by Amy Sparling
The voice is quiet for a while. Finally, it says, “Is that her name?”
“Open the damn door, Theo.” I fix a glare on him. “It’s a kid! Just open it.”
“Be careful,” Damien says, having suddenly appeared to my right. His jaw is clenched, a curious look in his eyes.
I roll my eyes and lift up my hands in surrender. “Fine, fine. I’ll back up,” I say, taking a huge step backward. The guys are trying so hard to protect me without making it look like they’re protecting me. But I can take a hint.
They both seem relieved to have me step back out of harm’s way, and I know I should be happy that Theo cares about me, but damn. Now is not a time for that.
Theo grabs the padlock and yanks it sideways, ripping the metal plate it’s attached to right out of the wall. If it was that easy, I wonder why the kid didn’t just kick their way out.
Of course, with the hulking giant of a guard up here, I guess I can understand.
Theo opens the door and sunlight floods into the dark attic. Damien steps up right behind him so I can’t see inside, but the foul smell of something hits me so hard I almost choke. I pull my shirt up over my nose, covering it with my hand. Whoa. That is a bad, bad smell.
Theo and Damien step into the room. Their silence speaks volumes. I creep forward, curiosity digging into me. The room is very bright, thanks to a wall of dust-covered windows. It’s about the size of a classroom, and the ceilings are all low.
The smell is so rank it makes my eyes water, but I can’t stop walking toward it. I hear Theo curse. Damien gags. I keep my hand covered over my nose and step into the door frame, expecting something awful.
But it’s so much worse than my imagination prepares me for.
A dozen children sit on the floor, wearing filthy clothes, their doe-eyed expressions staring at us in fear and wonder. Their skin is dirty, their hair matted, and in some cases, bloody. One corner of the room has a single toilet with no privacy walls. There’s a table with loaves of bread and peanut butter, but that’s all. Moth-eaten blankets cover the floor.
The stench is so bad it makes tears fill my eyes. My stomach tightens and if I had eaten anything in the last few hours, I’d surely be puking it up right now.
As I look around the room in horror, I see where the main source of smell is coming from. A dead body.
“What the hell is this?” I say, but my words aren’t nearly enough for what I’m thinking.
Theo turns to Damien, who looks like he’s going to pass out any second now.
“Why are you here?” I ask the group of kids. Most of them look around the age of ten or twelve, but they’re all skin and bones, so maybe they’re older. It’s hard to tell. A girl with matted blonde hair and a ripped dress pushes herself up on her knees, but the very act looks painful to her. “We can’t leave,” she says, holding up her arm.
The sight of her bracelet sends a weight straight to the bottom of my stomach. A quick count tells me there’s twelve kids in here.
“These are her lifebloods,” Theo says, his voice soft, filled with disbelief. “She keeps children as lifebloods.”
“We last longer,” one of the boys says. He has dark skin and a big cut on his face.
“How did she find you?” I say. “Don’t you have families? Are you missing children?”
He shakes his head. “We’re all orphans. But we’re from different places. She says she’s going to adopt us and then she takes us here.”
“Can I ask about the dead body?” Damien says, his voice muffled because he’s talking under his hand. He hasn’t stopped looking in that direction since I walked in here.
“It’s an example,” the boy explains. “If you take off your bracelet you die and she leaves your body here to remind us that we belong to her. So we don’t take off the bracelets.”
“Sometimes people take them off anyway,” the first girl says. “Because it’s better than being here. I want to, but I don’t.”
“Why’s that?” Theo asks.
She shrugs, her bony shoulders shaking. “Because then she’ll go find another kid to replace me.”
My hands tighten into fists at my sides. Rage like I’ve never felt before bursts forth from somewhere in my heart, and it fills me from head to toe. Lady Em has been evil her entire life, but this is a new low. This is abhorrent, unfathomable. And it won’t be left unpunished.
“They’re coming with us,” I say.
