I stumbled backward. “What, what are you doing here?”
“I came here for you of course,” he said. “Isn’t it obvious?”
It had only been a day since I’d last seen him, but Jax looked completely different than I remembered; kind of scary, in a sexy-crazy sort of way, almost like an eccentric, pimped-out rock star or something. And even though I had seen Jax’s violet eyes the day before when Rayne chased him down like a thief at Santa Monica Pier, they seemed different too—more vivid. It probably had something to do with all the ridiculous eyeliner he was wearing.
I looked him over. “What happened to your…” I paused trying to think where to start; the spiky white hair, or the red alligator combat boots. “to your…everything?” I finally said, twirling my finger around the front of him.
Jax shrugged. “This is what I always wear; everyone knows that. Haven’t you seen me in the papers recently? Or the Modern People channel?”
I shook my head.
“Sadie…come on… I was on the cover of Vigor just last month. Didn’t you see it?”
“Vigor?” I repeated.
Jax looked at me like I was completely clueless. “You know, the second highest selling magazine in Banya…”
“Sorry,” I said. “I must have missed that one.”
Jax folded his arms to his chest and eyed me. “Oh that’s right, you were a little busy…off playing high school Earth-girl, if I remember correctly.”
“Jax, how did you even know I was here?” I asked, successfully changing the subject. I looked down at the cell phone in my hand and had an eerie flashback. “Wait, were you tracking my phone?”
Jax answered casually. “Well, I tried that as soon as you first called me of course, but the phone you’re using is untraceable. Smart for you, but not nearly as fun for me.”
I looked at him in disbelief. “Right, of course you did. What was I thinking?”
“No, actually,” Jax continued, “when I called my father earlier he mentioned the location where he intercepted Rayne’s arrest, so it wasn’t exactly hard to figure out where you’d be.”
“But wasn’t that only, like, forty minutes ago, and the drive here from the city is—”
Jax smirked. “My car is fast. And I don’t feel the need to obey traffic laws, remember?”
My mind flashed back to the last time I rode in a convertible with Jax as he tore down Coast Highway like his wheels were on fire.
“But seriously, Sadie,” Jax went on. “I’m getting the impression that you need to keep a low profile, and this isn’t exactly the best location for that anymore. My father can be a curious man; he’s bound to make his way back over here to look for you. A girl like you should know these things.”
“A girl like me?” I repeated.
“Well, I do have a theory about you,” Jax said. “But it can wait. Right now you should be thinking about grabbing your things so we can get on the road.”
I looked Jax square in the face. “You’re forgetting something,” I said, trying to play his little game. “I never said I was coming with you.”
Jax shrugged. “Well, if you have other plans…don’t let me keep you. I’ll just give you a call when I’ve heard from the Ambassador. Sound good?” And then he started to walk away.
I pursed my lips. I hated that it was so easy for him to call my bluff. I knew Jax was right. It wasn’t a good idea for me to stay here anymore, and even if I did take Rayne’s truck into the city by myself, I didn’t have a clue where to go from there.
“Jax, wait,” I called after him dryly. “I’ll get my things.”
Jax waited out in the front yard while I cracked open the front door to Andella’s cottage.
“Hello?” I called out quietly, not wanting to give the old woman a heart attack in case she couldn’t remember who I was. There was no answer in return, so I hurried back into the guest bedroom to gather my belongings. Not that I really had much to gather; I only had one pair of clothes, aside from the few that Binnie had lent to me. The only other item I had to worry about was Jane Carpenter’s journal, which I wasn’t about to leave behind now that I had it in my possession.
I leaned over to pick up my shirt and gasped in alarm when I saw my sock sitting beneath it. I had been so overwhelmed by Rayne’s arrest that I had forgotten the Water Briolette there all day long. I grabbed the sock and emptied the contents into my palm, taking in a happy breath when the stone slid safely into my hand. But as I turned to stand, I flinched back with a start and dropped the Briolette when I realized Rayne’s grandmother was standing in the doorway, staring at me.
