Exalted (23 page)

Holy
crap, what did that
mean
?!

One
of them had definitely been with Jacquie: Noelle, with the chocolate skin and
the long dreads—the one who'd started out testy and told her he was a Guardian.
A more careful look revealed that the green-eyed blond one was also there.
      

All
of a sudden a third rose to his feet, and Julia nearly passed out as she beheld
a glorious creature with spiky mahogany hair, dancing brown eyes, and the
sexiest lip ring she'd ever seen EVER.
“Lille,”
said a low voice in her
head.

“That's
them
,” she squeaked to Cayne, wondering how Jacquie had possibly managed
to betray her
again
. Had she and Nathan been plotting something this
entire time? That was crazy, wasn't it? But Jacquie's Authorities showing up
here without summon had not been in the plan.

Before
Julia could think more about it, Drew and Car were coming at her.

Carlin
threw herself at Julia, nearly knocking her over and obliterating any sense of
decorum Julia might have been trying to foster as she shrieked,
“Juuuuuuuuulllliia!”

Drew
hugged Julia, then squeezed Cayne's hand, and Julia looked back at the
Authorities, wondering what the h-e-double-l was going on.

Nathan's
gaze pulled hers. “Come sit down. We need to talk.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Burned
one too many times, Julia wanted to back out the doorway. Nathan had betrayed
her in the past; she didn't think she could trust him now. But when she glanced
at Cayne, he seemed fine (if a little extra steely), and neither Carlin,
clutching her arm, nor Drew, standing slightly in front of her, seemed to mind
the newcomers.

Still,
her heart was hammering as she and her friends crossed the tent, aiming for the
long table, passing small groups of Chosen busily working to organize salvaged
supplies.

Carlin
quickly filled Julia in on what had happened to the pyramid—a Demon attack,
though The Adversary hadn’t shown.

“We
lost so many, Julia. So many! And—” she choked up. “And...”

Drew
took Julia's arm, and suddenly they were all stopped, maybe ten feet from the
table.

“We
couldn't get her out," he said softly. "We couldn't get to Meredith
in time. The place was burning and—” He clenched his jaw, giving a small,
apologetic shake of his head, and Julia felt like she'd been punched in the
throat.

“Shit.”
She turned around, putting her back to Nathan's table, and took a few steps
away from the group, breathing heavily to keep from pitching a big, huge,
sobbing fit. She squeezed her eyes shut as her head ached, screaming as Methuselah's
power reared its huge, glowy head; she could feel it in her veins, pulsing like
it wanted to come out. She gritted her teeth.

It
wasn't fair! It wasn't fair that they'd lost Meredith! So pointless! All of it,
so stupid!

Julia
swallowed really, really hard, aware that she was probably doing that low-level
glow thing she couldn't seem to control. She could feel the eyes on her. See
the auras, tinged with nervousness—everyone in the tent, and even the
Authorities seemed nervous.

Cayne
was beside her, murmuring something, and as he draped an arm around her, there
was that voice again.

A
smooth, powerful, haunting, lovely voice.
“No worries, beautiful. We're here to
help.”

Julia
jumped at the tingling sensation of having someone in her head. She tugged away
from Cayne's grasp and whirled, her gaze stuck on Lille like a magnet. He was
still seated at the table, this time with a lopsided smile. With his
reddish-brown spikes, he looked like a punk rocker, not an Authority.

His
smile widened, and although Julia wanted to scream her confusion at the
Authority situation, she blushed instead. She glanced around, wondering who all
was watching her make an idiot of herself, and that's when she saw
Drew—watching the Authority with moony eyes.

Holy
crabcakes.

“Tell me about it.”

The
look on the Authority Lille's face could only be described as...well, as
hungry. Nathan was frowning at them, Noelle was biting into an apple, and Shea
was walking around the room balancing what must have been the world's most
obese three-year-old girl on her hip. The situation was so crazy, Julia
actually giggled.

“Was
that a girlish giggle?” Drew teased. Behind his hand, he murmured, “He is a
hottie.”

Julia
giggled again, and Cayne raised a baffled brow at her, and by the time they were
standing in front of Nathan, she somehow wasn't even worried anymore. About
anything. Which was fairly crazy. And fairly awesome.

Nathan
stood up, grumbling as the little girl swatted at his head, and Shea smiled.
“Julia. I'm glad you made it back.”

Julia
jumped. Shea had spoken in her mind.
"You can do the ESP thing too?"

“I can't really. It's only because Lille is
here, helping me. And because you're strong enough to hear me.”

“COME
HERE.”

Julia
blinked, surprised to find that Nathan had moved toward the back of the tent,
and was now waving them toward some stairs she saw leading into the ground.
There were two new Chosen with him: the Scottish woman from the first tent, and
a balding man with sea blue eyes and a fresh burn mark on his left cheek.

“I've
never seen any group of Chosen take so long to get from point A to point B,”
Nathan complained loudly as they made her way to him.

Again,
curious eyes were on her, and she wanted to smack Nathan for making her look
like an errant child in front of a bunch of people she was supposed to save.
Instead, she took her time, stopping to talk to a an older woman who was trying
to organize a big box of batteries.

When
she did reach the hole in the floor, Nathan waved at the stairs. "You can
go first."

Julia
shook her head. "If you think I'm going ahead of you, you're out of your
mind."

Nathan's
eyes widened. "I don't understand." He glanced at the other Chosen,
some of whom were still watching him.

"We
have trust issues, Nathan," Julia said. She pointed to the Authorities.
"Why are they here?"

“I
can explain,” Nathan sighed. “Rayce, can you get us another tent? One right
here? Just a small one?”

