by R. D. Brady
Mary Jane wiped her eyes. “I’ll take a little upset if it helps get Susie back.” She turned to Jen and Jake, taking a breath. “Sorry. I seem to burst into tears a lot lately.”
“It’s understandable,” Jen said.
Mary Jane waved them in. “Well, let’s get away from the door. Come on into the kitchen.”
Mary Jane headed down the hall. Jen and Jake followed, with Jimmy bringing up the rear.
The kitchen was comfortable: white cabinets, gray countertops, and an old wooden table that dominated half the room. Old hand-drawn pictures were in frames on the walls, along with family portraits—lots of smiling redheaded kids and adults. The refrigerator was covered with school announcements, awards, and more pictures. It was the kitchen of a family—a normal family, until a few days ago.
Mary Jane sat at the table. “Please take a seat. Can I get you anything to drink? Coffee? Tea?”
“No, we’re good,” Jen said, sitting across from Mary Jane. Jake sat next to her.
Mary Jane turned to her brother. “Can you go see where the kids are?”
“You don’t want me to stay?”
“It’s okay. I’ll yell if I need you.”
After giving his sister a concerned look and Jake and Jen a warning one, he grabbed his jacket from beside the back door and disappeared outside.
Mary Jane turned to Jake and Jen. “Sorry about that. He means well. He’s just being protective. And the Chandler Group’s been in the news a little bit lately.” She shrugged.
“We understand,” Jen said.
“As Jen explained on the phone, we’ve come across some information that might be connected to your daughter’s case.”
Mary Jane’s lips tightened and her fists clenched, but she didn’t say anything. Jake could tell it was taking a lot for her to keep it together, and he prayed they weren’t going to cause her unnecessary pain.
“Do you think you could run us through the details of the morning your daughter went missing?”
“She was taken,” Mary Jane said. “She didn’t go missing.” She grabbed a tissue from a box on the table and crumpled it in her hand. “It was just a normal Saturday.”
She proceeded to tell them about the abduction. Jen and Jake each asked questions, looking for more details. But Jake didn’t learn anything beyond what had been in the newspaper accounts and the police file. Even as tears swamped her eyes, Mary Jane told her tale in a straightforward manner, pushing through the pain. She was strong, even with everything swirling around her and inside her. She was answering their questions, all in the hopes that maybe Jen and Jake could help her find her little girl.
Why on earth did Noriko have a vision about this? Jake couldn’t see any connection. The fact that no one saw the kidnapper made it possible it was a Fallen, but Jake didn’t see how that got them anywhere.
But even if it wasn’t related, Jake realized he really didn’t want to let this woman down.
Finally Mary Jane had answered all their questions, and now she had one of her own. “How come the Chandler Group is interested in Susie?”
Jen exchanged a glance with Jake, who nodded at her before turning back to Mary Jane. “The Chandler Group has a lot of resources at its fingertips. Some of those resources are… unusual.”
“You mean the psychic stuff?”
Jen raised her eyebrows.
Mary Jane gave them a small smile even as she wiped away tears. “I think everything about your group has made it into the newspapers at some point.”
With a nod, Jen conceded the point. She opened the folder that she had carried in and pulled out a piece of paper. “Well, one of our people is psychic. And in her last vision, she saw a child.” Jen slid the image Noriko had drawn across the table.
Mary Jane gasped as she grabbed the picture, tears running down her face. “Susie.”
“You’re sure that’s Susie?” Jake asked.
Mary Jane didn’t take her gaze from the paper as she nodded. “What was the vision?”
“Our seer, she heard a child cry. Then lots of children crying. She focused on one cry and followed it. It brought her to a child sitting in a stroller.” Jake nodded to the paper. “This is the child she saw. The child said to help her. To find her. To find them.”
Mary Jane looked up, frowning. “Them? What does that mean?”
“We don’t know. We were hoping maybe something here might help us figure that out.”
“Was there anything else?”
Jake shook his head. “No, that was it. But it was enough to get us to come here. To see if we can help.”
