The MORE Trilogy (19 page)

“Really, it’s no trouble,” Marley said, glancing at Lucas before buttering her own roll. “You two seem like a nice enough couple.”

“Oh, no. We’re not a couple,” Ava said quickly, her cheeks heating.

“No?” Marley said, surprised eyes darting between them. “Well, my mistake. At any rate, as long as it’s not the law you’re running from, it’s not any of our business.” Lucas laid a hand over hers, squeezing it gently, and she gave him a soft smile.

“It’s not the law, but there are people after us,” Caleb said slowly. “We really shouldn’t stay here.”

Lucas’s gaze sharpened. “What kind of people?”

Caleb glanced at Ava before replying, “Dangerous people.”

Lucas ate silently for a moment, all eyes on him. “You think they’ll come here?”

“I don’t know,” Caleb replied. “Maybe. Probably. It’s just a matter of when.”

“And you said you need to get to Mead?”

Caleb nodded. “There’s a place there where Ava will be safe.”

Lucas looked up sharply. “So, it’s Ava they’re after?” Silence was his only answer. Lucas and Marley shared a significant look. “All right, then,” he said after a moment. “I guess we better head for Mead right now.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Caleb said. “If you can point us in the right direction—”

Lucas shook his head. “It’s not far. We’ll give you a ride, make sure you get there safe,” he said. “You think we have time to finish eating?” A slight smile crinkled his eyes.

Caleb assured him that they did, and conversation turned to lighter topics while they enjoyed the rest of the meal.

For the moment, at least, they were safe, and Caleb planned to do whatever it took to keep it that way.

Afterward, Ava washed dishes with Marley while Caleb went outside to help Lucas bring the stock in from the fields. Ava absently dried the bowls with a towel, watching through the kitchen window as the two men walked to the barn, side by side.

“How long have you two known each other?” Marley asked, wiping the table with a damp rag and shoving a lock of hair behind her ear.

Ava cleared her throat. “Not long. He’s . . . my physics tutor.”

Marley barked out a laugh. “Really,” she said doubtfully. “Your tutor.”

Ava set the bowl on the counter and reached for another one, focusing intently on wiping it dry. “Yeah.”

“You often go on the road and hide in barns with your tutors?” she asked wryly.

Ava fought a smile. It really did sound ridiculous. “Well, it’s a little more complicated than that.”

“Mmm-hmmm,” Marley said, taking the bowls and putting them back in the cupboard. “I’m sure it is.”

“Caleb’s . . .” Ava’s voice faded away as she tried to put a finger on how exactly to define what Caleb was. A friend? A protector? Some guy who had turned her world upside down in a matter of weeks?

All of the above?

She sighed. “I’m not exactly sure what Caleb is,” she said with a shrug. “I trust him, though.”

“That’s good,” Marley said quietly, turning to lean back on the counter. “It sounds like you need someone you can trust.”

Ava smiled slightly. “Yeah.”

“These people that are after you . . .” Marley studied her closely, and Ava didn’t meet her eyes. “What do they want?”

Ava shrugged. “Actually, I don’t really know,” she admitted. “It’s kind of confusing, and it all happened so fast. But Caleb thinks they’ll hurt me.”

Marley reached out to rub her arm lightly. “Well, we can’t let that happen, can we?”

Ava looked up at her, touched by the kindness in her eyes. “Why are you doing this?” she asked quietly. “You didn’t have to help us.”

Marley shrugged. “Sure we did.” She smiled, patting Ava on the shoulder before putting the rest of the dishes away.

Within a half an hour, the four of them had piled into Lucas’s big truck and were barreling down the road toward Mead, passing the handful of buildings that made up Mabley’s Corner on the way. Even though tension sizzled in the air, a kind of panicked nervousness whenever Caleb would turn to look down the road behind them, they kept the conversation light, the radio playing softly in the background. When they came within a couple of miles of the town, Lucas glanced over at Caleb.

“So, where exactly are we going?” Lucas asked quietly.

“It’s probably better if you don’t know,” he replied with an apologetic shrug. “Just drop us off in the middle of town, please.”

Lucas nodded, pulling over in front of a small general store. “You sure you’ll be all right?”

Caleb smiled. “Yeah. We’ll find our way.”

“Thank you,” Ava said from the backseat. “For everything.”

With a trembling smile, Marley pulled her in for a tight hug before she and Caleb got out onto the sidewalk, waving as the couple drove away.

“Okay,” Ava said. “Now what?”

Caleb pulled out his phone, tapping away on it.

“Wait a second,” Ava said, stilling his hand. “Is it safe to use a cell phone? Can’t it be traced?”

Caleb shook his head. “Not this one.” He glanced up at her. “Do you have one?”

Ava pulled her phone out of her backpack, and Caleb cursed under his breath.

“It’s not on,” she said.

“It doesn’t matter.” He grabbed the phone. “I could take out the battery, but they’d still know this was our last location.” Caleb thought for a moment then grabbed Ava’s hand, turning to walk quickly down the block.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

Caleb pointed to a Greyhound sign across the street. They walked into the small bus station, coming to a stop in front of the departures board. “Wait here,” he said after a moment, glancing around the station before heading out the back door. Ava paced nervously, her eyes darting around, before she took a seat on one of the hard plastic chairs. Caleb returned a few minutes later, motioning for her to join him as he walked back out the front entrance.

