Deserted Highways

It's a Great Trap, Jace

her office," she said. Michael opened his mouth, but she stopped him. "It gets worse. Hunters took her, obviously, but Jordan wanted us to know it was him, wanted us to get a taste of the things he can do. Hunters murdered everyone on the floor, put a body in every room, every closet, every bathroom. They came back too, Jordan must have told them to wait for us to return. Tried to drop us in an elevator too, for good measure."

Michael sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his hands over his face. "Of course. Did you find anything? Any clues?" he asked and Kaelie wondered if she should tell him about the note that Jace had found. It felt deeply personal, she knew Jace was tortured right now, with the guilt, with the unknown, he was trying to hide it, but she could see it lurking in his stormy eyes. She relented after a few minutes, the secrets wouldn't do them good now.

She looked up at Jace, who had yet to sit down, he was standing out the window like he was looking out of it, even though she knew he couldn't see out of it. He didn't look back at her. "Just this," she told Michael, pulling the blood stained note out of her pocket and handing it to him.

"I love you, JayBird," he read off and Jace finally turned away from the window. Michael looked at him as he sat next to Kaelie on the bed. "Any ideas what this means?" he asked.

Jace shook his head. "No, and she's never called me that before either," he said, repeating his words from earlier.

"I was hoping you had an idea," Kaelie admitted to Michael. "I've been rolling it around since Jace showed it to me, and I have no idea what it means, I don't know if she's trying to tell us who took her, or where they went. I can't figure it out." Frustration laced itself into her voice.

Michael stared at it a few minutes longer, handing it back to her and folding himself into one of the cheap hotel chairs. "Have Sarah and Lilith called or anything yet?" she asked.

"No," he responded, shaking his head. "I think they might still be poking around at Mrs. Dae's unless something is holding them up." Kaelie knew he was worried, she could feel it settling in her bones that way she heard it in his tone of voice.

"They'll be here," she said, and as if to mark her words and prove her point, another light tapping sounded on the door, three times, then twice. She smiled as Michael's head shot up and she stood to help him pull the furniture out of the way enough to get the door open. Sarah and Lilith stepped through, a little dishevelled but Kaelie couldn't see any wounds, any sign of injury, and she breathed out a sigh of relief.

"Anything?" Jace asked, perking up and Kaelie felt her heart sink at the hope in his voice.

Sarah and Lilith shared a look, and then Sarah came over, putting a hand on Jace's shoulder and squeezing it tightly. She shook her head, and Jace slumped. "She wasn't there. Place was already destroyed when we got there though. I don't even think Mrs. Dae was taken from your house, I didn't find any blood, and actual signs of struggle, the whole thing just felt staged."

"Jordan's trying to throw us off. Trying to keep us distracted chasing our own tails so he could make off with Jace's mom before we could catch up. So there really wasn't anything there?" she asked and Lilith shook her head again.

"Damn," she cursed. "What the hell are we going to do now? We got this note, we don't even know what it mean, no mom, no nothing, and a whole shit ton of Hunters ready to kick our asses, and we can't even really get away with showing our faces because we're national celebrities. You know, for murder."

Jace sat on the bed, watching as Kaelie rose and started pacing the room, twisting her hair around her fingers and chewing on her lip in concentration. He could hear the hum of voices as she talked to Sarah, Lilith, and Michael, but it seemed faded, muted, he couldn't make out any of the words. He kept thinking about his mom, her gentle, open face, her eyes like his, tried to remember the look on her face the last time he'd seen her, spoken to her. He couldn't, he could remember her facial features with perfect clarity, but whatever mundane interaction he'd had with her last was fast fading from his memory and he felt lonely in that room despite being surrounded with people that were closer to him than anything had been in a very long time.

He watched Sarah wave her hands about as her and Kaelie spoke, he thought they might be arguing about something, maybe what his mother's note had meant, he didn't know. Michael rubbed his face again, exhaustion pulling his features down, and Lilith sat in the corner, leaned up against the furniture they had re-piled against the door, silent, unmoving. It was no use, he thought suddenly, the words intrusive and unwelcome. His mom was dead. She'd been dead the minute she decided the people in this room were worth saving.

Jace sat for a moment, stunned at his own bitter thoughts. These people had saved more people than he'd likely ever know about. They'd saved his life, multiple times. They were actively working to find his mother and bring her back safely. He wanted to scream in frustration, he felt so irritated and out of control and sometimes he wished he'd never met any of them at all, that he'd just been able to go to college and do stupid college shit his mother would be ashamed of him for.

His phone vibrated violently against his leg, startling him out of his reverie. The buzzing stopped briefly, and then started up again, incessant and he pulled his phone out to look at the screen. An unknown number flashed back at him and he knew, logically, that he shouldn't answer, and if he did, that he should get everyone's attention so they could all hear, so that Kaelie could hear. Jace looked up at them again, still arguing away, Kaelie's hands joining Sarah's in gesturing wildly, and he wanted to smile, but the insistent vibrating came again and he slipped into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door and turning on the water.

He braced his hands on the sink, staring at himself in the mirror, the phone still ringing in his pocket. "Damn it all," he muttered, fishing the phone out again and turning it over in his hands.

He slid his thumb across the screen to answer it. "Hello?" he asked.

It was silent for a moment, he almost wondered if he'd missed that call, and then he heard someone inhale on the other end. He didn't say anything else, just waited for whoever it was to start speaking. His patience was thin, he wanted to start shouting into the phone, but he knew he needed to keep his calm, keep his wits about him, stay put together. He had a nasty feeling about what he would hear and if he was right, he needed to be ready to figure out the solution as if someone's life would depend on it, because it likely would.

"Hello, Jace. Nice to finally talk to you," came a smooth masculine voice on the other end.

"Who is this?" Jace asked, rhetorical, he already knew. Maybe he'd known the second he felt the phone ring, the second Hunters had come for him and Kaelie at his mother's office.

"Who am I? I'm a lot of things, Jace. My name, though, is Jordan," he started, in the same smooth voice that made Jace's skin crawl and his hair stand up.

"What the hell do you want? You murdered my friend," Jace said hotly.

"Interesting question, Jace. What do I want? That's not really important right now. Let's talk about what I need, Jace," Jordan said, Jace could hear him breathing into the receiver. "I need you. And I'm willing to make a pretty fair trade to get you, too. I'm sure you know where I'm headed with this."

"What do you need me for?" Jace asked, trying to keep him talking, trying to piece together anything he could.

"Well, I need you as a means to an end. You show up, Kaelie will inevitably show up, and she's the real trophy here, a real gold medal. I have your mom, Jace, but I know you must know that by now," Jordan said.

"What the hell do you want with her? If she's hurt, I swear to-" Jace started, but Jordan's greasy laugh cut him off and set a new round of chills snaking up his spine.

"Swear to what, Jace? God? We both know you don't believe in that. Your mother is fine, for now at least. No lasting injuries, just some scrapes and bruises. Puts up a real nasty fight when she needs to, that one. I need you to come take her place. Kaelie is noble, but she would never do what I need her to do, unless there's more at stake."

"Like me," Jace said slowly, catching up to Jordan's thinking.

"Yes, Jace, like you. Full circle, really, considering you came running in to save her, and she's going to do the same for you. I love some good symmetry," Jordan started. "But, let's get real here for a second, Jace. You saw what I did to Ben, and I wasn't feeling particularly creative that day. Your mother, well she just begs to be tortured, practically invites it, even. So, you have until sundown to get to me, and she walks free.