FRACTURED (35 page)

That thought rattled me and I quickly searched for the faces I needed to see. In the cell closest to me was Janner, and beside him was Becks. Further down was a man I didn't recognize, then another, then Cooper―they'd chained him to the floor for good measure. I could only imagine the fight he put up once he snapped out of Tobias' hold.

I wrenched my head around, trying to locate any other survivors, but couldn't see anyone else from my vantage point. When I tried to step into the room to look more closely, I was stopped short by a hand around my wrist.

“Not yet,” Sean warned. “We're not sure what's truth and what's illusion at this point. We don't know that the effects have worn off yet, or if they'll ever wear off at all. I'm not letting you near them until I know for sure.”

“But Alistair. I don't see him. Where is he?”

“He isn't here, Ruby,” Janner called out, his voice as saddened as the energy that lazily floated my direction. He was devastated.

“Where? Where is he?” I asked, looking to Sean for the answers I didn't have. I'd missed so much while being healed by his mother.

Apparently too much.

“He was really badly hurt,” Sean replied, his voice low and controlled. “He isn't here.”

“How? Who hurt him?”

Sean's grip flinched ever so slightly at my final question, and my heart sank. If Sean was the one to harm him, then I doubted that there was much left intact when he was through.

“What did you do, Sean?” I asked, looking at him with tear-filled eyes.

“What I had to.”

I gulped hard against the sob threatening to escape. Deep down I knew that the boys never meant to harm me. Tobias had been using them as pawns for a long time to do his bidding, and collecting me was just another play in his ultimate quest for power. The energy I felt from them that night was as guarded and walled off as ever. Tobias was working hard to keep them in check. But I had felt them when that energy was down, and in those moments, I knew that they were authentic and genuine. Those were the men I feared for―the men I cared about.

“Sean,” I started, trying hard to keep my emotions in check. “Where is Ali now?”

His grim expression did nothing to calm me.

“Upstairs. In my apartment.”

Not giving him a chance to say anything else, I bolted for the door, and surprisingly, nobody moved to stop me. Not even Sean.

I flew through the outside door and tore around to the front of the building. Taking three steps at a time, I reached the third floor in seconds and slammed the eight-digit code into the keypad. The second it beeped approval, I faltered. What exactly was I going to walk in on and find?

Sean wouldn't have left him there unless there was no threat from him, and my guess was that if he was breathing, he'd have been perceived as a liability.

Ignoring the rising panic I felt, I entered the vast space to an unexpected scene. Jay stood, heavily armed, hovering over the couch―and its barely breathing occupant.

“Ali!” I screamed, diving towards him. “Oh my God, you're alive!”

“Easy, Ruby,” Jay said, stopping me just before I could get to Alistair. “Don't touch him. It'll only make it worse.”

“But...but why? I can help him heal, Jay. I just need to be close enough.”

“Ruby,” Jay snapped, spinning me by my shoulders to face him.

“He's full of silver. Nothing you can do will stop this. You'll only prolong his suffering.”

“Then why don't you just put him out of his misery?” I snapped back, thinking that Jay was doing exactly what he accused me of doing.

“Answers,” he replied coolly. “Sean wants answers.”

Before I could even begin to share my thoughts on his answer, a voice distracted me.

“Ruby?” Alistair called to me. “I'm so sorry. You have to know that―”

“I know you didn't mean to,” I replied, choking back my tears. He didn't need to see me fall apart. He needed me to hold my shit together.

“Just lay still, please. I'm going to figure something out. Just rest. Save your energy.”

I stared Jay down hard, knowing I was likely about to start a fight.

“Why isn't Peyta here?” I growled.

“Sean won't let her near them.” His expression was unfazed by my mention of the sprite-like girl that he'd once loved. Likely still loved.

“We'll see about that,” I snarled before storming out of the room.

I was in the basement before I knew it, remembering nothing of my trip there. I was on a mission, and my rage was growing. Alistair wasn't going to die that way. Not if I, or Peyta, could help it.

“Sean!” I screamed down the narrow corridor.

He emerged immediately.

“She can't come here,” he started, knowing exactly what I was about to demand.

“I can't let him die like this, Sean.”

