“Is anybody on it?” asked Mariana.
I shook my head. “No.” I should have been able to see the heat signatures through the bus, especially my dad's and the fire elemental woman.
There was nothing.
Nobody.
We all crept forward nervously toward the bus. Shannon gave the door a gentle tug, it opened easily. One by one we poked our heads onto the small bus. Empty.
My heart sank and my gut twisted.
“They were here,” Shannon said, sniffing audibly. “This is the same bus. They were here.”
“Then where are they?!” asked Jen, voice cracking with emotion.
We quickly searched every inch of the bus for something. Anything. Rak checked under the seats and then went under the bus itself. But there was nothing.
After that we searched throughout the barn itself, desperately looking for any sign of what had happened. After a few minutes it became clear that it was just an empty, rundown barn.
“If they got off, it wasn’t in the barn,” said Shannon. “I can’t smell them anywhere but on the bus.”
Soon we were all standing quietly in the doorway of the barn, staring at the rapidly cooling bus.
“They’re gone,” I choked. I felt a tear roll down my cheek and fanned absently at the steam that rose up from it, more apparent than usual in the cold night air. “They're gone,” I said again, unable to believe it.
“How could we have lost them?” Mariana said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. “We were right behind the bus the entire time. That guy at the gate stopped us for like a minute. How could we possibly have lost them?”
“They have to be here!” cried Jen, desperately pivoting in a small circle, looking around wide-eyed. “They had to have gotten off the bus!”
“I can’t smell them,” Shannon said. “Wherever they got off the bus, it wasn’t here.”
I heaved a sigh. “We were practically circling the barn, there is no way we missed that many people crossing the grounds, even if they were running.”
“Did we lose sight of the bus at all before we got here? Long enough for them to have gotten off?” Shannon asked.
“No,” said Jen. “They couldn’t possibly have gotten off it until it stopped here.”
“Except they didn’t get off here,” I said.
“We should go,” Shannon said.
“Go?!” I screeched at her. “You want to leave?!”
“Keep your voice down,” she reminded me. “We don’t know what happened, but if the bus is here, the driver has to be.” She frowned then sniffed. “I don’t smell him either…”
“There are potions that can alter scents,” Mariana said. “Or erase them. Maybe they did get off here, but someone hid their scent.”
Shannon sighed. “If they got off here, then so did those people who took them. It’s not safe to stick around.”
“She’s right,” Rak said. “We can’t risk being caught too. Not when… not when we might be their only chance.”
Jen let out a choked sob, then turned and stormed off to the car. With no other choice, the rest of us followed. I stared out the window as she slowly drove off, hoping desperately I would suddenly see something. What if my dad was still here and we were just leaving?! Had he even been here at all? Had Dani? The thought made me shiver and I looked around the campground nervously. Had Dani and Thomas been here, six long months ago? Would we ever even know?
Nobody spoke as Jen turned the car back to the main road of the campground and drove slowly toward the gatehouse. The guard waved merrily to us and Jen lowered her window.
“Shannon, what is he?” she asked softly as we pulled up.
The guard leaned out of the gate house curiously. “No ghosts?” he teased.
“No, but we might be back, thank you for letting us drive around,” Jen said. I didn't know if he could hear the forced cheer in her voice, but I could.
“Not a problem,” he said with a wave. “Take care.”
“Non-magic,” Shannon said as we drove away down the road.
Jen pulled over suddenly. For a moment she just sat there, gripping the steering wheel, and I wondered if she was going to start crying. Then, almost angrily, she pulled out her phone and punched my address into her GPS.
The trip home was a long, somber one. Nobody spoke. At some point, I fell asleep, waking up only when we stopped for gas. I sleepily watched Shannon change places with Jen and the next thing I knew, we were pulling up to my house.
As I climbed the steps I let myself imagine that Charlie and TS were here somehow. That they got away and were waiting for us. But the house was dark and empty.
