Indigo Awakening (The Hunted (Teen)) (12 page)

“Damn,” she muttered.

“Did you strike out already? Lightweight.”

She recognized Gabriel’s voice, but when she looked around, she didn’t see him.

“Where are you?”

“No wonder you can’t find the book,” he whispered. “You’re blind.”

Torch boy was in the next aisle, peering through the book stacks at her. She only saw his amazing eyes.

“You were right,” she said.

“About what?”

“You are acting weird,” she teased. “Or should I say...weirder.”

“Did you find anything worth looking at?”

Besides you?
she wanted to say, but didn’t. She didn’t know how to flirt, but Gabe made her want to try.

“Yeah, but I’m having trouble finding my first choice.”

She glanced at the note she’d made and rechecked the book numbers on the shelf in front of her for a fourth time. When she looked up again, Gabriel had vanished. She pushed aside books and looked through them, but he was nowhere in sight.

“Hey, where did you...?”

“I’m here.”

She jumped when she heard his low voice right next to her. The guy moved like a damned ghost. He’d learned something from Hellboy.

Putting his backpack down on the floor, Gabriel grinned and grabbed the paper from her hand. When he gave it back to her too quickly, she thought he’d given up, but she’d been wrong. Backing up one slow step at a time, Gabe ran his fingertips along the spines of the books. With his arms spread across the aisle, he touched both stacks. Hoodie boy kept his head down, so she knew he wasn’t looking at anything except his boots or he had his eyes closed, even weirder.

Rayne almost made a joke, but when he slowed down and shifted one hand up a row without looking, she didn’t say a word. Her breath caught in her throat when he pulled down a large picture book and finally looked at it in his hand.

“Is that it?” she asked, unable to hide the excitement in her voice.

“Oh, hell, no. Who do you think I am? That
Mindfreak
dude?”

She grimaced and punched him in his rock-solid arm. The guy had totally scared her with his magic act, but her heart raced even faster when she looked at the book he’d handed her.

The right book.

“Oh. My. Gawd,” she gasped, and Gabriel smiled. “If this whole dead-dog-trainer thing doesn’t pan out, you can always become a resource librarian.”

“Good to have a solid backup plan.”

Rayne had other books to look for, but the one she had in her hand looked promising. It had plenty of pictures. She grabbed Gabriel by the arm and pulled him toward the first table she found to flip through the pages, but he stood his ground and wouldn’t budge.

“Nope, sorry. The tables are too open. I’m staying in the stacks. Flip through that book quick.” He grabbed the list she’d made. “I’ll get these others if this one doesn’t do anything for you.”

“What if I find something I want you to see?”

He smiled and asked, “I don’t know. What trick can you do? Something you only do in front of a mirror when you’re by yourself.”

“Come on. I’ll just cough or clear my throat.”

“Boring.” He shook his head. “Lacks imagination. Creativity points, zero. You gotta do better.”

She glared at him and sighed.

“Okay, there is one thing, but I’m not saying it out loud.”

“Then how will I know?”

“Believe me. You’ll know.”

Rayne turned and rolled her eyes, not waiting for his answer. Sitting at the closest table, she opened the book with a shake of her head. Because of Gabriel’s goofy game, she had mixed feelings about turning up something that would help her find Luke. Yeah, she needed that to happen, but now making an ass of herself had become part of the equation. So not fair.

She only had one unique talent, something inspired by Floyd Zilla, her pet iguana.

When she got into the book’s table of contents, it didn’t do her much good except to narrow down her initial search to the meaty middle. She flipped through those pages and skipped anything that didn’t look like an old mural train station. One section totally grabbed her interest.

“Bingo,” she whispered. One image looked like Gabriel’s drawing. She recognized the style, but she needed to see his sketchbook.

Unfortunately, that meant...

Oh, brother.
Rayne looked around, hoping to wave him over and back out on her promise to signal him, but when she didn’t see his eyes staring back through the stacks, she let out a moan.
Only for you, Luke.
She put her fingers to her mouth, stretched her lips tight across and poked her tongue through them in a sweep. One lick. Two.

Her version of “lizard lips.”