Theo and Damien don’t even try to argue. A door on the other side of the room leads to an outside staircase. The fresh air helps clear out the rancid stench of rotting flesh, but soon we realize that some of the kids are too weak to walk themselves down the stairs. They’re the ones who have been here the longest, and they probably won’t make it much longer with the bracelet siphoning out their energy.
I drop to my knees and pick up a little girl, who wraps her bony arms around my neck. She stinks like body odor and mildew, but I let her hold on tightly as I carry her down to the grass below. The kids all perk up once they’re outside, but it’s clear that many of them are malnourished and sick.
Damien and Theo work silently, each taking down one kid at a time. Once they’re all freed from their attic prison, Theo closes the door back and stares down at me from the top of the stairs. He doesn’t have to say anything. I know what he feels. I feel it, too.
Damien calls the two men he’d brought with us to leave their posts. Between all of us, we have three extended cab trucks. Nine of the kids sit in the backseats and the three oldest boys who are the strongest sit in the bed of our truck. I tell them we’re taking them to safety, but that they can’t remove their bracelets.
“Not yet,” Theo says, giving them what is supposed to be a smile. He doesn’t look so sure of himself. “We’re going to take you somewhere safe.”
As we drive to the airport, I’m thinking all the questions I can’t say out loud because there’s kids in here who don’t need to know how worried I am. We drive with the windows down and the air conditioning cranked. They all smell absolutely horrible, but I try not to let it affect me because it’s not their fault.
Theo grips the steering wheel, his eyes focused on the road that leads to the airport and our private jet. I’ve already done the math in my head, and there’s room for everyone to fit aboard, if only just barely.
“We can’t just take them to social services,” I say absentmindedly as I stare out the window. Having grown up in the system, I’ve seen kids get adopted out and then come back because their parents decided they didn’t want them anymore. This isn’t that kind of situation, though. We can’t just take them back. They have bracelets. They’ll die without them, and that will cause a huge issue since the normal world knows nothing about immortality.
“What do you think we should do?” Theo asks. “I mean, besides the obvious.” He puts a hand on my arm. “We’re going to get them cleaned up and fed and clothed.” He smiles at me and it warms my heart to see the tender caring side of him. He’s always been kind to me, but being kind to these children makes me warm inside. He could easily say it’s not his problem and leave them to fend for themselves. But he’s not. And that’s just another reason why I love him.
“Thank you for saving us,” a girl says from the backseat. She’s the girl who talked to me in the attic. The one who is too brave to succumb to taking off her bracelet because she wants to save someone else from her same fate.
“What’s your name?” I ask her.
“Ashlee.”
“How old are you?”
“Twelve.”
I remember being that age. It’s when Uncle Will adopted me. I was struggling in school and I didn’t fit in because I didn’t have fancy clothes or the latest gadgets. But I had Riley. Being twelve sucked though.
“Well, Ashlee,” I say, giving her a smile. “You are welcome. I’m sorry we didn’t get to rescue you sooner, but you’re safe now.”
“When we go back,” she says as she bites her lip, “Can y
ou tell them to let us stay in the group home? We don’t want to be adopted again.”
Tears fill my eyes. The group home sucks. It was always better to be adopted. This poor girl and all the other kids deserve real homes with loving parents. And now they might be too scared to ever try to love someone again.
In this moment, I know exactly what I want to do. It hits me like a freight train, taking over every other goal in my life. I want this more than I want freedom from my own bracelet. More than I want to find a way to be with Theo forever without taking lives from an immortality stone. I don’t just want this. I need it. I look over at Theo. “You have a lot of money, right?”
He makes a weird face. “Yeah.”
“I want to keep them,” I say, my decision resolute. All the noise in the backseat quiets, and I’m keenly aware of three sets of eyes on me, plus Theo’s. “I want to give them a home. All twelve of them.”
Theo glances back at the girls, who stare at him with expressions of wonder and fright. They don’t know us at all, but I hope they can sense that we’re better than Lady Em. We’re the good guys.
