We all climbed into said van, Rebecca checking with me to make sure Jaden was on board. The ride back to the hotel was quiet. Jaime conked out after about two minutes, no doubt physically and emotionally exhausted. Lucy kept giving me these strange looks, but she hadn’t had anything to say to me yet. She was eying Cray too, but I couldn’t tell if she thought he was weird or thought he was hot.
We had to stop for a whole bunch of hugging and a little crying when we crossed the line into Sanctuary and Jaden popped into view. It wasn’t as bad as the first time, but still made me uncomfortable. That’s when Lucy started talking, bothering Jaden about everything before the moms had to get his side of what had happened. He followed my lead and didn’t bring up the help we’d gotten from the foliage.
It seemed like an eternity before we finally pulled up in front of the little rundown motel.
Everyone surrounded me on the way up, keeping my bloody clothes from curious eyes. Poor Nina was going to go broke if I kept ruining clothes at this rate. A pang hit me. Or she would, if I was still going to live with her. Jaden was carrying Jaime, who hadn’t even stirred as he pulled her out of her seat. Poor kid, between dialysis and getting kidnapped, she had to be whipped. At some point I was going to have to hear her story too. Nausea flooded my stomach. I’d have plenty of time. I could visit them whenever I wanted, now that I couldn’t leave the city either.
We escorted the Martans to their room. “We’ll be back,” Nina told Rebecca. “As soon as Trish gets changed.” Cray looked about to panic, looking at the Martans and then to me. I waved him after Nina and me. I’d probably have to share a bed with Nina tonight. Ugh.
I groaned in sheer joy when I caught sight of the shower. I had dirt, bark and blood all over me. “I’m taking a shower,” I said over my shoulder as I bolted for the bathroom.
“But, Trisha, I…” Cray started to say, but I slammed the door in his face. Now was a good a time as any for him to start adjusting to being around humans. Hopefully he didn’t blurt anything out to Nina that I didn’t want her to know.
I took my time under the water, savoring the heat even though the spray sputtered every once in a while. Forcing myself not to think about the whole left behind thing and the fact that Cray and Nina were together in the room was tough, but I did it, just for those few moments of relaxation. I got dressed and moved out of the bathroom to stare at myself in the mirror there. What now?
“Feeling better?” Nina clicked off the TV.
“Much.” I brushed at the massive tangle that was supposed to be my hair.
“Hot water fixes a lot of things. Cray said he needed some quiet time and left. I didn’t know what to do so I let him go.” He was such a chicken. There was an awkward pause. Neither of us really knew what to say after that.
“Did they find an apartment?” I asked after a bit. Stupid hair. I jerked on the brush, ripping a little out and almost yelping. Nina patted the bed beside her and I moved over. She held out her hand for the brush and I gave it to her. This would never happen under normal circumstances, but right now I needed every mother/daughter type moment possible. I was going to be alone again. Very soon. No way they were going to get me to try another family. Not when I already had one, just in a different city.
“Yes, apparently they did find one. That’s how we got there so fast, actually, they were already on their way back when I called Rebecca. The place isn’t in an area I would want to live in, but I think it’s better than where they lived in Chicago. I changed our tickets while you were in the shower, we can catch one in the morning for D.C. The flight isn’t too bad, like three and a half hours or so.”
I didn’t answer her. Couldn’t bring myself to answer her. How could I tell her that I wouldn’t be going with her? That after all that she’d done for me in the last few days, I was just going to skip out, let her take all the heat from social services for a missing kid? But what choice did I have?
“We’ll get you home, then I’m not letting you out of my sight for a while. These attacks are over, right? For real?”
Well, no time like the present. I turned and she stopped brushing, looking at me quizzically.
“I can’t go back with you.”
Confusion spread over Nina’s face. “What?”
“I can’t go back with you. If I leave Sanctuary, they’ll be after me again. It wouldn’t be safe for Dan or for you. I’m staying here.” At least until she was gone. Then maybe I would take my chances out in the world, I’d see later. It all depended on what this city had to offer.
