He nodded and gave me a small smile. “I know. And I’m sure the fact that you are has something to do with Nina. I know how the Council works.”
I couldn’t look at him after that. He was just going to honor our agreement without even trying to find a loophole? I couldn’t do this. Hang out with him like I wasn’t going to ruin his life sometime in the next few days. “The others are probably about ready for breakfast.”
Jaden didn’t say anything, just slid off the bike and escorted me to my room. I turned around to face him, but there was nothing to say so I slipped the card into the lock. He waited until I was inside, then just as I was closing the door walked away. I put on the chain and slid down the door to sit with my back resting against it, face planting in my hands. How had this become so difficult?
* * *
Nina had been in the shower when I got back, then went back to bed. She got a twenty minute nap before someone else knocked on the door. Nina groaned and rolled over. “Your turn.”
The peephole showed Rebecca on the other side. She waved even though she couldn’t have seen me looking.
The lock clicking open sent Nina into renewed groaning.
“Hey,” Rebecca said, her cheerfulness making me almost grind my teeth. “I wanted to give you time to get breakfast before we leave. I want to go ahead and stop at the dialysis center so everything is ready to go tomorrow, and then apartment shop. Are you or Nina interested in any of that?”
“Sure, we’ll go along,” Nina muttered from the bed. “There aren’t any flights out until tomorrow anyway, I checked while you were downstairs, Trish. Just give me twenty minutes to get dressed.”
“Okay,” I got out. Why was I so tired? I should be back to normal after all that pizza and sleep. I could barely understand what she was saying.
“See you in a few. I’m going to take the kids down to eat.”
Nina rolled over and practically fell out of bed. I beat her to the sink and started brushing my teeth. I brushed a little too vigorously and spit out blood. Kinda weird when it didn’t fix itself. I played with the little piece of gum with my tongue. Okay, more than kinda. Wait a minute. That’s what all my problems were. No fae powers in Sanctuary. I couldn’t super heal. Shoot. I took a deep breath, let it out.
It was fine. There was nothing to worry about here. I didn’t need any healing abilities. Besides, we were leaving tomorrow. It didn’t matter. But I did not like this human feeling tired stuff. That would take some getting used to. Or at least it would if I was going to stay. But I was probably never coming here again after this was all over. The Martans would kill me if I showed my face anyway, once they found out I turned over Jaden.
It took us ten minutes to get around enough to head downstairs, which I thought was pretty good, considering. The Martans had a table for us. I followed Nina through the line and grabbed anything that caught my interest, namely oatmeal and yogurt, even though I wasn’t really that hungry. Nina sat next to Rebecca and I pulled up a wobbly chair beside her.
Rebecca tossed a newspaper on the table and opened it. “I have these numbered in what order I think we should go see them.”
Nina took a bite of her apple and leaned in. “We’re never going to get through these in a day. We can hit the most likely ones today, and we’ll have a little time to help you tomorrow before our flight leaves at four.”
It was a long day. I soon discovered that I would, by far, prefer hunting monsters to apartment hunting. Nothing we went to was quite right. I mostly couldn’t blame Rebecca, the stuff in her price range wasn’t in the safest parts of town.
It didn’t help my mood any that they were planning where Jaden was going to sleep, where he’d park his car when they eventually got him one. That wasn’t going to happen, but I couldn’t tell them to stop wasting their time without telling them why. I could already see the betrayal on Rebecca and Jaime’s faces. Lucy would probably just beat me up.
We got back to the hotel late, changed and fell into bed. Yay, a repeat the next day.
Breakfast Sunday morning was much more subdued.
“How many do we have left to look at today?” Nina asked Rebecca. She was starting to look tired.
“Just five. Hopefully one of these are the one.”
No kidding. I dropped my head on the table. I never wanted to do this type of shopping again.
“It’s important that you get the one that’s best for you guys. How long does dialysis take?”
“Five hours, give or take,” Rebecca answered.
