Barren Crossroads

Empty Veins

out in anger and hard punches, and gunfire. It consumed him, throbbing in his temple, boiling in his heart. He could function, and he could think, but it was always there, always in the background, and always on his mind.

But this time- this time, Jace didn't know anything. He didn't know where she was, what she was doing. He didn't know what she was thinking, if she was alive, dead, dying, or worse. He didn't know. He kept waiting for the pain to come- not the overwhelming pain of the first time, or the constant throbbing of the second time, but something.

There was nothing. Nothing but emptiness that spilled into his veins, burning away the blood, leaving him scraped raw and with nothing left to give.

This was worse.

It was worse, because he couldn't tell anyone, and no one could talk to him. Lilith and Michael had been caught the night they found her and let her go. They'd slipped into Jace's room, their room, to tell him what had happened, as briefly as they could, and then they'd torn through the compound, attacking guards and destroying equipment. It was all à ruse- so that Jace could "denounce" them and stay in his father's circle.

Michael and Lilith had been put in à cell. The guards that remained, Jace suspected they were his father's private security, had stormed the room, and torn them away. They could have escaped. Killed them all, killed every single person in this compound, but they looked at Jace, and they went willingly.

He saw them every day. But never alone. Never long enough to speak for more than à moment, and never without carefully crafted messages guised in hate and anger.

But Jace knew. She was looking for something. To save herself, to save them, to save him. And he needed to help her find it.

To do that, he needed to know what it was she was looking for. Michael and Lilith couldn't tell him much more than that she was hunting for something. She was gravely injured when they saw her, and everytime Jace thought about it, he wondered how close to death she was. Sick, dying, in pain. Trying again to save them all.

He couldn't ask Jordan- his dad took care of that one. À neat hole, right between his eyes, and the copper tang of his blood still clogged the back of Jace's throat. If Kaelie had known Jordan was here- and at this point, Jace knew better than to doubt that she probably did- then it was him that told her what she was looking for. But it was à lie, or most of it was. It always was with him. Whatever it was, it was going to kill her.

Jace sucked in à deep breath of filtered air, and then stepped into the control room. His dad was always there. He never saw him outside of this room, and every night, when Jace knew the guards changed over and took a rest, he tried to get further and further into the compound. He had to know what else there could be apart from the cells, the rooms he was sleeping in, and the main control room his father seemed to spend most of his time in. He was sure his father would have his own rooms, and there would be something there.

His father, even now, was the kind of man who could appear to be vulnerable while never telling you anything. As a child, it was not something Jace noticed. His father told him stories and took him to work and showed him maps and talked to him, and Jace was too young to understand the sheer surface-ness of it all.

So now, Jace searched. Everything appeared to be in the control room where his security and intel people stayed at their screens, monitoring surveillance. Surveillance that Jace did not even pretend to understand how they accessed. He figured that his father had stolen some of the initial tech from the Illusion while he prepared the tunnels for them, and worked on upgrading it. He could have it everywhere and no one would have any way of knowing.

But even with all that, the constant stream of information, Jace knew there was more, there was something missing. something his father was hiding. Why find Jordan? Why take him, why not just take Kaelie immediately if he had this kind of intel on all of them. It was her he wanted dead, her and the rest of the Hunters. She'd have been able to lead him to her army.

He hadn't done any of that. He'd gone for Jordan first before he lured them all here. Which means Jordan had something of value- something he wanted. And, because Jace had long since stopped believing in coincidences, it was the same thing Kaelie was looking for.

It was dark again, and the halls were quiet. The last footfalls of the retreating guard had faded in the halls. He had about 10 minutes to get out of the room and as far as he could. He knew most of the path by heart now, and was able to traverse it quickly. Out his door, to the right, down a long hall, and another right. The compound seemed to be a square that looped around, as far as he could tell. As he slipped silently through the halls, he ran his fingers along the wall. He hadn't before, focused only on trying to map out as much as he could, the directions of the hallways.

He didn't have the eyesight that Michael and Lilith did. So when his fingers brushed against à blip in the smooth metal of the hall, in a part of the compound he'd not made it to yet, he almost chuckled. What was it with these people and secret doors built in the wall? He ran the pads of his fingers along the seam, and felt the full outline of the door. From what little he could see, there wasn't anything else set in the wall- no windows, no handle, nothing. Shocker, he thought.

He jolted as he heard the faint sounds of steps from behind the wall. He jumped back, and slunk further back down the hallway, into the deeper shadows, and pressed himself as flat as he could against the wall. He blinked rapidly as a pool of light bloomed from the area he'd been in. Quietly, he slid along the way, and edged his way closer. He held his breath as he recognized the looming silhouette of his father walking out of the room. He didn't turn to shut any sort of door, so Jace figured it could be automated, and as his father turned the opposite direction, he leapt to the doorway, turning himself sideways and then slipped into the room just before the door shut.

He stood still for à moment and waited for his eyes to adjust. When the light didn't make them water any more, he glanced around. The room was rich, plush carpet, and dark wood. It was nothing like the utilitarian sparseness of everything else. Jace wasn't shocked, not anymore. When he was young, his dad loved to get nice things for himself or for Jace, on à whim. Jace loved it, the feeling of being so special and having his own secret to keep, that daddy bought him something. When the cancer came, his dad didn't take him anywhere anymore. He used to get angry sometimes and snap.

Jace remembered hiding from him now, something he didn't want to remember before. His mom used to say that it was because of the meds, or the treatments, and that he was tired. But Jace remembered her being scared. He shook away the memories.

À large desk dominated the far wall, bright amber lamps glowed behind it. There was à slim laptop shut on top of it, and even though Jace did not see any, he was not under the delusion that there were not cameras on him right now. He kept his head down as he moved through the small front area, and found another door. He opened it, finding a similarly small but well furnished bedroom. The bed was neatly made, nothing out of place.

There was à bathroom off to the side. Jace moved back out into the first room, and sat at the desk. He wondered if he'd have enough time to look through it. He couldn't take it, that would be even more obvious. There had to be à password, his father wasn't stupid. He drummed his fingers on the top of the desk.

He lifted the lid of the computer, and as expected, password protected. He heaved a sigh, and not for the first time, wished that Lilith were around. She'd know how to get the computer unlocked, copied, and leave everything as if it never happened in under twenty minutes. He knew his time was running short.

He shut his eyes against the light again, putting his face in his hands. He bounced his foot rapidly, unconsciously, and he thought, the blooms of an idea sifting around and taking hold. It would take some finesse, definitely a few days to set the bones and get everything in place- but he would get a copy of that computer, one way or the other. And then he'd save his friends, and maybe the world, one more time.

For the first time in weeks, Jace something stir in the aching pit his heart had been. He felt the crackling of the ice that seemed to fill his veins, pushing away the emptiness.

Hope.

Chapter 3

Desperation

Kaelie woke up. Again. And still, as she shook her head, and pushed away the agony that burrowed in the bones of her face, she couldn't decide if it was fortunate or unfortunate. It was light outside again, so she knew she had