by Jordan Dane
She wanted the new boy. Perhaps he was with the Darby kid by now, but if she got a lead on Lucas and told Alexander first, ahead of O’Dell, she’d shine in the man’s eyes either way. She glanced at her watch to check the time. It was late. Past ten, but she couldn’t wait. She dialed the number to Alexander Reese’s home, a place she’d only visited once. In her mind, she pictured how he might look at this hour. The wine helped her imagine.
When he answered, she said, “I had to call you. I’ve found something.”
“It’s late. Is it important?” he said.
Men. One minute they had a woman breathless. The next, they were suitable for strangling. Why would she call at this hour if it weren’t important?
“Yes.”
She told him what she had already rehearsed. If she admitted to broadening her search for the new boy, Alexander wouldn’t listen to anything she said over the phone. She had to give him elements of the truth until she could read his reaction and body language when they met face-to-face.
“I commend your diligence. You’re amazing, Fiona.”
She finished her wine, fighting a smile, but what he told her next almost made her choke.
“But O’Dell has already tracked down the Darby boy. In the tunnels you found, too. I’ll fill you in tomorrow morning. If all goes well, we should have Lucas Darby soon. You’ll have a new test subject, worthy of your full attention. Your first Crystal child. One you discovered. Good night, Fiona.”
After the line went dead, she could hardly breathe. Her body shook and she wanted to scream. She threw the wineglass against her dining room wall and watched the shards of glass fly. Alexander hadn’t even kept her informed. O’Dell had an important operation going and she’d been cut from the loop.
Fiona’s mind raced as she stared at the sketches. If O’Dell got the Darby boy, she still had another play. This new boy would be all hers.
Bristol Mountains
After Midnight
Rayne couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened between Gabriel and his uncle that afternoon. They had made her a part of it, but she wasn’t. Not really. Gabe barely talked after that. Uncle Reginald had kept up his end of the conversation at dinner, but she watched Gabe pull away even more. He had a lot on his mind, and after living a condensed version of his life, he looked worn-out.
Seeing him so alone reminded her of Lucas. Before he got sent to Haven Hills, he didn’t talk much, either. It was as if he’d given up. All these things rushed back to her. She’d relived her past, too, and it didn’t feel good.
Why hadn’t she reached out to Lucas more? Why didn’t she fight to get him released from that hospital? Guilt made it hard for her to breathe.
“Gawd.” She wiped her face and pulled the covers over her head, but her mind wouldn’t rest. Forget sleep. That wasn’t going to happen, not when she couldn’t get Gabriel and Lucas out of her head.
If being different like them was wrong, she didn’t want to be on the side that thought they were right and in charge. Lucas had parents who loved him, at least. She couldn’t begin to understand how it must feel for Gabriel to be treated like an outcast, especially when that terrible label of freak had first come from his father.
She felt more tears come. They drained down her cheek, and her sobs meant they weren’t going away. When she thought about Gabriel and his uncle, seeing their love, she missed her mom and dad—and the childhood she’d left behind in a major crash and burn.
The crash of a jet.
Rayne couldn’t take it anymore. She tossed off the blankets and sat up in bed. All she wanted to do was talk to Gabriel. Be with him. She jumped off the bed and pulled on her robe. She blocked out all the reasons that warned her not to go to his room in the middle of the night.
This time she’d do what Gabriel and Lucas would do—trust her feelings.
Minutes Later
Gabe had made a fire in the hearth of his bedroom. He’d never even tried to sleep. His bed was still made and the room was dark, to match his mood. Barefoot, he sat cross-legged in front of the only light in the room—the fire—still dressed in his jeans and his black Korn “Freak on a Leash” T-shirt that he’d forgotten had been in his room from before. He’d gotten it to piss off his dad, but he’d covered up the freak sentiments that morning with an oversize plaid shirt out of respect for his uncle.
Alone in his room now, he could embrace the freak he still thought he was.
