by Jordan Dane
But on the night of his fever, all that changed. Everything changed.
The reality of her past closed in on her. At first she felt shock at his ability to get past her mental barriers. Her anger over his lack of respect came next, but her final spiral into misery had been a self-inflicted wound. Being reminded of her darkest secret by Lucas had been a harsh slap that she’d never be able to hide anything from him.
And, even worse, she’d never be worthy of the future she wanted for all of them.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
He reached for her hand, a gesture she would have wanted before he’d probed her darkest memory. Now she only pulled away, struggling with what to say.
“You can see the past,” she said. “You read secrets in anyone’s memory. I’ve never known anyone who did that. It’s...frightening.” She sighed, letting her pain show. “How long have you been able to do that?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
When she clenched her jaw, he must have sensed her frustration.
“What happened? What did I do?” When he sat up and winced, she saw he still hurt.
“You don’t remember?”
Flashes of her past rushed back to her, things she wanted to forget but never could—things she felt certain that Lucas had seen. She hid those memories from him now, but knowing he could delve into her mind even with a raging fever, she didn’t know if her usual blocking tactics would work with someone like Lucas.
The not knowing was killing her.
“No.” He shook his head. “Did I do something wrong?”
When his eyes locked on hers, he looked innocent. She still felt violated and betrayed, yet whenever she looked at this boy, she wanted to believe that he had no reason to lie to her. She hadn’t imagined what he’d done, but perhaps under the influence of such a high fever, he really didn’t remember.
“You have no idea how strong you are or what you can become,” she said. “You asked me to be your teacher, but it’s me who should be learning from you.”
She reached for his hand and felt him connect to her mind, too. Feeling him, inside and out, made her feel stronger. Better.
“There is so much potential in you, but you frighten me, Lucas. Connecting with you has affected me in a way I never could’ve imagined. I’m not sure I’m strong enough, but I feel a sense of duty toward you, even if it scares me.”
“Are you saying that I scare you?”
She didn’t know how to answer him. She wanted to reassure him that her idea of their future frightened her more, but that would be a lie. Right now, being with someone as powerful as Lucas, a boy who could slice through any mind blocks she could muster, scared her far more than the bleakest future she could imagine.
She touched his cheek.
“We must embrace who we are and who we’re becoming, even if it scares us. We owe it to our kind.”
“Our kind?” he asked.
“I read about us. Have you ever heard of Indigo kids or Crystal children? It’s what they’re calling us.”
When he only shook his head, she said, “We’re special, Lucas. We feel instead of think. We trust our instincts and use our minds the way they were intended. We see and feel things they don’t—or can’t—because they only use a fraction of their brainpower. Animal species evolve and change in order to survive. It makes sense that we do, too. We’re the future, Lucas. Mankind 2.0.”
She smiled, but he didn’t.
“No one ever treated me special. Even my parents acted like something was wrong with me,” he said.
“That’s my point. Your family dosed you, teachers acted like you were in special ed and doctors treated you like a lab rat. They made you feel like you weren’t normal. They fear what they don’t understand, what they can’t control. The future lies with us, not them. We must fight for what is ours.”
Kendra knew how she must have sounded to him. No kid talked the way she did, not even Raphael, who was oldest. Her unique Indigo nature made her different. She felt the weight of duty on her shoulders, for a future she hoped that she’d live to see. She didn’t have time to be a kid in a world that needed change, even though there were times that she yearned for the childhood that had been taken from her. She’d never truly known what being a child was, not like Lucas had. She could see by his innocence—and his unquestioning trust in strangers like her—that Lucas had been loved by someone, despite the hospital and medications he had endured.
With every question he asked her, his inexperience showed.
“Why can’t we learn to exist with them?” he asked. “Fighting for dominance is their mistake. It shouldn’t be ours.”
