“So their next move is…” Rain urged him on.
“Their next move would be to get the Air Force in the sky after us. Luckily for us, searching the U.S. skies will prove much harder than finding a needle in a haystack. At any given time, there’s an average of 4,000 planes over 3.8 million square miles of U.S. airspace.
“If the FAA knows how many planes are in the sky,” Whisper reasoned, “doesn’t that mean they track every plane? Aren’t they tracking us right now?”
“Not exactly,” Ember said, smiling slyly. “Let’s just say I know someone who has the capability to disable the onboard transponder. We turn it on before we enter an airport’s airspace and switch it off once we’re clear of their radar. We also have the ability to clone our transmitted flight number to match any approaching or departing flight. This plane is essentially invisible to the FAA, unless someone gets close enough to the aircraft for a positive ID”
“And,” Morgan added, continuing Ember’s thought. “We’ve already scheduled a false flight number for landing in Missoula.”
“Question,” Aerona cut in. “What happens if the FBI is waiting for us when we land?”
“She brings up a good point,” I said, agreeing with Aerona. “Do we still feel confident enough to land in Missoula?”
Morgan closed his notebook. “I believe there is a risk in continuing with our current flight plan,” he said, “though, statistically the risk factor is the same no matter what airport we choose.”
“He’s right,” Kasiah nodded. “The worst thing we could do right now is change plans. We’ve researched Missoula. We know the layout. If the FBI is aware of our plans, then Atmoro will find out soon enough. We need to stay focused and extract Jade swiftly.”
Whisper leaned back in his chair, cupping his hands behind his head and said comically, “Well, I hope everyone brought their vampire hunting shoes.”
TWENTY-SIX
Candice, speaking through the Jet’s intercom system, woke me from my dream. “…upright and locked positions,” she announced. “Andrea, as we prepare for landing, please collect all loose objects, such as glasses and any other items, throughout the cabin. The weather in Missoula is currently seventy-two with rain and strong winds from the northwest. We’ll be on the ground in about ten minutes.”
I leaned my head back against the seat and closed my eyes, trying to remember my dream; it is probably better described as a nightmare. My thoughts were fuzzy, and my memory was blurry; I could only recall pieces.
I dreamt of when I was a child in the Shadow World. Aerona and I, maybe thirteen at the time, were hiding in the hallway of our home, eavesdropping on our parents’ conversation. They had just returned from one of their secret alliance meetings, and my mother was expressing her concern for our safety.
“This is getting far too dangerous,” my mother said. “Malance has taken over the Council, and if he discovers we’ve been investigating him or have this information… I don’t… I don’t know what he’ll do.”
“This is for the good of all Shadows,” my father said quietly, almost too low for me to hear. “Malance will be appointed as the new Head Councilman. If we don’t stand up to him now, no one will. He’ll rule the Shadow World, and we both know if that happens, every Shadow will be in danger, especially once the Light Council learns how Malance has been exploiting humans.”
My mother began to weep. “We have the twins to think about,” she said. “They’re not old enough to defend themselves if something were to…,” she lowered her voice, “…happen to us.”
My father reached out and wrapped his arms around her. He held her tight and kissed her forehead. “Nothing is going to happen,” he assured her. “The evidence against Malance is too strong for even his uncle not to listen. There are enough of us who know the truth, who believe. We’ll protect each other. The decision has been made. We’ll present the evidence to the elders in two nights at the next council meeting.”
Suddenly, both my parents were frozen in place. They had literally become blocks of ice wrapped in each other’s arms. Their skin turned cold blue, and their expressions were frozen in time. An army of Shadow Vampires burst through the kitchen door. Malance was always the last to enter—the coward.
My mouth dropped open when Noshimo, one of the warlocks from my father’s secret alliance, walked in behind Malance. He had been a friend of my family long before I was born. I found it hard to believe he had associated himself with Malance, but it explained the frozen spell.
