Hayley let herself enjoy a few more seconds of feeling him hold her, of listening to his calm, regular breathing, before she stepped away a pace and sent him a questioning look. “So…where did you go?”
“To a stall in the men’s room at Target.”
It was too much. She felt the laughter begin to bubble up inside her and started to giggle. “The what?”
“It was a place I know. Besides, it was private. I didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing me materialize.”
Well, that made sense, she supposed. Trying to repress the giggles that still threatened to rise up and choke her, she said, “I had no idea you were such a fan of Target.”
“It is a very useful place,” he replied, clearly mystified by her amusement. “I’ve purchased many helpful items there.”
“Okay, I believe you.” She pushed her hair back, glad that it felt like it was beginning to dry. “Do you need to rest? Or do you want to try the jump to Phoenix?”
“That jump wasn’t very taxing. I’d like to attempt a longer one.”
His words should have reassured her. At the same time, though, she wondered if he was allowing himself a false sense of security. Then again, he’d performed these jumps without help from anyone. He should be able to tell whether he was out of his element or not.
“All right.” She reached over and laid a hand on his arm, but not tightly. The last thing she wanted was for her touch to somehow hold him back. Too much was at stake.
The energy flowed from her, and into him. Once again he disappeared…
…only to reappear a few seconds later, disappointment clear in his expression.
“It didn’t work?” Hayley asked, worry surging through her. Yes, Levi looked all right, except for the concern she could see in his features.
“No. That is, I teleported…but only as far as Cordes Lakes. That is about fifty miles from here, so farther than Prescott, but not by much.”
“Maybe I didn’t lend you as much power as you needed,” Hayley ventured. “Maybe if we tried again — ”
“No,” Levi cut in. “It wasn’t you. Your gift more than doubled the distance I normally would have been able to travel. And still, fifty miles is a large distance. Even if the Santiago clan has someone with this same ability — and of course we can’t know that for sure — I doubt they’d be able to go much further than the two or three miles that Connor told me his distant ancestor was capable of. It should be enough.”
“Enough for what?” Hayley asked, although she had a sinking feeling that she already knew the answer.
“To free Lucinda Santiago. We’ll have to go to their territory, of course, but I’ll make the final jump to steal her away. All we’ll have to do is set up a rendezvous point. You can wait for me there, and then we’ll head home to Arizona. We’ll have a fifty-mile head start. It should be simple enough.”
Simple.
Right.
9
Normally, Levi would have said that Brandon McAllister seemed like a level-headed enough person, but at the moment his blue-gray eyes were practically shooting sparks. “You want to do what? Are you all out of your minds?”
They sat in the living room at Angela and Connor’s home. After Levi had contacted the prima and primus, and given a report on his experiments from earlier that morning, they’d sounded cautiously optimistic, but said they thought it was probably a good idea to have a meeting that included Brandon, partly because he’d been tasked with keeping an eye on his younger sister, and partly because, as Connor added, an amused note in his voice, “There isn’t anyone in the clan better suited to driving a getaway car.”
Not that Connor looked amused now. No, he stood by the hearth, arms crossed, jaw set as Brandon stared back at him angrily. “No, we’re not out of our minds. But common sense suggests that getting as large a head start as possible is required for this particular situation, and Levi can go more than twice as far if he has your sister to lend him her talent.”
“I don’t know why you’re intervening at all,” Brandon protested. “I thought you both said when you briefed the clan on the Escobar situation that this Joaquin Escobar had taken the Santiago prima as his own, and that we intended to stay out of it. Why is Lucinda Santiago’s situation different?”
“Because we’re doing what we can to avoid outright clan warfare,” Angela said as she got up from the couch and went to stand next to her husband. “Matías Escobar thinks he has a claim on Lucinda, but he doesn’t. Aside from being the daughter of the late prima, she doesn’t have much of a position in the clan. Her magic isn’t very strong, and her parents kept her hidden away because of her ‘shame’ in being coerced by Matías in the first place. He’ll be angry that we’ve stolen her, but it’s not like one clan kidnapping the prima of another clan, which is exactly the situation we’d find ourselves in if we tried to take Marisol away. From what I’ve seen so far, Joaquin Escobar is much more cool-headed than his son. I don’t think he’ll try to come after Lucinda, whereas he most certainly would attempt to get Marisol back.”
