by Karen Lynch
“We go where you go,” Roland stated with finality, and Jordan and Peter agreed.
“Salt Lake City, here we come.” Jordan put the car in drive and pulled away from the church.
Roland settled back in his seat. “So how did you girls manage to sneak away?”
Jordan and I exchanged smiles. Then she glanced over her shoulder at Roland. “It wasn’t easy. After you guys left, Sara acquired two personal bodyguards who wouldn’t let her out of their sight. Not hard to guess who gave them that job.”
“I’m surprised Nikolas was willing to let someone else watch you,” Roland said.
I looked down at my hands. “We weren’t exactly talking before I left.”
“Since when has that ever stopped him?”
Peter snorted. “You girls are here, so your bodyguards couldn’t have been that good.”
“You don’t know Seamus and Niall,” I said.
“Once we realized they were going to follow Sara everywhere, we had to get a little creative. Actually, it was all Sara’s idea.” Jordan chuckled. “She set a little trap for them, and they fell right into it.”
I took up the story. “Sahir takes care of the menagerie, but he was hurt during the attack and he has to stay in the medical ward for a few days. I went to the menagerie during dinner to feed Hugo, Woolf, and Minuet, and Jordan came along to help.”
“Of course. I’m such a good friend.”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Seamus and Niall waited by the door while I fed everyone, and Jordan went into Sahir’s office where she could see us on the security monitors. I gave her a signal and she turned out the lights.”
“But can’t warriors see pretty well in the dark?” Roland asked.
“Yep. And the twins went right for Sara, which is what we wanted them to do.” Jordan snickered. “Then she zapped their Irish asses.”
Roland guffawed. “You didn’t.”
“It wasn’t much. I just needed to freeze them long enough for us to take their radios and lock them in Alex’s cage. They were already swearing up a storm by the time Jordan and I left the building. I figured no one would go to the menagerie looking for us for at least an hour. It’s not like Seamus and Niall will have to spend the night there.”
“Now comes the best part,” Jordan said. “Bet you’re thinking we snuck away through the woods, right? Not us. We jumped in the river.”
“Sure you did.” Peter scoffed. “Seriously, how did you get away?”
“We rode the river. I used my power to keep us warm and to get the water to take us where we wanted to go.” I’d gotten the idea from the night of the attack when Jordan and I had ridden the river to the stronghold to escape vampires.
Peter’s mouth fell open and Roland yelled, “Are you insane? You could have died!”
“I’m really good at controlling water. We were perfectly safe. Besides, Feeorin and Fiannar were with us the whole time.”
“What?” Jordan jerked the steering wheel and the car swerved a little before she corrected it. “What do you mean they were with us?”
“I think they like to watch over me. I saw them a few times along the way. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want you to freak out. Kelpies don’t have the best reputation.”
“With good reason! You couldn’t tell me after we left the river?”
“I was kind of preoccupied, trying not to freeze to death, and to get out of town. I guess it didn’t seem important compared to everything else.” I told Roland and Peter about meeting Derek and Wes and buying the car. “And here we are.”
“And here we are.” Roland looked excited and nervous at the same time.
“You have our stuff, right?” I asked, and he nodded. I’d known there was no way to sneak out with backpacks, so Jordan and I had given the boys our things to stuff inside their larger packs. Once we got to Salt Lake City, she and I could buy backpacks for ourselves.
“Jordan, you might want to step on it,” Roland said. “I have no desire to run into a Mohiri warrior after hearing about the stunt you two pulled. Something tells me they aren’t going to take it well.”
“Way ahead of you, Wolf Boy.”
I glanced at the speedometer and saw we were doing ninety. “Just don’t get pulled over.” She didn’t have a driver’s license or insurance. All we needed was some state trooper poking around and asking questions.
Once we hit the interstate, talk turned to Albuquerque and the chances of finding Madeline. Or more importantly, what I was going to do when I found her. Now that I was getting closer to confronting her, I didn’t know what I was going to say. It wasn’t going to be a sweet mother-daughter reunion. Madeline was a stranger to me, one with information I needed to keep the people I loved safe.