Before Aerona could scream out, I threw my hand over her mouth. I felt her emotions erupt into a fiery ball of anger over Noshimo’s obvious betrayal. I struggled to drag her backwards down the hall to my room as Malance barked orders to the Shadow Vampires.
“Check the house!” Malance yelled. “The children must be here somewhere! Go find them!”
I spun Aerona around. “Aerona,” I said, looking into her eyes, “we have to focus. They’re coming for us. Concentrate. We need to make ourselves invisible.”
Aerona shut her eyes and steadied her breathing. She always had incredible control over her emotions when she put her mind to it. Invisibility was a spell we had only learned recently and were nowhere near mastering the technique, but it was do or die. We pulled in as much energy as we could and created an electromagnetic field that bent the light around us. Our bodies no longer reflected light—we disappeared.
My bedroom door flew open, and a Shadow Vampire rushed in. Aerona and I were motionless against the far wall. I had never seen this particular Shadow Vampire before today. He looked young and moved unsteadily, as though he was a new vampire. Malance had probably created him for his own private, evil army.
The Shadow Vampire was careless. He searched the room like a common criminal looking for valuables. He rummaged through the closet, peered under the bed, and checked the locked window. He never stopped to rely on his other senses. We were there, he just couldn’t see us.
The Shadow Vampire left the room to continue the search. Aerona and I immediately released the spell to save our energy.
“We need to get out of here,” I whispered.
“What about Mother and Father?” she whispered back. “And why is Noshimo here?”
“I don’t know what Noshimo is doing here,” I said, wondering the same thing myself. “He may be one of Malance’s rats.”
“That’s impossible!” she said in denial.
I put my finger to my lips to shush her. “Aerona, if you have learned anything, I hope you have learned that impossible is simply a word. Do not cloud your vision of reality with thoughts of the past. Noshimo is a close family friend, which is true, and now we know why.”
My dream jumped from an image of my parents frozen in blocks of ice to Shadow Vampires ripping our home apart, searching for my father’s safe. My memory floated back down the hallway to my old room, where teenage Aeron and Aerona were making a choice that would impact the rest of their lives.
“Aerona,” I said, “Father always told us a day may come for us to make a decision we didn’t want to make. He warned us that someday we could be left with a choice that would put life against death. That day is today. If we try to save them, we’ll end up in a prison cell, or worse, a grave next to them.”
A tear rolled down Aerona’s eye as she comprehended what I had just said.
“Survive,” I said, “is what Mother and Father would want us to do.”
Aerona nodded her head. “You must retrieve Father’s spell book. Do you know where he keeps it?”
“Yes,” I replied, “but there is no time to retrieve it now. They’re in his safe under the large sapphire tree behind the house. We can come back. Malance will never find it tonight. If by chance he does, it’s locked with a spell that even Noshimo could never break.”
We heard noises from our parents’ room. It sounded like wood breaking as furniture was turned over. Malance was desperate to find my father’s evidence.
I snuck over to my bed
room window and peered outside. There were no signs of guards outside the house. I unlatched the window and boosted Aerona up. She leapt down, then helped me out behind her. We ran as hard as we could through the thick sapphire forest—away from the smell of our burning home.
My eyes popped opened, and I was thrust into reality. Morgan and Aerona were staring out the jet’s windows. Rain, with his head resting against his seat, was busy ignoring Whisper. I didn’t see Ember; she must have been in the cockpit with Candice.
“How was your nap?” Kasiah asked. “Any exciting dreams full of beautiful women?”
“Unfortunately, no,” I replied. “How long was I out?”
“A little over an hour,” Aerona cut in from across the aisle, “and yes, you snored.”
Kasiah slid her hand underneath mine. “We’re flying through a storm. Candice warned we may experience some turbulence as we descend.”