He stared into the flames, imagining the scorching heat could burn away his doubts, but nothing helped. His uncle had touched something in him that Gabe didn’t know still remained. It had been an amazing moment, to feel his mother with him again. Yet if what Uncle Reginald had said were true, that meant the trigger of his anger would only get him into more trouble. He’d reached the end of his capabilities. Anything more would tap him out and push him into a danger zone.
He’d have to give up what had gotten him this far to begin with—and start over.
He didn’t feel strong enough to try something new, yet he had to. Rayne and her brother, Lucas, needed him, but he also had to get on with his life. He couldn’t hide anymore. He had to deal with the pain of losing his mother and the relentless anger he felt toward his father to find a balance between love, hate and letting go that he could live with. In the dark of his room—alone—he felt the weight of those changes closing in on him. He didn’t feel ready.
When he heard a soft knock on his bedroom door, he thought it would be his uncle checking on him. He took a deep breath and answered the door.
Rayne stood there, dressed in a silk nightgown and robe. Tears glistened in her eyes, and when she opened her mouth, she whispered something he never heard as he touched her face. Only the crackling fire behind him and the sound of his own heart stayed with him. Gabe cupped his hands to her cheeks and gently pulled her into his room and shut the door. He cradled her in his arms and kissed her. When her hands touched his belly under his T-shirt, Gabriel felt the tingle of firefly wings across his skin.
He wanted to remember this moment—with good reason. He’d fallen in love with Rayne Darby, something he should never tell her. He couldn’t expect her to put up with his shit. Wanting her was selfish. He had too many secrets that he’d always have to hide from outsiders.
Rayne deserved better. She deserved a shot at normal.
Chapter 15
Bristol Mountains
After Midnight
The minute Gabriel opened the door, backlit only by the fire in his bedroom hearth, Rayne felt like an idiot for coming. She had nothing to offer this amazing boy except her understanding and sympathy. Her life with Lucas only mirrored a fraction of Gabriel’s pain. After she’d met him at the Griffith Park Zoo, his already troubled life had been turned upside down. He’d lost his hiding place, thanks to her. Yet he still wanted to help.
“I’m...sorry. I shouldn’t be here,” she whispered, unable to take her eyes off him.
She should have left, but she couldn’t move—especially not after he touched her cheek. Time stopped in that quiet moment as she stood at his door shivering and hardly able to think. Gabriel said nothing. He didn’t have to. When he cupped her face in his hands and pulled her toward him, she breathed in the smell of his skin as he pressed his sweet lips to hers. The faint scent of smoke—and boy—teased her nose as she wrapped her arms around him and her fingers touched bare skin.
She closed her eyes to savor everything—the taste of his lips, the weight of his body pressed against her and the way he made her feel. Rayne wanted to stay with him forever. Heat rushed to her face as his hands touched her. When he kissed her neck, she couldn’t catch her breath until—
Gabriel suddenly stopped. He pressed his forehead to hers and held her.
“Sorry,” he panted.
“I’m not.” She kissed his cheek and touched his face. “I couldn’t stop thinking about this afternoon. I had to see if you were okay.”
“I’m glad you did.”
Gabriel led her by the hand toward the blazing fire in his hearth, only leaving her long enough to grab pillows off his bed. He tossed them at her feet, helped her to the carpet and joined her. The quiet of the night and the flickering shadows closed in on them.
“I couldn’t sleep,” she said.
“I know.” He stared into her eyes, not hiding the underlying sadness that had always been with him since she’d first met him. His uncle had brought his grief to the surface to force him to deal with his past. Gabe lowered his chin and laced his fingers in hers.
“Sleep is a big hype.” She shrugged. “Highly overrated.”
Gabriel looked up and smiled. The amber of his eyes reflected the fire that painted its glow on his skin as if the light came from inside him. Gazing at him, Rayne wanted to always remember him like this. The feeling that her days with him were numbered hadn’t left.
