“Alright. Thanks, James.”
“It’s my pleasure, Alix. Goodbye.”
“Bye.”
Alix hung up and took a minute before returning to the classroom. She went back to her desk and quickly scribbled a note and got Miss Fay’s attention. She came over, read the note and nodded. She passed it to Ben, so he could see it too. He nodded as well, and they went back to reading the novel. She knew they’d talk more about it later.
When the bell rang Miss Fay called Alix and Ben to her desk before they left.
“Do you think this Victor situation is serious?” Miss Fay asked.
Alix nodded. “I think it will be as soon as he finds out what happened to the Grynn offices or whatever they were. We still don’t know if François lived or died, but either way, something bad is going to happen soon. If François died Victor will want revenge and if he lived, he’ll want to come after me himself.”
“I agree,” Ben said. “At least we have the Nykara in Paris watching them. Hopefully, they can find out what the Grynn might be up to.”
“Yes, let’s hope so,” Miss Fay said. “I’ll tell Mike what we’ve learned. Now here’s a note for each of you as you’ll probably be late for your next class. Keep me updated if you learn anything more,” she said and handed them each a small slip of paper.
“I will,” Alix told her.
Ben and Alix left and headed to their classes. Ben was going to be really late as the gym was all the way on the other side of the school. Alix was just a couple of minutes late and handed her note to a disapproving Mrs. Cozza when she got to Spanish. She sat at her desk next to Shay. She didn’t have a chance to talk to her since Mrs. Cozza was already speaking to the class. They only had just over two weeks left in the semester, so she needed to pay attention if she wanted to get a good grade.
As soon as they were out of class Shay was asking her questions.
“Why were you late? What’s going on? Is everything okay?”
Alix had to stifle a laugh. “One question at a time Shay. But I think I can answer all of your questions at once. I talked to James. He said that Victor finally found his way out of the Everglades and the Grynn picked him up and took him to the airport. They were headed for Paris and they would continue to keep an eye on him.”
“What do you think this means?” Shay asked.
“I think it means that pretty soon we can expect the level of violence in the world to go back up and I have a feeling that he’ll be after me.”
“Who, Victor?”
“Yes, or François if he’s still alive.”
“Are you scared?”
“Not yet but it’s better if we’re extra cautious until we learn more.”
They met Ben outside the cafeteria and got their lunch. They found an empty table so they could talk.
“Did you fill Shay in?” Ben asked.
“Yep,” Alix replied.
“Okay,” he said. “So, what are we going to do?”
“We’re not going to do anything right now,” Alix said. “We’re going to concentrate on school for the next two weeks. We have finals right before Christmas and I don’t know about you, but I want to have good grades. We’ve already missed three weeks. Let the Council handle it, that’s what they’re for. And until they call me, or something happens here, we just carry on with our lives.”
Alix could tell Ben didn’t like that answer but it was all she had. There really wasn’t anything they could do from Sunset Creek and she knew the Council would contact her if they needed to.
The rest of the day went by quickly as they were busy preparing for finals. Alix hated writing them but knew there was no way to avoid it. She still didn’t know if she’d be going to college, so she wanted to have the best grades possible just in case she needed them.
* * *
Finally, it was Friday evening. Shay was staying over, and they were preparing for movie night. It was her dad’s turn to pick the movies and Alix knew he’d choose Christmas ones. He didn’t let her down. After the movies, Alix, Shay, and Ben went up to Alix’s room. None of them were ready to sleep so they turned on the TV. The girls forced Ben to watch another Christmas movie. This was one of those really romantic ones and he groaned the whole time. They had as much fun torturing Ben as they did watching the movie.
When it was over Alix checked her phone to see what time it was. She realized she’d forgotten to turn it back up after movie night. There were three missed calls from a number she didn’t recognize.
“Hey guys, check this out,” she said and showed her phone to Shay and Ben.
“I think that’s an overseas number, but I don’t think it’s England because it doesn’t match Logan or Fox Hollow. Maybe it’s European or something,” Ben said.
“Who would be calling me from there? And should I call them back?” she asked them.
“We don’t know who it is,” Shay said. “Let’s wait and see if they call back.”
They didn’t have to wait long. A few minutes later the same number was calling her again. She answered it and put it on speaker.
“Hello?” Alix said.
“Hello? Miss Alix?” a female voice said with a heavy French accent.
“Yes,” Alix said.
“This is Lucie Dubois from the Council. We met while you were in England.”
“Oh yeah Lucie, sorry I didn’t recognize the phone number.”
“That is alright. It is best to be cautious right now anyway. I have some bad news. The team that was watching Victor has disappeared and we have no idea where he is. The last known location of any of them was at the Grynn building you destroyed. We think that Victor has captured them.”
“Oh, that’s terrible,” Alix said. “What’s being done?”
“We have another team trying to find them based on their last known location.”
“Are you anywhere near the Paris safe house?” Alix asked.
“No. I live in Montpellier, it’s about seven hours south of Paris.”
“Do you know if anyone is at the Paris safe house or where there is a closer one?”
