Hell Transporter (Between)

by Tefft, Cyndi

  Chapter 30

  After we told Ian and Sarah the truth, I started spending most nights at Aiden’s place, only hanging out at the dorm if I needed to study. Guilt over leaving Stephanie alone gnawed at me, since I knew Jen stayed over with Paul more often than not, but I tucked it away into that corner of my mind where I kept things I didn’t want to deal with.

  We hadn’t told the MacKinnons about the hell transporter, figuring that one massive leap of faith was enough to ask of them. They didn’t need to know there was a vicious beast out there thirsting for my blood and wanting—what?—something else from Aiden. Cocooned in the warm sanctuary of Aiden’s bed, his rhythmic breathing the only sound in the room, I tried to make sense of it, twisting and turning the puzzle over in my mind. The hell transporter didn’t want to kill Aiden, at least not right now. It wanted me dead—I knew that without a doubt—but I couldn’t fathom what the beast could want with Aiden. Maybe to play with him for a while before ending his life, like a cat plays with a mouse? Maybe a quick death was insufficient punishment for having been freed from the realm in between.

  A shiver ran through me as another thought bubbled to the surface.

  What if the transporter means to take him back? Not to heaven, but to hell? Could it even do that?

  No. I refused to believe that.

  Shoving the idea aside before it could take root and start me completely freaking out, I pulled back the covers and slipped out of bed. Goosebumps sprang up all over my body at the chill in the air. All of a sudden, I was wide awake and trying not to obsess about Aiden being tortured and hauled off to hell all because of me.

  After using the bathroom, I splashed cold water on my face and stared at myself in the antique mirror, hardly recognizing my reflection. With eyes tired and weary—no, hunted—she wasn’t the girl who used to look back at me from the mirror. That girl had a mom and dad who loved each other, even if they didn’t always get along. That girl thought the scariest thing in the world was the top of the water slide before the lifeguard gave her a shove and sent her careening down the tube at a hundred miles an hour. That girl, in her pink and purple bedroom with daisies on the comforter, thought her heart belonged to boy bands and that algebra was hard.

  Everything had changed. My parents were hardly speaking, a demon from hell wanted to kill me, and my husband lie asleep in the other room. Oh yeah, and calculus was kicking my ass. The thought of calculus being more frightening than the hell transporter brought a smile to my lips. A flicker of the girl I used to be came to life before me. That girl, who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind, who defended those she loved, who didn’t take crap from bullies, that girl was still inside. And that girl had a job to do.

  Curling up next to Aiden, I stroked his bare chest with my cool fingers and watched his eyes flutter open. He offered a sleepy smile and put his hand over my own.

  “You awake?” I asked, even though the answer was obvious.

  “Mmmm...” he replied, not a ‘yes’ but not a ‘no.’

  “I want to try it again,” I whispered, somehow not wanting to disturb the stillness of the room.

  He blinked a few times and shook his head. “Try what, lass?”

  “The only way we’re going to stop the hell transporter is if we find out where it’s hiding. I want to try to get back in its head.”

  He sat up and leaned back against the headboard, the sheets sliding down his chest and pooling in his lap. He ran a hand down his face to clear the sleep from his mind.

  “Now?” he asked.

  Excitement and nerves mixed together inside me and I sat up in the bed, barely able to keep still. “I don’t know if I can do it long distance, but you and I could still communicate when you left to get your passport, so it’s worth a try, right? I figured it might be nocturnal, so if I could slip inside its mind while the transporter is out—I don’t know, hunting?—then maybe I could get a lock on where it’s hiding. Just one landmark is all I’d need and we’d have a way to trap it, to kill it before it... well, you know.” I couldn’t bring myself to say the words out loud and I didn’t need to. Aiden’s look clearly told me he knew exactly what the evil creature intended and was not about to let it happen.

