Both of us flew across the floor and up the side of a wall a few feet from the deadly fire. Heat burned against my right arm to the point, I thought my clothes had caught on fire. We continued to slide upward until we reached the apex of the roof. When another beam split in half and brought part of the roof down with it, our bodies were flung toward the rafters. I managed to grab one before being flung to the floor. Splinters dug into my underarms, tearing into my flesh, but I held on. Mom landed hard on the carpet and rolled to a stop. Hardly able to keep her head up, a psychotic grin splayed her face.
“My little girl,” she said. “She’s learning so much these days.”
Oh no. It wasn’t just her powers trying to kill us this time. It was mine, too.
Mom’s head slumped to the floorboards.
I dropped about twelve feet, rolling my ankle in the process. I yelped and yanked my knee up to my chest as I curled into a tight ball. How the heck was I supposed to get us out of this now?
"Phae!” Kurt’s head appeared over the rim of the trapdoor. He jetted up the steps and dropped to his knees next to me. “What the hell are you doing here? Where’s Nadia? I told you to—”
“Where the hell were you?”
“She threw me through the attic door. I’m guessing the smoke was so much that you didn’t see me lying there unconscious in the hall or you might not have come up here.”
“Don’t be that full of yourself.” I pointed to where mom laid. “You have to get her. I can’t.”
“Can you walk?”
“Do I have a choice?”
Kurt helped me to my feet as best he could before going to our mom. He pulled her into a sitting position and yanked her over his shoulder into a fireman’s carry.
More of the roof cracked and fiery beams fell around us. Flames whooshed up in some places and more of the roof began to cave it. I stumbled out of the way before a four-foot, the smoking beam hit me. By the time I turned around, Kurt and mom were cut off and everything from my mom’s fashion design business had turned into an inferno.
It was the first time I had ever seen Kurt look helpless. The forlorn look on his face said not only didn’t he see a way out, but he didn’t want to die. Not this way. But we both knew in that instant that it was going to be his fate. He and mom were going to die and there wasn’t anything anyone could do about it.
“Noooooooooooooo!” It leaped out of me before I realized what was happening.
Tornadic winds whooshed through what was left of the attic, blowing anything not tied down out to all four sides of the house. If the walls were strong enough to keep whatever was in place, then it shot out about thirty feet to the ground. I flew backward and hit the edge of the attic door and fell down into the second-floor hall.
Dazed and in pain, I managed to lift my head toward a couple of lights heading for me through the smoky haze.
“Fire department!” One of them yelled around their oxygen mask. He knelt down next to me. “Are there any others in the house?”
“I...I...” Honestly, I didn’t know. Instead of the flames killing my mother and my brother, I might have done them in myself.
I lowered my head to my sliced arms and cried.
Chapter Four
I refused to be brought out by stretcher, carried, or anything that wasn’t under my own strength. I shoved anyone who touched me, not caring if my powers did some pushing themselves. I needed to find what was left of my family.
When I reached the front porch, I scrambled around the other firemen to see if Nadia was still outside in the backyard where I left her. She wasn’t. Panic began to worm through me as much as the aches and pains from my blast through the trapdoor. I didn’t care. I needed to know if my little sister was safe.
The closer I got, the more the realization pounded at me. She was really gone. The only thing standing where I left her was a six-foot privacy fence from the neighbor’s yard. My satchel, purse, and backpack were also gone. She wouldn’t have taken them herself and I doubt anyone who wanted to kidnap her would care about taking that stuff, too.
“Nadia!” I yelled, hoping someone had taken her in or perhaps she had truly wandered off. “Nadia!” When nobody answered, the more my panic grew into anxiety.
Someone touched my shoulder.
I jerked my head toward them and they flew about twelve feet across the backyard and landed on her back. A cop lay on the grass somewhat dazed. Oh crap! I started for her and stopped.
“I’m sorry,” choked. “I didn’t know you were...”