None of these arguments seemed to have much effect on Brandon. His normally pleasant features were pulled into a deep frown, and he sent a narrow-eyed look from Angela to Levi and then back again. “If Joaquin Escobar is so cool-headed, then what the hell was he doing, sending demons to try and kidnap my sister?”
“He probably thought it was an acceptable risk,” Levi said. “The attack occurred on neutral territory, away from McAllister lands. Also, Hayley is not the prima, or the prima-in-waiting. He rolled the dice, thinking we wouldn’t retaliate.”
“And we’re not,” Angela put in. “We’re rescuing Lucinda because it’s the right thing to do. We’ve discussed the risks, and have decided they’re acceptable.”
“‘Acceptable’?” Brandon repeated. He turned toward Hayley, who had been sitting next to Levi this whole time, face pale but resolute. “I can’t believe you’re going along with this. Don’t let them bully you into doing something you don’t want to do.”
“Nobody’s bullying me,” she replied. Her chin went up. “You know me better than that. I want to help.” She paused, and sent her brother a searching look. “What if those demons had been successful in kidnapping me? Are you trying to say you wouldn’t want any rescue attempt to be made?”
A tense silence fell then. Brandon didn’t reply at first, although Levi noticed how the other man wouldn’t quite meet Hayley’s eyes. At last he said, “No. Of course not. But — ”
“There aren’t any ‘but’s, Brandon. Not in this situation. We’ve got to get Lucinda out of there. I need to go along to help Levi.” She clenched her fingers on the knees of her faded jeans. “And I really want you to come, because you’ve probably got the fastest car in Jerome. Or is that ’68 Camaro you have parked out back behind the flat all show and no go?”
It was Brandon’s turn to lift his chin. He crossed his arms and replied, “Hardly. It’s got a 350 engine and nitrous, and a racing transmission. The Santiagos would have to have some pretty fast broomsticks to catch up with that car.”
“Well, then,” Hayley said, as if that settled it.
Perhaps it did. Levi noticed how Brandon didn’t reply, went silent, as though mentally going over the car’s specifications to make sure it was up to the task. When he finally spoke, he sounded resigned, if still somewhat annoyed. “Okay. All right. When do we do this?”
“Now,” Angela replied.
Eyebrows lifted, Brandon said, “Now?”
“We don’t want to waste any more time,” Connor said. “It’s roughly seven hours from Jerome to Pasadena, so you should make it there a little after dark. That’s probably for the best — this is the sort of thing better attempted under cover of darkness. You’ll get Lucinda, and come straight back. Is that going to be a problem?”
“I guess not,” Brandon replied. He rubbed at his elbow, appearing to consider his options. “I’ll have to call work, tell them a family emergency has come up and that
I have to take the rest of the afternoon off.”
“Probably tomorrow, too,” Angela told him. “You won’t be getting back here until the middle of the night.”
Her suggestion only earned a shrug. “I’ve gone to work on only a few hours of sleep before. I’ll be okay.”
No one seemed inclined to argue, possibly because they knew that was Brandon’s decision to make.
After a pause, Connor said, “Then do what you need to, but try to get on the road in the next half hour if you can.”
Brandon shrugged. “It won’t be a problem. I’ve got a full tank of gas.”
Hayley glanced at Levi, and he nodded. For a lightning-fast trip like this, it wasn’t as if they needed to pack much — some snacks for the road, jackets for when night fell and the temperatures cooled off. All their preparations needed to be mental, not physical.
Then he stood, and Hayley rose next to him. “We’ll be back before you know it.”
