Silver Smoke (#1 of Seven Halos Series)

by Monica O'Brien

  Sirena sniffled. "Go tell Clara and Cora then. I'll get Brie and meet you at your house."

  There was a pause, then Thessa sighed. "Fine. Tell Brie however you want to. But you know if you run, we'll just find you."

  Sirena's voice was small. "I know."

  Brie heard a whoosh sound, then footsteps. Her phone beeped and she quickly silenced it. There was a text message from Sirena with three words: "Ready to go?" Brie heard the doorbell to her house chiming, once, twice, then three times. No one was answering.

  Brie took that as a good sign. "Annie," she whispered. "Use the gate in the back yard to get out of here.

  I want you to go to one of the hotels on the strip and charge a room under the name 'Kate Rosalind.' Wait for me to call you or find you for further instructions. Do not call me. Do not call the police. Do not tell anyone what you are doing or why you're there."

  Annie nodded; she seemed to sense the seriousness of the situation. "Where are you going?"

  "I need to find the boys. Pilot's car is gone and no one's answering the door, so they must be out."

  Brie opened a new text message, filling in two names in the recipient box. She typed her message and hit send, hoping they could move fast enough.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Pilot felt numb as he sunk into James' desk chair, helpless, seconds after Kennedy disappeared. He heard the doorbell ringing, but he refused to answer. The person he needed the most was gone, and anyone else who he could tolerate had a key to the house.

  He didn't know what Kennedy planned to do to Rykken, or why she needed him out of the way in the first place. Pilot wished he hadn't gotten angry with her. If he could have just kept her here and gotten the whole story from her, he might know what to do now. Instead, he only knew that he couldn't save Rykken himself and that he didn't trust the Hallows to help him.

  He quickly sent a text to Rykken, warning him about Kennedy. What a pathetic way to help a friend! But nothing he did would make much of a difference. Like Kennedy said, if she wanted Rykken dead, he would be. Pilot didn't doubt her abilities to do whatever she wanted.

  Finally, the ringing doorbell stopped, only to be replaced by his phone buzzing. He pulled it out of his pocket, checking the screen.

  The message was from Brie. SOS. I'm coming to you. The text message was only sent to him and Rykken.

  Did Brie know where Rykken was? What Kennedy planned for him? Pilot doubted it mattered. Brie and Rykken would be no match for Kennedy anyway, and Kennedy said she needed Brie's help. Brie was safe, Rykken was not, and Kennedy could find either of them in a heartbeat.

  Before he could untangle Brie's message, Pilot heard a faint female voice down the hall. "Brie?" The voice sounded familiar, but it wasn't Annie. He heard footsteps padding toward him. The light! James'

  study must have been the only room lit up in the entire house.

  Hallow, Nephilim, Trinity. This wasn't an ordinary burglar, it was someone who could move through walls undetected and unchecked. When the girl ran into the room, a mess of dirty blonde hair that contrasted with her tan skin and brown eyes, Pilot didn't even bother hiding or trying to evade her.

  "Pilot!" she said, gasping. Pilot sat up straighter.

  "What are you doing here Sirena?"

  Sirena hesitated, a hint of distrust in her eyes. "Brie," she said. "I need Brie. Where is she?"

  Pilot paused. He had no idea where Brie was, and only the faintest clue where Rykken was. Odds were that they were together now, with Kennedy on their heels. Would Kennedy hurt Brie if she stood in the way?

  Pilot stretched out his back, twisting his neck around.

  Sirena eyed him warily. "Are you okay? What happened?"

  Pilot tasted blood in his mouth from where he bit the inside of his lip. Focus, he thought. What did Brie's text say? Just that she was in trouble. But she had only sent it to Rykken and him. Could she be running from Sirena and the other Hallows?

  "I don't know where Brie is," Pilot said in the most nonchalant voice he could muster. He could hear the baritone in his voice trembling. "Let me text her."

  He opened his phone again to text Brie. Held up by Sirena. Kennedy after Rykken. He wished he could say more—give Brie instructions, like 'save Rykken' or 'leave without me,' but he couldn't think straight enough to give his sister directions that he could be confident about. He left it at that and hit send.

