“What are they?” I whispered, unsure if I really wanted to hear more horror stories.
“Insane,” he spat, “evil, vile, sick people who believe only what they want to believe. They’re people who live by their own laws.”
It was clear to me then that Rudy had never truly known before what the hunters really were. He really did believe those crazy stories.
I cried on the car ride home. Again, I wasn’t sure if it was happy or sad, but I finally decided it was both. Rudy spoke to me, but I couldn’t tell what he was saying. I managed to pick up “it’s okay” and “everything is fine.” Things of the sort.
He was at my side the entire time, up until my hand reached for the door of my house. Just the sight of the house in the mist of the early morning made everything seem normal for a brief moment. I felt like I was back to the first week I had been in North Bend. I hesitated before opening the door; as soon as I managed, I slowly opened up and stepped inside, still with Rudy beside me. Ethan instantly ran to me and pulled me into one of his brace-tight hugs like the one he gave me when he picked me up from the airport, which seemed like ten years ago.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I told him, my voice muffled against his chest.
“Are—”
“I’m sure, Dad. I’m fine. And you?”
“A few bumps and bruises but nothing to be too worried about.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am.”
“Dad,” I started, moving away from him, “even after all of this, I’m glad I came to live with you.” For the first time, I had said something to him that I meant one hundred percent.
He smiled, but it wasn’t one of his “I’ll accept that” kind of smiles but more of the way he smiled when he was happy. He was happy, and I was finally able to tell.
I remembered Rudy and turned around to see him returning the smile. I laughed and brought myself back into his arms again.
“Thank you,” Ethan said to him, “for everything you’ve done.”
Rudy nodded. He tucked my head under his chin and rocked me for a moment before pushing me forward and looking at me, grinning widely.
“I love you, Jane.” It wasn’t meant the way it was the first time he had said it, which made it mean even more than it ever had before.
“I know. I love you too, Rudy.”
His grin widened, which didn’t seem possible until I saw it happen.
Ethan didn’t want to talk much about what had happened.
“I really would rather not burden you with it,” he said. “I’m all right, and that’s what matters. I don’t want to add any fuel to your nightmares.”
I half smiled. “Dad, I’m seventeen. I can handle it.”
“And I’m your father.”
I just looked at him, unyielding.
He sighed heavily. “All right. I got off work a little earlier than usual and decided to get some sleep. I figured you were with Becky, so I didn’t worry. That was my mistake, and I’m so sorry.”
I put my hand up. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
He nodded, but I could tell he had this guilt gnawing at him. “I woke up when I heard someone in the room. I thought I may have been dreaming until I felt my mouth covered, and I was blindfolded. I tried to scream, but I was gagged. They took me—right from the safety of my own home, dragged me out of my house and into the trunk of a car. The drive wasn’t long, but when the car stopped and they let me out, they took the blindfold off, and I was in the woods somewhere—somewhere I had never been before. There was a large, dark-skinned man who led me into the trees.”
I knew instantly he was talking about Dorian.
“They led me to others. There were at least a dozen people all cloaked and hooded in black like monsters from some demonic folktale. They were chanting or singing. I’m not sure which. It must have been very late because the sun was starting to come up when they strapped me to this stone.”
He broke off and looked at me. “Jane?”
“I’m fine,” I lied. My heart was physically aching with the images I was seeing in my head.
“You don’t need to hear the rest of this.”
“I’m fine.”
“Your friends saved me.”
I nodded. “I know.”
“That’s all you need to know.”
I shook my head. “How long, Dad? How long were you there, strapped to the stone?”
He sighed and bowed his head. His voice was so quiet. “Over night. When I got home, Rudy said I had to wait at home while he went to get you. He was crying for some reason. He mumbled that he didn’t want to tell you something.”
I remembered the way he shook his head when he went to get me from Luna’s. He thought Aidan was dead.
“He was just scared,” I said. “When he came to get me, there was nothing wrong.” Except the blood on his clothes that Ethan seemed to not have noticed.
“I just wanted you back.” He pressed his fingers to his eyelids under his glasses. “I just wanted you back, Jane. I couldn’t lose you too.”
My eyebrows pulled together, and it took everything I had not to cry. He saw the look on my face and, being my dad, decided that hugging me would help. It was then that I cried.
“I didn’t want you to feel this way.”
“It’s okay. I needed to know.”
“They said I was…pure,” he added. “Innocent. Things like that.”
I nodded. “I know,” I whispered before I realized I shouldn’t have said anything.
He looked at me for a moment then narrowed his eyes. “You…know.”
I nodded. “They told me…” I decided it was best to lie, keep Aidan out of the story. “They told me the same thing.”
“Oh” was all he said.
I went up to my room, simply for the sake of being in my room, to be at home again. I spotted a folded slip of paper on my bed. Panic struck. My palms started sweating, and my heart was pounding. I picked it up and shook it open. It was hand written in his beautiful writing.
Jane,
I’m sorry I lied to you. There is something you need to know. I couldn’t bring myself to tell you before, but now you need to see for yourself. Check under your pillow. I love you.
