Forbidden (The Seeker Saga, #2) (20 page)

It was selfish and foolish to keep them in the dark.  They had a right to know.  They had both proved their loyalty by coming with us.  I promised myself that, as soon as I had time alone with the girls, I would plead my case about telling the two men
about the crystals.

I thought I would finally get my chance when we made our final stop for the night, at a cheap motel less than a mile from the freeway.  It had already been dark for a few hours. We were all anxious to get out of the cramped vehicle and into our lodgings for the night.  John had initially suggested we stay at a nicer place, but the threat of being discovered ultimately led us here.  It was low-key, and we were unlikely to draw undue attention to ourselves.  There was, of course, also the little matter of the guilt I shared with many of the girls about spending his money.

After speaking to the attendant and getting our rooms – two of them, side by side with a door linking each other, with two beds plus a fold-out sofa in each – John parked the truck in the mostly vacant lot and we all got out.  It was the first time I had a chance to look around.

The motel was on a long, deserted road.  A single street lamp from the other side illuminated the parking lot, casting it in a hazy yellow glow.  I went to the edge of the road and looked both ways.  The motel was the only visible structure aside from the raised freeway in the distance.

“Don’t wander too far,” John cautioned me.  I didn’t need the warning.  I turned back to the vehicle.  The motel itself was two stories. Our rooms were on the second floor.  John had parked the car in front of a decrepit-looking flight of stairs.  The wood was splintered and the paint had long since faded.  I wondered if they would even hold under our collective weight. 

I was the first to go up. The stairs creaked dangerously under my weight.  I put my hand on the railing, and immediately jerked it back when a splinter implanted itself under my skin. 

“Better not put too much faith in that,” Rob said from behind me.  I shot him a smile but kept moving. When I reached the top, I came to the railing to look down.  John was fiddling with something in the front seat, and – surprise, surprise! – Liz was still with him.  Everyone else was making their way up the stairs.  Liz said something that I couldn’t hear, and John laughed. Then she laughed, too.  She even had the gall to look up at me to make sure I was watching, and when she saw I was, stepped even closer to him. 

It was painfully obvious what she was doing.  But if she thought I’d get jealous, she was dead wrong.  This was definitely not the level-headed warrior I’d gotten to know recently; this was the ditzy girl I first came across at the breakfast table my first day at Oliver Academy.  She really did seem like a totally different person when it came to guys.  I turned away. Let her do what she wanted.  I had other matters on my mind.

I heard a door  open behind me. I looked to see Rob, key in hand, standing in the doorway.  “Our first room,” he said.  He left the door open, walked over to the adjacent one, and used the second key.  “And the second one.”  He walked in, followed by Ashley, Eve, and Madison.  I glanced down, saw Liz still flirting shamelessly with John, sighed, and walked into our room.

The first thing I noticed was the sour stench.  I scrunched my nose immediately.  It smelled like cat litter mixed with smoke and alcohol.  Everyone else seemed to be having the same reaction.  Unfortunately, these were the only rooms available that were big enough for us, so changing them wasn’t an option. 

The carpet was a dirty shade of orange, but, like the railing, the color had faded over the years.  There were random stains all over. I didn’t even want to guess their cause.  The beds in the room were both large enough for two, but the mattress sagged deeply in the middle without anyone on them.  I was not expecting to get much sleep on that tonight.

Thankfully, there was a TV.  It wasn’t large, but I couldn’t remember the last time I watched TV.  The only ones available at Oliver Academy were in the common rooms of the dorms, and they were always taken by guys watching sports. 

A scream came from the other room, and all thought was abruptly displaced by an acute sense of danger. 

I ran to the door, clutching my crystal, prepared for the worst.  I had been the first to react. Everyone else was behind me.  I saw a light on in the bathroom, and went there.  I arrived at the door, and found… Ashley.  Nothing except Ashley.

She was alone, but she looked as if she’d seen a ghost.  There was nothing in there that could have elicited such a response.  “What is it?” I asked.

