by Jena Leigh
But what then? If he went to Li for something like that, he’d rack up the sort of debt he’d never be able to pay back. He’d probably end up working for Li for the rest of his life.
“Who are these friends of yours, Alex?” he asked.
“A man named John Grayson,” she said. “Along with the rest of his family. They’re the ones who have kept me from being taken by the Agency. I’m sure they can find some way to help you, too.”
Aaron laughed in disbelief. “The Graysons… John Grayson is your friend?” He looked skyward. “What am I talking about? Of course he is.”
“Is there something wrong?”
“Wrong?” He laughed again. “No. That little announcement is pretty much on par with the rest of the impossible things you’ve been spewing since we got here.”
Hang on. There was that name she’d mentioned…
Declan.
“Holy shit,” he said, leaping to his feet. “Declan—you said the name Declan earlier… You know Declan O’Connell?” The subsequent revelation nearly knocked him back down again. “Wait a sec…Kenzie. Your friend! The redhead! That was Kenzie O’Connell, wasn’t it?!”
Alex was staring at him like he’d just sprouted another head, taken completely off guard by his outburst. “Y–yes,” she said. “It was. But how do you know them?”
Now it was Aaron’s turn to stare dumbfounded back at Alex. “Are you kidding?” he said. “There’s not a Variant alive who doesn’t know about the Graysons and the O’Connells. They’re about as close as you get to Variant royalty. Surely you knew that.”
Only, it was becoming increasingly obvious to Aaron that she didn’t. Who was this girl?
He ran a hand through his hair. “Next thing you’re going to tell me is that your last name is really Palladino.”
Alex arched an eyebrow. “It’s Parker, actually.”
And that was the final nail in his coffin. Aaron managed to stagger backward a few feet before his knees gave out.
Alex Parker. The girl standing right there in front of him was Alex freaking Parker.
Aaron was having a conversation with a dead girl.
What the hell had he just gotten himself into?
— 20 —
“You sure you haven’t sensed anything yet?” asked Declan.
In the passenger seat beside him, Kenzie sat rubbing her forehead.
Scanning her surroundings nonstop for half an hour straight was starting to melt her brain.
Not literally, of course. But it sure did hurt like hell.
“No,” she said. “Still no sign of either one of them.”
Declan sighed. Kenzie didn’t need to scan his thoughts to feel the tension radiating toward her from the driver’s seat.
He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove.
Her brother was what most might call a man of action. For a guy like him, playing the role of Kenzie’s chauffeur while they enjoyed a rousing game of “Where In the World is Alex Parker?” was tantamount to torture.
“This is taking too damn long,” he said.
Their travels so far had found the streets of Bay View mostly deserted. The storm had driven all but the bravest and the most foolhardy of the town’s population indoors. Since they’d turned on this road, however, there’d been at least twice the usual number of cars driving toward them from the opposite direction—the majority flashed their brights at the Mercedes as they passed.
“Do you see that?” asked Kenzie, squinting through the rain-drenched windshield.
The truck in front of them had hit its brakes and paused in the middle of the road. Moments later, the driver did a U-turn and guided the Chevy back in the opposite direction.
Their view of the road now unobstructed, Kenzie finally caught sight of what had prompted the truck’s driver to turn around.
A downed tree blocked traffic in both directions. And there, with its front end half-buried in the tangle of branches, was Alex’s Jeep Wrangler.
Declan parked the car and leapt from the driver’s seat. Kenzie watched, her hand clinging to the door handle, as her brother jogged through the rain, yanked open the driver’s side door of the jeep and leaned into the cab.
Moments later he extracted himself from the front seat carrying something in his hand. He walked slowly back to the car, seemingly oblivious to the rain falling in sheets around him.
He opened the door behind Kenzie and ducked his head in long enough to fish Alex’s cell phone from the bag in his hand. Cursing, he dropped both the phone and the messenger bag onto the floorboards of the backseat.
