Secrets of the Guardian (Waldgrave Book 3) (14 page)

*****

Devin drove the rest of that night to get them into Kentucky, where they had a hard time the next morning finding a place that didn’t turn them away for wanting to pay cash. Lena wasn’t willing to use her cards anymore for any reason; Rollin had somehow found out where she was staying. She didn’t know why he was being so bold after so many months of silence, but she was willing to bet that he was taking advantage of the fact that the higher families had been thrown into chaos; they weren’t a united front anymore, and it would be easiest to break them apart now. If he was lucky, he might win or bully enough support to put a candidate on the Council. He might even put himself on the Council if he played the situation out right.

When they finally found a cheap, dirty motel that was willing to take them, Lena changed the password on her voicemail and on her email, and vowed to keep changing them every twelve hours. Howard hadn’t written anything since the day before, which left Lena a little surprised and worried. She curled up on the bed and tried to get some sleep while Devin ran out to buy more hair dye. Instead of sleeping, all her brain wanted to do was to consider options.

She was ready to abandon the trip to South Carolina; it was just too risky. Of course, it was risky to be out and away from Waldgrave right now, but Howard had specifically told her not to try to return. God knew how long it would take before things were safe again—so why shouldn’t she go to South Carolina if she was already in danger? She had been in danger before.

But that had been with Griffin.

Ben would have gone to South Carolina for the answers.

Her father would have bought the first ticket out of the country.

But what do I want to do?
 Lena pressed her hand to her head.

It was likely that someone was already following her. It was likely they would think to look in South Carolina, at the address Lena had given Howard; however, she had given him a false address, so that part didn’t matter. They would look for her in South Carolina, unless they were already figuring that she was too smart to go there, in which case they might be looking anywhere. She could plant a decoy—but the last time Griffin had done that, Rollin had squatted right at the entrance to Waldgrave to snare them upon return. Chances were that he knew she had business of some sort in South Carolina, and was going to be there.

But, he was going to be watching the wrong address. But did she dare go that close, and bring down all of this mess on innocent bystanders? It was too much to consider.

Devin eventually came back, and promptly fell asleep on the bed. After an hour had passed, and Lena still couldn’t sleep, she got up to change into pajamas and wash her face. As she started pulling things out of her bag, she heard an odd noise—like someone had stuffed maracas into her suitcase. She lifted a pile of clothes, and saw that Kelsey had given up her pills. They were all there—even the sleep aids.

Lena stared at them for a long time. She turned and looked at Devin, snoring blissfully on the bed. She wasn’t going to be of any use later when they drove unless she got some sleep now.

Just this one time, then.

She pulled out the orange bottle, took a pill, hid them back in her bag, and laid back down on the bed. It only took fifteen minutes to work.

It was dark again when she woke up. Devin had all the lights turned off, but the television turned on with subtitles. She watched him, illuminated in the bluish glow coming off the screen, until he looked over from the chair he was sitting on and smiled.

“Good nap?” He asked.

“Yeah.” She said, sitting up and rising from the bed. “Yeah, it was, actually.”

“I went out and got some food. It’s from the grocery store. I’ve been feeling a little more off than usual, I guess, and I didn’t want any more fast food.” He got up and brought some bags over to the bed. “But I’ll go get you some, if you want it…”

“No,” Lena said, pawing through the bags, “No, this is fine, Dev, thanks.”

He went to the wall and turned the lights on, causing Lena to squint. A headache instantly overtook her, but she vowed she wasn’t going to take any more pills. She looked back down into the paper grocery bags and fished out some crackers, canned tuna, and a can opener that Devin had bought, and started making herself dinner…or breakfast, or whatever meal of the day it was.

She looked over at the clock. It was just past midnight—she had been sleeping for ten hours, at least. God bless those pills.

Devin sat down on the bed next to her and they ate tuna and crackers while they watched reruns of shows made in the early nineties. Devin seemed to have seen all of them, but most of it was new to Lena. She had still been out adventuring with her father in those days.

“So.” Devin said after a while. “Do you want to do hair now, or in the morning?”

“Now, I guess.” Lena sighed. Did it really make a difference?

They went over to the sink area, and Lena found two boxes of dye. Both blond.

“Ah, Dev—are you serious?”

“Yes I am.” He said with a grin.

He did Lena’s hair first, and then she did his while she was waiting for hers to set. She guessed it probably wasn’t a good thing to try to dye one’s hair twice in the same forty-eight hour period, but she knew she wasn’t keeping the same look anymore. Not since she had been identified.

“Oh, Cher—I mean, Kelsey called.” Devin said as Lena emptied the reeking bottle of dye onto his head. There was obviously a lot of bleach in this dye—Lena was already feeling sick and dizzy from the smell.

“And you didn’t pick it up, 
right?
” She asked, with heavy emphasis on the last word.

Devin sighed and rolled his eyes. “Of course not. I figured you’d want to check it all sneaky somehow, because you seem to be into doing things sneaky lately.”

Lena smiled, then sighed. “Well, thanks for not picking up. I’m not sure how I’m going to check it yet, but thanks.”

