Flux (The Flux Series Book 1)

by Marissa Farrar

  Hunter looked back over at me, his expression stern. “Okay, we’ll go there as soon as we’ve dropped the others back at the Cavern.”

  I nodded and tried to push away my anxiety. I couldn’t ask for any more than that. I prayed we’d reach my father’s house and find him safe and well, but the churning inside me told me something different.

  After what felt like a lifetime, we approached the Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco Bay on the opposite side. Hunter took the small road which led down to the cliff steps.

  “I’d take you back to the boat,” he said to the others, “but I’m not sure there’s time, and we don’t know if someone is watching from the bay.”

  “That’s fine,” said Sledge. “Faster is better. We’re capable of making it down.”

  Hunter drove them to the end of the road and stopped the car. Dixie, Sledge, and Natasha all climbed out of the back. I didn’t envy them their climb down to the entrance of the Cavern, but I wished I was going with them, taking shelter in the almost impenetrable walls of our training center. Only hours ago, I’d been wanting to get away from the place—feeling claustrophobic and hemmed in, but now I understood the benefits of the place being so deep below ground and with only one entrance. If anyone who wasn’t wanted tried to make it through, they’d be taken out before they even stepped into the Cavern.

  My car door window was open, and Dixie leaned through the gap and gave me a hug.

  “Stay safe,” she told me. “You both need to come back in one piece.”

  “We will,” I reassured her, though I wasn’t sure myself. We were about to drive through the city in a vehicle that was most likely recognizable by people who for some reason wanted us dead, or perhaps wanted us injured enough that we were no longer a threat so they could take us in. We probably needed to dump it somewhere, and I said so to Hunter.

  He nodded. “We will. Let’s just try to cover some of the distance first.”

  Being able to drive the car was always going to be quicker than navigating public transport, and right now all my focus was on getting to the house and checking on my father. Besides, we weren’t completely helpless—far from it. We might have given whoever was after us something to think about after we took that chopper down. Perhaps they hadn’t considered us to be worthy adversaries. I hoped they’d leave us the hell alone—for the moment, at least—until they figured out another plan.

  Unless, of course, they already had another plan.

  Hunter reversed the car up the narrow road, the clutch whining as he did so. He reached the top and spun the vehicle around, before heading back onto the main road toward the bridge. Within minutes, we were crossing the bay. I looked out of the window, spotting the place where I’d held Hunter’s hand as I’d taken that first quite literal leap of faith and jumped off the side of the bridge with him.

  I gave my head a slight shake. My life had changed so much over the past few weeks, now I barely recognized it. I’d been an ordinary twenty-something-year-old, just getting by, and now my life was everything but ordinary.

  Hunter’s hand on my thigh made me jump.

  “You okay?” he asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah, just thinking. And worried, of course.”

  “We’ll leave the car a couple of blocks from your father’s house. If there is a problem, I don’t want anyone to see us coming.”

  “You think there will be a problem?” I chewed my lower lip.

  “Don’t you? Isn’t that the whole reason we’re going?”

  He was right. I guessed I’d been hoping for some reassurance, but it didn’t look like I was going to get any. I didn’t blame him for that. We needed to go into this with caution. If everything was fine, it would be a relief, but if it wasn’t, going in recklessly could get us killed.

  We crossed the city. It felt strange to see everything continuing as normal, all these people going about their normal lives, completely unaware of what we were capable of, or that people existed who would shoot at you from a helicopter if you had something they wanted.

  Hunter drove into my neighborhood. A couple of blocks away from my father’s house, he pulled into a quiet street. I thought he would jump right out, but instead he turned to me.

  “Hey, Ari, I meant to say to you earlier that I heard about someone at the Cavern taking the photographs of your family.”

  I didn’t know why, but the mention of the incident embarrassed me and I glanced down at my lap. “Oh, right.”

  He reached out and touched the back of my hand. “I’m sorry someone did that to you. Nothing like that has ever happened with one of the Kin before. We’ll find out who took them and get them back, okay?”

  I offered him a tight smile. “Sure.”

  “I mean it, Ari.”

  I nodded. “I believe you.”

  Hunter sat back in his seat, and then leaned forward, checking around us—including up into the air. “All clear,” he said, before climbing out.

  Following his lead, I got out the passenger side. “I feel like we should have guns or something.” Nerves made my voice shake.

  “Hey.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me into him. His palms cupped my cheeks and angled my face up toward his. He moved in close, so I could feel his breath upon my skin, the heat of him burning into me. “We don’t need guns. We can be more destructive than any single firearm. Always remember that, Ari. Be confident with who you are—what you are. Whoever these assholes work for, they can’t do what we can.”

  He pressed his lips to mine, firm and soft all at the same time. My arms slipped around his waist and we moved closer together, our bodies filling the space that had been between us. My lips parted and our tongues met. Fire flamed up inside me, and I held him tighter as his hands left my cheeks and knotted in my hair.

  As much as I didn’t want to stop kissing him, we had a job to do, and I couldn’t stop my worry for my father playing on my mind.