“I doubt that,” Angela said. “Just…be careful, and be quick. The Escobars might be expecting something from us, just because of their failed attempt to snatch Hayley.”
“They might,” Levi replied. “But I doubt they have any reason to think we’d be going after Lucinda.”
“And you have the photo I forwarded from Caitlin?”
“Yes.”
Because he’d informed Angela that he needed some kind of visual reference for where he was “landing,” so to speak, Caitlin had sent the prima a photo of Lucinda’s room. She’d had it because the Santiago witch had been thinking of redecorating, and had sent an image of the bedroom in question to get her friend’s input. This way, Levi could go straight to Lucinda. With any luck, the Escobars would barely have time to register that a strange warlock had entered the house before he’d safely escaped, and taken the young woman with him.
Or perhaps they wouldn’t notice at all. Angela had once said that he didn’t exactly register with her the way a witch or warlock who was a stranger might. The slightest twinge, possibly, but not the tingle at the back of her neck like she usually got.
“Then go with the Goddess,” Angela said, her tone almost formal.
Levi nodded, and took Hayley’s hand. They headed out to the front porch, Brandon a few feet behind them. He still looked less than thrilled by the entire situation, but it seemed he’d exhausted his arguments…for now.
“I’m going to head over to the deli, get some sandwiches for the road,” he said as the three of them paused where the front walk to the prima’s house ended. “Do you want anything? It’s probably better if we only stop for gas.”
“Ham and cheese with Dijon,” Hayley replied promptly.
“That’s a good idea,” Levi said. “Roast beef on rye, no mustard.”
“Got it.” Brandon headed off down the street, going to a steep staircase that cut between two properties and would put him nearly where the deli was located. As he went, he raised his cell phone to his ear, no doubt calling his work to let them know he wouldn’t be returning from his extended lunch.
Levi and Hayley went in the opposite direction, walking down the hill to Main Street, and so to the building where both their flats were located. Neither of them spoke. Levi didn’t know for sure whether her reticence was simply because she didn’t want anyone overhearing what could be sensitive subject matter, or whether, now that the moment was upon them, she was beginning to wonder what she’d gotten herself into.
Hopefully, not much of anything. She would be far away, after all, some fifty miles from the scene of the crime. They would have to decide on a rendezvous point once they were within the proper range, but that shouldn’t be too difficult — an obscure corner of a shopping center parking lot, or one belonging to an office building where the employees had gone home for the evening. All they really needed was someplace where they wouldn’t be observed.
“I’ll get my jacket,” Hayley said as they reached the landing that separated the entrances to their two apartments. “And some bottled water.”
“That’s a good idea,” Levi responded. As she touched her fingers to the doorknob, he reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?”
At once she smiled, although her expression appeared somehow doubtful, as though she had smiled because she couldn’t think of what else to do. “Sure. I mean, I’m not going to lie. This whole thing kind of scares me. But it’s not like I’m even going to the Santiago house. I’ll have Brandon there. I’m frightened for you, though.”
“I’ll be fine,” he told her. “I know what I’m doing. The Escobars won’t be expecting us. Remember that.”
“I’ll try,” she said, even while her smile slipped, looking wavery around the edges. “I’m glad we’re going now, though. That doesn’t give me enough time to really let myself get frightened.”
In response, he bent and kissed her, tasted her sweet lips. Not too deep a kiss, because they both knew now was not the time for that sort of thing. Just enough, though, enough to show her how much he cared, that of course he would be careful, because he wanted to make sure he survived this and came back to her.
Then they both went to gather up the meager supplies they might need, and by the time they were done, Brandon had returned, carrying a bag of sandwiches from the deli. He didn’t seem inclined to speak, but only asked if they were ready. Since of course they were, there was nothing left to do except go downstairs and climb into Brandon’s vintage car. The back seat seemed somewhat cramped, although Hayley declared that it was just fine when Levi asked if she would be comfortable there for such a long drive. He knew she was probably just trying to forestall an offer from him to sit there himself, which would have been even more awkward, since he was so much taller than she.