The conversation quieted after an hour or so, and I retreated into my thoughts. Now that we were safely away, guilt settled in. I hated to think of what Tristan and Nate would go through when they discovered what I’d done. Tristan was almost as protective as Nikolas. I promised myself I would call them as often as I could, though I knew that wasn’t going to alleviate their fears. I thought about calling Nikolas and swallowed hard. Already his absence was a hollow pain in my chest.
“Sara, wake up!”
“Huh?” I opened my eyes and sat up straight. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fall asleep.”
Roland leaned away from me. “You can sleep all you want as long as you don’t start glowing again.”
“What?”
“You were lit up like a giant glow stick,” Jordan said, not taking her eyes off the road. “It’s kind of hard to remain inconspicuous when they can see you from the space station. Does that happen a lot?”
“I don’t know. I mean, I don’t think so.” I held up my hands, but they looked normal. “A month ago I was having little episodes where my power acted up. I thought I was done with them once I learned to control my power. It must be starting again.”
Roland whistled. “If that was a little episode, I don’t want to see a big one.”
“I didn’t glow before, so this must be something new.” My teeth worried my lower lip. I was pretty sure glowing wasn’t normal even for an undine. Aine had said my power would grow, but not when it would stop, and I had no idea what to expect next.
Roland’s hand squeezed my shoulder. “We’ll figure it out. Don’t worry.”
It was well after midnight when we reached Salt Lake City. I wasn’t the only one who let out a big sigh. It had been a long day for all of us, and a five-hour car ride would tire anyone.
“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m beat.” Roland yawned loudly. “What do you say we find a motel and catch some Zs?”
Peter stretched. “Sounds good to me.”
“I have to go to David’s friend’s place first to get the stuff he’s holding for me,” I said, rubbing the back of my neck.
Jordan shot me a glance. “Now? It’s awfully late to be making a house call.”
“David said his friend, Kelvan, sleeps during the day. If we don’t go now, we won’t be able to see him until tomorrow night, and I don’t want to spend two nights here.”
“Fine, but I have to find a gas station first. My bladder is about to burst.”
“Same here,” Peter added.
I pulled a folded piece of paper from the back pocket of my jeans and studied the address I’d written on it. We were going to need a map, too. None of us knew our way around this city.
It didn’t take long to locate a gas station. The four of us went in search of the restrooms, and then I found a little souvenir rack up front that had a map of the city. I bought it along with bottles of water and some premade sandwiches from the cooler. Not exactly an ideal meal, but it would tide us over until breakfast. By the time I walked outside, Jordan had finished refueling the car. We devoured the sandwiches, and I realized it wasn’t going to be cheap to feed four large appetites. I decided to worry about that later and focus on finding David’s friend right now.
Pete
r chuckled when I spread out the map. “Why are you wasting time with that when we can look it up on our phones?”
“We don’t have any phones yet,” I said, tracing a route with my finger. “You two ditched yours, right?”
“Uh...”
My head snapped up and I spun in my seat to stare at him. “Please tell me you tossed your phones at the airport.”
Peter flushed. “We thought we should have phones on us in case we needed them.”
I groaned and rubbed my temple where a headache had started to form. “Peter, the Mohiri are very good at tracking people. How long do you think it’s going to take them to figure out we’re all together? We have to get rid of them now.”
“Are they really that good?” Roland asked.
“This is Nikolas we’re talking about,” Jordan told him. “What do you think?”
Roland pulled out his phone and held it up. “What do we do with them? Throw them in the trash?”
“No, they’d still track us.” Jordan lowered the map and looked around. A smile spread across her face. “Hand them over. I have an idea.”
Roland and Peter passed their phones to her, and she got out of the car. We watched her walk toward the gas pumps where an RV was parked. She disappeared behind it and returned a minute later without the phones. She wore a smug expression when she climbed into the car. Before I could ask what she’d done with the phones, she pointed at the RV pulling away from the pump.