  Hunter must have sensed how I was feeling and broke the kiss. He stayed in close, though, touching the tip of his nose to mine, his hands still laced in my hair.

  “We can do this,” he said. “Stick together, and follow my instructions.”

  I nodded against him. “Okay. I can do this.”

  He gave me a final kiss on the end of my nose and we stepped apart.

  “If we cut through here, we’ll come out opposite my dad’s house,” I said. I wondered why I’d started calling it his house as opposed to mine.

  “Okay, good.”

  Moving at a jog, we slipped between a couple of the houses, creeping down alleyways and using tall fences, trees, and bushes as cover. It was still daylight, and if anyone spotted us where we weren’t supposed to be, we were bound to get called out on it. We stepped out onto the adjacent street and hid behind the parked cars along the sidewalk, crouching down so as not to be seen. My father’s house was positioned across the road, my bedroom window on the second story. How strange to think I’d looked out of that window onto the street and seen Hunter that day. That had been a different Ari than the one who existed now. I’d been so naive, so clueless.

  I pulled my thoughts from my past self and scanned the area for any signs of the men in black.

  From the outside, the house looked exactly the same as it always had. My dad didn’t have a car—he preferred to use public transport—so I couldn’t tell that way if he was home or not. There was nothing from this angle that gave any indication of there being anything wrong.

  “We’re going to have to go inside,” I said.

  Hunter nodded in agreement. “Do you remember how I came to your room that night before you came to the Cavern?”

  “Yes, of course.” It wasn’t something I was going to forget anytime soon.

  “I suggest we get in the same way. I don’t think we want to just walk up to the front door.”

  I agreed. We got on the move again, cutting through a neighbor’s yard, heading farther down the street so as not to be seen from the house. We jumped a fence a
nd landed in my back garden. The porch ran right around the outside of the house, and we headed to the side. No windows of neighboring houses looked down at this spot, and a couple of trees hid us from the street out front. Hunter gave me a boost up, lacing his fingers together and allowing me to set one foot into them. I hooked my fingers over the top of the guttering, half pulling myself up while he pushed from the bottom. Less than elegantly, I managed to swing my leg up onto the porch roof and drag myself fully up. Hunter was far more agile than me. He took a run up and jumped, grabbing the guttering and swinging himself up.

  “Showoff,” I hissed at him.

  He gave me a wink in response. “Come on.”

  We sneaked toward the front of the house, moving on tiptoes. We reached the corner and paused so we wouldn’t be too visible to the neighbors. My bedroom window was right beside us at the front of the house, and I leaned out and tried to pull the window up.

  “Shit. It won’t budge.”

  I felt horribly exposed up here. Though we wouldn’t be seen by anyone inside, someone across the street was bound to spot us eventually.

  “You can open it, Ari,” Hunter said from beside my shoulder. “Just focus.”

  I remembered what he’d told me—to be confident.

  Staring at the latch on the other side of the glass, I willed it to move. I used my fear for my father’s life as the energy I needed, pushing it out of me and into the inanimate metal object. Move, damn you. Just move. I was worried I’d end up smashing the whole pane of glass in my usual over-exuberant way, but instead the latch began to wobble, then popped open.

  Hunter rewarded me with a wide grin. “Told you so.”

  I smiled back. I was pleased with myself, but worried about what I was about to find. I reached back to the window and pulled up the pane, giving us access. I climbed across the window ledge and jumped into my bedroom, doing my best to land lightly on my feet. Hunter followed close behind, annoyingly more agile than I was, despite his far larger size. I was thankful he was quiet, though. We didn’t want to alert anyone in the house to our presence.

  I crossed the room and edged open the door, my ears straining for any sound. I couldn’t tell if there was anyone else in the house. I wanted to call out to my dad, but I couldn’t risk the wrong person hearing me.

  We sneaked out into the hallway, and I quickly checked the other two bedrooms and the bathroom. There was no one here, and nothing that made me think anything other than my father’s noticeable absence was wrong.

  “We need to go downstairs,” I hissed at Hunter.

  He glanced over at me and nodded.

  With him leading the way, we edged slowly and quietly down the staircase. The living room was to the right, and it only took a quick peek inside to see the space was empty. The front door was directly in front of us, and appeared undisturbed, the latch still on. We made our way into the dining room, the kitchen just beyond. Both rooms were empty.

  “I don’t know where your father is, Ari,” Hunter said, not bothering to whisper. “But he’s not here.”

  He was right.

  I went to the back door to check if it was locked.

  My heart lodged in my throat. “Hunter?”

  A smear of dark red blood striped the linoleum. It looked as though someone had been dragged across the surface. There was something else, too. A note had been pinned to the glass panel of the back door. “Oh, God.”

  Hunter marched forward and snatched the piece of paper from the glass. He stared down at it, and I forced myself to look away from the horror of seeing the blood and all the terrible possibilities it might contain, and read what had been left for me. Because it had been left for me. I knew that with every fiber of my soul.

  Miss Arianna Sheppard,

  If you want to see your father alive again, come to the Island.

  I will exchange him for information.

  Come alone.

  M.G.

  Hunter frowned. “M.G.? Do those initials mean anything to you?”

