Intangible

by DelSheree Gladden

  “I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop,” Hayden says, “but why didn’t you have Evie tell your parents what was going on?”

  Sighing, I press myself closer to Mason. “I just can’t deal with them freaking out right now. Mason looks awful. I need to focus on him.”

  Hayden doesn’t respond right away, but I can tell by his reflection in the rear view mirror that he has something on his mind. “How bad is he?” Hayden finally asks.

  “The gashes are closed up now, but his whole arm and side are swollen and discolored. He’s pale and clammy, too. I’m not sure if he’s sleeping or unconscious at this point.” My breathing catches as my adrenaline finally falls away enough that I can process my fear for Mason. I can’t have found him only to watch him die. I look up at Hayden. His troubled eyes stare back at me through the mirror.

  “Is Mason going to be okay?” I ask him. I don’t know why Hayden would know, but he does. I know he does.

  Slowly, Hayden nods. “I think he will. You got to him in time.”

  “But he lost so much blood.”

  Hayden’s jaw tightens. “Just don’t let go of him. He’ll be okay if you just hold on.”

  I cling to that bit of hope. There is a reason Hayden knows this, but in this moment it doesn’t matter how he knows, just that he does. Carefully, I lay my head against Mason’s shoulder. My tears drop slowly onto his ruined shirt as it all comes crashing down on me at once.

  My body trembles as I sob uncontrollably. I nearly lost him. My best friend almost died tonight. I push away the thought that he still might, clinging to Hayden’s words. Molly squirms in her sleep, and I cry for her as well. She almost lost her brother. She didn’t know what else to do when he lay dying on the ground. It breaks my heart to know nothing she did would have been enough. She was so brave, though.

  “When do you think we should stop and look for a hotel?” Hayden asks quietly.

  Drying my tears, I sit back up as much as I can without letting go of Mason. “We need a decent sized town so the Sentinels won’t find us easily.”

  “I can keep driving if you just want to get home,” Hayden says. “I’m not sure how safe we’ll be out here on the road.”

  I shake my head at his offer. It took us eight hours of driving to find Mason. Driving another eight hours after what we just went through is not an option. I’m ready to drop, and I know Hayden is as well. Mason doesn’t look comfortable propped up in the backseat, either.

  “No, we need to stop.” I worry as well that staying out here won’t be safe, but an idea strikes me and I smile. To Hayden, I say, “Just find us a hotel that’s out of the way. I’ll take care of the protection.”

  Hayden cocks an eyebrow at me, but doesn’t ask questions as I pull my phone out and flick through my contacts. I stop on Robin’s number. For a moment, I hesitate. She’s going to be pissed when I tell her where I went and what happened. Suddenly, I realize I don’t care. I was right to come after Mason. He would have died if I hadn’t. All I need is her parents to call in a favor.

  Robin picks up on the first ring. “Olivia? Where are you? Everyone is having a major panic attack right now.”

  “I have Mason,” I say. “He’s injured pretty badly, but we’re safe for now. We’re going to need some help to get home in one piece.”

  The line is quiet for a moment. I can practically feel the hostility seeping over the line. “I told you not to go to him!” Robin hisses. “The Sentinels knew to follow you!”

  “They found him before I ever got there!” I snap back. “Me going after him is what saved his life!”

  I take a deep breath and try so very hard to relax. I want to scream at her for being wrong, for putting her own fears above Mason’s life. It infuriates me that I couldn’t count on her to help me when I really needed her. I won’t let that happen again.

  “Your parents need to get in contact with the Caretaker Officers. There’s no way we can drive all the way home tonight, but stopping puts us at risk. Can your parents do that?”

  Robin doesn’t respond immediately. I’m sure she is still fuming, but she’s not about to deny me this. If Mason doesn’t make it home safely, she loses her one chance at escaping her abusive parents. “Yeah,” she finally says, “they’ll make sure you’re taken care of. Where are you staying the night?”

  “I don’t know yet. Could they track the GPS in my phone and just find us as soon as possible?”