I stood in the living room wordlessly as the others came in around me. Mariana sat heavily on the couch with a soft sob. Jen and Shannon did the same on the other. Rak joined them.
Fighting back tears, I crossed the room slowly and sat by Mariana. The silence was almost oppressive, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. I felt like if I spoke, I’d start crying.
“I think you have a message!” Shannon said suddenly.
“A message?” I asked.
“On your answering machine.”
I snapped my head up and gasped. There was a blinking light on the answering machine.
My breath caught and I stood slowly, as if moving too quickly would make the light stop blinking. Had my dad called? Were they okay?! I crossed the room on shaking legs, a thousand possibilities flashing through my mind. They were okay. They needed help. Nobody on the other end of the line… Some stupid person from MES calling. I reached forward and hesitated with my finger over the playback button, then took a deep breath.
Not a single one of the possible messages I thought of could have prepared me for it.
“You have one new message. First new message: Hey it’s… it’s me.”
Chapter Two
Jen
Ember clapped both hands over her mouth with a muffled sob as the sound of Dani’s voice filled the room. We all gasped and stared at the machine. Only the weight of Rak on my lap kept me from jumping to my feet and sprinting across the room, as if somehow getting closer to the answering machine would bring me closer to Dani.
“I’m sorry it took so long to… we couldn’t…” His voice was quiet, yet urgent, almost rushed. “Shit, I don’t have a lot of time. We’re okay though, Tom and I. We’re okay, we’re… safe.” He let out a dark laugh. “Well, as long as nobody catches us doing this. I don’t… I don’t know when, if, we’ll be able to contact you again.” Dani heaved a sigh and I felt my eyes sting with tears. “They made us get on a bus at Cavaliers, they killed anyone who didn’t.”
Ember let out a little shriek of horror.
“We saw Charlie and TS get on,” Shannon reminded her quickly.
“They hit us with a sleeping potion,” Dani’s hushed voice went on. “We woke up in a fucking castle on an island somewhere. That’s all we know. There are a thousand wards all over it, I can’t even get to the water to figure out where the hell we are. I don’t know what TS can sense, but the wards are screwing with the bond on Tom’s end.”
Then, like being hit by an earth spell, the faint sound of Thomas’ voice cut through the air. “Danio, hurry up!”
I swallowed hard. Even though he was obviously far from the phone, the desperation in his voice was clear.
Dani cursed softly, then went on, even faster and more urgently than before, “This whole thing is being run by these two vampires, Victor and Reave. Same Reave as the farm; we were onto something. They were MES agents, got turned on a job gone wrong. Probably, oh, twenty years ago? Maybe fifteen? Reave has an entire fucking server tower from MES here, I don’t know what he did, but he’s still hardwired in, he’s the one altering the database.”
“Malakas!” spat Ember.
“They want to build an army and create some ridiculous vampire utopia, but they don’t actually have a plan. Oh, and there are all these witches and wizards running around who
gave up their wands in exchange for becoming vampires, problem is, they still have their wands. The entire thing is fishy. We think Reave’s favorite witch, Adaira, is in on it, along with the rest of them. We’re… we’re missing something, can’t figure out what.” He fell silent abruptly.
“Nevermind,” Thomas whispered. “False alarm.”
Dani heaved a shaky sigh. “I think we’re out of time. We’re going to figure out a way out of here, I swear. I… I love you, Char.”
I bit back a sob as Thomas quietly called, “Tell Jen I love her.”
Then, clear as day, right into the phone, “I love you, Jen.”
“I said tell her, not mimic me!” the distant Thomas said in annoyance.
A laugh that was more like a sob forced its way out of me.
The answering machine beeped. That was it.
Silence fell after the message ended and nobody seemed to want to break it. Ember stood still, staring at the answering machine as if waiting for something else to happen.
At last she spoke quietly, voice thick with tears, “He must have left the message when we were already on the way to Cavaliers.”
Shannon nodded, but no one else said anything. There really wasn't anything to say.
