Regen

by Cassie Greutman

  Okay, maybe she knew more about us than I did. Obviously I knew I didn’t ever need a doctor, but I hadn’t really thought about other fae and their medical needs.

  “So Dad did talk about Faerie with her, more than just mentioning it,” Jaden said.

  “When can you leave for the Fort? The sooner we get them out of here, the better,” Cray said.

  “True. Something bad will happen soon. They’re coming,” Jaden said.

  Oh great. Now not only did I have my own paranoia to worry about, but his too. How did I know if he was having a gut feeling or his ability was telling him something? How was it even working, he wasn’t supposed to be old enough yet. Like me. So that meant he was a descendant of the Faerie Court too? “Did you see what’s going to happen?”

  “No, sometimes I don’t see anything, I just get a feeling. Supposedly I should be able to control choosing what I want to see and forcing it eventually, but I don’t know how yet.”

  Rebecca pinched the top of her nose. “We have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Jaime is scheduled for her dialysis in the morning and she can’t go without. I don’t know where we could find a dialysis center on the way, plus they probably wouldn’t take a walk in. It’s too much paperwork. She has to have it every other day or she gets sick, very sick.”

  “There’s something we can do that will buy you a little time. We’ll give you one night to get packed up. I’d stay to help but we need to get back to Starren and Wade, they are going to start wondering what happened to us,” I said.

  “Are they the ones after Jaden?” Rebecca asked. “I heard you mention a Starren earlier.”

  “Yes, and you don’t want to meet them, trust me. Especially in the mood Starren is in right now. Just get together what you need, get it in the car. You can leave whenever you’re ready. Tonight Cray can lead Starren on a merry chase.”

  “You mean you’re just going to send them away?” Cray asked. “Not even help them get to Sanctuary? The Council isn’t going to be happy about them leaving, they will send someone after them. Someone worse than Starren. If they are intending to use them to manipulate Jaden, this could be very bad for them.”

  Shoot. When he said it like that it made me feel super cold hearted. Like it was me breaking apart the family, not the Council. I was supposed to talk to the mom and Jaden would turn himself over to me. That was what I’d signed up for. I pointed at Jaden and then pointed over toward the fence. He nodded and headed that way. I followed, not bothering to answer Cray, who looked nearly panicked at being left alone with a human.

  “So, my side is done, now it’s your turn,” I said.

  “You really want me to turn myself in while my family is running for their lives?” he asked, his face turning slightly red. “I understand if you don’t want to help, fine, but you want me to just let them go on their own?

  “That was the plan, yes. Plus, Starren and Wade are after you. You give yourself up, your family is automatically safer. They could probably just stay here.”

  “No!” Jaden practically yelled, making Cray look our way, concern obvious on his face. “I’m telling you, the Council is after all of us. Something has changed. I don’t know what changed or why, it has something to do with my dad, but I won’t let them get my mom or the girls.”

  “Really? You don’t know how this works?” I tried to keep my voice down so his mom couldn’t hear me threatening him. “You made a promise. You’re fae, you can’t get out of it.” Sadly I’d found the truth in that when I was five and told mom I wouldn’t take any of the cookies off the counter. She left the room and the cookies taunted me until I tried. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t get one into my mouth. A stupid part of being fae.

  “I do know how it works. And I know that the one the promise was made to can release the one who made the promise.” I glanced toward Cray to see if he’d noticed how loud Jaden was getting. He had. “Please, Trisha.” And then the loud was gone and sad was back. I liked mad better. Much better. So much easier to deal with. “You have to know something is going on here.”

  Okay, yes, I could see his point. So far there had been no red flags about Jaden. He truly seemed like an okay guy. Would a real criminal risk his freedom and safety to move his family if they weren’t in danger? Probably not. Even if he wasn’t a criminal, he wouldn’t have come back knowing he wouldn’t be able to interact with his family unless he truly believed they were in danger. I sighed. I was about to get myself into all kinds of hot water.