  Sirena eyed him curiously, and he knew he spent too much time hesitating to fool her. She said nothing though; she just paced the room the same way he had an hour earlier.

  "What's the emergency with Brie?" he asked.

  She glared at him. "Who did you really text?"

  Pilot flexed his torso, coming to his feet. "Brie, like I said. Your turn." The way Sirena stalked around the room raised his anxiety level.

  Sirena sighed, hunkering over. "Thessa is looking for Brie and I'm trying to reach her first. I need to keep them away from each other. Thessa..." Sirena's cheeks flinched. "I don't think we can trust Thessa anymore."

  Sirena's eyes pleaded with him. She was desperate.

  Pilot tried to act surprised. He felt exposed, like Sirena knew about Kennedy's bomb. "Why does Thessa want Brie?"

  "It would take too long to explain." Sirena stopped pacing and threw up her hands. "Pilot, if you know anything about where Brie is—"

  "How can I trust you if you don't tell me what's going on?" he asked. "Maybe you're on Thessa's side and this is a trick."

  Before he knew it, his chair had toppled over backwards. Sirena had tackled him and the chair; she now straddled him, pinning him down. She grabbed his phone from him.

  He yelped, trying to swipe it back, but she was across the room already.

  She flipped open the phone. "Kennedy is after Rykken? Why didn't you tell me?"

  Sirena swore all the way across the room, grabbing Pilot.

  "You have a lot to learn about this world, earthlie, and the first is that I'm on your side!" She pulled Pilot along with her the way Brie had before; the only difference was that Sirena moved much slower. As the scenery changed from James' study, to the front gates at the van Rossum estate, to a blur of houses, one after the other, Pilot was happy he hadn't eaten. He was almost sure he'd be chucking it if he had.

  Finally, the scenery stopped, and they were standing in front of Rykken's house.

  *****

  The Kaukonahua River was smaller than Rykken expected. He didn't spend much time near the barracks or the little shops that dotted Wilikina Drive, and he'd never been behind them, past the mossy swamp of trees that bordered the stream. Now that Rykken was there, he wasn't sure what he had come to accomplish. This was the river where Thessa had found him fifteen years earlier. Any evidence of another sibling would long be washed away; a trip to the police station to check records would be more productive than this.

  Rykken felt dumb. He had been walking for over a mile along a deserted river at twilight, looking for his long lost brother or sister. It was more than illogical; it was insane. How was he going to explain this to Brie and Pilot when he returned to their house?

  He trekked back toward Pilot's car. His phone beeped, but he was distracted—a shadow ahead gave him pause. The slender figure dressed in all black had the body of a teenage girl who hadn't quite grown into her curves. The hood pulled over her eyes was a warning.

  He stopped walking, panicked. His phone beeped again, and he hastily shoved his hand in his pocket to shut it off. He summoned his energy, prepared to transport.

  "Who are you?" he called out.

  The woman didn't remove her hood, but there was enough light to see the corner of her lips as she smirked.

  Rykken didn't hesitate; he transported as fast as he could back to Pilot's car, keeping the river a blur to his left. A few seconds later, his pace slowed, until he was merely running a few ticks faster than a normal human would. He stopped, keeling over, trying to catch his breath.

  He heard a clapping sound and knew the h
ooded figure was watching him. When he looked up, a woman with shiny, long hair the color of spun silver stood in front of him, her hands on her hips. He didn't have to ask her name.

  Kennedy's liquid metal eyes bore into his. "Rykken Camacho." He tried to back away from her, but an invisible wall blocked him from moving in any direction but forward.

  She twirled her hair between her fingers, reminding him of Brie just a little. "What is it about you that those van Rossum kids are so attached to?" she asked. "First, you convince Pilot to be your best friend, and now I hear you're dating Brie?" Rykken opened his mouth, but no sounds came out. His tongue felt paralyzed, like it was missing. Kennedy had complete control over him.

  "Don't answer that," she said mockingly. "I think I know why anyway, but we'll test my theory later."

  She circled around him, ignoring his fists pounding and stopping mid-air, like a pantomime stuck in a vertical, rectangular casket.

