by Jeff Sampson
“All right,” I announced before I could talk myself out of it. “Here’s the plan. We’re going back to BioZenith tonight, and we’re destroying the place, starting with that portal to another world. All their records on us, all their new experiments, all their connections to the Akhakhu will be gone. It’s the only way we can keep them from hounding us until the day we die.”
“That sounds dangerous,” Brittany said.
“Incredibly dangerous,” Tracie agreed.
Spencer looked at them in the rearview mirror. “Really? After all the ass we kicked today?”
Brittany shrugged. “That was us taking them off guard. Who knows what will happen if they’re prepared?”
Amy snorted. “Oh please, don’t be such wusses.” Meeting my eyes, she said, “I am one hundred percent down with blowing stuff up.”
“Me too,” Casey said softly.
I looked around at everyone in the car. Spencer, Amy, and Casey were clearly ready to go. Brittany’s and Tracie’s expressions seemed more or less resigned. Which just left…
“I can help,” Nikki said. “We’ve come this far, and the fact is we got more answers about our own powers teaming with you for an afternoon than we have listening to our parents our entire lives.” Leaning forward on her knees, she tilted her head. “I just have one question.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“How are we supposed to save Dalton if we destroy that portal?”
Everyone in the car fell silent. It was true, I’d vowed to save him after seeing him get taken. It was what I’d promised the cheerleaders to gain their trust, even. But I had no idea if I was able to get into the other dimension, let alone if I’d be able to find Dalton and get back out again before we’d need to blow the thing up tonight.
A buzzing sounded from the cup holders between the two front seats. My phone.
Swallowing down the anxiety in my throat, for I was certain it was my dad or Mr. McKinney or someone else involved with BioZenith, I grabbed my phone and flicked it open to see a text message.
And smiled in surprised relief.
“What is it?” Spencer asked, glancing at me as he stopped at another sign.
“I know how we’re going to save Dalton,” I said. “All it will take is a quick trip to, uh, Oregon.”
“I don’t care where we have to go,” Nikki said eagerly. “How are we going to do it?”
I held the phone up so she could read the text:
2:53 PM PST: Emily, it’s Evan. Things went down bad with my mom overnight. I know it’s kind of far, but can you come get me?
Grinning, I said, “How about a little help from a guy who can jump between worlds?”
13
DID THEY FIND US?
Five minutes later, we were on I-5 South, heading full speed toward Portland, Oregon.
Last time I was in Portland, I was eleven, and my dad and I drove down for one of the special early showings of Serenity. We’d missed out on tickets to the Seattle show, but he managed to score these last minute. Just two—one for him and one for his little Leelee.
It was a six-hour round trip, and even though none of the cast or crew showed up like other screenings, and even though the movie randomly played out of order and had to be respooled halfway through, it was never boring.
Back then, life was much simpler.
I’d only summoned up the memory so that I could figure out about how long it would be before we reached Portland, but the memories of singing songs with über-Whedon nerds and gasping at shocking deaths and sharing Junior Mints with my dad rushed over me.
The girls in the backseat all talked among themselves—curiously, Amy and Tracie seemed deep in conversation. Next to me, Spencer stared at the long stretch of freeway ahead of us, as lost in his thoughts as I was. The radio was on, but I could barely hear it over the hum of the engine.
Closing my eyes, I shook my head, and silently told myself to focus. When I opened my eyes again, I saw Spencer still staring glassy-eyed at the line of cars in front of us in the car-pool lane.
“Hey,” I said, placing a hand on his leg. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head. “It’s stupid.”
Leaning in, I shook his leg playfully and grinned. “Try me,” I said.
Meeting my eyes briefly, he sighed. “I know with all we just found out, I shouldn’t be thinking about this. But when Dalton’s dad said they made it so…well, they made it so that you’re supposed to like me and want to be around me. Like you’ve only been spending so much time with me because your werewolf brain tells you to.”