A few seconds later I saw what she was grinning about. The rear of the RV was covered in stickers that said things like “Snow Birds” and “Beach Bound,” and the license plate was from Alberta. “Brilliant!”
“I hope Nikolas likes Florida.” Her smile grew. “See, I told you you’d need me on this trip.”
It took us a few minutes to locate Kelvan’s address on the map and for Jordan to figure out the best route to get there. Twenty minutes later, we pulled up outside a dingy four-story apartment building. Jordan cut off the engine, and I looked down the empty street that was dark in places because of missing streetlights. Garbage littered the street that was badly in need of repair, and graffiti covered some of the buildings.
“Not exactly welcoming, is it?” Roland muttered, and I silently agreed with him. “Are you sure this place is safe, Sara?”
“If David says we can trust his friend, I believe him.”
“What if it’s not his friend we have to worry about? For all we know there could be a dozen suckers hiding in that building.”
I tapped my chest. “Trust me, if there was a vampire close by, I’d know it.”
The four of us climbed out of the car, and Roland led the way into the poorly lit lobby on the main floor. A cluster of mailboxes lined one side of the hallway and two elevators took up the other side. I hit the elevator button and could hear the groan and creak of gears as the car slowly descended. From the sounds it was making, I wasn’t sure we shouldn’t take the stairs instead.
We got off on the fourth floor, which looked even more rundown than the lobby with stained carpet and peeling wallpaper that had probably been put up in the seventies. I led the way to apartment 410 and knocked briskly on the door.
I heard someone moving around inside the apartment and then the sounds of locks being undone on the door. One, two, three... four locks? This guy was seriously paranoid. The door cracked open and a male voice spoke. “Who are you?”
“I’m David’s friend, Sara. Are you Kelvan?”
The door opened another inch, but instead of admitting us, the man held up a cell phone and snapped a picture of me. Then the door shut in my face.
“Hey!” I yelled, knocking again. What the heck was that about?
After a minute of knocking, the door opened again and the man said, “Come in.”
I walked into the apartment, followed closely by the others, and the door shut behind us with a loud click. Immediately, my power flared up and static crackled through my hair. I whirled around and got my first look at our host, one word racing through my mind. Demon!
Chapter 2
The demon stared at me with wide eyes as I took in his appearance: my height with a rounded face and curly brown hair. If it weren’t for his black eyes and the two small horns peeking through his curls, I might have mistaken him for human. That and the fact that my power was going a little berserk. What the hell was David thinking? Why hadn’t he told me he was sending me to see a demon?
Kelvan put up a hand and fear flashed across his face. He stepped back until he was pressed against the door. “You’re Mohiri... and Lycans! David, why did you send hunters into my home?” he asked shrilly, and I glimpsed tiny fangs where his canines should be.
A faint voice issued from the cell phone in his hand, and he hit the speaker button.
“Kelvan, this is my friend Sara I told you about,” said David’s familiar voice. “Sara, meet my good friend Kelvan. You’ve probably figured out that Kelvan is a vrell demon.”
I looked at Jordan, who had studied demonology a lot longer than I had. She gave a slight nod, which I assumed meant vrell demons were not dangerous.
“Hi.” I smiled at Kelvan but didn’t extend my hand. I didn’t think he would appreciate my power’s reaction to him.
“Hello,” he replied stiffly, without returning the smile.
David spoke again. “Kelvan is one of the best hackers in the business. He’s actually the one who tracked Madeline to Albuquerque.”
“Thank you,” I said.
Kelvan shifted from one foot to the other. It struck me then that he was not being unpleasant on purpose. He was genuinely afraid of us, afraid of everything if all the locks on the door were any indication.
Someone moved behind me and Kelvan’s eyes widened even further. “David vouches for you, but what about the other hunter and the wolves?”
I glanced over my shoulder at Roland who looked ready to pounce if Kelvan made one false move. Turning back to Kelvan, I said, “Are you going to try to eat us or anything equally unpleasant?”
