by MJ Fletcher
Wait... an overcoat? I took a closer look and saw that his attention was focused on my house. I scanned the street more slowly and I spotted another man on the other side, his focus also on my house. Damn it! This can’t be happening again.
“Val, grab my phone and text Slade to get over here now.” I didn’t want to leave the window for fear they might make a move when I wasn’t watching.
“Sure, can’t live without him I guess.” Val laughed as she grabbed my phone. “That stinks you don’t have any bars, let me try mine. Nope, I guess a tower must be down.”
That or the First Kind finally caught on and started blocking regular cell phones when dealing with me. I cursed myself for wanting a day off from my crazy life, I should have known better. Now I had Val here and if they tried something, she could get hurt. Not to mention that I’d have a hell of a time explaining things to her.
A black BMW pulled onto the street and slowly approached the house, both trench-coat men moving along with it as it inched closer. I guess I was about to find out how Val would deal with my crazy world. I walked away from the window looking for my bag and realized I left it downstairs. Seriously, I need someone to smack me in the head.
“Val, stay up here no matter what you hear,” I said and rushed for the stairs.
“What? What are you talking about?” Val yelled after me as I took the stairs three at a time and spun past the front door and towards the kitchen where I had left my bag. I hoped I could reach it before they got in the house. I heard footsteps on the stairs and knew Val hadn’t listened to a word I said.
“Damn it, Val, can’t you listen to me for once,” I mumbled as I turned the corner into the kitchen and snatched my bag, rifling through it for my knob.
The buzz of the doorbell echoed down the hall. Well that’s a first; they’re being polite before attacking. I wrapped my hand around my knob and was about to activate it when Val’s voice nearly froze me.
“I’ll get the door.”
“Val, no!” I took off running, needing to reach her before she opened the door and unleashed hell on us. I turned the corner too late. Val’s hand was turning the knob and swinging the door open. My heart jumped into my throat and I skidded to a stop next to Val ready to protect her when we both were struck dumb by who was standing there.
“Hi, sweetie,” Mom said smiling at me.
Chapter 12
Status: The bitch is back.
“Mom?” I trembled as I stared at my mother standing in the doorway. The two men from the street stood at opposite ends of the porch like staunch guards. Mom was dressed professionally in a smart gray business suit, her silky blonde hair, I always loved touching, was pulled back tight. Her glasses were narrow and gave her face a cold, hard, remote appearance or maybe that was her true nature, I couldn’t tell anymore.
“Is that all you have to say to your mother?”
I was stunned silent. This was not what I was expecting. I knew she was working with the First Kind and they had been after me for some reason, but Mom showing up at my front door was beyond weird.
“What do you want?” I wished the voice was my own but in the absence of being able to talk, Val had stepped up to help out.
Mom turned to Val smiling and after a cursory glance over her said, “Valerie Hobson, you’ve grown up, my dear. How is your mother?”
Mom acted as if she had recently returned from some extended business trip instead of having deserted and betrayed Dad and me.
Val got right to the point, her voice cold unlike I’d ever heard it. “What the hell do you want?” She stepped closer to me, her hand reaching out and gripping mine tightly.
“You are the epitome of your mother, dear.” Mom smiled.
“Thanks for the compliment since my mom stuck around but you didn’t.” Val didn’t miss a beat and Mom seemed taken aback for a moment.
“I want to speak to my daughter and explain some things to her.” Mom kept her smile fixed on me, though her eyes narrowed.
I wanted to talk with her, needed to talk with her and find out what the hell was going on but for the life of me it felt as if my throat was clogged with sand, I couldn’t even make a croaking sound.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Val said firmly, her grip tightening around my hand.
“Of course not, dear, and that’s fine, I wouldn’t have it any other way.” Mom entered the house, walked to the living room, and took a seat.
Mom had a real good reason for not wanting Val to leave. As long as she was here, I couldn’t portal or use my powers around her. That’s why Mom had chosen this particular time to see me. I wasn’t around any Old Kind who could help me, and neither she nor I, could do anything around Val.
I followed Mom into the room. She sat in the chair and I sat across from her on the couch. Val sat right beside me, her hand never leaving mine.
“I know you’re upset with me, Chloe, but you have to understand that my leaving was best for everyone.”
Val snorted and rolled her eyes and all I could do was stare at my mother. I couldn’t believe this cold woman sitting across from me was the mother I remembered.
“Best for you maybe.” Val snorted.
Mom ignored her and continued. “Chloe, this had to happen. Sometimes the things we’ve become attached to no longer make sense and we need to discard them and start again. Your father had a choice,” —she shook her head— “he chose wrong. You must realize that by now.”
I remembered Dad telling me about Caleb Darker coming to him and trying to convince him to join the First Kind. Dad had refused. That was the night Mom disappeared, the night she must have made the choice to join the First Kind.
I finally found my voice but the words spilled out low and unsteady. “No, Dad didn’t make the wrong choice.”
