Marked

by Penelope Scott

  In the next booth over, Echo could hear Irvine and Maddox going at it again. "We can't go find another motel!" Maddox was saying, "We have almost no money left and none of us has earned anything in a while. We'll just have to put up with the van again."

  "But it's getting colder at night and we can't keep the van running because it burns up too much gas! Fuel prices have skyrocketed since the war started…"

  "Yeah? Well motel rooms are expensive too."

  "If it's only twenty bucks for a night, and its forty to fill up the tank…"

  "Arg!" Lys groaned, "I can't take it anymore. All this arguing is getting to me. It ruins the atmosphere, don't you think?"

  "Yeah," Echo agree sadly, "First Shy and Bold, and now Irvine and Maddox are screaming at each other too."

  "C'mon, let's get out of here before it infects us too."

  Echo nodded solemnly and followed Lys out the front door to the parking lot. They sat down on the curb behind the van and looked out over the dusty highway. There was a soft breeze out and Echo shivered a bit and crossed her arms over her chest, ignoring the slight pain in her arms when she moved them.

  "So what do you think?" Lys asked after a moment of silence.

  "Huh? About what?" Echo replied, confused.

  Lys didn't answer for a moment and then laughed, "I don't know. About the twins, about what we'll find in Washington, about everything that's happened so far."

  "I don't know what to think right now. It's all like a bad dream. Sometimes it's like none of it is real. Like I'll wake up and my family will still be alive, and the Hunters won't exist."

  "Yeah…" Lys agreed. "Wouldn't that be nice? Maybe then I'd get to see Loch again."

  "Well, you never know." Echo pointed out, "What Athena said…"

  "Yeah, but I'm starting to see Ro's point. I don't want to get my hopes up if I'm not going to find him."

  "Well, at the very least, you may be able to find out what happened to him."

  "Hm," Lys said nothing, he just leaned back on his palms and stared up at the moon. "Shy and Bold don't know what they've got. It makes me angry that they're arguing over something that's probably really stupid."

  "Oh yeah," Echo bit her lip. "It is stupid,"

  "Huh?" Lys blinked at her. "Echo, do you know something about this that I don't?"

  Echo blushed and nodded. She looked away and chewed on her lip, waiting for Lys to pester her about telling him. Sure enough, he sat up again and poked her shoulder. "Well? Spit it out, Echo? What's their problem?"

  "Well, as far as I can tell, Bold is 'blocking' Shy out of his mind, or something."

  "Yeah…I gathered that too. But why?"

  "Because of me," Echo sighed.

  "Huh?"

  "Bold is blocking Shy because he doesn't want her to know…to know that he has a crush on me."

  "Bold has a crush on you?" Lys spewed. "Well, that certainly does explain a few things." He chuckled, "But honestly Echo, can you really blame the kid?"

  Now it was Echo's turn to be shocked. "What? What do you mean by that?"

  "Well…" Lys fought to keep from blushing and turned to look at her. "You're sweet, fun, compassionate. You're good at sports, which is enough to catch the attention of any guy," He grinned when he saw that she was turning bright red, much redder than he was. He looked at her and was stunned at how the moonlight seemed to make her face glow with some internal light. "Not to mention beautiful…" He said, almost to himself.

  Echo's face snapped over to stare at him, but she couldn't hold his gaze for long before she looked down at her feet. "C'mon Lys, knock it off. You're making me blush."

  Lys laughed; her shyness was somehow very endearing. "I only speak the truth." He inched a bit closer to her and slipped his arm around her. "In fact, I don't think Bold is the only one with a crush…"

  Echo's face was on fire, and she tipped her head to the side just enough to see Lys' expression. He wasn't grinning anymore. He looked serious and somehow Echo just couldn't take this as one of his jokes. She didn't want to take it as a joke. Was Lys actually admitting to liking her? She knew in her head that it was childish to feel so giddy at the thought, and her mind was telling her that it was stupid to get involved with anyone when there were so many more important matters to think about. But her heart didn't care either way. The only thing she could focus on was how close Lys' face was to hers. At that moment the only thing she wanted was for their lips to meet.