  “Yeah,” Robin says. The anger in her voice surprises me until I remember her telling me about her failed attempts at running away. It takes a minute for Robin to bury her anger, but eventually she says, “I’ll have my parents get everything going. They should be there with you in about half an hour.”

  “Thanks, Robin.”

  “Yeah,” she says before hanging up.

  When I drop the phone into my lap, I find Hayden looking back at me through the rearview mirror. There are more questions in his eyes than ever, but like me, he holds onto them for now. An understanding seems to pass between us that we will be doing a lot of talking as soon as everyone is safely stashed away in a hotel. That’s fine with me. I lean back and rest my head. It’s a fight not to fall asleep.

  Just inside of half an hour later, I am startled out of a half-sleep by the quick flash of police lights. Two seconds later, another police cruiser pulls in front of us and my cell phone rings. I pick it up hesitantly. I asked for them to come, but it still makes me nervous to put all of our lives in the hands of the Caretakers. What other choice do I have, though?

  “Hello?”

  “Olivia Mallory?” a deep male voice asks.

  “Yes.”

  “Olivia, the Montgomery’s contacted us and said you were in need of assistance. The Aerling is in your care?”

  Aerling. They don’t know about Molly. I breathe a sigh of relief, even though I’m not sure why. “Yes, Mason is with us. He’s injured, but I’m staying in contact with him so he can heal. We need to stop for the night before continuing home.”

  “A wise decision,” the officer says. “We will escort you to a secure hotel. One unit will stay in the parking lot all night and an officer will be outside your hotel room door at all times. We’ll get you and Mason home safely.”

  “Thank you,” I say, and I truly mean it.

  Half of the Caretakers may be total lunatics, but from what Mason told me about the Parkers, I know they aren’t all like that. The thought doesn’t convince me to trust them completely, but I can trust them enough to deliver us safely home. Thoughts of the Parkers suddenly crowd my mind. I haven’t had a spare second to even consider what happened to them, but I fear for their safety.

  “The Parkers,” I begin, not sure if they’ll actually tell me anything.

  The officer speaks before I finish. “The Parkers escaped the Sentinel attack with no injuries. They will be relocated to ensure the safety of their Aerlings, but they are all fine.”

  “Thank you,” I say with tears in my eyes. I try to blink them away, not sure when I became such a mess. I never used to cry. Since all of this started, it seems like it’s my go-to response. “Thank you for helping us, too.”

  “You are very welcome,” he says before hanging up.

  I sit back in my seat and smile for just a moment. We’re as safe as we can be at this point. It’s been a while since I’ve felt secure. It almost feels foreign now. I don’t know how long it will last, so I try to enjoy it while I can. Hayden simply keeps driving. It’s another half hour before we are led to a decent looking hotel in an out of the way corner of town. When Hayden finally puts the car into park, we look at each other and sigh.

  “Do you think Mason can get up to the room on his own?” Hayden asks.

  “I’m not sure.”

  Gently, I attempt to wake Mason. He stirs, but doesn’t wake up. I try again. His eyes blink open slowly and it takes him a moment to focus on me. “Olivia?”

  I smile and press my palm to his face. “Mason, how are you feeling?”
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br />   He grumbles something incoherent. He still looks pale, but the grayish tinge to his skin has disappeared. It gives me hope that he’ll have enough strength to walk into the hotel on his own. Carrying him will look really awkward.

  “Mason, we’re stopping at a hotel. Do you think you can walk to the room by yourself?”

  Mason pushes himself up a bit with one hand. “Yeah,” he says, “I can make it.”

  By the time the four of us get out of Hayden’s car, the officers have taken up position to ensure we make it inside without a problem. Only one comes inside with us. Hayden approaches the concierge desk and asks for one room with two beds. He reaches for his wallet, but I stop him before he can pull it out.

  “Here,” I say, shifting the sleeping Molly to my hip as I dig my emergency credit card out of my purse. I hand it over with my insistence that he use it. Hayden doesn’t argue. He hands the card over, and a few minutes later we’re piling into the elevator with the Caretaker officer.

