by Kelly Hall
“There’s nothing. It’s just a bunch of boring stuff about Alyssa and Michael. Her visits with Mrs. Chandler, her disagreements with her mother and that dirty old man, Rex Mitchell. A bunch of pages are missing though, so who knows? And, by the way, I want to go, so don’t even argue with me.”
He stared at me for a few moments before he agreed. “Well, get some rest. I’ll be back for you around four. That will give us time to get back in case Tom’s used to waking up early.”
“We’ll have to be extra quiet. If he catches us, we’re dead.”
Holly had made it back in time to hear the end of our conversation. “I’m not hearing this, and in case you’re busted, I know nothing.” She lay down on her mattress as Owen said his goodbyes and walked away.
***
At four a.m. my eyelids jerked open as Owen tapped on my window. The only way that had happened was because I hadn’t ever really gone to sleep. I got up, slid on my jeans and shoes and then grabbed my jacket as he popped off my screen. I’d made it halfway out the window when I heard footsteps behind me in my room. As Owen helped me to the ground, Tom’s voice boomed behind me, sending chills down my spine and a sick feeling to my stomach.
“Just where do you think you’re going, young lady?” He knelt on my bed and looked out to see Owen. “Don’t move,” he demanded.
Owen looked kind of amused. “Oops.” His smile wiped away quickly as Tom came off the porch and stumbled through the dark at us.
“Get in the house. Both of you.” I grabbed Owen’s hand, not letting him get away even if he wanted. He let out a deep breath as Tom led us into the living room. “Just how long has this been going on?” He pointed at the two of us accusingly. I dropped Owen’s hand, realizing how it must look.
“It’s not what ...” I began.
“A few weeks,” Owen said with a shrug. My jaw dropped as I registered what he said.
“A few weeks!” Tom left us where we sat and walked down to Talon’s room. He threw open the door, and I heard him break off in the middle of a word. He came back out and looked at us from the hall. “Where’s Talon?”
My eyes widened. “What?” I looked at Owen who shrugged. “I saw him go to bed earlier.”
“I don’t know, Sir.” Owen shook his head and raised his shoulders.
Tom walked down the hall again and turned to my room. He demanded that Holly wake up. Guilt twisted in my gut as she came walking down the hall, rubbing her eyes.
“Take a seat,” Tom said to her. His tone hadn’t eased a bit.
She flashed us a dirty look and sat down. “What’s going on?” she asked through a yawn.
“That’s what I want to know!” Tom had grabbed his cell and was dialing Talon’s phone. He got really mad when his son didn’t pick it up.
Tom turned and stood in front of me. He looked down at me with his furious brown eyes. So much like Talon’s, my heart felt that same pain I’d felt when he’d blown up at me. “Where’s my son, Lily?” he asked again. I shrugged. I could only guess where Talon was. The guess would probably be a good one, but I couldn’t tell Tom. Not without blowing everything we’d tried so hard to protect. Perhaps I should have called the Light to really spill the beans.
Owen took my hand and, distracted by my fear, I let him. Tom looked at us in disgust. Before he could say anything else, Mom walked into the kitchen. “Tom? What’s going on?” She rubbed her belly with one hand and her eyes with the other.
“Talon’s missing. He’s snuck out.”
“Snuck out?” She gasped. “Why Tom, I had no idea he did that sort of thing. Where would he go?”
Tom put his hands on his hips and raised his voice. “I guess you had no idea that your daughter’s been making off with the Riley kid.”
“It’s Owen, Sir.” Owen corrected.
“I remember,” Tom sneered. Tom had never really liked Owen. He, like Talon, saw him as a punk. I doubt it made him happy that Owen said this had been going on for weeks. I guess Owen thought that anything would be better than the truth. I mean, we couldn’t exactly explain what we were doing. Sneaking off to see each other had been a perfect alibi, even if it did destroy my reputation in Tom’s eyes. But now that Talon was gone too, well, I didn’t know how to explain that one.
