Destroyer of Worlds by Jordan L. Hawk Read Free Book Online Page B

him to go to.
The condo and John were Caleb’s home, not his.
    Caleb bit his lip, forcing the pain to
distract him from the burning of his eyes. Bursting into tears in
front of the spy cameras wouldn’t help anything.
    I’m sorry.
    “ It does not matter.” Except it did, of course. Gray had finally learned how to lie
to himself, just not very effectively. “Nothing will change the situation.” That was
more truthful, at least.
    No, but still. I’m sorry.
    “ Let us worry about leaving
this place, instead of dwelling on what cannot be
altered.”
    Agreed. Leave
and find the moths, and things would…
    Well. Caleb didn’t know, but “go back to
normal” wasn’t in the picture anymore. Not for him, anyway.
    It didn’t matter right now. First things
first; getting out wouldn’t be easy, even with help.
    He didn’t go straight to the sketchbook in
his bedroom. Instead he headed for the shower, as any watchers
would expect, shedding his blood-crusted clothes as he went. He
took a long shower, the water turned up hot enough to turn his skin
pink and steam up any camera lenses. Or so he hoped; the idea of
someone ogling his naked junk made him feel vulnerable.
    “ Mortal nonsense. Clothing
is no protection.”
    Thanks for the
reminder. Being alone in his own head again would seem
weird after all this.
    After drying, he hastily pulled on the
identical shirt and pants as the ones the werebear had ruined. Only
then did he go to his sketchbook.
    He thumbed through it idly, looking at the
illustrations he’d done this week. Not his best work, given his
mind hadn’t really been on the art, but Gray’s influence on his
style was apparent. It would have been interesting to see what they
might have done together.
    A few pages in, he leaned forward,
deliberately hiding the pages from any cameras with the fall of his
long hair. Would’ve been screwed if I had a
buzz cut.
    Flipping to the first unmarked page, he found
a key card tucked into the sketchbook. Someone had written “22:00”
on the card in black sharpie.
    Guess that’s when they want us to go. This
card has to open our door. Wonder if it works on the elevator?
    “ If not, we will
climb.” Grim determination.
    Caleb took a deep breath. Think we can do this?
    “ We will.” No
hesitation.
    You can’t know that.
    “ Nor can you know we
cannot.”
    Caleb slipped the card into the
waistband of his underwear. You’ve got a
point. Okay. Ten o’clock, and we’re out of here.

Chapter 6
     
    At precisely ten o’clock, the power went
out.
    Caleb didn’t realize how much ambient sound
filled the apartment until it disappeared. The distant purr of fans
died, the sigh of air through the ducts going with them. No buzz
from the fridge, or banked hum of the lights.
    For a moment, he sat in complete darkness,
too deep even for Gray’s vision to penetrate. Then backup power
kicked in, an amber glow of emergency lights near the door. To his
amped-up eyes, it might as well have been daylight.
    Caleb didn’t waste any time. He’d already
stripped off his stupid t-shirt and sweatpants; rolling out of bed,
he slid open the closet and yanked on his own clothes in record
time, buckling a hundred pounds of kevlar-lined elk hide around his
shoulders as he headed for the door.
    The electronic lock still had power.
Considering the monsters Forsyth had squirreled away in his
basement, no doubt keeping the security system up and running was
priority number one. He held up the keycard, but hesitated an
instant before swiping it.
    They didn’t have much time. With any luck, it
would be a while before anyone realized they’d escaped, but they
needed to move fast. No hesitation.
    Gray stirred, hovering just under the
surface. “And if the guards try to stop
us?”
    They’d hurt people before. The Fist operative
who’d tried to assassinate John. Melanie. But they hadn’t killed
anyone still totally human, or anyone who could be saved.
    We’ve got get out of here.
Got to let