Find Me If You Dare (Dreamcatcher Book 2) (12 page)

“Wait,” Kayla said, “They’re real? But how—I mean—”

“Let’s just hope Trishna keeps a leash on them before they eat everyone in Caelum,” Seth said.

I snapped my head toward him, my gaze widening.

“What?” he asked.

“They have super sensitive hearing, you know.”

He shrugged.

“Your rides are here,” one of the guards called to us.

The ten of us wandered over to him, and I took the keys from his hand. “Who’s driving?” I asked, looking to Kayla. None of the Protectors could; we’d never had to learn.

She shook her head. “I never had to.”

“Oh, for God’s sake.” Shawn snatched one set of keys from my hand. “Guess I’m playing fucking chauffeur.”

I sighed and held the other keychain out to Nolan. “Can you drive?”

He raised a finger. “I should warn you. My last car, Renaldo—”

I shoved the keys into his chest and led my team through the gate.

This late at night, barely any cars passed through the Allegheny Tunnel, so I wasn’t surprised to find it empty except for two parked minivans. At least they were roomier than cars.

I glanced behind me and watched as teammate after teammate popped through the concrete out of Caelum, like a scene from a television cartoon. To anyone who didn’t know to look for Trishna’s fancy
T
scratched into the wall, they’d never find the entrance to our safe haven. And to anyone witnessing
this
, they’d assume they’d gone insane. People walking through walls wasn’t exactly commonplace.

“Aw, man,” Nolan said when he saw what we were riding in. “I have to drive a minivan?”

“Thanks for takin’ us, Mommy,” Seth joked, hugging Nolan as he walked past.

“Call me that again, I will make you pee snakes for a week,” Nolan replied, following a laughing Seth to the van.

I shook my head and waited for the last member of my team to exit the underground city, then I approached the vans—and walked right into an argument between Samantha and Seth about who was riding with whom.

“Would both of you just get in? We can fit six in one and four in the other. It doesn’t have to be even,” I directed.

Seth stuck his tongue out at her and climbed inside. Samantha pushed him before yanking open the passenger door, and his head smacked the other side of the interior. He yelped. I ran my hand down my face.
Kill me now
.

After tossing my duffel bag into the small trunk, I climbed into the van and plopped onto the back row, next to Kayla. Tabbi sat in the seat in front of me, her head already against the window, fast asleep. Somehow, I wasn’t surprised. Tabbi was basically narcoleptic.

“So, where are we going?” Nolan asked.

I pulled the list of hotels Trishna had given me out of my back pocket. First stop: Washington D.C.

By the time we reached the country’s capital, the sun was up. We parked our vans in a city garage and used cash to pay for the day. Where and how Bartholomew got the money, I didn’t know. But if we wanted to blend in like normal people, we had to pay for things like normal people, especially now that we wouldn’t be requiring items in bulk. No more stealing to survive. The last thing we needed was to end up in a jail cell.

“Tell me again why we’re wandering a huge city filled with thousands of people to find one man,” Shawn said as we grabbed what we needed from the vans.

“And why I had to leave my weapons behind,” Samantha added.

“Because carrying knives and guns through the highly-populated capital will get you arrested,” I answered.

“Can you imagine the looks on the cops’ faces if they ran Sam’s prints?” Nolan joked, imitating what he imagined they would look like. Which, apparently, was someone ready to crap in his trousers.

I glared at him. “I’m serious. We’re trying to stay under Richard’s radar. We have no idea who’s working for him. Richard thinks he’s making this world a better place for the supernatural by killing people. We can’t get caught before we stop him from destroying everything.”

“Okay, fine. We get that,” Shawn said. “But why big cities?”

“Because the odds of finding one of Richard’s followers is higher,” Seth answered. When I raised an eyebrow, he replied, “What? I do listen, y’know.”

I half-smiled. “We know his plan is to kill as many people and destroy as many places as he can. Large cities will be his prime targets. Not to mention, Tabbi’s odds of finding one person working for him out of everyone here is better than if we were in some small country town.”

“And we can blend in easier in larger crowds,” Lian added.

I nodded then turned to Shawn. “Is that enough explanation for you?”

He scowled, wandering away from the vans with his hands in fists. I
had
been a bit of an ass, but blast, it’d felt good.

“All right. Pair up,” I said, pulling papers from my bag and handing them out. “Bartholomew printed off maps. On the ride, I marked off five sections of the city. Some will take public transportation to reach. We’ll visit the different areas and meet back here in eight hours.”