  I wracked my mind, trying to think of a name I could link it to. “No, I can’t think of anyone. We really don’t know that many people—certainly no one who would do something like this!”

  “Hey.” He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me into his strong embrace. “We know your father is alive. That’s the main thing. We’ll get him back again.”

  I wanted desperately to believe him. “This M.G. wants me to go to the Island. What does he mean? Alcatraz Island?”

  “I can’t think what else that would be. Can you?”

  I shook my head. “Shit. How am I going to get there?”

  “How are we going to get there? You’re not going alone.”

  My stomach twisted and I felt sick with fear. “You can see what the letter says. They’ll hurt him if they see you there, too.”

  “So, they won’t see me. I have ways of hiding.”

  I stared at him, terrified if I made the wrong choice, my father would die.

  He leaned in and kissed me, a firm, reassuring press of his lips against mine. Nothing more. “Trust me, Ari.”

  I nodded. “I do.”

  “Good. Then it’s settled. We’ll take the boat we use to get from the Cavern.”

  “Then what do we do when we get there?”

  “We’ll have to figure that out on the way. At least we’ll be able to find out who’s behind the people chasing us, and the ones shooting at us from the helicopters.”

  “You think they’re all tied together?” I’d already figured they were, but I wanted to hear it confirmed from his lips. This wasn’t just about me and my father; this was about all of the Kin.

  “Absolutely. They want something from us, and they must have figured out brute force wasn’t going to work, so they’ve gone with a little kidnapping and threats instead.”

  Tears for my father’s safety filled my eyes. He had no idea what was going on. He’d be angry and afraid, and wondering what the hell his remaining daughter had gotten herself involved in. After losing Karina, this was the last thing he needed or deserved. I’d left him unprotected and exposed, and gone off with people who’d been strangers to me. I was a terrible daughter.

  A tear spilled from my eye and ran a track down my cheek. “Sorry,” I said, shaking my head angrily at myself.

  Hunter reached up and wiped the tear away with his thumb. “You have nothing to be sorry for. This will all work out, Ari. Don’t be frightened.”

  He pulled me in for another hug, his mouth pressed against the top of my head, his breath heating my hair.

  “We won’t let them win.”

  Chapter Twenty

  We left my father’s house, taking the note with us as evidence, though I didn’t think Hunter had any intention of taking this to the police. How could we? They’d probably think we were making the whole thing up, and I had a feeling showing them proof of our abilities would only end in us being locked up in some research center like a couple of lab rats. If the government was responsible for kidnapping my father, they’d already have people secreted into places of authority such as the police department.

  Despite our earlier plans, we decided we didn’t have time to get a different car. What would be the point, anyway? The people who took my father knew exactly where I was going to be. They’d forced my hand. They didn’t need to chase me anymore because I was about to walk right up to them and hand myself, and anything else they wanted, over.

  Hunter drove back through the city and across the bridge. He parked in the same lot where we’d picked the car up first thing that morning. The little boat was still in the bay, pulled high on the shingle to avoid it being washed away. Night was drawing in now, the lights in the bay blinking at us from across the darkening water. Alcatraz Island appeared to be an overwhelmingly long distance away, and I couldn’t imagine us having to row all that way.

  “What about the others?” I asked Hunter. “Shouldn’t we tell them what’s going on? They would have expected us to be back
by now, and they’ll be worried when we don’t show.”

  Hunter pressed his lips together and shook his head. “If we tell Kit, any chance of getting onto Alcatraz Island unseen will be lost. He’ll want us go in en masse, and I don’t know how the people who’ve taken your father would respond to that. Considering they told you to come alone, I can only assume the results wouldn’t be good.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t want to do anything that might risk my dad’s life. Something still played on my mind, however. I felt as though we were going behind the backs of the other Kin. “I’m worried Kit and the others won’t be prepared, though. What if they think they’re safe when clearly someone is after us?”

  “They already know. Dixie and the others will have already told them about the helicopters. They’ll be on high alert.”

  He had a point. I hated to think of them worrying about us, however. In particular, the thought of Dixie fretting for my return bothered me. She might have already sensed something was wrong through her ability.

  There was nothing I could do about it—not if I wanted any chance of my father living through this.

  Together, Hunter and I pushed the rowboat down to the shore. The muscles of my back and shoulders strained under the force, the boat far harder to move than when there had been five of us. With lots of heaving and grunting, we got the small boat down to the water’s edge. Waves lapped at the toes of my sneakers. The scent of briny water filled my nostrils, with something underlying it, something dank and old. It was a cold evening, and a chill ran through me. I glanced to the horizon and spotted a bank of dark storm clouds building. I hoped they would stay away and that the wind wouldn’t come up. I didn’t much relish the thought of being in the middle of the bay in a small rowboat in bad weather. San Francisco was known for having three seasons in one day, and just because the day had been bright didn’t mean the night would remain clear, too.

  The boat wobbled beneath us as we jumped in, then settled side by side. I picked up an oar, preparing myself for the tough job of rowing all the way out to Alcatraz Island. It was going to be tough and dangerous. I hoped I was up to the job.