Chapter Eighty Seven
Willow’s flight landed right on time the following evening. Ember held onto her like she had been gone twenty years instead of just one night. She looked at me with worried concern as she hugged her in return. Then, her facial expression switched and she smiled sweetly the instant my little girl released her hold.
Something’s very wrong…
The ride home from the airport only took about forty minutes, but that was the longest car ride I have ever experienced. Ember talked non-stop about school and how everyone was still talking about the party. She even shared every last detail of her lunch time conversation with all her friends.
I was stressed out and petrified because Willow obviously couldn’t tell me what the problem was. So I drove slightly over the speed limit and wished that we had already made up a new code language. Our first one had taken years to create and master though. I would just have to wait until Willow and I were alone to find out. Ember didn’t seem to notice when I turned in the direction of our house. I had planned to take Willow home tonight as usual, but our house was closer than Sunridge. I desperately needed to know what she had discovered.
Although I was extremely reluctant to let her make the trip to Chicago in my place, we didn’t have a choice. Willow did agree to let me hire a limousine and driver (6’8”, 320 lbs. well-armed body guard named Sam – my pick) to take her to the school and bring her back to the airport.
She had called me on her cell phone when she arrived at the school. I told her how to locate the cafeteria. I had also provided her with several dozen warnings about how to spot BLF tattoos and clothing before she left North Carolina.
Although she kept me on the phone the entire time she walked across that campus, I was still a nervous wreck. I couldn’t protect her from so far away – not without her wearing the cunning ribbon and the ends touching. It took some serious convincing, but she finally tied the ribbon around her ankle. I was relieved because I could channel to make her invisible if necessary. But, she stopped talking to me the instant I could hear her thoughts and sang a song in her head. I didn’t try to interrupt her because I respected her privacy and knew she would alert me if I needed to channel an obliteration.
Recognizing them from the photograph, she had easily found Garrett and Emily sitting together. Willow introduced herself as Ember’s sister. They exchanged pleasantries and then I channeled a few obliterations. I needed them to open up and not feel nervous about talking to Willow. They saw her at the birthday party, but we didn’t have time to waste on too much nonsense. I wanted the information then I wanted Willow out of that environment pronto.
Garrett and Emily had said they each received an invitation in the mail. They claimed that they read and followed the instructions on the back to the letter. They had to save their money for three weeks so they could drive to North Carolina together. They missed Ember and were excited to see her again. Reporting that they had a wonderful time, they added that they were disappointed to only be able to speak with her sister for a few minutes due to the large crowd.
Ember didn’t remember talking to them at all. That’s not surprising though since she was zoned out from my birthday obliteration.
Willow left the cunning ribbon in place until she was safely inside the limousine on her way to the airport. She had only been wearing it for twenty five minutes, so it had some time left on it. Its use was finished and she removed it the second Sam closed her car door. The link was severed permanently.
She did call me again from her cell phone. We spoke until she reached the airport. Then, her battery must have died because we were suddenly disconnected. Everything seemed perfectly fine up until that point, so I decided not to worry about it. Sam had been paid generously to walk Willow all the way to her plane. I even purchased a ticket for him so they wouldn’t stop him at the gate. I also knew Willow made it safely on the plane because I called the airport in Chicago and persuaded the agent to walk on board right before it departed to check on her.
Skipping all my classes, I had investigated the dark clique all day. The only thing I managed to discover was the girls had been talking about doing something to Ember. As far as I could tell no action had taken place. It was impossible to use my skill on any of the dark clique girls since they were always in groups of eight or more. The guys stayed grouped together as well. Although I didn’t find out anything important, nothing about them struck me as being particularly dangerous. But, I had only started my investigation today. So, that was just a gypsy guess. Willow would assist me when she returned and then we would both continue our inquiry.
Since my investigation turned up nothing of interest yet and I thought Willow’s investigation had turned up nothing as well, I hadn’t been concerned about anything. I realized belatedly that my initial assessment had been misguided. Something was definitely wrong on the Chicago end of things. I had no way to judge how bad it was or what needed to be done to fix it until I spoke to Willow.
I helplessly watched as her facial features clouded over from worry while Ember looked away to sunny smiles when my little girl was looking at her. By the time we arrived home and Ember rushed inside to call Krista, I was beside myself with alarm.
“What went wrong???” I practically yelled the question, but Willow understood it was from stress and not directly aimed at her.
“Here, just look at this…” Willow said and handed me Emily’s invitation to Ember’s birthday party.
