Descendant (7 page)

“Wow. This just gets better and better,” I said, my voice barely a whisper as I stared in disbelief at the reflection of blue lights against the trees. My legs moved on their own, sprinting the some twenty feet to the corner of the house.

My sweaty palms gripped the rough brick and I peered around at the driveway.

“Why are the police here?” I heard Vanessa say.

I turned around a minute later and saw her looking expectantly at me. “I have no idea,” I said. I real y didn’t—although I did have a pretty good guess. As Vanessa turned back to Kael, I threw a quick glance toward my sister’s room. The blinds were inched up just high enough for her to peek out.

“Well this is wonderful,” Vanessa said.

I turned back to the two of them.

“They’re just the police, Vanessa,” Kael replied calmly. “We can handle them.”

Vanessa’s eyes went wide. “Um— no. No. We’re not handling anybody! Don’t you think our kind have had enough publicity over the past few weeks?” The pitch of her voice was getting higher, like it had when she was upset at the lake the other day. Kael seemed to find it amusing.

“Relax. I was kidding,” he said calmly. But the look on his face was clearly a disappointed one.

“They’re coming,” Vanessa said suddenly as two car doors slammed in succession.

“Then we’re leaving,” Kael said.

“What about…”

I felt Vanessa’s eyes on me, and for the mil ionth time that night I considered running back into the house and bolting the door shut behind me. But again, something kept me rooted in place. Curiosity? Insanity? I think it might’ve been a little of both.

“She’s coming with us,” Kael said.

I barely had time to protest before Vanessa was no less than an inch from my face. “I’m real y, real y, real y sorry about this, Alex. I—”

“Vanessa!”

“We’re coming, Kael!” Vanessa screeched. Then she bent down and swept my legs out from underneath me.

“Hey! What are you doing? I know how to run!”

“Not nearly fast enough, I’m afraid,” Vanessa replied.

I might’ve argued, except at that moment she shot off across the yard, and the wind was rushing into my face so fast it was impossible to even open my mouth to speak.

“Will you please put me down?” I said for about the tenth time. “I’m pretty sure we can slow down now—there’s no way they’re going to catch up to us.” Several miles into our trek, I’d insisted on switching to piggy-back mode as opposed to being carried, and so it was from my place on Vanessa’s back that I saw her shake her head ‘no’.

“I’m sorry Alex, but we just need to—”

“Make sure,” I interrupted, finishing the reply she’d given for about the tenth time. “I know,” I groaned. “But we must’ve gone like ten miles by now—I doubt we’re even within county limits anymore.”

“You’re exactly right,” Kael said as he came up beside us.

“We crossed into Avery County about ten minutes ago. But we’ve gone more like twenty-five miles.”

“How are you guys so fast?” I asked.

“How are you so calm?” Kael replied. “You realize you’re being kidnapped?”

“Kael…” Vanessa began, throwing him a sideways glare.

“Well ?” he asked, ignoring Vanessa and looking at me with a curious gleam in his eye.

For a moment I couldn’t focus on his question— I was too busy being amazed by his ability to run so fast and still avoid running into any trees, even as he kept his eyes focused on me. It was a fair question though, and now that he mentioned it I realized I had absolutely no idea how to answer it.

Why was I calm? Any normal person would’ve yelled for those police, or at least tried to run—though I realized now, of course, that I couldn’t have outran them anyway. Still , I could’ve tried. It wasn’t like me to give in without a fight.

But fighting these two had never even occurred to me. I knew it was stupid. I needed to know what was going on though, and I was so desperate to get answers at this point that I think I would’ve gone just about anywhere with them.

Besides, even if I had managed to get away, something told me all of these strange people probably weren’t going to just leave me alone.

“Answer my question first,” I said to Kael. I didn’t want to try and explain the logic behind my calmness to him. It barely made sense to me.

“Vanessa,” he said, turning away. “We’re getting close. I’ll run on ahead and make sure everything’s clear, and let them know we’re coming since they won’t all recognize the girl.”

My eyes narrowed, but before I could protest, Kael’s figure became nothing more than a blur that quickly disappeared from sight.

“Well he’s incredibly annoying.”

“He’s Kael,” Vanessa said. “That’s just how he is. In fact, I’m surprised he even talked to you in the first place.

Normal y, he just ignores people he doesn’t know—and sometimes even the ones he does.”

“I think I would’ve preferred that,” I said with a frown.