“Do you think you can?”
“The Chandler Group has done some pretty amazing things. We’re hoping bringing Susie home could be one more,” Jake said
Jen’s head whipped toward the back door a second before it opened and two teenage boys walked in. They stopped, looking between Mary Jane and Jen and Jake. “Mom?” one of them asked.
She held out a hand, and the boys walked over. One took her hand, and the other stood on her other side, his hand on her shoulder. “These people are from the Chandler Group,” Mary Jane said. “These are my sons, Shaun and Joe.”
Jake nodded at them, but noticed that Jen kept her attention on the back door, where Jimmy appeared with a smaller version of Mary Jane walking in behind him. The girl’s eyes were wide and her gaze was locked on Jen. She started to shake.
Jen stood up slowly, and the girl backed toward the door.
Jen put up her hands. “It’s okay. It’s okay.”
The girl shook her head wildly, backing up quickly. “No. No. You—you took Susie.”
CHAPTER 20
The McAdams kitchen was silent for a split second before all hell broke loose. Jimmy grabbed Jake by the shoulders and tried to throw him up against the wall. Mary Jane stumbled back from the table with her sons with a cry.
Shit. Jake brought his arm up between Jimmy’s hands, which had a hold on Jake’s collar, and slammed his forearm onto the man’s arm at the elbow, breaking his hold but taking care not to hurt him. Stepping to the side, he slid his forearm up against the back of Jimmy’s elbow and then down, forcing the man to bend at the waist.
“Call the police!” Jimmy yelled.
One of the sons ran for the phone, but Jen yelled, “Enough!”
Everyone went still. “Enough,” Jen said, a little more quietly. “We were nowhere near here when Susie was taken. We can document that easily.”
She turned to Molly. “When you said I took Susie, you meant you felt a tingle over your skin that day. Is that right? And you felt that same tingle when you neared the house today, and when you saw me, right?”
Molly nodded. She gaze was still fixed on Jen, her terror obvious.
Oh, crap, Jake thought.
Jen looked at each person in the room. “Okay. Everyone needs to just calm down, and we are going to talk about this.”
Jake watched Mary Jane. All the color had drained from the woman’s face. This was not how he had wanted this visit to go.
He tapped Jimmy on the shoulder. “Okay, I’m going to let you up if you agree not to try anything,”
“Fine,” Jimmy growled.
Jake looked at Jen, who nodded. Jake released Jimmy. As Jimmy straightened, he shoved Jake. “Call the cops!”
One of the boys snatched the phone from the wall. Jen blurred across the room and grabbed the phone from the boy’s hand. He stumbled back, crashing into the sink behind him. “You—How—”
Jen held up her hands and looked at Molly. “Okay. This is going to be a little hard to explain. But the day of the abduction, you never saw the abductor because they moved too quickly.”
Molly spoke slowly. “I thought somehow I’d just missed them.”
“But you felt them,” Jake said.
Molly nodded.
Jake looked around the room. This family had already been through so much. His chest felt heavy just thinking about the conversation to come. He let out a
breath. “The world is a lot more complicated than you realize.”
CHAPTER 21
Mary Jane felt like she was in a dream—a really twisted dream. They had all moved into the living room. The couple from the Chandler Group explained that there were Fallen angels walking the earth, and that they had incredible abilities. Jen and Jake believed that one of the Fallen had grabbed Susie—and that Molly had sensed them because Molly had abilities too. Now all the members of the McAdams family looked like they were in shock.
Mary Jane felt like her whole life had just shifted into an alternate universe. Molly had abilities? She was an angel?
Mary Jane had been raised Catholic. She, the kids, and pretty much the entire extended family attended church every Sunday. But she struggled with the idea of angels among them—of angels being born and living as human. Her gaze drifted to her sensitive daughter. Could Molly be one of them?
“So she’s like a superhero?” Shaun asked.
“Sort of,” Jake said. “She has strength, enhanced healing, and speed.”
