Awakened (5 page)

Mia held her arm, which reminded me that she had been hurt. At the time it had bled
enough to seem life-threatening, and Kale hadn’t helped the situation by turning pale
and leaving at the first sight of Mia’s blood. But Jace had tended it, and Mia hadn’t
even needed stitches.

We continued up the stairs and walked through a sitting room with a massive TV. I
would have normally freaked out over the size, but I couldn’t bring myself to care.

I took Mia’s hand, and she stopped short and stared down at where I touched her. I
lightly rotated her arm and brought the opening to the bandage to the front, wincing
at Mia’s sharp intake of breath as I opened the bandage. The wound didn’t look as
angry as it had before Jace messed with it, and I was thankful for that.

“Do you have anything to take for the pain?” I asked, without looking up from the
bandage.

Mia nodded and said, “My mom has some ibuprofen that I can use.”

Her voice was small and weak, and when I finally looked up at her, I could see that
Kale’s plan for me to stay away wasn’t going to happen. She and I needed each other
right now. We were confused, and she was scared, and there was no reason to leave
her alone that way. I replaced the bandage and followed Mia once again to a room on
the third floor.

I lingered in the doorway to her bedroom. Would her parents care about me being in
their bombshell daughter’s bedroom?

“Come in,” she insisted.

I hesitantly entered. Mia made it seem like it was no big deal, but she also didn’t
seem like the type to follow rules they’d set for her.

I looked around, taking in the dark purple wall behind her bed. At the risk of sounding
like an idiot, I asked, “Are your parents going to care that I am in here?”

Mia laughed and plopped down on the bed. “No. Trust me, they won’t care. They weren’t
even home when I got here this morning. All that was there was a note saying that
they went out of town and would be back soon.”

She scooted further back on the bed, crossing her legs to sit cross-legged. I found
a chair in front of the French doors leading to a small Jack and Jill balcony. I sat
down, leaned back, and closed my eyes.

“Sorry that I didn’t call you sooner. I was stupid to listen to Kale. I called him
and told him that if he left us out of the equation of finding Ella, he was going
to regret it,” I said, my voice growing louder as I remembered the conversation Kale
and I had.

Mia let out a breath of air; it sounded as though she’d been holding it since forever.
“Wow. What’d he say?” Her eyes were wide.

“He said we could meet. I’m thinking you should come with me. With your parents being
gone and all, I don’t want you sitting here alone. Not after what we saw last night.”
I opened my eyes to see Mia’s eyes on me.

She nodded in agreement.

“What’s up with Brett? Have you heard from him lately?” I knew that Mia’s friend Brett
and his mother had left for the winter holiday, and since Brett was suspended from
school, they’d left early. He would be coming home in January, and he and I were to
look for apartments in Telvs after we’d enrolled in school.

Mia shrugged and shifted a pillow to her chest. She seemed different than the bombshell
role she’d played before all of this had broken loose. Now, she seemed innocent and
alone, and I hated to know that she was here in this big home alone while I at least
had family.

“I haven’t talked to him yet.” She hugged the pillow more tightly. “I’m sure his dad
will tell him about what happened. He hasn’t called me yet. Do you think we should
call him and tell him?” Uncertainty laced her voice.

Brett’s dad was the sheriff in Elmwood City. Sheriff Making, my dad, Brett’s dad,
and a bunch of deputies were in the Elmwood searching for Ella. I didn’t know what
we needed to do, but I knew that I didn’t want to risk bringing Brett into the fray,
just yet. He was Mia’s friend, but he was also the son of the sheriff in Elmwood City.

I sat up in the chair and swiveled it around to face her. “As of right now, it’s just
you, me, Kale, and Jace that know what happened.”

“And Ella,” she added, her words slicing my gut.

“And Ella. It’s just us right now, and let’s keep it that way, at least until we figure
out what’s what.” I didn’t want to have to lie to anyone else, but I also didn’t want
to tell the truth just yet.

I needed to get Jace and Kale together so Mia and I could learn about this Laurent
character and what he really wanted with Ella. If he hurt her, I would vow to end
his sorry existence, myself. Kale and Jace made it seem like Laurent was invincible
or immortal or something, but everyone had a weakness. We would just have to figure
out his.

