Lauren (Keegan's Chronicles Spin Off) (19 page)

Keeper of Lauren, hear me now…open your ears.

Find for me where we need to be.

By moon, sun, earth, fire, and sea.

Someone is lost I need to find.

By the power of three, this spell I bind.

Anna repeated the chant three times, picturing Lauren’s dark hair, pale skin, caramel eyes, and big smile. With her physical eyes closed, Anna willed her mind’s eye to open. At first, she only saw blackness.
Where are you, Lauren? Give me something.

Anna gasped as her mind’s eye zeroed in on a small, dark room. She saw Lauren huddled in a corner, her head in her hands, weeping.

Focus
, Anna thought, looking around. Lauren appeared to be locked in a room with white walls and nothing else. Anna tried to get a grasp on the location, but she couldn’t make sense of it.
It must be cloaked with magick.

Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked up at Keegan. She shook her head and stood up. “I don’t know where she is, but she isn’t far, and she is definitely there against her will.”

“Is she being hurt?” Keegan asked, alarmed.

“I don’t think so. She looks like she was just left alone in an empty room.”

Keegan crossed her arms, gazing off into the distance. “Hmm. How in the world are we going to find her?”

“I have no idea, but we have to try.” Anna gestured for Keegan to follow as she walked back towards Calvron’s car.

In the hot, bright midday sun, Anna thought of Lauren in that inky dark room. She hurt inside because she knew Lauren hated the dark.

She yanked open the truck’s door and slid inside. “I can’t find her. She’s in a small room, like a closet or something, but I can’t find the location. Some kind of magick is dulling my senses. She’s very upset.”

Calvron slammed his fist into the steering wheel. “I knew he was no good. Why didn’t she listen to me?”

Sam, leaning in Calvron’s open window with Donald and Spencer on either side of him, shook his head. “Getting pissed isn’t going to help us. If we can’t use magick to find her, we’ll just have to do it the old-fashioned way. Does her car have a GPS locator? Or we can track her phone.”

“I can hack into the phone system,” Audrey spoke up quietly.

All heads turned in her direction. She looked so innocent, standing still behind Donald, not quite an outsider, but not fully a part of the group.

“Really?” Keegan asked, clearly impressed.

She shrugged. “Sure, it’s easy.”

Calvron twisted around to grab his backpack from the backseat. He eased out his laptop and turned on his cell phone as a tether. “It’s a weak signal out here, but it will do.”

Anna hopped out of the truck, and Audrey slid into her place, accepting Calvron’s laptop. “What’s her number?” she asked. After Anna rattled it off, she typed away furiously on the computer for about ten minutes without pause. Then she shut the computer and handed it back to Calvron.

“Sorry. Her phone has been disabled. Whoever has her is good, but…” A wide grin spread across her face. “I got her last location.”

Calvron pulled up to the swanky gate outside of Tristen’s place. The security guard stepped out of the fancy gatehouse and looked into the truck.

“We’re here to visit a friend.” Calvron told him.

The guard narrowed his eyes. “Name?”

“Calvron Foster.”

“Who are you here to see?” The guard glanced down at his clipboard, his dark eyes searching the paper. “I don’t see you listed.”

“A buddy of mine—Tristen. My friend Lauren left something at my house, and I’m bringing it over for her,” Calvron lied smoothly.

The guard ducked his head to look over at the girls squashed together in the passenger seat. Keegan smiled and waved.

“I’ll let you through,” the guard said gruffly. “But you need to leave your ID with me.”

Calvron pulled his wallet out of his back pocket and handed the guard his driver’s license.

The large iron gate opened slowly. No one in the car breathed until they passed beneath it.

“I was scared for a minute he wasn’t going to let us in,” Anna said.

Calvron looked in his rearview mirror at Donald pulling up behind him. “I don’t think they’re going to get so lucky.”

Anna turned and saw Donald backing his car out. Oh well, at least there were three of them.

Calvron veered to the right. Anna pointed and yelled. “There’s her car.”

“What are we going to do?” Keegan asked. “You know he’s not going to let us just waltz inside.”

“You could turn invisible,” Anna said excitedly.

“Yeah, but I can’t walk through walls,” Keegan reminded her.

“Let’s just see what happens. We’ll have to wing it from there.” Calvron eased his car into a visitor’s slot, and they jumped out.

Keegan pressed the doorbell until she heard the chimes echo back. She rang the bell three more times. They stood there for five minutes, but no one answered

“Let’s walk around back. He has those big sliding glass doors,” Anna said.

Calvron led the way around the side of the house, over the small patch of perfectly mown yard between Tristen’s and the neighbor’s. The wrought iron gate shone in the sunlight. It didn’t make a sound as they pushed through it and into the backyard, where the swimming pool glistened and the lounge chairs sat empty.

They pressed their faces to the window of the kitchen and peered inside. All the lights were out, but they saw discarded fast food wrappers on the kitchen table and soda cans on the island. A laptop sat open, but dark. It appeared no one was home.

“Do you know what kind of car Tristen drives? I didn’t see any vehicles out front,” Calvron asked, his breath fogging up the glass.

“No, but I’m sure it’s something fancy,” Keegan mumbled. She looked around, searching for a way she could use her power.

“We could break a window,” Anna suggested.

Calvron rolled his eyes. “Sure, then the cops will be crawling all over the place.”

“Maybe that’s not such a bad thing,” Keegan said thoughtfully. She grabbed the handle and pushed down, gasping when the door creaked open.

“I can’t believe it!”

“We’re in luck,” Anna whispered, a smile on her face. Apparently, Tristen’s arrogance over his own safety could be his downfall.