“I know it's hard, Ruby, but there's nothing to be done.”

“Goddammit!” I shouted, slamming my fist into the wall, breaking a few bones against the cinderblock for my efforts.

“I'm sorry,” he whispered, moving in on me.

“NO!” I spat. “Not now. I can't deal with this now, Sean. You peppered him full of silver!”

“I did what I had to do to keep Tobias from escaping. He used them like shields, Ruby,” he growled, eyes darkening. “It was a choice between taking Ali down or Cooper. Would you have preferred the alternative?”

My heart stopped cold. “I didn't think so.”

“Let me call her, Sean, please. If she wants to do this, will you let her? Will you let her help him if you're there with her? Jay too? Hell, all of you can be there to keep her safe, I don't care. What will it take?”

At some point in my rant, the tears broke free, and I tasted the salty sadness as they rolled over my lips. His expression grew increasingly pained.

“Call her.”

I snatched the phone he offered me out of his hand like a greedy child and dialed her. She answered right away.

“Sean? What's wrong?”

“Peyta, it's me. It's one of the new guys, Alistair. He's dying. They used silver on him. He'll never heal it on his own,” I cried, unable to control my overwhelming emotions. “Can you help him?”

She paused for only a brief moment before answering.

“Yes. Of course. I'll be right there.”

“I'm at Sean's place.”

“Okay. There in five.”

It was the longest five minutes of my life.

35

“He's alive,” I yelled out to Janner and the others before pushing past Sean to see them. Disregarding his earlier warning, I walked straight into the prison-like room and over to Cooper. Mind control or not, I had to see him.

When I arrived at his cell, he had his back to me, still sitting on the floor and shackled to it. I sat down next to the bars and tried to reach him through them, but he was too far away. And he wouldn't look at me.

“Coop?” I called softly, letting my voice tell him everything was all right. “Cooper, it's me. I'm fine. Please...”

But he wouldn't respond. I started to get anxious and even backed away from the cell slightly, wondering if maybe Tobias' little experiment had permanently damaged him. Or maybe he hadn't snapped out of it at all.

“Cooper, answer me.
Now
,” I ordered, trying to quash the fear threatening to overtake me. “I need to know you're okay. That you're
you
again.”

With his head hung low, he turned to me slowly, looking every bit as dejected as he clearly felt. His eyes were so filled with sorrow that I could barely stand to look directly into them. Then the wave of guilt and sadness slammed into me, and I nearly fell over from the assault.

“Cooper,” I said, reaching for him once again. “I know it wasn't you back there. You have to know that I know that. You never would hurt me or allow me to be hurt.”

“But I did, Ruby,” he replied, turning his gaze to the floor. “That's exactly what I did. I failed you...”

“But it wasn't your fault.”

He ignored me.

“Sean. Please. Can't we let him out?”

“I still can't risk it, Ruby.”

“He's right, Rubes. It's too chancy.”

I sighed, knowing that I wasn't going to be able to budge either of them on the issue until we had answers.

“Fine,” I snipped, looking back into Cooper's cell. “Then I'm coming in.”

I stood and marched toward Sean, hellbent on taking the keys from him, but the sound of the hallway entrance opening waylaid my course of action.

“Peyta!”

I sprinted down the hall to meet her, whisking her back outside and around to the front, then up the stairs to Sean's apartment. Jay heard us coming and opened the door to meet us. I felt Peyta freeze beside me when she saw him. Jay looked impassive, but I felt the surge of emotions that seeing Peyta brought out of him. He really did love her.

“There isn't much time,” he told us, leading the way to the couch.

Jay was right. Ali's breathing was more of a shallow and feeble panting―his color pale and sallow. A light dew covered him and glistened in the moonlight pouring in through the vast wall of windows near the couch. He had minutes left at best.

Without further provocation, Peyta was by Ali's side assessing the situation like a pro. It was a proud and sad moment for me. She was trying to embrace her calling, but I wished she didn't have to. The price she paid was too high.

Sean placed his hand on the back of my neck, scaring the shit out of me. I hadn't heard him come in.

“She's truly amazing,” he whispered in my ear. My hair reflexively stood on end.

