Indigo Awakening (The Hunted (Teen)) (15 page)

Now, as he stood at a door he never thought he’d see again, he worked up his courage. Seeing this place through a kid’s eyes, it had once looked huge and magical. Every room held a mystery. Every old storage trunk told a story. Being here again had tapped into a part of his childhood that would always be special. It surprised him that despite the years—and all that had happened—the place still felt the same. It hadn’t changed much.

He
had been the one to change. He wasn’t a kid who believed in magic anymore.

When a spark of guilt kept him from knocking, he glanced over his shoulder at Rayne. She only shrugged and didn’t push. She even forced a strained smile. She seemed to sense how hard it had been for him to come here. If his gut didn’t feel like a pretzel, he would’ve kissed her.

As he reached for the buzzer, the door moved on its own. It opened with a loud, rusty creak.

“Holy shiitake!” Rayne cried out and jumped. She grabbed him by the arm and wouldn’t let go.

The heavy wooden door with its ancient metal hinges inched open and sucked dried leaves into the gaping mouth of the mansion. Gabe stayed put. He stared into the darkness and waited to see who had opened the door.

But before he saw anything, he heard a familiar growl. Hellboy blocked his way and wouldn’t let him cross the threshold.

“Sorry about that,” he said to Rayne. “He’s a little...protective.”

Clutching his arm, she said, “If that’s a problem, call the Dog Whisperer.”

Gabe put his arm around her and walked inside with Hellboy leading the way. The dog’s massive body hovered off the ground and moved with a ghostly grace. Every muscle that once had been his rippled through his back and legs under fur that held together like a swirl of dense fog. With ears back and head low, Hellboy glared into the darkness and crept slowly. His growl trailed in his wake and echoed into the emptiness of the foyer until he stopped and sniffed the air.

Before Gabe felt a presence, Hellboy wagged his tail and stopped. A voice came from thin air.

“It is good to see you again, Gabriel.”

Gabe couldn’t help it. He jumped and turned at the familiar sound. What he saw was not what he had expected. The ghost of the estate’s butler spiraled from the gloom like a glittery tornado. His eyes came first, followed by his floating lips and his round belly. Dressed in the formal attire he had worn when he was alive, he let Gabriel see him.

“Frederick?” Gabe’s throat went as dry as the Mojave. “You’ve looked...better.”

“I can honestly say that I am not presently at my best.” Frederick raised an eyebrow. “But I haven’t let Death stop me, sir.”

“That’s the spirit.”

“Who are you talking to, Gabriel?” Rayne asked.

Before Gabe could explain, Frederick took a shot. “Oh, dear, I’m sorry. How rude of me. Is this better?”

The dead butler closed his eyes and stuck a thumb in his mouth and blew it like a horn. He popped like a puff of smoke and crackled like a fire until his form took shape enough for Rayne to see him.

She yelped and would’ve fallen if Gabe hadn’t caught her.

“I gotta sit down,” she said. When Hellboy cocked his head and whined, Rayne sighed. “Does anybody actually
live
here?”

It suddenly occurred to Gabe that he didn’t know the answer to that basic question. He turned to Frederick, who smiled and waved a hand toward another part of the mansion.

“Your uncle Reginald is in the great room, sir. He doesn’t sleep well these days, I’m afraid, but I’m sure your visit will cheer him. I’ll announce you and your guest.”

After the butler vanished to the sound of a cork pop, Gabe took a deep breath. He wanted Frederick to be right, that his uncle would be pleased to see him—but he couldn’t see how that could be. Too much had happened between them.

The one person they both loved most had paid the price for Gabe being different. He couldn’t help but feel that his uncle would be reminded of that every time he looked at him.

It was why Gabe had left in the first place.