She pointed, entire arm shaking, at the bathtub.  Frowning, I looked there.  And found a cockroach no larger than a coin chilling there.

“Oh, give me a break!” Eve said as she squeezed in behind me.  She reached down and picked the bug up by its back.  It came to life in her hand, squirming furiously, flailing all its legs around, desperately trying to get free.  Eve made as if to toss it at Ashley, who gave a loud squeak and ducked for cover.  Eve laughed, taunting her, then threw the bug in the toilet and flushed it down.  Ashley visibly relaxed when the cockroach disappeared.   

Eve swung her short hair.  “After everything we’ve been through, you get scared over a
bug
?”  She didn’t wait for Ashley to respond before leaving.

“It just freaked me out,” Ashley defended weakly.

I returned to the other room, where Madison was sitting on the couch, watching TV.  The bathroom was taken, and I could hear the shower running.  Based on Rob’s absence, I presumed he was the one in there.  I sat beside the blonde
girl, and coughed when a cloud of dust came from the cushion. 

“This place is kind of a shithole, huh?” Madison asked. 

I cocked an eyebrow.  I’ve never heard her swear before.  But then again, if anything warranted the name, this motel did.  “Yeah, totally,” I agreed.  “What are you watching?”

“Some documentary on the prison system in the US,” she said, tossing me the remote.  “I went through all the channels. This was the only thing on.  You can check.”

“I trust you,” I answered, putting the remote down between us.  For some reason, the back of it felt like it was layered in oil.  Grossed out, I wiped my hand on the couch. 

Abruptly, the door swung open, and Liz burst into the room.  “We’re going to get some clothes,” she announced to everyone in a sing-song voice.  “John came up with the idea.”  She said that in a way that made it sound as if he made the sun rise in the morning.  “What’s everyone’s size?”

Everybody told her theirs.  Obviously, Madison was the smallest, but aside from that there wasn’t much variance between us.  Besides, it wasn’t like we were getting fitted for dresses.  Liz took note of it all in her head, nodded, and then ran out giddy as a kipper.

I frowned as I looked after her.  It was really fascinating, in a way, to see her act like this.  I hoped she’d get her brains around her again before we reached Harvard.

Chapter Twelve – A Midnight Rescue

A little while later, Rob came out of the shower.  I only noticed him in my peripherals, and when I looked over, my jaw fell to the floor.  He had only a towel wrapped around his waist.  His entire body was glistening with a fresh layer of post-shower condensation. Every single one of his muscle fibers was visible.  There was not an ounce of fat on him.  He was all lean and hard, from his slender abs to his perfectly-shaped chest, his wide shoulders and strong arms. 
He
was strong, powerful, and dominant as hell.  He could control the allegiance of thousands of
Twilight
fan girls with that body alone.  I felt a flare of disappointment as he pulled a shirt over his head.  He ran a hand through his hair, sat down, and looked my way.

“Hey,” he said simply.

All the blood rushed from my head.  I was dumbstruck.  Madison, who was pretty engrossed with the show, jumped when she heard him.  She looked over, and saw him for the first time.

“Wow! You look like an entirely new person,” she said.  It was true.  Rob looked fresh, better, invigorated.  He still had the bruising on his forehead, and the black eye besides, but he looked reenergized after the shower.  The stubble on his face was gone; he was clean-shaven again.

Suddenly I became very self-conscious about my own appearance.  I hadn’t showered since hauling the litter through the woods. The grime and dirt now felt caked on.  Before, we were all in the same boat, so it hadn’t been that big an issue. But, now that we were in the relative safety of the motel, my current state became all the more alarming.  Especially with Rob there, looking like that.

I jumped from the couch and made a beeline for the shower.  Madison and Rob both exchanged a look of bewilderment, but it barely registered for me. 