“I was thinking we could get Jaime set up and Trisha and I could stay with her while the rest of you go apartment shopping,” Nina said. “Do they allow that with minors? That way you can take your time, maybe something will pop up that wasn’t even in the paper.”
“Our old place did. Are you sure it’s safe enough for us to split up?”
“We’ll be fine,” Jaden broke in. “We need out of this hotel and into a normal life as soon as possible. Cray said we were safe here. I believe him. No one would dare do anything in Sanctuary, even if they had their powers.”
Rebecca and Nina shared a mom look.
“You don’t have your powers here?” Nina asked me. I shrugged. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know that was something I needed to bring up.”
She looked grumpy for a second. “Well for future reference, yes, that’s something you need to bring up. What if you got hurt because I didn’t know I needed to worry?”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Worrying is going to keep me from getting hurt?” She crossed her arms in front of her chest and raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything. I turned to Rebecca. “So are you going to let us stay or what?”
“If you’re sure that’s okay?” She looked at me, to Jaden and back to me.
“Yes!” we both said, me a little more empathically.
“Jaime? How do you feel about this?”
Jaime looked up from her blueberry oatmeal. “It’s fine. I’m used to it.”
A flash of something went across Rebecca’s face. Hurt maybe. “Okay then, sounds like a plan. Let’s hurry up and get this over with.”
We finished up eating without much talking. I hadn’t heard Lucy say a word all morning. She just sat there with her earbuds in. But she was looking a little happier than normal, which didn’t take much. Once everyone finished, we packed into the beat up minivan and headed to the dialysis center. Rebecca pulled up and took a front row parking spot.
“Give us ten minutes.” Rebecca’s seat belt clicked free. “It will take at least that long to finish the paperwork. Then you can come in and sit with her. Ready, Jaime?”
Jaime nodded and hopped out of the van, dragging her panda with her. I watched a couple vans pull up and unload old people while we waited. That must have been why the parking lot was so empty, everyone got dropped off. How boring for Jaime. Most of the people here were fifty years or more older than her.
The ten minutes dragged by. Lucy still wasn’t saying anything, just looking at Jaden every minute. She glanced at Jaden, then fiddled with her iPod. She probably didn’t want to let him out of her sight, even after spending all day with him yesterday. I couldn’t blame her. I’d be the same if I ever found my mom. At least she hadn’t called me crazy since Jaden popped up. Progress. He was staring out the window and Nina was sitting there texting. What a boring group. Too bad my phone didn’t regenerate too. Not that I had anyone to text, but I could be playing Monster Busters.
“Ready?” Nina asked after the ten minutes were up. Jaden slid his door open and jumped out, followed quickly by Lucy. I slid out my side.
By the time we got inside, Jaime was already plugged into a machine, her blood flowing out one tube and back in through another in her arm. Yuck, needles were still scary, even if they couldn’t really do anything to me. At least I’d never have to worry about dialysis with my condition. I’d probably look young ‘til I fell ov
er dead.
Jaden kicked me.
“What?” I hissed. That kick stung. It still stung. How long did stuff like that take to not hurt?
Jaden nodded toward his mom, who was talking. To me apparently.
“You’re okay with staying, Trisha? I would definitely feel better if you were here,” Rebecca was saying. “You have your…” she made vague slashing moves at the air.
“Oh. It’s fine,” I answered. Definitely better than apartment shopping, especially since I wouldn’t be living in said apartment. “And yes, I have that.” Thankfully the invisible sheath still worked here.
“Lucy, are you staying with these three or going with us?” Rebecca asked.
“Are you kidding? I’m going with you. If we have to live in this place at least I can make sure I get a nice room.”
Rebecca rolled her eyes. She walked over and gave Jaime a hug, “You’re sure you don’t mind staying with her?” Rebecca asked Nina for the tenth time.
“Yes, I’m sure. We’ll be fine, won’t we Jaime? Especially with Trish here to keep us company.”
Jaime nodded, a shy smile on her face.
