Mystics 3-Book Collection (88 page)

“Yes,” answered Elizabeth. Zoey could see
more purple bruises near her temples, and an angry red and purple
bruise around her neck.

“I’ll run if it means getting out of here,”
her mother smiled.

Zoey slipped off her backpack and pulled out
the second to last water bottle. “Here, drink this. You need
it.”

Her mother drank half the bottle and then
gave it back. “Keep the rest for later. I have a feeling we’ll all
need it.”

Zoey swung her backpack back onto her
shoulders and turned to her friends. “Let’s get out of here before
the other doctors start wondering what happened.”

As they made their way out the chamber door,
Simon turned around and smiled at Doctor One. “Can you smell
that?”

The doctor looked perplexed. “What? What
smell?”

“That’s the sweet smell of revenge, my
friend.” Simon smiled, “Later loser.”

Zoey shut the chamber door behind them, and
together they made their way down the corridor and past the
spiraling bone staircase.

They met no one. The dirt floor muffled
their steps like a thick carpet.

As they passed the flesh-door of the
doctors’ experiment chamber, she heard Doctor Three’s voice. “Why
do you suppose it’s taking so long for Doctor One to bring us one
of the humans?”

Silence, and then, “Tut, zag, heim,”
answered Doctor Two.

There was a pause, as though the doctors
were pondering their options.

“You stay here and I’ll go fetch him,” said
Doctor Three.

Zoey froze. They all halted in the middle of
the chamber like deer caught in headlights. If the doctors came out
now, they’d be found. She heard the shuffling of feet coming from
behind the door.

“Behind the staircase!” whispered Zoey and
pulled her mother with her.

The door swung open.

They crouched behind the staircase, and Zoey
knocked her head on one of the bones. The sound resonated, and she
prayed the doctor hadn’t heard it or
seen
them. Holding her
breath, she raised her head carefully and peered through a gap in
the bone railing.

Doctor Three stood at the threshold of the
door. His eyeless face angled slightly, as though he was trying to
hear something. His large elongated mouth twitched. His green
tongue flicked like a snake tasting the air. Finally, with a swing
of his long coat, he scurried out the door and disappeared down the
dark corridor.

Zoey let out her breath and whispered.
“Hurry, before he comes back.”

In silence, the group left the staircase and
made their way down the last corridor to the front door.

Just as Zoey reached out towards the skull
handle, Tristan stepped forward and grabbed her arm. “Wait,” he
said as he let her go. “Where are we going?”

She turned to her mother. “Do you know your
way around the city?”

Elizabeth shook her head. “No, I was
blindfolded when they brought me. I’ve been in this place ever
since.”

“Zoey, we’re not going to find the
Director,” said Tristan. “We don’t have any weapons. Our only hope
is to sneak out of the city and make our way back to the portal.
Our scientists have probably made more UECs by now. For all we
know, there are agents already putting them in place.”

“But what if they aren’t?” said Zoey. “What
if you’re wrong, and our only hope is in that bag?”

Zoey knew her mother was weak and wouldn’t
be able to search around the city for a man they might never find.
She might die. Zoey knew she had to decide.

“We can’t stay here,” said Tristan gently.
“Your mom needs help.”

“I’m fine,” dismissed Elizabeth. “Don’t
worry about me. If you need to search the city, then we search the
city.”

Zoey knew what she needed to do.

“No, he’s right, mom.” The word
mom
felt strange on her lips, but it made her mother smile. “We’ll
never find the director. The city’s too big, but we still have
enough time to make it back to the portal.”

“And hopefully we won’t meet any of the
Chacras again,” noted Simon.

“Or anything worse,” added Tristan.

Zoey glanced back towards the corridor.
“Okay, so how do we sneak out of the city? Any great ideas?”

“I have one,” said Tristan. His skin started
to shine as though it were painted with glowing sapphires.

Elizabeth’s eyes widened. “You three are
full of surprises,” she laughed.

Tristan smiled at Zoey. “I’m the only mystic
here—”

“
Half
mystic,” corrected Simon.

Tristan ignored Simon and withdrew the
chained shackles from his jacket.