Vanessa laughed as she slowed to a jog, and then a steady walk, and then, final y, a stop. “Maybe. But anyway…

we’re in safer territory now, so why don’t you walk? No offense, but even you get heavy after running thirty miles.”

“Sure thing,” I said, sliding off her back without hesitation.

My legs, numb from the thirty-mile ride, shook uncertainly as I hit the ground. Vanessa waited patiently while I regained my balance, and then we continued side-by-side up the path.

I grew up in the mountains, and I’d done my fair share of hiking—so keeping up with Vanessa was easy enough at first. But I wasn’t exactly well -equipped for mountain climbing at the moment; I was still wearing the t-shirt and sweats I’d fallen asleep in, and had nothing on my feet but the cheap plastic flip-flops that had been by the back door.

“How much further?” I called as Vanessa stopped to wait for me yet again. “And where are we going, anyway?” I added with a groan as I attempted to scale a particularly steep rock in my path—an attempt that failed miserably. I lost my footing and ended up breaking the fall with my knee.

“Flip-flops are definitely not a good choice for rock-climbing,” I said, examining my bloodied knee.

“I could carry you again, if you like?”

“I’m good, thanks,” I said with a huff. I tried again, and this time I managed to pul my self up over the steep rock and onto more level-footing.

“It’s not much further now—just to the end of this path…”

Vanessa pointed as she spoke, and I could see where the path curved to the left a short distance ahead as I caught up to her. “…just around the corner, and then just a few minutes after that and we’ll be there.”

“Right. But where is there, exactly?”

“We’re going home. I want you to meet a good friend of mine,” explained Vanessa. “His name is Elias.”

“And why are we going to see this guy?”

“Since we couldn’t exactly hang out at your place and talk, we decided ours would be the safest place to take you.

When we told Eli we were coming back, he insisted on When we told Eli we were coming back, he insisted on meeting you, and talking to you—which works out well , because he can probably answer any questions you have better than Kael or me could, anyway. And he likes explaining things…he’s kind of nerdy like that.”

After the bend, we took a sharp right down another path which led to an area with more trees than rocks. The ground was much more level here, and we moved quicker.

Within minutes we’d reached the end of the path and stood at the bottom of a steep, grassy hill . And there, perched on top of the hill and drenched in bright moonlight, was a log cabin style house overlooking a steep val ey.

It was massive—I don’t know how it even managed to stay balanced on top of that hill , which was tiny in comparison.

One side of the house’s wraparound porch looked like it was actual y hanging over the val ey. Hopefully that was some sturdy railing, because that would be a long fall .

Dangerous location aside though, it was a beautiful house —or maybe mansion was a better word, since it was at least three stories tal . It reached its tal est point in the very center, where an ‘A’ shaped frame stood out against the mountain background. The entire front of the house was covered in tal windows that reflected an eerie image of swaying trees in the moonlight.

“Nice place.”

“We like it okay,” Vanessa said with a smile.

“Is it just you and Eli?” I asked as we walked the winding stone path to the front door.

“No, ‘we’ is the four of us—Eli and myself, and Will and Kael, too,” she explained.

“Seems like an awfully big place for just the four of you.”

“Well , it used to belong to Eli’s family until...” I glanced sideways and saw that she was frowning. When she noticed my gaze, however, the frown quickly disappeared.

“Anyway,” she continued in a rush, “I sort of grew up with Will and Eli… so when Eli ended up all alone in this big place, Will and I decided to move in with him. Kael had already been staying with them off and on—he was a good friend of Eli’s dad. Now he pretty much stays here all the time, and we have others who stop by every now and then too, and some of those stay for a while.” Vanessa stopped suddenly and pointed at two people sitting on a bench on the house’s lower porch. “Like those two, for example.”

The bright moonlight and a nearby lantern helped me make out their two distinct figures. One of them looked considerably small er than the other, with long hair that shimmered in the moonlight like Vanessa’s did. The two of them were hunched over in conversation, studying something on the table that I couldn’t see.

“Jack Lawing and Emily Vaughn,” Vanessa said. “They travel through these parts a lot.”

At the sound of their names, Jack and Emily both abandoned whatever they were looking at on the table and looked our direction. I couldn’t stop a shiver from running down my spine when they did so; I suppose I should’ve expected the glowing eyes they stared at us with, since they were just like Kael and Vanessa’s. But I still found them incredibly unsettling.

“Hel o Vanessa!” Emily called. She seemed a lot more enthusiastic than her companion, who gave us a wary look as he grabbed something off the table and slid it into his pocket in what I took to be a rather poor attempt at secrecy.