He was right, of course. My werewolf brain did tell me to be with him. His bioengineered scents were designed to draw me to him, vaporous magnets that tugged and pulled at my body and brain, leading me to him.
But I’d figured out long ago that wasn’t why I wanted to be around him all the time.
“Look at my face,” I said. “This is my super, one-hundred-percent-honest face. Okay?”
Unable to contain a small smile, he nodded.
Neither could I. My insides fluttered and my cheeks warmed, and my voice trembled slightly as I went on.
“And one-hundred-percent-honest me is telling you this: No matter what those people programmed me to do, I am always going to do what I want to do. And I want to be around you because…” I swallowed. Calling on Nighttime, I finished. “Spencer, you’re an awesome guy, and I like you a whole hell of a lot.”
His grin was at full adorableness now. “I like you too, Em Dub.”
Behind him, someone snickered. Only then did I realize that Tracie and the cheerleaders had gone quiet and were listening to us.
I glanced back just in time to see Amy smirk. “How sweet.”
Smirking right back, I leaned over and kissed Spencer on the cheek.
Eyes still on the road, his hand shot to his face where my lips had pressed against his skin, and I could see a blush reddening his face.
Clearing my throat, I leaned back into my seat. Loudly I said, “Okay, we can stop listening to my conversations, thanks. Let’s just keep making plans.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Amy said, and I heard her and Brittany laugh.
I was the one blushing now. Scrunching down in my seat, I tried to hide from their view as much as possible.
Even when busy planning a rescue and a battle, the alpha could still get all embarrassed about crushing on a boy.
Glad to know that not all of me was lost to being a vesper.
For the next hour we discussed what we would do when breaking back into BioZenith, with the occasional detour into conversations about school and weekend plans.
I guess right then it still didn’t feel entirely real. Even after our grand escape, the idea that our lives would never go back to normal didn’t seem possible. That’s a pretty big change, you know? How could I not be thinking about going back to school on Monday or sleeping in my bed that night?
We passed the water park and were then in the midst of downtown Tacoma when our phones started to ring and buzz, one after the other. Calls from blocked numbers, and from Dalton’s dad, and from my, Tracie’s, and Spencer’s parents’ phones.
So they hadn’t forgotten about us. Damn.
We all clicked ignore and silenced our phones. The vibe in the car was much less chatty after that.
We were nearing the Tacoma mall when a car to my right matched our speed and began to honk.
“Whoa!” Spencer said, startled. For a moment he lost control of the minivan and it swirled out of the carpool lane, veering directly toward the honking car.
“Spencer!” Tracie screamed.
I gaped as I looked out the passenger window. We were inches from sideswiping the other vehicle when whoever was driving let go of the horn and veered to the right. Spencer got control at the same time and pulled us back into our lane.
“What the hell!” Amy shouted.
Spencer’s knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel with both
hands. My heart was pounding and I clenched the seat.
The other car pulled back toward us. Again the driver leaned on his horn. Peering through the window, I saw the figure on the other side of the tinted glass alternating between honking and gesturing wildly behind him.
“What’s going on?” Nikki asked, leaning between the two front seats. “Is it BioZenith? Did they find us?”
“I have no idea,” I said. “He keeps gesturing behind us.”
In the backseat, Tracie, Amy, and Casey all turned around to look out the back window. I looked in the mirror outside the passenger window and saw another car tailgating us.
“Oh,” Tracie said. “It’s Mrs. Cooke!”
“Evan’s mom?” I asked, confused.
“Emily Cooke’s mom,” Tracie corrected. “She’s trying to get us to take the next exit.”
The car next to us mercifully stopped honking, though my ears still rang from the blast of noise. Instead he started to change lanes.
“Should I follow them?” Spencer asked me.
“No,” Amy said from the backseat. “Absolutely not. We don’t trust any of the parents, remember? That’s what you said.”