By the time I got out, feeling sufficiently fresh and at least somewhat worthy of Rob’s presence, I found, to my disappointment, that he had fallen asleep.  Liz and John hadn’t returned yet. It had been more than an hour since they left.  Eve was sleeping in the other room, beside Ashley, and Madison was in the other shower.  There was nothing left to do, really, aside from lying down and closing my eyes. 

I was tired after an entire day of driving.  I was also a little upset that I hadn’t had the chance to speak to the girls in private about letting Rob and John in on things yet.  But I knew we had time before we got to Harvard, so it didn’t weigh too heavily on my mind.

I lay down on the vacant bed and tried to find a comfortable position on the lumpy mattress.  Absently I wondered what was taking Liz so long to get back.  But I was already getting sleepy.  Liz went to get… something.  From the store?  Maybe.  For clothes?  I was too drowsy to be sure.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, a muted scream pierced the night.

My eyes went wide.  Had I imagined it?  Sometimes, on the edge of sleep, my mind played tricks on me.  The scream came again—more urgent this time.  I threw off the covers and rushed to the window.  I saw our blue truck parked haphazardly across three spots.  The engine was still running, and the doors were open, but nobody was inside. 

The scream came once more.  It was from outside, and it sounded like…
Liz
.  Urgency fueled me.  I threw open the door and ran to the balcony to look down.   

I found somebody – John! – down on his side.  He was conscious, but his face was contorted with pain.  Liz was nowhere near him.  The scream came again. My eye darted in that direction.  I saw a plain van, far away.  A man dressed in white was shoving somebody into the front seat.  I caught the tail end of yellow
hair. 
Liz!

Immediately, I opened my mind to the crystal.  I felt the power surge through me, and then… it disappeared. 
What the hell?
  I tried again, drawing on the crystal, and once more it evaded me.  Panic gripped me.  The crystal had done this before, when I was trying to study it in my room, but never in a time of need!  

Footsteps came behind me, and I twirled to see Rob running out the door.  The rest of the girls were behind him.  “What—” he started to say, but cut off as he saw the scene beneath us.

“Liz is in there!” I pointed.  The white van’s engine revved to life.  

“Tracy, use the cry—!” Eve started, but the sentence died in her throat as the oath kicked in.  Rob could hear.  She began coughing violently.  She doubled over, clutching at her throat.  Rob went to help, but she pushed him away.  He looked uncertainly from me to the others.  None of us could do anything to help her.  The fit passed quickly, however. Eve straightened, shooting a daring look at everyone.

“Can’t,” I said tightly, frustrated that I couldn’t explain and terrified that the van would disappear before I had a chance to use the crystal. 

Rob took the exchange in without understanding.  But he knew that Liz was in the van.  “The truck!” he said.  “We have to follow them!”

He came down the stairs two at a time.  I followed right after him.  The pale yellow light from across the street flickered in the background.  The van had already taken off.  I could see its rear lights in the distance.  They were quickly fading into the night.

Rob ran to John first.  He was on the ground, clutching his leg.  He looked desperately at us.

“What happened?” Rob demanded.

“The bastard stabbed me!” John exclaimed. 

“
What
?” I cried, falling to my knees beside him.  “Where?  How badly are you hurt?”

“He stabbed me in the thigh as he passed and grabbed Liz,” John said through gritted teeth.  “It’s alright.  He didn’t hit any major arteries.  I won’t bleed to death.  Hurts like a bitch, though.”

The other girls had all gathered around us.  Eve looked determined, Ashley looked scared, and Madison… well, surprisingly, Madison looked almost as determined as Eve.  “What do we do?” Ashley wondered.

“We have to go after Liz,” I said.  It was beyond time to take charge.  “Can anyone drive?”

“I’ve done it before,” Rob said. 

“Alright.  Get in the truck.”  Rob nodded, and ran to start the engine.  “You guys stay here with John,” I said.  “Give him the help he needs.”

“I’m alright,” he interjected.  “Liz.  She’s the one in danger.”