by Rose Garcia
***
A ray of sunlight warmed my face. I basked in it for a while, not wanting to open my eyes, when I heard a voice. "Dominique, you ready to wake up?"
I opened my eyes to see my mom at my bedside. She held a tray of food. I sat up and made room for her to sit.
"What time is it?" I asked.
The sun shone bright through my window. "It’s almost noon." She placed the tray on my lap. "Dad made your favorite omelet—cheese and bacon."
My stomach growled, but clenched tight when I remembered that I had just been at Rice University holding Farrell’s hands while his energy wrapped around me. "Wait, how did I get here?" I remembered Farrell’s glowing light taking me over. "Where’s Farrell?"
"He’s downstairs with your father. He used his energy to bring you here. It’s not something we like to do, but it was necessary. Everything’s fine now."
My bones ached, my body wiped out. I pushed the tray away.
"Dominique, Farrell had to drain some of your energy to get you here, but you both made it. We all did." She picked up the plate and held it to me. "Please, eat."
Just to make her happy, I took a few bites. I should’ve been scared as hell that another Tracker would find me, terrified that Tavion was one step closer to my death, but I wasn’t. I was too tired. And then I noticed something about Mom, something in her expression that told me she had bad news.
"What is it?’ I asked, afraid to hear her answer.
She cleared her voice. "Your father and I have to go out of town. We leave in one hour."
I sat up and almost knocked the food off the bed. "No! You can’t!" Tingles of panic flowed through me. "That Tracker found me, Mom! I'm not safe here, nobody is!"
Mom put her hands on my arms and gave a squeeze. "Dominique, you’ll be fine here in this house with Farrell. The Tainted may know you're in Houston, but they still haven't pinpointed your location."
"You don't know that, Mom. For all we know they're outside this house watching me right now, waiting for you guys to leave."
"Dominique, please, trust me. Your father and I reinforced your shield. You're safe, I promise."
My body relaxed a bit. "Really?"
"Yes, really. Plus, we’ll only be a few days."
Mom and Dad took Julian Huxley's journal and left, leaving me alone with Farrell. A deep and restless anxiety settled in me. They had said I was safe, but I didn’t believe them. If a Tracker could find me at Rice, it could find me anywhere, even if my parents had reinforced my shield—again.
If only I could do something and not just sit around and wait for my death. But what?
I called Jan, but didn’t get an answer. Without even thinking, I immediately called Trent but hung up just before the phone rang. I hoped my number wouldn’t register on his caller ID. With Infiniti out of town, I had no one else to contact, except maybe Abigail. She had brought me the book after all. But how could I reach out to her? Chills went down my spine. The Ouija board, that was how.