I thought back to the lunch at BioZenith three hours before. The Cookes had been massively upset. They claimed they were no longer a part of “this.” And Evan’s mom, who was apparently some crazed devotee of the Akhakhu, considered them enemies.
It was possible that Mr. McKinney had planned this in case we escaped—to have the Cookes pretend to be allies to try and trick us later. But he’d seemed so sure we’d never escape. And why would the Cookes go along with him after their daughter was murdered?
“Spencer,” I said. “Take the exit. Follow their cars.”
“Um, are you sure that’s a good idea?” Brittany asked behind me.
I nodded. “They seemed to be on our side. And if they’re so frantic about speaking to us now, maybe we should listen.” Turning around, I met Amy’s eye. “Besides, if they try to cause trouble, you guys can just blast them with your mind powers.”
Grinning at me, Amy raised a hand and flexed her fingers. “You’re not wrong.”
Everyone seemed to calm down at that, at least for the moment. Spencer did as I asked and started changing lanes in time for the mall exit. The girls confirmed Mrs. Cooke was doing the same.
Curiously, throughout the entire exchange, Casey sat quietly scrunched up against the window behind Spencer. Out of all of us, she was the only one who offered no anxiety or enthusiasm about anything that was happening.
Instead, she just stared out the window, a sad look on her face.
It was midafternoon on a weekend, so the mall was packed. Families and teenagers and friends were out in force to chill at the food court or spend their cash at the department stores. An endless stream of people swarmed from the parking lot into the mall and back out again.
We slowly followed behind the two cars as they led us through the parking lot, looking for open spaces. Finally we pulled into the lot for Sears and found three empty spots toward the back, far away from the store entrance. The girls in the backseat opened the door and were jumping out before we were even to a full stop.
Taking a deep breath and hoping I was right about the Cookes, I unbuckled my seat belt and opened the passenger door.
In the two spots next to us were parked a pair of Lexuses, twins in every way save one was a sleek black and the other a glimmering silver. Apparently everyone who worked at BioZenith was a fan of the luxury vehicle.
Out of the black car stepped Mrs. Cooke. She looked a lot like her daughter, though the slight wrinkles at the corners of her eyes and the wisps of white hair mixed in with the blond gave away her age. The bags under her eyes were new.
She smiled at me. Behind her, her tall, attractive husband slammed shut the door of his car, then came to stand by her side. For a moment we all stood there in the narrow space between Spencer’s minivan and the black Lexus—the Cookes facing off with a line of superpowered teens.
I cleared my throat. “I’m trusting you two aren’t with Mr. McKinney. But that only gives you five minutes. Which is more than you deserve for freaking us out and nearly driving us off the road.”
Mrs. Cooke frowned and shot a glare at her husband. “You’ll have to excuse him. It’s his first car chase.”
“I needed to get their attention,” Mr. Cooke grumbled.
I sighed. “Make that four minutes.”
Nodding, Mrs. Cooke said, “Of course, of course. It’s just, you can’t be in this car. It’s been reported stolen, and all of you reported missing.”
“What?” Tracie asked. With a moan, she put her head in her hands. “Oh now I’m going to have car theft on my record too. This is just great.”
Nikki nudged her. “We’ll be fine.”
“How do you know the car was reported stolen?” I asked. “You left BioZenith before we did.”
“Harrison—Mr. McKinney—called us,” Mr. Cooke added, nervously stumbling over his words. “We don’t know what happened after we left BioZenith, but we knew if you fled, then it was nothing good on their part.”
“Thanks for the warning,” Spencer said. “But we’re not going back and we’re not turning ourselves in. So unless you’re offering new cars…”
“We are!” Mrs. Cooke said. She reached out and clutched his arm, smiling at him. “We’ve been waiting for a day like this ever since they…ever since what happened to our Emily. We want to help you. We want to keep you safe and tell you everything you need to know.”
I scanned their eyes, looking for some flicker of deceit. I didn’t find any.
But I hadn’t found any in my dad’s eyes, either.