They glanced at each other one last time, and then Calvron stepped through the door. For a long minute, they cringed just inside the doorway in the stillness of the house, waiting for an alarm to announce their presence, but they were met with silence.

The three of them stuck together as they tiptoed through the house, peeking in doors and closets. As they entered the master bedroom, they heard someone clear their throat.

They whipped around. Galen stood in the doorway, his hands clasped behind his back. He raised an eyebrow. “Can I help you?”

“Umm, hey, Galen! We were just looking for Lauren,” Anna blurted out. “She was supposed to come back to our place so we could go on a road trip and she never showed up. We got worried she got in an accident or something.” Anna heard herself talking a mile a minute, a sure sign she was nervous.

“She’s not here,” Galen responded easily as he leaned against the doorframe, blocking their way out. “She and Tristen left about twenty minutes ago.”

Keegan narrowed her eyes. “Where did they go?”

Galen eyed her. “I don’t know. I’m not their babysitter. I think Tristen had to take care of something at his office.”

“Where’s that?” Anna demanded.

Galen shrugged. “Downtown—Tel-Corp. Big glass building, can’t miss it. You do know that you’re breaking and entering, right?”

“We were concerned,” Calvron barked.

Anna put a hand on his arm to shush him. “Can we just take a quick look around the house to make sure Lauren isn’t here?” she asked.

Galen shrugged. “Sure, but make it quick. If Tristen comes home and sees you, he’s not going to be thrilled.”

Calvron looked like he wanted to say something, but Galen just turned his back on them and walked out the door, disappearing down the hall.

Anna, Keegan, and Calvron checked every nook and cranny. Lauren was not there.

Chapter 22

L
auren screamed at the top of her lungs. A lot of good it did—her tiny prison of a room was obviously soundproof.

She jumped to her feet and walked around the room, dragging her hand along the smooth wall. She’d already done it before, but she still held out hope that she could find some kind of emergency release. She’d never heard of a
completely
empty safe room. Usually they had supplies and things to keep you busy, just in case you were in there for a long time, whether because of a storm or because someone broke into your house.

The dungeon
. She felt sick to her stomach, wondering how many times before Tristen had used the same room to torture people. She had foolproof evidence that her boyfriend was a scumbag, but she still had hard time accepting it. She felt raw inside. If only she could wake up and find this had all been a terrible nightmare.

At least the jerk was gone. She sank back to the ground, and then immediately sprung back to her feet.
He’s gone
. She laughed manically, the sound harsh and startling in the still room.

He’s gone.

For the first time, hope welled up in her chest. She could get out and stop whatever madness Tristen and his friends had planned.

Lauren closed her eyes and splayed her hands across the wall. She pictured the fuse box. A bright fluorescent light came on in the room, causing her to squint.

Now I just have to undo the lock. Piece of cake
. Lauren mentally beckoned the key pad. It was a snap for her to figure out which keys had been used the most. It took her four tries, but she finally got the right combination. The door clicked open.

Lauren stood still only for an instant, and then forced herself to move forward. Her stomach churned. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on edge, but she had to take the chance.

Inching the door open wider, Lauren peeked outside and didn’t see anyone. Her instincts screamed at her; something wasn’t right. Tristen was not dumb, so he would never let her escape this easily.

The house was unnaturally quiet. Maybe luck was on her side. She almost snorted at the thought. Luck had
not
been her friend lately.

Adrenaline rushed through her entire body. Lauren quickened her steps, trying to move silently through the guest room towards the closed door. Her skin felt cold and clammy. Tristen’s bedroom was right across the hall. If she could just make it there, she could sneak out the back door onto the patio.

Drawing a long, deep breath, she opened the bedroom door. It creaked slightly, and Lauren almost jumped out of her skin. She stayed perfectly still, her fingers wrapped around the cool, brass doorknob as she took a couple of deep breaths. When she had a hold of herself, she peered out, looking up and down the hallway.

Nothing.

Please. Please, gods, help me get out of here alive.

She made a beeline for Tristen’s room. The door stood partly open, so she just pushed it a little wider and slid into the room. Silence. The blinds covering the patio doors were open, letting soft light filter through the large windows. So close. Just a few more steps and she would be out of there.

She tiptoed across the plush carpet. She touched the door handle; pain flooded her body. She dropped to her knees, unable to move, the breath knocked out of her. The pain faded just as fast as it had come.

“Tristen knew you would try to escape.” Galen’s lazy voice filled the room. “You should have just stayed where you were, Lauren. Now things are going to get much worse for you.”

Her body relaxed. She turned slowly.

Galen stood in the doorway. He smiled, a surprisingly kind smile considering the circumstances. “You just missed your friends. A caring bunch.”

“My friends? What did you do to them?” She would never forgive herself if something had happened to them because she hooked up with a nutcase.

He shrugged. “Sent them on a wild goose chase.”

“I thought you were my friend,” Lauren managed to choke out. “Please just let me go.”

“I can’t do that.” A flicker in his eyes, of something that looked almost like remorse, quickly gave way to a grim expression.

She knew it was useless, but she wasn’t going down without a fight. She glanced up at the ceiling, willing the light to overheat. Shards of glass rained down on Galen, who threw up his hands to cover his face.

She only made it a couple of steps outside the patio doors before the pain hit her again. It was worse this time. Her muscles seized up, and she collapsed to the ground, her vision turning black as she twitched on the bricks.

“You got spunk. I’ll give you that.” Galen lifted her and threw her over his shoulder. The pain dissipated immediately, her vision returning as she hung upside down on his back. He held her firmly; Lauren knew that she wouldn’t be able to escape his grasp.

“Why are you doing this? Can’t you see he is insane?” Lauren screamed, kicking her legs in a desperate attempt to make contact with something that would hurt him.