The
blond Authority blinked, and they were standing in a tent. He blinked again,
and there was a table and chairs.

They
all took seats, and Nathan explained that Lille had “seen” the Demons attacking
the pyramid shortly after Julia and Cayne left St. Moritz. He and the other two
Authorities at the table had used some Authority trick to zoom to Egypt,
managing to arrive in time to help fight the Demons off and get some of the
Chosen to safety.
 

"We
decided to stay and help you plan," Rayce said.

“Lille
is a foreseer of possibilities,” Nathan continued, and Julia had what she knew
was a childish urge to tell him
duh
. “He thinks The Adversary could amass
enough power to pull the net completely over Heaven."

Julia
hesitated a second before answering, trying hard to remember everything Jacquie
said and ask intelligent questions. "So we know for sure, he doesn't have
complete control over it right now?"

Lille
shook his head. “The Adversary doesn't have the whole thing 'in his hands'
because it never technically came down.”

"It
didn't?" Cayne asked. “Why didn't you tell us this before, in St.
Moritz?"

Rayce
answered. "We weren't fully aware of the situation then."

Julia
felt a smidgen of hope. "How is that possible?"

 
“Based on my understanding of what transpired,
because of your friend Meredith."

Julia
almost choked when she heard Mer's name. “I-it is?” She noticed Nathan's face
pale in time with the twisting of her stomach.

Lille
nodded, his lip-ring glinting. “If she hadn't stepped in when she did, The
Adversary might have complete control."

“I...
I didn't know that,” Julia managed.

Cayne
put his hand on her knee, and she put her hand over his, and they stayed like
that while Cayne told everyone what he knew about The Adversary, and everyone
shared every thought they had. They were in the tent almost three hours before
emerging with a plan.

***

“So
I might get my own wings?” Julia asked Lille.

They
were seated in the newly erected food tent, eating pre-packaged Army meals that
apparently had been magicked out of the pyramid by the little girl Shea had
been holding earlier.

Lille,
drinking iced coffee in the seat across from Julia, shrugged.

“I
don't know. You might. We've never done anything like this before. I don't know
that I'd have had the idea.” He arched an appreciative brow at Cayne.

“You
are one of a kind,” Carlin said, nudging Julia's elbow.
 

“For
now, I want you to try not to think about it. If we decide it’s the right
course, we'll talk more then. Remember, the choice is always yours,” Lille
said. “You do offer a significant advantage, having so much pure Celestial
energy, but it won't pan out that way if you don't really want to do it.”

“But
I do,” Julia said firmly. Among other reasons, she wanted to do it for
Meredith.

“That's
good to know,” Lille said.

He
met Cayne's eyes, and Julia could see they were already thinking about their
espionage mission. Another of Cayne's ideas, and one Julia wasn't especially
fond of. They planned to combine Lille's unique foresight with Cayne's ability
to (hopefully) use the remnant of his link with The Adversary to discern The
Adversary's location and his plans.

First,
though, they had to get back to the States.

“I'm
still not convinced you guys can pull this off,” Drew said, skeptical as usual.
He cast a worried glance at Julia.

“Drew,
this is a meeting of minds,” Lille said. “I promise you, Cayne and I both have
Julia's best interest at heart.”

Drew
opened his mouth to protest, and Lille's beautiful arm stretched out; he
clasped Drew's hand, pulling him up from the table, then waving out in front of
Drew's eyes. Julia knew he was drawing a diagram 'in the air' for Drew to see.
He'd done it earlier for her.

Drew's
shoulder bumped Lille's, and Carlin giggled behind her hand. “Ooh la, la!”

“That
would be a seriously cute pairing,” Julia murmured.

The
blond one, on Carlin's other side, shook his head. “For an Authority and
a...anyone but a fellow Authority... The other person would have to be a
resident of Heaven.”

Julia
blinked. In that case, Drew could continue being super and single.
 

When
the pair turned back around, Julia turned to Cayne, as if they'd never been
gossiping about Drew's love life. “I'm not sure about the you part,” she said.
“That still makes me too nervous.”

Lille's
eyes narrowed. "Do you want to go over the whole thing again?"

“No.
I want to see a set future where Cayne doesn't get hurt.”

“A
set future.” Lille smirked, and Drew blushed again. “That doesn't exist, but if
it did, I would want to see it, too. As it is, I think we have at least a
reasonable shot at success.”

“Very
reasonable,” Cayne said, toying with a strand of her tangled hair.

“I
believe you,” Drew said, “if I must.”

“You
must. And that's good, because It's about time to catch our plane.”

Julia
sighed. The first step in their plan.

Carlin
and Drew and the other Chosen were flying on chartered jets bound for Atlanta,
where Julia and Cayne (who were flying via Cayne) would meet them. Cayne's
Nephilim friend Andre was going to help them out by scouting out the situation
on the ground. He would leave a note at a spot only Cayne would know, letting
them know if Atlanta was safe or if they needed to travel to one of two other
spots:
 
Birmingham or Nashville. He would
then alert an Authority of the same.

As
soon as everyone met up and got settled in a safe hotel, Lille and Cayne would
fly to California to stake out The Adversary's setup and gain insight into his
behavior. The day after that, they'd all meet in Napa Valley, at a retreat
center Cayne's friend Andre had "borrowed".

And
all meant all. Every remaining Chosen would be making the trip. They wanted to
avenge their friends and family. Even though the Julia-Cayne plan was a big,
fat secret, all the Chosen had agreed to come.

The
most common reason: “If we don't, we'll all die anyway.”

Chapter
Thirty-Three