Mia ran her hands through her hair and then through her ponytail before she asked,
“How are your parents taking this?” She dropped the pillow, and my eyes followed it
to the floor.

It sucked, thinking about what this was doing to my parents and how I was hurting
them. What if Ella never came back? Would I have to lie to them for the rest of my
life?

Could I even handle that?

“They aren’t doing so well, but I’m hoping that we get Ella back soon.” I pulled the
chair closer to her before I spoke again, as if the words I would say next were a
secret between only the two of us. “I can’t keep this from them forever. My dad is
in the freaking woods right now looking for her, and I know that it’s a waste of time,
but I can’t say a word. I can’t—I can’t keep…”

Mia ran her hand over my shoulders and whispered, “It will be okay. You are doing
the right thing, and besides, as soon as we feel like things are even close to getting
out of control, we can tell your parents everything. I will be there with you if it
comes to that, but for now, let’s figure out what Jace and Kale have planned, and
then we can add to it.” She gave my shoulder a light squeeze and smiled.

Things were already out of control, but her words made me feel a little better. The
fact that every deputy in Elmwood and Cedar was out looking for Ella’s body in the
woods still stressed me out. I could see in Mia’s eyes that the same guilt plagued
her, but her smile hid the majority of it.

She was right. At the moment, we needed to focus on what Jace and Kale had planned.
Hopefully, they had an ace up their sleeves, because I had nothing.

“You hungry?” Mia asked, interrupting the flow of thoughts in my head.

“What?” I asked.

“Your stomach just growled at me.” She headed toward the door. “Come on. I can make
us something to eat.”

I followed Mia out of her room and downstairs to the marble-floored kitchen and sat
at the bar as she raided her cabinets.

Two hours, two ibuprofen, a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and a few turkey and Swiss sandwiches
later, Mia snuggled beside me, asleep, as I absently stared at the seventy-two-inch
TV in her media room. The movie
50 First Dates
played, and even though Adam Sandler was my favorite actor, he still couldn’t hold
my attention.

Mia’s small, warm body trembled as she slept, and I put my arm around her and pulled
her close. I was pissed at myself for letting Ella down and not trusting her when
she needed me to, and I was pissed that Mia had been left here alone for so long,
obviously not getting any sleep last night, and who could blame her? I pulled the
cover from her feet and placed it over her, enjoying it as she scooted closer to me
and murmured something in a sleepy voice that sounded like “Thank you.” I glanced
at my phone just as it rang, alerting me of a text message.

Kale: Where are you?

Alex: Here with Mia.

Kale: Why is it so hard for you to follow simple directions?

Alex: Don’t start w/me. she was alone since last night! You and Jace just dumped her
here.

Kale: We couldn’t risk anyone seeing her with us.

Alex: W/e. I’m not leaving her.

Alex: Her parents are gone.

Kale: Fine meet me in two days in Moose Nose. I will send you the address once you
arrive.

Alex: That’s an hour and thirty minutes away!

Kale: So? Come or don’t. It’s up to you.

I threw the cell phone on the floor, accidently waking Mia from her nap.

“What happened?” She rubbed her eyes. She sat back and looked at me. “Sorry for falling
asleep on you,” she apologized.

Her round face took all the anger out of me, and I explained the texts that I’d received
from Kale as she slept.

“I’m going with you,” Mia said forcefully, as if she thought I planned to leave her
there alone. I had already told her that she was going with me. “I want an explanation
for
this
,” —she pointed at her arm— “and I want to know where Ella is.”

I agreed. I wanted answers, and I wanted them yesterday.

Mia sat up, pushed the cover off her legs, and stretched, taking care not to move
her wounded arm. She turned to the TV and smiled. “I like this movie.”

I looked at the screen and laughed as Adam Sandler unsuccessfully tried to remind
his love interest of the date they’d had in the beginning of the movie.

A scraping noise came from the balcony. The sound continued even as I got up and headed
toward Mia’s room, where the French doors were. The media room was just a large room
connected to Mia’s by a hallway and some steps. I looked back at Mia and pointed to
the door. “Did you hear that?”

Mia shook her head no.