“How’d she get it?” Joe asked.
The two people from Chandler Group exchanged a glance, and Mary Jane tensed herself for their answer.
“She’s a nephilim,” Jen said. “The offspring of a Fallen and a mortal.”
All eyes turned to Mary Jane. She put up her hands. “While I admit I had a bit of a rebellious period when I was a teenager, I’m certainly not in Fallen angel territory.”
“But that means…” Shaun turned to a photo on the mantelpiece. A man holding up a giant fish.
“Yes,” Jake said quietly. “It must have been your husband. Did you ever see anything that hinted at abilities?”
Mary Jane fell back heavily against the couch. “No, I—”
She remembered one time back when they first started dating. They had run out of gas in Billy’s old Cutlass. The gas station was miles away. They had tickets for a concert, and Mary Jane knew they’d never make it in time. But Billy promised they would, and he took off running. He returned only a few minutes later with a full can of gas, saying he’d found a gas station nearby. But Mary Jane knew the closest station was miles away. She pushed it from her mind though, too wrapped up in Billy and the excitement of the concert.
And another thing: Billy never got sick or hurt. One time in the kitchen, she saw him slice his palm while making a sandwich. She insisted on treating the cut. But when she returned, there was no mark on his hand. He said he hadn’t cut it at all. But she’d seen the blood.
Now she looked around at her children and brother and nodded. “Your dad, I think he might have had abilities.”
“What?” Jimmy exclaimed.
“Why didn’t you say something?” Shaun asked.
Mary Jane shook her head. “I didn’t realize it until just now. I didn’t know people like this existed. I just thought…” She shook her head. She didn’t know what she had thought. She had just ignored the inconsistencies.
Joe gripped the arm of his chair. “But does that mean Grandma and Grandpa—”
“No, no,” Jake said. “Fallen angels are reincarnated into each lifetime. If your dad was a Fallen angel, his siblings, his parents, they probably aren’t.”
“But if he was a fallen angel, does that mean Dad was bad?” Molly asked, her voice shaking.
“No.” The word burst out of Mary Jane. “No. Your dad was a good man. The best man.” She looked to Jake, begging him to give her children something.
“Your mom’s right,” Jake said. “The Fallen—they’re like humans. Some are good. Some are bad. But they’re not born that way. Their life, and the people around them, determine who they become. And from what we’ve read on your dad, he was a good man.”
Shaun gave a nod, and Joe sank back into his chair. Molly, though, still looked like she was in shock. But at least two of the kids seemed to be okay.
Mary Jane looked at Jake. Thank you. He nodded back at her.
“What abilities will she get?” Shaun asked. He turned to Molly. “Do you have them already?”
“Um, I don’t think so.”
“Abilities develop slowly,” Jen said. “The first one to arrive is the sense. She’ll get strength, healing, and speed eventually.”
“Wow,” Joe said.
“But why did Molly get abilities? Why not us?” Shaun asked.
“It’s possible you will have abilities some day, but there’s no guarantee. Sometimes it only shows up in one offspring. Abilities show up at different times. Sometimes they emerge naturally, and other times they evolve because of some trauma.” Jen looked at Mary Jane. “Maybe it was your husband’s death that sparked it in Molly.”
Mary Jane’s mouth dropped open. Oh my God. “She—she was in the car.”
“What?” Jake asked.
“The accident that killed Billy. Molly was in the car.”
“I was thrown from the car,” Molly said quietly. “I woke up on the side of the road. I didn’t even have a scratch even though I went through a window.”
“We all thought it was a miracle,” Mary Jane said.
“And your husband? How was he killed?” Jen asked.
They were all quiet for a moment. Mary Jane knew she should speak. But Billy’s death—it was just so hard to think about.
Jimmy reached over and took her hand. “He was impaled by a metal fence post. It went right through the window.”
Jake and Jen exchanged a look.
They know something, Mary Jane thought. Part of her was tempted to ask, but the larger part of her wasn’t, not with the kids here.
