Oath Bound (Unbound)

Five



Sera

“Okay, here’s how this works.” Kori Daniels dropped into the chair on my right, and it took most of my concentration to avoid looking as on-guard as I felt. She was serious about giving me a quick death if I turned out to be a threat to her sister, and the scary part was that she truly seemed to think she’d be doing me a personal favor. “Kris and I are going to ask you some questions and you’re going to answer them. Anne’s going to let us know whether or not you’re telling the truth.”

I crossed my arms on the table, hoping my anger came across as confidence. “So this little game is predicated on the fact that you all already think I’m a liar? Doesn’t that mean the deck is stacked against me?”

Across the table, Kris scooted forward in his chair and my gaze was drawn to his as if the man had his own gravitational pull. Why was it so easy for me to look into his eyes, yet so hard to do...everything else in the world? “We don’t think you’re a liar,” he said, and I didn’t get a chance to point out the irony of him saying that in the company of a Reader because Kori opened her big mouth. Again.

“Yes, we do,” she said. “Everyone lies. I don’t give a shit about most of your lies. I just need to know you’re telling the truth about a few things.”

I glanced at the little girl seated to my left, contentedly munching on spaghetti I’d helped make. No one seemed concerned about her picking up bad language. Or hearing something that might scare her.

Maybe that was all par for the course with Skilled children—surely she was Skilled, if her mother was a Reader. Unless her father was unSkilled. With only one Skilled parent—as in my case—a child had a slightly less than fifty-percent chance of inheriting a Skill. At least, according to what I’d read online.

“Ready?” Kori glanced over her shoulder at Anne, the Reader, who leaned against the kitchen counter near the stove. Anne nodded. Ian, Gran and Vanessa all watched as they ate from bowls of sauce-drenched noodles.

I felt as if I was on trial. In Wonderland.

Kori started to ask the first question, but Kris beat her to it. “Who are you?”

I exhaled slowly, reminding myself for the millionth time that losing my temper in a room full of armed and hair-trigger people would be a very bad idea. “I told you, my name is Sera. And that’s all you’re going to get out of me until you’re ready to reciprocate.” But even then I couldn’t tell them the whole truth. These were the last people in the world I wanted to tell about my connection to Jake Tower.

Fortunately, I already knew more about them than they knew about me. Than anyone still living knew about me. Gran had given me Kris’s last name and after learning that Kori had worked for Jake Tower, I’d made the connection. She wasn’t just your average former Tower employee, assuming there was any such thing. She was Korinne Daniels, the most visible member of Jake’s personal security team for years—her face was in the background of nearly every photo I’d found of him online.

Shortly before his death, however—which I now knew she’d had a hand in—she’d disappeared from the photos.

Unfortunately, once I’d made the connection, I couldn’t unmake it. At the very least, Kori Daniels was a murderer. Who knew what else she’d done for my biological father—she’d clearly been on the receiving end of the Tower brutality, but I found it hard to believe she hadn’t also dished it out. How could she not have, working for Jake Tower?

Did Kris and his sister have that in common? I hadn’t seen his bare arms or back, but I’d seen his gun and his proficiency with a zip tie, which didn’t quite fit with the quiet but intense way his gaze held mine or the protective anger that emanated from him when he thought about his missing sister. If they didn’t like my answers—if they thought I was a threat to Kenley—would I even have a chance to fight, considering all those weapons in the room?

Would they kill me in front of the little girl?

“Sera what?” Kris folded his arms, watching me as if there was no one else in the room. As if my name was the most important piece of information he’d ever lacked. “You said you’d play nice if we untied you. Please don’t give us a reason not to trust you.”

“I said I’d tell you what you need to know, but you don’t need to know my last name to know if I work for Tower.” I leaned forward, looking right into his blue-gray eyes. “I don’t work for Julia Tower. If you don’t believe me, consult your pet Reader.”

Anne bristled at being called a pet, but she nodded, confirming the truth in my statement.

Kori only rolled her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

“That’s not specific enough. Do you now, or have you ever worked for the Tower syndicate in any capacity?”

“No.” I held Kris’s steady gaze, glad his sister’s question gave me no reason to be nervous.