* * *

With Hellboy at his heels, Gabriel headed down a shadowy corridor of ornate rugs and old paintings that hung on wood-paneled walls. Before Rayne followed him, Frederick popped back and waved a hand to stop her. As he stepped closer, the ghostly butler smelled of dust and cinnamon. One smell reminded her that the man was dead. The other trailing scent told her that when he was alive, Frederick liked cookies.

“Forgive me for noticing, my dear, but your stomach has the rumbles. I believe Cook always has something appealing in the icebox. Have Gabriel show you to the kitchen after your visit with his uncle.”

Frederick winked, but before she thanked him, he vanished. The essence of his shape drifted to the floor like glitter that dissolved at her feet. Rayne stood in silence with one word on her mind.

Weird.

She picked up her pace to catch up to Gabriel. When she joined him, Gabe took her hand without saying anything. The crackle of a blazing fire and the rhythmic pulse of a grandfather clock drew her into the murky great room, a cavernous space filled with books and antique furnishings that looked centuries old.

Without any other lights burning in the room, the fire cast eerie long shadows that danced across the walls. An older man with a full head of gray hair sat in a wingback chair upholstered in royal-blue-and-red velvet in a rich tapestry pattern. He sat near a massive stone hearth and gazed into the fire until he finally looked up. He stared at Gabe with his eyes filled with tears that caught the glow of the fire. Rayne let go of Gabriel’s hand and stayed behind. When Hellboy sat next to her, she felt a tickle from the phantom dog’s presence as he brushed against her jeans.

Even a dead dog could tell they needed space.

When Uncle Reginald stood, Rayne’s eyes trailed up his long legs to his aged face as the man lumbered from his chair. Gabriel was tall, but this man dwarfed him.

“After you left, I looked for you.” His uncle spoke first. His gravelly voice cracked.

Gabriel only nodded. He didn’t move. He didn’t say anything. He waited.

“I don’t know why you’re here, but I prayed this day would come,” the old man said.

“I didn’t think you’d ever want to see me.”

A single tear trickled down the man’s cheek. He didn’t wipe it away. “My dear boy, how wrong you are.”

In two steps, Uncle Reginald closed the distance between himself and Gabriel and wrapped his arms around his nephew. He lifted Gabe off the floor in a monster hug. Rayne fought the lump in her throat. If love were a pie, she could’ve served a heaping portion and had plenty to share. Seeing Gabe with his uncle, she thought of Lucas and her father and mother, and even Mia.

She ached for the family she lost, but she was happy for Gabriel.

Uncle Reginald Stewart made her feel welcomed after she was introduced to him. The big man reminded her there would be food in the kitchen and told her that Frederick would ready the rooms where they could sleep. Getting ushered to a bedroom by a dead guy—no matter how nicely he dressed—would take getting used to. In this mansion where the living walked among the dead, Rayne would have to accept the way things were. She had stepped into bizarro world with Gabriel as her guide. She had a feeling she’d only scratched the surface of the many secrets Gabe had.

With a smile and a nod, Rayne left Gabriel to his reunion. Hearing his uncle’s thicker British brogue, she now understood where Gabe’s accent had come from. His parents must have been Brits. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to listen as Gabe and his uncle spoke by the fire.

The room could have fit her apartment in it ten times over. She put distance between herself and Gabriel, to give him privacy and to check her cell. In the library, she’d switched her phone to vibrate and felt the tickle of a message countless times during their road trip. She didn’t have to check her phone to know who’d been calling her. Mia had left several messages, nothing that couldn’t wait until she figured stuff out.

An amazing display at the other end of the room made a better diversion.

Rayne hadn’t noticed before, but the übertasteful decor was oddly paired with huge faded posters mounted on frames along the back wall.
Circus posters.
Trapeze artists and elephants and strange clowns covered the walls and towered over her head. Shadows cast from the fire undulated over the promo pieces and made the enormous images come alive.

With her mouth open, Rayne stared up at the colossal illustrations that looked more like exotic and mysterious billboards from a circus carnival. She wanted to ask Gabriel why they were displayed the way they were. They seemed out of place, but when she looked back at him, he’d stopped talking to his uncle.

