“I’m your daughter,” I said. “I’ve been searching for you all my life.”
Basically BS, but pretty convincing BS. Didn’t all lost kids search for their parents? Or at least all lost kids except for me. Sure, I’d wondered; I’d asked, but I hadn’t looked. I’d had Ruthie, and she was all I’d ever really needed.
According to her, I’d been dumped, no record of my birth, my family, anything, until I’d entered the system. Although the more I discovered, the more that seemed like BS too. If that were truly the case—if no one had known anything about my parents—then how had I become Liz Phoenix?
“Now that I’ve found you,” I continued, “why wouldn’t I want to join you?”
“You were as unaware of me as I was of you until just a few days ago.”
“And how did you become aware that you had a daughter?” Jimmy asked.
“How do you think?” Her gaze went to Sawyer.
Jimmy’s gaze followed hers, as did mine. Sawyer shrugged. “Someone had to tell her.”
“A Judas excuse if ever I heard one,” I murmured.
“The federation is losing members by the minute,” Sawyer said. “The Nephilim are increasing at the same rate. I saw which way the tide was turning. I like to back a winner.”
“Wow, I think Iscariot said that too.”
“No more time to talk,” the Phoenix snapped. “Take them upstairs.”
The revenants clambered to their feet and surrounded us.
“Separate rooms,” Sawyer continued. “Leave them bound. If they manage to free their demons . . .” He lifted an eyebrow at me.
“Why would we do that?” I asked. “We came to join you.”
Sawyer didn’t comment, but I knew he didn’t believe me, which could be a problem.
“Whether you did or you didn’t,” the Phoenix said, “we’ll know soon enough.”
“Once we prove our loyalty.”
The Phoenix just smiled.
We had little choice but to go upstairs with the revenants. At the top I glanced back. Sawyer’s eyes were on me, his face expressionless, though his jaw was tighter than I could ever recall seeing it.
Was he being held prisoner somehow? Forced to help the Phoenix by a magic spell? A debt he owed? A promise he’d made?
His right hand, which had been resting on his left biceps, and vice versa, lowered. My gaze followed, lower, lower until a dark, curly head came into view near his waist. He cupped her neck, guiding her forward and back, forward and back. What the—?
I faced forward so fast, agony shot into my brain. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to blot out that image, but I doubted I ever would.
My hope, small though it had been that Sawyer was being coerced somehow, faded. I doubted he could be had for the price of a blow job.
No matter how much I hated to admit it, he’d caved. Jimmy and I were on our own.
CHAPTER 26
As ordered, the revenants deposited Jimmy and me in separate rooms. They tied me to the bed. Considering the bumps, bangs and curses from the room that shared a wall with mine, they were doing the same to Jimmy.
I didn’t bother to struggle. Sawyer had obviously told Maria all that he knew about us, hence the golden chains. Although if he’d told her everything, wouldn’t he have told her that there’s no way I’d ever change sides? Of course I’d believed there was no way he’d ever change sides either.
The walking dead departed. The thumps and thuds from the other side of the wall continued. I waited until Jimmy settled down, then called, “Sanducci?”
I heard a muffled, “Yeah,” in response. If I hadn’t had improved hearing, I wouldn’t have heard anything, but it was still going to be difficult to carry on any kind of conversation.
My hands were bound to the bedposts with the golden chains, but the revenants had left my feet free. For that I was grateful. If I’d been inclined to sleep, which I wasn’t, having my legs strapped down as well as my hands would have made it impossible I tipped my chin to the ceiling, tilting my neck so I could see the wall behind the bed. Then I was doubly grateful for the loose feet. With my prowess in gymnastics, it was a simple thing to hoist my legs over my head, grasping the bedposts hard at the same time for leverage, then tightening my stomach muscles enough to put some oomph behind the move.
My tennies cracked right through the plaster on my side, raining white fragments all over my hair, face and pillow. Though it had hurt, the pain didn’t last, and I yanked my feet out of the wall, let my heels touch the mattress, then cranked myself up and did it again. This time, my toes went through to the other side.
“Lizzy.” Jimmy sneezed, spit, coughed. Plaster tinkled, a distant tip-tap. “What are you doing?”
His voice was now distinct. I could hear him as if he were right next to me, which technically he was, minus the wall.