“Don’t worry, Mom,” Jaden said. “They’ll be fine.”
“Go find yourself an awesome place to live,” I threw in, trying to get the ball rolling. The sooner we got away from this family, the better. They were making my plan very hard to imagine carrying out.
“Be back as soon as we do,” Rebecca said, kissed Jaime on the head and then left for the car, Lucy trailing after her.
“Lucy’s really not that bad,” Jaden said, rubbing the back of his neck. “She just likes to pretend to be.”
Nina gave him a smile. “She probably feels safer that way.” She shooed him away. “Go on, we’ll be fine here.”
“See ya, Squirt,” Jaden said to Jaime, then headed off after the other two women in his life. Time for the fun to begin. For both of us. He probably was as excited about apartment shopping as I was about sitting here all day. Especially when he knew he’d never be living here.
I settled into a chair beside Jaime and grabbed a magazine off the table between us.
We spent hours playing Go Fish with Jaime and watching kid shows on TV. The bell above the door rang. I looked up from the TV screen, more out of boredom than anything else. Just another old person.
Jaime told a knock knock joke and I laughed even though it wasn’t funny at all, just because she was so cute. She smiled at me and my heart did a little flip-flop. How come I didn’t have a little sister like this? Maybe Dan and Nina would consider it, if Dan didn’t kill me when we got home. Finally my stomach started to growl. Nina laughed.
“Ah, I might need to ask the nurse about the closest place to eat,” I said.
“You’re still hungry even without…” she dropped her voice to a whisper. “You know.”
“Yeah, I guess. Aren’t you hungry?” I was still a teenager, even if I wasn’t special at the moment.
“What do you think?” Nina asked, turning to look at Jaime. “Should we let this beast go find something for us to devour?”
Jaime giggled. “Yes, but she has to hurry back. Dora is on in a little bit.”
“Can’t miss Dora.” I stood and stretched. This whole not healing thing made it really uncomfortable to sit this long. Yuck, I was going to be so happy to leave this town. Being normal should feel nice, but I wasn’t liking it as much as I’d have thought.
Nina bent down and pulled her purse out. She dug around and came up with a twenty. “You know what I like. Just grab me something.”
“You got it.” I winked at Jaime. “I’ll try to be back in time for Dora.”
The receptionist at the front desk gave me directions for a couple places. I settled on Arby’s because I was getting pretty tired of pizza and burgers. Who would have thought that was possible? Not me, not living with Nina and eating all that healthy junk.
The walk went fast even though I was puffing in the cold. Who’d turned down the temperature out here? Or was that just a side effect of the no abilities thing? I ate one roast beef on the way back. Nina would never need to know. Just as the thought finished, I caught sight of Nina running out of the clinic door, her expression nearly sick. I instinctively touched the sword hanging in its invisible sheath on my back for reassurance as I dropped the bag with the rest of the food and ran.
“What? What’s wrong?” I grabbed her shoulder, keeping myself up.
“It’s Jaime.” She strangled a sob. “She’s gone.”
“Gone?” I yelled. “What do you mean, gone?”
“I ran to the bathroom real quick, and when I came back she was gone. The nurses didn’t see anything. One of them is on the phone with the police now.”
“She didn’t just wander off?” The ridiculousness of the question hit me as it was coming out of my mouth. She knew what was going on, she was a kid, but she was smart. She wouldn’t go anywhere. And she was plugged into a machine for Pete’s sake.
Nina, heaved in another breath and held out a crumpled note.
If you want the kid back come and get her.
There was an address below. “Starren,” I ground out. What was wrong with her? Fae weren’t allowed to attack fae in Sanctuary. She was going against the Council she supposedly was chasing Jaden for in the first place. “Nina, I need your phone.”
Nina fished it out of her pocket without saying anything. I punched in the address rather forcefully. It took forever for the webpage to refresh, but then there it was. Where Jaime would be. Right outside the boundary of Sanctuary. Two miles, since we were on the edge of town.