Yours,
Aidan
I sighed in relief and reached under my pillow, feeling the coolness of the room from the icy temperature of the fabric. I felt something and pulled it out. It was a tiny, silver key, intricately designed like a Celtic knot attached to a lovely blue tassel. It took me a moment. Why would I need a key? I replayed a few events, and I heard Aidan’s voice in my head, telling me about plan A, plan B, and plan C. The chest in the corner of the attic flashed through my memory. I raced out of my room and brought myself to the attic. I switched on the light and stared at the redwood chest still in the corner where I remembered it.
I think it needs a key.
I eyed the tiny, silver lock and crawled over to the chest, terrified of what may be inside. I thought it better to get it over with. Thoughts were racing. What if it was another bag of teeth or several bags of teeth? What if it was filled with bones or vials of blood?
I sighed and turned the key. The clicking of the lock was like an attack on my nerves. I opened it, and the smell of dust and wood assaulted my nose. When the dust cleared, I peered inside, relieved to see that the chest was filled with papers and photos. I picked up the photo on top and thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. The picture in my hand was in color, but I could still tell it was old, and the colors had faded. There was an older man sitting on the steps of a porch next to a young boy. I could swear it was Rudy. He didn’t have the spiked hair, and I couldn’t see the eye color, but the smile and the rounded shape of the face—it looked exactly like him. His story replayed in my head. I recognized the older man in the photo as well, though I couldn’t decide why. I stared at his round eyes and childlike face, trying to decide who he looked like. I could tell even in the
photo that his eyes were a light sky blue. The name came to me slowly, and I didn’t know I was going to say it until I actually did.
“Oh my God!” I choked out. “Walter!”
Rudy’s grandfather was alive—he was Walter Redline. My God. What kind of secrets could be hiding in an old chest? The next thing my eyes caught was a leather-bound journal. I opened to the first page.
September 26, 1948
The killings are getting worse. People all over the city are going missing. I know they will end up like Jack. I can’t take it. The Sevren is too powerful. We are no match for them. They are clever. If these pages are ever read, I hope you know how to defeat them. If you don’t, then get out—run! They are evil and will stop at nothing to put an end to The Silver Wing once and for all. They wanted a war, and they are winning the one we gave them.
The Silver Wing? There was talk of war in the pages. My thoughts were instantly shattered, and I shrieked, dropping the journal from my hands.
“Jane?”
“Oh,” I breathed.
“I’m not used to startling you anymore. I’m sorry.”
“Aidan, explain this! Now!”
He sighed and sank his head low. “How angry are you?”
I choked on my voice before responding. “I…don’t know yet.”
“I can’t explain everything. All I can tell you is that it was better for you not to know until now.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want you worrying over any more than you already were. But you had a right to see this.”
“How did you know about this?”
“It belonged to another member of The Silver Wing—the ones who were trying to stop—”
“I know about The Silver Wing!” I yelled. “How did you know about this?”
“It belonged to somebody I knew. It was given to your grandfather.”
“My grandfather?”
He nodded.
“And Danny?” I yelled. “You knew about Danny! Tell me why they killed him! You knew. The entire time, you KNEW!”
“Jane—”
“Tell me, Aidan—James—Clem, whoever the hell you are. Tell me now!”
He shook his head slowly, and his voice remained calm. He was sad—genuinely sad. “Rudy’s great-grandfather Peter knew about The Sevren. He constructed a group to try to stop them. The group called themselves The Silver Wing. They were never able to defeat them, and Peter’s son, Rudy’s grandfather, took over the group after Peter’s death. Your grandfather, Jane, was also a member of The Silver Wing. They killed him, and they killed Danny. They lost track of you, your mother, and Ethan when the person instructed to find you all disappeared. That’s why I was enrolled in school here. Abraham found me and threatened my life, ordering me to finish the job. I was sent to find you. It was my job…to kill you.”
“What?” I said, my voice muffled.
“I would never hurt you, Jane!” he cried. “I swear it! When I first met you, I didn’t know who you were. If I did…”
“If you did, you would have stayed away? You would have left me alone?”
“Yes.”
“You lied to me, Aidan, about everything. Everything!”
“No,” he answered calmly. “Not everything. I love you, Jane. That was and always has been the truth.”
“Aidan, leave.” My voice was so soft I could hardly hear myself, but I knew he heard me.
“What?”
I handed him the picture of Walter. “Leave!”
“I can explain this.”
“You don’t need to,” I said, my voice breaking. “Just leave me alone like you should have in the first place.”
“I’ll leave because you’re telling me to. But I will be back, Jane.”
“Don’t bother!”
I wept uncontrollably into my hands. I left the key on top of the chest and headed back to my room. I cried myself to sleep.
Around four in the morning, I was disturbed by the feeling of a warm hand on my face. I awoke slowly, un-startled, and switched on the lamp on my nightstand.
“I left because you told me to,” he said, “but I thought maybe you were calm enough now to let me explain.”
“Aidan, there’s nothing to explain.”
“How can you say that?”
“I know about The Sevren and The Silver Wing. I don’t care to know more.”
