Raf looked at me wide eyed, “You okay?” his voice rose.
“Yeah, I’m fine, you?”
He looked down at his body as though he wasn’t sure. “I’m fine.”
We got out and circled the car making disbelieving ohs and ahs. The hood was crumpled on the driver’s side, bumper mangled beyond recognition. The wheel well pushed back into the engine block that was exposed, black and grey metal among the glossy plastic of it’s shell.
“How fast where you going?” I asked, incredulous. “I mean, you weren’t going more than five, maybe ten miles an hour!” The amount of damage done made it look like were were going forty.
“What the hell? I was barely crawling.”
“I know!”
We stared at the lopsided wheel. “Well, we’re not driving this anywhere. We are almost to the road. Or I guess we could walk back to Mr. Silver’s house.”
“No way, that’s like five miles back. Let’s just walk out to the road and we can wave someone down.”
I checked my phone again. “You have a signal?”
“No. This is so messed up.”
We started walking briskly along the narrow track.
I spent the time thinking about Raf and his mom. What he really needed was a friend, not some girl who thought his grey eyes were dreamy. “Hey Raf? I want to make sure you know that I really don’t care at all if you’re gay. You’ve been a good friend.”
He gave me a lopsided smile, “You too, Harper. Let’s get the hell out of here.”
The dirt road wound over rolling hills, curving among the trees and rocky dells. The pines felt alive, silent watchers towering above us blocking the light. The cold air was so still it felt like a void actually sucking the warm breath from my lungs. No shadows were cast across the forest floor. No animals rustled in the trees tops. Perfect stillness swallowed us whole.
I was suddenly completely sure that Raf and I were lost in some fairytale forest forever.
The sky darkened as though a cloud passed above. We looked at each other, both sensing something amiss. I flipped open my phone. Still no signal.
“What the hell,” Raf whispered.
“Something’s not right,” I whispered back. We picked up the pace, almost running along the road. “We should be at the main road by now,” I added.
“I know.”
I looked back and let out a gasp. Moving along the forest floor toward us was a wall of fog. Roiling, it seemed almost alive. We moved fast but it was faster. The amorphous monster engulfed us in a thick, damp mist. I reached for Raf. He grabbed my hand, the warmth felt reassuring.
We walked on, hand in hand, unable to see more than a few inches ahead of us. I looked down and realized I couldn’t even see my own feet in the white miasma swirling around us. Raf disappeared though I could still feel his hand wrapped around mine, hear his breath. We kept moving forward, stumbling over rocks and roots, gripping each other like a lifeline.
Over Raf’s panting breath, I heard something else. Foot falls in the distance. Crunching dried leaves. The loping gallop of a fast moving dog. Make that plural, dogs.
“You hear that?” I hissed.
“Run, Harper!” I heard panic in his voice and it pushed me right over the edge. I let out a strangled cry and we broke into a full run.
Our ragged breathing was overwhelmed by the heavy sound of huffing right behind us. My foot slammed into a rock and I pinwheeled sideways. My hand tore from Raf’s as the entire left side of my body slammed to the ground. I let out a grunt of pain.
“Harper?” Raf shouted.
I rolled over on my back and tried to breathe in.
“I’m here,” I could barely squeak out the words. Instead of sucking in air, cold mist flowed into my lungs. I inhaled the pulsing creature and let out a full scream. Every cell in my body felt like it swelled from the inside, pushing shooting pain to the tips of my fingers and toes. My body went rigid, every muscle straining almost to the point of tearing. Unable to move I bellowed incoherently, terrified that I’d been paralyzed.
“Harper!” I could hear Raf shouting but he seemed very far, like he’d faded away.
My muscled spasmed. My back arched up off the ground. Convulsing, I bit down hard on my tongue and blood flooded my mouth, choking me as it filled the back of my throat.
Tears flowed from my eyes. I couldn’t blink so the world blurred into fractals of light.