I wadded up the note and stuffed it back in Nina’s hand.
“I called Rebecca, they are at least twenty-five minutes out, and that’s if traffic is good. We need to have a plan ready when they get here.”
“I’m going now.” I started following the phone on the map. Two miles, ten minutes a mile, I’d be getting there before the others even made it here. Nina caught up with me.
“Why? Can’t you wait on them? Please?”
“No.” All I could see was Jaime’s face, white with fear. No way I was waiting around to see if Rebecca could remember how to get back here when she was upset, to see if traffic was good, if they didn’t get stopped by a cop meeting them at the clinic and who wanted the whole story. Nope, just me against Starren and Wade. Outside of Sanctuary. Bring it on.
“I’m going with you,” Nina said, upping the pace even more.
I grabbed her hand and pulled her to a stop. “Rebecca is going to need you. And,” I pointed to a non-existent line on the map on her phone screen, “once I get to here, you aren’t going to be able to keep up with me. I’m going to have my abilities back, and you would just be something for me to worry about anyway.”
“You think I’d stay here to help console some lady I met a couple days ago while my daughter is in danger? Think again. And whether I can keep up with you or not is irrelevant. I’m going.”
“Suit yourself.” I started off at a jog.
Nina caught up right away, her long legs keeping her right beside me with quite a bit less effort. Okay, hopefully the boundary was even closer than I’d thought.
“I need my phone,” Nina said after a minute. She didn’t even sound winded. Did she jog while I was at school? Kind of sad that I didn’t even know. That would change when we got home, I’d know everything. If I survived this meetup.
I took another quick look at the map and passed it over.
She called someone. Rebecca. No answer, so she left a voicemail with detailed instructions on where we were going and how Rebecca and Lucy were to stay clear, but it was okay if Jaden wanted to show up. Just in case. There must be really bad service around here, or Rebecca was already talking with someone else, because if my kid was missing, I’d be glued to my phone.
After ending the call, Nina handed me the phone. We jogged on in silence, breath puffing in the coo
l air. We stuck close to whatever highway it was we’d come in on. My legs were starting to burn in an uncomfortable new sensation. Was this what people meant when they talked about runners fatigue? We finally made it the first mile, and I knew the instant we stepped over the line. The lungs that I’d thought were about to burst filled with new air, the stich in my side dissolved and my legs were ready to take on that next mile without any problem.
Unfortunately for Nina, the same thing obviously didn’t happen to her. If I’d had the time, I would have been seriously impressed at how well she was doing. For an old lady. Older lady. Whatever.
“I’m going on Nina, don’t get yourself in any trouble.”
Nina slowed a little, obviously upset. I didn’t look at her, couldn’t look her in the eye. I just pushed forward, charging on toward Jaime. Starren wouldn’t hurt her, would she? She was just a little kid, just bait. No way Starren would hurt her. Wade? Much as I hated the guy, I couldn’t see him hurting her either. It was fine. I was going to find them, sneak in and grab her, and that would be it.
The little map had showed a small road just off the highway. I hiked along for a minute. It was mostly fields. Dead, empty, winter fields. That didn’t seem like a good sign. There was only one mailbox along this road, and it was a pretty pathetic one. It hung off the post sideways by one bent and rusted screw. Obviously no one had been getting mail here for a while.
It wasn’t a driveway leading up to the mailbox, it was a lane. Or at least it had been. Weeds grew along the packed dirt trail. It wound through the trees and out of sight around a bend covered in brush. I slipped into the shrubbery beside the lane and moved on at a good clip, trying to keep as quiet as I could. Right now I really wished it was summer and not fall, more leaves for cover and less on the ground, crunching.
I did my best not to make any noise, but I spent most of the trip down the lane stopping dead still and wincing. Definite city girl. Finally the long lane ended at an old rundown farmhouse. Had someone actually lived in that? Why else would there be a mailbox? If they were inside, hopefully I’d be able to see them through the huge picture window in front.
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