Her lips moved, but nothing came out. She swallowed and started again, glancing around her surroundings. She scrambled to get her hat and checked her gun. Thankfully, she didn’t draw it on me.
“I uh...” She glowered as though she had her suspicions about me, but wasn’t ready to admit to anything. Yet. “I must have slipped. The grass is sort of wet from the hoses, you know.”
“Yeah.”
“You okay?” She slowed her approach and stopped altogether when she got a little over an arm’s reach from me.
I shook my head. Panic began threading its way through me from my scalp to my toenails. Hugging myself, I glanced around the backyard, hoping to find someone left in my family. This just couldn’t be happening. I’d give my life to protect all of them and here I stood. Alone.
Tears slipped down my cheeks. Rather than stand there and look crazy, I headed back to the front of the house. My family had to be there. Someone had to be. There was no way I’d survive in this world alone. I needed my family. I just prayed they needed me, too. Everything inside me wanted to shrivel up and die.
When I got around to the front again, a paramedic ran up to me with a blanket and covered my shoulders. I didn’t hear any of his questions. I didn’t have time to focus on his words when my mind was spread a million miles across the thickening crowd.
“Phae!”
I jerked around.
Nadia zigzagged and shoved her way through the crowd until she emerged. She slipped around the invisible police line and threw herself into my arms.
Everything inside me melted. I crushed her against me so tight, sobbing into her cheek and her hair, sickened by the fact that I had let her down. Our mother and brother were gone. I clutched her so tightly to my front that I didn’t care if she couldn’t breathe. I needed to feel her heart beating against my chest to know she was alive. At that moment, my little sister was my everything and the only thing in my world. My soul would’ve died alongside hers had this turned out for the worse.
“I’m sorry, Phae.” Nadia cried. “I didn’t mean to move.”
“The firefighters found her when they were looking for a way inside.” Mason appeared behind her. He waved someone off before kneeling down and slipping an oversized jacket around Nadia’s narrow shoulders. “I got past them by saying I was a family member. Thankfully, this little one knows how to play along.”
Mason smiled as he smoothed his hand along her head. Even though I didn’t like him because he fed off my family, his top-model looks said he was a woman’s hot dream in the flesh. He was tall, had wavy dark hair that brushed the tops of his shoulders, and a rich voice that sent visions of swirling decadent chocolate on anyone's head. He was the guy men hated because he got all of the girls, but strangely enough, he didn’t want any of them for anything more than a quick sensual interlude. My mom didn’t like him, at first. Over the last few months, he had grown on her—I could tell. She treated him more like a family friend than a family fiend.
“I’m just glad you’re safe.” Smiling, I pulled her away and began checking her over to make sure she was okay. I opened my mouth to say something, but nothing came out. I didn’t know how to tell her.
“Where’s Mommy and Kurt?” she asked, beating me to the next obvious question.
“I don’t...” I wasn’t sure how to answer that. There was no way they could’ve survived that fall. “I don’t know. I was hoping they made it out.”
“I’ll go ch
eck with the fire department,” Mason said. “Stay with your sister this time, okay?” He was off before I could acknowledge him.
Chaos continued around us with the fire department dowsing water on the flames and the police trying to corral everyone to a safe distance. Some of the firemen even rounded us up and jetted us toward an awaiting ambulance to be checked out. I did everything I could think of, including controlled breathing exercises to rein in my powers.
So many things ran through my mind that it was impossible to complete a thought. I knew we’d need a place to stay and my credit card could get us a room, but how long would we be there? What about clothes? Can we keep mom there? What about school? How would we handle the insurance claim?
My head felt like someone had set off a grenade in it. Nausea coated the back of my throat. Several times I closed my eyes and held my hand to my mouth with the hopes of fighting back a vomit spurge. I wanted to say it was the smoke, but the paramedic suspected a concussion. If that was the case, it was an easy overnight hospital stay, which I wanted no parts of. Nadia wasn’t getting stuck in some foster home for even a minute if I had any say.
