Sorry the update took a little while.
One of my dogs had to go into surgery and I've been keeping him company these past couple days. He's doing fine in case you're wondering, I'll post a pic of him on Instagram later.
Thirteen's POV
"Did you leave Lily with Devin?" I ask in shock as both Chase and Cody enter my room. Henri's sitting on the chair by my bedside, reading a book. He glances up from the pages for a second as they enter before going back to his book.
"Can you really blame us?" Cody questions as he takes the second empty chair on my other side.
"They were both going on and on about how the nurses here are actually a cult of vampires." Chase offers an explanation.
"That's no excuse!"
"We had no intentions of sitting around listening to them come up with ways to kill off a vampire."
"That was a mistake," Henri says simply as he turns a page in his book, not taking his eye off his book.
"What was?" Chase asks him and Henri still doesn't look up from his book.
"Leaving those two alone to plot a murder."
"They're not going to murder anyone."
"Devin probably will not," Henri says as he flips another page. "But Lily definitely will...if she has not already."
"Lily won't kill anyone." I chide Henri who just continues to read his book.
"No." Henri agrees, his eyes still not leaving the page. "She will only make them wish they were dead."
"Hello, my friends!" Lily shouts as she enters the room. Or rather, skips into the room.
"Didn't we just leave you with Devin?" Chase asks her and she pouts.
"The nurses-sorry-the vampires came in to drink his blood and they gave him some poison to knock him out while the other higher up in the food chain vampires cut him open and drain him completely till he's nothing but a vegetable."
"The nurses came to do his blood work and gave him a sedative while the surgeons change his bandages and remove the pacemaker they installed since he no longer needs it" I translate for the boys when they stare at her in confusion.
"That doesn't sound nearly as cool as my version."
"Your version is the reason you're still a patient here. The doctors are still concerned about your mental state...with good reason."
"My mental state is fine." She brushes off my comment and walks up behind Henri, leaning over his shoulder to look at his book. "Especially if you can still understand me."
"Anyone who knew you can understand you, Miss Marshal." Henri says as he turns another page.
"Whatcha reading?" she asks as she rests her arms on his shoulder and her head on her arms. He turns the cover over so she can read it.
"It's not about vampires," Henri says simply.
I shake my head with a smile as Lily reads over Henri's shoulder and points out parts of the book. Henri takes a couple seconds to explain what's going on in the story and she nods as she continues to read the book at the same time as Henri. Henri won't admit it out loud but, he missed her too.
Her pink hair spills over his shoulder as she stares at the pages and nods along as Henri explains the storyline. I'm fairly certain she's already read whatever book it is he's reading, but she doesn't interrupt him or try to correct him. She does, however, begin to debate with him over the themes in the book.
And then she goes into a five-minute rant about how the characters got what was coming to them and how the book is the perfect example of why people should hold grudges.
Henri then tries to explain that the overall message of the book...is not the conclusion she came to. They use to do this with every book the two of them would read. They'd argue and debate and discuss the book, the characters, the themes, and the storyline.
My phone rings on the table beside me and I reach over to grab it, I check the number.
"Hey, can you guys give me a sec? I'll be right back." I say as I exit the room without my crutches and answer the phone.
"You can't just call me whenever you feel like it anymore. I work with a team now."
"Are they and you alright?" He ignores me and gets right to asking what he called about.
"We're alright," I say simply, taking a few steps down the hall when some agents walk by.
I hear his sigh of relief on the other end. "Good." He finally says and I can hear shuffling on his end. "Do me a favor and keep walking straight."
Out of instinct I stop in my tracks and look around. "Are you here?" I question, disbelief coloring my tone.
Is he that freaking stupid?
"Just keep walking." He says in response and I take a couple more hesitant steps forwards. I don't make it very far before I'm pulled into an empty room on my right.
I let out a hiss of pain at the sharp and quick movement. He doesn't give me any time to recover as he wraps his arms around me.
The lights in the room are still switched off, keeping the room enveloped in darkness. It takes me a second before I wrap my arms around him...but I quickly push him off.
"What were you thinking?" I whisper-shout at him, and even though I can't see his face, I can just make out him shrug in the dark room.
"I needed to see you, Daggers. To make sure you were ok."
"Are you insane?" I throw my arms up in frustration. "Zero could see you...and then we'd both be in a world of trouble."
"Zero can't do anything more to me than he already has." His voice is deadly and filled with hatred...I know the feeling.
"He could kill you." I hiss.
"He already has." He mutters quietly and I let out a defeated sigh a look down at the floor.
He places his fingers under my chin and lifts my head so I'm looking at his face. "I can't keep this up any more Daggers. I can't keep going through this."
"You have to. You don't have a choice and neither do I."
"I guess I took away your choice huh?" He says sadly.
"No." I shake my head. "If I had the opportunity to do it over again, you know I wouldn't change a thing...except maybe...ending it before it even started."
He laughs lightly but grows quiet quickly as we hear footsteps outside the room. Unthinkingly he pulls me up against the wall as if they can see through the door. As soon as the footsteps fade far enough away, he removes his arm from across me and takes a step away from the wall.