Readers don’t function like so-called lie-detector tests. They don’t read changes in body temperature and blood pressure; they taste or scent the truth in a statement. Some are better than others. Some can tell you’re lying, but not what about. Some can tell you thought about lying. Some can tell that you’re hiding something, even if you never technically lied about it.

I had no idea how good Anne was. I hoped I wouldn’t have to find out.

Anne nodded, confirming my honesty again, and every gaze in the room centered on me once more.

“What were you doing there?” Kris asked, and I realized he hadn’t even glanced at Anne after my previous answer. Did he think he could read the truth for himself? Was he looking for a specific reaction from me? “Why were you in Julia Tower’s office?”

I hesitated.

I hesitated so long that people started looking at Anne again, even though I hadn’t said anything. But they didn’t need a Reader to tell them I was considering lying; my silence said that clearly enough.

Finally, I exhaled slowly and decided to tell them the truth. Most of it, anyway.

“I was trying to hire her. Well, her people, anyway.”

Kori leaned forward, obviously skeptical now. “Hire them to do what?”

It took me a second to understand her suspicion. I wasn’t the typical Tower client. I didn’t drive an expensive car or wear fancy clothes. I had no obvious wealth, power or authority. I had no discernible means with which to hire the Towers, other than a service agreement.

I met her gaze and held it. “The kind of thing the Towers do. You’d know that better than I would.”

She glanced at Anne, who shrugged. “Nothing yet.”

Their Reader wouldn’t scent any untruth from me. I couldn’t afford to let that happen.

“And you can pay for something like that?” Ian quietly voiced the question they were all thinking. No one looked at him. They were too busy watching me.

“I...” Don’t tell them more than they need to know. My strategy for dealing with Julia Tower had turned out to be just as useful with the Daniels family. Which did nothing to set me at ease. “Yes, I can pay.”

Anne frowned. “She’s not lying, but she’s not being straightforward, either. I don’t think she planned to pay in cash.”

“Blood?” Kori asked, and I understood that she didn’t mean my blood. People often paid with the blood of—and thus the means to control—someone else. Someone more important.

“Service?” From Vanessa.

“Information?” Kris held my gaze with an intense one of his own. “Do you have information Julia wants?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Are you going to sign with them?” Vanessa repeated, her forehead deeply lined. Kori hadn’t asked me if I would work for the Towers—only if I had. “Don’t sign with them.”

Before I could answer, Hadley spoke around a mouthful of noodles. “Sera won’t work for them.” The child chewed and swallowed, while every head in the room turned toward her. “She’ll work for herself.”

“What, she’s a Reader, too?” I couldn’t tear my gaze from the little girl, who seemed completely unaware of the seven sets of eyes staring at her. “What is she, five?” How could a child that young already have a Skill?

“Seven...” Anne mumbled. “But she’s not reading you.” The mother sank into a squat next to her daughter’s chair, one hand on the little girl’s denim-clad knee. “Hadley, honey, how do you know that?”

Hadley shrugged, digging another spoonful from her bowl. “Dunno.”

“Are you sure?” Anne asked, while everyone else seemed to be holding their breath, and I wasn’t sure if she was asking whether the child was sure about what she’d said, or about not knowing how she knew.

“Yeah.” Hadley looked up from her bowl. “Can I have some cheese? The sprinkle kind?”

Ian opened the refrigerator door and pulled out a green canister of Parmesan, then set it on the table in front of Hadley, who immediately opened it and dumped what must have been a quarter of the canister into her bowl.

“Do you know anything else interesting?” Anne said, while her daughter stirred dried cheese into her noodles.

“About her?” Hadley glanced at me, and my stomach started to twist.

“Sure.” Kris had given his full attention to the child. “Or about anything else.”

The little girl blinked at me, apparently considering the question. “She’ll go back to that house. And she’s gonna tell you she’s not really Sera.”

“What?” The unease in the bottom of my stomach spread until my entire body felt tense. “What the hell is she talking about?”

“Holy shit, she got Elle’s Skill,” Kris half whispered, and my confusion thickened.

Kori shook her head. “No way. She’s too young.”

Kris shrugged. “Elle was young, too.”

“Who’s Elle?” Vanessa glanced from one face to the next expectantly, and I was relieved to see that someone else seemed as lost as I felt.