  Nobody says a word as we are taken up to the second floor. The hallway is empty save for a squatty looking man in a bathrobe and house slippers trudging back to his room. Hayden finds our room and unlocks the door. After the officer assures us he’ll be right outside all night, we drag ourselves into the room and shut the door.

  Mason presses a quick kiss to my cheek before collapsing onto the bed. He’s asleep a few seconds later. Molly, who slept through the entire trek up to the room, snuggles up next to Mason as soon as I lay her down next to him. It’s a little odd watching the blankets shift around nothing as she moves closer to him. I realize that’s how my family has seen Mason all this time and it amazes me that they could accept and love someone they couldn’t even see so completely.

  I turn away from the sleeping pair and find myself face to face with Hayden. He runs a hand through his tousled hair and says, “I guess it’s time we both start explaining.”

  Chapter 24

  Fair

  (Olivia)

  My lips part, finally ready to start talking. Before the first words can leave my mouth, though, my phone starts buzzing again. I pull it out and look down at the screen. My dad’s face stares up at me, but I know the smile he’s wearing in this picture isn’t the same expression he’s wearing now as he sits at home wondering where I am. I look back up at Hayden.

  “Answer it,” he says. “I should call my parents, too. We’ll talk afterward.”

  I nod and answer the phone. I’m surprised when my dad’s voice is filled not with panic, but with anger.

  “Why did I just get an alert that that your credit card was used to pay for a hotel room?” he demands.

  I cringe and drag my hand down my face. I completely forgot my credit card was set up to send my dad a message if I charge more than a hundred dollars in a single transaction. Aside from emergencies, I’m only allowed to use it to pay for gas. I didn’t even consider what he would think when he found out about the charge before I had a chance to explain.

  “Dad,” I say, “it’s not what you think.”

  “Then you and Hayden aren’t together in a hotel room right now?” he demands.

  “No, we are,” I say, “but we have Mason and Molly with us. Hayden and I came to rescue them, not run away and sneak off to a hotel. I’d think you’d have a little more faith in me, Dad.”

  He huffs, but doesn’t back down. “What were we supposed to think, Olivia? Evie tells your mom you and Hayden are with her watching movies, but when dinner came and went and neither of you came home and we realized no one had any idea where you and Hayden were, what do you think started running through our minds?”

  “I’m sorry, Dad.” I bite my bottom lip and try not to buckle. “I had to get to Mason. I knew he wouldn’t make it if I didn’t.”

  “Why didn’t you just tell us where you were going?” he asks, his voice softer than before.

  I sniff and take a deep breath. “I thought you would try to stop me.”

  There is silence for a moment. It makes me uneasy as I wait for my dad to say something.

  Finally, he says, “Olivia, why would we have stopped you? We love Mason. We don’t want anything bad to happen to him. I would have helped you if you would have told me.”

  “But …” My words trail off as I try to understand what he’s saying.

  It takes me a moment to realize that my mom didn’t tell him. She didn’t share our conversation with him about what will happen on Mason’s birthday. My dad has no idea helping Mason means I won’t be coming home. I know he loves Mason like a son, but my dad would not be so eager to agree to all of this if he knew. My dad loves Evie just as much as he does me, but the two of us have always been so close. I don’t know what it will do to him to lose me. I press my hand to my lips and turn the phone away as I struggle to regain my composure.

  “Olivia?” Dad asks a few minutes later. “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know, Dad.” I wipe away tears and sit down on the edge of the bed. “I don’t know.”

  He breathes out slowly. I can imagine him gripping the phone tightly, wishing he were here right now to wrap his arms around me and tell me everything is going to be okay. But he can’t. All he can do is say, “Olivia, sweetheart, please talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. I promise not to get mad again.”

  Beginning is not easy. It takes more strength than I have left to tell him about Mason’s birthday. I can’t do it, so I fall back on tonight’s events. He listens patiently as I explain. At some point, Hayden comes and sits on the bed behind me. He pulls me against his chest and holds me as I tell my dad about Mason almost dying, about how worried I still am. My dad listens to everything with the patience of a saint.

