Oath Bound
Page 43

“What did she say?” Kris slid from the arm of his chair onto the cushion, glancing from me to Hadley, then back to me.
“She described some things in my house. Things she’s obviously never seen. But that’s not the weird part—”
“Could you all please stop that!” Anne said, exasperation riding every syllable. “She’s not weird. If anything, she’s gifted.”
“You’re right.” I nodded. “In fact, I think she’s more gifted than any of you realize—”
The hall closet door flew open so hard it slammed into the wall, and the entire house fell into silence. Kris stood, one hand on his gun. Ian and Vanessa appeared in the kitchen doorway, also armed, with Gran peeking over their shoulders. Only Hadley seemed completely at ease with the possibility of invasion.
Maybe she already knew who was there.
“See?” Kori stepped into the living room and everyone relaxed. “They’re all here. Alive and well. Plus one.” Me, evidently.
I’d never seen the woman who stepped into the room behind her, brown hair pulled back into a ponytail, blue eyes narrowed in confusion. “I’m telling you, none of you is emitting a psychic signature right now. Or else, they’re all being...swallowed.”
Uh-oh.
After a quick scan of the living room and what she could see of the kitchen, her gaze fell on me and lingered. “It’s her. It has to be.”
“What’s me?” I said, but I was pretty sure she’d figured out something no one else ever had, other than my mother.
“What’s going on Liv?” Kris sat on the arm of his chair again, but Kori and the new woman—Liv— remained standing. Staring at me.
“She’s a Jammer. She has to be. She’s jamming every one of your signatures. It’s like you don’t even exist, from a tracking perspective. Who are you?” she demanded. “I know every Jammer in the city, by name and face at least, but I don’t know you.”
Kris’s eyes widened. “What the hell is she talking about?”
Liv crossed her arms over her chest, and I noticed a slight bulge beneath her jacket. Were they all toting guns? “I tried to track you, to make sure you made it back from wherever you went.”
“The dumb-ass broke into Jake’s house,” Kori added with an irritated glance at her brother.
“But I couldn’t find any of you. Anywhere. I got nothing from this house, and couldn’t pick you up at Anne’s, or Meghan’s, either. And there’s no way you could have gotten out of my range that quickly. I thought...” She shrugged, and we could all see what she’d thought.
She’d thought they were dead.
“Then Anne and Hadley disappeared, too. I had Cam double-check for me, and he couldn’t find any of you either.”
“We’re fine.” Kori gestured to the room full of people. “Safe and sound.”
“Safer and more sound than ever, evidently,” Kris said, and I looked up to find him staring at me. “You’re a Jammer?”
I nodded reluctantly. No use denying it.
Anne pulled Hadley closer, as if my omission had put the child in some kind of danger, when in fact, the opposite was true. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
“Because it’s none of your business.”
“You scared the shit out of me!” Liv snapped, and my own temper flared. “You should have told them, so they could tell me.”
I stood, furious now. “Five minutes ago, I didn’t even know you existed, much less that you’d freak out about not being able to find your friends. A situation that could’ve been remedied with a simple phone call, FYI.”
Liv’s eyes widened, and Kris seemed to be...grinning.
“And considering that I didn’t choose to be here and I can’t exactly turn off the jamming—” which didn’t work like most other Skills “—as far as I’m concerned, you can all go stick your heads up each other’s asses for all I care.” I glanced at Hadley and flinched when I saw her staring up at me, evidently unfazed by the profanity. “Or, you could just let me go.”
“Let her go?” Liv glanced around at her friends, waiting for an explanation.
“Kris kidnapped her from Tower’s house,” Kori said.
Her brother groaned. “I didn’t kidnap her. I just...” He shrugged. “She needed to come with me, but I didn’t have time for her to reach that conclusion on her own.”
“Yeah,” I snapped. “They call that kidnapping.”
“You kidnapped Julia Tower’s Jammer?” Liv looked impressed.
“No!” Kris and I said at the same time. Then I continued. “I’m not her Jammer. She doesn’t even know I’m a Jammer. No one does, except you bunch of psychos. Thanks for that, by the way.” I hoped they all choked on my sarcasm.
Everyone stared at me. Then Liv turned back to Kris. “What the hell were you thinking, breaking into Tower’s house? Kidnapping someone? Who is she?” She turned to me again. “Who are you?”
“Sera,” I said. “And for the thousandth time, that’s all any of you are getting from me until you give up some private information about yourselves.”
Looks flew across the room. Ian, Vanessa and Gran had joined us by then, and everyone seemed to come to the same conclusion.
“Fair enough.” Liv stepped forward and extended one hand for me to shake, over the coffee table. “Olivia Warren. I’m a Tracker. Bloodhound, specifically, but I can also use names when I have to. In the spirit of disclosure, and because you can’t hang out in this crowd for long without finding out anyway, I technically work for Ruben Cavazos.”