Night Resurrected (41 page)

bounty hunter still slumped in her chair.

Remy was nowhere in sight. Dad and

Wyatt slipped in quickly, closing the

door behind them.

“It’s her, all right,” Wyatt said,

bending to move the leather vest away

and examine the crystal.

Then all at once there was an

eruption from behind the closet door.

Barking, whining . . . and then the door

flew open and Dantès burst out.

“What the hell?” Dad said, and at the

same time, Wyatt exclaimed, “Dantès?

What are you doing here?” As he

crouched to greet the ecstatic dog, who

clearly knew him, he looked up at Cat.

His eyes flashed. “What is this dog

doing here?”

Utterly

confused

and

discombobulated, Cat tried to respond

with something that made sense. “Um . . .

I just found him.” That was the truth . . .

sort of.

“Wyatt?”

The disbelieving whisper somehow

filtered over all the other noise.

“You’re . . . alive.” Remy stood at

the entrance to the closet, staring at the

scene in front of her. “I thought you were

dead
. I thought you . . . burned.”

One moment Wyatt was crouched,

petting Dantès . . . and the next moment

he was there, taking Remy by the arms,

pulling her up close. He looked down at

her as if he’d seen a ghost. “Where the

hell have you been?” he demanded . . .

but the tone was not peremptory. It was

relieved and thick, filled with emotion.

“You’re supposed to be dead, you

jerk,” Remy said, shoving at Wyatt’s

chest. He didn’t release her arms. “You

have no idea what I’ve gone through in

the last—” She threw herself into his

embrace, fairly melting into that

powerful torso.

And as Cat watched, openmouthed,

Wyatt’s arms curved around her and he

drew Remy up against his chest, filtering

his fingers through the hair at her neck.

She was sniffling and shaking, clutching

at his shirt as if drowning.

Wyatt’s

expression

changed.

Softened. Cat saw the way his arms

tightened, pulling Remy closer. Noticed

the way he brushed his cheek against the

top of her head . . . and even as he

loosened his hold, releasing her, he

dragged his hand over her head, buried

his nose in her hair for the briefest of

moments. Taking a good sniff before

setting her away from him.

Well. There goes my chance for the

hot guy.

“I’m definitely not dead,” he said in

the most bland understatement of all

time. Once again he gazed at Remy, this

time as if he’d just found an entire cache

of that rare thing called duct tape.

“I can see that,” Remy responded,

swiping the back of her hand under her

eyes. “You are such a jerk.” But she was

smiling behind the words, and Cat

understood she was missing a whole lot

of subtext between them. She actually

felt hot and light-headed, seeing how

Wyatt looked down at Remy. If someone

ever looked at her that way, she didn’t

think her knees would hold up.

“Ahem.” Dad’s bemused but pointed

interruption drew their attention. “I think

there’s more of a story here about this

bounty hunter than what Cat told us,” he

said, his eyes settling on his daughter

purposefully.

“Well, yes,” Cat admitted, glancing

at Remy.

Then the most extraordinary thing

happened. Wyatt, whose attention had

been completely focused on Remy,

looked at Dad, then at Cat, and all at

once he changed. He stilled and the

expression that crossed his face was

fleeting, but raw and uncomfortable.

Then his features settled into something

else. Harshness—stony and cold.

He moved away from Remy and

returned to Lacey’s side, examining her.

“Well? How did she end up here?

Knowing you,” he jerked his head

toward Remy without looking up, “it

was no accident.”

“Of course not,” she replied. Her

voice was just as brisk as his and her

expression revealed nothing of her

feelings. A subtle chill had descended

on the room, filling the space between

Remy

and

Wyatt,

leaving

Cat

bewildered. Her attention bounced from

one to the other as her new friend

explained what happened.

To Cat’s mild surprise, Remy told

the entire story of how they’d come to

meet up and how Lacey came to be in

this room.

“You pulled a gun on a bounty

hunter?” Dad turned toward her.

She wasn’t sure if he was pleased or

shocked, but she grinned anyway.

“Maybe now you’ll let me join your

secret group,” she said.

“Fat chance,” her father replied.

“Someone in the family has to stay safe

and sane.”

He and Wyatt exchanged glances and

grim smiles. Once again Cat was struck

by the fact that they not only wore the

same expression, but they bore a

resemblance to each other.
Someone in

the family.
A prickle slid down her

spine. Her grandfather’s name had been

Wyatt. Was that just a coincidence?

“So Lacey came into the room, and

almost immediately after, she began to

show the symptoms of her illness?”

Wyatt

asked.

His

voice

was

businesslike, clearly directed at Remy

. . . but he was looking at the dead

woman again.

“It was the presence of the crystal,”

she explained. “At least, that was what

Lacey said—and I believe her. It was

sitting on the table there, hidden in a pile

of clothes. I actually felt a little zing in

the air, and Lacey must have, too,

because she reacted immediately. I don’t

think she realized what happened right

away, but it didn’t take long before she

was in pain, grabbing at her crystal.”