“Not that young,” Kori insisted, and it was clear the Daniels siblings were holding their own conversation.

Anne stroked her daughter’s hair. “We don’t know when Elle’s Skill manifested. It was before any of us met her. That’s all we can be sure of.”

“Okay, who the hell is Elle, why would Hadley have her Skill and what does she mean I’m not really Sera?” I demanded, hands flat on the table. “Is there another Sera I should know about?”

“Noelle was Hadley’s biological mother,” Kori said, but I think she was explaining more for Vanessa’s benefit than for mine. “She died six years ago. She was a Seer.”

“Seriously?” Vanessa’s eyes were huge. I shared her surprise. According to my mom, Seers were very rare. They were also notoriously ambiguous.

“You’re telling me that first grader is a Seer?” I studied Hadley, searching for some sign that she knew more than she should about...anything, but she seemed completely oblivious not just of the future, but of the present. She sat there scooping the last cheese-coated bits of noodle from the bottom of her bowl, evidently unaware that everyone in the room was either scared of her or in awe.

“We’re as new to this particular party as you are.” Kori scooted her chair closer to the child’s, but before she could ask another question, Kris spoke over her again.

“Hadley, what else can you tell us about Sera?” Kori glared at him, and I joined her, but Kris only shrugged. “What? That’s what they’re here for, right? To find out why Sera was with Julia? To see if we can trust her?”

“That’s not...” Kori started, and this time it was the child who interrupted.

She was staring straight at me.

“He’ll bleed for you.” Hadley’s words sent chill bumps marching over my skin like troops on the battlefield. “He will cry for you, and he will lie for you, and he will kill for you. And you will leave him on the floor, like she left him in the bed, and he will never forgive either of you.”

Stunned silence settled over the room and we all stared at her. Then, as if she hadn’t heard a word she’d just said, Hadley pushed her empty bowl toward the center of the table. “Can I watch TV? Do you have The Little Mermaid?”

Vanessa practically jumped at the chance to park the child in front of a movie. “I don’t think we have that one, but there are several kids’ channels on cable.” She escorted Hadley out of the kitchen and a moment later a children’s laugh track bubbled out from the television in the living room.

“That’s a creepy little girl you’ve got there, Anne Lawson.” Gran set her bowl of pasta in the sink, almost untouched.

“Gran!” Kris scolded.

“What? It’s true.” She ran water into her bowl. “The earlier she knows how screwed up her life’s going to be, the better.”

I heard their whispered argument, and vaguely noticed Vanessa come back into the kitchen, but I didn’t process any of it. I saw nothing but the child’s eyes, staring into mine. I heard nothing but her voice, and the ominous pronouncements rolling off her tongue to sit heavy in my heart. And in my gut.

“Is she ever wrong?” I wasn’t surprised when no one heard me. My voice hardly carried any sound. “Hey. Has she ever been wrong?” But I realized on the tail of my own question that no one could answer. They’d just found out about Hadley’s Skill, along with me.

My mom said it was something special, to see a child discover his or her Skill. But this didn’t feel special. And it didn’t feel like a discovery—at least to Hadley. Had she already known what she could do? Or was she still oblivious, after sending all seven of the adults into shock?

“Who was she talking about?” Kris’s question drew me out of my own head, and his intense gaze prevented my mental retreat. “Who’s going to bleed for you?”

“I have no idea. She’s probably wrong about that, like she’s wrong about my name. I’m Sera. I’ve only ever been Sera.” Ironically, that and my maternal middle name were the only parts of my identity I was sure about—the only parts not thrown into question by my illegitimate, criminal bloodline. “If she’s a Seer, she’s not a very good one. Not yet, anyway.” But even I could hear the note of doubt in my voice.

Prophesies have a way of making sense only in hindsight.

“She will be.” Anne sank into her daughter’s seat and gripped the edge of the table, knuckles white with stress. “Noelle was never wrong.”

No one argued.

“Okay, look, I’ve answered all your questions and this place just keeps getting weirder.” I stood, glancing around at them all. “Could someone please let me out of here now? I’ve been more than patient with your assorted paranoia, psychoses and obsessive barring of all exits.”

