Binds (18 page)

“Now … a word of advice, you may think it wise to continue hiding these two out of some sort of loyalty to your little ineffective cause or just out of spite for my administration. I can tell you now, and you will soon agree, that giving up two to save many is much nobler than acting as insubordinate children and watching your fellow kind be slaughtered. This is not a test, as I speak these words, some of your very own are no doubt perishing.

He lifts his index finger into the air as if he is actually in the room with us and can tell the unrest he has just caused and is attempting to squash it. “However, I would like to propose a deal. You’ll see that I’m not completely unreasonable where it comes to the pursuit of liberty, happiness … and all that. The Mage that brings me my quarry will be given not only freedom from the reform policies for himself and one other Mage of their choosing, but also …for that Mage only, I will promise to restore any of their confiscated children that have been taken thus far and put them under protected status from the NWO for life. Thank you for your time and I hope we can all put this nastiness behind us soon.”

The video ends and the room erupts with tension and shouting all aimed directly at me. An older man starts towards me, his finger in my face and veins bulging from his neck. I recognize him as someone who has given me more than one dirty look since my stay here. “What have you brought upon us, you murderer?”

I’m freaked out, this man seems to want to turn me in himself, but Reece jumps in front of me, blocking the man’s rage. He gets into the man’s face as he says, “Trey, you don’t want to do this. We can’t turn against each other now. Ophelia is on our side.”

“No, I won’t let this happen again. I had no way of protecting my family before.” He leers at me. The hatred swirling around in his irises cuts through me, and I feel a profound sense of shame at my ignorance to what happened to this man. Maybe if I had stopped focusing on my own survival with Donovan in the past, I could have opened my eyes to what was really going on, maybe I could have done something … anything to prevent the sadness and anger that this man wears daily like an uncomfortable overcoat. “My world, my everything … just wiped away in one day.” The man pulls his wallet out of his back pocket, lifts a photo out of it and thrusts it into my face. It’s a well-worn picture of a handsome man and woman and two young boys sitting on the sand at a beach. They look so happy, their faces shining brighter than the sun. “This was my son and daughter-in-law and my two grandsons … they’re gone, thanks to you Brands. I’ll be damned if I sit back and let the same thing happen to someone else … no, not on my watch, lady.”

Spencer comes between Reece and Trey, resting a hand on Trey’s shoulder and bending his head to the man. Spencer knows exactly how Trey is feeling; I observe it in their matching postures as they stand together. There is a slight slump to each man’s shoulders that hints at the weight they’ll each carry every day of their lives.

“I know what you’ve been through, my friend.” The veneration in Spencer’s voice displays evidence to the way that he feels for this man. He respects him, but moreover, he cares for him as well. I have never seen Spencer speak to anyone this way; somehow I doubt there are many people in the world that he would show such reverence. It pulls at something deep in my stomach, an ache that should not be there. Against my will, my heart begins to wonder what it would feel like to have Spencer’s affection directed its way.

“I understand why you would want to turn her in, I really do.” Spencer gives me a look filled with annoyance, completely destroying my momentary longing for his regard. “She’s a pain in the ass, but she is no murderer. Trust me, my friend, I have seen her soul, and I know that she had nothing to do with what happened to your family.” He raises his voice to be heard throughout the room. “Oberon has just officially declared war with our people. He has stolen our children, forced us to live half-lives, and now is playing on our fear to divide us. He wants to make us scatter apart like filthy roaches at the flip of a switch. I say we don’t let him do it.”

Spencer walks throughout the crowd giving each person he passes the consideration of eye contact. Gone is the vulnerability he displayed in his exchange with Trey, now it is all gravity and strength being projected as he speaks. For the first time, I can see why these people have chosen him as their leader; it’s not the money, or the protection of this building. I can see it in the ferocity of his gaze and the genuine concern for each and every one of them. They think that he may be the salvation of our entire race, but from the solemn look on his face, I think that he believes they are his way to salvation too. If he can win … if he can save these people, he may be able to redeem himself for the failure in saving his family. It’s no wonder that his convictions are unwavering when it comes to this cause, they serve all of these people he cares for so dearly.