“Oh, Chloe, you need to open your eyes as I did. Regardless of what you think and what has happened, I had our family’s best interests at heart. It was impossible for anyone to deny that change was imminent. And I had grown tired of how corrupt and foolish things had become with our kind.”
“Just because you disagreed with the changes doesn’t mean you run away and try to tear down everything you’ve known,” I said.
“Sometimes it’s necessary to destroy things so that you can start over.”
“Does that include destroying your family, Mom?”
“I’m doing this for my family, for my children.”
“You could have fooled me. It was Dad who held me all the nights I cried myself to sleep wanting to know where you were. It was Dad who was there for me whenever I was sick. It was Dad who taught me how to be strong. It was Dad who loved me enough to stick around.”
“It was a hard choice to make. I didn’t want to leave you.”
“What hard choice? Your family over a cause? Did Dad and I mean so little to you?”
“I love you both, but this is bigger than the three of us.”
“You’re right, Mom. It is bigger and you couldn’t be more wrong.”
“You sound like your father.” Mom rolled her eyes and leaned back in the chair.
“What about him?”
“Don’t start, Chloe, I didn’t come here to discuss your father.”
“You don’t want to discuss the man whose heart you broke? The man who still loves you? The man who never stopped searching for you? ” Where was the caring, loving mother I had known? The one who had laughed while twirling around in circles with me. The one who had loved me and Dad. This woman opposite me was not my mother; she was some stranger and I was starting not to like her.
She clenched her jaw for a moment, as if trying to refrain from snapping at me. Once her jaw relaxed she spoke. “Your father made his choice.”
“No, Mom, you made a choice. Dad never left; you did. He has been here the whole time trying to hold together what’s left of our family. He’s kept me sane, kept me from falling completely apart and all you can say is that he made a choice. You left, Mom, you made the choice not
him.”
Not a bit of what I said disturbed her. Not a single tear glistened in her eyes while I was ready to sprout like the Trevi Fountain. She simply replied, “It’s your turn to make a choice, Chloe.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Why do you think I’m here?” she asked as if she couldn’t believe that I didn’t know.
“I honestly have no idea.”
“I want you to come with me, Chloe.”
“What?”
“I’m here to take you home with me.”
Val squeezed my hand tighter.
“If you haven’t noticed, I’m already home.”
“Your home is with me, not here, and you know it. You belong with your mother.”
I had to laugh. “You’ve got to be kidding. Not only won’t I leave Dad; I won’t go anywhere, ever, with you.”
“Your father is almost never here, Chloe. He’s busy, off trying to save a crumbling Society. I want you with me. I can train you. We can be together again.”
“Why now?” I asked skeptically. It didn’t make sense. Why would she want me after all this time? What had changed? Don’t get me wrong; a small—very small—part of me wondered what it would be like to be with my mom again. But I wasn’t stupid enough to believe that her visit here was due to a mother/daughter moment. After all she had fought against me in the battle at the Infinity Library.
“You’re my daughter and you’re coming into your own. I want you with me. And of course you’ll join the First Kind just like I have and then you’ll see how I was right all along.”
I was regaining my strength and getting angry that this woman who supposedly loved me yet left me expected me to do the same thing to the people I loved that she had done. “What about my friends, Mom?”
I caught a quick glance at the way Val was watching us. She was completely lost, not understanding a thing that was being discussed and yet she was enthralled. I was going to have some heavy explaining to do.
Mom smiled at me as if the answer was simple. “They can join the First Kind as well.”
“Join who, Mom? Darker? Ms. True? Do you have any idea what they’ve put us through? Do you know that they abducted Dad and put him in chains, that they tried to kill me and my friends numerous times? These are the people you want me and my friends to join? Are you crazy?” I yelled the last three words at her.
“You’re on the wrong side, Chloe,” she said calmly.
How the hell could she stay calm? I was ready to start swinging.
“You should be beside me. We could do this together.”
“No, Mom. I won’t be joining you and do you know why?” I didn’t give her a chance to answer. “I hate being on the losing side.” That wiped her smile away fast enough.
She continued to remain calm. “We don’t intend to lose so this will end badly for you and your friends if you don’t stop opposing us. This is much bigger than you can imagine, young lady. We will not stop until we possess every artifact and wipe out what remains of the pathetic Old Kind.”
“That would include me. Because I am going to be standing right there stopping you, no matter what.” For a moment Mom’s eyes flickered and I thought I saw hesitation in them. Her hand clenched at her pants pocket and I wondered what she had concealed there.
She drew her mouth tight for a moment and then sighed, “Where is the missing Chronicle page? We know you have it.”
Finally, the real reason my mother came to see me. Not to recruit me or have a reunion, but to use me.
“You bitch!”
Wow, Val! I hadn’t expected that from her.
“You only came here to get something from Chloe, didn’t you?”
Mom’s eyes flared and her hand flew to her chest, her hand resting against her necklace. It was similar to the one Jess kept her skeleton key on. My one hand still gripped my doorknob and the hairs on my neck prickled as I called my powers to me.