In that moment, Gabriel made her heart bleed. The sadness on his face gripped her and made her look at the posters again—
closer.
This time she saw what had made him look miserable. A young boy wore a hooded cape that covered his head and most of his face. He had his arms outstretched in a way she recognized, but the boy’s captivating eyes were unmistakable. A stunning woman named Lady Kathryn, dressed in a cape and a tiara, stood by him and a large dog that looked more like a wild wolf.

Hellboy and the Third Eye
had been printed across the top of the billboard and below it appeared the words
Letters from the Dead.
Rayne saw the similarities before she had to ask. Gabriel looked like his mother, and he and his ghost dog had a long history. He’d known the dog when Hellboy had a beating heart.

Gabe’s link to the dead had deep roots to a past she wanted to understand.

Chapter 12

Downtown L.A.
The Next Day

Lucas felt weak and his head still hurt, but he couldn’t stay in bed. Without seeing daylight in the tunnels, he’d lost track of time. Kendra had fed him and he drifted in and out of sleep, but when he awoke to find he was alone, he had to find her. As she’d promised, she had his clothes washed and dried and folded near his mattress. They were laid out on a crate. After he dressed, he went looking for her.

He tested his abilities by sensing where Kendra was in her tunnel stronghold. He didn’t reach out to her in their usual way. He merely pictured her face and trusted his instincts on how to navigate through the darkness. He’d never done that before. After meeting Kendra and feeling the presence of the others, he realized that what made him a freak in one world made him strong in another. That gave him the courage to try new things here, without hiding or fearing who he was.

He found Kendra working in a garden. The color of her aura had tinted to a soft bluish-green. It oozed from her, rather than pulsed. Her contentment showed. Seeing the unexpected beauty underground stunned him. She must have created it, an oasis of fresh herbal aromas and a heady floral scent. When he stepped into the light, he had to shield his eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. Greenery draped down, bathed in streams of sunlight from a grated opening at the surface above. Vines stretched their leaves toward the light, and bees and butterflies flicked from flower to bud. Kendra and her children cultivated their harvest by using metal scaffolding between the tiers of crops, and plastic tubing dripped water down the walls. The air smelled of humidity and rich soil and the sweet aroma of her garden.

Lucas knew Kendra had envisioned this and made it happen. She had cultivated her garden in the same way she had plucked each child from danger and brought them here to become her family. She nurtured each one as she wanted to do with him.

Kendra’s ability with her mind paled in comparison to the beauty of her heart.

“This is...magic. You did this, didn’t you?” He stared up into the rafters of plants that spiraled up the wall over his head.

“I started it so we’d have food to eat,” she said. “The excess I sell to local grocers and a health-food store buys my medicinal herbs so we have spending money. Rafe and Benny take care of that end.”

When she kept working, he sensed something had changed between them. He had to make her understand how he felt about being with her.

“I’m new to all this,” he told her. “You tell me that I have a place here with you...that I belong, but I need time. It’s like I’ve been in a coma for years. I don’t know who or what I am. All this time, I thought I was defective. A lifetime of feeling damaged can’t be fixed overnight.”

When Kendra stopped working, he felt the lurking shadows in her soul before she even made a sound. She
let
him feel her darkness.

“I used to hear the voices, so many voices. I heard them most when I worked with flowers. Plants helped me channel them.”

“That’s beautiful.”

“But time has taken those voices from me, Lucas. Time and the Believers. One by one, our gifted children have been taken and their voices silenced. I don’t know what has happened to them, but I feel their loss in a way I can’t describe. Our children could be dead or silenced in other ways. The Believers are interfering with what should be the natural order.”

“We could get help...to stop them.”

She shook her head.

“Who can we trust to help us? We’re perfect victims for anyone who preys on us, because we can’t speak out. We can’t afford to be put under a microscope for the world to see. If we go from weird New Age websites to government-funded scientific studies, there’d be no place safe for us.”