“So far in this movement, we have tried to heed the warnings from previous generations who said to keep our race quiet and stay in the shadows. It made sense in the past. We lived in peace and took care of our own while being able to maintain a friendly symbiosis with the commons. Now, I see that it’s time to come out of the shadows. Oberon thinks he can get away with hunting us down on the pretense that the commons don’t care what happens to a bunch of delinquents, but what if we show them the reason we are hunted? What if we use our talents on those streets that the NWO patrol to show them that we won’t be pushed around?”

“What if the commons reject us?” A woman yells from the back of the room. Spencer instantly quiets to let her talk. “What if they want us dead, too, because they’re afraid? What will we do then? We have nowhere else to go. I would rather stay here and let this blow over than risk more of our people. There has to be a better way!” She sounds near hysterics and one of the other women pulls her into their arms.

“That’s Mary,” Reece whispers into my ear. He has been beside me this whole time, his body tense and ready to defend us both at a moment’s notice. “Her husband took their three daughters to the reformatories that day and she stayed back because they were in a fight. She’s been on edge ever since. I haven’t seen her without tears in her eyes a day since Cass and I came to live here. Everyone but Amy, the old woman next to her, stays clear. I think she’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown.”

Breakdown or not, her points are valid. It’s risky to reveal ourselves to the commons. I would like to think that the race I thought I belonged to for the first twenty-seven years of my life would be willing to stand up for the wrongdoings of Oberon, but without being sure, it’s easy to be afraid.

Spencer remains quiet for a few seconds, seemingly really debating her point. “Mary’s right. I wouldn’t want to force anyone to make this decision lightly. It’s a secret that doesn’t only belong to me; it belongs to all of us. However, I can’t sit back and allow our people to be slaughtered in the streets. I ask you all to think this over, decide amongst yourselves the right way to go. For tonight, I propose a group of us take to the streets and extinguish as many NWO officer’s lives as possible. If we don’t send a message to the commons right away, let’s say we at least send one to the leader of the not-so-free world. We don’t care about his threats anymore. We’re going to fight back.”

A cheer goes up throughout the room. The animosity aimed at me has not been fully extinguished; however, Spencer has been able to stifle it some. His speech elicits energy from not only the crowd, but myself, as well. In the past, I might have been wary of sticking my neck out like this. I just got away from Donovan, so it would be wise to lay low and keep off of his radar, but I know that these people, no matter their feelings for me, are mine. I’m not a common, I’m a Mage and their fight is our fight. I can’t sit back with all of this power and turn a blind eye to the struggle of my own kind. To do so would make me worse than Donovan ever was.

“Reece, I want you to ready a team of ten,” Spencer begins. “Take this group and stake out the west side, particularly near the theaters and bars that cater to the night crowd. I’ll get another ten or so and we’ll patrol near the capitol building. Jinx, take Ophelia to the armory and get her a weapon. I want everyone to meet back here in half an hour before we head out, so we can coordinate the attack and come up with a rally point in case anything goes wrong.”

Spencer stalks out of the room along with most of the other Mages. Jinx wheels his computer chair around and stretches before standing up and motioning for me to follow. Reece is hot on our tails as we scurry out of the ops room and into the elevator. Jinx presses the button for the first floor and leans back against the paneled wall while we wait for the descent.

Reece seems to be on edge. I watch his jaw clenching and unclenching the whole way. Finally, I can no longer take it.

“Reece, what’s wrong?” I ask, concerned.

“What’s wrong?” Reece mimics, in exasperation. “Weren’t you listening to that message from Oberon? He’s hunting us now, Ophelia … and Spencer wants us to go out in the streets, straight to the hunters, and just basically turn ourselves in. It’s bullshit!”