“You’ve seen how ruthless the Believers are. They’re only the first. Think of how bad things could get once the word really gets out about us. Right now people chalk us up to the lunatic fringe, but don’t be naive that they’ll leave us alone when they finally believe we exist. I named that damned church and its fanatics the Believers for a reason.”
When she saw him flinch in pain again, she took a deep breath and calmed down.
“The way I figure it, you’re a Crystal child, Lucas. You’ve blown past being an Indigo like me. It’s natural that you’d want peace, but that’s exactly why you need someone like me. Indigo kids are fighters. We don’t settle for how things are. We get angry. We fight. Someone has to do it, but you...” She touched his cheek and said, “You’re our future.”
She had to get him to see how things were, not how he wanted them to be.
“Trust me when I say they understand fighting far better than you do,” she said. “They will not allow us to exist among them. They fear us now. What will they do when we get stronger and our numbers grow?”
“But you can’t know that will happen.” For the first time, he raised his voice, and it looked as if it hurt him.
Kendra sighed and ran a hand through his long hair. She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.
“No more talk of fighting. First, you’ll eat. I’ve made you a vegetable broth.” She smiled to hide her worry. “I’ve washed your clothes. When you feel up to it, I’ll show you your new home.”
She hoped Lucas would choose to stay with them—with her. If they were meant to survive, they’d need him, but Kendra didn’t have the strength to resist what he could do.
If Lucas wanted to, he could know everything about her.
Bristol Mountains
11:10 p.m.
Dead leaves swirled at Gabe’s feet and whipped into the air, casting shadows as they moved under the dim light of a single lantern fixed to the stone wall outside the door. The littered front entrance, with its cobwebs and mounds of dust, told him things had changed from what he remembered of the grandeur of the estate. He felt the weight of isolation and an unshakable gloom.
Now, as he stood at a door he never thought he’d see again, he worked up his courage. Seeing this place through a kid’s eyes, it had once looked huge and magical. Every room held a mystery. Every old storage trunk told a story. Being here again had tapped into a part of his childhood that would always be special. It surprised him that despite the years—and all that had happened—the place still felt the same. It hadn’t changed much.
He had been the one to change. He wasn’t a kid who believed in magic anymore.
When a spark of guilt kept him from knocking, he glanced over his shoulder at Rayne. She only shrugged and didn’t push. She even forced a strained smile. She seemed to sense how hard it had been for him to come here. If his gut didn’t feel like a pretzel, he would’ve kissed her.
As he reached for the buzzer, the door moved on its own. It opened with a loud, rusty creak.
“Holy shiitake!” Rayne cried out and jumped. She grabbed him by the arm and wouldn’t let go.
The heavy wooden door with its ancient metal hinges inched open and sucked dried leaves into the gaping mouth of the mansion. Gabe stayed put. He stared into the darkness and waited to see who had opene
d the door.
But before he saw anything, he heard a familiar growl. Hellboy blocked his way and wouldn’t let him cross the threshold.
“Sorry about that,” he said to Rayne. “He’s a little...protective.”
Clutching his arm, she said, “If that’s a problem, call the Dog Whisperer.”
Gabe put his arm around her and walked inside with Hellboy leading the way. The dog’s massive body hovered off the ground and moved with a ghostly grace. Every muscle that once had been his rippled through his back and legs under fur that held together like a swirl of dense fog. With ears back and head low, Hellboy glared into the darkness and crept slowly. His growl trailed in his wake and echoed into the emptiness of the foyer until he stopped and sniffed the air.
Before Gabe felt a presence, Hellboy wagged his tail and stopped. A voice came from thin air.
“It is good to see you again, Gabriel.”
Gabe couldn’t help it. He jumped and turned at the familiar sound. What he saw was not what he had expected. The ghost of the estate’s butler spiraled from the gloom like a glittery tornado. His eyes came first, followed by his floating lips and his round belly. Dressed in the formal attire he had worn when he was alive, he let Gabriel see him.
