The Complete Lost Children Series

by Krista Street

  There were no windows there either.

  I shook that thought off. If Father trusted Dr. Spacey, than I did too. I gave Flint what I hoped was a reassuring smile and continued on.

  Dr. Spacey stopped outside a room after we turned down another hallway. This one had double doors. “We’ll be doing your operation here, but first we’ll need imaging to locate where the tracking device is implanted.”

  “Okay.” Luke stuffed his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. “What do you need me to do?”

  “Just follow my instructions. We’ll get a series of x-rays. If that doesn’t reveal where it is, we may need a CT.”

  Luke just nodded. “Whatever you say.”

  “Diamond?” Dr. Spacey turned toward her. “Conroy told me you’d like to perform the operation?”

  Di stood up straighter, her expression eager. “Yes.”

  “In that case, Luke, Diamond and Conroy, follow me. The rest of you can wait at the end of that hallway.” Dr. Spacey waved back to where we’d come from. “You’ll find beverages and refreshments in that area. Please stay there until we return. It’s imperative that you don’t leave this wing.”

  He turned to leave, but Jacinda called out, “Wait! How long will this take?”

  Luke gave her a wolfish grin. “Worried again, beautiful?”

  She ignored him.

  “The imaging won’t take longer than twenty minutes, even if we need a CT,” Dr. Spacey replied. “However, it may take a while to locate the device when I review the results. Once we locate it, the operation could take as little as an hour to several hours. It depends on how deeply it’s implanted and where.”

  Jacinda frowned and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

  Luke pulled her to him.

  Jacinda’s eyes widened. Luke kissed her on the cheek before whispering something in her ear. She blushed.

  I watched the interaction with wide eyes. If there was one thing that was becoming obvious, it was that my sister was head over heels.

  “I’ll see you when I’m back.” Luke nodded to everyone after he let Jacinda go.

  Father, Di, Dr. Spacey and Luke disappeared through the double doors. I tried to catch a glimpse of what was inside, but the doors shut too quickly.

  For a minute, we all just stood there. Jasper inched forward and made a move to open a door, but Flint interjected. “We’re to wait in the room down the hall. Let’s go.”

  Jasper rolled his eyes. “You never were any fun.”

  Flint’s expression didn’t change, but the energy off him increased. In some ways, we were still the children we’d been ten years ago. The twins liked breaking the rules. Flint insisted on following them. I wondered if that would ever change.

  Probably not.

  “Come on, J.” Mica pulled Jasper.

  He hooked his arm around her shoulders, and they strolled back to where we’d come from. Amber, Edgar, Jacinda and Jet did the same. Only Susannah didn’t move. She stood rooted to the spot, staring at the room Luke had disappeared into.

  When I approached her, she didn’t move. It almost seemed as if she didn’t know I was there. Her bright blue eyes once again held that faraway look. I tentatively touched her forearm.

  When our skin made contact, her pupils dilated. She shrieked and jumped backward. With wide, frightened eyes, she met my gaze while wrapping her arms tightly around herself.

  I let go and slowly stepped back. “Flint? Can you get Edgar?”

  Before I finished my sentence, Flint raced off in a blur down the hallway. The others had already rounded the corner, their voices carrying faintly.

  That left me alone with the eagle. “Susannah? I’m not going to hurt you, and nobody’s going to hurt Luke.”

  She continued watching me, a distrustful gleam in her eyes. Her irises flashed yellow.

  “My name’s Lena, remember?” I lowered my voice. “We rescued you from O’Brien, and you’ve been living with us ever since. We’re just like you, remember?”

  Susannah moved so fast, I didn’t react in time. She had one of the double doors open, about to barrel through. I grabbed her arm.

  “Luke!” Her quiet voice turned into a murderous scream. “Luke!”

  I grabbed her with both hands and tried to pull her back. She was so strong! I put all of my body weight into it. She didn’t budge.

  Her free arm swung as she clawed me.

  A sting and flash of blood followed but I barely registered it as footsteps sounded behind me. Flint’s scent came next. Another scent carried in the air. Aftershave and a hint of musk.