Tiny raindrops streaked across my window. There didn’t seem to be much of a storm outside. I was unsure of our altitude, but I could see two rows of red and white lights sparkling below. If I had my bearings right, the lights were from vehicles traveling along I90; the countries longest coast to coast interstate highway, the same highway we traveled on from Madison to Erie.
The traffic lights vanished completely as we flew into a low cloud. The jet’s floodlights cut through the darkness. I heard the hydraulics lowering the landing gear; we must have been closing in on the runway. The jet dropped several feet unexpectedly, rocking the plane from side to side as it recovered. The drizzle turned to rain, and the turbulence became worse as the jet descended through the clouds. We flew out of one dark cloud and went right into another. Heavy rain pounded against the jet. The engines powered up, then down, struggling to maintain a consistent speed. The jet dropped several more feet as we descended below the clouds.
I have always wanted to pilot a plane, but I did not envy Candice at that very moment. She had her hands full, landing a multimillion dollar jet in a storm at an airport surrounded by towering mountains.
Andrea stumbled past us through the cabin toward her seat.
I felt Aerona’s fear as the jet lost altitude again.
Kasiah squeezed my hand tight.
A bright streak of lightning flashed outside the window, illuminating the cabin briefly. Booming thunder echoed a second later. It was difficult to see much of anything through the rain. All the city lights were blurred, but I could tell we weren’t flying straight. The jet was definitely flying at an odd angle against the strong wind. When the long, parallel airport light patterns finally came into view, I could see them from my window—out the side of the jet!
Only during landing do passengers get a sense of an aircraft’s true speed. We approached the runway lights rapidly, sideways, hovering a few inches above the runway for what felt like an eternity until we finally touched down. The rear wheels of the jet contacted the pavement, forcefully aligning the jet to the runway. If we weren’t wearing seatbelts, we would have all been tossed to one side of the cabin.
Candice used reverse thrust, redirecting the engine’s power to slow down, producing a horrendous sound. It was almost as if she had pushed them forward to full throttle in an attempt to abort the landing.
The good news was that we were slowing down.
“Welcome to Missoula International,” Candice announced over the intercom. “The local time is ten forty-five. I apologize for the bumpy ride. If you’re conscious and alive, please remain seated until we come to a full stop. The ground traffic at the airport is reasonably inactive right now, so it should only be another minute or two until we reach the hanger.”
“That was intense,” Kasiah said, releasing my hand.
“I second that,” said Aerona. “I’m surprised Whisper didn’t teleport himself onto the runway.”
“Honestly,” Whisper added, “I would have, but the accuracy of my teleportation is greatly affected by an aircraft being tossed around in a storm.”
Candice navigated the jet through the complex taxiways to a reserved hanger on the northern end of the airport. It was the only hanger with its door still open and the lights on. As soon as the tail section was clear and inside the hanger, a gigantic overhead door began shutting behind. The winding down of the jet engines reverberated off the walls as the jet finally came to a stop.
The cockpit door opened and Ember and Candice joined us in the main cabin.
“Did everyone live to tell the tale?” Ember asked.
“That beats any roller coaster,” Whisper joked. “If we have time, I wouldn’t mind doing it again.”
“Whisper,” Ember smiled, “with a little bit of luck, we will never have to do that again.”
“Great job, Candice,” I said, genuinely impressed. “You were entirely too modest earlier when you said you were a decent pilot at best.”
“Another day at the office,” Candice smiled, playing down the difficult landing. “I guess it wasn’t bad for having my eyes closed the entire time.”
We all laughed out at her joke.
Ember turned to Morgan. “How’s our time schedule?” she asked.
“We’re right on target,” Morgan responded. “Has our ground transportation arrived?”
“Yes,” Ember said, opening the main cabin door. “We’re ready to move.”
Two empty black SUV’s were ready and waiting for us as we stepped off the jet; apparently, black SUV’s are the preferred mode of transportation for FBI agents and fairies.