When she didn’t see Gabriel, Rayne did it again and pointed in different directions. She ignored the strange looks people gave her, but when she heard Gabriel laughing behind a bookshelf, she knew when to stop.

* * *

Gabriel had forgotten what it felt like to laugh. Really laugh. Doing it in a library hadn’t been optimal, but Rayne had a way of reminding him what normal felt like—and that his life had strayed far from it.

In a heartbeat, the smile left his face.

“What did you find?” He sat down next to her with his head down.

“This,” she said. “Is it the same?”

She shoved the picture book open and showed him a page with a large mural on it, painted on brick.
My mural.
In a flash, his vision came back to him. The rush of it forced him to close his eyes, almost as if it hurt. He felt a dank cold on his skin and shadows clouded his mind as if he’d slipped into another reality. He couldn’t put his finger on the sensation of that distant feeling, except that it reminded him of...
a cave.

Without answering her, he unzipped his backpack and pulled out his sketchbook. When he flipped it open to the right page, his eyes grew wide. The details were amazing. He’d never seen the real mural. Never knew of its existence, yet he’d drawn it.

Rayne looked eager for an answer. To her this meant she might be one step closer to her missing brother. To him, it only reminded him what a freak he was—and what a messed-up loser he’d continue to be long after she went on with her life.

He hadn’t asked for this.
None of it.

“Well?” she asked.

“Dead ringer.”

Rayne grabbed the book and read from it.

“Did you know there were tunnels under downtown L.A.?” She shook her head, not expecting him to answer. “Eleven miles of ’em. What does this have to do with Lucas?”

“I don’t know, but just now...” He swallowed and couldn’t look her in the eye. “I got a feeling like...I was in a cave.”

“Like in a tunnel?”

“Yeah, could be.” He nodded and half shrugged.

“We gotta look for these tunnels, Gabriel. We have to go there.”

“Eleven miles is a lot to cover.”

“Yeah, but maybe Hellboy can help us.” She put a hand on his arm. “I got a flashlight on my bike. The book gives cross streets. I got a pretty good idea where they are. We could do this.”

Before he could answer, Rayne did a double take at the commotion near the reference desk. She didn’t look happy.

“What’s she doing here?” she muttered and used him like a shield to hide behind.

“Who?” Gabe looked up to see a woman at the information desk. She looked like a Hollywood type. Not a hair out of place, classy duds and a picture-perfect face all made up.

“My sister, Mia,” she said, peeking over his shoulder. “She’s been spying on me. She thinks I’m hiding Lucas.”

“Why would she think that?”

“Long story.”

Gabe didn’t have time for long stories. Not here, not now. He had his share of secrets. He guessed Rayne had hers.

“I haven’t told you everything about my family,” she admitted. “It’s complicated.”

Gabe didn’t like the sound of this. Without thinking, he stuffed the library book in his unzipped backpack and shoved it next to his sketchbook. He took Rayne by the hand and rushed her behind the closest bookshelf.

“I’m listening.” He crossed his arms and stared at her with his rucksack slung over his shoulder.

“My parents are dead and I don’t trust my sister.” She sighed. “Neither does Lucas. He told me something spooked him about her and the hospital she had him committed to.”

“Whoa, back it up. Your brother...what hospital?”

“Yeah, about that. Lucas escaped from a mental hospital. Haven Hills.”

Gabriel rolled his eyes and let out a deep sigh.

“Well, he doesn’t really need to be there.” Rayne shrugged. “Lucas is just different.”

“Thanks for the explanation, Dr. Darby. When did you get your psych diploma?”

“You don’t know him,” she argued. “Besides, what’s with the attitude? Aren’t you afraid of OD’ing on irony? You’re not exactly on the right side of normal, Gabriel.”

“Touché.” He pulled the hoodie down over his face and didn’t look her in the eye.

“Mia works for the church that funds the treatment facility where Lucas got committed. I think she’s hiding something about that church and Lucas from me. Like I said, it’s complicated.”

“What church?”

Rayne narrowed her eyes. His question had taken her off guard. Of all the things he could have asked, the name of a church would’ve ranked pretty low for most people.

“The Church of Spiritual Freedom. Why?”

“Come on. We gotta get out of here,” he said. “No questions, remember?”