Through brimming tear drops I watched long wolf snouts slide out of the fog as though materializing from it. Silvery fur glowed with supernatural luster, mercury eyes shining from the pack of wolves that surrounded me. Breath puffed from between stark white fangs. They circled close, taking long luxurious breaths in, sniffing at me as I shook on the cold ground.
Some core part of me raged against it. The sense of being totally helpless, not able to move to fight back.
I took a deep breath in and, fueled by pure fury, I shouted, “No!”
Forcing out my anger broke something lose and my body once again became my own. I jumped to my feat and prepared to fight the wolves off.
“Get back!” erupted from my mouth.
They cowered.
“Back!” I shouted again.
They turned and ran. Fluffy grey tails bounding back into the fog.
“Harper?” Raf practically ran into me. “Harper, what the hell happened? Are you okay?”
He took a quick step away from me in horror. I reached up and wiped away a long slick of blood that ran from my mouth.
“Bit tongue,” I managed to say.
“We need to get out of here. Come here, let’s go.” He wrapped a protective arm over my shudders and propelled me forward. We both practically fell over onto the paved road that we hit less than a minute later.
We stepped up onto the black asphalt with a sigh. I spun around. Behind us not a trace of fog remained. Just a normal early evening Virginia woods.
I flipped open my phone. Full signal. The clock read 8:23.
Raf gaped at my phone. He pulled out his phone. Same thing.
What in the hell just happened?
Shaken, we both sat on the edge of the main road.
“How could we have been walking for four hours?”
“We weren’t.” My tongue hurt like hell and my ribs screamed with every breath, but my head felt clear as a bell. “That was no normal fog.”
Raf’s nose flared with emotion. “No,” he said, eyeing my blood stained lips, “clearly not.”
I imagined my mom catatonic with fear. “I need to get home fast.”
Raf looked around. “I know where we are. My house is just through those woods.” He pointed across the street to a much less thick patch of oak trees. “Like, less than half a mile. Let’s just walk to my house and I can get another car to drive you home.”
With wobbling hands I held up my phone. “Perfect. Let me call my mom so she’s not dead when I get there, then we should go.”
“Sounds like a plan, professor,” Raf said shakily.
The phone barely rang once before my mom answered, “Harper!” I could hear the panic in her voice.
I was getting tired of hearing panic in people’s voice.
“Mom, it’s me.”
“Harper Luciana Dae, you’d better be half dead on the side of the road or have some excuse for this because otherwise…
“Mom!” I screamed to stop her tirade. Raf winced at the tone of my voice.
She stopped shouting.
“I am half dead on the side of the road, okay? Can you please stop shouting.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Where are you? I’m going to find a car, I’ll be right there. I think that Mr. Wattana has one I can borrow.”
“No, mom, it will take you forever. We’re right next to Raf’s house. He’ll drive me home.”
“Raf?” her voice rose to shouting again. “You’re with Raf again?”
“Yes, mom. He’s helping me.”
“Rafael Aracan is. Not. H
elping. You.” I held the phone away from my ear. “You will not stay near that boy for another second. You walk away from him right now, young lady. You walk away and I will be there to pick you up in twenty minutes. You will never see him again, do you hear me?”
“Mom, you’re wrong about him and you sound totally crazy!” I screamed. She took in a hurt breath.
I tried to calm myself down, but she continued, voice low and menacing, “You will do as you’re told. You will walk away right now.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. Just trust me, please.” I was so upset I could barely get the words out. She could have all her crazy theories, but I was there looking into Raf’s eyes and I knew she was wrong.
“No, you have no idea what you’re talking about, Harper.”
Something slammed down in my heart and my voice went cold, “I’ll be home soon. Don’t come get me.”
I hung up and threw the phone to the ground in a blind rage. It shattered into a thousand plastic shards.
Raf jumped back a little in surprise.
“Sounds like that went well. We can just wait here.”
“No, let’s go.” I stalked off across the empty street.