“The Silver Wing no longer exists,” he whispered sadly. “The Sevren killed most of them and most of the people who were connected to them. That’s why Rudy was also in danger.”
“What about Walter?” I asked. “Were you ever planning on telling Rudy his grandfather was alive? That’s why you didn’t want him there, and that’s why Dorian wanted him.”
He nodded. “Walter left Rudy’s life to protect him from The Sevren—the hunters as he calls them. It seems Dorian found out who Rudy was after all, but Dorian is dead, and as long as Rudy doesn’t know, he will be safe. Walter did everything he could to protect him. That chest belongs to him. Your grandfather couldn’t stand watching Walter shuffle through all those old pictures and letters. It was making him miserable. So your grandfather took it—simply so Walter would stop tormenting himself. The Sevren kills the beautiful and the pure. Those are the ones Abraham taught us were ‘made for us.’ After the construction of The Silver Wing, it was our job to stop them, to destroy their alliance so we could continue our way of life.”
My mind took another path, one away from The Sevren and back to the old, tugging pain that I had finally been able to push aside.
“You…you killed Danny,” I whispered, locking my gaze directly onto his eyes. My heart felt like it was slowly chipping away as though acid were eating away at it. My entire chest burned. I was unsure how, but somewhere in me, I knew it had to be true. I had known all along somewhere deep within me.
“Danny’s death—I couldn’t have stopped it if I tried. If Abraham did it, he would have suffered. I had to.”
I nodded. “I want to tell you it’s okay, Aidan, but it isn’t. Danny is dead—by your hands. That’s all that matters.”
“Jane, he was innocent, and I understand that it was wrong. My killing of him was mercy. I wish I could help you see that. The Sevren is not who I am, Jane. It is who I was, who I will never be again.”
“You’re a killer,” I said, sobbing.
“I love you,” he said sternly. “Please. We don’t have to hurt anymore. We can leave North Bend—together.”
“What?”
“In the morning, open the bags I left in the attic.”
“Why?”
“Just do it. I will see you soon.”
He was gone in seconds, and it took me at least an hour to fall back asleep. I contemplated looking in the bags right after he left but decided to trust him one last time though I knew I shouldn’t have. Danny’s death replayed in my head over and over again, making it impossible to relax.
When my body finally shut down into unconsciousness, I was assaulted by a series of strange dreams that I couldn’t remember as soon as my eyes opened but left a lingering feeling of anxiety. It was still dark when I awoke, but I lay in bed until the sun came up and heard Ethan leave for work, sure that he had been in to check on me several times. I didn’t want to do what Aidan had said about the bags in the attic, but my curiosity got the better of me.
I crawled into the attic and opened the dark blue duffel bag Aidan had brought over. I gasped and, with shaking hands, shuffled through the contents. It was stuffed with clothes and wigs of all different colors and styles and bottles of hair dye. There was a plastic bag filled with fake IDs and passports. His plans A, B, and C were to help me cover my tracks as well—help me become somebody different. But perhaps he was right. Maybe I really couldn’t stay here. I didn’t even bother opening the other bags. It wasn’t worth upsetting myself any more.
By covering your tracks, I’d never see you again.
I wondered then if it was avoidable. Could I really stay i
n North Bend as Jane Callahan? The Sevren was everywhere, widely spread and clever. North Bend wasn’t the only place; it couldn’t have been. Nowhere was safe—nowhere! But there had to be somewhere safer than here. The name on one of the IDs became distorted, and I realized I was crying. I dried off the plastic and left the attic.
I never intended to fall in love with him. I never meant to be hopeless and foolish for him, but I was, and after everything Aidan had put me through, even the lies and the murders, after I wanted nothing more than to hate him—I wanted him with me. I wanted to touch him and hear his voice. After everything he had done—I loved him.
Chapter Twenty
I never thought about how my life in North Bend, at Ethan’s home, would end. It wasn’t my true home; it never could be. But now that it was ending, I realized it should have occurred to me before I even moved here that it would come to a screeching halt. I couldn’t stay even if I was with the people I loved. My heart still wasn’t in North Bend. It was in California with my beautiful mother, the place where I last saw Danny. I wanted to escape my past, so I came here—to the place where I spent most of my childhood summers. How could I have thought that would be the right solution? I couldn’t run away anymore. It was time to go home.
Now that it was over, I thought of every reason I should be sad. It confused me that I wasn’t sad at all. I shouldn’t have been ready to leave; I shouldn’t have been relieved to be going home. I should be terrified to leave Becky and Ethan—even Aaron and Rudy as well, but I wasn’t.
“Are you ready?”
“Physically or mentally?”
Aidan smiled. “Both.”
“I’m not packed,” I told him, “but I’m ready.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, sitting beside me on the end of my bed. “I didn’t want it to end this way.”
“I know,” I answered, forcing my voice to stay even and strong.
“So, this is it then?”
I nodded. “I go home, you go home, and it’s all only a memory.” I wondered for a fleeting moment where home was for him.
“Why won’t you look at me?” I could feel him move closer.
Summers' Deceit (Hunters Trilogy Book 1) Page 21