“Owen, Lily?” Mom walked around the couch with a hand to her gaping mouth. “But Lily, you and Talon, I thought you were working things out.” She studied us for a moment, disappointed, and then she placed her hands on her hips. “You’re grounded, young lady! Owen, you can go home. I’ll be talking to Granny in the morning.”
“Mom,” I started to protest, but she got in my face again, waving a finger, but holding her tongue.
Owen leaned over and kissed my cheek, catching me off-guard. My mouth popped open, but I remained speechless. Mom and Tom gasped. Holly sounded a quiet “Oh boy.” I would have to kill him. Then he got to his feet as Tom got in his face but after Mom put a hand on Tom’s chest, he stepped aside and let Owen leave.
Mom started to panic. “Lily, you and Owen? How serious is this? Are you sleeping together?”
“What?” I felt my face redden. Tom looked away, just as embarrassed by Mom’s questions.
“Can I go back to bed now?” Holly asked. Her hands over her face hid her embarrassment.
“Yes, go,” Tom said, without apology.
Mom sat beside me. “Lily, answer me. Why did you go out with him?”
“We were just going to talk. There is nothing going on with us.” I searched her eyes and saw a sigh of relief.
She wrapped her arms across her belly. “Well, Owen has obviously got things mixed up.”
“You can say that again.” I sighed.
Tom shook his head. “Well, if you really mean that, then you need to tell him how you really feel. Don’t lead him on, Lily.”
I sighed. I couldn’t win.
We waited nearly an hour before we heard Talon opening his window. Tom met him there and Mom and I sat on the sofa listening to the explosion of anger as he dragged Talon into the house.
“Where the hell have you been?” Two loud bangs sounded and something broke. Mom hurried down the hall. I ran after her. I didn’t want her getting in the way and getting hurt. I grabbed her arm to pull her back and she fought against me, entering the room and pulling me with her. We both gasped at what we saw. Tom had his son by the throat and pushed up against the wall. Talon tried to fight back, but his face had turned purple. It must have been him we heard hitting the wall.
“Stop it!” I screamed, lunging for Tom. I grabbed his arm until he let go of Talon to push me back. Talon frowned at me as I stumbled back against Mom, who grabbed hold of me to keep me from falling.
“Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick about you.” Tom stood back in Talon’s face. Talon seemed so young. He cowered down from his dad till he saw me watching, then he bowed up.
“I went out for a ride. I had to think.”
“Well, you’re going to have a whole hell of a lot of time to think. The rest of vacation. Right here in this bedroom. You’re grounded, so Merry Christmas.” Tom slammed his hand into the wall next to Talon’s head. Then he turned to me. “I’m not having this from you two. You might have fooled your mother, but I’m not allowing this sneaking off with your boyfriend. And you, you’ll follow my rules ...”
“Or what, I can go live with Mom?” Talon snapped. “Well, I’m one step ahead of you, old man. I’ll be starting my next semester in the Houston public school system.”
“What?” Tom looked dumbstruck.
“I’ve already talked to Mom. It’s all set. I’ll get an early start at college in June. I figured you’d be happy for me. I’m sorry I snuck out. It’s just, I’ve had a lot on my mind.” He gave me a long look, as if to blame it on me, then sat down on his bed as Tom backed away and calmed down.
“Yeah, well, I told you two this would happen.” Tom walked into the hall where Holly watched from the door of my room. He finally apologize
d to her and then went to bed.
Mom gave me a dark look, one that showed disapproval and disappointment, and then she followed Tom.
Holly watched them as they went into their room, then she ran in and hugged Talon. “Are you all right?” she asked. I knew Holly had experienced her own fights with angry parents enough to understand how he must have felt. I started to walk away when Talon spoke.
“So what the hell happened here?” he asked.
“He caught me and Owen sneaking out to go to Birdie’s. But I guess that you’d already beat us to her?”
He nodded.
“Sorry,” I added.
“Yeah, I got out there right around three. We need to call a Circle, and fast.” I raised my brows, hearing the seriousness of the situation in his voice. “We’ve got a problem.”
***
“First of all,” Talon began, “we’ve all got to be more careful now that my dad’s back. He’s not the deep sleeper like Holly and Cate and he’s not going to put up with any more crap. Owen, stay clear of him, he likes you about as much as I do, maybe less now that he caught you with Lily.” Talon didn’t even seem bothered by the fact, which really annoyed me.
