Awaken (16 page)

“What’d you do?” I asked.

“Shut up.”

I ignored him. “That bad? What, you forget to
bring Kirzan his dinner or something?” I scoffed. “You all
obviously aren’t the top of the pecking order around here, so…”

“He said shut up,” the pale guy snapped. He
glanced to his buddy. “Ignore this scum. He’s not worth it.”

“Obviously I’m worth it enough for you two
reschiatas to be assigned here rather than out on the real
mission,” I chuckled, throwing in an Yvarian insult for good
measure. “And your buddies barely seem to think
you’re
worth
doing this.”

The brown-haired guy’s face twisted with rage
at my words, and he swam closer. I braced my hands on the wall,
getting ready to grab him.

“You want to know what I did?” he growled. “I
bashed that bitch’s head in. I would’ve gotten her bloody little
body here too, if her stupid friend hadn’t managed a good shot with
some pepper spray.”

My amused look couldn’t sustain, overwhelmed
as it was by the memory of what Chloe had looked like in the
hospital.

“You were the one who did that?” I asked, my
voice going cold as I realized who this was. Jesse. The guy Chloe
had mentioned. The one from the bookstore.

He smirked.

My heart was pounding. “You nearly killed
her.”

“Wait till you see what we do to her later,”
Jesse sneered. “A little of our special neiphiandine, a few
knives…”

I could feel myself shaking and it took
everything I had to push the rage down and make myself keep
breathing. Stay focused. Not imagine what I could do if he came
just a
bit
closer.

“Is that right?” I commented quietly. “Well,
aren’t you the big man when you’re faced with
one
girl? One
girl you couldn’t even catch.” I looked him over, my disgust
anything but feigned. “No wonder they think you’re so
pathetic.”

Jesse’s nostrils flared. “I could show you
pathetic,” he warned, tapping the net-launcher against his
palm.

I scoffed.

His doughy face turning red, Jesse swam
toward me. “Now you listen to me, you cocky little–”

He came within reach. Twisting in the
shackles, I lunged upward and wrapped my tail around his head.

His weapon rising, the blond guy started
forward, his eyes wide.

“Don’t,” I warned, squeezing in on Jesse’s
head. In my grip, he thrashed, unable to breathe, and his fists
pummeled at my scales. I gritted my teeth, hanging on. “You shoot
that thing at me, he’s dead, understand?”

The blond guy hesitated.

“You want to explain to Kirzan how your buddy
died?” I snapped, tightening my hold as Jesse kicked and twisted.
“Drop the weapon and unlock these damn restraints!”

For another moment, the guy didn’t move. His
gaze darted between me and Jesse.

I could feel Jesse getting weaker. His fists
still punched me, though the blows were half as strong as
before.

And on some level, I found I couldn’t quite
care.

The pale guy let the weapon fall as he rushed
forward. His fingers fumbled with the lock, and then the shackles
dropped from my hands.

I shoved away from the wall and flung Jesse
aside, sending him tumbling into the pit at the center of the cave
as I took off for the exit.

Pods of nets shot past me, splattering
against the wall, and I could hear Jesse shouting choked curses as
he scrambled from the pit. Kicking hard for extra speed, I darted
into the tunnel. Rock surrounded me, twisting and turning with
shadows and infrequent light. I swore, racing as fast as I could
for an exit that never seemed to arrive.

Jesse’s shouts echoed through the tunnel as
he tried to chase after me.

I sped around a corner, and the endless rock
opened up into blue water. Letting out a breath of relief, I cast a
swift look around and then left the tunnel behind, swimming like
hell for a relay station where I could warn everyone that these
bastards were back again.

Chapter Thirteen

It was long after midnight by the time we
reached the cabin.

“Okay,” Diane said as she pulled the sedan to
a stop. “Well, here we are.”

I looked out the window. The darkness was
thick and, shadowed from the moonlight by the trees, the cabin was
hard to see. Logs formed the walls, and the entire building looked
vaguely like a two-story triangle with a porch attached. The
Delaneys rented the house to tourists most of the year, but for
this week, it was empty.