The crystal rolled onto the floor, landing right at Andella’s feet. I watched in concern as she bent down with wobbly knees and picked it up. She stared at it for a moment, and then her eyes went blank like she was seeing something in the back of her mind.
She held up the Briolette and shuffled toward me, almost chanting as she said, “The mark with no end holds the key to the source. The Aurora will harmonize the spheres. The path to the light is the mark with no end. Regeneration will begin.”
I stared at Rayne’s grandmother, dumbfounded. The woman was completely out of her mind. She held the crystal out as if she wanted me to take it from her, so I accepted it quickly and dropped down to the floor, fumbling for my things.
With my arms struggling to hold the mound of clothes, I reached for the brown leather journal and hurried to my feet. But by the time I was upright again, Andella was smiling at me like nothing had happened.
“Are you going on a trip, dear?” she asked.
I had to pause for a second to recover my composure. “Um, yes,” I managed to say. “I have to go, but thanks for letting me stay with you.”
I started past her to the door, but Andella stopped me. “Wait,” she said. “You can’t go like that, child. You’ll lose something.” She hobbled quickly over to the antique armoire in the corner of the room and handed me a small travel bag. “This should work just fine,” she said.
“Are you sure,” I asked. “I might not be able to return it anytime soon.”
Andella patted my arm. “Oh, I won’t be needing it. Keep it as long as you’d like.”
I tried to smile. “Uh, okay. Thank you.” I accepted the bag and shoved my stuff inside. “Well, I have to get going, but thanks for your help.”
Andella smiled and ushered me down the hallway to the front door. “Have a nice trip, dear. Travel safe.”
I had no idea what just happened. I hurried out the door in a daze.
Jax gave me a funny look as I met him in the front yard. “Everything okay?” he asked, glancing over me. “You’re looking a little…discombobulated.”
I shook my head as I walked toward the driveway. “No, I’m fine. I just hope Rayne’s grandmother doesn’t accidentally burn down her house while everyone’s gone. She’s talking like a crazy person.”
Jax laughed. “Don’t you just love the elderly? I find them very entertaining.”
He threw his arm casually around my shoulder and pulled me forward across the yard. As I brushed his arm quickly away from my body, I glanced back one last time at Andella’s house before shaking the strange encounter with the old woman from my mind.
Of course I wasn’t the least bit surprised when I saw Jax’s car parked around the corner. It looked like the fastest car I’d ever seen in my life. It was so sleek and stealthy it was almost futuristic. And I wasn’t anywhere near surprised when I saw the vanity license plate that said UWANTME on the back bumper, either.
“So, where should we go?” I asked after I was in the passenger seat and had checked the security of my seatbelt for the third time.
Jax lifted his eyebrows. “Well, I’m sure you’re just dying to see my famous mansion estate on Academy Row, but that place is always crawling with photographers. And if I remember correctly…you’re supposed to be my little secret right now, am I right?”
I rolled my eyes. “Not exactly how I would put it, but yes,
something without any Jax Bennett fans would probably be best.”
“Well, I do have another place,” Jax said in a serious tone, “but it’s top-secret. If you ever mention it to anyone…I’ll probably have to kill you.”
I glanced over at him, not sure how to answer, but his stern expression quickly turned to a smirk.
I finally laughed when I realized he was joking and said, “Sounds perfect.”
Once we were safely on the road to Banya—if it was possible to describe Jax’s driving as safe—Jax turned to me with lifted brows and said, “So, are you ready to hear my theory about you?”
“I don’t know…are you sure you’re ready for that?” I joked. “What if you guess correctly and the game is over, then what will you do to entertain yourself?”
“Oh, I have plenty of other games up my sleeve,” he said. “This one is just the preliminary round.”
“Okay then, let’s hear it,” I said. I smirked and folded my arms to my chest, trying to play along, but was secretly scared out of my mind that Jax would see right through me, straight to the truth. “So, what’s this theory you have about me?”