And then they were on the road, heading down the hill into Cottonwood so they could pick up the highway that wound its way into Camp Verde, where they got on the interstate and began to drive south. Levi could feel the power of the engine in the vehicle, its raw, brutal strength. Brandon hadn’t been idly boasting when he said he doubted any of the Santiagos had a car like this. Perhaps they had something comparable — Levi had heard that people in Southern California enjoyed their cars — but he didn’t think their vehicles could best this one.
Brandon drove fast, but not so fast as to attract the notice of any state troopers, something he was probably used to doing, considering how conspicuous this car was. If they were pulled over, Levi thought he most likely would be able to talk their way out of a ticket, but he would prefer to avoid doing so. That sort of thing sounded uncomfortably close to Matías Escobar’s own dubious talent for mind control, and Levi didn’t like the thought of exerting that kind of influence for such an illegal reason.
Otherwise, they drove without talking, music from the satellite radio doing its best to fill up the silence. Clearly, when Brandon restored this car, he made sure to put some modern conveniences in it, although Levi would have preferred something a little more soothing than the alternative rock station Hayley’s brother had chosen. Still, Levi knew he could tune most of it out if he concentrated on the landscape passing by, on the dry, dusty desert, which began to be painted in hues of gold and orange as they continued west and the sun sank ever lower in the sky.
They stopped in Quartzsite for gas, and to eat the sandwiches Brandon had bought for them, and use the restrooms at the gas station. After that, it was back on the road, and on into California’s desert, which seemed even more barren and empty than the desert lands that surrounded the Phoenix area. When they came down the mountain passes outside Palm Springs, Brandon spoke up.
“Maybe now we should try to figure out where we’re going to wait for you?”
Hayley rooted around in her purse and pulled out her cell phone. “Let me check around. How far are we from Pasadena?”
“Still about seventy-five miles.”
“Okay.” She brought up the map application on her phone and started dragging it around, zooming in on likely spots
. “There’s a big mall in Ontario — Ontario Mills. I think we should be able to park there. It’s about thirty-five miles to Pasadena, but I like it because it’s right next to the freeway.”
“That sounds fine,” Levi said. “I don’t think that extra fifteen miles is going to make much of a difference. And I should be able to jump back without having to find an intermediate spot.”
“We can’t count on that, though,” Hayley said as she searched around on the map again. “Especially since you’ll have Lucinda with you. There’s a Walmart right where the 57 and 210 Freeways connect in a place called Glendora. Here’s a street view.” She held up her phone, angling it toward the front seat so Levi could get a good look at the image. “Can you work with that?”
“Yes,” he replied. One Walmart parking lot looked very like another, but this one, with the embankment of the freeway off to one side and an imposing mountain range just ahead, was distinctive enough that he knew he could navigate his way to it if necessary.
“All right,” said Brandon. “How far to Ontario Mills?”
“About another ten miles,” Hayley told him as she inspected her phone again. “There’s an exit at Milliken Avenue, it looks like. Right after you cross the 15 Freeway.”
“Got it.”
They all lapsed into silence again. In the reflected illumination from the dashboard lights, Levi could see how tightly Brandon’s fingers were wrapped around the steering wheel. He’d seemed very calm all during the long drive, but clearly his apparent cool was only a façade. Well, Levi couldn’t blame him for being nervous. So far everything had gone smoothly enough — he’d been worried that some sort of alarm might have gone up when they crossed over into Santiago territory, and that they might be confronted before they got anywhere near Pasadena, worries that seemed to have been for naught — but he wasn’t about to start believing that this would be a simple operation. False confidence only led to trouble.
Brandon eased the Camaro over to the right, then got off at the ramp Hayley had called out. As she’d said, this shopping center was vast, with acres of parking lots, and satellite feeder roads that led to smaller freestanding stores that weren’t part of the mall itself. Those same roads also connected to a number of restaurants, which still had their fair share of patrons, even though it was now past eight o’clock.
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