  He swung his legs off the bed and stood up, stretching in the moonlight. Silver beams shone over his bare skin, creating tantalizing shadows between his shoulder blades and down the curve of his back. Suddenly, the room wasn’t at all chilly anymore. In fact, a heat began to coil deep within me and I considered shelving my masterful plan altogether in favor of more enjoyable nighttime activities. Unaware of my second thoughts, he strode off to the bathroom, then began getting dressed.

  “What are you doing?” I asked as he wrapped the kilt around his waist and secured it with his belt.

  “Preparing for the unexpected. What if the landmark you see is this cottage and it’s right outside? I don’t want to be wasting time getting dressed once the beast realizes we’ve located it.”

  “Oh.” I hadn’t thought of that. I also hadn’t considered that it might be lurking outside the house. My eyes shot to the window, expecting to see a pair of blood red orbs staring back at me. Adrenaline surged in my veins and I jumped up to throw on some jeans and a shirt. Once we were dressed and ready for anything, we stood together in the middle of the living room, fingers intertwined. With a deep breath, I cleared my mind and opened the mental gates to Aiden, whose presence flowed over me like a whirlpool, bubbling with energy but warm and soothing at the same time. Reaching out, remembering what it had felt like to connect with the hell transporter before, I searched for that black pulsing awareness. The sensation of being sucked through a tube and spit out the other end left me breathless.

  But I was in.

  Hot water cascaded down my face as I tilted my head back and let the shower work its magic, massaging my muscles with moist fingers. Institutional aquamarine tile lined the open stall, the showerhead a standard fixture throughout all the college dorms. But the girls’ showers were tiled in green and white. Was aquamarine the color of the boys’ bathroom? What on earth? The hell transporter was in the boys’ bathroom? And not in a beast’s form, but as a human! How could that be?

  Damn, I’ve missed hot showers. The thought came unbidden to mind, mixing with my own confusion about our surroundings. A voice sounded behind me and I turned.

  “I could really go for a pizza right now. Too bad everything’s closed,” Micah mumbled, the words almost lost in the towel he was using to dry his hair, instead of covering his body.

  His completely naked body.

  My eyes flickered over him: his bony shoulders, his pasty white chest, and the black line that gathered between his nipples and ran down his belly to his...

  The mental connection snapped like a rubber band breaking. My body shook back and forth and I blinked, uncomprehending. Aiden stood before me in the living room, his hands gripping my shoulders and murder written all over his face.

  “How long were you going to go on?”

  “What?” The effects of being separated from the hell transporter’s mind had muddled my thoughts. “Wait, what just happened?”

  Aiden dropped his hands to his sides and curled them into tight fists.

  “You were ogling Micah in the altogether is what happened.”

  “I was not!” Heat rushed to my face. “It wasn’t my fault he was standing there naked. And besides, ew!” A shudder of revulsion swept over me at the image of Micah now seared in my mind. “Like you have anything to worry about.” I rolled my eyes at him. “I’m going back in.”

  “Like hell you are.”

  “I didn’t even get to see—“

  “You saw plenty.” His voice dared me to contradict him, which I was more than willing to do.

  Hands on my hips, I shook my head at him in disbelief. “Aiden, you’re acting like a jealous idiot. If I don’t go back in, how will we find out where—“

  “I already know.”

  “What?” That caught me
up short. “What do you mean?”

  “That tile is in the men’s locker room at the pool.” He strode to the kitchen and snatched up the car keys.

  “How do you know it wasn’t just a bathroom at one of the dorms?”

  “The men’s privy has grey tile. The pool’s the only place I’ve ever seen that blue color.” When he reached for the door handle, I lost it.

  “Would you just wait one freaking second?” I flung my arms out in frustration and he turned. “I mean, holy crap! The hell transporter is at the pool—right now—in the men’s locker room with Micah. Not as a scaly beast with fangs and talons, but as a guy! What is going on?” Everything I thought I knew had just been blown to bits and I could barely fathom what my eyes had seen. “And not only that, but Micah was totally comfortable being naked in front of this guy.” Aiden winced at that, but didn’t interrupt. “So it has to be someone he knows!” My mind raced through the short list of Micah’s friends.

