Eleri took a deep breath and stared at the small trees separating one yard from the next. Donovan looked at them, too, as though he might see the answers in them. He didn’t.
“Yes. She’s Mina Aroya’s daughter. She’s Peter Aroya’s daughter, too.”
He was taking it as the answer when Eleri spoke again. Not to the group, but this time to him. “Do you think that’s the problem?”
“What?” He didn’t understand.
“That her mother was the victim of government testing and so was her father. Do you think it’s a genetic fireball?” She almost laughed to herself, but the situation was too grim for it to bloom. “Literally.”
He could only nod. The Atlas graduates had been fed into the general population, into the fabric of daily life. They knew who they were, but could never come forward. He wondered for a moment where the others were, but Dana interrupted his thoughts.
“Cameras.” She handed out packets to each of them.
Donovan pulled his out and inspected it. A small clip for his lapel. It looked like a tie tack, but he wasn’t wearing a tie. The wire fed from the pin, down behind his shirt to a transmitter. He had two spare batteries for it. A note on the pack told him it would begin to vibrate regularly as the battery got lower, so he should wear it somewhere he would feel it. He pushed the extra batteries into his pocket and looked up. Eleri’s looked like a small brooch. Dana’s like a flag pin. Christina’s was a pair of glasses. Wade was using a pocket knife to poke a hole in the back of his shirt pocket to run the wire. His looked like a pen.
“But we can’t see the images,” Donovan only noted the futility of it then.
“Tablet.” She held it up. “I can see. I’m going to be your eyes and ears. Tomorrow we all get glasses that will project the camera image directly in front of you in real time. But they aren’t here yet and she is.”
One by one they acknowledged the futility of the situation. I didn’t appear the girl was there now, but Bonnie Kellogg’s family was in danger. And Bonnie hadn’t even done what the rest of her family did. They had to protect her, even if it meant getting in the way.
Even though they were probably also targets themselves. It was a sobering thought. Grace Faith Aroya was a killer. She took out the people who’d harmed her family. But she’d also taken out a few people who—at best guess—had helped her. Surely the five FBI agents were already on her kill list.
It took five more precious minutes to plan what their route inside was. To get earpieces in—at least they were tiny and wireless and non-obvious. They spent time contacting the agents at their various stations around the house, letting them know the team was in place and would be coming in.
Dana spoke into her comm—attached to her collar and very secret agent-y looking. “I don’t think she’s here now. But you have to watch for any strange movement. She’s unbelievably crafty.”
“Crafty,” he repeated as though the word were in any way adequate. The agents guarding the family had no idea what they were up against. But to tell them would blow the NightShade division wide open.
“Copy,” Dana replied, though none of them knew why.
Donovan changed his channel just in time to catch the last snippet from one of the guards. “—wife is opening the front door and looking around. I don’t know why.”
Now Donovan understood. From the looks on the others’ faces, they knew, too.
“Shit!” Dana yelled it, as they all took off running. They were four blocks away. Parked where they wouldn’t be spotted from the house. But though they’d successfully remained out of sight, they might now be too far away.
The agent responded to Dana’s swears and Donovan heard the exchange over the pounding of his own feet. Over Eleri beating a hard path beside him and Christina coming up in the back. Wade had shot off in a different direction, but Donovan had no time to worry about that now.
“What do you want us to do?” The agent asked, staying calm even though none of the rest of them were. Then again, he’d only seen someone open a door they shouldn’t have. He didn’t know why.
“Nothing. Just nothing.” Dana’s voice was remarkably calm considering that her feet ate pavement at a startling rate.
Though he’d pulled ahead, Eleri yelled to him. “Donovan!”
He didn’t slow but put his hands up. He could hear her. She knew it.
“Wade went to change. You do it, too.”
He had a better shot with that nose. He had his best chance in that form. There were just enough trees behind the tiny playground to give him cover. There would be no Eleri holding a bag for him this time. There was no guarantee no one could see him.
But Bonnie Kellogg and her family were in imminent danger.
He was peeling his clothing before he even hit the shade of the trees.
41
Eleri came through the front door like an avenging angel. Though to the family, seated together in the family room near the back of the house, she must have looked more like a bat out of hell.
The first one to breach the shell of the house, she finished her initial visual sweep then pulled up short. Nothing was happening to the family.
Was it possible the mother had just opened the door to look around? Would she even know?
Suddenly, the race hit her. She’d flat out run four blocks and though she made a point to stay in shape, you were never ready for the adrenaline kick. She still wasn’t out of it. So, taking a harsh breath, she forced her vocal chords to work.
“Why did you open the door?” She was looking right at Bonnie Kellogg. She expected a pointless answer, but she had to ask.
“I thought I heard one of the agents knock.” Bonnie waved it off. “Why? Did you come in here because of that? We’re okay.”
Eleri only wished that was truly the case. It might be, but she had no way of knowing. Not yet. Then the idea snagged something in her brain. “Why did you think it was an agent? Not a neighbor or something?”