“Yes, there are smaller safe houses all over France. Why?”
“Do all of them have the secret room of rooms?”
“I believe so. What are you thinking?’
“I was wondering if it would be possible to search for them using the Map room.”
“I am not sure, but it is worth trying. There is one about thirty minutes from here. I will go and try. Is there anything specific I should look for?”
“Probably the number of missing Nykara and at least five to ten Grynn I would guess. How many of us are missing?”
“There are four missing Nykara. I will call you back when I have been to the Map room.”
“Okay, Lucie. Good luck.”
Alix ended the call and looked at the other two. “This isn’t good.”
“I agree,” Ben said.
“Hey,” Shay said, “this might be a stupid question but why would we send Lucie to a safe house thirty minutes from her house when we have a Map room right under our feet?”
Alix and Ben looked each other, then at Shay.
“What?” Shay said.
“That’s not a stupid question Shay, in fact, it’s a very intelligent one. How about we go down and check out the Map room ourselves and let Lucie do the same thing,” Alix said. “Even if we find the location, we won’t have a clue where it is. We’ll need someone who will be more familiar with the area.”
So, Alix, Ben, and Shay left Alix’s room and walked down to the small door by the stairs. It looked like a small closet until Alix put her tattoo on the back wall. Almost instantly an old wooden door appeared. They went down the curved stone staircase and to the room with the many colored doors, going straight to the brown door.
When they opened it, the room was a complete replica of the one from Fox Hollow. They found Paris on the map and started searching. They decided to concentrate on finding a large number of Grynn b
ecause there were a lot of places that had four red dots that represented the Nykara.
They focused on the area that was closest to Paris since that was their last known location. They zoomed in on the city, but didn’t find anything that matched the requirements. They were looking further away from Paris when Alix saw something strange. She saw a cluster of blue and purple dots.
“Hey guys, look at this,” she said to Ben and Shay.
“Purple? But that doesn’t make any sense,” Ben said. “We only know about red and blue.”
“Don’t forget the yellow ones,” Shay said.
“Right,” Ben said. “So red are Nykara, blue are Grynn and yellow are the ones with Nykara rings, what does purple mean?”
They stared at the map for a while thinking. Suddenly Alix had a terrible thought.
“I think I know what the purple is guys. And it’s not good,” she told them.
“What?” Ben asked.
“I have a feeling that the purple dots represent a Nykara that has been taken over by Grynn magic.”
“Oh my God,” Shay said, “what are we going to do?”
“I don’t know yet,” Alix said. “But this is something that the Council needs to know.”
“Text Lucie and tell her we’ve found them and that we’ve learned something the whole Council needs to know about,” Ben said.
“Okay. I think we need to tell everyone here too,” Alix said. “Shay, can you go get everyone in the house down here?”
“Sure,” Shay said and left the room.
Alix texted Lucie and then called James.
“Hello? Alix?”
“Yes, it’s Alix.”
“Is everything okay?”
“Not really,” she told him. “Lucie called me a while ago and informed me that the Nykara who was watching Victor vanished. I told her to go to the nearest safe house to use the Map room forgetting that we had one here. So, Shay, Ben and I went to ours to search for the missing Nykara but what we discovered isn’t good. We found four purple dots.”
“Purple?” James interrupted, “but there are no purple dots.”
“I know, but there weren’t any yellow ones until mom, dad, and Shay got their rings either. I think the purple dots are Nykara who have been taken over by Grynn magic.”
James was silent for a moment. “You said four purple dots?”
“Yes. There were four Nykara that we assume were taken by the Grynn. I don’t know what else to think.”
“I have a feeling you’re right Alix and if so, this is really bad. I know how difficult it was for you to help Logan, I can’t imagine you having to do that four times in a row.”
“Let’s not worry about that now. We need to inform the rest of the Council about this. I’ll take care of everyone here if you can start making calls to tell everyone else what’s going on. The first thing we need to do is find a way to get to our Nykara and bind them so they can’t do any harm. We also need to warn their families to stay away from them if they can and let the Council know if they see them. It’s key that we get to them as fast as possible.”
“I agree. I’ll start making some calls and get back to you as soon as we have a better idea of what we’re going to do.”
“Okay. Bye James.”
He hung up without saying goodbye. But right now, that didn’t matter. What they’d just learned was really bad and they had to find a way to stop it and fix the Nykara that had been affected.
Chapter 4
A few minutes after Shay left the Map room she was back with Natalie, Rick, Heather, and Ted. Alix gave them a brief run down about the call from Lucie, what they discovered about the purple dots, and her call to James.
“This is going to be a disaster if we can’t contain it,” Natalie said as she paced the room.
“Yes, it will be, but luckily we found out when we did,” Alix said. “Now I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but the Council is being informed and that’s what they do. I just wanted everyone to be aware of what’s going on. Tomorrow I’ll meet with Karin, Mike, and Kris and fill them in as well.” Alix yawned and looked at her phone. It was well after midnight, no wonder she was tired. “Since there’s nothing we can do right now why don’t we all go back upstairs and go to bed.”