“Wrap these around your wrists without
locking them. You’ll be my prisoners. Stay behind me in a single
file and keep your heads down. With a little luck, we’ll be out of
the city in less than forty minutes.”

“Handsome and smart, the dude’s got it all.
Life’s not fair.”

Simon whispered, “Seriously, good plan
man.”

Zoey wanted to kiss him. He was the most
beautiful creature she’d ever seen.

“It’s genius,” she said.

They wrapped the chains around their wrists,
stepped behind Tristan in single file, and walked through the
door.

The street was crowded with every mystic
from
The Mystic Manual
. Beasts, half-man beasts, and giant
insects turned and watched as they followed Tristan. For a horrible
moment, Zoey feared their great plan had failed, but the mystics
ignored them. They were nothing more than prisoners on a regular
transport.

Tristan did his best to retrace their route,
venturing deeper and deeper into the city. The air was hot, and
smelled of sulfur, burning wood, and oil. Zoey peered around
without raising her eyes. The mystics didn’t give them a second
look. One look at Tristan, and the rest was history. His stride was
confident, and he had a mean look in his eye. It was working.

After a half hour of wandering through the
city, Zoey started to feel more at ease. She raised her head
slightly and looked straight ahead. In the distance she could see
that the imposing Sphinx-like statues that towered over the
entrance to the city lay about a hundred yards away. She smiled.
They were going to make it—

“HUMANS!” cried a voice from the crowd.
“Imposters! Don’t let them get away!”

Simon slowed down, hesitated, and nearly
stopped.

“Keep moving,” hissed Tristan from the side
of his mouth. “If we stop now—we die!”

He marched on without turning back. The
others followed quickly behind him. Blood pounded in Zoey’s ears,
and sweat trickled down her face and back. Her mother was
struggling to keep up. If they had to stop and fight, the outcome
would be grim. They had no weapons and her mother was too weak to
help. She forced the panic from her mind and ignored the voice that
kept whispering that they were doomed.

“There! Stop them! Stop the humans!”

Tristan stopped abruptly. Simon crashed into
him. Elizabeth gave Zoey a worried look.

“Thought you could get away, eh? Well, well,
well, you were
wrong
, humans!”

Even before she saw him, Zoey recognized
that eerie, harmonica-like voice. She looked up.

Doctor One stood in front of a crowd of
mystics and pointed a long scab-covered finger at them.

“You’re going to pay dearly for this.”

Everyone on the street backed away from
them, as though Zoey and her friends were contagious, no doubt from
something the good doctor had given them.

“This is bad, isn’t it?” whispered
Simon.

Zoey stood protectively in front of her
mother.

A group of black helmeted mystics with long
sharp swords stood beside Doctor One. Even with their faces hidden
in shadow, Zoey could see their tusks and long angry snouts. They
looked like a cross between a man and a wild boar.

Doctor One beat the air with his gangly
limbs. “Keepers! Arrest them!” Arrest those humans, and take them
back to my lab!”

The keepers moved swiftly and surrounded
Zoey and her friends. They drew their swords and then advanced—

“STOP!”

A tall woman dressed in a skin-tight
baby-blue leather pant outfit pushed her way through the ring of
Keepers.

Even in this land of strange and unsettling
creatures, the woman’s face was still the most disturbing Zoey had
ever seen. She would never forget it. It was a face of horrors, of
too many plastic surgeries gone wrong—the face of a cat. Her slick
white hair only magnified her disproportionately large cheekbones
and tiny nose.

The woman’s smile was contorted by her
bulbous red lips.

Mrs. Dupont held out her arms and said, “And
so we meet again, Zoey St. John.”

Chapter 20

M
rs. Dupont’s smile
widened as she approached. Her small black eyes sparkled meanly
like she was about to play a cruel joke.

A flash of red caught Zoey’s eyes. A dozen
Alphas in red uniforms pushed their way through the crowd and
formed a protective barrier around their mistress, like soldiers
making way for their queen. A tall, strong-looking man stayed close
at her side, like a personal bodyguard. He surveyed the crowd
intensely, almost fearful. His single white eye twitched nervously,
as though he wasn’t excited to be here, like he
didn’t
want
to be here. His hand rested on the gun holstered at his waist.