“If we let you out, will you go back to the Tower estate?” Kris asked, and suddenly my chest ached. I seriously considered lying—I probably could have gotten away with it, with Anne still in shock over the manifestation of her daughter’s Skill.

“Yes,” I said instead, because there were some things I’d have to lie to them about, at some point. They deserved what truth I could give them. “Eventually. I still need their help.”

Kris scowled. “But they tried to kill you.”

“They tried to kill you, too, but you’ll still go back, won’t you, if that’s what it takes to find your sister?”

He nodded, jaw clenched in determination.

“Same here.” But the Towers couldn’t give me back my sister. The best they could do was help me avenge her death, along with my parents’ deaths.

“Then she’s right.” Anne glanced into the living room at her daughter. “Hadley said you’d go back, and you confirmed it.”

I considered pointing out that Hadley could have been talking about any house, but no one would have bought that. The house on everyone’s mind was the Towers’. Not that it mattered. Anne was more interested in her daughter’s emerging Skill than my relationship with Julia Tower.

The same could not be said for Kris Daniels.

“What do you want Julia’s help with?” he asked, and the topic shifted back to my interrogation.

“That’s private.” I sat again, but on the edge of my chair this time, silently reminding them I had no intention of getting comfortable. “But I will tell you it has nothing to do with any of you, or your missing sister.”

Anne nodded silently, without even looking at me. She was still watching her daughter.

Kris scooted closer to the table and his chair scraped the floor. “Do you know where you are right now?”

“In the kitchen of a very strange house full of very strange people. Beyond that? No. Nor do I care.”

Anne nodded again and my irritation swelled. I was already tired of having my every statement analyzed by a truth-reader—if that was what I’d missed growing up in an unSkilled family, I was more grateful than ever for my plain old parents. And I was sick of being the only one answering questions.

“Do you intend to provide the Tower syndicate with information about any of us, as payment for whatever you need done, or for any other reason?”

“No. Considering that your sister used to work for them—” I glanced at Kori “—I suspect they know far more about you all than I do.” Which was more than I ever wanted to know.

“Valid point,” Vanessa mumbled.

“What do you know about us?” Kris asked. He was digging for information no one else seemed to care about, as if he had an agenda they didn’t share. As soon as I’d had that thought, I realized it was true. But no one else seemed to have figured it out yet.

Hmmm...

“I know nothing about any of you, except what you’ve shown and told me. And that Kori used to be security for Jake Tower. That’s it.”

His gaze narrowed on me in suspicion. “She never said she worked security. How did you know that?”

“Because after being locked up with you nutcases for the past couple of hours, I finally realized where I’ve seen her. In nearly every photograph of Jake Tower ever taken. As his bodyguard.”

“Why were you looking at pictures of Jake?” Kori asked.

I exhaled heavily and folded my hands on the table. “Research. I wasn’t about to walk into the Tower estate and ask for a favor without already knowing everything I could possibly find out. No matter what you might think about me, I’m not an idiot.” But I’d evidently said something wrong. Kris had been staring at me for the past ten minutes, which was unnerving enough on its own. But now his gaze looked feverish. Eager, like a cat who’d just caught a mouse.

“Favor? You went to ask them a favor? Not to hire them? Why would the Towers owe you a favor?”

Shit. But it was too late to backtrack. “They don’t owe me a favor. I just thought it was worth a shot.”

No one bought that. Hell, I didn’t even buy it.

A second earlier, Vanessa and Gran had looked ready to curtail his line of questioning, and maybe even let me go. But that all changed in a single heartbeat. And too late, I realized I’d forgotten to be careful around the Reader.

“She’s lying.” Anne sat up straight in her chair. “They do owe her a favor. She believes they do, anyway.” And suddenly everyone was looking at me as if I’d grown a second head.

Damn, I hate Readers.

“Why would the Towers owe you?” Kris demanded, and I could feel their interest like a living thing, ready to burrow deep inside me and feast on my secrets.

“They don’t.” My mind raced as I tried to decide what I could say to make them let me go. “I was totally over the line, asking them for a favor. I never met any of them before this afternoon. I swear on my full name.” Which—with any luck—they would never know.

“Anne?” Kori said.

The Reader frowned without taking her gaze from me. “I don’t taste anything false, but that doesn’t make sense. Why would you ask the Towers for a favor, if you don’t have any connection to them? That takes one hell of a set of balls.” Yet she looked less impressed than incredulous.