There was a murmur of agreement and everyone left the Map room and walked back up the stone staircase. Alix noticed that everyone but her, Shay and Ben were already in their pajamas. Shay must have woken them all up. Alix felt a little bad for that, but it was important that they know.
Back in the main upstairs hallway everyone went to their rooms. Shay followed Alix and they both changed and crawled into bed. It didn’t take Shay long to fall asleep, but Alix was having trouble. With her thoughts not settling she tossed and turned for a while before she finally got up. She put on her robe and slippers and went down to the kitchen. She still found it a little creepy to wander around the huge place in the dark. She went to the kitchen and to get herself a bottle of water. Just as she closed the fridge, she heard a noise behind her. She jumped and maybe even yelped. It was Ben.
“You scared me half to death Ben. Why are you sneaking around down here?” she asked.
“I’m not sneaking. I walked into the kitchen just the same as you did.” He helped himself to a cookie from the jar and sat down at the eating bar. After a moment Alix joined him. “Can’t sleep?” he asked her.
“No, too much on my mind. You?”
“Same here,” Ben said. “I keep thinking about what this all means. In a short amount of time, the Grynn have managed to capture four Nykara, who I’m assuming were very skilled at what they were doing, and infect them with their evil Grynn magic. So, you know what I think that means?”
“That François is alive?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I’m thinking. This doesn’t look very good for the future Alix, or you. It seems that both François and Victor will have it out for you. Even if Victor doesn’t remember you specifically, François does, and he knows that Victor went after you. I’m scared for you Alix,” Ben said the last part in a whisper.
“I know Ben but I’m stronger than I look.”
“No one knows that better than me, but François and Victor are both really bad guys and they don’t have the same values as we do. We have no idea what they are capable of and I think that’s what scares me the most.”
“I get that, but I don’t know what to say to make it better,” Alix told him.
“Promise me that you won’t go after them, at least by yourself, no matter what.”
“Okay, I promise.” The words were simple enough, but Alix knew better than to think anything to do with the Grynn would be simple. She hoped that she didn’t have to break her promise to Ben, but she would do whatever she had to in order to keep her loved ones safe.
Ben seemed satisfied with her answer. “Do you want to go watch TV or do you think you can sleep now?”
“I still don’t think I can sleep so I’m going to vote for TV,” she answered.
They went to the den and started flipping through channels. They finally settled on a movie they’d both seen but still liked.
* * *
When Alix opened her eyes, it took a minute for her to figure out where she was and why she was so uncomfortable. She was on the couch in the den and had fallen asleep on Ben. As soon as she realized that she sat up. She knew she was blushing. Her movement caused Ben to wake up. He looked as confused as she’d felt.
“Um … good morning?” he said in a groggy voice.
“Yeah, good morning, I guess. What time is it?” Alix asked.
Ben looked at his watch. “6:44.”
“That’s way too freaking early.”
“I agree. I guess we finally got tired enough to sleep. I must have slept funny because my neck is killing me. I’m not sure I moved at all,” he said.
Alix blushed harder. “Well … that’s probably because I fell asleep on you. Again.”
Ben just smiled. “
In that case, I don’t mind that my neck hurts.”
Alix was trying to think of something to say to that when she remembered she’d left her phone upstairs.
“Crap,” she said she as stood up. “I wasn’t planning on falling asleep down here and I left my phone in my room. I have a feeling that I’ve missed some calls and texts.”
“We’d better go check it out,” Ben said. “Wouldn’t Shay have heard your phone?”
“I doubt it. She sleeps like the dead,” Alix said with a smile.
They went into Alix’s room and sure enough, she had five missed calls and three voicemails. And as she suspected Shay was still sound asleep. They went to Ben’s room to listen to them.
Voicemail #1 – “Alix, this is James. I’ve contacted the rest of the Council and we’re working on a plan. Someone will be in touch when we know more.”
Voicemail # 2 – “This is Lucie. I got your message and checked on the map. I know approximately where they are. I’m calling the Paris safe house.”
Voicemail # 3 – “Miss Alix this is Gordon. I’ve heard about what happened with the missing Nykara. Please let me know if we can help.”
Alix looked at Ben. “So, I guess we just wait?”
“I guess so. Are you going back to bed now?” he asked.
“I don’t think so. I’ll probably go back downstairs and watch the news. I have a feeling things are going to get worse in the coming days,” she told him.
“Do you mind if I join you?”
“No. I’m just going to go back to my room and get changed first though.”
“Okay, I’ll see you down there,” he told her.
Alix went back to her room and quickly changed. She was just about to leave when she grabbed her journal. She promised herself that she would do a better job of writing more often.
When she got to the den Ben was already there and turned the TV to the news channel. Alix sat beside him on the couch.
“You know, if you would have asked me a few months ago if I would be up at 7:00 on a Saturday morning watching the news channel I would have said you were crazy,” Alix said with a small laugh.
“I know,” Ben agreed. “It’s amazing how things can change in such a short amount of time.”
Chaos Page 3