  “Paul is Micah’s best—“ I began, but Aiden cut me off.

  “It is not Paul.” Denial radiated like waves of heat from his body.

  “How do you know? Where is he tonight? You went hunting with him and I didn’t have any attacks while you were gone. Maybe it’s because you were too close. Maybe he couldn’t break away to get into my head. Oh my gosh, Jen!” Visions of Paul morphing from his handsome, athletic body into the demon transporter flashed before my eyes. Maybe he was using her to get to me. What would he do with her after he’d killed me? I had to warn her!

  My face must have taken on a wild, crazed expression because Aiden flung the keys onto the table and came to stand before me.

  “I told you, ‘tis not Paul. You knew him before you even met me, before you died.” After a heartbeat, the truth of what he said sunk in. He was right. The hell transporter wouldn’t have come to earth before the car crash. It was only after Aiden had come forward that the beast—man, I corrected myself—started tracking us. Relief washed over me and I nearly sunk to the floor. That meant Ravi was out, too. I hadn’t realized until just that moment how afraid I’d been to even consider it could be Ravi.

  “Someone Micah is friends with who wasn’t here before you… oh!”

  Derek’s pin cushioned face popped into my head. My hand flew to my mouth. “Derek was at the band room with Micah that day the transporter took over my mind. And he’s always hanging around, watching me, taunting me.” Aiden shook his head as if to say he didn’t recognize the name, so I described Derek. His face registered recognition.

  “The man from the pool when Mona wore that…?” He didn’t finish but now we were both thinking about her in the damn bikini.

  “That’s him. He asked about you the other night when I was out walking.”

  He froze.

  “You were out walking at night? Alone?”

  Shoot, I hadn’t meant to tell him about that. Too late.

  “I needed some air.” I glossed over the subject with a wave of my hand. “He asked where you were. Said he’d be happy to take your place.” The last few words came out in a small voice, as Aiden was already twitching with hostility and I wasn’t making things any better.

  “I cannot believe this. I asked ye to do one thing—one thing!—and you’re out walking at night by yourself while there’s a beast on the loose who means to kill ye. Do ye listen to anything I say?” A string of Gaelic curse words burst from him before he took a deep breath and glared at me. “I’m going to the pool. Stay here. Think ye can manage that?” He grabbed the keys and slammed the door in my face.

  The wallpaper should have curled and peeled from the obscenities I hurled at the walls over the next two hours while Aiden was out doing God-only-knew-what. I could not believe he’d walked out on me like that. So I’d seen Micah naked. So what? Mona’s assets had been on full display in that teeny bikini and he got all over me for being jealous.

  He couldn’t really be threatened by Micah, could he? Micah’s no more than a pathetic worm who was beaten pretty severely by the ugly stick. How Stephanie found him attractive was beyond me.

  No, his outrageous behavior was about possession. And while I liked that he was protective of me, I wasn’t about to let him think he owned me. I wasn’t some 18th century girl who was going to do whatever her master commanded. If he thought he could tell me what to do, he had another thing coming. Fuming, I banged around in the kitchen, hoping that making breakfast would distract me from the undertow of emotions threatening to pull me under.

  The front door opened and closed so quietly that I almost missed it. Aiden stood against the door, eyes closed, looking like he’d aged twenty years in the space of one night. Exhaustion lined his face, and his shoulders slumped in defeat. Irritated as I was, the sight of him made me pause. He wasn’t okay.

  “Did you…” I began, but my words trailed off when he shook his head. He spoke so softly I could barely hear him.

  “Nae. The building was locked when I got there. I waited for someone to come out, but they must have already left.” He finally opened his eyes and the pain in them took my breath away.

  “Aiden, what is it?” I dropped the dishtowel I’d been holding and moved toward him, afraid something had gone terribly wrong. Was he hurt? I scanned him quickly from head to toe, looking for evidence of an injury, but found nothing. My mind scrambled to unearth scenarios that could have left him looking so haunted. I came up empty.