“How did you even get in to see Julia?” Kori asked. “Kris said you were in her office, with just her and Lynn?” She glanced at her brother for confirmation and he nodded. “Jake didn’t meet with strangers in his home. Not even prospective clients. That’s too much of a security risk. I can’t see Julia veering from that policy, especially considering that we’re not the only ones who want her dead, thanks to rumors that she was involved in her brother’s murder.”

“Rumors?” I couldn’t help but ask. The Towers were my business now, at least until I figured out what I’d actually inherited from my biological father. “Does that mean they’re not true?”

“Oh, those rumors are one hundred percent true,” Ian said, and I glanced at him in surprise. “She asked me—in a circumspect, but very obvious kind of way—to kill Jake. I was happy to oblige. For my own reasons.” His smile was for Kori, and Kori alone, and for one short moment I envied the intimacy the smile demonstrated, even in a room full of people.

But then his point sank in.

“That’s right. You killed Jake Tower.” Kori had told me that, but I hadn’t yet mentally connected the gun that had fired the bullet with the trigger finger of the man sitting in front of me. The man who’d killed my biological father, who—by all accounts—had received a much better death than he’d deserved.

How could I have known so little about the man who contributed half my DNA? How was it possible that I knew more about him now, three months after his death, than I’d ever known in life?

But I felt guilty about that thought as soon as I’d had it. I hadn’t known much about Jake Tower because he hadn’t mattered. My real father was my mother’s husband. My sister’s father. They were all the family I’d wanted, and if I’d never lost them, I wouldn’t need to know the family that didn’t want me. I wouldn’t care about what the Towers owed me, because I wouldn’t need that favor.

Anne was right about that. The Towers did owe me. They owed my mother for the years she’d spent hiding me. For the nights she’d spent worrying that I would turn out to be like my biological father, in spite of the happy, healthy life she’d made damn sure I had. And they were going to pay what they owed, even if that meant pressing whatever advantage my inheritance—Money? Property? Companies?—gave me.

“Yes,” Ian said, answering a question I’d almost forgotten I’d asked. “I shot Jake Tower with his own gun. He died quickly, but in a great deal of pain.”

“Well, the general consensus seems to be that he deserved that.” I stood and wiped my hands on the front of my jeans. “So...who’s taking me out of here? You can drop me off anywhere. Seriously. The front lawn is fine.” Just as long as I was on the other side of those countersunk screws.

Kris looked at Kori, whose gaze flitted from Ian to Anne to Vanessa, without once straying to Gran, who seemed to have forgotten we were there at all, while she rinsed dishes and lined them up in the dishwasher.

“I have one more question.” Vanessa met my gaze boldly. “Is there anything you can do to help us get Kenley back? Anything at all?”

I exhaled slowly, pretending I was actually considering the question, when I was really trying to figure out how best to get away with a lie. The safest approach seemed to be avoiding lies altogether, in favor of a marginally relevant truth. “I told you, I never met any of the Towers until today. And they shot at me,” I said. “Ask Kris if you don’t believe me.”

“Technically, they shot at me, but they made no particular effort to avoid her,” he verified. “But that doesn’t mean anything,” he added, and I wanted to smack him for the reversal. “She met with Julia Tower in her home office. And when she told the guards to put their guns down, they did.”

But that wasn’t quite right. “They weren’t obeying my order, they were obeying Julia’s.” And I had no idea why she’d complied when I’d asked her to give it, but I wasn’t going to say that. Everyone was already staring at me as if an alien might burst out of my stomach at any second. “And she was only trying to keep you from shooting any more of her people.”

Kris shook his head. “Julia doesn’t care who gets shot, as long as it’s not her.”

“Her people mean nothing to her as individuals. One gunman is as good as the next,” Kori verified. “Except me. I’m better than the rest. But I’m not theirs anymore.”

“Is that why they took your sister? Are they using her to get you back?”

Kris choked on a bitter laugh, as if the sound got wedged in his throat. “They don’t want Kori back. They want her dead.”

I couldn’t imagine growing up in their world. Playing a lifelong, lethal game of hide-and-seek, where those who were found were either enslaved or killed. Who could you trust? When could you let your guard down?