  Suddenly, Lys granted her wish and closed the last remaining bit of space between them and caught her lips with his. Echo's breath caught in her throat as Lys circled his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. His moist lips pulled at her mouth and soon his tongue was prodding at her lips, begging to be let in.

  A little shyly, Echo opened her mouth and let Lys' tongue slide across her bottom lip, circling the entrance. She barely stopped herself from moaning in pleasure. Why hadn't she gotten into this kissing thing earlier? Lys pushed his tongue inside her mouth and this time she really did moan, albeit softly, and lifted her tongue to touch his. She could feel Lys smile against her lips and he plunged further into her mouth, relishing in her taste.

  His sudden move threw Echo off balance and her hands shot up to circle around Lys' back. However, as soon as she touched him he flinched and jerked back just a bit. "Oh God, I'm so sorry!" Echo gasped, letting go of his burnt back. Inwardly she was cursing herself. 'Stupid, stupid idiot!' What a way to ruin the moment. "Are you okay?"

  Lys chuckled and nodded, "I'm fine."

  "Are you sure," Echo frowned. "I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to…"

  "Echo, I mean it. I'm fine." He kissed her nose softly and pulled her against him. "You're so cute when you worry about me." With a roll of her eyes, Echo let her head rest against the inside of his shoulder. "So did you like it?" Lys asked her.

  "Yeah," Echo replied dreamily, knowing that he was referring to the kiss. He laughed again and squeezed her waist where he was holding her. He was being very careful not to touch her burnt arms, she noticed, and she felt guilty for forgetting about his injuries.

  "Well, what do we have here?" A coy voice asked suddenly. The two teens guiltily jumped apart and looked back to see Ro standing over the, grinning madly.

  "Oh uh…nothing Ro. Just getting some air." Echo said quickly, hoping that Ro could see her blushing in the dark.

  "Don't you lie to me," Ro chuckled, "I saw you two getting cozy over here. Just be grateful that Irvine wasn't the one who caught you, or you'd never hear then end of it."

  Lys looked at Echo's startled face and started laughing. "Oh relax, it's just Ro. She won't tell anyone if we don't want her to, will ya Ro?"

  "Of course not." She said smoothly, looking directly at Lys. "If you guys want to keep your relationship a secret I'll play along."

  "We don't really have a relationship," Echo started, "I mean, we just now…well, we've never…"

  "Oh Echo," The older girl laughed. "You've never dated before, have you?"

  Echo blushed and shook her head.

  "Leave her alone, Ro." Lys said as he stood up. He reached down and helped Echo to her feet as well. "This isn't the time to be worrying about dating, ain't that right, Echo?" Even as he said this his hand slid around her waist yet again.

  "You guys are too cute for words," Ro chuckled. She turned around and headed back to the restaurant. "We're sleeping in the van again tonight, so I suggest you two behave yourselves." She called before she disappeared.

  Lys frowned at the blonde's retreating form, "Now, what did she mean by that?"

  Chapter Nineteen

  Washington

  "Wow!" Ro gasped dramatically as she stepped out of the van early the next morning. "Washington's a hole!" She swung her arms out across the city with a flourish. At some point while the rest of them were sleeping, Irvine and Maddox had gotten up and completed their long and extended drive to Washington, DC. "Take five steps away from the White House and you're practically
in a ghetto."

  "C'mon, it's not that bad." Lys defended. Since Washington was the capital of his home country, he felt a need to protect it from Ro's careless insults. Athena yawned from within the van and rubbed her big blue eyes as she slid out behind her sister. She stepped closer to the older girl and grabbed her hand anxiously. "This is it," She whispered. "This is where the boy is."

  "The boy from your dreams?" Shy asked.

  Athena nodded and looked around the city.

  "You think we'll be able to find him?" Echo wondered.

  "If he even exists." Maddox mumbled. "What do you say, Thena? Any clues?"

  Athena paused a moment, shut her eyes, and then finally nodded. "All I know is that he's underground," Athena confessed. "Whenever I see him he's always in this little room with all sorts of machines attached to him, and there are no windows. He says he's scared, he wants me to help him." She bit her lip a moment and glanced at the group, who were all waiting for her to give them more information. "He says we have to be careful of the President."

  "The President?" Lys frowned. "Why the hell would we have to watch out for him?"