Magus were the ones who could sense others like them or spirits like us; there needed to be a witch or warlock in each pair. Seth was going to wander with Tabbi, since she could read minds; I wasn’t leaving Kayla’s side. Samantha and Nolan had already clung to each other—which meant Ivan and Lian needed to split up, one going with Shawn and the other with Abigail. They rock-paper-scissored for Abigail, and when Lian lost, she swore in Mandarin before taking a map to her unpopular partner.

Taking Kayla’s hand in mine, I walked with her out of the parking garage.

“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said. “Trishna explained how to ‘feel’ for the frequencies of different species, but I’ve never done it before.”

“Well, I’ve never hailed a cab. So, we’re both in the same boat.”

“I think stopping a taxi is a little easier.”

I raised an eyebrow and waved at the first one to drive by. It didn’t stop. “Are you sure?”

She shot me a pointed glance and halted me at the edge of the sidewalk. We waited a few moments for another taxi to head in our direction. Letting go of my hand, she stepped into the street and held her hand out as one neared. The driver stopped.

“My mom used to take me with her to New York sometimes when she’d go for medical conferences. Rule number one: it helps to have a pretty girl by your side.” She pulled open the back door of the yellow vehicle with a grin.

I snorted and raised an eyebrow. “That was impressive.”

“Not the first time I had to help an old guy learn something new.” A goofy grin split her face, and her hazel eyes sparkled.

“Oh, I see.” I grabbed her sides and squeezed. She shrieked, slapping my hands away as she laughed. I let go, grinning, and we climbed into the cab.

’d chosen the Lincoln Memorial as a good place to start; the area was teeming with people. Several times, we’d had to duck out of the way of cameras or avoid running over a child who’d zipped in front of us on the pathway. Between the blazing sun, body heat, and muggy, August air, I’d sweated through my shirt by the time we reached the Reflecting Pool. There, on the lawn, we sat and pretended to be taking a break from a long day of tourism.

I checked in with Seth, who was riding the subway system all day with Tabbi.
Anything, yet?

Nah. Just lots of tourists and government peeps. She’s already popped four Excedrin, though.

The number of thought patterns Tabbi was weaving through had to be overwhelming
. All right. Keep me updated.

She says, “Lots of sex.” Everybody’s thinkin’ about sex, yo.

Thanks, mate
. I shook my head. One of these days, I had to convince Tabbi to let Trishna Unify her.

I glanced at Kayla. Her knee bounced, and she bit her bottom lip, her face taut in nervous concentration.

“So, how does this ‘feeling’ thing work?” I asked, trying to calm her. Maybe if she reviewed the mechanics, her confidence would grow.

“Apparently, whenever I get close to another witch or warlock, it’ll feel like”—she sighed, blushing—“a vibrator. Nolan’s words. Not mine.”

I grimaced at his name.

“And then your kind… I guess you kind of feel like a cold spot.”

Well, Protectors
were
no more than angelically-animated corpses. Albeit, we still functioned like the living; we still bled, got hungry, needed sleep, etc. But we didn’t age, and our souls were gone. Only our thoughts, dreams, and memories remained, left intact by some angelic power. Hence why, upon our second death, we just slept—eternal blackness. No soul, no Heaven.

“All right. So, we practice. Can you feel me?” I asked.

Kayla closed her eyes and breathed deeply. For seconds, she sat there, unmoving. My heart raced. The last thing I wanted was for someone to ask if she was all right and draw attention to ourselves. But then her lips parted, and she gasped.

“Okay. This is
really
weird. Your frequency, or whatever, is like a chilly breeze at the ocean. Like, I can almost feel it blowing my hair,” she said.

Good to know
. “Try opening your eyes.” When she did, I asked, “Still there?”

She nodded, meeting my gaze.

“All right. So, maybe reach out to others like you did to me?”

She blinked rapidly, taking a deep breath, and then her gaze wandered the park. After two minutes of silence, she growled and rubbed her temples. “How did Nolan do this for four weeks? I’m seriously getting a headache.”

Was this how Nolan and Samantha had found the sixty recruits who’d joined us in Caelum? It made sense. My gaze darted around the area. There
had
to be at least one Protector or Magus in this group of hundreds. Whether they were with Richard or not, we’d find out.

“I have an idea,” I said, standing. Kayla took my outstretched hand, and I pulled her to her feet. “Let’s weave through the crowd. Maybe you need to be within a certain range.”

Kayla’s eyes brightened, and she nodded, taking a deep breath. Slowly, we walked hand-in-hand through the pack. I watched her gaze flicker from person to person as minutes passed. Her brows tightened as tears pooled in the bottom of her eyes. I squeezed her fingers.
You can do this,
I sent to her. With her free hand, she wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead before continuing forward, her shoulders sagging. I was about to suggest we take a break when she tugged on my fingers.