  “Lindsey, I owe you an apology.” His voice was haggard and his eyes blood shot.

  Had he been crying? I discarded the idea as soon as I thought it. No, something else must be going on.

  “I’ve spent the last two hours sitting, waiting, and thinking about what an arse I’ve been.”

  I wasn’t expecting that.

  “Oh,” was all I could think of to say. Silence lingered between us, stretching the space between heartbeats. The wall clock ticked loudly.

  “Something inside me snapped when…” Even though he didn’t finish, I knew exactly what he meant: when I’d seen Micah naked. “I overreacted and blamed ye for something that wasn’t your fault. You were trying to help, trying to learn more about the transporter so we could stop him, and I made you out to be the villain himself.”

  I shifted and stared at my feet, uncomfortable with the conversation. He was right, but I’d been so ticked off that I’d said some pretty hurtful things about him to the living room walls. Just because he hadn’t heard them didn’t mean I was any better than he was. My vicious tirade echoed in my head, condemning me. Still, he needed to know I wouldn’t stand being ordered around.

  “It’s not just that,” I said, unable to look at him. “So I saw Micah without his clothes on. Fine, whatever. I don’t care. But you treated me like a child, like I have to do what you say and that’s not cool.” Sheesh, that sounded lame. I groaned inwardly. I’d told him off a thousand ways from Sunday and that’s what comes out? Unbelievable.

  He lifted my chin to look in my eyes.

  “You’re right. What I said was complete shite and I’m sorry for it. Can ye forgive me? Please?”

  Part of me didn’t want to, part of me wanted to stay mad, but that part was getting smaller and smaller by the second. I offered him a half-smile.

  “Don’t do it again, okay?”

  A muscle tightened in his jaw as a wave of regret and thankfulness washed over his face. He nodded solemnly, then pulled me tight against his chest.

  “We can’t fight him unless we work together,” I said into the warm wall against my cheek. “And you need to trust me, no matter what happens.”

  He pulled away, but kept my hands cocooned in his own. “You’re right,” he said again.

  “Besides, you have nothing to worry about with Micah. Do I need to show you all my mental snapshots so you know what you mean to me?”

  A sad smile played on his lips and he shook his head. “Not now, but aye, I’d be glad to see them sometime.” Then he brought his mouth to mine and the stress of the last
few hours melted away in the heat of his kiss.

  Chapter 31

  As I got ready for school, we discussed plans to catch Derek alone. I didn’t know his schedule, but we knew where Micah’s dorm room was, so we decided Aiden would shadow Micah around school and eventually, Derek would join up with him. Panic and excitement churned inside me at the thought of confronting Derek, of what Aiden would do to him, of being free of the hell transporter’s evil threats hanging over us.

  Aiden drove us to school and dropped me off in the parking lot. I stifled a yawn and gave him a quick kiss before heading out. Walking to class with the frosted grass crunching under my feet, I couldn’t help but feel that everything had changed. Having a face and a name for my enemy made it that much more personal. Derek had attached himself to Micah in order to get to me, and the thought of him hanging out with Jen or Steph—and Ravi, I admitted to myself—made me seethe with anger. They could have been hurt and it would have been all my fault. Confrontation with Derek could not happen soon enough for me, but I knew we had to be smart about it and not let him suspect anything until we had him cornered. Of course, how exactly we were going to do that, I had no idea.

  That is, not until after first period when Derek intercepted me on the way to my next class.

  “Hey,” he said, moving out from behind the corner of the building as I passed. I’d been deep in thought and not paying attention to where I was going. The sight of him made my heart slam against my ribs and I let out a little squeak of fear that made him grin like Satan himself.

  “What do you want?” I snapped to cover the shock of seeing him.

  “I was just curious if you had fun at the cabin,” he said.

  “What?” My mind reeled. Which cabin did he mean: the one back in Idaho or the ranch where the group of us had stayed? The hell transporter had shown his beastly self at both of them. Did this mean he knew I knew?

  “Maybe next time your boyfriend won’t be around to save you, huh?”