And just like that, with a sudden devastating clarity, I understood Kris’s paranoia and reluctance to set me free. He’d tried to tell me, but I’d refused to understand; he truly couldn’t afford to let me go if I was bound to Julia Tower.

“If they want you two dead, why are you so sure Kenley’s alive?”

“Kenley isn’t muscle,” Vanessa said. “She’s special. Julia needs her. But I need her more.” And that’s all she seemed inclined to reveal. “If there’s anything you can do to help...”

“I wish I could.” Evidently that sounded like the truth—and it was—because no one even looked at Anne. “But I don’t even know how to make Julia do what I need done. In fact, she tried to kill me, as Kris seems to enjoy pointing out.” I stood again and shoved my chair back, newly determined to avenge my sister after hearing about theirs. “Now, you either get me out of here or I’m climbing out the window. And the only way you’re going to stop me is by killing me.”

And, man, did I hope they recognized hyperbole.

Silence descended as gazes flitted all over the room, as if they were taking a psychic vote. In the end, it came down to a stubborn stare-down between Kris and his sister. “Huddle?” he suggested, and she nodded. Then they left the room without a word.

I started to follow—if they were gonna argue about me, I had a right to hear—but Vanessa put a hand on my arm. “I wouldn’t,” she said.

“Well, I would. They don’t need a private powwow to decide what to do with me, because it’s not their decision. I’m leaving.”

“No, you aren’t,” Hadley said from the living room, and Vanessa tried to hide a smile.

“The hell I’m not. Unless personal liberty was suspended while I wasn’t watching, you can’t hold me here against my will.”

Vanessa laughed, and I turned to glare at her. “I’m sorry.” She made an obvious struggle to banish her smile. “It’s just painfully obvious that you’ve never spent any time in a Skilled syndicate. Or even near one.” Van turned to Ian. “She’s no threat. She’s more clueless than we ever were.”

I frowned, one hand on the back of the chair I’d just vacated. “I feel like I should be offended by that, but you seem to be the only one seeing reason. Kind of.”

“Sera,” Ian said, and I turned to look at him, surprised all over again by the quiet dignity he embodied, in contrast to Kris and Kori, and the explosive nature of their sibling relationship. “I know you have no reason to trust me yet, but please believe me when I tell you that no one in the city has less desire to hold you prisoner than Kori.”

There was more to that, but I knew better than to ask. “What about Kris?”

“Kris is acting weird,” Anne admitted, pouring coffee from the pot into a clean mug. “He usually returns people to wherever they belong. You may be the first he’s kept.”

Before I could figure out what to say to that, Gran sank into the chair Kori had vacated, wiping her hands on a dish towel, and smiled up at me. “Hello, hon,” she said as if she’d just noticed me for the first time. “Are you a friend of Nikki’s?”

“Who’s Nikki?” How many more people could they possibly fit into the House of Crazy?

Ian sat in Kris’s chair. “Nikki was her daughter. Kori, Kenley and Kris’s mother.” He turned to her. “Gran, Nikki died a long time ago. Remember? And you raised her children?”

“Yes, of course I know that,” she snapped, though the confusion never cleared from her eyes. “Kenley gets straight A’s. Kori gets suspended.”

“What about Kris?” I wasn’t sure why I cared, and I only realized after the fact that I was probably contributing to her confusion.

“Kris is a good boy. Spends too much time in his room alone, though. Gonna give himself carpal tunnel, and I don’t mean from typing.”

Ian tried to hide a chuckle, but I laughed out loud. I couldn’t help it. And I really hoped she was remembering the past, rather than the present.

The past. I sat up straight, surprised by the sudden realization that Gran wasn’t living in some fantasy world, she was living in her own past, when her daughter was alive. So, who were the kids she’d mentioned when I’d first met her? If Nikki was real, surely they were real, too. Did Kris, Kori and Kenley have other siblings they hadn’t mentioned? Cousins? Could I piece together an understanding of their lives by filling in the blanks in their grandmother’s memory?

As bad as I felt for Gran and her dementia, it was good to know I wasn’t the only one unsure of who I really was and what I was doing in that house. I was starting to believe the Daniels family and their friends were almost as messed up as I was.