Nina grabbed my hand but didn’t say anything. She looked like she was processing. I pulled my hand free and took the brush from her, going at the snarls with renewed gusto. I’d done all this crap to keep the one thing that was important to me, and in the end I’d lost it anyway. Life was awful sometimes.
“I told Rebecca we’d be over,” Nina said after a few seconds.
“I don’t really feel like it, thanks.” Not with Jaden giving me those sad looks because he knew what I’d given up. And Jaime and Rebecca treating me like a hero, which made me feel even more guilty. The first person I’d be okay with seeing from that room would be Lucy, how weird was that?
“Yeah, me either. I’ll shoot her a text and order us some food. Do you know what Cray would want?”
I shrugged. I had no idea.
“Is he in trouble now too, since he helped you?”
“Yeah.”
“So he’s stuck in Fort Wayne.”
“Yeah.” Where were these questions going?
“How well do you know him?”
That was a good question, actually. How well did I know him? Not well at all. I didn’t even know what food to order him. But I had to trust him. He’d given up a lot to help us, though I still didn’t know why. “He was part of the team with Starren, Wade and me, but he defected the same time I did when we found out Jaden wasn’t evil like we’d been told.”
“So he has nowhere to go?”
I looked at her. She looked upset. Of course she was upset. It would have been worse if she hadn’t been. “He has nowhere.” She went quiet after that, and I was grateful. I slipped off the bed and went back to the mirror, ripping at the few tangles I had left in my hair. It was going to be a long night.
Chapter Fifteen
Dragging myself out of bed in the morning was not fun. Not fun at all. Was this how normal people felt every day? Stupid Sanctuary. Nina’s side of the bed was empty. What time was it anyway? I squinted with sleep blurry vision toward the clock. 8:30. There was a lump in Cray’s bed. I made my way to the bathroom, changed and looked at my toothbrush for a second. That counted, right?
“Trisha?” I turned to see Cray half sitting up in bed. His longish hair was a mess, sticking up all over the place and his glasses were still sitting on the end table so he was squinting.
“Yeah?”
He grabbed his glasses and finished sitting up, moving his legs to sit Indian style, a term he probably wouldn’t understand.
“What’s the plan?”
What was the plan? Spend time with Nina today, obviously, but what after that? I couldn’t get an apartment. I couldn’t turn invisible here. Or could I? I gave it a try. Nothing. Apparently there was nothing magical about my sheath, the scales just acted like a chameleon because my sword was invisible, but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t be.
“No plan yet, Cray. I’ll let you know when there is one.” I headed for the door, not wanting to stay in here and talk about this right now. I wasn’t going to cry in front of Cray. No way. He was here because of me. I was going to figure this out for the both of us.
Not knowing if to be sad that Nina wasn’t here to hang out with when we wouldn’t be seeing much, if any, of each other after today or happy that we weren’t doing sappy together time was a pain. I liked my emotions all sorted out, thank you very much.
She wasn’t on the landing when I walked out, so I moved down
to the Martans room. I knocked and after a couple tries, Lucy opened it.
“Whaddya want?”
“I’m looking for Nina.” I shifted my weight, trying to see behind her. Jaden was sitting on the bed. He looked at me and gave me a small smile, like he wasn’t quite sure how I was feeling about him since he had gotten his fairy tale happy ending and I hadn’t.
Lucy moved in front of me. She didn’t look very happy. Had Jaden told them what had went down back at the farmhouse? Hard to tell, Lucy never looked happy.
“She isn’t here,” Lucy said. And she made it obvious I wasn’t welcome to be there either. What was her problem? I’d proved many times over that I wanted to help. Too early in the morning to worry about that.
“Thanks,” I muttered and started for the stairs. I nearly ran into Rebecca, holding hands with Jaime. “Morning,” I mumbled. “Have you seen Nina?”