Rain bolted outside the hanger to check the perimeter. He returned with nothing to report, except wet hair and clothes.
“Let’s get to the hotel and regroup,” Morgan suggested. “There are no threats right now, but that’s not to say the FBI wasn’t delayed due to the storm.”
We all agreed and loaded our bags into the vehicles.
“Want to throw to see who drives?” Whisper asked Rain.
Rain just looked at Whisper and nodded his head.
“Not this again,” Ember said, shaking her head. “Just get your asses in the vehicle.”
I don’t know where Whisper found his courage, but he was fearless in the face of a Shadow Vampire.
“Come on, sissy,” Whisper snorted, provoking Rain. “Best two out of three?”
Luckily for us, throwing turned out to be a game of rock-paper-scissors. Rain won by throwing rock two times in a row. Whisper was unable to read Rain’s poker face as he switched from paper to rock in midflight on the third game. I wondered how long these two have been playing this game. For the first time since I had met Whisper, he was without a smile, while Rain proudly shined the largest smile I had seen on him.
“You can drive, but the stereo’s mine,” Whisper mumbled, climbing into the passenger seat.
“Children,” Ember declared, closing her door.
As if we couldn’t avoid it, we ended up driving on I90 to the hotel. The storm started to let up, and the traffic thinned as we exited the highway onto the city streets. The city appeared to be deserted this time of night, which we found odd, since it was a college town.
Rows of trees lined practically every street. I felt I was driving through a forest. Breaking through the clouds, the moonlight cast just enough light to outline the mountain tops behind the city skyline. From what Jess had told us, the mountains are covered with thick, dark forests, prefect for hiding Atmoro and who knows who or what else.
“The storm must be keeping people inside,” Whisper remarked.
“Ghostly,” added Kasiah.
I focused out the window for anything out of the ordinary. “Sure is,” I said. “How’s our rearview, Rain?”
“Clear,” he said. “No tail.”
The hotel was only another two or three minutes down the road. The rain picked back up as we pulled into the packed parking lot. We found two parking spots all the way in the rear.
“Great,” Rain said, opening his door into the storm.
Whisper laughed. “Don’t worry, Ra
in, you’re not sweet enough to melt.”
Rain shot a glare at Whisper.
I looked around to see if anyone was outside. Satisfied no one was watching, I closed my eyes and pulled in enough energy to form a shield over the SUV. When I opened my eyes, I saw the rain rolling off the invisible bubble, as if a big plastic dome had been placed over our vehicle.
“I can’t keep this up forever,” I said, opening the door. “Let’s go.”
“Now that’s a neat trick,” Whisper remarked, sticking his hand out past the invisible bubble. He turned his palm over and watched the rain dance on it.
Fast-paced footsteps splashed in the water behind us. Instinct compelled me to turn and press my back to the SUV, ready for anything. The footsteps turned out to be Morgan running past us toward the hotel entrance; his bag was raised over his head as a makeshift umbrella. Aerona and Ember were walking side by side, dry as the desert sand. Aerona had created her own invisible dome over their heads. The rain poured over the clear dome, running straight down to the ground around them. They waved comically as they walked by.
“Showoff!” I yelled.
TWENTY-SEVEN
During our flight in, Ember had reserved the entire top floor of the hotel—sixteen rooms. To accommodate her request, the hotel clerk had to relocate several guests to other floors. She seemed puzzled when we walked in with only six people.
As I said before, it is amazing what one can do with an endless bag of money.
After checking in, we gathered in Ember’s room. I did a double take when Rain walked in through the door. He had traded in his hoody and torn jeans for a tight black t-shirt over a long-sleeved white shirt and black leather pants with silver zippers on every pocket. His belt had a rather large, intricately carved metal Celtic knot buckle; the silver metal had a dull finish that appeared very old—probably because it was. A thin layer of dark eyeliner made his dark eyes stand out even more than usual. His hair was the same old Rain—messy and out of place.
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