by R. D. Brady
Rocky met her eyes and Laney could tell she was reliving the same night. “Laney, I was asked to look out for you. That was all. I swear.”
Laney nodded. She thought Rocky was being truthful with her, but she was no longer sure if she could trust her own judgment.
Laney grasped Jake’s hand and looked back out the window. The helicopter began to reduce its altitude. Laney caught sight of a single road playing peek-a-boo through the trees below.
Up ahead was a clearing. The helicopter landed softly on the grass. When the rotors had turned down, Laney stepped out and stretched out her legs. Her ankle still smarted, but she could walk on it.
And once again, everything else ached. I really should just accept constant aches as my new normal.
Jake stepped up next to her. “You all right?”
Taking his hand, she gave him a little smile. “Not really.”
He pulled her close, kissing her forehead. “Well, Dorothy, apparently there’s another road to follow.”
Laney nodded, but she couldn’t help think of the cost of those other roads.
Rocky walked over to the tree line. “It’s this way.”
The rotors started up behind them. Laney looked back in alarm. A few seconds later the helicopter lifted off.
“It’s okay,” Jake whispered. “On the ground, the chopper would have been easy to spot. It’s safer for it to take off.”
Squeezing Jake’s hand, Laney followed Rocky. But she wasn’t sure she was convinced that everything was actually okay. She looked behind her.
Henry smiled. “I’m still here.”
“My own guardian angel,” Laney joked, but the truth was, she did feel better with him there.
The four of them followed the path through the woods. After about two hundred yards, Laney could just make out a little cottage tucked away between the trees. The stone and wood blended into the forest well. Large, leafy branches bowed over it, hiding it from the air. It would be easy to miss.
The little house was quiet, but Laney could see two dark SUVs parked around the back. A narrow dirt road led away through the trees.
Rocky climbed the short steps to the porch.
The door opened and Rocky disappeared through it. The shadows kept Laney from seeing who had opened the door. She took a deep breath and walked up the steps.
The boards of the porch creaked. The door stood open, but Laney stopped walking. It was only a few short feet, and an ordinary doorway, yet it seemed like a yawning cavern.
Laney didn’t know why, but she was terrified to step into that house. Somewhere at the back of her mind, she knew that stepping over that threshold was going to change everything. And she just wasn’t sure she was ready.
Jake slipped his hand into hers and squeezed.
She looked up at him and read the love there. She knew if she wanted to walk away right then, he’d be right there with her.
And if she walked in that door, he’d be next to her for that, too. She squeezed his hand back. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Hand in hand, Laney and Jake walked into the cabin.
Victoria Chandler, Henry’s mother, stood in front of the couch, waiting for them.
CHAPTER 21
“Victoria?” Jake said.
“Mom?” Henry said at the same time.
Laney just stared. As far as the world knew, Victoria Chandler had died almost twenty years ago when her car ran off a bridge. Laney knew that wasn’t true, because Laney met Victoria Chandler in Baltimore, two months ago. But only that once, never before. This was the person who had hired Rocky to look out for her? Five years before they had even met?
“I don’t understand,” Laney said.
“I know.” Victoria gestured to the dining table to her right. “Why don’t we all sit down and I’ll explain?”
Laney looked at Jake, who gave her a nod. She glanced at Henry’s face as she walked over and took a seat. His jaw was taut. She could read the anger and confusion there.
Victoria turned to Rocky. “Rochelle, could you wait outside, please?”
Rocky nodded but looked at Laney for a second. Laney avoided her eyes.
Rocky left, leaving Laney, Jake, and Henry alone with Victoria—and the same bodyguard who Laney had seen with her in Baltimore stood by the door. Once everyone was seated, except the bodyguard, Laney said, “Victoria, you sent Rocky to watch me?”
Victoria nodded. “Yes.”
“I don’t understand.” Laney looked between Victoria and Henry. “I never met Henry until a year ago. And you I only met two months ago.”
