CHAPTER 1
The chill in the air contrasted sharply with the blue sky and warm sun. Days like today were teasers, early peeks of the quickly approaching spring. For once, I wasn’t looking forward to it. To me, it meant time was moving forward. Time was my enemy. Only the hawk circling above seemed to understand my peril as it swooped closer—as if sensing my impending doom as an easy meal.
I tried not to think about the fact that I was doomed. That wasn’t easy, considering I was reminded of it every day. That was why we were here, in Smithfield, West Virginia, after all. We’d followed the Skotadi here, in hopes that they had the answers to preventing my inevitable fall into darkness.
We had found them, too, after a great deal of searching. If the little town in which our shabby hotel was located was isolated, the warehouse the Skotadi worked out of was off the radar. Literally. Located twenty minutes outside of town, no GPS could have found the place. It had taken us a while to pin it down.
I had to give it to them—the Skotadi were smart. They knew how to hide.
But then, so did we. Snuggled amongst the trees and large boulders on a high ridge overlooking their warehouse below, we had an unobstructed view of them, and they were none the wiser. Problem was, despite having a great surveillance set-up, we still didn’t have a clue as to what the Skotadi were doing. With black out windows on all sides of the warehouse, we couldn’t watch them on the inside. All we got was the occasional Skotadi coming and going through the day. To where, we didn’t know.
Ultimately, we needed to find a way inside, though that wasn’t a part of our immediate plans. We weren’t about to bulldoze our way in there, guns blazing, and take on a small army of Skotadi by ourselves. There were only four of us and, while we were eager, we weren’t stupid. Figuring out what was going on in that warehouse was going to require a well-calculated plan and a whole hell of a lot of preparation. And luck.
In the meantime, we have been monitoring their activities, looking for patterns and signs of weakness, and keeping a list of the Skotadi we saw as a way of determining how many we were dealing with. So far, we had a list of about twenty with our own weird names like Skull Tattoo, Nerd Glasses, and Big Ugly Moose. We had to have fun with the names, because otherwise, we would be bored out of our minds.
We were bored out of our minds.
Currently, my best friend Callie Sanders—and the only human involved in the circus show that was my life—was busy doodling sketches of the four of us on the notebook as I watched over her shoulder. I was impressed with how accurately she portrayed each of us, right down to the ornery twinkle in Alec’s eyes and the determinedness of Nathan’s. I, of course, had a bright smile on my face, which was where her accuracy dwindled.
When she realized I was watching, she glanced up at me with a smile. “Think I have a chance at art school?”
I returned her smile despite the dull ache in my chest.
While her parents thought she was on some once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy to study art for the remainder of our senior year, she has chosen instead to stick by me. Though she was here with me now, she had the opportunity to go home, and she had a family to go home to. Callie had the opportunity to think about her future, what school she wanted to attend after graduation, and where she would be next year. Not me. All I could think about was staying alive and not becoming a monster.
I used to be a normal teenage girl, or so I had thought. That all changed a few months ago, when I learned there was a whole other world out there—a world in which gods and goddesses, good and evil, and the supernatural existed—and I was a part of it. Actually, I was a big part of it. Sort of The One, if you will. Only, not in a good way. More like in an I could bring upon a wrath of evil the world has never seen kind of way.
It wasn’t until recently that I learned I was destined to side with the forces of evil, the Skotadi. The moment I’d learned of my fate, I’d set out to alter it. But then, the Kala—the good guys at war with the Skotadi—were just as intent on stopping me.
Except for Nathan. He was a Kala, but unlike the rest of them, he wanted to protect me, to help me. He’d been doing it all my life, since I was three years old, so he had gotten good at it. The fact that he had recently admitted to having feelings for me only seemed to strengthen his resolve to see me through this mess.
He was so determined he even agreed to work with Alec Sierra—super-hybrid of the Skotadi like me, reluctant to accept his fate like me, and the first boy I’d ever kissed. To say that things were strained between Nathan and Alec was an understatement. Somehow, they had not only managed to not kill each other, but it was the two of them, working together, that had discovered the location of the Skotadi’s hideout.
It was because of them and their freakishly similar methods of torture and interrogation that we were here. Granted, we were in the middle of nowhere, and so far had nothing to do but stare at a crummy old warehouse. Still, we were taking steps in the right direction.
I nodded at Callie’s sketch. “Send this along with your applications. Art school will be a sure thing.”
She giggled, and my smile widened, morphing into a real one. Alec perked up at the sounds of a good time and leaned over Callie’s shoulder to see what we were up to. He cocked his head to the side as he surveyed the drawing.
“I’m not hot enough,” he commented.
Callie and I shared a look. We started to laugh, until we saw Alec’s face. He was serious.
“No, really,” he continued. “I’m not hot enough. My face isn’t chiseled enough. My hair has never been that…neat, and don’t even get me started on how much broader his stick shoulders are than mine.”
From behind me, I heard Nathan chime in, “Looks accurate to me.”
Glancing over my shoulder, I was the only one to see the dimple in Nathan’s cheek. His eyes flicked to mine quickly, before lowering to the one-man tic-tac-toe game he was playing in the dirt.
“No,” Alec insisted, and grabbed the notebook from Callie. “Let me see this thing.”
She protested as he attempted to correct her mistakes and, as they fell into their usual friendly banter, I turned my attention to Nathan.
“Who’s winning?”
His dimple reappeared, and I barely avoided embarrassing myself by dipping my finger into it. It was just so darn cute. Who knew? I was a sucker for dimples.
“Tied.” He wiped the dirt surface clear and started a new game with a strategically placed X. He looked up at me, silently inviting me into his sad, but seriously adorable, attempt to thwart the boredom. I placed a circle, and we continued back and forth until we ended in a draw. Again. And again.