  “So what do you want from me?” I thought I already knew the answer, but just in case…

  “Get my family to Fort Wayne; get them settled in. Then I’ll let you turn me over to Starren.”

  I sighed again. This was not going to be fun explaining to Nina and Dan where I was. Maybe I should just stay out here overnight. Nah, that would probably be even worse. But what if I couldn’t get away in the morning? Wait, what was I thinking? I could turn invisible for Pete’s sake. Sneaking out of the house would not be a problem.

  “Please, Trish,” Jaden asked. “I want you along in case something comes up that I need help dealing with. Or, more likely, if I need to talk to mom.”

  “Fine. But I’m holding you to the whole turn yourself in thing next time. I have my own reasons for doing all this.”

  “I’m sure you do,” Jaden said, his voice going soft. He stuck out a hand. “Thank you.”

  I reached forward slowly and shook his hand. It was warm and slightly calloused, sending a tingle down my arm. I pulled my hand back quickly. “And you owe me one. I’m not doing this for you, I’m doing it for your little sister.”

  “Fine, as long as you’re doing it. Now you actually have to release me.”

  Okay, that was a little awkward. “How do I do that?”

  He gave me a little smile, the first one I’d really seen. “Just say out loud that you release me from my promise to be turned over to Starren tonight.”

  “Jaden, I release you from your promise in exchange for a new one. That once your family is safe in Indiana, you will allow me to turn you over.”

  He lost the smile and got very serious. “As soon as my family is safe. I promise.”

  I nodded, not really knowing where to go from there. Thankfully Cray saved me from any further awkwardness.

  “Trisha?” Cray called from the other side of the yard. I moved his direction. “We should help them with their stuff as much as we can. I can keep watch for Wade and Starren. They are far away right now, but I’ll let you know.” It was a good thing this tracking didn’t work both ways. Wade and Starren wouldn’t be able to find us until we wanted them to. Or they came back to the house, which would be bad. Very bad.

  “He just knows where they are like that?” Rebecca asked, looking at me. I nodded. She shook her head. “Thanks for the offer to help but we don’t have much. Nothing we can’t leave behind other than the pictures. After losing Jaden and Thomas, stuff doesn’t seem as important anymore.”

  She sounded so sad. I shook it off. Ignore it, ignore it. Just get the job done. I was already helping way more than I should be. “Okay then, the plan is we come tomorrow afternoon, everyone loads up in your car and we head to Indiana, how’s that? How long of a drive is it?” Dan and Nina were going to freak. Hopefully they would forgive me. No time to worry about it now. I’d figure it out later.

  Cray shrugged. “I don’t understand human travel.”

  “Mom?” a little voice asked from behind the screen door. I hadn’t even heard her open the inside door. Some protector I was.

  “Yes, Jaime?” Rebecca asked, turning to the door.

  “Who are those people?”

  “Just some friends. What do you need?”

  “He was here again, mom, I could feel him. I think he might still be here now. Do you think we should try talking to him?”

  “I’ll be in to talk in a moment, honey, just step back inside.” Rebecca sighed. She waited until
the door clicked closed. “She’s been telling me for the past week that Jaden was here. I didn’t believe her. I guess that if we make it to Fort Wayne I’ll have some explaining to do. I’ll tell Lucy what’s going on. She’ll want to know why we’re moving, but it would probably be better to hold off for Jaime. Is Jaden still here?”

  “Yes.”

  She held her hand in the air. “Goodnight, honey, I love you.”

  He reached his hand up and pressed his palm against hers. She obviously couldn’t feel it. He looked down and dropped his hand to his side, his face stony, like he was trying not to show how much this was affecting him. I knew what it’d do to me if that was my mom. Didn’t matter it was his step-mom, just like it didn’t matter anymore that Nina was my foster mom. They were just moms. I’d be ready to kill someone if they had done to me what they’d done to Jaden. Rebecca turned and headed for the house. “See you both tomorrow.”