“Not since she came for the van keys this morning.”
“Van keys?” What was she doing? Surely she hadn’t left for the airport without even saying goodbye. I squinted at Rebecca, trying to remember if Nina’s stuff was still in our room when I’d left, but the sleep haze was just too strong and I couldn’t.
“Are you hungry?” Jaime asked, holding out a banana. “I was going to bring this to you.”
I reached out and took it from her even though I really wasn’t hungry. The one nice thing about Sanctuary. “Thanks, kid.”
She scowled at me. “Don’t call me that anymore, now we’re friends.”
Leave it to her to get me to smile. “True. Thanks, Friend.”
She grinned. We stood there in silence for a moment. I guess none of us really knew each other, so without people attacking us we didn’t have anything to say. Jaime gave me a little wave as her mom tugged her up the stairs carrying all kinds of food toward their room. They were probably going to have breakfast together as a family. I looked at my sad little banana. I might as well get used to meals alone.
I walked back to the room. I could see if Nina’s stuff was still there, maybe call her from the hotel phone. I grabbed the handle and pushed, but of course it didn’t move. Uh oh. I patted myself down, looking for my keycard. Nothing. I banged on the door. No answer. I hit it again. Cray had either fallen back asleep or left after I did. Perfect. I groaned, turned my back and slid down the door to sit on the icky carpet. No way I was going to sit over with the Martans.
Getting slightly hungry, I peeled the still very green banana and took a small bite. Gross, but better than nothing. I finished the stupid thing and threw the peel on the floor, leaned my head back against the door and closed my eyes. This was my life now. Scrounging for food and sleeping against doors. Might as well get used to it.
Footsteps. I didn’t open my eyes. I didn’t care right now. Someone paused, then slid down the wall to have a seat next to me.
I cracked an eyelid. Just enough to see a pair of guys tennis shoes. Too big to be Cray. We sat there in silence for a while. I sure didn’t know what to say, and he must not have either. I pretended he wasn’t there. How did you talk to someone you’d tried to turn over to their enemies to save yourself? He didn’t seem to be holding it against me, but I sure still felt awkward about the whole situation. Besides, what did we have to talk about?
After a while he let out a sigh and stood. “Thank you. For saving Jaime. If I can ever do anything for you… Anything. Ask.” And that was it. He left.
I pulled my knees up and buried my face in my sweats. Tears leaked. I wiped them away with an angry swipe, but they just kept coming. That was so totally not cool of him to do that.
“Trisha? Honey, you okay?”
I squinted up through the tears. There was Nina, concern written all over her face. I hadn’t even heard her come up. She sat a bag of groceries and what looked like some clothes on the floor and knelt down. “What’s wrong? Are the Martans okay? Did something happen?”
I reburied my face, slightly embarrassed that she’d seen my tears. “They’re fine,” I got out.
“Can we move this into the room then?” she asked. “This floor doesn’t look very clean. You might be able to get sick now that you don’t heal.” I heaved out a sigh and opened my eyes. She had stood and was holding out her hand. I grabbed it and let her pull me up.
We moved into the room and she pulled a couple of things out of the bag, sitting them on the counter. “Morning, Cray,” she said toward the bed.
He gave a little wave but didn’t push the covers down enough to show his face. He’d been in here the whole time. Jerk.
“Wanna tell me what’s wrong?” Nina asked.
“I’m tired.” So true. So tired.
She moved over and pushed me into a chair, then sat on the bed. “Wanna tell me what’s really wrong?”
I looked away from her. At anything but her. I didn’t really want to do this with Cray in the room. But I couldn’t lie. “Guess I’m just going to miss you. And Dan. A little, you know?”
“Trisha.” Nina grabbed my face in both hands, forcing me to meet her eyes. “You aren’t going to miss us.”
How could she even say that? Yeah, I hadn’t been the best of kids for sure, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t miss them. Did she really think I didn’t care about her at all? I was so bad at this stuff.
