Father Patrick glanced at the Roman numeral clock above the doorway. “I wish I could stay and chat, but choir practice just ended. I’ve got to set up for tonight’s mass.”
“Wait.” Brooke dropped her notepad, chewing on the end of her pen. “Are there any books you can point us to? I think this angle would be a great way to go for our paper. But we’d need some good sources for our reference list.”
“Only if you promise to be extremely careful.” He circled the room, then came back with a stack of books and a wink. “I don’t want to hear you in confessional crying about how you ruined two thousand years worth of history.”
Brooke helped him lay out the books one by one on the polished table. “I promise we’ll take good care of them.”
“I’m leaving you in charge. I’ll be back in an hour.” He wagged his finger and walked out the door. Then he peeked his head back in. “You know my favorite part about St. Lucia? She is a picture to the church of how God’s love is blind. Even when we can’t see it, he loves us for who we are, not what we do.”
“Interesting take,” I muttered under my breath. “Not exactly a perfect analogy if you’re the one getting your eyes gouged out.”
“That was intense,” Brooke whispered, then held her breath until he left the room. “Why don’t we each take one book and see what we can dig up?”
She pushed an aged greenish leather volume my way. The book had a strange symbol on it, a winged cross in the middle of a four-pronged circle. Kind of like the stained glass window up front. “What’s this emblem?”
Bryan peeked over my shoulder. “That’s the Guardian crest.”
The whole group except Brooke huddled around me to get a glimpse of the crest.
“Is this a Guardian church or something?” All eyes turned on me like a pack of hungry dogs.
Brooke gently shut her book. “Why would you think that?”
“Because of the stained glass window out front. The crossbars form this same symbol,” As soon as the words flew out of my mouth she bolted out the door.
“Wait here. We’re going to go check it out.” Laura scuttled down the hall after Brooke.
Lenny eased down in the chair next to me. I’d almost forgotten he was there. He hadn’t said a word most of the night. “You know, there aren’t a lot of Guardian churches left these days. We’ve lost some to Nexis, some to the Watchers, but most to the politics of the post-modern era.”
“How do you know this is a Guardian sanctuary?” Tony paced the length of the library, back and forth. “What if this is a trap? I don’t like it.”
A bubble of anger gurgled in my stomach. I pushed back my chair. “Now wait a minute. I just noticed that the crossbars in the stained glass window and the Guardian symbol are similar. I couldn’t care less where the churches affiliations lie. I only want to find something that pertains to my brother.”
He combed pale fingers through his dark hair, but his gaze slanted above me. “Just because a church was built with a Guardian symbol doesn’t mean that they’re still affiliated. For all we know they could’ve defected to Nexis fifty years ago. Besides, I wasn’t talking to you, sis.” He smiled at me, but his pacing resumed.
“You meant our fearless leader.” I swiveled around the back of my chair. Bryan’s hands still clutched the spindles, and suddenly we were eye-to-eye. One staring contest I wasn’t going to lose, not even to those gorgeous blue eyes. “You’ve had a plan all along, haven’t you?”
He inched his face forward, those eyes zeroing in on my mouth.
I squinted at him and pursed my lips.
He backed up slowly. “Mr. Harlixton told me there might be a book in here with a few pages missing. Apparently there was a break in a few years ago.”
“What? Why wouldn’t he tell me that?” I bit my lip, anything to stop my thoughts from escaping unchecked, but they overflowed. “Do you think it has something to do with my brother?” My insides leapt for joy at the idea of it.
Bryan’s hand covered mine. “I don’t know, Angel Face. But he gave me the title, so if it’s here, we’ll find it.”
“Here it is.” Tony dropped a book down on the tabletop in front of me.
My pulse went crazy as my heart beat a new rhythm. Slowly, I opened the book, flipping through the pages until something caught my eye. A tiny scrap of parchment where the page had been ripped out. This was it.
I blinked, and the library faded to black. Then to room came back into focus, except my brother stood over this table. And he wasn’t alone. A much younger Will was right by his side.
James had a flashlight in his mouth, as he sliced through the pages of the book I’d just been ready at lightning speed,
“Hurry up.” Babyface Will’s hands flailed around like a madman. “C’mon already.”
James froze, his fingers running under the headline, St. Lucia and the Sacred Stones.
Babyface Will hissed and said something unintelligible, grabbing my brother’s collar. The visions started to fade, but I rubbed my temple, fighting to hang on to this picture of James.
Then he grabbed a few pages … and ripped. Running toward the door, he stuffed the pages in his hoodie.
A tear leaked from my eye as the vision disintegrated before my very eyes. The room morphed back into reality. All three guys stared at me like I was crazy.
“What was that?” Bryan’s jaw dangled open. “Was that a vision?”
Pursing my lips together, I nodded. “I saw my brother. The night he did this.” I pointed