“It’s opaque gray now,” Wyatt said,

lifting the vest. “Not blue, like they

normally are.”

“It wasn’t before. I can’t say when it

changed, but when she and Goldwyn had

me, I—”

“Had you?” he interrupted, glancing

over. “Oh. The bruising. On your face.”

His mouth tightened but he continued his

examination of the body.

“The crystal was definitely blue

then,”

Remy

continued,

her

tone

matching his. “Four, five days ago.”

Then she drew in her breath sharply.

“Oh my God. Marley. Someone needs to

find Marley Huvane.”

R
emy couldn’t help gawking at the

room lined with banks of important-

looking machines that hummed and

whirred in a constant rumble. Theo and

Lou Waxnickis’ secret subterranean

computer lab was windowless, brightly

lit, and also furnished with desks, chairs,

and a collection of mismatched sofas. A

blue and yellow license plate with WIXY

98 and California stamped on it hung on

the wall. A
Lord of the Rings
poster

was the only other decor.

“This looks like something from a

movie,” she said to Wyatt as Sage stood

from the chair at which she’d been

furiously typing on a keyboard.

Finding and entering the laboratory

had made her feel like she was in one of

those James Bond DVDs too. In order to

get here, they went to the abandoned,

decrepit-looking part of the hotel

building and located a particular

elevator. Wyatt pushed the up and down

buttons in a certain pattern and moments

later the elevator doors opened. Then

they descended a short distance and he

punched in a code using the floor

numbers. The rear door opened to reveal

a stairway that led down into the actual

room.

Remy looked around the room and

realized she knew everyone here. Elliott

and Jade, Quent and Zoë, Simon and

Sage, Fence and Ana and George, plus

Wyatt, David, Cat, and herself.
What a

group
.

Again she thought, there was

something very special about the

cohesiveness of these people. Something

that went beyond simple camaraderie.

And then with a start she realized:

these are my friends.
These are people I

trust. And they’re going to help me.

I’m not going to be doing this alone.

She looked at Wyatt for the hundredth

time, drinking in the sight of him. How

could he still be alive? She’d
seen
him

go into that flaming building. She’d seen

the roof collapse on top of him. But here

he was, and he didn’t appear to have a

scratch or a burn anywhere on his

smooth, golden skin.

“Shouldn’t Vaughn be here?” she

murmured to him.

She couldn’t read Wyatt’s expression

as he replied, “He’s a little tied up right

now. Besides, he wasn’t invited.”

“Hey everyone—I’ve got Theo and

Lou connected,” Sage said. “They’ll be

joining us on that monitor there.” She

pointed to a large flat screen that looked

like a television. As she did so, the faces

of the two computer geeks appeared.

“Can you hear us?” Theo said.

“Yes,” Sage confirmed.

Just then Selena appeared in the

screen behind the Waxnickis, and Remy

thought it was very cool when her friend

actually waved to her.

She waved back, feeling a little odd

to be greeting a picture of someone. But

then she realized this was just as if they

were in the room with them, even though

the Waxnickis and Selena were more

than fifty miles away in Yellow

Mountain.

“We are gathered here today—”

Fence intoned in a deep voice, then

snickered as Ana elbowed him in the

gut.

“All right, Wyatt,” Elliott said. “The

floor is yours. Tell us what you’ve got.”

“Remy has the Mother crystal,”

Wyatt announced. “Which is what the

Strangers have been searching for since

her grandfather procured it fifty years

ago and, presumably, is why they want

her turned over to them in the next—”

He looked at one of the computer

monitors. “—twenty-eight hours. We’ve

got hardly more than a day.”

Despite his sobering words, the

reaction from the others couldn’t have

been more surprised, particularly Ana’s.

“You have the Mother crystal?

Seriously?” Her voice was reverent,

hardly above a whisper. “Here? Could

we see it?”

Remy glanced at Wyatt, who said,

“I’m not sure it’s safe for Ana to get too

close to it. Right now, it’s in the other

room, wrapped in asbestos. The crystal

has already destroyed Lacey merely by

being in the same room. It seems to have

killed her crystal, and she died shortly

after.”

“And

something

happened

to

Marley,” Remy added, “this morning,

when she came into—into close range.

She seemed fine when she left, but . . .”

She worried her lip, looking around.

“Has anyone seen her? I hope she’s

okay.” She’d already raised the concern

to Wyatt, who said he’d send someone to

find her, but there’d been no word yet.

“I saw her just a while ago,” Jade

said. “She seemed all right. A little

distracted, but healthy. She was talking

to a family who was leaving the city.”

Remy’s concern for Marley relaxed as

Jade’s

elegant

features

tightened.

“People are going in droves.”

“Like I said,” Wyatt glanced at

Remy, “the mayor’s tied up, trying to

keep his city under control.”

“And Marley knows you have the

Mother crystal?” Quent interrupted.

Remy shook her head. “She didn’t

actually see it. I don’t think she knows.

But Lacey did. She realized almost right

away what happened.”

“What did happen?”

Remy explained about the little

sizzling pop and how Lacey’s life

simply drained away.