The van weaves knocking us across the seat. We turn again, and Adam and I slide to the other side. My nails dig into his arm and he emits a soft yelp.
“Sorry,” I lean and whisper into his ear just as we are knocked back across the seat. From the brief glance out the back window, I can tell we’re on a switchback. We’re going up a mountain.
“Where are you taking us?” I ask the man behind us. He wears a leather jacket and dark sunglasses, and I can’t tell if he’s looking at me or not. He sits perfectly still and straight as the van rocks around him. The silent waxy expression on his face chills me.
“Where are you taking us?” I ask louder. I roll onto my knees and lean over the seat. “Did you hear me?”
A hand whips out from his jacket and forces me backwards. My body smashes into the seat and pain explodes in my shoulders and the back of my arms. I start to rub my elbow just as the man presses something that looks like a taser into my cheek and my brain is ripped apart. I wrap my arms around my head and scream. “Stop…stop.”
“Brian said not to.” A deep guttural voice speaks from above. Something pops and the man backs away, and I’m released from the savage grip. As the pain subsides in my head, I notice Adam balled on the floor next to me. His chest isn’t moving and his eyes are closed.
“Adam-Adam-Adam,” I chant in his ear and shake him over and over. “Adam?” I don’t like how pale his face looks. I try to hoist him up on the seat, but he’s too heavy. Help, I need help. The words pound through my head threatening to escape through my lips.
Stella. She can get Adam’s dad. My cell phone. I feel it in my jeans resting against my thigh. I wonder if they’ll stop me from using it. My hands shake as I slide the phone from my pocket. The van stops abruptly, bouncing Adam and I against the seats. My cell phone slips from my fingers under the seat in front of us.
“What the hell?” asks the man behind us. The back door lifts open, and he climbs out before slamming it shut. I reach underneath the seat for my phone, brushing wrappers and napkins and several other unidentifiable objects. I scramble my fingers back and forth, searching for the familiar plastic, but it’s not there.
I glance over the seat to see one of the men outside the window, his head bobbing up and down and his mouth moving. I need to find my phone. I press my head to the floor so I can see beneath the seat, catching a glimpse of the blue and orange lines of my phone case. It’s on the other side of the seat. There is no way I can reach it from here.
With a brief glance at the two men still in the van sitting in front of us, their backs still to us as they face forward, I climb over the seat. My heart pounds with each moment passing.
My legs and arms drag like molasses over the seat, slow and numb with the fear charging through me. I fall to my knees on the other side, wrap my fingers around my phone, and —
“Sage?” I jump to find Adam leaning over the seat, his face wild and drenched in sweat. “Where are we? What—” His words are cut off by a fit of coughing. He falls back behind the seat, and with a nervous glance at the men still in the van, I climb back over to him.
I take his head into my lap and brush the wet hair from his face. His skin burns, and his eyes are closed again. I press my lips to his forehead. “Oh, Adam.”
I still hold tightly to my phone and I turn it on. I pull Stella’s number up from my contacts and dial. The battery is nearly drained, and a warning beeps in my ear, but the call connects. And rings and rings and rings. Stella’s voice crackles asking me to leave a message.
“Stella, it’s Sage. Please help. Adam’s in trouble. We’re somewhere in Arizona and he’s really sick. Please help.” I’m talking fast, and I hope she can decipher my words. When I end the call, I rest my arms on my knees.
I want to cry.
Adam is feet away from me, barely moving, probably dying. And my only hope didn’t answer.
Or maybe…
There are only five numbers in my phone. Adam, Stella, my mom, the diner, and… Adam trusted him to cover for us. Could he help? I glance back out the window. The men in the van were doing little to stop me.
Why not? So I dial. And it rings and rings and—
He answers, and I cry at the sound of his voice. “Sage?” Lucas’s voice is a mixture of shock and confusion. “What? Are you okay?”
“No.” I can’t keep the tears from my voice.
“What is it? What’s going on? Tell me. Do you need me to come get you?”