“Out,” he ordered, slamming the rear door loudly before opening Kenzie’s.
“Out?” she called over the sound of the falling rain. “But it’s pouring!”
Declan took her by the elbow. Knowing he’d probably drag her if she resisted, Kenzie allowed herself to be guided from the car.
“What the crap, Decks?” she asked, her clothes and hair instantly soaked through. “I thought the plan was to meet Grayson back at the beach house if we weren’t able to find her?”
He didn’t release her elbow.
“What are you doing?” she asked again.
“Finding Alex,” he said.
They jumped.
The pressure in Kenzie’s head hit an all-time high. She found herself both struggling to reinforce her mental barriers and cursing Declan for not warning her about the population increase before they teleported.
In all honesty, however, it was really the smell that took her most by surprise.
Hanging heavy in the air was the almost overpowering onslaught of freshly laid asphalt, mixed with the rich smell of Tandoori cuisine.
The steady hum of moving traffic reached her ears as a car honked nearby.
Releasing her arm, Declan started across the rooftop.
Kenzie pushed her wet hair away from her face and turned toward the sound of traffic. When she caught sight of the familiar ferris wheel–like appearance of the London Eye looming in the distance, she immediately knew why Declan had jumped here, instead of taking the time to return home to Grayson.
“Dammit, Oz.” Her brother stood struggling with a jammed access door. “I really don’t have time for this again.”
He took five steps back, then got up a running start and aimed for the door.
“Decks, don’t! You’ll hurt your—”
Declan’s shoulder collided with the metal door, resulting in a heavy thud and the snapping sound of a lock being released. The black, glossy door flew inward on its hinges and slammed off of the inside wall, momentarily closing before it drifted open again to reveal a darkened stairwell leading down into the interior of the building.
He leaned against the damaged doorframe, doubled over in pain.
“—self.” Kenzie finished. “Alright, Monsieur Machismo. Let’s go. The door has officially cried uncle and I’m sure Ozzie’s going to be thrilled with your impromptu renovations to his roof. Now, where is he?”
Declan fought his way upright with a hiss of pain. He nodded toward the stairs.
Kenzie pushed past him and led the way down the staircase, pausing after a few feet when she realized there were no lights to be found in the stairwell.
A white glow illuminated the space behind her as Declan activated the flashlight on his cell phone, using it to make out the path ahead.
When they arrived on the first floor landing, Kenzie paused. “Where to now?”
She followed her brother as he led the way down the hall, before turning into what appeared to be an empty room. Declan turned off his flashlight and they were plunged once more into darkness.
Kenzie started as a voice filled the room, seeming to come from everywhere at once.
“What do you have against my poor door, Declan?” the voice asked. “If you’ll recall, the front door works just fine as a point of entry to this room. I mean, honestly. There’s no need to be such a brute!”
“I need you to find Alex
, Oz,” said Declan from somewhere off to her right. “And then I need you to tell me everything you can about a Bay View High senior named Aaron Gale.”
The darkness was driven back by a bank of monitors on the far wall buzzing to life. A small, bald man with red square-rimmed glasses and a disapproving frown stared back at them, larger than life and split across a dozen different screens.
“The Agency is in Bay View,” Declan continued. “And I think they’re going to try and use the storm as an excuse to take Alex.”
Ozzie raised an eyebrow. “So they made their move today, eh? There were rumors that the Director was planning to act before Miss Parker’s so-called ‘deadline,’ but this is well ahead of schedule.”
“Hang on,” said Kenzie. “You knew about this?”
Oz’s ubiquitous gaze appeared to shift in her direction. “Hello, smaller Grayson clan member,” he greeted with a disinterested scowl. “In case you were wondering, you failed your Calculus exam yesterday afternoon.”
Kenzie blinked dumbly up at the monitors. “How did you even—?”