“What’s wrong? Nothing to say?” teased Mrs.
Dupont as she stopped in front of Zoey.

“You usually have lots to say, my dearest
Zoey. Are you feeling all right? Are you sick? Are you ill? You
don’t look ill, but I can’t say the same for your mother. Oh, dear,
she has seen better days. How are you, Elizabeth dear? Enjoying
your new home with the Aneraks?”

“Leave her alone,” said Zoey angrily. The
woman’s repulsive face made it even harder
not
to hate her.
It was inevitable. Zoey’s hatred for her had grown like an
infection, consuming her soul. She wanted Mrs. Dupont dead. Not
just because of what she had done to her and to her mother, but
because of what she had done to the relationship between them.
She’d grown up alone and disconnected from her mother because of
this vile woman.

Mrs. Dupont’s smile grew wider at the
distress on Zoey’s face.

“What’s the matter? Did I say something
wrong? Did I say something to
upset
you? Oh, dear, I do
apologize.”

She laughed a hair-raising, sick laugh.

Zoey leaned forward slightly. She wanted to
reach out and strangle her with her bare hands. She knew it was a
barbaric reaction and she would probably get killed for it, but she
couldn’t control herself. But just as she raised her hands, she saw
something that made her stop.

Nazar was staring at Elizabeth with the
strangest look on his face, like he had just suffered a great loss.
A shadow in his face revealed that he was troubled by the state of
her. But why? Why would Mrs. Dupont’s rightwing man feel anything
at all for her mother? Didn’t he put her here as well?

Elizabeth only glared at Mrs. Dupont, her
hands in trembling fists. Zoey squeezed her mother’s hand and
flinched at the ice-cold feel of her skin.

“What do you want from us?” said Zoey
angrily. “You already have your
precious
Great Junction. Why
don’t you just leave us alone? Haven’t you done enough?”

“Me?” Mrs. Dupont waved a manicured hand
like a pageant queen. “
I
want nothing to do with you, but
our gracious host would like a word.”

Her sausage-like lips sneered, and she
snapped her fingers. “Bring them!” she ordered.

The Keepers moved in, pointing their
gleaming black swords at their necks. Instinctively, Zoey backed
away until she, Tristan, Simon, and her mother all stood back to
back.

“Wait just a minute!” Doctor One waddled
forward and pointed a finger at Mrs. Dupont. “I’ve already paid
handsomely for these humans! They belong to me!”

He scratched his arms nervously, and yellow
liquid oozed from his deep gashes. “We still need to perform the
Dream Purge! You cannot take them. They belong to me!”

Mrs. Dupont looked slightly annoyed. “They
belong to your ruler, Gigor. He’s asked for them. You don’t want to
disappoint him, do you?”

Doctor One’s mouth quivered.

“You know what happens when he’s
disappointed,” said Mrs. Dupont. “Is that what you want? To
disappoint him?”

“No-no,” stammered the doctor and then
frowned. “But I’ve already paid for them.”

“What’s it to me? Take it up with him. I
couldn’t care less.” Mrs. Dupont turned on her heel and marched
away through the crowd.

Nazar hesitated for a second. His face
looked drawn, and he still appeared to be preoccupied with
Elizabeth. But then he disappeared after his mistress.

The Keepers motioned with their swords.

Zoey could see the entrance to the city.
They were so close. Another fifteen minutes, and they would have
been long gone. She looked at Tristan who appeared to be blaming
himself for their predicament. But none of this was his fault.

There were a hundred things she needed to
say to him, needed to tell him, needed him to know. There were a
thousand words she needed to speak, needed to whisper, needed him
to hear. She wanted to reach out and tell him that it wasn’t his
fault, and that his plan had been a brilliant one, but the Keepers
growled menacingly and prodded Zoey’s chest with the tips of their
swords.

“Uh, guys,” said Simon, looking grimly at
the razor-sharp sword pointed at his neck. “If you don’t want to
become living shish kebabs, I think we better move. Like
now
.”

Reluctantly, Zoey, Tristan, Simon, and
Elizabeth followed the Keepers down the road. Zoey’s legs were like
lead and her heart was heavy. She had failed in her quest. She had
failed her friends, and worst of all, she had failed her
mother.