“Well, let’s see…” Jax began, voice full of intrigue. “You’ve obviously been attending high school in California long enough to establish friends and an afterschool job; you even have a house, a mother, and a boyfriend that everyone seems to know almost as well as they know you.”
I tried to swallow discreetly, wearing the best poker face I could muster. “And your point is…?” I said, trying to sound aloof.
“The Ambassador is obviously one hundred percent aware of your interactions on Earth,” Jax went on, “including your run-ins with Ash Hastings. And you appear to be an incredibly valuable asset in his eyes. Yet, no one else has ever heard of you or this supposed mother of yours, not even my father. Of course, we’ve all heard of Rayne Stevens nowadays. He’s the Ambassador’s little pet project, but Sadie and Leena James are a complete mystery.”
I was sure my palms were beginning to sweat. He was totally going to figure it out. “I’m hearing a lot of words, Jax,” I said, “but none of it sounds like much of a theory to me.”
Jax looked at me with a sly smile. “You want to know my theory? I think…Sadie James is a totally-off-the-books, black-ops spy…” His eyes met mine with a penetrating stare, like he was challenging me to prove him wrong.
I couldn’t control it; I burst out into laughter. The idea that anyone would suspect me of being an undercover spy was completely ridiculous—and maybe a little flattering at the same time. “Oh, Jax, thank you,” I said with a chuckle. “I needed that. That was the funniest thing I’ve heard all day.”
Jax examined me from the corner of his eye as he drove. “Wow, you’re good,” he finally said. “Even now, the innocent little Earth-girl act is completely convincing.”
All I could do was shake my head and sigh with amusement, and maybe a little relief. Jax certainly had more information than I wanted him to know, but his theory about me couldn’t have been further from the truth.
After a few minutes of convincing Jax that I really didn’t have anyone in some little black book that I could contact to get a hold of the Ambassador for me, Jax made a few phone calls and found a Scout friend of his to do it for him. All Jax could really tell his friend was that it was urgent the Ambassador get in touch with Jax as soon as possible, but hopefully it would be enough to send my father the message that something was wrong and we needed him here right away.
With the way Jax loved to flaunt his engine’s powerful speed, we were reaching the edge of the city in no time. I tried to remind myself that Jax had no idea that this was my first time in Banya, so I pretended to look bored as I stared out the window, even though I was secretly hoping not to miss a single thing.
The deeper we drove into the heart of the city, the taller the buildings grew, and the more crowded with people the sidewalks became. There were food carts and street vendors and cars lined up and down the roads, business people in suits, taxis stopping for riders, shoppers coming out of stores with shopping bags, dogs on leashes, babies in strollers, joggers running in place at street lights to keep up their pulses. I’d never been anywhere bigger than Los Angeles, but it all seemed like typical big city stuff to me—buildings, cars, and crowds.
Something about it did feel different than I expected, though. I wasn’t sure I could pinpoint exactly what it was. Everything was just so…clean. Or maybe crisp was the word I was looking for. The purple sky was clear with a few rolling clouds, like there wasn’t a puff of pollution anywhere to be seen. The architecture of many of the buildings felt old, yet they looked like they’d only been built a few years ago. And everything just felt so chipper and lively, with trees and shimmery flowers everywhere, like I was driving down the carefully manicured Disney version of a city rather than a truly weathered, lived-in city street. It was refreshing and unnerving all at the same time.
Jax turned the car onto a main road, and I had to hold in a gasp when I read the street sign. We were on Fairbanks Avenue. The name sunk into my thoughts and wouldn’t let go. Fairbanks was my father’s last name, a direct descendant of the city founder William Fairbanks, just like I was supposed to be. Seeing the name on an official city street sign gave me the chills. These people weren’t just some made up bedtime story Rayne was telling me for some laughs—they were real. All of this was real.