“Frederick?” Gabe’s throat went as dry as the Mojave. “You’ve looked...better.”
“I can honestly say that I am not presently at my best.” Frederick raised an eyebrow. “But I haven’t let Death stop me, sir.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“Who are you talking to, Gabriel?” Rayne asked.
Before Gabe could explain, Frederick took a shot. “Oh, dear, I’m sorry. How rude of me. Is this better?”
The dead butler closed his eyes and stuck a thumb in his mouth and blew it like a horn. He popped like a puff of smoke and crackled like a fire until his form took shape enough for Rayne to see him.
She yelped and would’ve fallen if Gabe hadn’t caught her.
“I gotta sit down,” she said. When Hellboy cocked his head and whined, Rayne sighed. “Does anybody actually live here?”
It suddenly occurred to Gabe that he didn’t know the answer to that basic question. He turned to Frederick, who smiled and waved a hand toward another part of the mansion.
“Your uncle Reginald is in the great room, sir. He doesn’t sleep well these days, I’m afraid, but I’m sure your visit will cheer him. I’ll announce you and your guest.”
After the butler vanished to the sound of a cork pop, Gabe took a deep breath. He wanted Frederick to be right, that his uncle would be pleased to see him—but he couldn’t see how that could be. Too much had happened between them.
The one person they both loved most had paid the price for Gabe being different. He couldn’t help but feel that his uncle would be reminded of that every time he looked at him.
It was why Gabe had left in the first place.
* * *
With Hellboy at his heels, Gabriel headed down a shadowy corridor of ornate rugs and old paintings that hung on wood-paneled walls. Before Rayne followed him, Frederick popped back and waved a hand to stop her. As he stepped closer, the ghostly butler smelled of dust and cinnamon. One smell reminded her that the man was dead. The other trailing scent told her that when he was alive, Frederick liked cookies.
“Forgive me for noticing, my dear, but your stomach has the rumbles. I believe Cook always has something appealing in the icebox. Have Gabriel show you to the kitchen after your visit with his uncle.”
Frederick winked, but before she thanked him, he vanished. The essence of his shape drifted to the floor like glitter that dissolved at her feet. Rayne stood in silence with one word on her mind.
Weird.
She picked up her pace to catch up to Gabriel. When she joined him, Gabe took her hand without saying anything. The crackle of a blazing fire and the rhythmic pulse of a grandfather clock drew her into the murky great room, a cavernous space filled with books and antique furnishings that looked centuries old.
Without any other lights burning in the room, the fire cast eerie long shadows that danced across the walls. An older man with a full head of gray hair sat in a wingback chair upholstered in royal-blue-and-red velvet in a rich tapestry pattern. He sat near a massive stone hearth and gazed into the fire until he finally looked up. He stared at Gabe with his eyes filled with tears that caught the glow of the fire. Rayne let go of Gabriel’s hand and stayed behind. When Hellboy sat next to her, she felt a tickle from the phantom dog’s presence as he brushed against her jeans.
Even a dead dog could tell they needed space.
When Uncle Reginald stood, Rayne’s eyes trailed up his long legs to his aged face as the man lumbered from his chair. Gabriel was tall, but this man dwarfed him.
“After you left, I looked for you.” His uncle spoke first. His gravelly voice cracked.
Gabriel only nodded. He didn’t move. He didn’t say anything. He waited.
“I don’t know why you’re here, but I prayed this day would come,” the old man said.
“I didn’t think you’d ever want to see me.”
A single tear trickled down the man’s cheek. He didn’t wipe it away. “My dear boy, how wrong you are.”
In two steps, Uncle Reginald closed the distance between himself and Gabriel and wrapped his arms around his nephew. He lifted Gabe off the floor in a monster hug. Rayne fought the lump in her throat. If love were a pie, she could’ve served a heaping portion and had plenty to share. Seeing Gabe with his uncle, she thought of Lucas and her father and mother, and even Mia.