“They found him.” A paramedic appeared at the door.
“Kurt!” Nadia slid off the bench next to me, dodged the paramedic, and jumped out the door.
“Hey!” She started after my sister.
I wasn’t able to move as fast. Those few minutes of sitting made me realize how much agony had riddled my body. By the time my feet touched the ground, I fought to keep my brain from entering foggy territory. After a few gulps of fresh air to regain my senses, I started toward a second ambulance where Nadia waited with the female paramedic.
Kurt was being carried out on a stretcher with a brace around his neck and splints on his leg and arm. His clothes were torn, exposing bloody wounds under his shredded, blackened clothes. A mixture of blood and soot coated his face, but at least condensed air filled his oxygen mask with every breath. He was alive. I never thought I would find myself thanking God, given our uneasy relationship.
“Where’s mom?” I asked, trying to keep up with the gurney as they loaded him inside. “Have you seen her?”
“He’s not going to answer you,” another paramedic said. “We need to get him to the hospital. Now.”
“Why? What’s going on?”
“Are you his sister?” the paramedic glanced at Nadia, who was upset with tears, and by my side.
I eased her away. “I’m his sister. I have a right to know what’s going on.”
“We think there might be some internal bleeding, but we won’t know for sure until they can run some tests in the ER. Now if you don’t mind, we need to get him there sooner rather than later, considering at last check his vitals are dropping.” He glanced at both of us. “And given the looks of you two, I expect you to be right behind us.”
“You will.” Mason turned us both around and herded us back to the other ambulance with a paramedic in tow.
#
No amount of soothing would stop Nadia from shaking. I was more worried about her than the doctors were worried about me. Other than a little smoke inhalation, she hadn’t suffered any ill effects. X-rays proved I didn’t have a broken ankle, but the size of it was of some concern. It was as though someone had slipped an eggplant under my skin. They immobilized it and gave me some ice, but it was my head that had doctors worried. I had lied about my symptoms to keep them from making me stay overnight, though I suspected smoke inhalation had turned me into a terrible liar.
“Your sister can stay with you.” The doctor came by marking something down on her tablet before she turned to me and smiled. “You really need to stay, Ms. Thorne. Last I heard, the fire department isn’t going to let you two stay in a house where a part of the second and third floors have been gutted by fire. At least here you get a warm bed and food for the night.”
“And come morning?” I asked.
“Why can’t we stay with Mason?” Nadia asked. “And where’s mommy?”
That was a good question. The last conversation we had before he helped close the doors on our ambulance was he would find our mother. He had no stock in helping us, but something about the look on his face said he was sincere about that. I believed him, but my biggest fear was if he didn’t find a body, then our mother would be lost to the wind and eventually turn up being a body because she exposed our world to the human one. There was no way I was having that conversation with my seven-year-old sister.
The doctor sighed. “We can talk about it together with Social Services. It’s going to be a while before your brother can return home. He’s in surgery right now.”
“I’m old enough to take care of both of us.” I wanted to gather what little belongings we had left and leave this place.
“You’re still seventeen and considered a child by state law. That means you have to go into the state’s custody. I wish there was another way, but there isn’t.”
“What’s the state’s custody?” Nadia asked.
“They want to lock us up in a kiddie home.” I stared point-blank at the doctor when I said it. I didn’t care about sugarcoating anything when we were the last people who should’ve been placed in any human’s custody.
“I don’t want to go.” Nadia grabbed me and held on tight.
I sucked in my breath as her torturous grip stabbed my tender side. Bruised ribs sucked. This was what I deserved for scaring my little sister to be on my side.
“It’s not that bad,” the doctor said as if to wave it off. “More important, it’s not permanent. Once your brother—”
“You’re assuming the state will even let us stay with him. They’ll want proof that he can financially take care of us, not to mention a safe roof over our heads. In case you haven’t noticed, the one we had is no longer there. Sure, I’ll get out in a couple of months, but my sister won’t.”
