, he sensed the familiar, powerful presence of Mother Anemone—and friends.

Jake eased around the bookcase, dodged a precarious stack of books, and stepped through the curtains separating Merilee’s private area from the rest of the room.

Mother Anemone and three other Mothers garbed in the blue robes of the Greek air Sibyls had managed to cram themselves between Merilee’s piles of paper. Jake noticed that a bunch of Merilee’s clothes had been yanked from behind the farthest bookcase. The street clothes she had worn to meet August lay in a heap.

He figured she had put on her battle leathers. His pulse spiked, and he lowered Andy gently onto Merilee’s sheets, resting her lolling head on the pillows.

Mother Anemone stood nearest, her face devoid of color, her misty blue eyes wide. The other Mothers had arranged themselves in a straight line on the far side of Merilee’s bed, anxious gazes now riveted on Andy.

Mother Anemone nodded her thanks. "Wait for me on the other side of the bookcase. We must set up containment to hold her water energy in case she wakes, at least until we’ve found our missing warriors so everyone can help manage her."

Jake gave Andy one more miserable glance, wishing he could do more for her. "Where’s Merilee? I’ll just—"

Mother Anemone’s expression shifted from concern to hard, polished steel as she interrupted him with, "Wait for me, Jake."

Jake stood beside the bookcase and stared at the woman, feeling the instant push of claws against the tips of his fingers. He had to bite back a snarl, and he barely kept his fangs from emerging. "Tell me where Merilee is," he said, his voice deadly quiet and far outside the parameters of the respect he usually showed Mother Anemone.

The Mother went from looking angry and harsh to seeming tired, then worried. "
Agapitos
. Please trust me, we’re keeping her safe. She’s tired and overwrought. You have been close enough to us to realize how it devastates Sibyls to lose one of our own—Merilee more than most, because she’s so very sensitive, and lets so few people truly close to her heart."

"Where is she?" Jake squeezed the edge of the bookcase and felt the wood give against his partially demon grip.

Mother Anemone’s eyes fixed on Jake’s hand, which shimmered from pale white back to fully human. "Be careful," she whispered. "Jake, Merilee could not withstand another loss this day."

Jake ground his teeth together hard enough to snap a molar, but he stopped shifting between human and Astaroth. Man now. Human now. No way he’d let Merilee down. Mother Anemone had to see that—and she damned well better cough up where she had Merilee hidden.

As if reading his mind, Mother Anemone gestured toward the library door. "Downstairs in Cynda’s communications room. Yana and Keara are containing Merilee for her own good and everyone else’s. She needs sleep. A few hours to gather herself. Then we’ll welcome you to join her—and allow her to join the hunt for her missing triad sisters."

Jake shook his head. "I want to be with her. She needs me now, not later."

"I’m certain she does, but she wouldn’t forgive herself if she harmed you or her surroundings with her uncontrolled energy." Mother Anemone’s blue eyes dulled with what had to be fatigue and distress. "There’s significant risk she’ll harm herself as well, like your Andy here." She looked over her shoulder to where Andy lay, and where the other Mothers waited with impatient expressions. "Please,
agapitos
. Let this be for a moment, and allow me to assist in the containments for the water Sibyl before she wakes. As soon as I’m finished, we’ll go to Merilee together."

Jake wanted to refuse, but he let Mother Anemone turn back to Andy. As soon as the Mothers seemed absorbed in the task of setting elemental locks around the bed to hold back Andy’s water power, he started to walk out of the library as quietly as he could.

Wait, hell.

Not happening.

Merilee wouldn’t wait. She was too upset. She was damned near desperate. Containment or no containment, the second the Mothers turned their back on her, she might do something totally insane, and he needed to be with her to stop her. Or
help
her if it came to crazy plans or desperate actions.

A barely audible sobbing in the far corner of the library brought Jake to a stop at the doorway.

His chest squeezed like somebody had hold of his heart.

Merilee?

He hadn’t sensed her here, and she was supposed to be downstairs, but—