“Does this have anything to do with Susie?” Jimmy asked, and guilt roared through Mary Jane. She had forgotten about Susie for the last few minutes. I’m sorry, baby.
“I don’t know,” Jake said, “but it adds a layer that we didn’t know before.”
“Is it possible Susie has abilities?” Molly asked.
“At her age, it’s unlikely. We’ve never heard of abilities manifesting so early. But I suppose anything’s possible,” Jen said.
“Are you saying they took her because of that?” Jimmy asked.
“No,” Jake said quickly. “But it might explain why and how she was able to reach out to our seer.”
“So one of these Fallen took my sister,” Shaun said.
“That’s what it looks like.”
“Okay. Now how do we get her back?” Mary Jane asked.
Only silence greeted her question. Finally Jen shook her head. “We don’t know. Not yet.”
Hopelessness poured down on Mary Jane again. It was all she could do not to close her eyes and sob. Susie.
CHAPTER 22
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND
Danny got Yoni to give him a ride back to the estate. He texted Henry as soon as they passed through the gates. Henry promised to meet him in his office, cutting his meeting short.
“You okay, Danny? You’ve been awfully quiet,” Yoni said as they drove along the long drive. Up ahead, the main house, with its dozens of rooms, came into view. Danny’s home with Henry was a hundred yards behind the main house, in a much smaller building than this sprawling monster. It had been a lifeline to Danny when he’d come here.
An image of his mother flickered through his mind, and he tried to hold on to it, but it slipped away. She had been reduced to a fuzzy feminine silhouette with dark hair. She died when he was only seven. But he remembered how she had made him feel: loved. All kids deserved that, even if only for a little while.
And now someone was rounding up really little kids. They must be so scared.
“Yeah. Just some stuff on my mind.”
Yoni pulled up in front of the marble stairs that led to the front door, and put the car into park. “You know if you need anything, me and Sasha are here too.”
And that was the difference between Danny’s life before he came to Chandler and after. Before, he’d had a biological father and brothers whose entire goal seemed to be to make him doubt his self-wo
rth. Here, he had no one who was related to him by blood, and yet they were all his family.
“I know. Thanks, Yoni.”
He let himself out of the car and ran up the steps. He said hello to a few people as he went up the three stories to Henry’s office. A group of people was just leaving it. Danny ignored them as he entered, then closed the door behind him.
Henry stood up from his giant desk and walked over to Danny. Henry’s eyes searched him looking for any injury, physical or otherwise. “What’s going on? Are you all right?”
“It’s not me. It’s Victoria.”
Henry went still. “What?”
Danny took a seat on the couch, and Henry did the same. Danny explained about his search results. Henry stayed silent throughout the entire recitation. Then he sat quietly thinking. And Danny appreciated that. Henry might not have shared Danny’s IQ, but he thought through every situation carefully before speaking.
“I agree it has to do with Victoria, but I also agree it’s a large burden to take on—rearing a bunch of children for the sake of information they might provide ten years in the future. Finding Victoria at such a young age is more burdensome than helpful.”
“Yes, but by the time she reached thirteen, you would have her on your side.”
“Perhaps. But I don’t think Victoria is that easily swayed, especially once her memories return.”
Danny agreed on that point. But he had hoped Henry might put a little more stock in that possibility. Because without that possibility, there was only one other reason Danny could think of for someone to grab Victoria at such a young age. “I was thinking that as well, which is why I don’t think that’s why they’re looking for her.”
“Then what do you think they’re after?”
Danny let out a breath, hating the words he was about to speak. “Her blood.”
CHAPTER 23
Her blood. Those two words coming out of Danny’s mouth automatically transported Henry back to Egypt, outside the necropolis in Saqqara. To the time when he thought Jake had been killed. He’d looked at the bullet hole in Jake’s forehead, and his whole world had stopped. But even then he had known he had a duty to get Laney out of there, to safety. So he had whisked her away, his heart broken at the thought that the man who was like a brother to him was gone forever.