  Edgar.

  “Suzie, love, what you on about?”

  Susannah didn’t seem to see him. She was still trying to run through the doors.

  Edgar grabbed her and pulled her back. He wrapped both arms around her, pinning her from behind.

  She clawed wildly but when Edgar yelled an expletive, she stopped, as if sensing who it was.

  “Luke’ll be o’right.” His words were soft and soothing as he continued to hold her. “He’ll be just fine.” He continued to say quiet, comforting words. At least a minute passed before he loosened his grip. “Come on now, love. Me finks you need a nice cuppa and a biscuit.”

  She stilled, but her eyes flashed yellow again, her breathing rapid.

  Edgar turned her to face him. “He’s fine, Suzie. He’s just fine. No one’s gonna ‘urt ‘im ‘ere. Now, come on, love.”

  Her frightened eyes darted to the double doors again. Once again, her head moved at unnatural speed.

  Edgar led her slowly away. Thankfully, she didn’t put up a fight. Flint and I stood where we were, letting Edgar put some distance between us. As much as I was trying to befriend Susannah, it didn’t seem she wanted anything to do with me.

  I surveyed my hand and winced. A trail of blood ran down my wrist.

  “She did that?” Flint’s deep voice seemed to echo in the hall.

  “I grabbed her. You can hardly blame her.”

  He sighed deeply. “She’s making things a lot harder. We can’t trust her. Ever.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  After a trip to the bathroom, my wound stopped bleeding. It wasn’t deep, but it still stung.

  “Come on.” Flint guided me away, his large arm settling around my shoulders.

  The gesture made the sleeves on his jacket fall below my hands. It was only then I realized I still wore his coat. It had probably saved me from a nastier gash. If I hadn’t been wearing it, Susannah would have probably clawed up my arm.

  “What a morning.” I sighed.

  His dark eyes glinted when he glanced down at me. “Let’s get something to eat.”

  My mouth watered. “Good idea.”

  THE DAY PASSED slowly. We all waited on the uncomfortable, vinyl chairs in the small, windowless waiting area. Without the sun, it could have been late afternoon or early evening for all I knew.

  “What time is it?” I asked Jacinda.

  Only Jacinda and Jet had the foresight to put on their watches before we left that morning. Normally, we all wore watches to hide our tattoos that Father tattooed on us almost eight months ago. None of us knew who Marcus had searching the country for us, and our tattoos were one way to identify us, if he even knew about the symbols.

  She glanced at her watch. “Eleven in the morning.”

  My eyes widened. “Eleven in the morning?”

  “We’ve only been waiting three hours?” Amber exclaimed.

  The food and beverages Dr. Spacey provided had disappeared the second we sat down. There were a few bottles of water left, but that was it. There weren’t any magazines, televisions or the usual distracting paraphernalia normally found in waiting areas. This wing obviously hadn’t been used in a long time.

  Another hour ticked by. I was lounging against the wall, one ankle crossed over the other, when distant voices sounded outside the room. Flint straightened. Everyone else perked up.

  Jacinda bolted out of her c
hair. “It’s Father.”

  Footsteps approached. A moment later, Dr. Spacey and Father appeared. Both wore scrubs. Blue surgical caps covered their heads. Luke was nowhere to be seen.

  “Where is he?” Jacinda practically screeched.

  “Recovering.” Father pulled his mask off. “Diamond’s still with him, monitoring his vitals and pain levels.”

  “So, he’s okay?” Jacinda wrung her hands.

  Dr. Spacey nodded. “He’ll be fine. He’ll have a small scar on his abdomen when he fully heals, but other than that, he should return to normal.”

  Mica’s curious brown eyes lit up. “Where was the tracking device?”

  “Beside his liver.” Father stuffed the scrub cap in his pocket. “It was encapsulated in scar tissue and beside an artery, so it took longer than we anticipated to remove, but Diamond did very well.”

  Jacinda’s energy grew stronger with each second. “When can I see him?”