The look of horror on his face was almost comical. “Of course not!”
“Then we’re good.” I faced my friends. “Chill out, guys.”
Roland’s jaw dropped. “But he’s a demon, Sara.”
I arched an eyebrow, and he reddened. “I didn’t mean it that way. You’re different.”
“David trusts him and so do I. Not all demons are evil, you know.”
They all stared at me like I’d sprouted my own pair of horns, and I could feel Kelvan’s eyes boring into the back of my head.
Jordan looked at Kelvan. “You see what I have to live with? Watch out or she’ll be trying to feed you blueberry muffins next.” She went to the coffee table, grabbed a National Geographic magazine, and settled down in the stuffed armchair as if she hung out in demon lairs every day.
Roland relaxed his stance, and he and Peter took the couch. He picked up the TV remote. “Hey, do you mind if we watch TV while we wait?”
“Um, sure, go ahead,” Kelvan replied weakly as if he didn’t know what to make of the strangers invading his living room.
“If you guys don’t need me anymore, I have something to take care of,” David said. He told me to contact him when I got to Albuquerque then said goodbye and hung up, leaving me standing with a nervous demon. I tried not to stare at Kelvan, but it’s not every day you meet a demon. Sure I’d seen a few, but none that were humanoid.
“David said you have a laptop and some phones for me,” I said to break the awkward silence.
Kelvan nodded and went to the far corner of the living room that served as his office. The large desk was almost impossible to see beneath the computers and multiple monitors that were mounted on stands to make room for them all. Soda bottles and Chinese takeout containers also littered the top, and he muttered an apology as he hurried to clean it up.
I took the opportunity to study the apartment. It was cluttered, but much cleaner than I’d expected based on what I’d seen of the
building. Books, magazines, and newspapers lay around the living room, and the kitchen table was covered in what appeared to be model airplane pieces. There was a stereo with an actual turntable and a large stack of albums beside it. The top one was a Fleetwood Mac album, and my fingers itched to find out what others lay beneath it.
All in all, it looked like a pretty normal place, not what I’d expected a demon’s home to look like. But then, I’d never really imagined demons living among humans this way. I’d pictured them living in sewers and abandoned buildings, not in a little apartment with throw pillows and a ficus tree.
I did take note of the thick bars on the windows, and I couldn’t help but wonder who or what Kelvan was hiding from. Granted, it wasn’t the nicest part of town, but his defenses seemed a bit extreme. Maybe he was afraid someone was going to steal all his computer equipment.
“I hope you like Macs. They’re all I use, and David didn’t give me much notice.”
I turned to find Kelvan holding out a thin, silver laptop. “Wow, it’s so light,” I marveled when I took it from him. And small. This would easily fit in a backpack. “Nice!”
“It gets great battery life, and you can go a few days without charging if you don’t use it much. I got you a padded case to protect it.”
“This is great, Kelvan. Thanks.”
Kelvan smiled for the first time, and his fangs flashed again. It was a little strange to be talking computers with a guy who had fangs, but I did my best to act like it was no big deal.
He held up a small rectangular gadget. “This is a mobile hotspot and it’ll let you connect to the internet from almost anywhere. The account is not in your name, and there’s no way to trace it back to you or us. I also installed some of my own apps on the Mac that will allow you to browse the internet and make secure calls that can’t be traced to your IP. Come over to my desk and I’ll show you how to use them.”
Twenty minutes later, I closed the laptop after a crash course in how to use a Mac and Kelvan’s special software. In addition to the laptop, he gave me a bag containing four prepaid cell phones and an envelope containing five hundred dollars in cash. I tried to refuse the money, but he said it was from David, not him. When I asked him if David could afford it, Kelvin chuckled and said their clients paid generously for their services. His statement made me wonder exactly what they did for their clients and why he chose to stay in this rundown building when he could afford to live in a better neighborhood. He seemed like a nice guy, a bit shy around strangers. But then it wasn’t as if a guy with horns could go out and socialize a lot. From the look of his apartment, he didn’t have many visitors either.