I continued toward the steps leading directly into her room. Maybe she had a cat that
wanted to get back in. Max always scratched at my bedroom door like crazy when he
wanted to go outside or come back in. “Do you have any pets?”

“No.” Mia glanced at the door and then back to me.

I shook my head and continued into Mia’s room and through the French doors. The ice-cold
wind pierced my skin as I stood on the small balcony.

I felt rather than heard Mia come outside and stand beside me. I turned.

She wrapped her arms around herself. She kept coming outside without a coat, and it
had to be at most twenty-eight degrees outside. Even I couldn’t suppress the shiver
that wracked my frame, and I was wearing a long-sleeved black thermal with a T-shirt
over it.

I motioned for Mia to go back inside, but she ignored me and moved beside me.

“What is it?” She looked around the enormous backyard and frowned.

I followed her gaze to the path that led to the Elmwoods, but I only saw snow-dusted
acreage and the lake.

“Do you see it?” Mia pointed to the trail that led past the lake and into the Elmwood.

I squinted and still came up with nothing. “No, what is it?”

“The footprints right there, leading into the Elmwood.” She pointed again, her voice
gaining a trace of panic. “Alex why is there a trail of footsteps over there?”

I finally saw what she was pointing at. How could she even see them that far? I could
only see a few, and those few were closer to the house, which made me a bit nervous.
Where did the trail begin, if it came from the woods? I blew out a breath and massaged
my temples, fighting an impending headache.

Mia shivered, and I pulled her back into her room and told her to stay there as I
headed back out onto the balcony, but not before she huffed in annoyance. I wasn’t
sure who had left the footprints or if we should even worry about them or not.

Mia had said that the lake wasn’t a private one, but that didn’t explain the footprints
in the backyard. I leaned over the balcony and strained my eyes. It wasn’t easy to
see from three stories up, but the footprints ended at what seemed to be the back
doors to Mia’s house.

Problem was that I could only see one pair—which meant that the footprints led to
the house, without also heading away.

I turned to ask Mia if she had locked all of the doors, but she was gone.

I cursed under my breath and headed for the door. “Mia!”

She didn’t answer. I headed to the head of the stairs. The bathroom was empty.

I called Mia again, and the echo of her name bounced around me. She had to have heard
me, but she didn’t answer.

I hopped down the stairs two at a time. She wasn’t in the kitchen, either. The bread
and what was left of the Doritos still sat on the bar, and the doors that lead to
the patio were closed—locked, I found, upon further inspection.

Since I hadn’t been in any other part of her home, I wasn’t sure where to check next,
so I headed into the living area that also had a door leading to the patio in the
back.

The door was cracked when I entered the room. I dashed to it, yanked it open, and
ran outside.

Mia—wearing a coat, thank goodness—headed toward the Elmwood where the footprints
led. I growled to myself about how I was going to give her a piece of my mind, but
by the time I reached her, my anger had changed into relief when I saw that there
were three sets of footprints: one pair leading to the house, and two leading away.

“Mia!” I called, and she looked back to me. Her nose was already red, but at least
she had put on a coat this time. I pushed my worry and anger to the side. “What are
you doing out here, and why didn’t you wait for me?”

Mia inspected the area we were in before she looked up at me. “Well, while you were
busy being some macho man and demanding that I go back inside, I realized that the
footprints led to the back door.” She placed her hand on her hip and pointed to the
trail that ran into the woods. “I wasn’t crazy enough to actually go in there and
look for whoever made the trail by myself. So, you ready?”

“Excuse me?” There was no damn way I was going in those woods right now. “You want
us to go in
there
?” I shoved my hands in my pockets, and they burned from the cold and the friction
of the rough fabric of my jeans. It was freezing out, and snow was falling again.

I wasn’t scared to go in the woods; I just had better sense than to go tromping in
them, right now. My father and the deputies were in the woods searching for Ella,
and on top of that, I wasn’t sure who was still out there. I didn’t know what Mia
was thinking, but I wasn’t searching through the woods. If my father found me out
there, I would have some serious explaining to do, and I was worried about who had
left the tracks, because Mia clearly didn’t know who’d left them. “Look, Mia, I—”