Victoria paused. “Actually, we met thirty years ago. On January twenty-sixth.”
Laney looked at Victoria in confusion. “You couldn’t have met me. That’s the day before I was born.”
“No.” Victoria’s voice was soft. “That is the day you were born.”
Victoria’s words curled around Laney’s mind and she tried to make sense of them. January twenty-seventh was her birthday, not the twenty-sixth. What on earth was Victoria talking about?
Henry’s voice sounded just as confused as Laney’s thoughts. “Mom, what’s going on? Why did you send Rocky to watch Laney? And what do you mean her birthday isn’t her actual birthday?”
Victoria placed her hands on the table and let out a pent-up breath. “I worried Laney would be in trouble one day. I wanted there to be someone nearby that could help her, should she need it. So I arranged for Rocky to get a position with the Syracuse Police Department. In exchange, she agreed to be there if Laney needed help.”
Jake stared Victoria down. “Why would you think Laney would need help? And how did you even know who she was?”
Victoria clasped her hands in front of her. Laney saw a small tremble in them. When Victoria spoke, her voice was soft. “I’ve rehearsed this speech a million times . . . and now I can’t seem to find the words.”
Tendrils of fear started to spread out from Laney’s stomach. She didn’t know what Victoria was going to say, but she was pretty sure she didn’t want to hear it.
Jake’s voice was steel. “Well, find them.” Jake’s arms were across his chest, his body tense. Henry had almost the exact same posture.
Victoria let out a shuddering breath. She glanced at Henry, her eyes apologetic. “You all know about how Henry’s father died. What you don’t know is that I was pregnant at the time. I had just found out a week before.”
Laney stared at Victoria, her mind reeling at where this story could possibly be going. She glanced at Henry. His mouth was open, shock splashed across his face. He clearly knew nothing about any of this.
“You know about Henry’s abilities, about who his father was,” Victoria said. “I worried this second child would be targeted, especially when I found out she was a girl. I knew who she would become, what her destiny was. I knew I needed to protect her and I hoped that maybe, just maybe, if I sent her away, she could avoid her destiny altogether.”
Laney shook her head. What the hell was Victoria talking about? “What does any of that have to do with me?”
Victoria looked at her. “I knew I had to keep my daughter’s birth a secret. When she was born, I gave her to a family, and there was no record of her birth.”
Confusion warred with doubt in Laney’s mind. “And what? I’m supposed to be this daughter? Victoria, I’m not. My parents are Fiona and Derek McPhearson. I wasn’t adopted. There are records of my birth. In a hospital. To my parents.”
Victoria paused, her face fearful. Laney didn’t know Victoria well, but what she did know was that Victoria was a strong woman. And whatever she was preparing to say was big.
Laney knew who her parents were, knew who she was, but Victoria’s expression . . . Laney didn’t like how it was making her feel.
Laney grasped Jake’s hand under the table, trying to keep her face expressionless. She needed to borrow some of his strength, because she had a feeling that whatever Victoria was going to say next was going to shatter her.
> Victoria shook her head, her voice soft. “No. The child of Fiona and Derek McPhearson, a little girl, born on January twenty-seventh, died. Your mother had complications, a lot of bleeding. She couldn’t have children after that. Your father was so worried the day their child was born that he never left your mother’s side, not even to see his child, not until the next day. And by then, their daughter had passed away—and you had taken her place.”
Laney shook her head. “No. That’s not true. Why would you say that?”
Jake squeezed Laney’s hand. “If that were true, how did you accomplish that? You can’t just switch babies.”
Victoria shifted her gaze from Laney to Jake. “I have a lot of resources. There was a nurse at the hospital where Laney’s mother gave birth. She was having financial problems. She agreed to help.”
Laney sat back. It felt like she was trying to think through syrup. Her parents had always said she was a miracle baby. She wasn’t supposed to survive and yet, there she was, all pink and perfect the day after her birth.
