Milo is waiting for us when we reach the motel. Sitting on the hood of his Corolla with his arms crossed over his chest, his stance perks up when we pull into the parking lot. He’s on his feet and at my door before I shift into park. As he pulls my door open I have to keep myself from simply collapsing into his arms. Instead I hop down daintily and wait for him to offer me a place against his chest. I don’t have to wait very long.
It feels so good to press my body against his after the day I’ve had. Warm, strong, gentle, he holds me tightly, one of his hands drifting up to wind into the hair at the nape of my neck. I pull against him even tighter. Only the sound of Celia folding the seat down to get to our bags in the back reminds me of her presence. Apparently it reminds Milo too. He pulls back slowly, but lets his hands slide down to my hips instead of dropping away completely. Our eyes hold each other and I’m positive he can see my chest pulsing in and out more quickly than it should. Maybe I should care about that, but I just don’t. The corner of his mouth twitches and starts to turn up.
“I’m thrilled to see you two getting all gooey over each other,” Celia says loudly, “but would someone mind opening the door so I can put this stuff down?”
I can’t respond right away. Milo pulls back and snatches the keys from my hand. He wanders over to help his sister as if I’m forgotten. I watch him unlock the door for Celia before I can move away from the car. He waits for me at the door, giving me a little shove into the dim room.
“So, do I get to see the dress?” Milo asks.
Celia and I answer at the same time. “No.”
“Fine,” he drawls. “Did you two have fun? There weren’t any problems, were there?”
We both hesitate. “It was fine,” I say on top of Celia saying, “No, uh, no problems at all.”
It sounds like she’s trying to avoid answering questions about Milo again. And if I recognize that, Milo won’t miss it either. We look at each other and I see the apology in her eyes.
“What happened?” Milo demands.
Neither of us answers.
“What happened?” he asks, his voice growing louder. He knows I can hold out the longest, so he turns to his sister. “Celia?”
The poor girl looks like she’s about to burst. She tries so hard to keep secrets, but it obviously just isn’t her strongest point. Even though I wanted very badly to know what she wouldn’t tell me about Milo today, I wouldn’t have wanted to be the reason she broke a promise to her brother. I don’t want to be the reason she breaks a promise now, either.
I sit down on the bed, drawing Milo’s attention away from Celia. He looks at me expectantly. “Well?”
“Guardians came after me in the parking lot when we were leaving.”
It looks like he’s moving in slow motion. His hands clench. His jaw clamps down, making the veins in his neck bulge. Furious red spreads through his skin, shocking me with its intensity. It’s the most reaction I’ve ever seen out of him.
“President Howe told them to leave you alone. Were they Lazaro’s men?” Milo asks through his teeth.
I shake my head. “I can’t say for sure, but it seems likely. I didn’t exactly stop to ask them where their allegiances lie.”
He growls angrily. “Tell me what happened.”
“As soon as we came out of the mall they started closing in on me.” My voice is surprisingly calm. It’s really just more of what I’ve been dealing with my whole life, I guess.
“How did they find you? We’ve been watching so closely for spies.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know, Milo. I’m not exactly hiding by going to the mall. There are Guardians there all the time for security. One of them must have called it in.”
Unclenching his hands, he runs them through his hair in frustration. “What else?”
“There were six of them.”
Milo hisses through his teeth.
“They tried to come at me all at once, but a few eager beavers rushed in first,” I say.
“Giving you the chance to take the first ones out before the others got there,” he finishes. “Celia, were you hurt at all?”
“Nope,” she says cheerfully, “I was driving the Bronco.”
He starts to object, but my own expression stops him. “Don’t you dare,” I say.
“She told you about driving in the hills, didn’t she?”
I nod. “They weren’t there for Celia, so I got her in the car as fast as I could. By the time she’d backed out, I had the first three down. The others were far enough back that I was able to get to the Bronco before they reached me.”
Celia bounces over to her brother. “You should have seen her, Milo. It was awesome. Scary, but very cool. She kicked the first guy’s leg out from under him so fast I didn’t even see her move. Then with the next two,” she says, pausing to mimic the crisscross motion I had used, “she whacked them in the neck, and they dropped like jellyfish.”
Milo waits as patiently as he can through Celia’s description. He obviously doesn’t share in her fascination. “The three you took down, were they still alive?” he asks. The question is cold and brutal. His tone makes me shiver.
So does the memory of the first guy’s head slamming into the pavement. Not to mention the other two’s necks. “I…I don’t know. They’re Guardians, so they have Strength, but even that can only do so much.”
My words have little effect on Milo’s already tense demeanor. Celia, however, loses all her excitement. “You think they might be dead? I…I didn’t even…” She lowers herself back down to the bed. “Are the police going to come after us? What are we going to do?”
“There won’t be any police, Celia, calm down,” Milo says irritably.
“H-how can you be sure?” she begs.
Milo’s eyes fly to his sister’s. “We’ve been through this before, Celia,” he snaps. “Guardians never leave their own to be found by police. They take care of bodies themselves. That’ll be especially true when it comes to Libby. They weren’t supposed to touch her yet.”
Neither of them reacts to his first sentence, but I am rocked by it. They have been through dead Guardians before?
“Anything else?” Milo asks.
I shake my head weakly. At least Lazaro’s men failed. Maybe losing a few of his loyal drones will put his scheming on hold for a while.
His feet carry him back and forth across the room three times before he stops and faces me. Every step is brusque and measured. He’s taking command. The realization shocks me. Where did this alternate Milo come from? The Milo I know enjoys antagonizing Lance and his teachers, but couldn’t care less about what’s happening around him. Milo turns on his heel and faces me, his expression completely focused.