Abruptly, but unsurprisingly for a fire elemental, Ember’s eyes flared red and she threw her hands in the air in frustration. “Why did they wait until now to call? A day, hell, an hour earlier and my dad and TS would still be here!”
“You don't know that,” Shannon said gently. “They probably would have gone anyway, after hearing a message like that.”
Ember huffed in annoyance, but nodded and sighed. “Why did it have to be tonight? Of all nights.”
Mariana frowned. “It seems like quite a coincidence that they'd call tonight, the same night that the new members are being recruited…”
“Victor!” Shannon said suddenly. We looked at her in surprise. “I got so distracted by the bus, I didn't get a chance to say anything earlier. When they were in the parking lot, I could just barely hear them talking; I'm positive the guy with the raven said his name is Victor!”
“If he's the same one Dani was talking about,” I said, “then he's one of the guys in charge. So, maybe Mariana is right. Maybe they couldn't call until he was away!” I swallowed hard. “The timing just sucks.”
“What do we do now?” Ember asked. “I've never heard Dani sound like that. And I don’t think he was telling us everything... TS sensed something from Thomas a few weeks ago. Something bad happened.”
I nodded. After months of TS sensing a few vague ups and downs from Thomas, and a certainty he was fighting on occasion, there was a stressful hour or so where TS said Thomas was absolutely freaking out. As quickly as the feeling started, it was over. Ember was right, something bad had obviously happened.
“He probably didn’t want to worry us,” suggested Mariana.
“Well, I’m worried anyway,” Ember grumbled.
“We’re going to find them,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt.
Mariana grabbed a pen and a notepad, then dragged a chair over to the table where the answering machine was.
“Let’s listen again,” she said. “We’ll write down everything he said and go from there.”
It was almost worse listening a second time, knowing what the message would say, hearing Thomas' voice again. We were silent when the message ended. Ember walked over to one of the couches and sat down with a soft sniffle.
“How did they end up on an island?” she growled suddenly. “We didn’t drive anywhere close to water, did we?”
“Nothing big enough for an entire castle on an island,” said Mariana. She frowned. “But that still doesn’t explain how they all got off the bus without us seeing…”
Shannon narrowed her eyes. “I don’t know about you, but I was looking for a bunch of people all walking or maybe running. Dani said they used a sleeping potion once they were on the bus. If they were all unconscious…”
“They could have pulled them off the bus anywhere,” Mariana groaned. “I bet a couple of vampires could have gotten everyone off the bus and onto another vehicle faster than they all could have walked off.”
“Or onto a boat,” Ember groaned.
“They’d still have had to drive to a boat,” said Mariana. “They could have put them onto a different bus or even…” She trailed off and paled before whispering, “a plane!”
“TS was unconscious for a few hours,” Shannon said. “If Thomas was out that entire time too. Who knows how far away they could have gotten.”
“How do we even find them?” Ember moaned.
“Those two vampires, I guess,” I said. “If they’re in charge then maybe…”
Ember nodded and stood, eyes eagerly flaring. “I’ll get my laptop!” She hurried out of the room and was back swiftly, carrying her laptop and a small log.
Immediately upon returning from the campground I felt exhausted; convinced that I would fall asleep right there on the couch, but the message from Dani had given me a surge of adrenaline and I felt like I couldn't possibly sleep now.
Ember quickly logged into the MES database and pulled up Reave’s file. That part was easy, seeing as we had already looked at him, back when we had no idea whether or not he was connected to anything.
“Okay…” Ember said. She narrowed her eyes as they darkened and smoldered in annoyance. “There’s nothing in his file that indicates he worked for MES… of course, if he has access to the backend, he must have deleted it.”
“Is there a way you can check?” Shannon asked.
Ember wrinkled her nose. “Yeah,” she said grimly. “On the back end. At work. Tomorrow.”
I groaned, both at the reminder that tomorrow was another “normal” work day and the fact that we wouldn't have any answers tonight.