He followed, muttering, “Well at least nothing is boring when you’re around, Harper.”
Mom
Raf moved into the lead and quickly found a narrow footpath winding through the trees. I followed close on his heels, still shaken, though strangely not really scared. Raf’s black jacket, boots, jeans, and coppery skin blended into the moonless night, making it look like a disembodied thatch of pale purple hair bounced along ahead of me.
An owl hooted right above my head and I jumped. Okay, maybe I was a little scared. Bare branches snagged at my cheap coat like grasping fingers. I felt a chill that had nothing to do with the cold. Something about Waterford just felt wrong. The people were soulless and the trees were alive.
I reached up and wrapped my cold hands over the pouch Mr. Ek had given me what felt like years ago.
We finally broke through into a clearing that I quickly realized was a perfectly manicured yard. I wasn’t sure if yard was the right word for something so huge. Estate? Gardens? Lawn, said with a stuffy British accent?
At the top of a small hill was a what…mansion…castle? Plantation house, maybe?
Raf took off across the vast expanse of mowed grass.
“Uh…” I stopped walking. “This is your house?”
“Yeah. We call it Tara.”
“Really, a Gone With the Wind reference?”
“We’re a literary family.” He said with no trace of humor in his voice.
“You’re rich.”
“That I am. Don’t hold it against me please.”
I let out an uncomfortable laugh.
As we approached, motion sensing lights lit up the back of the house. A wide veranda sat behind a grand row of white columns. A slate stone walkway lead from the house to a pool complete with pool house larger than most normal homes. Around the pool were marble statues, beautiful neoclassical figures in robes with wings. Fairies or angels I wondered. Off to the side was a small golf course, golf carts and all. It screamed genteel southern plantation. At the bottom of the hill, beyond the putting green, was an airstrip and hanger that I had no doubt housed a small airplane.
This was wealth beyond CEO or oil executive. This was movie star and world leader kind of rich. Who in the hell were Raf’s parents?
My eye brows were so high on my forehead they were about to take flight. This was definitely not what I expected.
Raf trudged up to the back door and pulled it open. Unlocked. Guess crime wasn’t much of a concern at Tara.
“Mom?” he shouted into the echoing house. We stood at the threshold, listening to the silence.
“Guess she’s not home yet. Let’s just go grab a car and I’ll get you home.”
He lead me through a house that looked straight out of the glossy pages of a magazine, probably something called Southern Rich Folk. We went through an industrial looking door into a vaulted room that felt like a gymnasium. The florescent lights flickered on and I stared in awe at the garage that appeared. I counted twelve cars.
“A twelve car garage.” It was a statement, not a question.
“Like I said, don’t hold it against me.”
By that time I was feeling totally delirious. Out of control of my emotions. The absurdity of the row of fancy cars just tipped me over the edge. Lotus Super 7, Ferrari, some kind of big school bus looking thing, Humvee perhaps? A bubble of pure mania escaped my lips. I let out what must have been an insane sounding giggle.
Raf pulled down a set of keys and opened the boring looking Lexus sedan.
We jumped in and the engine purred, smooth and efficient. A few minutes later we pulled up to the Treasure Trove parking lot. Every internal alarm I had went off at once. Along the front of the building, I could see our three tall windows above the store awning. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but something just seemed off.
“Raf, something’s not right.”
“What?” He shifted uncomfortably.
“Seriously, would you come up with me? I’m really worried.”
The genuine fear in my voice moved Raf into immediate action, “Of course. Let’s go.”
The door to our staircase was around back and I moved quickly, adrenaline pumping.
It was unlocked. Back in San Pedro the kids watched a hell of a lot of 80s cartoons on the village VCR. As we climbed the darkened staircase, an 80’s cartoon villain started shouting ‘Doooooooooom’ in my head.
I have learned to always listen to my inner-80’s-cartoon-villain voice.
The door at the top of the stairs was also unlocked. I pushed it open and peaked my head in. Relief surged through my body.