I cry harder. If only we could be there right now with him. If only things could be like they always were. “Lucas, I—”
The two men in the seat in front of us are turning around. Their hard black gazes sweep over me and the phone drops from my shaky fingers.
“Sage? Sage?” Lucas’s voice is faraway. He can’t help us. No one can. Gold light explodes through the windows, and I duck and shield my eyes on my coat sleeve. When the light fades and I look up, my mouth gapes. The men in front of us have disappeared.
Now it’s a gray gaze that I shiver underneath.
“Why hello there.” He raises a brow and crosses his arms.
“Zane?”
“Yeah, sorry I’m running a little late, but I’m returning your call.”
“But I didn't leave a message.” My voice shakes and stutters.
“Hmm.” He cocks his head looking at Adam curled up in the seat next to me. “Okay then. My mistake. I will be going now.”
“Wait.”
“Yes?” He drags out the word and wiggles his eyebrows, and I’m tempted to punch him.
“Adam’s sick. He needs help. Please.” My voice is timid and weak, and I’m certain my face is shiny with tears, but I can’t feel them. I can’t feel anything but the pounding of my heart, the desperation in my veins, the feeling that Zane is my only hope.
“Okay-okay. Let me see,” he says. He climbs over the seat and pushes me to the side. He crouches in front of Adam, laying a hand on his face. Adam’s skin pales next to the color in Zane.
“He overused his powers a bit, that’s all.” Zane looks up at me. “Did he disappear at all. Change into a ball of light?”
“Well yeah, more sort of shimmery blue light. Until Brian touched him. He’s been Adam ever since.”
“He’s been using the Nexus and his blood got a little overworked there. His little alien body couldn’t handle it. What you saw was his Perseidian form. You know, the alien side and all that.” There’s a mocking edge to Zane’s tone. “We’re not all this good looking all the time.”
“Will he get better?” I ask.
“Not without a blood boost from another Perseidian.”
“Blood boost? You could do that, couldn’t you?”
“Hell no, sweetheart. He needs pure Perseidian blood. Mine ain't that clean.” Zane shakes his head and holds up his hands.
I start to shake my head and then remember. “His dad. At the pyramids. Where Stella took Adam the first night, he got the blood boost from his dad.”
A flicker of anger passes through Zane’s eyes. “Yeah, nothing better than daddy dearest. But first you better get out of here and back to Star Harbor.”
“Aren’t you gonna help us?”
“Hey, I already did my good deed by saving you at that restaurant. I tried to warn you.”
My heart is stomping like a mad man in my chest, and I grab him by the shoulders. “Help me and get us out of here now.” I shake him and he pulls my hands away gripping my wrists and holding them out.
“Now, now, where are your manners?”
“Please, Zane.” I glance at Adam. His chest barely moves, and I press my fingers into it until I feel the rise and fall. “Before they’re back.”
“Yeah, there might be a little prob—”
“Zane? Good to see you.” The smooth familiar voice came from outside the back of the van. Brian appears, leaning into the truck. He looks at Zane as if they’re longtime friends. Ice ripples through my veins.
“Hey Brian, long time n
o see.” Zane takes his hand and shakes it. Blood roars and pounds in my ears.
“You’re a little early, aren’t you? I thought you wouldn’t be out here for at least another month.”
“Nah, I missed you.” Zane climbs out of the van and pats his shoulder. The back doors swing shut and stuffy air wraps itself around me once again. I want to pound those doors, but Adam grunts, and I go to his side. He is still again.
Zane’s with them. How could I be so stupid?
I climb over the seat and try the door handles, but they don’t budge. Ugh. I grab a knife tangled in the rope behind our seat, my fingers wrapping tightly around the handle. The next time that van door opens, I will shove it into Zane’s traitorous chest.
Adam emits a painful cry, and I climb back over to him. I touch his cheek and it’s cool. I can’t find his pulse. I can’t hear him breathe.
He’s dying. It’s too late.
“I’m so sorry,” I whisper. “I’m so sorry I wasted so much time by being stupid. I wish I could have it all back.” The tears fall across my nose and onto his shirt. I cuddle up next to him, thinking of the knife still in my hands, my fingers lightly tracing the sharp edge.