“Hey Ems,” Vanessa said. She smiled warmly at the girl, and then at Jack as he slowly made his way over to us.

Jack seemed to be purposely avoiding eye contact with me as he approached, but I couldn’t help but stare at him; his face was covered in scars, including one that ran all the way from his cheek down the side of his neck and possibly further—I couldn’t tell , since it disappeared underneath his white t-shirt.

white t-shirt.

“This the girl Kael was talkin’ about?” Jack said in a gruff voice. His golden eyes, which were poorly complimented by the dark circles underneath them, darted about nervously as he spoke.

Vanessa didn’t reply. I glanced over at her, but her eyes were locked with Jack’s, and they stayed there—even when I tapped her on the shoulder after about a minute of silence had passed. It was starting to get creepy, mostly because of the fact that, while every other part of them was perfectly still , every now and then their faces would twist into some sort of expression. I endured about another minute of this before grabbing Vanessa’s arm and giving her a hard shake.

“Hel o? Earth to Vanessa?”

She looked over at me, but it wasn’t Vanessa who spoke.

“The whole thing seems real y suspicious,” Emily said.

I breathed a sigh of relief. They hadn’t gone mute on me after all .

“I guarantee you Valkos has got something to do with this,”

Jack said in his rough voice, his eyes continuing their nervous flittering.

“We don’t know that, Jack,” Vanessa said.

“Don’t we? Think what you want, but me and Elias was talking about it earlier and—”

“Oh!” Vanessa said suddenly. “Sorry Jack, but you’ve just reminded me… Eli will be waiting for us, we should go…”

And next thing I knew, Vanessa had grabbed my sleeve and was pul ing me toward the house. Once we were inside, she let go, shaking her head. “Jack wil talk to you forever if you’re not careful,” she said. “Crazy old guy…

Good thing we had an excuse to get away.”

“Yeah…” I agreed distractedly.

“Eli is waiting for us…I think he’s in the study,” Vanessa looked thoughtful for a second before continuing. “Yeah.

This way,” she said, walking towards a flight of spiraling stairs and heading up them.

I followed slowly, throwing an occasional glance back toward the front door. Maybe my mind was playing tricks on me? I was real y tired—maybe the silence hadn’t lasted as long as it seemed? Maybe. But then again…

“Well …that was an uncomfortable silence a minute ago,” I said.

“Huh?”

“With Jack and Emily? I mean, were you guys having a staring contest or something?”

“A staring contest…?” Vanessa looked confused for a moment, but then her cheeks turned a bright shade of red.

“Oh… I know what you’re talking about. That, yeah, I’m sorry Alex—I wasn’t trying to ignore you, I was just catching them up on everything that’s happened.”

“Only…you didn’t actual y say anything.”

She nodded. “Right…because we’re kind of in a hurry. And I can think much faster than I can talk.”

“What…?” I stared at her for a moment, until a crazy hypothesis came to mind. “You mean they heard what you were thinking…?”

“Of course.”

“So all of your thoughts…?”

“Oh no—no they only hear the ones I want them to hear,”

she said. “And thank God for that…” she added with a she said. “And thank God for that…” she added with a smile as she steered me around a corner and down a long corridor. “Yeah, I guess I forget humans can’t do that sometimes—which is a shame, because it’s rather useful, especial y for long-distance communication. Much more convenient than a cel -phone.”

“That’s kinda weird,” I said.

She shrugged. “You get use to it. Anyway, you should’ve hit me or something—sometimes I get caught up in a conversation and get kind of oblivious to what’s going on around me.”

“Right…” I was still listening, but all the paintings and sculptures lining the hall had caught my attention. It was like we’d taken a detour and ended up in a museum; everything around us—from the giant floor vases and the oil-paintings that would’ve taken up an entire wall of my room, looked ancient and priceless. There were even suits of armor spaced out along the hall .

“Eli’s mother collected all this stuff. His parents traveled a lot in the years before they ended up here,” Vanessa explained.

“These paintings and everything…they must’ve cost a fortune,” I said as I paused to admire a painting of Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night”.

“Al together, I guess it is probably worth a fortune now. But stuff like that Van Gogh painting you were looking at? They got it before he died—before he was famous, you know.”

I was nodding along until the meaning behind her words hit me. “Wait—didn’t he die in like the 1800’s?” I asked, trying to remember back to the art class I’d taken last year.

“Yeah, 1890-something,” Vanessa said offhand. “Shot himself, I think…”

“I thought you said Eli’s parents died recently?”