“How did you even find us?” Amy asked, crossing her arms and glaring at them dubiously. “You just happened to be driving to Tacoma after leaving BioZenith in a huff?”
Good point. I crossed my arms and raised my eyebrows, waiting for an answer.
“Oh no, of course not,” Mr. Cooke stammered. “It’s nothing like that.”
“Then what is it?” I asked.
Mrs. Cooke met my gaze. “We were already headed down I-5 when we got the call, because we got an urgent text message that said it was sent to you, too. We’re on our way to save my nephew, Evan, from my crazy former sister-in-law.”
14
WE JUST WANT TO HELP
Mrs. Cooke showed me her phone to prove it.
The text was there. Minutes before the one I’d received. From Evan’s phone, begging for help.
I handed the phone back to Mrs. Cooke, who smiled at me, expectant.
“Evan said he hadn’t seen or spoken to any of you in years,” I said. “His mother wouldn’t let him. How did he even know your number?”
Clutching her sweater at her neck, Mrs. Cooke shrugged. “I don’t know. But if he contacted both of us, he must be in trouble. We want to help.”
Putting his arm over his wife’s shoulder, Mr. Cooke pulled her in close. “We just want to help,” he echoed.
I looked between the both of them. They certainly seemed earnest. And like Evan, something about them made me feel like I could trust them.
“One sec.” I held up a finger, then gestured at the others with my chin. We filed around to the back of the minivan in a line, leaving the adults behind, then formed a tight circle.
“What do you guys think?” I asked.
“I say we ditch the van and take the cars,” Amy said.
Tracie nodded vigorously. “Definitely. I am not getting arrested for car theft. There is no way in hell.”
I looked between Spencer, Nikki, Brittany, and Casey. “You guys agree?”
They glanced at one another, then shrugged their consent.
Straightening up, I prepared to head back to the Cookes and let them know we were down with their plan. As I did, Casey’s hand shot out to grab my arm.
“Wait,” she whispered. “There’s nine of us, and each of those cars will probably fit aro
und five people.”
“Excellent,” Brittany said with a grin. “More space at last.”
Casey shook her head. “No, what I’m saying is, maybe now would be a good time to split up.”
“What?” Nikki asked. “Why would you say that, Casey?”
Sheepishly, the girl looked down at her feet, letting her shoulder-length hair fall in front of her face.
“It’s just, if we’re going to attack BioZenith tonight, maybe some of us should head back to Skopamish to prepare, while some of us go for Evan.”
Spencer nodded. “That’s not a bad idea. It also means if some of us get caught, there will be others of us free to rescue the rest. Speaking of getting caught…” He reached inside his pocket and pulled out his phone.
Then Spencer promptly threw it on the ground and stomped on it.
Tracie leaped back to avoid cell phone shrapnel. “What on earth?”
“Everyone do it,” Spencer commanded. “We don’t know what kind of tracking tech they have, but if I know my movies, they can probably track cell phones.”
Brittany pulled a purple phone encrusted with fake jewels out of her jacket, then held it close to her chest. “But I love my phone,” she whined. “Do you know how long it took to get these crystals affixed? A long time, Spencer!”
Amy yanked the phone out of her sister’s hand and threw it down. “I’ll help you bedazzle a new one. Stop complaining.”
One by one, the rest of us stomped on our phones or smashed them against the bumper on the back of the van. People walking to their cars gave us strange looks, and a woman loading a baby into a car seat shook her head at us, but we didn’t care.
Crouching down, Spencer swept up the broken cell phone pieces to throw them away. As he did, the Cookes appeared around the edge of the minivan, concerned.
“Is everything all right?” Mr. Cooke asked.
Looking as though she was on the verge of tears, Brittany watched the sparkly remnants of her phone disappear in the shadows beneath the van. “No,” she said.
“We’re fine,” I said. “But with all that BioZenith has been able to do to keep track of us, we decided to smash our phones. Just in case.”