The envelope had our local postmark on it. The handwriting on it looked like it belonged to Willow. I pulled the party invitation out and expected a snake to bite me or something. It only had the same standard details we had printed about the location, time and date. I looked at her curiously. Then, she motioned for me to turn it over. I felt absolute horror flood through me when I read the rules on the backside of the invitation.
They read: Shout surprise when she arrives and keep making noise – it’s a celebration. Price of admission is one gift for the birthday girl. Pat her on the back or give her a hug – she loves to be touched anytime she parties. Cameras and other video equipment are allowed and even encouraged…
Outright anger washed over me and colored my vision red as I read each rule. They were all opposite from what we had written down and approved. I ran into the house and told Ember I had something important to do. I told her to lock the doors and I would be right back. Willow ran out after me and somehow managed to jump into the car right before I spun out of the driveway.
Then, I spun out of control…
“Tray, you need to bring it down a notch or two. Let’s go get the extra invitations that are still at Krista’s house and look at those. Then, we’ll go to the print shop where they were made and ask the printer to see the originals…” she told me the plan and then, continued to talk to me in a soothing voice.
Willow explained that Emily went home and found her invitation. She was kind enough to drive it to the airport to show it to her. It looked just like Willow’s handwriting on the envelope, but she didn’t address it. The best she could come up with was that an excellent forger wrote it and mailed it to them, for some unknown reason.
Willow said she didn’t call me from the airplane because she wanted to be with me when I saw it. I suppose she realized that I would go totally ballistic and she was right about that. I could feel the rage inside me. It felt like a monster rising from the pit of Hades. I was blindly furious.
I’m gonna get to the bottom of this and then, someone’s gonna pay…
We arrived at Elizabeth’s house and Krista handed over the extra, sealed invitations to Ember’s party. They all had the same instructions Emily’s invitation had on the back. I started shaking from pure fury, so I asked Willow to drive to the print shop where she and I had the invitations printed. I channeled an obliteration to the owner and he pulled up the original draft. The rules were listed precisely as Willow and I ha
d written them. The printer reminded me again that I personally inspected them and signed off that they were correct when we picked them up. He also refreshed my raging, fractured memory about the fact that we stuffed them and sealed them closed, in his shop, before we left. That was all true. So this situation is impossible and insane.
Somehow the invitations got switched. Who would’ve even been able to pull something like that off???
“The dark clique kids appear to have the money to do it, but it’s very unlikely that one pack would pull a gimonsterous stunt like that without telling all the others…” I stated and my mind raced around uselessly trying to find some kind of answer.
“The BLF have the money, know-how and ability to switch the invitations. It’s highly probable that they have a forger with the skill to mimic my handwriting since a forging skill is lucrative. We both know that’s an ability a gang would look for in a member because of the monetary rewards. After all, my sister-in-law was brought into my family with just her ‘signature artwork’ skill alone.
“So the BLF meet the criteria to pull the con job, but the question then becomes what would motivate them to run it at all? If the BLF managed to fish around and finally locate Ember, why would they bother with switching the wording on the invitations or sending her friends down here to spy on her? It stands to reason that they would just snatch her and take her back to Chicago…” Willow offered.
“None of this makes any sense…” I shouted in all out panic-mode.
My heart was beating so fast I thought my head was going to explode. I also felt like I was being consumed by some type of darkness. Willow must have sensed how close I was to losing it because she stopped talking.
“Pull over!” I finally demanded because I couldn’t seem to get my rage under control just sitting in the passenger seat.
She let me out of the car and I told her that I would meet her at home. I waited until Willow was out of sight before I took some action to regain command of my furious anger. I punched the ground repeatedly until I was kneeling inside a crater worthy of twenty sticks of erupted dynamite. I desperately wanted to continue releasing my frustrations but then, I remembered I had left my little girl home alone. I quickly called Willow and she assured me everything was fine. Ember already has dinner prepared.
I ran directly home and stayed on the phone with Willow until I arrived. I didn’t bother to look at my watch, so I had no clue how long I had been running. I knew for a fact that I was thirteen miles from home when Willow dropped me off. The darkness still lingered even after pounding the earth and running for miles. I somehow managed to keep a gypsy neutral facial expression in front of them.
Willow carried the conversation through dinner. She was the one who finally talked me down from that vengeful ledge. By the time Ember finally went to bed, I was almost back from the brink, but still in a state of panic.
I feel the shadows starting to gather…
I urgently wanted to plead with Ember to let me move us somewhere – anywhere, and forget about whatever it is that’s holding her here. Then, I remembered her thoughts – I knew I couldn’t take her away from this place.
I’ll just have to figure out some way to keep her safe. I fully intend to use whatever means are necessary…
Ember Rising Light (Book One) Page 91