“I know,” I replied as I looked on. Watching Peyta heal was anticlimactic to say the least, which only illustrated further how gifted she was. She was a complete contrast to Sophie, making me wonder if all the Healers had their own methods, or if Peyta was one of a kind.

I guess I already knew the answer to that.

Ali's body slowly repaired itself right before my eyes, lessening the sharp pain in my heart. It was strange to watch the shimmery silver droplets press up out of his wounds and solidify on his chest and abdomen, but with every bit that came up, his complexion rosied, enlivening his appearance.

“Ruby,” she called, not turning her focus away from her patient.

“Come collect these silver pieces for me, please. And take his shirt off too. I don't want anything residual getting into the wounds that haven't closed yet.”

I did as she bade me and picked the fine beads of metal off of his body, delicately removing his tattered shirt in the process. A flash of light brought my attention up to the dog tags still hanging around his neck―a token of his bond to the London pack. I wanted to tear them off and destroy them. Instead, I reached up and pulled them over his neck as gingerly as possible. He didn't belong to them anymore.

The second I touched them Scarlet growled viciously in my mind.

Get rid of them now...

“Why? What's wrong?” I asked, looking like the crazy girl who talked to herself yet again. I hadn't missed that.

That sound. Can you not hear it? It's maddening. Get rid of them!

“Oh my God...,” I whispered, staring down at the seemingly innocuous chain in my hand. “Sean, it's the tags! Take them off of the others. Now!”

I tossed them at him, and for a split second he hesitated, then sent Jay down to remove the items in question from his prisoners. The keys to Tobias' mind control.

You truly couldn't sense that, could you?

“No, I didn't feel―hear―sense anything.”

There was a humming...a vibration before, but the second you
touched them, it was unbearable.

“I'm going to send them to Trey for analysis,” Sean interjected.

“He'll find whatever is hidden in those dog tags.” His eyes widened and faded to black. “And then I'll find whoever made them.”

“
Tobias knows,” Ali's hoarse voice called from the couch. “Ask him.”

“I'm afraid he's a little too dead for that, Alistair,” Sean told him grimly. “Time for plan B.”

“And what's that?” I asked, feeling a little nervous.

“I think I'll be making a trip across the pond again. Tobias can't be the only one who knew about this. Whoever his second in command was is likely to know as well. He and I are going to have a chat.”

Alistair began to push himself up off of the sofa, and Sean quickly scooped Peyta off of the floor and put her down safely behind him. He wasn't going to risk anything happening to her, and rightfully so. She was the best thing to happen to the PC in centuries.

“I've got the dog tags,” Jay called from somewhere near the bottom of the stairwell.

“Call Trey. Tell him we have a pickup for him and to get on it now.

And tell the boys to let the others out now. The random survivors can be released to Trey when he arrives. As for the others, bring them up here.”

“Do you think he can sort it out?” I asked Sean, worried about the implications of Trey failing.

“We shall soon see.”

Sean's gaze fell on Alistair, who was rapidly gaining his strength back. He stood before me looking only a little worse for the wear.

“
You
,” Sean rumbled, “have some explaining to do.”

Much to my surprise, Ali didn't say anything even remotely belligerent. He may have detested Sean, but he knew that he was right. He did have explaining to do, but not to Sean―to me and Cooper. Just as I was thinking that, Ali's submissive eyes took a chance on meeting mine.

The sadness in them was painful to see.

“Ruby,” he started, quickly averting his gaze. “I don't even know where to start.”

“Try from the beginning,” Cooper ordered from deep in the hallway outside. “I wanted them to keep you all alive, but that was only because I wanted to hear the truth, and I'd better get just that. To my
satisfaction
.”

Cooper was clearly back to normal.

“Not everything was a lie. The missing wolves part was true. They did kill Jemma too,” he said, again looking up at me, this time with tears in his eyes. “They killed her stone cold dead.”

“And the rest?” Sean prodded.

Ali sighed.

“The rest was partial truths smattered with lies.” His expression was pained but frustrated. “It's hard to discern what's real and what's not anymore. We've had those tags for a long time now. Much has happened since we were given them. I just don't know...”