And her father had stayed away until that next day. He had thought he was going to lose his wife, so he’d stayed by her mother’s bedside.
“Why would you say all of this?” Laney asked.
Victoria stared into Laney’s eyes. “Because it’s true. I hid you away because I was trying to keep you from harm. But I couldn’t hide you from your destiny. The world is reaching a critical point, and you are the only one who can save it.”
“You don’t have any proof,” Laney said, ignoring the destiny remark. Maybe Victoria’s daughter had a destiny, but she wasn’t that daughter.
“Yes. I do.” Victoria reached down to the chair next to her and pulled out a manila folder. She pushed it across the table toward Laney. “These are copies of your parents’ hospital records, as well as your own. Look at the blood types.”
Laney hesitated, not sure she wanted to see Victoria’s proof. There couldn’t be proof. It wasn’t true. But she found herself reaching for the folder anyway.
She quickly scanned the documents inside. They were hospital records from when she was born: records for her and for her mother. There was also another record, for her father, from when he had been hospitalized for appendicitis a few years later. She scanned the documents for blood types.
Fiona McPhearson: Blood Type AB. Derek McPhearson: Blood Type A. Delaney McPhearson: Blood Type O.
The papers fell from her hand. The room seemed to tilt. A child whose parents had A and AB blood types couldn’t be O. It was biologically impossible.
Laney looked around the table, shaking her head. “No. This is some sort of trick.”
“Delaney, you can check the records for yourself. But the reality is, they are not your biological parents.” Victoria’s tone wasn’t cruel, but she might as well have stabbed Laney with a knife. It would have been less painful.
Laney stared around the room. It can’t be true. Why was Victoria saying all this?
Laney watched Victoria’s face. There was no malice or cruelty there, only resignation, and sadness—sadness that she had to tell Laney at all.
An image of her parents flashed through her mind. Was it possible? Had her parents, who had died twenty years ago, never met their real daughter? What if other people thought she wasn’t their daughter? If people were after her . . .
Laney went still. “Oh my god—my parents’ car accident. It wasn’t an accident, was it? They were killed. Because of me.”
Victoria leaned across the table, trying to take Laney’s hands. Laney pulled them out of her reach. “No, no, Laney. When I heard about the accident, I had it investigated. And it was just an accident. A horrible twist of fate.”
Laney looked at Victoria, not sure she believed her. Who was this woman? Why did she know so much? Why did she think she had to give away her only daughter? It was too much.
Laney stood up. She could feel the tears wanting to break free, but she wouldn’t let them. Not yet. “You’re kidding, right? I’m your long-lost daughter and now I have a destiny? Oh sure, what do you need me to do? Save the world you said, right? How, exactly? I’m normal. I have no special abilities.”
Victoria reached out her hands then drew them back. “No. You are special. You’re like Henry.”
Laney’s gaze whipped to Henry, realization hitting her. If everything Victoria said was true . . . Henry was her brother.
Henry stared back at her, his features frozen in shock.
Laney stumbled away from the table. “I need to go.”
“Laney, please . . .” Victoria pleaded.
Laney ignored her. She turned to Jake. “Jake.”
Jake stood up. “Let’s go.”
“Ralph, keys for the SUV,” Henry ordered the bodyguard, his voice fierce.
Without a word, Ralph took the keys out of his pocket and tossed them at Jake, who caught them one-handed.
Laney had to keep herself from running. She needed air. She needed out. Yanking the door open, she bolted outside.
Rocky, who’d been sitting on the porch steps, jumped to her feet. “Laney, are you okay?”
“No.” Laney ran down the steps to the SUVs in the back. The lights on one of them flashed as Jake unlocked it. Laney scrambled around to the passenger door.
She stumbled inside and slipped on her seat belt. She leaned her head back as Jake pulled away.
Visions of her parents flooded her mind. Tucking her in. Holding her hand. Pushing her on the swings. Tears ran down her cheeks.