“Declan, do we need to review the house rules regarding visitors? First the bimbette with the terrible fashion sense, and then the young—and, albeit, rather lovely—Miss Parker… Now you’ve shown up at my doorstep with the tiny, jejune relative that I specifically warned you to keep away from me! This is not the local watering hole you puerile dolt!”
The tiny jijoo what now?
Kenzie wasn’t sure what Oz just said, but she was fairly certain she’d just been insulted. Although Declan didn’t seem to be faring much better, seeing as how he’d just been labeled a “puerile dolt.”
“Focus, Oz,” said Declan. “I really need your help right now.”
Ozzie scowled. “You’ll owe me a favor,” he said. “And it will be a far bigger favor than the last one you incurred.”
Favors, huh?
Truth be told, Kenzie had never really managed to figure out what sort of arrangement Ozzie and Declan had come to in terms of payment. Ozzie’s expertise didn’t come cheap, and you could rest assured there would always be strings attached to services rendered.
But that hadn’t stopped Declan from going to Oz for information on a pretty regular basis these last few years.
“Fine,” he said. “Just help me. Please.”
Did her brother just say please to someone?
That had to be a first.
Ozzie harrumphed. “Well, as for your initial query, I’m afraid I can’t help you.”
Declan took a step closer to the monitors, his hands balled into fists at his sides. “Dammit, Oz—”
“I can’t help you,” Oz continued, “because the GPS locator in Miss Parker’s cell phone that I might have otherwise used to track her has sat immobile in the middle of a Bay View road for the last hour and a half. A fact which leaves us with three possibilities—either she abandoned her vehicle and decided to leg it, she was taken by a third party, or she jumped to some location where there are no cameras to be found. She’s dropped completely off the grid. I couldn’t track the young lady right now, even if I wanted to.”
“What about a satellite?” asked Declan. “Can’t you retask one like you did that time you helped me with that… uh…” Declan cast a sidelong glance at his sister. “That situation in Manila?”
What?
What situation in Manila?
Kenzie eyed her brother suspiciously, wondering exactly what sort of side jobs her brother had been taking on without their knowledge.
Ozzie snorted in amusement. “You’re adorable. And no, I can’t just ‘retask’ a government satellite in order to find our shoeless minx. Not without already knowing her exact location. While satellite cameras are extraordinarily helpful when it comes to spying on people, they’re of surprisingly little use in locating them.”
Kenzie frowned.
If Ozzie couldn’t find Alex, then how were they going to get to her before the Agency did?
“I suppose you can take solace in the fact that if I can’t find Miss Parker, then no one else will be able to, either.” Ozzie turned his head to the right, probably checking the information on an adjacent monitor. The sound of typing filled the room. “Judging from their recent chatter, the Agency is just as clueless to her whereabouts as the rest of us.”
“Wait,” said Kenzie. “Wait, wait, wait… Satellites!”
Declan turned to face her. “The man just said they’re useless to us, Kenzie.”
“Well, yeah,” she said. “The ones with the hi-res cameras are. But what about weather satellites?”
Ozzie arched an eyebrow. “The jejune relative has just made her presence here… excusable. Her idea is not without merit.”
If that was Ozzie’s version of a compliment, she’d take it.
“You’re thinking that if she jumped somewhere, she’d be affecting the area’s weather,” said Declan.
Kenzie nodded.
The bespectacled man on the television screens clicked away at his keyboard for a while before turning his attention back to his guests.
Ozzie frowned. “Twenty minutes after her phone stopped moving in Bay View, an area of low pressure appeared out of nowhere in the skies above the Sonoran desert. It looked to be building into something for a short while, but…” He squinted at something off-camera. “But has since dissolved. The drop in barometric pressure lasted only half an hour. It’s all back to normal, now. Clear skies. Nothing there.”
“Maybe she found Aaron,” said Kenzie. “And he helped her to get things under control.”
“Can you narrow the source of the storm down to an exact location, Oz?” asked Declan.