“Let's try Victor,” I said.
Ember nodded and started typing. “Lots of Victors… okay vampires… New York…”
We all sat watching her, the only sound was clicking – both from the keyboard and Ember under her breath. At last she shook her head.
“The good-ish news is that I found him. There’s one who doesn’t have any feeding activity. But there’s nothing in his file about MES either. I’m going to have to do it tomorrow.” Ember frowned and looked toward the front door.
“You can’t go tonight,” I said softly. As much as I would have liked her to, we all needed to get some sleep. “And…” I hesitated. “We can't let anyone tomorrow suspect that something happened... Not now that TS and Charlie are gone too.”
“Right,” Ember said, rubbing at one eye at the reminder. She took a deep breath. “Right. We have to act like everything's normal tomorrow.”
“Is there anything I can do from home?” asked Shannon.
“Just stay here and be safe,” I said. I knew Shannon hated feeling helpless, but the truth was that right now there was nothing that any of us, other than Ember, could do. It all hinged on what she could find in the MES database.
I just hoped the information from Dani would lead to something.
With a sigh, Ember closed her laptop, but stayed sitting, we all did. I felt like once we went to bed it would be final somehow. Almost like giving up. At last, Ember took a deep breath and rose to her feet.
“We should all try to get some sleep.”
After a few quiet goodnights, I found myself sitting on the edge of the bed in the guest room, with Rak pressed against me. He was purring gently to comfort me as I stroked his back absently. It was the same thing we had done every night for almost six months now, but it was different tonight; the hope that had built over the last few weeks as we made plans to send TS and Charlie to Cavaliers had died. We were all hoping that tonight would go very differently than it had. It was foolish, in hindsight, to think that the two of them would be any more prepared to avoid whatever had happened to Thomas and Dani. I guess we thought that since we knew travel would be involved that they would
be ready somehow. It obviously hadn't helped. Yet somehow, I felt like I thought the only failure would be that they wouldn’t be able to rescue Thomas and Dani, not that they would be taken too.
But at the same time, I drew a small measure of comfort, knowing that there was nothing else we could have done, even if Dani had called before Charlie and TS left. I suspected they would have wanted to go to Cavaliers anyway, unless Ember found a major breakthrough in the information from Dani. If not, then sending someone to the castle after them was probably the only thing we could do. Maybe, just maybe, the four of them together could do what two of them could not.
I pulled out my cell phone, checking to see if one of them had called me, even though I doubted it.
“Anything?” Rak asked softly.
“Just a message from Rachel.” I rolled my phone between my hands, with no desire to face what I knew my stepmother was trying to reach me about.
There was a gentle knock on the door.
“It’s Shannon,” said Rak.
“Come in,” I called.
Shannon slipped in with a small sad smile. “Hey, cuz.”
I smile back weakly.
She joined us on the edge of the bed and we sat in silence for a moment.
“Are you… okay?” she asked finally.
“Not really,” I admitted. “I was hoping… it's stupid, but I was kind of hoping we'd already know Thomas and Dani were safe by now. You know, that TS and Charlie would be rescuing them or something. Now we have to rescue all of them… and I don't know how we can do that.” I sighed in frustration. “They've been agents longer than we've been alive. I'm just an intern and, no offense, you don’t even work for MES. I just don't know what we can do.”
“Try, I guess,” Shannon said softly. “That's all we can do. Besides,” she forced a smile at me. “You killed a vampire like a month after you started learning magic. I think you might be a little more powerful now,” she teased.
“That’s true…” I conceded.
She was still eyeing me critically.
“So…” I decided to be completely honest, Shannon knew me well enough to know I was holding something back. “I’m human.” I shrugged helplessly. “Even if we come up with some kind of a grand rescue plan, I don't even know if I'll be able to help. It might just be up to you guys. What if…” I fell silent.
Rise of the Arcanist Series: Books 1 - 6 Page 54