A few blocks further up on Fairbanks Avenue, a wide, magnificent building came into view, causing me to peer out the window again. It wasn’t as tall as the skyscrapers, but it was just as impressive. It looked more regal and official than the others, with an endless cascade of stairs leading up to a long line of towering white pillars and rows and rows of lofty arched windows. A massive tower stood at the middle of everything with a huge, decorative clock in the center. A plaque hung below it with the title COURT OF AMBASSADORS, and an inscription along the bottom that read, “The noblest motive is the public good – Virgil.”
I was almost sure this was the building that Rayne had told me about before, where my father worked as the Ambassador, and I also remembered Jax teasing me earlier that day, saying his father could get me into the Court of Ambassadors to visit Rayne while under his custody. As the street light turned, and we drove away, I couldn’t help but stare back at the building with longing eyes, wondering if Rayne was stuck inside those very walls, waiting for me to find a way to win his freedom.
“You really care about him, don’t you,” Jax said.
I glanced back inside the car, distracted. “What was that?”
“Rayne,” Jax said. “You really care about him…” It was strange to hear Jax speak that way, like he was actually sensitive to someone else’s feelings.
“Yeah,” I nodded thoughtfully. “I do. I care about him a lot.”
“You know you have nothing to worry about, right? When the Ambassador returns, I’m sure he’ll take care of Rayne’s situation immediately.”
I think for the first time ever I smiled at Jax and actually meant it. “Thanks,” I said.
But then Jax grinned back at me like his old self as he said, “And in the meantime…I’d be happy to make sure you’re well taken care of…if you know what I mean.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s a nice offer, but I think I’m good.”
Jax shrugged. “I’m here if you change your mind.” Then he turned the car off the road next to the large park we’d been driving along and rolled into a secluded alleyway behind a row of small shops.
When we were completely hidden behind the row of buildings, Jax pulled the car up into the corner of a dead-end and stopped right over a large metal rectangle. I looked at him, confused, but before I could say a single word Jax reached under his seat, pulled out what looked like a remote control, and pressed the button.
The next thing I knew, the entire block of solid metal below us was moving downward, lowering us and the car completely underground into some kind of secret parking gara
ge. Suddenly, I wasn’t so sure that Jax was joking when he said he was taking me somewhere top-secret.
9. UNDERCOVER
Jax parked his sleek car in the corner of the underground structure and shut off the engine. Just a few feet away, I could see what looked like an elevator door along the wall.
“What is this place?” I asked.
Jax turned in his seat to face me. “I’m not joking about this, Sadie. I don’t bring people here. You have to swear on the Sacred Pool of Banya that you won’t ever tell a soul about this place. I’m only bringing you here because you need to keep a low profile.”
I swallowed. “I swear. I won’t tell anyone.”
Jax smiled and lifted his brow. “Follow me then.”
I slid out from the luxurious seat, shut the door behind me, and made my way over to the elevator where Jax was waiting.
Just before he pressed the button to open the door, Jax paused. “And when I say not a soul…that includes Rayne as well. Agreed?”
My shoulders tightened. What exactly was this place, and why was Jax so intent on hiding it? “Of course,” I said. “Agreed.”
“Good,” Jax said as he pressed the elevator button. “Because I have a reputation to uphold.”
I couldn’t help but eye Jax a little as we entered the elevator. Reputation? What did he mean by that?
We went up only a few floors before the elevator door slid open, leading us directly into a wide open, industrial-looking apartment with two-story ceilings, a sleek concrete floor and brick walls full of age and character. The room itself felt big and cold, but there were comfy, down-to-earth furnishings and a big fireplace on the far wall that pushed the cold out to the edges, filling the place with a lonely sort of warmth.
“So, this is it,” Jax said, tossing his keys on a small side table, “my secret lair.”
I was a little bit speechless as I wandered in. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, but for some reason, this wasn’t it. There were hardly any dividing walls in the entire space. I walked slowly past the entryway to the living area, separated only by a brick column, and found myself drawn to a painting that hung above the brick fireplace.
Ambrosia Shore (The Water Keepers, Book 3) Page 7