There is nothing for me without Adam. I can use the knife. It wouldn’t be hard. To dig it into my wrists, to puncture the skin, rip the arteries. I could lie here next to Adam, a mix of blood and tears until I fell asleep with him, and we wake up together in heaven or the stars or wherever we will go.
The van rumbles beneath us and we’re moving. I need to do this now. My plan. I want to be with Adam when I die, and I’m afraid that wherever Zane or the Nexians are taking us, they will take him from me.
“I love you,” I whisper into his ear. “I’ve always loved you. I should have told you that sooner.” I adjust, angling the knife, ready to slice the blade into my flesh—
“Sage.” It’s a faraway familiar scream. “Sage…Sage…Sage.” It’s Lucas. Coming from my beneath my seat. I shift until I can reach underneath and grasp the phone. The battery lights flash, but it’s still on.
“I’m here,” I whisper.
“Thank God.” His voice is raspy and broken as if he’d been both screaming and crying. “I called 911 from my house phone, but I don’t know what to tell them. Where are you?”
“No, call Stella. Tell her to get Adam’s dad. He’ll know what to do.”
“Sage, where are you?”
“Arizona…Nevada…I’m not really sure.” The truck rumbles and bounces, and I move from side to side. “A mountain, I think.”
“Maybe 911 can get in touch with the police.”
“No, Adam’s dad will know how to find us and help.”
“Sage—”
“Believe me, Lucas, please. More than anything trust me right now.”
“Of course.” His voice softens. “Dialing Stella right now. Listen to me, Sage. I don’t know what’s going on, but I need you to promise that you and Adam are going to come back. I need to—I need to tell you how sorry I am in person. How you’re the sister I never had and how much I love the both of you. Okay. Promise?”
His words create a lump in my throat, and I release my tight grip on the knife.
“I promise. Now tell St—” The truck breaks and my phone and the knife slip from my hands flying and rattling across the floor of the van. Adam and I roll to the floor, wrapped in each other. I’m on top of him, with my arm caught beneath his shoulders.
It’s quiet and I listen for Lucas’s voice. Nothing. The van door opens and a shadow hovers over us.
“Aww…ain’t this cute?” Zane says from above us.
“I’m gonna kill you,” I scream.
“Well that’s not going to do you much good then. Not if you want my help getting you out of here.”
“You’re with them. Get away from us.”
“It’s all politics, Sage. Trust me. I’m here to help.”
“I don’t trust you.”
“Fine, don’t. Stay here and watch him die. Because that’s what they’re going to do. Make him use the Nexus ‘til they drain him of every last bit of power, and then cut the both of you into pieces and leave you out here for the mountain lions.”
“How do I know that’s not your plan?”
“You don’t. But I don’t see any better options.” He shakes his head. “Last chance. Do you want my help…yes or no?”
I hesitate and I bite my lip. Do I trust him? Do I really have a choice?
“You don’t like to make decisions, do you?”
I flash to the restaurant. To the girl behind the counter and her lifeless eyes. To Adam’s unexplained trip from the bathroom to the safety outdoors. To Zane, who told me to run.
“Fine.”
Zane helps Adam over the seat and drags him from the van. We’re on the side of a mountain, rock, scrub, and a few bare trees. Zane drags Adam a few feet from the van and then stops, holding him up beneath his shoulder. I take Adam’s other arm, his fingers limp and lifeless in mine. Zane looks at me.
“Give me your hand.” He holds his out and I swallow hard. “C’mon,” he says impatiently. “I need your hand.”
“What for?”
He sighs. “Because I've got the Nexus and if you want to come with us, you're gonna need to hold on tight.”
“Okay,” Trembling, I slowly reach out. When my fingertips lightly brush his, he wraps his hand around mine, gripping hard. Electricity sizzles up my arm and through me.
Then the world around us explodes.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Light dances around me. Long, golden tendrils of diamonds and dust swirling and bending around me, wrapping me in a warmth. I feel everything. Millions of hearts pound in sync with mine, their blood mixing with mine. I feel my father. I’m a little girl twirling across the kitchen in his arms, and my mother’s laughing, and we’re happy, happy, happy.
