Choices (6 page)

Sixteen years later

“Brock!” Rachel called from the kitchen.  “Sweetheart, please answer the phone, it might be your dad.”

The insistent ringing stopped and she waited for the teenager to come in with a message.  Instead the lanky boy walked in holding the cell phone out to her. She eyed his mused hair, the same striking silver as his father’s.  Brock blew a lock out of his eyes. “It’s Uncle Cyn, he says it’s important.”

“Son, comb your hair; it’s almost time for you to leave for school.” Rachel waited for him to leave before bringing the phone to her ear.

“Good morning Cyn.” She heard Roderick’s closest friend clear his throat and her stomach clenched.  “What’s wrong?”

“Roderick’s been taken.”

The stilted words worked past the shock and she gasped. “What? When?”

“This morning when he left the hospital.  There was a call to the local authorities by a hysterical nurse who witnessed several men grabbing Roderick and forcing him into the back of a van.” His voice cracked. “Rachel I’m sorry, but from the details, we’re sure it was demons.”

All breath left her body and she collapsed onto a chair, her eyes jerking to the doorway hoping Brock did not overhear.  “Is he alive?” She whispered.

“I don’t know.”