When his survival instinct kicked into high gear, Gabe checked out their situation in a hurry. Two major shelving units had bordered the tables where they’d been. That area had been too wide open. His only choice had been hiding in the row of books, but now they had only two aisles to hide. Both of them led in the wrong direction, back toward the main desk, and exit signs lit in red were across the room. Either way, they’d be seen when they showed their faces. They were cornered.

They needed a diversion, fast. Scratch that.
He
needed the diversion.

It pained him to think like this, but he had to. It made no sense to drag Rayne into his screwed-up life. Even though he’d hoped it wouldn’t happen, he’d warned her that he could take off in a rush without a word and leave his stash behind at the zoo. He hadn’t realized how fast that would happen, but like a chess player, he always played scenarios in his head and moves in advance. He had a backup plan that didn’t include Rayne.

She’d be better off without him. At least she had a place to look for her brother—the tunnels under L.A. It would have to be enough.

For her sake, Gabe had to ditch her.
Now!

Chapter 10

Following her sister, Mia had pulled into a parking lot on the L.A. County Museum of Art grounds in time to see Rayne head into one of the smaller buildings on the complex with the boy she had brought with her. With the sun going down, the light had played a factor and interfered with the night vision of her high-tech surveillance gear. She hoped to confirm Lucas was with Rayne, but seeing through binoculars into a fading light, Mia couldn’t make out much.

Why would Rayne take Luke here?

She got out of her Lexus and jockeyed to a better position to zoom in and videotape them, but the boy in the hood never showed his face. After she stopped recording, Mia kept her sister in sight and followed from a safe distance. She didn’t have much of a plan, except to ID Lucas. If it was him, she’d have to confront both of them.

Mia had been to the museum before, but never this building. From what she’d seen, Rayne hadn’t gone toward the bigger exhibit halls, auditorium or café. She went the opposite way and Mia followed her steps into a library. The minute she stepped into the quiet setting, she walked past a front information desk and searched the faces of the people inside. She looked down aisles and her heart beat faster whenever she saw anyone who looked like Rayne or Lucas.

She’d almost given up on finding them when she caught movement and a shadow through the book stacks. Mia had to get a closer look.

“Please. Let it be Lucas,” she whispered.

* * *

They were cornered. They had two rows of books for cover, but to get out either way, they had to go through Mia. Rayne didn’t see any other option. If her sister stayed put near the front desk, it would only be a matter of time before she’d see them. For Gabe’s sake, she couldn’t let that happen. The guy had only tried to help. The last thing he needed was to get questioned by her meddling and judgmental sister.

“I swear, I don’t know why she’s here. She gets off on spying on me these days, but I can talk to her and see what she wants,” Rayne offered as she watched her sister through the books, crouched low to the floor with Gabriel. “She doesn’t have the police with her this time.”

“Cops. Great.” He winced.

“I’ll distract her and give you a chance to slip out. She can’t be after you. She doesn’t even know you,” she said. “If she doesn’t force me to go with her, we can meet at the bike when I get rid of her.”

“Yeah, okay.”

Gabriel agreed too fast. He looked totally distracted. Hunkered down next to her, he shifted his eyes between Mia and a way out, but he never argued or asked her more about cops or why she felt the need to hide from her own sister. Rayne had a bad feeling about why. Trust. It had come down to trust and she wasn’t sure Gabriel would be waiting in the parking lot. If he took off now, she’d never find him again. The guy seriously knew how to bail.

“Gabriel? Look me in the eye and tell me the truth.”

He shrugged and had trouble doing as she asked. “What?”

“If I do this, will you be waiting outside for me?” She put a hand to his shoulder. “You know how much this means to me. Lucas is in trouble, I know it and I think you do, too. If you tell me you’ll be there, I’ll believe you.”

Even as the words left her mouth, Rayne wasn’t sure she hadn’t lied. It all came down to her ability to rely on someone else—and her faith in Gabriel.

* * *

Rayne had a way of looking into his eyes that felt like a lie detector. Right now she looked hurt. Gabe wasn’t sure she’d buy anything he told her. He had a weird way of connecting to a ghost dog, but Rayne possessed a natural gift with living, breathing people—one he didn’t fully appreciate at the moment.