Then went back to watch more old television episodes until it was time for Lena to shower. When she got out, her hair was so stiff and sticky she swore that she would find some high-quality conditioner the next day. But it was certainly blond; that, and it wasn’t too shockingly blond. As Lena looked over the light to gold tones in the mirror, she decided it actually looked pretty good.

“I told you so.” Devin said as he passed her to go into the shower.

Lena flipped the television to the news until Devin came back out of the shower, and checked her email again. There was still nothing. When Devin came back out, they packed up the car and Lena had him drive to a twenty-four hour grocery, where she attempted to take more money off of her cards and then called her voicemail from a store pay phone. As Devin had said she would be, Kelsey was fine. She was worried about Lena and Devin, but she was safe somewhere in Minnesota now, and she and Warren were headed for Canada in the next few days.

Lena hung up the phone and trotted back out to the car in the darkness. She hopped in and handed Devin one of her two envelopes of cash.   

“How much is in here?” He said, tentatively squeezing the envelope.

“Five hundred dollars. Don’t lose it, because we’re going to need it.” She said, putting on her seatbelt and settling in behind the wheel.

“Five hundred! What the hell do we need that much…geez, I mean, we still have like, over a thousand from the last withdrawal!” He said.

Lena turned the ignition, and gave him a long glance. “You never know. Now, I guess we have a decision to make here. North or south?”

Devin shrugged. Lena stared into the wheel. North or south? They had to move quickly, because someone—possibly the wrong person—could have access to when and where she was making withdrawals from her account and credit card. Howard had said to stay away from the itinerary, which people would naturally expect her to do. From their current position, north was away from South Carolina, the answers, and the itinerary.

“South it is, then.” She pulled out of the lot and found her way to Interstate 75, southbound.

They spent several of the next few weeks bunking around Tennessee and North Carolina, as Lena watched the death toll rise via Howard’s emails. Several families that had gone unknown to Lena in Europe and Asia had suffered heavy losses; one or two entire family lines had been wiped out, including the surviving Lintons and their close cousins, the Marcelluses. Jasper Barton had died of a heart attack that several people had deemed convenient and suspicious. Martin Colburn and Serafina Perry’s marriage had evidently resulted in one child thus far, a boy, who had been kidnapped in transit as they attempted to make it to Council that year. Sad though it was, he was only one on a list of seven children under the age of ten who had gone missing, presumably with the intent of blackmail, extortion, or ransom, since the start of the debacle.

When the money ran out, they moved; they never stayed in one place more than three days, and were constantly seeking new towns and cities after using the local ATMs. Every time someone looked at Lena or Devin for too long or in the wrong way, they dyed their hair and moved again. Lena had long ago ditched the old grey sedan and bought a blue two door economy vehicle they had come across; she’d had to pay the owner twice the asking value to make the transition go faster. She eventually received an email from Kelsey, who was extremely relieved they were alright; she had told Lena details about her life near a lake in Saskatchewan before being warned not to share any more that might reveal her location. Apparently she was doing well with her father, though she still missed Waldgrave dearly.

The scheduled Council date came and went; less than a
quarter of the usual Representatives showed up, and they were forced to bump it back to the following spring. Howard hoped things might have settled down by then, but Lena wasn’t as hopeful; there were no clean cut winners unless Griffin stepped back in and miraculously regained his standing. And he wasn’t going to do it.

She sent him an email around Council time, asking him if he was there. He had responded two weeks later that he hadn’t bothered, because “for reasons they both knew” he didn’t feel obliged anymore. December arrived, and Lena found that Devin liked to celebrate Christmas; having never taken more than a slight interest in any holiday because she had moved so much and through so many cultures, she found the experience quite nice. They bought a small plastic tree that they could travel with, tiny little ornaments, and Devin taught her how to make
s’mores using the heat from a motel coffee maker. There were even presents on Christmas morning.

It was January already; Lena had been away from Waldgrave for four months. Despite the fact that she had regained her capacity to travel whenever and wherever she wanted, she was beginning to get edgy about the whole ordeal. She was just floating in the ether of the world, staying out of the way while Howard tried to fix everything; it felt like she wasn’t making any progress. She wanted to go home and assist, but knew Howard wouldn’t allow it. His emails had slowed considerably, and one day, after a particularly prolonged silence, she knew she couldn’t go much longer without contact with her family.

So she settled for the next best thing.

One day in early January, just when the charms of Christmas and New Year’s had started to wear off, Lena suggested they try to hunt down her “family” in South Carolina. It was long passed the time anyone would have expected to find her there, she reasoned, and if they had managed to stay hidden this well for so long, they could probably do it again. Devin consented, and within the week they had arrived at a larger off shore island in South Carolina. It was a much smaller place than Lena had imagined it to be—it was much greener, and mere minutes from the beach. There was Spanish moss hanging from a lot of the trees, and everything smelled like ocean. There weren’t many stores or neighborhoods, and even though it was an island, she had the feeling that they were far out in the country.

Lena had printed directions to the address Doctor Evans had given her online from a motel manager’s office, and she drove as Devin referenced the sheet of paper and directed her. They drove out through several dirt roads, and finally turned a corner through the dense foliage that caused Lena to break very suddenly.