And I spin faster and faster. Too fast. Ice pierces through the warmth. Ice and cold seeping through my clothes, and flesh and organs. Freezing me from the inside out. The world wobbles and I wobble with it until an arm steadies me. I grip the attached hand tighter and tighter as I wait for the merry-go-round I’m on to slow.
“You can let go now.” It’s Zane who holds me up. I drop his hand and step back. Water is sloshing at my ankles, and I realize we’re standing in a lake. Not just any lake. My lake.
A scream draws my eyes to shore. We are a few feet from the beach and a blur of curls and pink and blue I recognize as Stella passes me. She reaches for Adam, who Zane is struggling to keep upright. There is no color to him now, his eyes are closed, no sign of life. I open my mouth to cry but no sound comes out, and I reach for him, but a strong hand pushes me out of the way.
It belongs to a man, nearly twice my height, taller than Mark, taller than Adam. Dark hair and gray eyes. Laris.
He looks past me, past Adam. His eyes narrow at Zane.
“You?” he says. Emotion ripples across Zane’s features. Confusion, fear, hurt. I’m not sure. It’s there and then it’s not, replaced by the I-don’t-give-a-damn mask. Light explodes around us, and I bury my head in my sleeve. When I look back, Zane is gone.
“Laris, help me,” Stella cries. Laris still stares where Zane stood, a stunned expression invading his stoic features. “Laris.”
Laris rushes to Stella, taking Adam into his arms. The frozen numbness in me melts, and I move to them. To Adam.
“He was using the Nexus. He needs blood. At least that’s what…that’s what…” They’re not listening to me. Their eyes dart between each other and back to Adam. Laris gives a slight nod of his head to me and Stella responds with a shake of her head.
“Hey, did you hear me?” I press my hand against Stella’s shoulder, urging her to look at me.
She glances at me and shakes her head. “Not now,” she mumbles. Together they take Adam’s arms, locking themselves in a circle only big enough for the three of them.
“Not here.” I overhear Laris’ words to Ste
lla.
“The cabins are empty.” Laris nods and they bookend Adam like silent statues, making careful steps to the beach. Even with their slow, precise movements, I need to run to keep up with them.
“Please, please. Tell me what you’re going to do. Is he going to be okay?” My words, my begging, all of it is falling on deaf ears. They climb the steps and I follow. They cross the doorway into the cabin. Stella stops me at the door blocking my entrance with her arm.
“Oh no, not this again,” I say. She sighs. Her lips slope into a tight frown.
“Sage, honey, go home. Please.”
“No.”
The door slams in my face. If she thinks I’m going home….
I sit on the top step of the cabin porch. Minutes pass, slowly slipping into an hour, then two. It starts to rain. The porch awning keeps me dry, but a few sprinkles appear on my jean legs. I shiver with each drop.
The rain and wind picks up, and drops pelt my cheeks. Relentless waves batter against the beach. The raindrops mix with my tears as I replay the last moments on the side of the road, the kiss. Please don’t let that be our last kiss.
When the door opens several hours later and Stella emerges, I’m frozen to the porch. Cold squeezes my insides and my breath hangs like icicles inside my lungs. The only thing moving is my heart, hammering louder and louder, as if it can block out the words she may say. Don’t say it. Please, don’t say it.
She climbs down the steps and sits next to me, gripping the edge of the porch with her hands and thrusting her head back. She emits a long sigh as if it’s cigarette smoke.
“He’s okay,” she says, and I feel my breath return, and my heart slow. I drop my head into my hands, rubbing my palms against my forehead.
“I need to see him.”
I start to stand up, but Stella grabs my arm. “Not now. I have a question for you.”
I bite my lip in irritation and sit back down.
“What were you two up to?” she asks.
I bite my lip again. “I think you should ask Adam.”
“Very well,” she says. “I take it he told you that the Nexus makes him sick?”
One Starry Knight: A Scifi Alien Love Story (The Starry Knight Saga Book 1) Page 14