“Well because—” The first two words came easily, but the sentence, and even the thought, seemed to hang up at that point. Bonnie started again. “Because—” Finally, she shrugged. “I don’t really remember, but I did. No one was there anyway.”
The family was starting to ignore her, to go back to reading, playing video games, the oldest kid was poking away at a phone screen. Dana burst in behind her, startling them all over again.
Eleri turned with her palm out, suggesting that Dana stay her questions, thinking they should keep the family as calm as possible. Dana nodded back. Eleri spoke again in an even tone.
“I’m going out back to meet up with the other agents.” She had to tell Donovan and Wade not to come crashing through the door.
Eleri was turning toward the back door when Christina entered through it, gun first. She swept the room. It was smart to do it for herself, though Eleri and Dana were clearly not in a state of active alarm. Unfortunately, none of them could really trust what they were seeing. Waiting until Christina finished, Eleri offered a quick introduction.
“I’m Agent Eames, and these are Agents Brantley and Pines.” She gestured, open palm, to each of them in turn.
“Lady Agents,” the husband said, amused as he looked up from the video game he played with the oldest daughter who was decked out in a soccer uniform she wasn’t getting to play in today.
“Agents.” The correction was out of her mouth and accompanied by a smile before Eleri could think that she didn’t give a shit what he thought. She was already past him and out the back door.
“Wade. Donovan.” Though her natural inclination was to hiss the names, she was trained well enough not to do it.
A low growl came from beyond the back fence. They could scale it if they needed to, but instead she tried to make short work of a board. With the heel of her shoe, she gave several good kicks and managed to wedge it to one side. It was wide enough for them to squeeze through if they needed to.
Shit. She hadn’t checked first. “Dana, is the
backyard clear?”
It took a near eternity for Dana to reply, but eventually it came. “Clear. Move around? Give me camera view.”
Eleri complied. Dana was watching five feeds . . . Or maybe just three. The men had to have shed their cameras when they changed.
Just then, Donovan growled again and began pushing his way through the open hole in the fencing.
“You don’t have to—” he was through before she finished the sentence and Wade was coming close behind him. “—we didn’t find her.”
But Donovan was already cutting across the lawn on a beeline for the back door. Eleri had closed it behind her when she came out, in hopes that if she was followed Grace would have to open the door and she might see at least that, or recognize that it was open when it wasn’t before.
Trusting Donovan and Wade, who clearly saw or smelled something she didn’t, Eleri bolted across the lawn just behind them. It would be easier and better if she opened the door.
She took more of the steps up to the deck than either of them, but she made it. Seeing her coming behind them, each had split the doorway. Though they were out of her way, neither was taking his eyes off the knob. They wanted in, and fast. Eleri was turning the knob when Dana’s expletive burst through her earpiece.
DONOVAN SAW her when he entered the house with Wade hot on his heels. Thin and blonde, she startled him first by her age—she was definitely younger, teen-aged. He couldn’t let that sway him though, she was a killer. Her eyes darted one way then another, probably trying to figure out why Dana was swearing, why everyone was here.
For a moment, he was surprised she hadn’t covered herself for him, but then again, why would she? What would it matter if the dog could see her?
Dana was looking frantically around the room, her eyes darting one way then another. She swore a little more under her breath and then gathered herself in a manner that was clearly forced.
Stopping as abruptly as he entered, Donovan looked away and made a low, rumbling noise, hoping he communicated to Wade not to charge her. They had the advantage as long as she didn’t make the effort to override them.
The father was staring at Dana. “What is going on?”
“I tripped,” Dana lied back to him, as clearly she knew now that Grace Aroya was here. “We’re here to keep you safe.”
“Well, you don’t need to swear in front of my kids.” He was flustered and angry and probably put out by a threat he hadn’t seen and sadly, never would. With a huff of undeserved irritation, he sat back down and resumed his game with his daughter. The daughter handled the exchange with better grace than the father had.
Donovan trotted off to the edge of the room as nonchalantly as he could. He hated playing “dog” but playing “spy” was actually pretty okay. The movement must have finally caught the attention of the father again, because he jumped up and yelled, “You can’t bring that dog in here!”
Eleri was close behind him and was trying to communicate with Donovan, but the interruption had to be dealt with. “Sir, they’re mine and they’re a valuable part of your protection team.”
“You need to take them out of here.”
“I won’t,” she answered, placid as a still lake.
“You have no right to bring such big animals around my family! I didn’t ask for this.” He was turning red, shaking, angry. Donovan could smell it on him. He wished he could speak. That would make the man shit his pants, but he listened to Eleri while he made as casual a scan of the room as he could.
“I’m sure you didn’t ask for it. Need I remind you of why we are here? Of what happened to your in-laws? A dog or two is something a nice hepa filter can take care of,” she pointed into the corner, “and you’ll be alive at the end of the day. You’re welcome.” She said the last words with a finality that Donovan appreciated.
“Donovan.” She said it to him at a low decibel as he realized somehow they hadn’t set what she should refer to them as. His head perked to her. Good dog, he thought.
Her eyebrows lifted at him with questions. In response, he kept his eyes on her, but aimed his nose toward the girl standing in the corner of the room. He whined ever so slightly.