She lowered her voice and her expression softened. Her aura drifted to a darker hue and vibrated.

“Do you remember the joy you felt to finally be connected...to hear my voice and know my words were meant for you?” she asked. After he nodded, she said, “Well, think of how much it hurts to have those voices taken from you, one by one.”

Her eyes glistened with tears.

“I don’t have to know them, or meet them face-to-face, to feel they are a part of me.” She stood and turned to him, taking off her gloves to throw them onto a scaffold. “You ask me for time when all I see are lives destroyed forever. We don’t
have
time. We’re in a war for our very existence and our future. I need you with me.”

When she stepped closer and put her hand to his chest, he heard the music from his childhood playing softly in his mind as if it had always been with him. Looking into her eyes made everything perfect, as if he’d come full circle. He smelled the scent of lavender and herbs and something uniquely Kendra. She balanced the strength of her cause with the vulnerability of her secrets. She was a mystery he wanted to understand. As she touched his cheek, he breathed her in and cradled her face in his hands before he kissed her.

Sweet. Pure. Perfect.

He stayed in the moment with her, feeling her warmth and the press of her body next to his. She pulsed in brilliant blue again, the way he’d first seen her. In the midst of her garden with its mist and flowers and the hum of bees—that blended in perfect harmony with music only he could hear—he understood what she wanted of him. He had to let go of the life he had before. She had drawn him to her for a purpose, one that she hoped he would eventually embrace. He felt unworthy of her belief in him, but maybe one day he would measure up.

After they kissed, he held her.

With his eyes closed, he thought of what she’d said. She had such unwavering faith in him—maybe too much. How could she know him when he didn’t know himself? After their minds had linked, he felt a dependence on her. She had opened his eyes to a world he might never have known, but she wanted her cause to become his.

That scared him, but not enough to leave her. Kendra had a drive and a purpose she would die for. He wanted to believe in her cause as much as she did. Maybe one day he would, but for now—all he had was her.

Haven Hills Treatment Facility—L.A.
Morning

Dr. Fiona Haugstad hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Her mind wouldn’t let her. Even now, as she headed down a hospital corridor of Haven Hills, her interrogation of Mia Darby played on her mind. The young woman had witnessed something amazing, yet the whole event at the museum had been wasted on her. Mia Darby was ordinary. Although the girl was employed by the church and officially involved in recovering her missing brother, she would never attain Fiona’s level of security. She simply did not have the skills or the drive. She was weak.

She only had her brother. Lucas was the real prize.

As Fiona used her keycard to unlock the staff entrance to Ward 8, she puzzled through what she had found. Once she’d obtained the traffic-cam surveillance and pictures her security team had acquired from the museum, she had assessed everything and had one image enlarged. When that digital photo had come back, she was shocked at what she found. She compared the face in the photo to the file she had on Lucas Darby to be sure, but she had her answer.

The boy at the museum with Rayne Darby had
not
been Lucas.

Impossible,
she thought as she grabbed a clipboard of medical history that hung outside another locked room. When she got inside, she quickly flipped through the pages of the health records of the drowsy boy strapped to a gurney. He’d been drugged for the procedure, but that seldom stopped them from trembling when they realized they were completely in her hands. A plastic bag of fluids fortified with an anesthetic hung near his head. She upped the dose and waited for his eyes to shut.

“This will be a big day for you. Very significant, I would say.” She stroked his cheek and looked into his eyes.

“Just one last procedure, then I’ll be done with you. I promise.” Fiona tousled his hair and forced a smile. “Now, close your eyes and let me get to work. I’ve got a busy day.”

It would be the last time this one heard her voice. She’d done all she could do with him. Some simply did not conform to her standards or cooperate in any way to make themselves useful to her or the church. This one had taught her all he could.