  "You probably want to know if I'm going to kill you." She spun Rykken's cell phone in her hand. He had no idea how she got it.

  "You dropped it," she said, answering his unspoken question. She flipped it open, glancing at the screen. "The answer is that I would kill you, but I can't, at least not yet." She pressed the screen onto the invisible wall he was pounding on.

  He squinted at the backlit blue device, reading a text from Pilot.

  "This is why I can't kill you," she said softly. "You mean too much to them."

  Rykken pulled his bloody hands away from the solid structure that held him in. His hands dripped crimson, but the structure was still invisible, no bloodstains.

  Kennedy clicked some buttons on his cell phone before tossing it aside. "We're just waiting for Brie," she said nonchalantly. "She's on her way."

  Dread filled Rykken and he wanted to yell, to punch something, to tell Kennedy to take him and leave Brie alone.

  "Rykken?" A soft, sweet voice called his name. "Rykken, are you out here?"

  He spun around and searched for Brie, but he couldn't see anything—not because she wasn't there, but because his eyes had been forced shut. He tried to open them, but he couldn't move his eyelids.

  Kennedy's voice penetrated his thoughts, cold and detached. "Perfect. Just in time."

  He couldn't see Kennedy, but he could picture her, stroking her long white hair, squinting at Brie with those creepy silver eyes. Rykken was baffled over how Pilot could find her attractive—how he kissed her without feeling disgusted.

  "Kennedy," Brie said icily. It was a fact, not a question.

  "How did you find us?" Kennedy asked. "A tracking gift? Or perhaps a gift for reading people and predicting their thoughts and moves, like me."

  "GPS. There's this neat little app that allows you to track your car... or your brother's car."

  Rykken heard the sound of an object sliding against jean material—Brie's cell phone, sliding into her pocket. "Technology these days," Brie said. "It's putting supernaturals like yourself out of business."

  Kennedy laughed. "Resourceful and sarcastic. Of course, my explanations would be more interesting.

  We would have something in common. They say men fall in love with people like their mothers and their sisters, but in your case—"

  "My brother doesn't love you," Brie declared. "He knows exactly what you are—"

  "Then why did he kiss me goodbye just a few minutes ago, before I got here?" Kennedy asked. "I think you should hear me out," she whispered. "I have no intention of hurting you, Brie van Rossum."

  "That doesn't reassure me." Brie said. "What have you done to Rykken?" He could tell from her tone that she was trying to be brave, but he heard the scratchiness of her voice, the wavering of her resolve.

  "Rykken's fine," Kennedy said. Yeah, if you don't mind a boyfriend who's trapped, who can't speak or see.

  Rykken wanted to yell at Brie for trying to defend him instead of running away, like she should have. No matter how powerful she was, she would be no match for Kennedy. Why didn't she get the Hallows help?

  "Oh, well if you say so," Brie said, a heavy dose of sarcasm in her voice.

  Rykken heard shuffling and the slam of two bodies making impact. There was a struggle, followed by a soft squeak.

  Brie!

  Kennedy panted heavily. "Why don't you come with me? We have a lot to catch up on. It'll be fun." Rykken guessed she had Brie in some sort of bind, but he couldn't tell. He felt completely helpless, a live mind inside a paralyzed body.

  "I have a biological sister, but she's never liked girl time. But you, you remind me of myself—

  tough, smart, and very, very powerful."

  Rykken heard struggling again. "Ah ah," Kennedy said. "Don't you want to know the truth before you dismiss the possibilities?"

  "I know the truth already," Brie spat.

  Kennedy scoffed. "The most dangerous people in this world are those that don't know how much they don't understand."

  "Nothing you say matters," Brie said. "I know what you're trying to do, but you'll never convince me to trust you."

  "That's too bad," Kennedy said with mock disappointment. "Because your life, and Pilot's, depend on just that."

  Rykken heard a heavy thud, followed by a body hitting the ground. Images of Brie crippled, soaked in a puddle of bloodstained grass and dirt, wafted through his mind. He gave a soundless scream, the ability to cry out stolen from him.