“Ms. Thorne—Phaedra—it’s not as bad as you think it is.”
“Have you ever been in the state’s custody?”
Sighing, she lowered her gaze for a moment. “No, I haven’t. But I know—"
“You don’t know anything.” I grabbed my backpack and laptop bag, slid them on my shoulder and hopped off the bed. A throb bit through my ankle. As much as I wanted to take my sister and leave this place, limping out wasn’t going to convince anyone I was capable of taking care of her on my own.
“Excuse me, Dr. Framine. Can I have a word with you?” A nurse appeared behind the doctor. She kept her voice low as she spoke.
“Phaedra?” A voice said. “Nadia?”
I had no idea who that was and how they knew us was even more puzzling. I didn’t like where this was going.
A man appeared with dark brown hair brushing the tops of his shoulders and a trimmed beard. He beamed with radiant blue eyes as though he had just found his pot of gold. His thigh-length coat flapped about his lanky body.
“Thank goodness we found you.” He stepped back and waved to someone in the hall. “They’re here.”
“Oh my god.” A woman who looked like she could’ve stepped out of a makeup commercial hurried around our curtained off area and stopped just short of throwing herself at us. Her lush, curly hair bounced around her shoulders. “You’re both alive. When Mr. Savoy had told us about the fire, we had to come and make sure you were all okay.”
“You did?” My mind went blank. Mr. Savoy was the headmaster at the hub school. There was no way he could’ve known about our house nearly burning to the ground and certainly not in this record amount of time. If he sent these people, then something was going on. How was I supposed to play along when I didn’t know what game we were playing?
She nodded. “Perhaps you don’t remember us because you were too young. My name is Brianna, but you can call me Bree. And this is Ian, my husband. We’re the Kendricks.”
Had Kurt seen my fake smile, he would’ve slapped me back to my usual scowling self to save me from generations of embarrassment.
“Maybe th
is will help.” It wasn’t until now that I noticed Ian had a British accent. He reached inside his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. On it was a picture of my younger self smiling and standing between the two of them linked arm to arm. “You were about a year or two older than Nadia is now.” He showed the photo proudly to the doctor.
“We’re their guardians,” Bree said as she turned to the doctor. “We’ve been certified foster parents for the longest time. I have all of our paperwork and you can also check with Mrs. Delta Finch at social services. We would take care of Phaedra and Nadia whenever their mother was away.”
“Uh...” Doctor Framine motioned her toward the open part of the curtain. “Can we talk about this elsewhere? Excuse us for a moment.”
“I’ll stay with the kids,” Ian said, brimming with excitement. He waited until they left before toning down his grittiness, but not losing the smile. “I know how awkward this may seem, but we’re here to take both of you away from here for obvious reasons that the two of you are very familiar with. So for now, just play along.”
I moved my little sister behind me. “Why should we trust you?”
“Because, my dear, Phaedra, you don’t have much of a choice. When that doctor returns, you can tell her the truth, that you don’t know us and you take your chances in foster care. Or, you come with us and stay until we find your mother or your brother is able to recover well enough from his injuries to claim both of you.”
“How much is this going to cost my family, since we certainly don’t have anything to pay you?”
“It’ll mean some additional translations, but otherwise, nothing. Our services are usually paid for by social services. As I’ve stated, we’re certified foster parents. More importantly, we have people who work in high enough places to make all of this legal at the drop of a dime. However, it will only work as much as you’re willing to play along.”
“What really happens after we leave this place?”
His face flipped into confusion. “I thought I was clear on that. You and your sister live with us until you can be back together again. That’s how foster families work. The difference is, we only do this for preternatural children. Human children go through the regular system.”
Silent Scream (Bittersweet Series, Book 2) Page 3