Diane pushed open the car door while, up
ahead, Maddox and Noah climbed from the other sedan with their
father.

“The cleaning crew should have put blankets
on the beds,” Diane continued while we got out, “but if they
didn’t, everything’s in the closet. The sleeper couch is broken,
though – we were going to have a new one delivered this week – so
you’ll have to share the upstairs room with the boys. I hope that’s
okay?”

She glanced back to us. One hand on Daisy’s
collar and the other stifling a yawn, Baylie nodded. I just
swallowed uncomfortably, and then trailed them both to the
door.

The smell of pine surrounded us as we came
inside, and as Peter turned on the light, I could see that wood
made up a good portion of the décor. A carved mantle hung over the
fireplace in one corner of the living room, and the furniture was
all framed by polished wood as well. A cathedral ceiling rose above
the front room, and the landing of the stairs on the second floor
overlooked the space.

“Okay, well,” Diane said, “the bathrooms are
by your room and then just past the stairs down here, and Peter and
I will be in there,” she nodded toward a door on the opposite side
of the living room, “so just let us know if you need anything,
alright?”

She smiled, though it seemed a bit forced.
“Everything’s going to be fine. You’ll see.”

I tried to smile in return, failed miserably,
and then followed Baylie upstairs.

In the second floor bedroom, Noah and Maddox
had already set their bags by the bunk bed near the door. Baylie
glanced to me questioningly, and when I shrugged, she crossed to
the other side of the room and tossed her bag up to the top bunk
there.

I hesitated, and then took my backpack into
the bathroom to get changed.

The guys were in bed by the time I returned.
While Baylie headed to the bathroom to put on her pajamas, I slid
beneath the blankets, grateful that they didn’t feel too scratchy
against my skin. I seemed to be doing okay thus far, even at this
distance from the ocean, though I was still so tense my muscles
ached. But I hadn’t felt like running out the door or stealing the
car or anything, which I counted as a minor victory, given how
things had gone the last time I left town.

Baylie came back and flipped off the light
switch by the door. The bunk bed creaked as she climbed the wooden
ladder and then got under the blankets. Pulling the
floral-patterned quilt up to my chin, I shifted around on the soft
mattress and then closed my eyes as silence fell over the room.

The ocean was waiting.

I tensed as the water enveloped me. I didn’t
want to be there, but unlike the night before, I couldn’t snap
myself back to consciousness. I was too tired, and the pull of the
water was too strong.

Shivers ran through me as the current carried
me along. It was warm, more comforting than anything at that depth
should have been, and seemed to sink into me, giving me energy. I
could feel my skin try to change in response, and I gasped,
fighting to hang onto who and what I was.

Ice twisted across my spine.

Gasping, I spun. Blue twilight surrounded me
for as far as my eyes could see, but suddenly, in the distance,
darkness began to take hold. Like a black cloud, it spread through
the water, sending the temperature plummeting and consuming all the
light.

And coming for me.

I could feel it, though I didn’t know why.
The blackness was coming for me. Chasing me. It wanted something
and without question, I knew that something wasn’t good. Fear
gripped my chest and I kicked hard, trying to swim away.

But it was faster.

Darkness engulfed me, and in the black, I
heard a voice laughing. Coldness crept over me, paralyzing my
muscles and making it hard to breathe. I choked, my strength
draining as the light vanished completely and something grabbed my
shoulders, trapping me and refusing to let go.

“Chloe!”

I screamed, lunging up into a tangle of
blankets and Noah’s hands on my arms. Radioactive daylight cast the
room in vivid relief for a heartbeat and then vanished, plunging
everything into darkness.

Maddox swatted the switch on the wall. I
cringed at the sudden light.

“What happened?” Baylie cried, leaning over
the edge of the top bunk.

Blinking hard, I looked over to see Noah
staring at me.

“Nightmare,” he answered, as though finding
the word on autopilot. “Just a nightmare.”

“Chloe?” Baylie asked. “You okay?”

Trembling, I felt my forearms, and breathed
again at the realization they were normal. I nodded. “Y-yeah.”