“Of course, love,” he says, giving me a soft smile.
“When can we take the bracelets off?” the girl asks.
“Soon,” I say, turning to face them. They watch me intently, their dirty faces eager and slightly hopeful. “Your bracelets are attached to Lady Em’s necklace, which you probably already know.”
They nod. “So as long as she’s alive, you can’t take them off. But you don’t need to worry for long, because I’m going to find her. And I promise you,” I say, gritting my teeth. “I will kill her.”
Chapter 20
For a group of children, these kids are pretty quiet on the entire flight back to Texas. A few of them ask to use the restroom, but the rest of them either sleep or stare off into space. I feel so awful and I don’t have the first clue what I should do besides feeding them and giving them new clothes and a shower. And even then, I’m not sure how to go about doing that when the only home I have at the moment is occupied by several other people who absolutely cannot know about this.
When we land, I call Malina and ask where everyone is. She tells me the girls are in their rooms and Henry is also in his room. Russell and Kyle are in the gym. I guess I couldn’t get lucky and hear the response I was hoping for, which is that everyone suddenly decided to fly to Jamaica for the next month.
“Can you have the chef prepare some food for me?” I ask her as our motorcade of three trucks gets close to the house. “I need about two dozen sandwiches, some chips and two dozen water bottles. Have them all spread out on the tables in the gardens.”
“Okay, I’ll get right on it,” she says.
“Thanks,” I say, lowering my voice. “Could we have your discretion as well? I don’t want anyone knowing about my new visitors just yet.”
“Not a problem, Cara.”
“Oh, and ask Chef to make the sandwiches have meat and stuff in them. No peanut butter and jelly.” Having seen what Lady Em served the kids, I think they’ll all be happy to eat something besides peanut butter.
“Great idea,” Theo says when I hang up the phone. “Food should be first, then we can get let them take showers and get new clothes. There’s boxes of new clothing in the basement so we should find something for everyone.”
“I didn’t even know we had a basement,” I say, lifting an eyebrow.
“It’s connected to the underground hallway you used when you spied on Alexo.”
“Ah…” I say, wishing I hadn’t just remembered that day. “So what are we going to say if one of the guys sees us?”
“I’ve got it worked out, I think,” Theo says. He slows the truck at the gate and leans out of the window to punch in the gate code. “We’ll tell them this is a business operation, orders of Alexo. It’ll keep them quiet for a while so we can figure out what to do.”
“You’re a genius,” I say.
Theo smirks.
“Whoa!” Ashlee says as we drive toward the house. “You live here?”
“Yep,” I say, flashing her a smile. “We’re going to hang out here a bit until we figure out how to take care of you guys.”
“Cool,” she says, her eyes bright and excited as she peers out the window.
Theo drives the truck off the main brick driveway and toward the gardens. I’ve seen catering trucks do the same thing, so I know the ground is solid. He parks under a shade tree at the far end of the gardens, which is probably hidden by enough greenery that no one can see us from the mansion. Damien and the other member of the Embrook clan park their trucks next to ours.
All of the kids pile out and we help the sick ones to the tables in the gardens. The flowers and plants are thick and lush, making a winding pathway into the center where a courtyard is set up with several tables that have built in shade canopies on top. It’s the perfect spot for entertaining because the floral gardens smell amazing and there’s enough shade trees to keep it mildly cool in the summer. Right now it’s also the perfect place to hide twelve ratty kids.
Chef worked quickly, and there’s already a full spread of food on a long table near a garden wall of peonies. Theo tells the kids to dig in, and they excitedly fill their plates with sandwiches, olives, cheese, veggie sticks, and fruit. There’s juice boxes and soda, but I encourage the kids to drink water since I’m positive they haven’t had enough of it lately.
Once everyone is settled, I text Riley.
Me: come to the gardens immediately. Come alone.