“Why don’t you just get to the point? What happened at Birdie’s? Is she okay?” I asked, shooting him an annoyed glare. “Why did you go out there and why did you go alone?”
“Who said I was alone?” He shrugged. “I snuck out the window in my room right after Holly sent me to bed, which was right after Hunter walked her home; which is when he went around to my window to wait on me.” Talon gave Hunter a pat on the back.
“Thanks for taking me along.” Owen gave his brother a sharp look.
“Thanks for always including me in your outings, little brother,” Hunter responded sarcastically.
“You knew about this?” I turned to Holly. She had a frown on her face, so I realized she didn’t.
Hunter, realizing her anger, grasped her hand. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t want you to worry. I knew you would.”
Holly’s blue eyes went red-rimmed, which only made them look bluer. “And what if something had happened to you?”
“But it didn’t.” Hunter lifted her chin with a finger and kissed her softly on the lips.
I cut my eyes back to Talon. “So what took you so long to get to her house?” I realized that the times weren’t adding up. If they left just after Holly got home, then that left at least an hour before three that was unaccounted for.
“We went to Ray’s house first.” Talon kept his eyes on the floor, his new habit when talking to me.
“What for?” Owen glanced to his brother.
“To get this.” Talon took Ray’s tattered ledger out from his jacket and passed it to me.
“It’s the ledger.” I turned to Owen who stepped closer to see. “This can’t be the book that Birdie’s talking about.”
“No, maybe it’s not, but do you know a better place to look for clues as to where another book might be if it isn’t?” His acidic tone grated my nerves and made me so angry I clenched my jaw.
Holly spoke up, “So? What happened? Did you get caught?”
“No, Ray wasn’t around, and Tia wasn’t home, so we just went inside, took the ledger and got the hell out. The real trouble was when we got to Birdie’s. We intended to ask her some questions about the book.”
Hunter interrupted. “I went for purely selfish reasons. I wanted to ask her more about the curse and how to break it. There has to be more to it.”
“Ray was there,” Talon said. “A strange blue light shone from the house. It lit up all the windows and every crack, and even seemed to spill out from under it.”
“It was freakin’ unreal,” Hunter said with a nod.
“We hid out in the trees and watched the house, but we got curious. We couldn’t go in the house, so we ran and crawled under it. The light shone so bright at first, but then it dimmed.”
“Yeah, either it dimmed or our eyes adjusted,” Hunter added.
“Anyway, after a while we realized that the light source was under the house. Then it went away and we heard Birdie and Ray argue. But then we heard another voice.” Talon looked up and met my eyes. “Kevin’s. He was there. Ray yelled at him.”
“About what?” I gripped Talon’s arm now, and we stared at each other.
“Us. He barked orders about his next moves. I even heard him mention the last attack. It was planned, just like I thought.” I hadn’t had the chance to tell him I already knew that.
Hunter turned to me. “Yeah, Ray ordered Kevin to possess Talon. He’s using him to block your visions, telling him that he can have your Light and power. He’s basically acting as a vision road block, so no visions. Ray’s helping him in,” he warned.
“So what are the new orders?” I asked.
“Well, luckily, he’s going to lay low until after Christmas because of opportunity. Just how long after, he didn’t say. But then...” Talon looked at Hunter to finish the sentence.
“Then he’s going to come for you and Lily,” Hunter said, regarding me and Owen.
“We have to stop him,” I cried, grabbing Talon’s arm. He shrugged and pulled away from my grip.
“I also heard him talk about me, and I got enough to know I have no powers,” Hunter said. “That’s why he’s so focused on you, Owen. Not me. You’ve got the gene.”
“But you shielded me,” Holly said.
“No, you were never in any danger. They never saw you as a threat. Ray told you that to keep us believing.”
“What was Birdie doing? Is she in on it?” It couldn’t be true.
“That’s the other problem.” Talon put his hands over his face and then rubbed his eyes. “She’s gone.”
The words froze me.