She had called him on his bullshit and now she wanted an answer to a question that should have been simple for him. In another life, he wouldn’t have hesitated.

He’d promised to help her find Lucas. Could he lie to her now, even if it was for her own good? Yeah, ditching her would be best for her, but what about her brother? His instincts told him this kid was in real trouble. It was one thing to keep secrets and not tell stuff, but lying straight up to Rayne when she needed him made him feel like a jerk.

Did he want to turn into “that” guy, a liar who didn’t give a shit? No. His answer had to be no, if he didn’t want to turn into a total dick.

“There’s stuff about me that you don’t know,” he said. “I can’t risk that your sister won’t mess things up for me, too. She may have done that already.”

“What? But...”

He touched her lips with a finger.

“I’m sorry. I gotta expect the worst. If she found you here, she could’ve followed us from Griffith Park. I have to assume my place there is compromised. I can’t go back.”

Rayne kept quiet and looked miserable. He had no idea how much trouble her sister could bring down on him, but that didn’t matter. He had to play it safe.

“I’ve really messed things up for you, haven’t I?”

“Not your fault.” He reached for her hand. “Do you trust me?”

A fragile smile returned to her face and she nodded. A spark of hope had come back to her eyes, but this time he had to earn her trust by showing her.

“No matter what happens, no matter what you see, be ready to move and stick close to me.”

When Gabe looked toward the desk, he saw Rayne’s sister walking straight for them. In seconds, she’d cross their only way out. If she looked down the bookshelves, they’d have no place to hide. Whatever he had planned, he had to do it now.

Gabe let go of Rayne’s hand and distracted her.

“She’s coming,” he whispered.

When Rayne turned to look for her sister, Gabe stood and ducked into the next aisle. Because he didn’t know she’d followed him in Griffith Park, she’d seen him go through his transformation, from his seething rage to the rush of the blast when he let it go. He saw in her eyes how much he’d frightened her.

Having a choice now, he didn’t want her to see the ugliness he had to conjure to make things happen. In the farthest corner against a wall, he dropped his backpack to the floor at his feet. He shut his eyes and flexed his arms to awaken the power and stir the anger that fueled him. He’d never summoned it this fast before.

Seconds.
All he had was seconds.

* * *

When the lights flickered and Rayne felt a tremble under her boots, a familiar panic swept through her.
Earthquake.
Mother Nature’s timing sucked. Tremors happened in L.A. and she’d experienced her share. She looked for a safe place to hide, but when she reached for Gabe, he wasn’t with her.

He’d disappeared.

“Gabriel?” she whispered, but he never answered.

She turned in time to see a fierce glow coming from behind her. Spears of blue light nearly blinded her and shot through the books like a laser show. Before she could move to see what was happening, Rayne cursed and covered her head. A book had smacked her on the shoulder. The shelves quaked and stuff fell to the floor. If she didn’t move fast, she could be crushed under a massive shelf full of books.

But in a sudden rush, she felt a swell of fear that gripped her hard. Not even when those jerks stalked her at the zoo in that hellish tunnel had she been so afraid. Stranger still, she had an overwhelming hunger, as if she’d been starving for days. Tears stung her eyes and her belly tightened into a knot. She had no idea why she felt such a crippling flood of emotions and strange cravings. All she wanted was to curl into a ball and cry, but one thought forced her to fight through what had seized control of her.

Gabriel.

When she heard the commotion of glass breaking and people yelling and running, she dared to look up. She had to find him, but everything she saw confused her. The glass doors to the museum entrance had shattered. Shards of glass were strewn on the tile floors, but with all the weirdness going on inside the library, something else shocked her.

Cats and dogs of all sizes ran through the museum building. They leaped over chairs and shoved into library tables, making a racket with their barking and mewling. Pigeons flapped overhead, looking for cover. These animals should have been running in the opposite direction, away from the danger. Instead, they ran toward it as if they had no choice. It reminded her of what Gabriel and Hellboy had done the other night in the tunnels, but this looked much more chaotic. Had Gabe drawn them into the library, like he’d done in the tunnels?