How long did they play this out? Grace Aroya was standing there probably ready to light up the place. He didn’t know. She didn’t look like she was having any crisis of conscience about there being kids here. She just looked like she was watching and deciding when to make her move. Luckily, she’d dismissed the dogs.
The family had no idea this young woman—the very same one who’d killed their relatives—was is the room. Donovan didn’t put anything past Grace Aroya, and she’d already checked the windows, tried the doors, climbed the fence. She was inside. What more did she need to do when she could make them all think they hadn’t even seen her?
Sure, she could walk out and try again another day. And maybe she would. After all, she’d just discovered the FBI was watching the house, trying to keep the family safe, from her.
As Donovan watched, Dana made what looked like a routine sweep of the house. Her eyes twitched and he could tell she knew the girl was there. Why had she sworn before? Probably, she’d seen something on that monitor of hers. The glasses would be incredibly helpful, he knew, not that he could wear them when he looked like this . . . He saw Dana glance at the tablet and try not to give away what she saw. Good, she had the girl at least located. And it didn’t appear that the girl knew what the tablet signified, that she could be found.
Wade stood next to him, probably watching her without looking like it, just like Donovan. She hadn’t overridden him, and it didn’t look like she’d overridden Wade either. Christina had parked herself by the front door and was taking slow breaths, though Donovan couldn’t figure out what she was trying to do. She couldn’t see the young woman, that was obvious, but she was trying to casually find her. And Eleri had also planted herself by the back door and was centering. As Donovan watched, he could see her breathing rate and probably her heart rate slow. She held her gun loosely in her hand, not threatening, but ready. He’d seen how fast she was.
As he watched, her eyes lifted and she scanned the room.
It was just a subtle shift in her breathing, but he caught it. She saw! Eleri could see the girl. Whether it was plain as day or just a shimmer of the atmosphere that told her where Grace Aroya was, he didn’t know. But Eleri saw.
As he looked across the room, he saw the young woman’s eyes narrow. Whatever she’d been waiting on, she’d had enough. He had only a split-second warning before the room burst into flame.
He scooted from the edge, forcing himself to stay calm, but the problem was that it wasn’t like Christina’s fire. It wasn’t just an exercise in pushing back an override. He could smell the smoke, he could smell the paint charring off the walls, and the screams as the family raced to the center of the room and huddled together were ringing in his ears as he thought, this fire is real.
42
Eleri felt the heat lick at her skin and she stepped away from the wall. The family huddled in front of her, the daughters yelling, the father screaming his fool head off and the mother, Bonnie Kellogg, somehow keeping it all together. Her arms wrapped around her family as they clustered close despite their hysteria. Was she calm because that’s what she was? Or because she’d seen this coming? Did she know what this retribution was for?
Even Eleri wasn’t quite sure.
The flames behind her reached out as they began pushing everyone to the center of the room.
Looking up, Eleri could see her. There was a fuzziness to Grace Aroya—as though Eleri’s eyes were blurry, but she was there. As best Eleri could tell she was seeing a vision of what was there over top of what Grace Aroya didn’t want her to see.
“Turn it off, Grace!” she yelled and the teenager startled, her cover slipping for a moment. Then her eyes narrowed once more and the fire flared hotter and brighter than before.
Grace was a bitch.
Donovan and Wade raced pas
t her then, flying at the girl, mouths open, long teeth ready to do damage. Eleri flinched. She’d not seen Donovan kill like this. A low-level fight was all she’d witnessed before.
For a split second an old image formed in her brain. She wasn’t supposed to know it, and Donovan didn’t know she’d seen it, but she’d been privy to a vision of his father killing his own boss one night late at work. The transformation and the rage had been scary to watch. Just as scary was seeing the way the man treated Donovan. It was hard not to find shades of his father in Donovan’s attack now.
But before the thought could fully form, Donovan flew backward, then Wade beside him. The noises they made as they hit the ground tore pieces out of her heart, but she didn’t have time to take them into account. Nor did she have time to deal with the father, screaming at the top of his lungs, “What the fuck is going on?”
Eleri strode toward Grace Aroya, feeling something well up inside her. She hadn’t known it before, but now it felt like generations of power and she pulled it up higher and higher. Donovan would tell her that her eyes were black. She believed it now. The way Grace Aroya was looking at her, they would all believe it.
“Turn it off, Grace!” She yelled it with enough force to send the young woman stumbling back as though hit with the force of a massive punch. She flew into the wall, the fire winking out behind her as she hit, keeping her from being burned.
Eleri wasn’t sure who was more shocked at her burst of power, Grace Aroya or herself. She was also startled at Grace’s control over her own fire. As surprised as she had been at getting seen and hit, she should have flown into her own mess and started to burn. That she’d managed to turn it off, and to not blink out the entire house from being startled, that she’d done it in such a controlled area was impressive. And scary. Grace Aroya had far more control over her powers at age fifteen than Eleri had at thirty.
The NightShade Forensic Files: Echo and Ember (Book 4) Page 28