“No,” he said. “The storm never grew strong enough to pinpoint an epicenter. The best I can give you is a ten square mile area at the very center of the desert. Not all that helpful, I’m afraid.”
How the heck had Alex ended up there? She would have needed to have seen that location before jumping to it.
Wouldn’t she?
Declan sighed. “Alright,” he said. “We’re just going to have to trust her to find her own way home. Hopefully she can keep herself out of the Agency’s crosshairs until she makes it back.”
“What about Aaron, Oz?” asked Kenzie. “Can you tell us anything about who he is?”
Ozzie narrowed his eyes in her direction. The small man looked to be biting back another surly comment about her undesirable presence.
She wondered what it was the guy had against her.
Instead of voicing his aggravations, he shifted his attention off-screen once more, saying, “This Aaron Gale fellow is actually quite interesting.”
“Who is he?” asked Declan.
“Not a clue. The young man’s something of a mystery,” said Ozzie. “Up until six years ago, Aaron Gale didn’t exist. Everything—and I do mean everything—about his history prior to that point is a carefully forged lie. Most of what comes after is of no real importance. His parents would appear to be deceased, however, judging from his stint in the North Carolina foster system. Average student. No priors. After he turned 18, Aaron Gale relocated to Bay View, Florida, for reasons unknown. One thing I can tell you, is that he first came to the Agency’s attention two weekends ago.”
“The same time as that first storm hit Bay View,” said Declan.
Ozzie nodded. “Didn’t take a genius to figure out there was something strange happening with that hurricane. According to some very interesting phone calls I intercepted, Director Carter’s belief that the storm was Alex’s creation also led her to assume that the source of the weather ability must be hiding somewhere in Bay View. Judging from their radio chatter this afternoon, a little digging and the arrival of this second storm eventually brought the Director right to Mr. Gale’s doorstep.”
Kenzie’s heart sank. “The Agency knows about Aaron?”
Ozzie leaned back in his chair. “From what I can tell, they intend to acquire Mr. Gale. Their visit to his home this afternoon was, l
ikely, for that express purpose.”
Acquire Aaron? Just like they were hoping to acquire Alex?
“Did they… I mean, was he…?” Kenzie couldn’t find the words to finish her question.
“Mr. Gale was pursued, but not apprehended. I think it’s safe to presume he accompanied Miss Parker on her journey to the Big Empty.”
“Her journey to the what?” she asked.
“To the desert, Miss O’Connell,” Ozzie rolled his eyes. “Now if that is all, Declan, I have a thousand other—far more important—matters that currently require my attention.”
More important? What could be more important than this?
“You should return to Bay View. Something tells me your presence will be required there quite soon.” Ozzie made a shooing motion at the camera. “And please do remember to take the dummkopf with you.”
Declan’s hand came to rest on her shoulder. “Thanks, Oz.”
“Hey, now,” said Kenzie, arms akimbo. “Who you callin’ a—”
They jumped.
“—dummkopf?!” she finished.
Four heads turned in her direction.
“Gesundheit,” said Brian from his place on the love seat.
“Didn’t you leave here in a car?” asked Aiden. He and Cassie were seated adjacent to Brian on the sofa.
Outside, the storm had progressed into what appeared to be a full-on hurricane. Winds lashed at the trees as the rain fell in torrents, the darkened landscape lit up periodically by brilliant flashes of lightning.
Nate halted his pacing in front of the picture window and moved to join them at the center of the living room. “What did you find?” he asked. “Is she still here in Bay View?”
Before Declan could reply, the girl in question materialized at the front entrance, awkwardly supporting a barely conscious Aaron Gale, whose arm was draped around her shoulders.
Alex’s legs buckled under the weight of Aaron’s lanky form and she fell to her knees, taking Aaron down with her.
“Alex!” Cassie cried.
In one swift motion, Aiden vaulted over the back of the couch, reaching Alex before the others could even cross the room.