“Gone?” Owen said, taking the words from me.
“Yeah, after Ray left, Hunter and I climbed out from under the house and went inside. But this time, no one was around.”
“What? Did you set off the trap?” I grabbed his arm again and this time he jerked away and took a few steps back.
“No I didn’t set off the trap. There isn’t a trap, but the damn house was lit up like the Griswold’s at Christmas.”
“Well we have to go find her! What if? Oh God, what if he killed her?” I looked at Owen.
“I’m sure she’s fine. He probably just moved her so he could do whatever he needed to do,” Owen tried to calm me down.
“Well we have to go out there and see,” I said.
Talon threw his hands up. “Lily, in case you’ve forgotten, we’re grounded. As in, we’re lucky to be out here on this patio and we have to be home in an hour, grounded. We aren’t going anywhere.”
The way he’d said “we aren’t” made me suspicious. “What do you mean, we aren’t? You can’t go without me.” Talon bowed his chest up and looked down at me with a hard expression and no offer of an argument. “I’ll follow you,” I threatened.
His eyes grew darker. “No, you won’t.”
“Yes I will! What difference does it make?”
“You could get hurt.”
“Like you care.” I hit back.
His eyes flared, but he held back what he wanted to say. “I’ll leave Hunter to keep an eye on you. You won’t be able to go anywhere.”
“I’m not scared of Hunter.” I laughed. Hunter looked offended. “I’ll follow you, no matter what you do, even if I have to call on the Light to do it!” Talon knew I had him. If I called on the Light, Kevin would be there waiting. I’d be safest going along.
Talon threw his arms up. “Damn it! Why can’t you just for once stop being such a spoiled brat?”
“Watch your tone, Thomas,” Owen warned.
“Why don’t you tell her not to come, Riley? Since she’s your soul mate and all?”
“I’ve learned I can’t make Lily do something she doesn’t want to do. And your weak attempt at trying to make her hate you is obvious, by the way. You’re a terrible liar. So just stop
all your insults and let’s get on with the plan.”
Talon’s face turned red and he folded his arms across his chest and got quiet. His eyes stayed focused on Owen, who had obviously just hit the nail on the head. But why? Why did he want me to hate him? Why was he leaving? It had to be the other girl. That’s the only way it made any sense. He could go back to her a lot easier if I did hate him.
Hunter spoke up. “Look, everyone just needs to chill out.” Everyone glanced around for reactions. “We’re gonna do this MY way, like it or lump it! And you, Little Miss ‘I’m- Not-Afraid-of-Hunter’; you’d better pay close attention.” My chin dropped as I looked into his eyes and realized he was serious. “You can go, but you hang back. You do exactly what I say, when I say it. And you don’t call that damned Light!” I started to protest but he kept going, speaking this time to his brother. “That book is useless. It doesn’t have anything about another book. Not a book of spells or curses or anything. It’s just a record of Birdie’s sessions. And there’s pages missing. My guess, if it contained anything important, Ray removed those pages a long time ago.” He turned to Talon. “The most important thing to do now is find out what happened in that house and what’s under it. We go in and figure it out. If Birdie’s back, we go beneath it. Oh, and just so we’re clear, if you don’t stop acting like such an ass towards Lily, my brother won’t have to defend her, I’ll kick your ass myself.” And then he reached out and stroked Holly’s cheek as I let it all sink in.
“So when do we go?” Owen asked.
“As soon as Granny can get Tom and Cate away from here.” We all exchanged glances, our eyes meeting back on Hunter. “Oh yeah, I’m bringing out the big guns.” He got up and went inside to make arrangements. Holly followed, smiling proudly.
“Well, I guess he just put us in our places,” Owen said. About that time, Tom called out for Talon and me to come home.
Chapter Eighteen
Mom was a sucker for the cemetery. Tom went along after Granny’s encouragement, so the ladies wouldn’t be alone. The whole trip would be a couple of hours with Granny having them take her into town to the flower shop for a last minute Christmas wreath. She made out that the boys had things to do. Hunter, a date with Holly’s parents and Owen would help a friend assemble a Christmas present.