“What was that all about?” Ava asked with an irritated wave of her hand.

“Couldn’t risk leaving it here in town, even if we took the battery out,” Caleb said. “We’ve been monitoring your movements for quite some time. It’s good that you turned it off, but even then, it’s not impossible to track. I put it on a bus to New York, just in case.”

“New York?”

Caleb nodded. “It leaves in a few minutes. With any luck, it’ll throw them off the trail. At least long enough for us to get to the safe house.” He looked back down at his phone and pulled out a small piece of paper from his jacket pocket.

“What are you doing?”

“The location is encoded. I just have to figure out . . .” He looked back and forth between the paper and phone for a moment, and Ava leaned in, scanning the strange combination of symbols, letters, and numbers.

She tried to make sense of it, biting her lip as she leaned in a bit closer. Caleb’s breath ruffled the hair at her temple, and Ava stiffened, suddenly very aware of how close they were standing. She swallowed thickly, fighting the urge to jump back like a frightened kitten.

Then—so slightly that she thought she might have imagined it—Caleb’s breath hitched. A prickle of awareness ran along Ava’s skin, her heart thudding heavily in her chest, and she stepped back purposefully, looking away down the street.

What in the world was that?

After a moment, Caleb cleared his throat. “I . . . I think I’ve got it,” he said quietly. Ava spared him a glance, but he was looking down at his phone. “Come on,” he said, turning to the left. “It’s a bit of a hike.”

Ava took a trembling breath, and followed him toward the edge of town.

Chapter 10

Caleb walked quickly, not daring to look at Ava but focusing closely on the map displayed on his phone instead. He couldn’t explain the strange sensation that had overcome him when she’d stepped so close to him. Or rather, he
could
explain it, but opted for denial, writing it off as stress-induced hysteria, or something equally sensible.

Because being attracted to Ava was absolutely, positively
not
sensible. Not in the least little bit.

He shook off the thought and turned a corner, and within a few minutes they left the town behind, walking down a tree-lined gravel road, their feet crunching—his a little slower, hers faster as she tried to keep up.

“Can you . . . maybe slow down a bit?” Ava asked, panting slightly.

Caleb glanced at her, fighting back his irritation. “We need to keep moving,” he replied shortly.

“I get that,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But I doubt a few minutes is going to make a big difference, right?”

Caleb sighed heavily but slowed his stride, and Ava fell into step next to him.

When she caught her breath, she asked, “So, what exactly is this safe house? And what did you mean when you said it’s cloaked?”

“It’s a Guardian house,” he replied. “A place where they take humans the Council has targeted. Our people have technology to hide such places—from satellites, radar—even from others of our kind.”

“So, Tiernan and Katherine won’t be able to sense us there?”

He shook his head. “Not even the Council will be able to. They use cloaks themselves, but have not yet found a way to penetrate them. It’s not
only
technology, you see. It’s a combination of technology and manpower—people with gifts of camouflage or energy absorption, for example. It’s different in every location, so there’s no way to crack it, at least not yet.”

Ava chewed on that for a moment, then turned to him hesitantly. “How long have you been watching me?” she asked.

Caleb considered feigning innocence but discarded the idea just as quickly. There really wasn’t any point to it, after all. Not anymore. “About six months,” he said. “The Council assigned me to you shortly before you graduated from high school. Your name came up as a possible Half-Breed, and they sent me to determine whether or not it was true.”

“My name came up? How?”

Caleb slid his phone into his jacket pocket, now certain where they were headed, and tucked his hands into his jeans, his breath steaming in the frosty air. “We have historians who scan our records—chronologies, genealogies, looking for certain markers of violations by members of the Race.”

“Violations? You mean the whole intermingling thing, right?”

Caleb nodded, his lips quirking slightly. “They’ve managed to track down most of the obvious cases, but there are those that are not quite as cut and dried. In your case, there was no direct blood link to the Race that could be found, but certain other indicators raised suspicion.”

“What kinds of indicators?”

“The Council utilizes a variety of methods in its research—medical records, standardized tests, police or news reports of unusual or unexplained phenomena, of course.”

Ava snorted. “Of course.” She frowned. “But none of that applies to me. There’s nothing unusual about me. I didn’t even do that great on my SATs.”

“It’s not necessarily about the score,” Caleb explained, kicking a rock and watching it bounce away. “Although extraordinary intelligence can be a marker, there are also certain patterns in the way you answer questions that can be indicators as well. Plus, there was your medical history.”

“What medical history?”

“Exactly,” Caleb said, as they turned down a long graveled driveway. “You don’t have one, not really. Except for immunizations and your school physicals, you’ve never been to the doctor.”

“So?”

“Think about it,” Caleb said, watching her closely. “Have you ever been sick?”

“Everybody gets sick.”

“Really?” he asked skeptically. “When was the last time you had the flu? A cold? Say, even a headache? Do you remember?”

“I had a headache the other day,” she argued. “After you messed with my memory.”

“That’s different. Other than that?”

Ava looked down at the ground, kicking up rocks with each step. She rubbed her forehead absently. “That . . . that can’t be possible,” she finally said.

“Never, right?” Caleb pressed gently. He knew it was difficult to believe. “You’ve never been sick.”

Her silence was his answer.