Noah wouldn’t stop staring at me. Carefully,
he eased away from the bed and then rose to his feet.

The light on the landing came on. “Everything
alright?” Diane called from the stairs.

“Yeah, everything’s fine,” Maddox
replied.

A moment passed. The light beyond the door
disappeared. His brow drawing down, Noah hesitated and then walked
back to his bunk.

Maddox turned off the bedroom light.

I shivered. Noah looked stunned, and I
couldn’t think of many reasons why. The room had changed when I
first woke up. I’d seen everything so brightly, even if only for a
second, and I knew what Zeke and those others did with their
eyes.

And Noah had been there, watching me…

My hands rubbed at my forearms again.

Across the room, the bunk ladder creaked as
Maddox climbed back up, and I could hear the blankets rustle as
Noah returned to his bed.

He’d seen something. I was certain of it.

And I had no idea what he was going to do
now.

In the darkness, I pulled the blanket up
higher, bundling it around me against the cold I could still feel
on my skin. I’d thought I’d been doing okay this far from the
ocean. I’d hoped maybe things would be alright.

Clearly, I’d been wrong.

Chapter Fourteen

“No, damn you, I said Sylphaen! The
Sylphaen
!”

I slammed my fist into the boulder as the
image of the guard on the other end of the connection wavered.
Within the hollow in the stone, the shimmering surface of the relay
connection steadied again.

“Did you say Sylphaen?” the guard asked.

“Yes!”

He blinked. Ripples distorted his image as he
turned away, saying something I couldn’t hear.

“That’s not possible,” he argued as he looked
back to me. “There’s no… back… you–”

I let out a furious groan as the guard
vanished and the glowing blue-white collection of magic dissipated
from the hollow in the boulder. It’d taken me forever to get that
damn connection working, and that was after I’d swum for nearly an
hour, avoiding outlaws and mercenaries and who knew what else that
lived out here, before finally spotting the marker leading to this
relay station in the middle of nowhere.

Exhaling, I scowled and pressed my hand to
the boulder again, trying to reactivate the magic inside the stone
and reclaim the link to the outpost on the edge of Yvaria – the
only place I’d been able to reach. Light shivered through the lines
beneath the sand, and slowly, the blue-white glow began to
accumulate in the hollow again.

“Zeke?” came a scratchy voice from the other
end.

The picture solidified.

I blinked, torn between surprise and the urge
to swear. “Ren? What are you doing in–”

My oldest brother made an impatient gesture.
“No time. You said people claiming to be the Sylphaen attacked
you?”

“Yeah.”

The connection went scratchy.

“Ren?”

“–come back home, understand?”

I hit the boulder again.

“Zeke?”

“I’m here. What’d you say?”

“I said come back home. Leave whatever you’re
doing and get home. Let us investigate these–”

“Ren, they’re after a dehaian girl in Santa
Lucina. They want to kill her.”

For a moment, Ren was silent, muscles jumping
along the hard line of his jaw. The image wavered and then
solidified again.

“–doesn’t matter. So just get back here. I’ll
send people to check on this girl. But you head for Nyciena.”

I looked away. Ren lived and breathed
responsibility – and that was putting it politely – but he wasn’t
thinking. I couldn’t just go back to Nyciena and let someone else
handle it. I was the only one who’d seen Chloe.

Turning back to the relay, I shook my head.
“Can’t. I’m the only one who knows what she looks like. Just send
the guards to Santa Lucina. I’ll meet them.”

“Zeke, no. This girl isn’t–”

“No time, Ren. See you when I get back.”

I broke the connection and shoved away from
the boulder, taking off into the open water again. I was more than
a few hours from Santa Lucina, if the marker I’d found earlier was
any indication. But the guards would take awhile to get there as
well, and I was pretty sure of the route they’d take. I’d catch
them on the way.

Building up speed in the water, I swam for
the California coast.

Chapter Fifteen

The others were still in bed when I finally
decided to get up. I hadn’t slept since my dream the night before,
and as the sun crept over the horizon, I concluded it was time to
give up the charade and surrender to another night without
sleep.