“Okay. This is what we’re going to do. You should be safe enough at school, but I’m walking you to every one of your classes from now on. After school, we’re training. Nights are a problem. I may be able to stay at least a couple of nights during the week, me disappearing is nothing new, but the other nights…”
I’m up off the bed doing my best to get in his face before he can finish despite our height difference. “Training? What are you talking about? I train all day at school. I don’t need more of that.”
“No,” Milo says, staring down at me, “you don’t train at school. You pretend you have no talents at all. You’re getting nothing out of those classes, Libby. Lazaro has already made one attempt on your life, and he’ll undoubtedly make more, if Howe doesn’t kill him for this. But even if he doesn’t, Howe plans on killing you on your eighteenth birthday, something you still have no plan to get out of.”
“No plan? I’ll change people’s minds, or I’ll disappear. Maybe I’ll just get rid of all the Guardians. Then they won’t kill me.”
“Plan A isn’t going to work and you know it. Disappearing is a pretty dismal option, too. The Guardians will get every Seeker and Concealer in the world to hunt you down. Going up against the Guardians is by far your best o
ption, but it only proves my point. In order to fight, you need to be trained. You have to be ready for anything. And you can’t do that tripping over things and goofing off at school!”
“You’re going to lecture me about not taking school seriously? You sleep through class! I get more out of school than you do, Milo,” I snap.
He barks out a laugh that shocks me back a step. “The only class I don’t have an A in is Perception. What’s your GPA going to be like at the end of the semester?”
I glance over at Celia for some kind of support, but all she does is shrug. “It’s true.”
I don’t even know how that’s possible. “Well,” I splutter, “what do you expect me to do? Pass all my classes with flying colors and prove to everyone what a freak I really am?”
“Of course not, Libby, but I expect you to make up for it. We’re training after school, and that’s the end of it. Don’t argue with me about this. You know I’ll win,” he says.
That’s a bold statement. I don’t think I like this new Milo very much. “I’ll argue about this all I want, Milo. I’ve been preparing for crap like this my whole life. I don’t need this from you right now. I can handle things.”
“So you beat up a few Guardians, big deal. It’s not the first time that’s happened. What are you going to do against Seekers, killers who can see your moves before you even make them? How are you going to survive that, Libby?”
“I…I’ll use my other talents to tip the scales. I’ll beat them,” I argue.
“How?” he asks, stepping closer to me.
“I’ll use…I’ll just.” My brain isn’t working. Not with Milo glaring overhead. Curse him for standing so close to me.
He pushes me even closer to the edge by suddenly softening and bringing his hand up to my cheek. “You don’t know what you’ll do. You don’t know how to kill a Seeker.”
“Do you?” I ask. Most of my anger has faded from my voice now, despite my wishes.
“I have some ideas. Ideas we’re going to explore, okay?”
Bucking against his subduing presence, I shake my head.
“Libby,” Milo growls lightly, “please stop arguing. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
Oh, crap. He’s right. He is going to win this fight. How am I supposed to refuse him when he asks like that? My body softens and leans against him. It is answer enough for Milo. I’m wrapped in his warmth, and for a few seconds I have no doubts about his feelings for me.
“Thank you,” he says. It’s a simple phrase, but the eager edge to his words slips through and makes me wonder why he wants me to start training so much. “Thank you for protecting Celia today, too. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her.”
“I won’t let anything happen to Celia,” I promise. A little piece of his earlier demands comes drifting back into my mind. “Just so you know, you’re not spending the night here.”
“Oh really?”
I duck my head into his chest to cover my traitorous smile. I would love to have him stay. I can’t afford that kind of distraction right now. It’s hard to remember that with Milo holding me, but I say, “You’re not staying.”
Rubbing his hands back and forth across my back, he steals more of my resolve. “Libby, I know you don’t think I can protect you, but I can. You don’t know what I can do. Let me protect you.”
I can’t resist the gentle tone of his voice. My head comes off his chest and I catch his gaze right away. He hides from me so often. The precious few moments he really lets me in are amazing. All I can do is breathe, and even that’s not coming too easily at the moment. My skin is very nearly vibrating with desire to always be near him. I don’t even care if it’s leaking through my emotional shield. I want him to know how much I care about him, how crushed I would be if I lost him.
One, two, then three breathless seconds pass before his head tilts down. Thought abandons me all together. I’m not even sure if I’m breathing anymore. His lips touching mine are the only thing I care about. I want to reach up to him, but I’m afraid of pushing him away. I can feel his breath washing over my skin, and then he turns away muttering about his sister being here.
I had completely forgotten about her. Again.
“Don’t let me stop you,” Celia says happily. “I don’t mind.”
“I do,” Milo says.
She rolls her eyes and glides across the carpet to punch her brother in the arm. “You’re such a dork, Milo.”
He swats her leg before she can get away. “Get in the car, you little twit.”
“You’re kicking me out? That means you’ll have to leave Libby alone. You’re not going to abandon her are you? What will she ever do without you?” Celia drawls.
“Get in the car.”
She folds her arms and takes on a positively adorable stance that I think she means to be hostile. “No.”
“I’m not kicking you out, Celia.”
“Then why do I have to get in the car?”
Grabbing her shoulders, he turns her toward the door and gives her a little push. “Because it’s dinner time and I’m taking you two out to eat. Now go.”
“Well, why didn’t you say that in the first place?” she says. “Let’s go.”
She bounds out the door like a little bunny. Milo shakes his head at her, but he’s smiling when he turns back to me. When his fingers reach out for mine I take them without hesitation. Our hands slide together perfectly. “You too,” Milo says. “Let’s go. I’m taking both of my girls to dinner.”
His girls. I really like the sound of that.
Chapter 17
Disturbance