  “Cray and I better find Wade and Starren,” I told Jaden. “See you tomorrow.” He nodded and followed his mom into the house, strolling right through the wall. Yuck. He really was a ghost here. “Lead the way,” I said to Cray.

  We walked quite a while in silence. I lost track of the blocks after seventeen. How had I gotten myself into this mess? This was what happened when I let myself care about stuff. I shouldn’t care about Dan and Nina. Shouldn’t, but did. How was I going to explain being gone all day today? And how was I going to get away tomorrow if I went back today? I could always use the invisible thing, but would Dan let me come back, or would that push him over the edge? I growled under my breath. I was getting tired, something that didn’t happen often, and it was making me cranky. “Are Starren and Wade at least headed in this direction?” I asked Cray.

  He nodded. “Getting close.”

  “The least amount of talking with them, the better,” I said. “Starren will be hard to fool.”

  Cray nodded again, but didn’t say anything.

  “How did you get away from them, anyway?”

  “I said I saw something and when they ran off I slipped away.”

  Ha. I wouldn’t have thought he had it in him.

  The area was getting livelier as we finally reached the tourist section of town. Neon lights blinked everywhere. People were laughing and hanging off each other having a good time. I guess I’d be having a good time too if I was here under different circumstances. I weaved through them, hardly having to think about keeping myself invisible. A couple passed us, the guy carrying a bunch of packages for the girl, who laughed at something he said. Would that happen for me someday? I’d thought I’d found it once before. Thought I would have it for life. That hadn’t turned out so well.

  Another block and I caught sight of Wade headed our way, Starren not far behind him. He stood out from the crowd, partly because of his height and good looks, but mostly because he looked pretty angry.

  I nudged Cray. “Ready? Here they come.”

  His eyes got wide, but he nodded. Poor guy. Today had been a lot for him, for both of us.

  “Where have you been?” Starren asked, pushing ahead of Wade.

  “Nice to see you too, Starren.” Okay, a very typical movie response, but what can I say, I was nervous. And it was a non-answer, which got me out of telling her where we’d actually been.

  “Where is he? We’ve been looking for him, and you, for over an hour.” Oh yeah, she was mad. Even more mad than when I’d insisted on making that phone call.

  “I don’t feel him right now, Starren,” Cray said.

  “What? Try harder. We can’t lose him after getting so close!”

  “Are you getting too tired?” I asked. Maybe I could save him from getting chewed out. Somehow I felt responsible for getting him into this. “You know he can’t sense things when he’s tired Starren. That’s why you let us go home at night.”

  “He is new to his power.” Wade said. My hero. Ha. “We can’t push too hard or he could lose it for a while.” He turned to me. “It’s possible to push your ability too far and shut it down.” I had to keep an evil smile off my face. Wade was helping us and didn’t even know it. Just what he deserved.

  “Ah!” Starren slammed a palm against the nearest building, sending that slapping noise ricocheting. A lady walking by swung farther away from us, looking right through our little group.

  “Don’t get the cops sent after us,” I whispered. We were invisible, but that probably made the whole situation worse. If they somehow found us I’d hate to have to try to explain how that had happened to some officer. No way we’d be making it back to help Jaden’s family if we got caught.

  “Let them come. I could use a fight right now. We almost had him. I can’t believe you idiots let him get away.”

  “You know we can’t do that, Star.” Wade’s tone was very soothing. I hadn’t heard him use that tone of voice since he’d been trying to calm me down about the Inza’s not letting me go to his place as much as I’d wanted. “We can’t get the humans involved. The Council would not be happy if we took out a bunch of the local law enforcement. Let’s go home for the night, get Cray up in the morning, and try again. He could be miles away right now, in a car, for all we know. We wouldn’t be able to catch up anyway. If we do it that way, we can use the portal and get the drop on him.”

  “Fine. We will use the portal to our advantage tomorrow.” She swung toward Cray. “Now that you know his aura, will you be able to pick him out even among the presence of other fae?”

  Cray looked at me, then nodded reluctantly.

  “If you haven’t found his location by morning, you will be coming back with us and combing these streets until we find him.”