It can’t be true. It can’t be.
CHAPTER 22
Henry watched Laney all but sprint outside. The dual emotions of anger and sympathy warred inside him. He turned to the bodyguard. “Ralph, I need to speak with my mother alone.”
Ralph nodded and headed for the door without a word.
As the door closed behind him, Henry paused to figure out what to say. He kept his back to his mother, trying to compose his thoughts. What the hell just happened? Laney is my sister? And she’s special?
He’d seen no evidence of her having any abilities like his. And he hadn’t felt any recognition with her, like he had with other nephilim. This made no sense. A million questions raced through his mind.
At last he turned to face his mother, his mind settling on a simple question. “Why?”
Victoria looked up at him, tears in her eyes. “I did what I thought best. To protect her.”
Some of Henry’s anger slipped into his voice. “She’s my sister. And you gave her away? I’ve had a sister all these years and you never told me. I just—I don’t understand how you could do that.”
Victoria moved toward him, her hands in front of her, her tone pleading. “Henry, please. It was the only way I could think of to protect her—”
“Protect her from what, Mom? Who is she? She’s not a nephilim. She’s not like me. She doesn’t have those powers.”
“No. She’s not like you. But she is a nephilim. A very unique one.”
Henry groaned. “What the hell does that mean? Unique how? Does she fly? Have telekinesis? Why is she different? Why did you send her away to protect her? Why her and not—” Me?
Victoria walked over to him, took his hands in hers. “When you were born, I didn’t know what the future would bring. Even when I got pregnant with her, I didn’t know. It wasn’t until I found out that my second child was a girl that I knew who she would become. What her destiny was.”
“And what destiny is that? What is it exactly that Laney is supposed to do?”
Victoria let out a shaky breath. “I can’t tell you that. Not yet. I owe it to her to tell her first.”
Henry ran his hands over his face, wanting to hit something. “Mom, I don’t understand you. I don’t understand why you have to keep all these secrets. Why can’t the world know you’re alive?”
“Henry, I’ve told you. It’s better if you don’t know certain things. Safer.”
Henry stared at his mother, his anger boiling back to the
surface. “Safer? Have you heard about what’s happened to me in the last year? How about what happened this morning? ‘Safe’ is not exactly part of my life these days.”
“I know. But my life brings with it a whole other set of dangers.”
Henry gritted his teeth. “Enough, Mom. Enough with the cryptic. What is going on? Who’s after Laney? And who are you?”
“I’m no one.”
“Goddamn it. That old tune doesn’t carry anymore. You gave away your daughter to protect her from a destiny you knew about before her birth. You were married to one of the most powerful angels ever. Your son is a towering freak. And you’re going to stand there and tell me that you’re just a normal human being?”
Victoria’s eyes flashed with anger. “You are not a freak.”
Henry tried to stay stalwart in his anger. But the fact that she chose to focus on that part of his little speech tore a laugh from him. She had always hated whenever he disparaged his height or his abilities. He groaned. “You’re killing me, Mom. You are absolutely killing me.”
She leaned up and took his face in her hands. “Henry, do you believe that I love you?”
Henry struggled against answering her question. He wanted answers to his questions first. But the answer to her question was a simple one, and he had the feeling that the answers to his questions were not.
He sighed. “Yes, Mother. No matter all this craziness, I’ve always known that you love me.”
Tears sprang to her eyes then, and Henry realized that she had been uncertain. His forever strong mother had worried that he didn’t believe she loved him.
When she spoke, her smile was a little wobbly. “And do you believe that I would never do anything to intentionally hurt you?”
“Yes, Mom.” He worked on keeping the frustration out of his voice. “Where are you going with this?”
“I love your sister in the same way. So please, trust me a little more. Okay?”
Henry closed his eyes. Exasperation ran through him. His mother had always been like this: impossibly stubborn with her secrets.