  "Obviously he's going to be trouble, since he's in charge of the Hunters." Maddox scoffed, "Try to keep up, Lys."

  "That's not what I meant." Lys frowned, "I mean why would we have to watch out for him, specifically. Is this kid connected to him somehow?"

  Athena nodded, "I don't know how, but he is. I'm pretty sure he's being held at the White House."

  "Excellent! Now all we need to know is where, and how we're going to get in." Irvine groaned. "This would be so much easier if we had Remus to plan things." At the mention of their late companion, the group fell silent in an unofficial moment of silence.

  "We'll manage," Bold said gruffly, pulling out Remus' laptop from under a pile of duffel bags that held their meager belongings. He turned it on and accessed the Internet. "There should be some stuff online about the blueprints of the place. None of the secret passageways will be included, but it'll be a start. Maybe Athena can use her link with this kid to ask for directions."

  "Do you think you can do that, Thena?" Ro asked softly. The girl nodded stiffly and broke away from Ro to look over Bold's shoulder. "I've never tried to contact him, but I think I can do it."

  "This is so exciting!" Lys grinned stupidly, "It's like we're in a James Bond movie!"

  "Lys! Pay attention! We're trying to make a plan here!" Echo scolded.

  "Right, sorry," He smiled again and let his fingers tangle with her own. Echo could barely hold back a blush when his action made her remember the previous night. It seemed too far away now, like that moment belonged in a different world altogether and completely void of the nightmares she had to deal with now.

  "I heard on the news this morning," Maddox told them, "That there's been four more reported cases of that virus since yesterday. We need to move fast before it really starts to spread."

  "Right, so by tomorrow we need to have found this kid and gotten him safely out of wherever he is." Irvine concluded.

  "Sounds like a lot of work," Shy frowned. "Do you think we can pull it off?"

  "Of course we can," Bold said softly, "I've already got a plan." The group huddled together, leaning over Bold and the computer as the young teen explained his plan.

  The next evening, five of the remaining nine Chosen gathered outside the White House, posing as a group of tourists waiting to take the last tour of the famous house for the day. Athena held her sister's hand tightly, her palms sweating even though they had yet to get inside the building. She could feel the boy's pull in her mind as she danced from foot to foot. She was acting as their guide, and Ro had insisted to come along, refusing to let her sister go alone.

  Maddox, as the leader, went as well, and Shy and Irvine finished the group. Lys and Echo both had cited their skills and tried to go along, but Maddox had fiercely denied them both the privilege because they were still injured from the rain. "And besides, someone's got to take care of Andrew." Maddox declared, shoving the baby into Echo's arms. Echo promptly shouted in pain and nearly dropped the infant on the ground. Thankfully, Lys was quick enough to grab him before he could hit the floor.

  "Sorry, kid," Maddox said sheepishly, "Forgot about your arms."

  "It's alright…" Echo started to say, but Maddox was already yelling at the others to get moving, or they would be late.

  "So why is Shy going, again?" Lys wondered, scratching his head. He could figure out why Ro and Athena were there. And Maddox and Irvine had to take care of them in case there was trouble, but Shy still had him a little confused.

  "Shy and I have a link," Bold explained a little impatiently. He'd already gone over this several times, but Lys either had been asleep or hadn't been listening every time. "Through our link I can track where they are in the White house and pretty much sense if they're in any danger. Understand?"

  "I think I get the basics," Lys shrugged, ignoring Bold's cold stare. Echo shifted uncomfortably on the floor of the van and looked back and forth between the two boys. Lys looked pretty much indifferent to what was going on, although Echo could tell he was worried about the others, and even more worried about what they would find underneath the White House.

  Bold, on the other hand, was entirely distracted by Lys' presence. He glared at him for a while before finally turning back to the laptop. The whole love triangle was there, and Echo found herself getting a headache just thinking about all the drama that was to come.

  The tour walked slowly through the halls of the White House, pausing every few minutes to stare at paintings on the walls or to look at doors that led to important places. Ro rolled her eyes and wondered why anyone would ever want to go on this tour. Or any tour. Boring. She resisted the urge to yawn and looked down at her sister. "Tell me we can ditch these guys soon?" She begged.