If anything, that feeling had gotten stronger.
“I miss my mother, especially here, but I needed to come.” He breathed a sigh and pulled back a strand of her hair.
The heat off the fire made her drowsy. His eyelids looked heavy, too.
“The act that you did with your mom looked really cool. I’ve never known anyone who traveled with a circus before.”
“She had her reasons for taking me with her. I thought it would be weird, but...” He stared into the fire. “Those days turned out to be my favorite memories of her. We got real close.”
“How did she...die? You never said.”
Rayne regretted asking the question and couldn’t take it back, but Gabriel didn’t look surprised by it. He didn’t say anything for a long time.
“A story for another time, perhaps.” He pulled her into his arms and held her.
“Uncle Reginald gave me an amazing gift today,” he said, his voice thick and low. His sleepy voice. “He made me realize that I’ve been too focused on her death and not on the way she lived. If you don’t mind, I’d like to hold on to what he gave me for a while longer.”
She understood him wanting to savor memories of his mother. She would have given anything to be with her parents once more, even if it would only be through a glimmer of the past. Yet from the moment she first met Gabriel and felt a reconnection to her parents and family, she realized he had given her a gift, too.
“Thanks for letting me come here with you.” She felt the sting of tears, but she didn’t want to cry.
“You’re a good sister, Rayne. Lucas is lucky.”
She put her arms around him but didn’t say anything. For a second, it made her smile to think that Gabriel thought she made a good sister, but that was not how it felt to her. She’d learned so much about Lucas and her own past from Gabriel, she only hoped she’d get a chance to see her brother again to make things up to him.
“What your uncle said about embracing who you are and balancing the good with the bad. If you could change and be ordinary...” Like me, she wanted to say. “Would you do it?”
Rayne wondered what Lucas would answer, and she thought about the good and the bad stuff in her own life. All of it had become a part of her—a piece she hid and didn’t talk about with anyone. She didn’t own it. She avoided it.
“Good question,” he said.
Gabriel didn’t answer for a long time. He only stared into the fire until he said, “Before today, I might have come up with a different answer. But to refuse what I am sounds insane. When I think of my mother, my power feels like a gift from her. How can I deny that? But ask me again in the morning. Who knows what my answer will be after biscuits and jam?”
Rayne wanted to smile, but she couldn’t. She laid her head on Gabe’s chest and nuzzled into his arms, listening until his breathing slowed and she knew he’d fallen asleep. She watched the fire until it died to embers and the room turned dark.
She heard every breath he took—and counted them—until she closed her eyes.
* * *
Darkness came first. A murky black beast he had to fight. Panting came next. That sound triggered everything that followed. It seized him until his throat burned. His heart pounded so hard his chest hurt. Eerie green lights floated in the dark. Streams of hot lasers, in molten red, shot across the gloom. He got up and ran and cried out a name—Kendra—until he fell and bashed his knee. He felt the warm stickiness of blood dripping down his leg and it hurt to move, but he had to.
He had to help the others—the children—even though he didn’t know how. He sensed them. Felt their fear. Their terror magnified his.
Everywhere he turned, an army of shadows surrounded him and blocked his way. Their viciousness became a wall of hate. Angry, scary voices came from men with green, glowing eyes. They shot red lasers from weapons and he saw lightning in the tunnels. Strange jabs of blue light flashed on frightened faces, and when loud explosions erupted, they left phantom images on his eyes and blinded him. He couldn’t see. Couldn’t hear.
Where are you? Help us! children cried and screamed. Pleading voices echoed in his head. He didn’t know who they were. Too many. When hands grabbed him, he fought the shadows and shoved back hard.
“No! Leave them alone,” he yelled. “They’re only kids.”
No one listened. He saw what they did and couldn’t stop them. He could only watch in agony as monsters attacked children as they slept. He sensed these men were afraid of the kids. They attacked without mercy because of it.
“Kendra! You can’t help them. Not now,” he cried.