She ached for the family she lost, but she was happy for Gabriel.
Uncle Reginald Stewart made her feel welcomed after she was introduced to him. The big man reminded her there would be food in the kitchen and told her that Frederick would ready the rooms where they could sleep. Getting ushered to a bedroom by a dead guy—no matter how nicely he dressed—would take getting used to. In this mansion where the living walked among the dead, Rayne would have to accept the way things were. She had stepped into bizarro world with Gabriel as her guide. She had a feeling she’d only scratched the surface of the many secrets Gabe had.
With a smile and a nod, Rayne left Gabriel to his reunion. Hearing his uncle’s thicker British brogue, she now understood where Gabe’s accent had come from. His parents must have been Brits. It took every ounce of willpower she had not to listen as Gabe and his uncle spoke by the fire.
The room could have fit her apartment in it ten times over. She put distance between herself and Gabriel, to give him privacy and to check her cell. In the library, she’d switched her phone to vibrate and felt the tickle of a message countless times during their road trip. She didn’t have to check her phone to know who’d been calling her. Mia had left several messages, nothing that couldn’t wait until she figured stuff out.
An amazing display at the other end of the room made a better diversion.
Rayne hadn’t noticed before, but the übertasteful decor was oddly paired with huge faded posters mounted on frames along the back wall. Circus posters. Trapeze artists and elephants and strange clowns covered the walls and towered over her head. Shadows cast from the fire undulated over the promo pieces and made the enormous images come alive.
With her mouth open, Rayne stared up at the colossal illustrations that looked more like exotic and mysterious billboards from a circus carnival. She wanted to ask Gabriel why they were displayed the way they were. They seemed out of place, but when she looked back at him, he’d stopped talking to his uncle.
In that moment, Gabriel made her heart bleed. The sadness on his face gripped her and made her look at the posters again—closer. This time she saw what had made him look miserable. A young boy wore a hooded cape that covered his head and most of his face. He had his arms outstretched in a way she recognized, but the boy’s captivating eyes were unmistakable. A stunning woman named Lady Kathryn, dressed in a cape and a tiara, stood by him and a large dog that looked more like a
wild wolf.
Hellboy and the Third Eye had been printed across the top of the billboard and below it appeared the words Letters from the Dead. Rayne saw the similarities before she had to ask. Gabriel looked like his mother, and he and his ghost dog had a long history. He’d known the dog when Hellboy had a beating heart.
Gabe’s link to the dead had deep roots to a past she wanted to understand.
Chapter 12
Downtown L.A.
The Next Day
Lucas felt weak and his head still hurt, but he couldn’t stay in bed. Without seeing daylight in the tunnels, he’d lost track of time. Kendra had fed him and he drifted in and out of sleep, but when he awoke to find he was alone, he had to find her. As she’d promised, she had his clothes washed and dried and folded near his mattress. They were laid out on a crate. After he dressed, he went looking for her.
He tested his abilities by sensing where Kendra was in her tunnel stronghold. He didn’t reach out to her in their usual way. He merely pictured her face and trusted his instincts on how to navigate through the darkness. He’d never done that before. After meeting Kendra and feeling the presence of the others, he realized that what made him a freak in one world made him strong in another. That gave him the courage to try new things here, without hiding or fearing who he was.
He found Kendra working in a garden. The color of her aura had tinted to a soft bluish-green. It oozed from her, rather than pulsed. Her contentment showed. Seeing the unexpected beauty underground stunned him. She must have created it, an oasis of fresh herbal aromas and a heady floral scent. When he stepped into the light, he had to shield his eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. Greenery draped down, bathed in streams of sunlight from a grated opening at the surface above. Vines stretched their leaves toward the light, and bees and butterflies flicked from flower to bud. Kendra and her children cultivated their harvest by using metal scaffolding between the tiers of crops, and plastic tubing dripped water down the walls. The air smelled of humidity and rich soil and the sweet aroma of her garden.