Mom had her back to me. I could tell she was crying, hunched over, shoulders shaking. Relief was replaced with guilt in its most perfect form. I was about to whisper for Raf to take off when the two men came crashing through the windows.
***
The glass shattered inward and two men flew through, feet first. They thumped down just inside, heavy boots shaking the entire apartment. Mom whirled into a defense stance that actually made it look like she knew what she was doing.
Raf wheeled back in shock and stumbled down a few stairs.
I stood there like a moron, mouth hanging open. My brain could not process the sudden appearance of the two men. They wore deep red robes and black masks covered their faces. Not like ski masks, these were long, wooden, with no mouths and rounded eyes reminding me of Maya Witz Monsters, the sacred guardians of the underworld. From behind the masks, their eyes were chatoyant with shifting luster like a cat’s eyes at night.
The men moved forward so quickly it was like they floated. Mom saw me and let out an eeep of horror.
“Run!” She barreled toward me and practically picked me up on her way by. Raf, my mom, and I flew down the stairs, survival instinct kicking into high gear.
“Don’t call the police. Trust only Martin Silver!” She looked straight into my eyes where I saw terrible fear. Looking at Raf, she growled, “Get her out of here!” then shoved me toward him. Raf barely managed to throw out an arm to catch me.
As we stumbled she pivoted and ran back up the stairs.
“Mom!” I screamed and lunged to follow her but Raf grabbed my arm. I threw all my weight forward and wrenched my arm upward.
Escaping his grip, I sprinted up the stairs. At the door a blinding white light seared my eyes.
I couldn’t see a thing but I could hear Raf pounding up the stairs behind me.
I blinked and flailed my arms forward seeking my mom. The sparkling spots faded from my vision just enough to see the two men flying out the shattered windows, one of them clutching my mom’s limp body.
“No!” I dove for him and managed to grab his robe. He flung out an arm, backhanding me so hard my head snapped backward and my teeth slammed together with a
solid crack. The fabric of his robe yanked from my fingers.
I fell in slow motion. Wordless screams tearing my throat as I floated downward watching the men drag my mom through the window and disappear into the night.
***
I came to with Raf hovering directly above me, eyes like saucers.
I tried to speak but the world swam and I felt bile flood my mouth. I rolled my head to spit out the acidic vomit pooling at the back of my tongue.
“Dammit Harper, are you okay?” Raf clutched a wet cloth and a bag of ice out in front of him like holy talismans.
I blinked rapidly, trying to convince my eyes to work together. They ignored me.
Two Rafs did a jerky little jig. Pressing my eyes shut I tried again. “My mom,” I croaked.
“She’s gone Harper. They took her.” I could hear the panic in his voice and risked a peak through silted eyes.
One Raf appeared and I let my eyes open a bit more. Blurry but singular Raf stared at me, lopsided grimace on his face.
I tried to think. What had just happened? I slowly turned my head toward the windows. Yep, jagged bits of glass littered the room, man sized holes through the panes. Turning back to look at Raf, I tried again, “My mom?”
“Harper, those crazy guys took her. They took your mom!”
Well, I thought, at least I know for sure now that she wasn’t going crazy. I snorted a strangled laugh.
“Harper?” Raf arched out and put a hand on my shoulder, clearly worried that I was laughing, spitting out a little more bloody vomit.
Masked men just kidnapped my mom. How could I even process that? Instead, I focused on the good news…mom not crazy. Clearly not productive, and maybe a little pathological, but it’s what I had.
He moved quickly over to the kitchen and got me a glass of water. Holding it to my lips, he tilted cool liquid into my mouth. It must have helped my shock because I could think more clearly.
I tried to stand and Raf helped me when I faltered.
“We’ve got to go find her!” I tried to move toward the door but couldn’t seem to let go of Raf. He guided me to the lazy-boy and lowered me down.
Jade Moon (Celestial War Book 1) Page 9