  “You can all see him now, if you’d like.” Father turned. “Follow me.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Di stood beside Luke as he lay on a hospital bed. Monitoring equipment surrounded him. The soft beep beep of a machine filled the air. His heartbeat was slow and steady, while an IV dripped something into his vein.

  Luke smiled drunkenly when we approached. We all circled around the bed.

  “Hey, s’guys,” he slurred. When his eyes found Jacinda’s, he leered. “You’re sure looking beautiful today. Have I’s ever told you that?”

  Jacinda glanced worriedly at Di. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “It’s the anesthesia. It’ll wear off soon. Don’t worry.”

  A machine sounded, a loud hum, and the blood pressure cuff started to swell on Luke’s arm. Luke continued to say nonsensical things that half the time sounded more like gibberish than English.

  Jacinda took his hand.

  Luke lifted it to his mouth and kissed it. “I’d like to do a lot more than that to’ve you.”

  Jacinda’s eyes widened as she snatched her hand back.

  Jasper laughed and clapped his brother on the back. “What were you saying about wolf pups the other day, Jet?”

  Jacinda glanced sharply his way, but Mica laughed too.

  Di, on the other hand, told everyone if they didn’t have anything specific to say to Luke that we could all kindly return to the waiting area.

  I eyed the clock. “How much longer is this going to take?”

  “At least the rest of the afternoon.” Di didn’t look up from her clipboard while she studied Luke’s vitals and wrote things down. “If he’s able to walk, urinate and tolerate the pain by tonight, we can get back on the road.”

  “Where are we going from here?” Amber stood at the foot of the bed, eyeing all of the lines connected to Luke.

  Father cleared his throat. “We’ll discuss that later.”

  Dr. Spacey stood behind everyone, watching the interactions with a curious glint in his eye. A part of me wanted to ask him how much he knew about us. Considering he was one of Father’s outside contacts and had just assisted in an operation to remove a GPS tracking device from a large werewolf, I guessed he knew plenty.

  “Does anyone else have anything to say to Luke?” Di frowned heavily at Jet when the twin lifted a medication off a tray table to read its contents.

  Flint crossed his arms. “Where’s the tracking device?”

  Dr. Spacey retrieved it from a corner table. He held up a plastic tube. In it was a small, metallic circular device. It was still bloody and looked like a bullet but smoother.

  Flint’s gaze narrowed. “What are you going to do with it?”

  “Destroy it,” the doctor replied.

  Flint shook his head. “Don’t. I have an idea.” He nudged his sister. “Di? Can I speak with you and Conroy?”

  Dr. Spacey stepped forward. “I’ll take care of Luke.”

  Di, Father and Flint disappeared from the room. The rest of us shuffled around Luke, the twins and Mica joking, Jacinda scolding them, while Amber giggled through it all. Everyone in our original family played their roles so well. Di and Flint had always been the leaders in our group. I’d always been the one trying to include everyone. We all had our place.

  But you were never the violent one. You were never the one who so easily and willingly hurt others.

  I swallowed tightly and stuffed my hands in my pockets as images of how violently I’d hurt Marcus and his two men once again threatened to suffocate me.

  BY EIGHT O’CLOCK that night, the anesthetic had worn off and Luke was up and walking. They’d moved him to one of the patient rooms earlier that afternoon. Despite Luke not wanting to take pain meds, Di insisted, even though Luke growled every time she brought it up.

  “I don’t need medication. I’m fine!”

  “Take them.” Di held out the pills. “I’m not asking. We need you walking and moving comfortably. You’re not going to be able to do that unless you’re taking pain pills.”

  With a growl, he snatched the medications and downed them in one swallow. He refused the water glass she held up.

  “Happy?” he asked.

  “I suppose,” she replied coolly.

  At the moment, all of us crowded inside his room. It was still only our family and Dr. Spacey. Nobody else had visited the wing. The hallway outside was like a tomb. Sounds echoed down it, and the dim nighttime lighting only increased its eeriness.

  “So where do we go from here?” Mica stood beside Jasper, their fingers intertwined.

  “We’re staying here,” Flint said.

  “In this lab?” Jet asked incredulously.