  “What about me?” I asked, slightly insulted.

  She waved a hand at me like I didn’t matter and took off walking. Cray and I looked at each other, then followed.

  “Don’t make her mad at you, Trish,” Wade said from behind me. “She’s pretty far up on the chain. If you really want to stay with the Inza’s like you told us, I suggest you listen to her, otherwise you might find yourself waking up in some place you don’t know again. Only this time it won’t be in a forest close to home.” He passed me and caught up with Starren, not even sparing me a glance.

  Grr, someday... something. I didn’t even know what. Was he trying to look out for me, or was something else going on? How was I supposed to know? It wasn’t like he’d been very forthcoming with me so far.

  No one had anything to say the rest of the short trip down into an alley. Starren walked straight into a wall, disappearing. How did they remember where all these random portals were? I’d go around crashing into walls forever before I accidentally hit the right one.

  I stepped through after Cray, keeping my eyes closed for a second after the portal sensation faded.

  “Back here by seven a.m.,” Starren told me, then took off.

  Wade clapped Cray on the shoulder. “Come on. You need to get some rest.” Cray glanced my direction.

  I lifted an eyebrow. He nodded. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we were going to help Jaden’s family, and then I was going to turn the guy in. Dan and Nina would be safe, and I would be able to stay with them. I was going to do it, no matter what my conscience was trying to tell me. I had to.

  Chapter Eleven

  I pedaled hard. I was running way early, but it didn’t matter. All the better to keep an eye on Cray, make sure he didn’t chicken out. Starren had quite a hold over him. The portal let me through on my own again.

  This morning I had left the house before Dan or Nina had noticed I was awake, slipping out the door, invisible to human eyes. We hadn’t fought the night before. They were past being mad. Now all Nina showed me was the pain that I wouldn’t trust her with where I was sneaking off to. But I couldn’t. The tiny part of me that kept whispering I should tell them what was going on was easily squashed. What if they didn’t believe me? Or worse, what if they did, and thought I was a freak? Better to keep things the
way they were.

  Cumat looked up from where he stood part way down the hall, mop in hand. “Miss Trisha. Good morning.”

  “Good morning,” I said, even though it wasn’t. I started down the hall toward Starren’s door.

  “No use,” Cumat said, stopping me in my tracks. “They left over an hour ago. Miss Starren gets impatient and they had no way of contacting you.”

  My vision rolled, making me dizzy. They’d left without me? No! What about Jaden’s family? What about our deal? This was not good. So not good. I took a deep breath. Cumat didn’t need to see how upset this was getting me. “Can I follow them through the portal? I’ll just find them when I get there.”

  Cumat dipped his mop into a gold bucket, pulled it out infuriatingly slow and went back at the floor. “I’m afraid not. Miss Starren sets those portals, without her here, who knows where you might end up. Somewhere horrible no doubt.”

  I bumped my forehead with the knuckles of my closed fist. Think. Think. Come on, I had to get there somehow. “What are the chances the portal will take me to Chicago?”

  Cumat looked up, irritation plain on his face. “Weren’t you listening? Zero. The portal must be set.”

  “And you don’t know how to do that?”

  He went back to his work. “No.”

  Great. Now what? A plane would be the quickest way, but that would take at least six hours, if I could even figure out how to get on one. But they were behind here in time. I glanced at my watch. Five a.m. there. And Jaime had dialysis. This could work. I just had to convince Dan and Nina to get me on a plane. They’d probably be glad to get rid of me by now, after everything I’d put them through recently. Yeah, keep telling myself that. I tore out of the hallway, barely feeling the portal on my way back outside. I grabbed my bike and started running, jumping on at full speed.

  I thought I’d been moving fast on the way to the Hall, but that was nothing compared to the speed I was flying along at now. Dodging through early morning traffic, I made it home a good ten minutes faster than it had taken me to get to the Hall. I tore up the drive and dropped my bike, then crashed through the front door and headed for the kitchen.