Nina let go of my face and reached behind her, grabbing some brochures that she waved in the air. “Check these out. Which one is your favorite?”
I reached forward slowly and took them from her. Apartments. Housing divisions. A realtor.
“I found one today that we can move into until we get a house. Dan is flying out tomorrow. I told him some of what happened, that we needed to keep you somewhere safe and he said he’d be out to make sure that we’re okay. He doesn’t know about us moving yet, but when he hears this story he’ll be on board. His flight…”
She lost me there. I wasn’t even listening now. She was out looking at places this morning. Dan was flying in tomorrow, would probably be leaving his job. For me. We were going to be a family. A real family, that cared about each other, that took care of each other. They were leaving their place in D.C. The place they loved.
“Wait, Nina,” I interrupted whatever she was saying. “Are you sure? You love D.C. You have so many friends there. What are you going to do here?” I swallowed a lump in my throat. “Think about this before you do anything,” I forced out. That was as close to telling her that I thought she was making a mistake as I could get. Her whole life was in D.C. She’d grown up there. Her friends, her church, her gym, her everything.
She looked at me like she thought I was crazy. “I have. You’re here, we’re here. It’s that simple.”
I couldn’t help it then. I burst into tears. And I didn’t even care that she was there to see them. Nina held me until I was done. So many unanswered questions about my parents, about my abilities. But it was fine. I would probably end up living here forever anyway, never getting answers.
“Just so you know, I couldn’t explain all this to Dan over the phone,” Nina said. “I didn’t want to take any chances on being overheard, so he knows we got into some trouble but has no idea about any of the weird stuff.” I sat up and wiped at my face. “You do realize you’re in for an interrogation once he finds out what’s been going on.”
Ugh. Yes. But that was part of being in a family.
There was a rustle from the other bed. I’d almost forgotten that Cray was back there. He had popped his head out from under the blankets and was blinking at us.
“What about Cray?” I asked Nina.
She sighed, then gave him a little smile. “Mind answering a few questions?
He looked at me and then back at her. “No?”
“He can’t lie, right?” Nina asked. Ugh. I had hoped she’d forget about that.
“Right,” I answered.
“Do you mean me, Trisha, or any of the Martans any harm?” Nina asked Cray.
He shifted in the bed, then answered. “No.”
“Will you always be loyal to our family?”
Cray paled a little. Nina didn’t really know what she was asking there. For fae, always was a really long time. And there were no breaking promises for fae. I watched him intently, trying to read what he was thinking by his face.
He sat up and moved to the edge of the bed, looking Nina right in the face. “Yes. I will be loyal to our family.”
He’d said our. That was really fast and kind of strange.
Nina stared him down for a moment, then looked satisfied. “We’ll see how it goes. Dan always wanted a son. If Trish trusts you, I trust you. You helped her, you’re part of the family.”
I still wasn’t sure about the trust part, but it was my fault he was here. I’d asked him to help. Cray sat up straighter and smiled, a real, true, smile that I couldn’t remember ever seeing on his face before.
“Thank you.”
Well apparently I was going to have to learn more about Cray if we were going to be living in the same house. That wasn’t a bad thing. I’d keep an eye on him, but he probably didn’t have anywhere else to go, so just from a selfish standpoint he would want to keep the Inza’s happy. But I was not going to think of him as a brother, too weird.
So many things had gone wrong, and yet here we were, with the most important thing gone right. How had I gotten so lucky? Whatever higher power there was, I was thanking them right now, and would be for a very long time. Even an hour ago I wouldn’t have believed that this could end up so right. I slung an arm around Nina’s shoulders and pulled her in for another hug. Even I hadn’t gotten enough of them this time.
Things were going to be confusing for a while. A new city, new brother-ish figure, no abilities. So many questions about my parents and why Starren wanted to know about them to bad. But that was okay. Nina caught my eye and smiled. I smiled back. It was okay as long as I had my family.
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