Riley: on my way
I walk to the outer edge of the gardens and wait for her there. She waves at me as she crosses the mansion’s large lawn. “What’s up?” she says. “Did it work?”
“We got the stones,” I say, nearly forgetting what she was asking in the first place because so much has happened since then. “But we got something else, too.”
Riley lifts an eyebrow. “Is it bad?”
“Well…it’s not good.” I motion for her to follow me. “We found Lady Em’s lifebloods.”
“Oh.” Riley sounds relieved. “Well that’s to be expected, right? I mean she has to have them somewhere.”
I stop just at the edge of the last row of greenery, where the children are eating just a few feet beyond our sight. “Riley.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “They’re children.”
Riley’s face goes pale. “Orphans,” I say, feeling my insides twist with revulsion at the very thought.
“No,” Riley says.
I nod, then step out of the way so she can turn the corner and see for herself. “Oh shit,” she breathes. “No. No way. This is…” Her eyes scan the group of children who are sitting close together, each of them hunched over their food as if they’re afraid it’ll be taken away at any minute. “This is pure evil.”
“Yeah.” I look up and see Ashlee watching me. She waves, her dirty face curving into a smile. I wave back.
Theo and Damien talk quietly to each other as they stand guard over the children. Both of them look like they’re not exactly sure what they should be doing.
“I’m going to take care of them,” I tell Riley. “Theo has money—I don’t know what exactly I’ll do, but I’m thinking we can buy a house and let them live with us. They’re all orphans anyway, and until I kill this bitch and deactivate their bracelets—” I stop and shake my head. “No, forever. I want to take care of them forever, Riley.”
She nods quickly and wraps her arms around me in a quick hug. “Me too. We’ll give them a good life, at least as long as we can.”
“What do you mean by that?” I ask.
Her gaze meets mine and my heart sinks. “Our bracelets,” I say. “We’ll get rid of them, Riley. We got the stones back from Lady Em and we’ll return them to Dover and they’ll tell us how to remove our bracelets.”
“And then what?” she says, her voice breaking. “Is your boyfriend going to give you enough money to raise twelve kids while you grow old and he lives forever?�
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“Riley,” I say, taking a step back. “That was horrible.”
Her face falls. “I know. It was mean. I’m just…I’m freaking out here, Cara. I’ve been translating that book for days and it’s just getting to me. I’m learning everything about immortality and yet I’m sitting here slowly dying. If we do manage to get out of these bracelets, what then? We have nothing and no one. We’ll be back to living on the street, even if the clan does decide to give us a hundred thousand dollars as a paycheck. That’s not much on the whole scale of things.”
“What are you saying, Riley?” It’s so weird hearing her speak so candidly about this. Normally we keep it quiet, both of us hoping it’ll all work out somehow.
She glances at the kids, her eyes flitting to Theo and Damien, and then back to me. “I want to be immortal.”
Her words hang in the air for a long moment. “Riley…” I say finally. “You’d have to kill people to do that.”
“I know. And I don’t like that idea, but Theo…he does it humanely.”
“How could we do that though? We don’t have riches to bribe terminally ill people.”
“We could borrow from him until we did get riches?” she suggests. Then she crosses her arms. “Wait. You just said we. I thought you were against the idea.”
“I am,” I say quickly. “I mean…” I exhale and gaze up at the blue sky. “I can’t kill others to stay alive. But I also can’t live and die as a human without Theo by my side.”
“Well, I’m doing what you’re doing,” Riley says. “Whatever you decide, I’ll be there with you.” She makes this little smile but it doesn’t reach her eyes.
I stare at Theo across the gardens. He is so handsome and kind and good to me. And yet he is so far out of reach. “I just wish there was a way.”
“Me too,” Riley says softly.
“Well, hello there,” Henry says from behind me. I whip around, coming face to face with the man. His long dark hair is in a low ponytail that the breeze is tossing around. Henry may have said hello to me, but his eyes are focused behind me.