“The Chronicle page?” Mom turned to me, her hand moving away from her key to her lap.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I gritted my teeth to prevent myself from telling her it would be a cold day in hell before I’d give it to her.
“You’re playing a very dangerous game, Chloe. If you think what has happened, to you and your friends, is bad so far, then you’re in for a shock.”
“Are you threatening me?”
Mom stood up ready to leave. “You have two weeks to get me the page or I will not be able to protect you any longer.”
“You call this protecting me? Nightshade almost died. The First Kind tried to kill me,” I screamed as I jumped to my feet trembling with fury.
“Two weeks and I wouldn’t recommend telling your father about this. You know how he worries.” She turned and walked quickly to the front door.
I raced after her. I reached the porch as she reached her car. “Two weeks, one month or even a year it doesn’t matter. I will never give you anything and if you try to come after me or my friends again you’ll regret it.”
Mom looked at me for a moment, smiled and then got in the car and drove off. I watched her car pull away, her guards were already gone. My body had gone from trembling to full blown shaking and I turned to see Jess standing at the bottom of the porch, her face white and her mouth agape. Val stood next to me looking back and forth between the both of us.
“Was that?” Jess’ voice trembled.
“Yeah, it was my mom.” I leaned on the railing, gripping it so tightly that my knuckles turned white.
“What the hell is going on?” Val demanded.
Chapter 13
Status: Val is not a happy camper.
“I can’t talk about this now.” I squeezed my eyes shut trying to block everything out. I didn’t want to think about my mother the traitor or the fact that I now had to explain everything to Jess and everyone else. And then there was Val, who probably had seen enough to get me kicked out of DS forever. I wanted everything to go away and the world to be quiet for a moment. I should know better than to think such a stupid thing by now.
“What the hell is going on?” Val repeated even more demandingly.
“It’s nothing but family stuff right, Cuz?” Jess jumped in with an excuse, a lame one, but it was better than nothing since Val was not permitted to know what really was going on.
“Don’t lie to me, Jess,” Val shot back. “I’m not an idiot. I let all the crazy stuff you guys do slide but this is beyond crazy. Your mom was threatening you, Chloe, and she was talking about,” —she waved her hands in the air— “I don’t know what the hell she was talking about, but something is going on and I want to know what it is right now.”
That was it in a nutshell. I had been keeping this from Val for months now, but it was getting more and more difficult. It was made worse by the fact that she had gotten friendly with our little group and now here she was right in the thick of the whole mess and I would have to lie to her yet again... or would I?
I was sick and tired of lying to my friends, so I decided to be honest. “Val, I can’t tell you.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not allowed.”
“Oh, I get it, just like Edgar can’t bring me to the dance right? I forgot you all go to your exclusive little school and I’m not really a member. I’ m someone who hangs around but I’m not actually part of the elite group... I’m an outsider.”
How did I argue with her when she was right? She would never truly be allowed to become part of our lives. She wasn’t one of us, she wasn’t an Old Kind. I hated all these rules and I hated that I had to follow them even more. All I wanted to do was tell her what was going on. But if I did, I not only risked being kicked out of DS but I risked putting a big bull’s eye on Val. If the First Kind even got an inkling that she was aware of our world, they would target her to get to me.
I turned to face her. “Val—”
“Don’t Val me, Chloe Masters. I’ve known you since we were five and I know you didn
’t always like hanging out with me, but I still thought we were friends. I defended you to your mom because we’re friends. All I want is the truth and you can’t even give me that? Do I even matter to you, to any of you?”
It was easy to see how upset she was, her hands shook and tears rimmed her eyes. And I felt terrible that I couldn’t tell her the whole truth. “You do matter.”
“If that’s true then prove it.” Val rushed off the porch passed Jess. I watched her go, feeling guilty as hell and wanting desperately to call out to her.
Jess turned to me. “You can’t tell her.” Jess’s warning was meant to help but all it did was sting even more. “I know and I hate it.”
“What’s going on with your mom?” Jess asked.
“She’s First Kind; she betrayed us.” The look of horror on her face was a lot like mine had been when I had seen my mom helping the people out to kill me. I turned and went into the house. Jess followed quickly behind me, closing the door.
“Are you sure?”
“She was at the battle at the library. She saved Ms. True from my attack. I was hoping I was wrong, that somehow it hadn’t been her. That it was an illusion or something. But then she shows up here suddenly being all motherly and wanting me to come with her because after all a daughter needs her mother.” I dropped down in the armchair in the living room and stared at the wall of family photos across from me. “Then she asks me to join the First Kind. Join her and fight against my dad, against family, against friends.”
Jess slid down on the couch, her face white and her mouth hanging open. “Oh my God.”
“That’s not all. She also demanded the Chronicle page. She believes I have it or can get it.”
“God, how does she even know we’re looking for it?” Jess bit her lip.