  Di shook her head. “No, in San Francisco.”

  I put a hand on my hip. “But Marcus knows we’re here.”

  “That’s why we’re staying,” Flint replied. “We’re going to use the tracking device they took out of Luke to lure him to us.”

  Jasper’s eyebrows shot up. “And why would we want to do that?”

  “Yeah,” Jet added. “I thought we were trying to get away from him.”

  Di eyed Flint. “We want to learn more about the people working for Marcus and what they’re capable of. The best way to do that is to capture one, if not a few, of Marcus’ men.”

  Amber stepped closer to my side, her arms tightly crossed. “And do what with them?”

  Flint’s energy increased. “Get information.”

  I shuddered. “You mean interrogate them.”

  Di nodded. “Yes, we’ll question them.

  I shoved my hands in my pockets. “And to think we had ten of them in Arizona.”

  Di sighed heavily. “I know, I thought that too, but at that time, we weren’t prepared. Escaping seemed the safest option, but now, we have the upper hand. We can lure them to us. We’re more in control of the situation.”

  The room suddenly felt cold. I shivered. “And if they don’t talk?”

  “I’ll get them to talk.” Luke’s eyes glowed. Golden liquid swirled in their depths. “I’d love that opportunity.”

  WE LEFT THE medical unit just after ten that night. I asked why we couldn’t stay, since the building seemed so safe, but Dr. Spacey said that wasn’t an option. The wing Luke recovered in was to be used on Monday. I assumed from the clandestine way Dr. Spacey spoke that none of his associates knew he was helping Father. And from the way Father insisted we leave well before Monday morning, I guessed I was right.

  Father booked rooms at a local hotel. Since Marcus knew we were in San Francisco, he probably had men in the city. Therefore, we were to check-in in groups of two to three, in hopes of drawing less attention to ourselves. There were still a lot of unknowns, a realization that didn’t sit well with me.

  Father didn’t know how many contacts Marcus had in the area, or how deep those contacts went. If Marcus had friends in law enforcement, he’d possibly have access to security information. To try and avoid detection, we all put on hats and sunglasses. To wear sunglasses at nighttime was definite
ly unusual, but not so eccentric that people would stare. However, the hats and sunglasses helped us avoid facial recognition software programs. If Marcus had accessed security cameras in Chicago, it was possible he knew what we looked like. We knew for sure the police had a screen shot of Di from what the news showed. Who knew what else they had.

  The bottom line—avoiding detection was key.

  “Is this really necessary?” Mica slapped on a baseball cap and aviator sunglasses.

  “Hopefully not.” Di smoothed her cap over her head. “But we’re not taking any chances.”

  We took the elevator down to the lower parking level. Luke walked gingerly behind us, his demeanor grouchy. He kept grumbling about how hungry he was, but every time Di slowed and tried to give him a hand, he growled and brushed her off.

  Di said it would take four to six weeks for his incision to fully heal. That seemed like too long. We couldn’t hole up in a hotel for a month and hoped nobody found us. Luke was going to have to move quickly whether he liked it or not. Hopefully, his sutures wouldn’t burst.

  When we reached the parking garage, I automatically walked to the van we’d driven from the airport.

  Only, it wasn’t there.

  “Galena,” Father called. “Those vehicles have been disposed of.”

  I shook my head. “Right. Of course.”

  I once again wondered how many people around the country were on Father’s payroll. It was the same after Chicago. When we’d driven to the airport to fly back to Arizona, a man had appeared on the tarmac, as if coming from the shadows. Father had whispered to him before giving him the van’s keys.

  That was the last time anyone saw the van. The news clips I’d seen since then indicated the police had no leads, including never having found the escape vehicle. I wouldn’t be surprised if the van we’d driven was currently at the bottom of Lake Michigan.

  I returned to Father’s side. “Do you still have the money to pay your . . . uh . . . people?”

  His hazel eyes appeared tired. “For the time being, yes. My overseas accounts are still secure. If everything goes to plan, my U.S. accounts should be transferred to more secure banks by the end of the week.”