“No, I don’t think that’s what he wants at all.” I turn to him and place my hand on his arm, rubbing it against the soft cotton sleeve of his shirt. “Reece, he wants us to fight. Don’t you get that? The way things were handled before, blowing up possibly innocent people while they were caught unaware, that isn’t the way to fight this war. We have to take the NWO head on if we have any hope of stopping them. Oberon thinks that he has us all under his thumb, so he needs to see that he doesn’t. Instead of cowering in this building, we need to fight. Can’t you see that?”

“I don’t like it,” Reece replies, turning from me as the doors open and we follow Jinx. I don’t know how he can make his way around the building while his nose is pressed into his cell phone, still looking up information, but he manages. Before I know it, we are walking into a massive room with hundreds of weapons lining the front walls and a shooting range on the far side.

“Ummm … there’s a shooting range in this building? What the hell?” I’m amazed. I’ve never heard any noise to indicate that there would be.

“You wouldn’t be surprised to see one in Bruce Wayne’s house, why not here?” Jinx replies, never taking his eyes off his gadget. “How else are we supposed to learn how to shoot?”

“Whatever,” I reply. I vow to no longer be surprised at anything where Mages or Spencer Donnelly is concerned.

I saunter around the room, wondering if Jinx is supposed to be setting me up with one of these guns, but all he is doing is continuing to stare at his phone. Reece has finally broken out of his irritation at Spencer for the moment and is looking at me with an amused expression as I take in the many expensive weapons around us.

“Looking for a pink one?” he teases. I don’t feel like his question dignifies a response, so I continue to peruse the walls.

“Jinx, can I try this one out?” I ask as I look at a black Colt M1911.

“Yeah, just pick one,” he replies.

“Oh, give me a break.” Reece stomps over to where I’m standing. He takes the gun out of the case, walks over to one of the shelves, pulls out the clip and begins to load the rounds into it. He apprehensively looks over his shoulder at me. “Do you even know how to hold one of these correctly?”

I huff over to him and put my hand out for the gun. “Why don’t we see?” I ask.

He tosses me a look that seems to say that he has absolutely no faith in my ability to even locate the trigger of the weapon. I storm off towards the practice range, grab the ear muffs hanging on the wall and put them on. Then I move over to the lane with a target already at the ready, slide off the safety, aim, and fire all seven rounds perfectly in either the chest or the head of the target.

I pull the protectors off my ears, press the button that slides the target back to me, pull it off and walk over to Reece, placing it in his hands. “Think I held it correctly?” I ask.

He looks stunned. “How the heck do you know how to do that?”

“Reece, my mom was abducted and killed from our shop when I was a teenager. One of the first things I did after she was buried was head to the nearest pistol range and sign up for shooting lessons. I wasn’t going to let what happened to her happen to me.”

Reece gets somber at my words and turns to Jinx. “Hey, Mr.Thingamajig, could you put that down and come get Phee everything she’s going to need? Get her a holster for her weapon and some ready clips, come on.”

He turns back to me. “I need to go make sure everyone is prepared for this debacle. I’ll see you back in the ops room.” He comes in to place a kiss on my forehead, but seems to think better of it and backs off, giving me a quick smile before departing the room.

“Sheesh, what did I do?” I mumble to myself in his wake.

Jinx stows his phone away in his pocket and says, “What didn’t you do? This place has been turned upside down since you got here. I used to have time to get in the chat rooms with friends, and now all day long it’s all, Jinx check if there are any new reports on Ophelia, Jinx see if you can track the NWO’s investigation into O’s disappearance. I never get a break. Don’t get me wrong—I can see why everyone is into you. I mean, you have the three Bs that I look for in a girl, but all this … it’s too much work.”

“The three Bs? I’m afraid to ask, but what does that mean?”

“Beautiful brown eyes, a good set of boobies, and a nice, round booty,” he replies as if I should have already known. Okay, I really shouldn’t have asked. Moving on.