  Athena nodded slowly, "I think…I think we need to break away from them just around the corner. They'll go left, we need to go right."

  "Great," Irvine grumbled, "So how do we get away from the bodybuilders?"

  "They don't guard every hallway," Shy countered, "We'll just slip away when they're not looking."

  "And how do we do that?" Irvine sneered.

  Maddox spoke up, "Irvine, you harass the guards while the rest of us sneak away."

  "Why me?"

  "Because you're the annoying one! And we can't spare anyone else."

  " But…but what if you get into trouble, or run into Hunters?"

  "I can handle that." Maddox growled. "You catch up if you think you can. Otherwise go back with the tour."

  "It's alright, Irvine," Athena whispered. "The boy says there aren't a lot of guards around his room because no one's supposed to know about him. We should be able to get by. He knows all the secrets of this place, even if the President doesn't."

  Irvine grumbled but eventually agreed and turned from the group as they turned the hallway. Athena pointed out the way they needed to take and Irvine spotted the guard that would give them the most trouble. He sauntered up to him and grinned irritatingly at him. "Hey, you secret service guys are really buff, eh? Do they make you practice that face in SS school, or were you born ugly?" Irvine laughed loudly, drawing the attention of anyone else who might see the others slipping away. "I'm just kidding man," He punched him lightly in the shoulder.

  "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to step back." The man grabbed Irvine's wrist and tried to push him back, but Irvine broke away. "Hey, relax guy, I was only having a little fun. These tours are so boring. Say, what's back there anyway?"

  Ro resisted the urge to giggle as she crept behind the others down the hall. Once they were out of sight they broke into a jog, but for a while they could still hear Irvine's obnoxious laughter. Athena led they way, twisting through hallways and taking detours where there were guards. Eventually they found a service stairwell that led down to the basement.

  "We have to start being careful now," Athena whispered, "We'll be in a lot of troub
le if they catch us down here."

  "What kind of trouble?" Shy gulped.

  All Athena said was, "The guys down here carry guns."

  "You know, before all this stuff started happening, I'd never even seen a gun." Ro mumbled. She crouched at the back of the group and watched as Athena pointed towards a dead end. "There's a secret elevator there." Athena whispered. "The boy knows how to use it but once it starts the people upstairs will know."

  "What? Then what do we do?" Maddox hissed.

  "It's the only way down, as far as he knows." Athena shrugged, "We have to use it."

  "But Thena…" Ro gasped, "They'll be on us within minutes."

  "Then we'll have to be fast."

  "But…"

  "The boy says to trust him."

  "I don't like the smell of this," Maddox grumbled, "Sounds like a trap to me."

  Athena was no longer listening. When the camera in the corner turned the other way, she dashed underneath it and pressed her two small fingers into the whorls designed across the hall. There was a grinding sound and a small crack appeared in the wall, and the doors slid open. "Athena!" Ro hissed, "What do you think you're doing?"

  "C'mon," Athena replied, "The doors won't stay open forever."

  Ro groaned loudly and waited for the camera to turn away, and then dashed after her sister. The others were close behind and The elevator, void of any buttons whatsoever, closed and started moving down. "We're getting close." Athena mumbled, "So close…" She hopped from foot to foot anxiously, wringing her hands together.

  "It's pure luck that we haven't seen any Hunters or guards yet." Maddox was saying. "But that luck won't last forever. We should be prepared –" He cut off suddenly when the elevator dinged and the doors slid open again. There was a gasp as the entire group sucked in their breath. On the other side of the door were two guards standing next to the elevator entrance. They jerked when the doors slid open and spun around, drawing their weapons. "Shit," Maddox cursed before the sound of gunshots exploded in their ears.

  So…awkward…Echo pulled on the end of her shirt nervously and stared determinedly down at her toes. The tension in the air was so thick you could cut it with a knife. Lys was pretending to be oblivious as he played with Andrew, but on the rare occasions that Bold actually looked away from the older boy, he was staring at Echo or glancing at the computer screen. To Echo it seemed like he was trying to take Remus' place as the moody genius, and she shuddered at the thought. What happened to the quiet, shy Bold she had met just a few months ago?