House of Leights (Secret Keepers, #3)(74)

My stomach swirled at those mental images, and I just managed to stop myself from vomiting. Laous spoke matter-of-factly, but his demons were rising to the surface.

“The moment I found my strength, the moment I managed to break free of my cage, I killed my father. Turned out, I have a very special skill, forged under fire: when I kill a person, I can absorb their energy. It doesn’t last long, but it lasted long enough for me to murder my complicit mother first and use her boost of power to rip my father to pieces.” He got a satisfied look on his face. “I wasted no time then planning for my future. For a future which would mean I was never weak again. Ever. I’ve been biding my time for years, waiting until all the pieces fell into place. Now my time has come.”

It sucked when the bad guy had layers, because I really wanted to just hate him. Hate him so hard that I could kill him if I had to. But right then, I saw that little boy tortured by his family. I saw and could not purge the image from my mind. He turned away, striding the few steps to the map, which he leaned over. Sucking in deep breaths, my pulse was racing, but I couldn’t give up on my plan to escape.

While he was distracted, I looked around, hoping to find an escape route. We were reasonably close to the edge of a cliff. I didn’t recognize the spot, but other than jumping into the rough ocean below, it was all open fields and long plains. I’d be taken out by a gun in a second. No coverage at all.

“She’s right here somewhere,” Laous bellowed. “Spread out, start searching everywhere.” He waved a hand in my direction. “Throw her back in the van, cover her eyes, and tie her hands.”

“No!” I screamed. “I won’t go anywhere with you!”

I was short enough that I could easily punch tall guys in the balls. Which is exactly what I did to the first man who came at me. He let out a roar, swinging a fist in my direction. I’d been expecting it, though, and managed to duck in time.

My gait was still clumsy from Fraizer, but I didn’t let that stop me from trying. Laous didn’t move, preferring to let the others do his dirty work. Only problem was he’d sent most of his people off in search of the fourth secret keeper, which gave me a clear run.

The only one who could stop me was Rao. He reached out and snatched me up with far too much ease. I swung and kicked, my weak pathetic attempts glancing off him.

“Good save, son,” Laous said, grinning at me with his disgusting face. “Throw her in the van.”

Rao nodded, taking a step forward. Almost in slow motion, the huge man tripped and we both crashed into Laous. The three of us went down, and I felt a hand yank me back so I didn’t get squished. Laous, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. Rao slammed into him, knocking the stone out of his hand.

This was my chance; I knew it, and I was going to do the only thing I could. On my feet, I grabbed up the chain and started to run. It was about fifteen feet to the cliff. I heard shouts all around me. Just before I launched myself off the cliff, I slipped the chain over my head.

Then I screamed the entire way down.





22





Considering I hadn’t looked before leaping, I was lucky not to smash into rocks. The coastline around these cliffs could be deadly, especially landing in some spots with strong tides.

I missed all the rocks, but as the cold water closed over my head, I knew I hadn’t been as lucky with the tides. I tried to kick my way to the surface, dislodging my shoes as I went because they were dragging me down. But I got slammed against an underwater shelf before I managed to make it up for air. I had a decent lung capacity, but if I didn’t get up in the next minute or so I was going to be in trouble.

I let the water carry me along, twisting my body to avoid more rocks. I couldn’t avoid them all though, my arms scraping against the rough edges. I was bleeding. The sharks would be around soon; I had to get out of here. Something skimmed through the water and bit into my arm. I jerked, and more blood filled the water. Bastards. They were shooting at me. Apparently this necklace trumped my possible usefulness to Laous.

Managing to struggle to the surface, just near the cliffs, I took one breath, ducking right back down again. Damn the crystal-clear water, I was a sitting duck. As I went under, more bullets rained around me and I hid beneath a rock formation, trying not to panic.

A shimmer caught my eye, and I freaked out thinking it was the sun’s reflection off a shark.

Only … it wasn’t a shark. It was a girl.

We stared at each other, me trying not to drown, her looking very comfortable. She had long white or gray hair that sparkled unnaturally. She wore only a bikini, her body very toned.

She seemed as surprised to see me as I was to see her. As more bullets rained around us, she shot a glare into the sky, and then zoomed through the water toward me.

I’d never seen anyone swim like that, so fast and agile, darting through the water like it was a pool and not an ocean of deadly currents. As she reached me, I found my hand in hers, and then she was speeding both of us along. She knew exactly where to go, moving with the tides. Just when I was about to pass out, she surfaced briefly and we both took in deep breaths. I opened my mouth to ask who she was, but we were back down under the water before I could.

This time we moved even faster and my head spun. Just when it seemed like the water started to calm, I passed out.



When I regained consciousness, sprawled across the beach, sand all over me, my head was pounding. Pushing both hands under my body, I managed to lift myself up enough to brush the sand off my face. Everything hurt, like … a lot. My back screamed at me, cut up by the underwater rocks. My hands were also bleeding quite freely, and the salt and sand only increased the pain.