He sighs and runs his hand through his hair. He steps into enough of the light shining through the small window in the door so I can see his face clearly for a few seconds.
His hair has gotten a lot longer. There are dark circles under his eyes and his skin is pale, almost sickly. There's a few cuts on his face and some newer scars as well as bruises. I reach my hand out and run my fingers over the bags under his eyes.
"You need to sleep,"I whisper and he laughs.
"You're one to talk." He shoves his hands in his pockets and leans back against the wall. Out of the light.
"How's Jason doing?" He questions. "I snuck into Devin's room while he was sleeping, but where's Jason's room?"
I give him a confused look but I doubt he sees it given how dark the room is.
"What do mean? They're both being kept in the same room."
I can just barely see him shake his head in the darkness. "Jason wasn't in there when I snuck in to check on them."
I shake my head. "That's not possible."
"I'm telling you he wasn't there. If he was I wouldn't be asking you about his condition." He continues. "There was an empty bed next to Devin's but it was completely made up, as if no one had been using it for a while."
I stare at him in bewilderment. Jason's gone? He was just in there with Devin according to Cody and Chase. Did they move him to another room? If not then what happened? Did someone else get to him first? And if so then why didn't they take Devin as well?
A million thoughts and questions seem to run through my head and I push past him and out into the hallway, surprisingly he follows. But I've barely even made it very far down the hall before he's just vanished...as usual.
I make my way to Devin and Jason's room and sure enough, Devin's still out from the sedatives, but Jason's no longer in the room.
"Excuse me." I stop a nurse who happens to be walking by. "What happened to the other patient in this room, Jason?"
The nurse looks over at something on the clipboard she's carrying before shaking her head in confusion.
"He wasn't moved." She states and a feeling of dread unfurls in my stomach. "He should still be in there."
"Well, he's not," I tell her and she pushes past me into the room. Alarm spreads over her face when she realizes what I've said is true.
"Is there any chance he could've walked out on his own?" I ask hopefully, but there's doubt evident in my tone.
She shakes her head. "It's doubtful...even if he did wake up I don't believe he would've made it very far out of this room without help of some kind."
She brushes past me and runs out into the hallway, likely to go find the doctor. I take the seat next to Devin's bed and rest my head in my hands.
Too much time has passed. I've been in and out of it so I'd be the last person you'd want to ask how long exactly. Probably a few hours now.
Zero's had Devin moved to another room and everybody's been looking for Jason. It's not like he could've just wandered off...at least, that's what everyone's been telling us.
Lily's gone too...but I'm not really that concerned about it. She said she had something to do other than aid Zero and all the agents in a manhunt for Jason.
The security footage has been completely wiped so there's no way of knowing what happened. There's no fingerprints, or DNA of anyone in the room other than Devin, the doctor, the nurses, all of us, and Jason himself.
He just vanished. Almost like he never existed.
There are no clues and I can sense everyone's worry, panic, and discouragement. I bounce my leg up and down from my seat in the hallway. They've completely closed off the room to anyone who isn't an agent.
Lily comes bouncing up and takes the seat next to me. She's got a giant stupid grin on her face and is holding a manila envelope.
"How can you be so happy right now?" I question her and she just shrugs. "Jason is missing."
"Eh. I didn't know the guy." She says simply as a way of explanation before shoving the envelope into my hands. I eye her curiously but open it none the less.
"Lily." I start, and my voice comes out slightly breathless. "Is this-"
"Yep." She cuts me off cheerfully. "Figured I'd go and retrieve it for you so you wouldn't have to go through another house of horrors."
"What is that?" Cody questions as he walks over to me with Chase in tow. Both of them look like they could use a lot of sleep. They look extremely stressed.
I hold out the list of names for them to see, and then the list of locations.
"It's a list of every single one of Garrett's allies, safe houses, weapon storages, and anything else about him that we'll need."
Their eyes widen and they look over at Lily who looks extremely proud of herself.
"You know what this means right?" She asks with a wide smile. "There's no place left for him to run, no place left for him to hide. We can take down everyone he's associated with and destroy all his bases."
It's not going to be as easy a task as Lily just summed it up to be. No. This is going to take time, and a lot of it. But having this list means one thing.
"It means we can beat him," I whisper.
It means we can win.
Only problem is...we can't count on Devin till he's fully healed...and no offense to him but we can't wait that long.
We don't seem to have Jason either and we still have to figure out where the hell he went...or where he was taken.
But if he was taken there's no base of Garrett's that isn't on this list. We can and we will find him.
Until then, we're going to need an extra hand...and I know just who to ask.
As Lily's already pointed out to the boys and me countless times in the past...new agents are always very easy to corrupt. And it's a good thing too.
Plus, new agents learn better when they're placed in the field.
I smile widely to myself and I see Lily do the same. Great minds think alike.
Agent 1, welcome to the team...
Thanks for reading, I hope you've enjoyed the book.
This was the final chapter by the way, in case you're confused...I love cliff hangers.
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Enjoy!