  When I finally finish, he says, “I wish you would have just told us what was going on, but I guess I can understand why you thought you had to do this on your own.” He sighs. “I’m just glad you’re all okay.”

  “Me too.”

  “Tell Hayden thanks for going with you and keeping you safe. I’m glad he was there.”

  I reach over and squeeze Hayden’s hand. “I’m glad he was with me too,” I tell my dad.

  “I’ll fill your mother in on everything,” Dad says. “Call us if you need anything tonight. And tomorrow, I expect regular updates. No dodging our calls this time.”

  “I won’t, I promise.”

  “Goodnight, Olivia. Be safe,” Dad says.

  “Night, Dad, and we will.”

  When the line finally goes dead, I drop the phone to the bed and press my hands to my face. My eyes feel puffy and warm, my skin damp from all the crying I’ve done tonight. My head is beginning to hurt. All I want to do is go to bed, but when Hayden shifts behind me, I remember that I can’t give in just yet. Slowly, I pull out of his grip and turn to face him. We sit cross-legged on the bedspread only a few inches separating our knees.

  I look up at him expecting to feel nervous, but oddly, a sense of calm settles over me. “I’ll go first,” I say.

  He smiles a bit. “Seems fair.”

  I chuckle. It’s more than fair.

  “Mason isn’t a friend whose family travels around the world in the military.”

  “I gathered that,” Hayden says drily.

  I scowl at him for just a moment, but there is no heat behind it. “I found Mason on my front porch when I was five. His entire family had just been murdered and he’d spent two days wandering through town because no one could see him to help him.”

  “But you could,” Hayden says.

  I nod. “I knew nothing else about him, but I took him in. My family didn’t believe he was real at first, but eventually we convinced them. It wasn’t until Robin showed up at school that we found out there were more people like Mason… Aerlings. She explained a lot, but not everything. She told us that Mason’s family, the one that had been murdered, wasn’t his real family. They were Caretakers, like Robin’s family, people who raise Aerlings until they turn eighteen and return home to their own world. She also
told us about the Sentinels,” I say. “I assume I don’t need to explain what they do or who they are.”

  Hayden shakes his head. “Their attempts to kill us made it pretty clear they have a grudge against Aerlings.”

  “Yeah,” I say. “With Mason it’s a little worse than usual.”

  “Why?” Hayden asks.

  “Um, apparently, Mason is some sort of god to the Aerlings. He’s supposed to be extremely powerful, and he’s the only type of Aerling able to kill a Sentinel.”

  Hayden scrubs his hands through his hair. “Well, I’m not sure about Mason’s powers, but his little sister sure packs a punch.”

  “No kidding,” I laugh. I pause a minute before continuing. Hayden is taking all of this really well, but after what he saw tonight and what he already seems to know, I’m not all that surprised. I take a deep breath and decide I better get on with it.

  “The reason I can see Mason and no one else can is because I’m his Escort. I’m supposed to help him get back to his world on his birthday. I don’t really know how to do that yet, or what will happen when I do,” I say. “I lied about Mason leaving for the military on his birthday, but not about me going with him. If I don’t, he’ll die. If I do, I might be the one to die.”

  Hayden’s head drops into his hands. He shakes it back and forth slowly. “I wanted so badly to be wrong,” he groans.

  His words sink into me. I already knew he understood more about this situation than he was letting on, but it hits me square in the chest as I realize he was expecting that revelation. Scared and a little bit angry, I fold my arms and sit up straight. Hayden looks up at me a moment later and grimaces at my hostile posture. I am startled by the glassy sheen to his eyes, but I don’t let it soften me at all.

  “I think it’s your turn to explain,” I say.

  “Yeah,” Hayden says as he drags his hands across his face, “I guess it is.”

  “How much of what I just told you did you already know?” I demand.

  Hayden holds up his hands to ward off my attack. “Let me say first, that I never lied to you about anything. I had no idea you were hiding an Aerling when we first started hanging out. In fact, I was ready and willing to beat the hell out of Mason for what he put you through. I hated him because he hurt you, but I had no idea who or what he was.”