It wasn’t exactly fun, especially when neither of us won, but I enjoyed it because of how close I had to lean toward him to mark my squares. I was very aware of my forearm every time it brushed against his, and I had to admit, I had never played a more sexually charged game of tic-tac-toe.
I made a circle, and was pretty sure I would have him up against a wall after my next move. I waited anxiously for him to put an X in the square I hoped for, but it never came. I glanced up at him, and followed his gaze to what had caught his attention.
In the distance, visible through the trees thanks to the dirt cloud left in its wake, a fast moving vehicle approached the warehouse. It wasn’t the first one we had seen coming and going but, as always, it was something we needed to pay attention to.
“Alec.”
The sharpness of Nathan’s voice brought Callie and Alec’s play-fighting to an abrupt stop. They both looked up as a blue van made a fast turn into the warehouse parking lot. A little faster than it probably should have.
We all watched eagerly. The warehouse had been quiet all morning, so the appearance of any activity had us all on edge, if not a little excited. I wasn’t the only one who desperately wanted something to happen.
Though this wasn’t what I’d had in mind.
The van pulled to a stop alongside the warehouse’s rear ent
rance and two Skotadi exited the vehicle. They walked to the back of the van and opened the door, where two more emerged, carrying a woman. One had her by the shoulders, while the other held her ankles. Even from the distance, I could see her legs bucking and arms straining as she struggled against them.
Nathan lifted the binoculars to get a better look, and I asked him, “Who is it?”
He shook his head and passed the binoculars to me. Through the lens, I could see that her mouth was covered with duct tape so we couldn’t hear her screams. Her eyes were wide with fear, but even with the close up view, I couldn’t tell if they were human eyes or hybrid eyes.
Kala had silver rings around their irises, Skotadi had gold, and developing hybrids, like myself and Alec, had black. Skotadi eyes were easy to pick out; Kala’s a little less obvious. The black rings were almost impossible to spot unless you were looking for them.
She wasn’t a Skotadi, that much was certain. And she was terrified. For good reason. I’d only seen a little of what the Skotadi were capable of, and that had been enough. I knew that whatever they had in store for this woman couldn’t be good.
I passed the binoculars to Callie, and she passed them on to Alec without looking through them. She still hadn’t gotten used to this alternate life of mine. Not that I have, but Callie was even more freaked out than I was when it came to stuff like this. I gave her a sympathetic smile as she tried to look everywhere but at the scene unfolding before us.
“I don’t think she’s a Kala,” Alec observed. “Maybe developing?”
“What about the Skotadi?” Nathan questioned. “Have we accounted for those four?”
I took the notebook from Callie and scanned over the list of ridiculous names.
“We’ve seen that big guy a few times,” Alec said. “The Hulk.”
“The scrawny driver,” Callie added. “He drives all the time.”
I found the names The Hulk and Chauffeur. I was pretty sure the other two were named Pinnocchio and Shaggy, and everyone agreed with me. At least we didn’t have four more Skotadi to add to our already long list. There were already too many of them for us to take on. At this rate, we’d never figure out what was going on in that warehouse, let alone save the poor woman they had dragged inside.
“Who was she?” Callie whispered from beside me. No one responded. The only question more difficult to answer was Callie’s next one. “What are they doing to her?”
If either Nathan or Alec had a guess, neither of them voiced it. Instead, Callie’s question hung up in the air around us, blanketing us. I had never felt more helpless.
Movement to my right distracted me from my overactive imagination. I cast a glance over my shoulder as Alec slinked by us, moving in a crouched position. With one look at his face, I knew that he was up to something. And, knowing Alec, it probably wasn’t anything good.
Before anyone could ask, he whispered, “I’ll be right back,” and continued crawling toward the cluster of trees to our left.
“Where are you going?” Nathan whispered harshly after him.
Alec stopped behind the cover of a large boulder. “To try to see what they’re doing,” he said over his shoulder.
The three of us were all in such states of disbelief that all we managed were grumbled, unintelligible arguments. They fell on deaf ears anyway since Alec didn’t wait to hear what any of us had to say. He disappeared down the side of the embankment.
“Better hope he doesn’t get caught,” Nathan scoffed. Translation: I’m not going to bail his ass out if he gets caught.
I slanted my eyes at Nathan and wiped the knowing smile from my face before he saw it. Sure, he played tough, and sure, he detested Alec. But if Alec got caught, I knew Nathan wouldn’t stand idly back and do nothing. Nathan was too good of a guy to turn his back, even on Alec. Even if he would never admit it.
Rather than say anything remotely like that to Nathan, I said instead, “He won’t get caught.”
Nathan grunted, clearly not as optimistic as I was. I had to be optimistic. If I let myself worry about Alec, about myself, and this predicament we were both in, I would only drive myself crazy. Not dwelling on the inevitable every second of every day was the only way I knew how to do that.
Nathan did enough worrying for the two of us. He remained tense at my side as he stared down at the warehouse, his jaw clenched tight. I suspected that he was contemplating his options: leave Alec to his fate, leave Callie and I to go drag Alec back, or wait and cause Alec severe pain when he returned. If he returned.
No, no. Of course, he would return. It was Alec. He was smarter than he might lead others to believe. Sure, he was a little overeager, but I could hardly blame him. He was in the same boat as me, only he had a six month head start. He was just as determined as me. As Nathan. He wanted to fix this just as badly as the rest of us, if not more so.
Alec wouldn’t do anything stupid. He would be fine.
I opened my mouth to reassure Nathan, but the words froze in my throat at the same time the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. When Nathan’s eyes turned to mine, I knew that he sensed them too.
And I knew that all hell was about to break loose.
Ignited Page 45