Hands pinned him down and he felt weight on his chest. He couldn’t breathe. He heard a name and a distant voice that now sounded familiar.
“Let go,” she begged. “You’re hurting me.”
When he opened his eyes, he stared into the face of a scared girl. The wrong girl. Not the one he expected to see. This one looked terrified. She had her knees on top of him and her hands grappled with his arms, but he’d wrestled free and had ahold of her wrist. His face flushed with heat, and rage flooded his body.
For an instant, he didn’t know his own name. He’d been stripped of the saving darkness and pushed into the light. He had no idea where he was.
“Gabriel, you’re okay. It’s me. Rayne. You were having a nightmare.”
He stopped fighting. He recognized her now.
When she let go of him, he pulled her to his chest and held on. Part of him was still in that dark reality. For the first time, he sensed his mother’s presence. Only a glimpse, but she had been with him. When he looked around the room and remembered where he was, his heart slowed and he fought for every breath. Rayne held him close until he calmed down. When she pulled away and let him sit up, his clothes felt damp and sticky, remnants of the dream.
“You looked lost. You were fumbling around for something. I figured it was your sketchbook, like the last time. I was so scared.” Rayne looked miserable. Her lips trembled. “It was like you needed to draw to be released from the nightmare. Is that how it is for you? I didn’t know. I feel so bad.”
“You didn’t lose my backpack. I did,” he said. “None of this is your fault. We’re in uncharted waters. I’m just glad you were here.”
“Since you couldn’t draw, tell me about your vision. Don’t leave out anything.”
Explaining what he saw, in visions he never knew he had, was hard to do with someone normal like Rayne. He only got glimpses and impressions that he had to interpret. He’d seen darkness and connected to the intense emotions of several souls. He’d hooked into the collective mind of the others and reflected back what they felt and saw. Gabe didn’t know how to explain that to Rayne, but he did his best.
“You called out a name. Kendra. Do you know someone by that name?” she asked.
“No.” He shook his head. “But I think...”
When he didn’t finish, Rayne pushed for more.
“Think what? Just say it. No filter.”
“I think I was inside her head. Lucas’s, too. Maybe others’.” Gabe narrowed his eyes. “I saw through their eyes, li
ke I was watching a horrifying movie that I couldn’t stop.”
“What did you see?” Rayne’s eyes welled with tears. “Did something happen...to Luke?”
He wanted to reassure her, to tell her that her brother was okay, but he couldn’t. It wasn’t what he saw but what he knew would come that made him the most afraid. For Rayne’s sake, he stuck to what he had seen.
“I don’t know. I got flashes that were all jammed together.” He shut his eyes and forced the dark memories back. “I saw blinding explosions and strange lightning belowground. Men were attacking these kids in a tunnel. An army. They were hurting them and they didn’t care.”
“An army? Explosions? Were they police?”
“They didn’t feel like police. These men were afraid. They attacked because of it. Police don’t do that.” He couldn’t catch his breath. “It’s like they hated these children.”
Rayne clutched his arm.
“I asked you before, but I gotta know,” she said. “Are your visions something in the future...something we can stop?”
He looked into her eyes and knew what she wanted him to say, but he wouldn’t lie to her, not about this.
“I don’t know.” The tears that had blurred his eyes finally brimmed over and trickled down his cheeks. “I honestly can’t tell you.”
“Come on, Gabriel. This felt different, even for a bystander like me. You gotta tell me something. It’s my brother.”
“All I know for sure is that we should leave...now.” He kissed her cheek. “I’ll tell my uncle. He’ll understand. You remember those cross streets where that tunnel mural is?”
She nodded and said, “Yeah. I can get us there.”
Rayne left his room as he went to wash up and change. Gabe didn’t let her see his worry. With Lucas in trouble, she didn’t need the extra burden, but she had such faith in him. He saw in her eyes that she truly believed he could help—if only he believed it, too.