  Kennedy walked toward his cage, her heavy footsteps creating a sinister tune in his mind.

  "Showtime," she whispered. She wrapped her fingers around his arm, causing the hairs on his skin to writhe like worms in the rain. He felt a violent sensation course through his body, right before he blacked out.

  *****

  When Brie woke up, she was laying on the deck of a white, floating building. She stood up quickly, grasping for her bearings. Once standing, she realized it wasn't a building at all—she could stick her hands out the open cutouts that posed as windows. Or, at least that's what she thought—when she actually tried, she hit an invisible barrier that blocked her from extending her arm. She looked outside—the water was tainted with a sheeny substance that reflected in the moonlight. Brie could only assume it was an oil spill. "Welcome to the USS Arizona Memorial," Kennedy said.

  Brie spun around at the sound of Kennedy's voice. She noted that they weren't far from other structures in the water—were they close to Pearl Harbor?

  "Don't bother formulating a plan to get out," Kennedy said, running her fingers along one of the railings that kept tourists in line during the daytime. "I've secured the building."

  With Kennedy's words ringing in her head, Brie focused instead on looking for Rykken. She finally located him at the other end of the floating structure, leaning up against the wall, unconscious.

  "I'm impressed," Kennedy said. "My knock outs usually blind people for hours."

  Brie took in the structure—Rykken at the other end, with Kennedy standing between them, separating them.

  Brie had no chance of reaching Rykken before Kennedy did, and she didn't want to provoke Kennedy to hurt him further. "What do you want, Kennedy?"

  "I suppose I have to answer you, don't I?"

  "You have other options," Brie said. "You just need my help to make Pilot stop hating you."

  "Yes, unfortunately Pilot has made this job a little more delicate." Kennedy smirked, sitting down. Brie remained standing, knowing that her chances of reaching Rykken and escaping with him were still impossibly bleak. "And it's true that if I could convince you, you could help me convince him, since he's too hurt to listen to my side of the story."

  Brie was surprised at Kennedy's honesty. She wasn't expecting a confession, but Kennedy was truly trying to gain her trust, however twisted her methods were.

  "As you already know, I'm an assassin for an organization called Silver Smoke, which houses the Trinities of the world, or the superbeings of mixed descent—Hallow and Nephilim blood combined."

  "Yeah, I've heard about you. T
hey say the mixture of bloods makes you unstable and evil."

  Kennedy grinned widely, as if she was part of an inside joke Brie wasn't picking up on.

  "I'm assuming you've heard some of our history with the Hallows. The Nephilim ignored us and avoided us, but the Hallows made it their personal mission to rid the world of us. We were brutally murdered by them, unfit for life due to a defect in our blood at birth. We were driven underground to hide from them."

  Kennedy paused, standing up to walk toward Brie. "It wasn't until the New Order came along that the Hallows relented. While they still don't accept us to this day, they let us be, like the Nephilim have, as long as we don't wreak too much havoc on their people or politics."

  "What does this have to do with Rykken and me?"

  Kennedy tilted her head to one side, amused. "Fifteen years ago, my sister Bristol sent me on a mission based on a vision she had. The vision was of a young man, a son of Gabrielle, who became the president of the Hallows after leading a revolution against the New Order. I was never very fond of the New Order—it is simply a less evil version of the monarchy that ruled before it. But Bristol has always supported the New Order, even helped them during the revolution. She saw this young man who threatened the New Order as a threat to Silver Smoke as well. The only problem was that we didn't know where he was.

  "But there were not many pure-blooded sons of Gabrielle at the time. Most had been hunted and killed by the New Order, their bloodlines firmly stamped out for the preferential treatment they received from the daughters of Michael. We tracked down a set of twins who fit the physical description of the young man.

  They were children though. Babies, really.

  "My sister dispatched me to kill the set. I didn't want to go. Killing adults with training in our ways is far different than killing children, especially when we didn't even know if we had identified them correctly.

  "There was something more in the report, though, that forced me to accept the job. In our research of the family's genealogy, we learned that they were descendants of an ancient Oahu family of Hallows; a family that feuded against my own father's family of Nephilim."