She hadn’t lied to the boy. Today
would
be significant for him. All that remained was one final procedure—one that required a sacrifice on his part for the good of science. She would make better use of his brain than letting him keep it. One way or another, she got what she wanted from each of them. The best they could give her. When a nurse entered the room, Fiona looked over her shoulder and gave an order.

“Prep him for surgery. And arrange for disposal of his body. This one won’t be staying with us. We could use the bed.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

While the nurse prepared the boy, Fiona turned the final page of one boy’s life in favor of another more interesting case. She replayed the library images in her mind, assessing everything again, especially the gem she had found in the backpack. The aftermath of the scene had felt like the product of a Crystal child. Her instincts couldn’t be wrong. She had believed that the boy in the sweatshirt, who had done a great deal to hide his face, had been hiding something more than his identity.

She’d been right. Fiona smiled as she headed in to scrub for the harvesting surgery.

Her instincts on the backpack had proved correct. When she had unzipped the bag and dumped the contents to look over them, she felt disappointment in what she’d found at first. It looked like an art student’s bag. It had a sketch pad and a library book on L.A. County art inside, but little else. She had almost given up until she got a better look at the drawings and recognized a face.

The face of Lucas Darby. There were two sketches of
the boy.

Fiona had made copies of each sketch. She had a plan and wanted to surprise Alexander Reese with it once she made progress, but she had to tell him something today. He was expecting a full report of the incident at the museum. She had enough to tell him for now, but she would save the best to savor later.

After surgery, she would run each sketch through the Tracker program. If she got hits on their database of targets, that would tell her a great deal about the boy who had drawn the images. If the drawings were significant, the library book the boy had planned to steal had to be significant, too.

She needed time to figure out the puzzle this mystery boy had left behind. Fiona had no intention of presenting only half a theory to Alexander. She’d wait until she had more on the importance of the library book and the Tracker results. Alexander would expect no less than perfection from her, and she felt up to the task.

She also had confidence that she’d found another Crystal child, one even stronger than Lucas Darby. If this boy could draw the faces of other special children, then perhaps he had the ability to see them in his mind and track them. She could use a boy like that.

Fiona had to know more.

Bristol Mountains

Rayne opened her eyes and thought she was still dreaming. Under warm linens and a plush comforter, she gazed in a sleepy stupor at a lacy canopy. The four-poster bed had elaborate carvings in the wood that had an old-world feel to it. When she heard a fire burning in the hearth of the bedroom, she stretched and sat up to gaze around the room that had been hers for a night. She wanted to remember everything. No way she’d ever get a chance to sleep in luxury like this again.

Giant doors and oversize furniture made her feel like a little kid in the biggest bedroom she’d ever seen, even in the movies. Last night a girly nightgown and robe and slippers had been laid out on the bed. It looked like silk, and when the ice-blue color shimmered in the light, she ran a finger across it to make sure it was real. Wearing something that fancy felt weird, but in a place like Hogwarts 2.0, she didn’t think anyone would laugh.

She threw back the covers and jumped out of bed to put on the robe and slippers. Gabriel had a bedroom down the hall. She got the impression that the room had been his when he lived here before and his uncle had kept it the same, hoping he’d come back. Guess Uncle Reginald hadn’t wasted his time.

Rayne went to her private bathroom and flipped on the lights. Everything glittered in tall mirrors that dwarfed her. Fancy soaps and scented stuff were there for her use and the soaker tub awaited, but when she thought about not having clean clothes to wear, she turned out the bathroom light and went back to the bedroom. The reality that she didn’t belong here hit her hard until she saw an envelope pushed under her door.

A note had been written on stationery. She smiled as she read it.

Anything you like in the armoire, it’s yours.

Gabe

Rayne didn’t know what to expect. She turned to see the ornate wardrobe closet across her bedroom and opened the doors. Clothes in different sizes hung inside with lingerie drawers filled with new things that still had price tags and were in unopened packages, ready for any unexpected guest of the estate.

“Oh, wow.”