Something different had taken over and it scared her more. It didn’t feel like Gabriel had control, not like the times she’d seen before. Her sister cowered near the desk and looked paralyzed with fear as she clung to another woman. Somewhere Rayne heard a big dog barking and growling and whining. The noise grated on her raw nerves like listening to old-people jazz, but the barking wasn’t the only thing that stressed her out.

Two guys were fighting and beating each other to a bloody mess.
Why?
What would make them ignore the danger to stay and fight instead? The whole scene looked like a disaster flick in a cheesy movie. People caught in the library looked too struck to move or they’d let anger or a strange insanity take over. They should have run out, but they didn’t.

Whatever had happened, Rayne felt it, too.

It was as if she’d been zapped with crazy juice and dumped into an alternative reality. The worst fear she’d ever felt had a grip on her. Part of her wanted to run as far as she could get, but she couldn’t leave Gabriel, not when he’d sacrificed so much for her. She felt his familiar power as it sent a ripple of chills across her skin, and every hair on her head tingled with energy, but the strange sensation felt much stronger. Her stomach heaved as if she would be sick, especially when the dog wouldn’t stop yelping.

Breathe. Just breathe.

Trembling, Rayne kept low and crept closer toward the next row. The blue laser light pulsed brighter as if it breathed. Under flickering overhead lights, the whole library had been cast into a frenzied strobe show. She had to see Gabriel. She had to know he was all right. With tears stinging her eyes, she winced at the kinetic energy that jolted through her body like needle pricks as she peered around a shelf to find him.

The closer she got, the worse she felt. She got sicker and the excited dog got louder, too. When she peeked around the corner into the next row, the first thing she saw made her cringe. The freaked-out dog had been Hellboy. He scratched and leaped and yapped, trying to break free of something that boxed him in. He wasn’t in icy flames this time. His ghostly silhouette came in bursts of cloud puffs and faded to a vapor mist. Wherever he was, a barrier held him back from Gabriel.

That was when Rayne saw Gabe and she gasped. Still standing, his body shook as if he had a seizure, and his beautiful eyes had rolled back into his head. Alone and engulfed in raging blue flames, he looked as if he’d collapse any second from the weight of the power surging through him on overload. Something had gone horribly wrong. Rayne shoved aside her instinct to run and got to her feet. Ignoring Hellboy and her fear of him, she raced to Gabe and reached through the blue flames with her bare hands and arms.

Her skin prickled in pain and her insides were in agony, but she wouldn’t let go of him.

“Gabriel. Can you hear me?” She did her best to hold him up, but he was too heavy.

She staggered under his weight and lowered him to the floor in a heap, but his tremors wouldn’t let him rest. He rolled and pinned her to the floor, mumbling things she couldn’t understand. A strange heat mixed with a chilling tinge that radiated off his body like an energy force. It raged through her, too. With his face next to hers, she held him tight in her arms. She breathed in his gasps as if she could take away his pain. She could tell he wasn’t with her anymore. Whatever power radiated from his body had taken over and consumed him.

“I’m here. I won’t leave you.” Rayne didn’t know if Gabriel heard her, but she wouldn’t let go. “Stay with me. Please!”

Hyped on adrenaline, raging fear and something out of control, Rayne did the unexpected. She kissed Gabriel. Not a sweet and shy first kiss. She pulled him to her as if they’d made out plenty of times before and pressed her lips hard to his. At first, he didn’t react. The shakes still had control over him, but eventually his body relaxed and he gave in to her. She kissed his lips, his neck, even his eyelids until he collapsed into her arms and his shakes stopped.

Rayne looked at his slack face. His eyes were closed and she felt his full weight on her. He’d stopped moving. She didn’t even know if he was breathing.

“Gabriel?” Her eyes burned with tears. “Are you...okay?”

The noise in the library became muffled. The voices, the animals and birds, and a distant alarm faded and went dark in her mind. She even blocked out Hellboy. All she could think about or care about was Gabriel.

His eyes blinked open as if he’d awakened from a long sleep. When he finally saw her, he moved an arm as he lay next to her on the floor. Looking worn-out, he reached a trembling hand to her face and ran his fingers through her hair. A smile nudged his lips when his drowsy eyes fixed on her. She could’ve stayed in that moment forever, breathing in his same air, comforted by his touch and the feel of his body next to hers.