Stormfront (Undertow Book 2) (26 page)

As we walked out to Raef’s truc
k
, my phone rang and I answered it, greeting MJ, whose grinning face appeared on the screen. “I have some rotten news about Nikki that I need to tell you. Can I swing by The Milk Way or will your mom blow a screw?”

“When is any news regarding Psychopath Barbie NOT rotten? And I
was
headed to the shop, but now I am hiding out across the street from
your
house.”

I stopped walking for a moment and Raef and Ana halted beside me, giving me a weird look. “Why are you stalking my house?” I asked.

“Because I just saw our friendly neighborhood robber dash behind your home. I think he might be looking to get inside.”

Goosebumps climbed along my neck. “MJ – are you sure?”

Raef and Ana came close to me, tilting their heads slightly so they could hear MJ’s voice through the phone. “Eila, I’m telling you. I just saw him walk around the backside of your house and he . . . Oh hell’s bells! He got in! I can see him inside your house now! He just walked past the downstairs window.”

“Don’t go in, MJ. Just watch him. We will be right there.” Adrenaline was soaking through my body as I hung up, making every nerve inside me shiver.

Raef had heard the conversation and yanked open the door to his truck as Ana and I climbed in at record speed. He slammed the truck into drive and peeled out of the school.

“Why is he now in my house? MJ said he’s not a Mortis, but there is no way he is randomly breaking into my house.” I whispered.

Raef never took his eyes off the road as he spoke, “This fool has probably been hired by someone to break in. My guess is his employer is part of the same group of Mortis who attacked us on Sandy Neck.”

I clenched my hands. “He was tossing Nikki’s room, looking for something. He must be after the necklace, just like Dalca. If he’s at my house, then he must know I have it – must have seen me run from Nikki’s house to MJ’s Bronco.” Doubt began to suffocate me. We were never going to get ahead. Never going to be anything less than a constant
target. Our lives would be one endless carousel of trying to out-think those who wanted to kill us. Abduct us. Steal from us.

It was never going to end
, and that realization crushed me from the inside out.

Ana sat
forward from the back seat. “Eila, isn’t Mae coming home today?” she asked, panicked.
Oh my God! Mae!

I dialed MJ and he picked up on the first ring, “MJ, Mae is supposed to be coming home today. Her flight should have landed an hour ago. She could be home any second.”

“I know,” he replied, his voice breathless as if he was running. “She just pulled in.”

“Stop her!” I pleaded.

“I’ll do all I can.” I heard MJ’s voice call out to Mae as the line went dead.

I was gasping for breath, trying to quell my panic. “MJ is going to try to keep Mae from going inside,” I said in a near whisper. Raef simply nodded, hauling through the streets like a drag racer as he possessively laced his hand over mine.

Ana turned to me, her own fear thick, “Is he going to shift into Marsh?”

I looked back to Ana, knowing the
lives of two people I loved might be on the line. “I don’t think so. He doesn’t have time.”

Ana had managed to contac
t
Kian about what was going down at 408. He told her he would meet us there and he demanded that she stay locked in the car. Ana agreed on the phone, but one look at her face in the rear view mirror told me she had no intention of hiding in my truck.

I stole a glance at Eila, who was so pale she looked like a ghost. Her
hand was gripped so tightly in my own, I was sure she had lost all sensation in her fingers.

We couldn’t stay on Cape Cod any longer. We needed to get away and regroup -- to understand what was going on around us, without the constant pressure of trying to keep ahead of our enemies.

I silently pleaded with fate to protect Mae and MJ.

I pulled into
Eila’s home behind Mae’s minivan, sending the crushed seashells in her driveway flying. Eila was out the passenger door before I even came to a full stop and I yelled at her to wait, but it was pointless. I jammed the truck into park, leaving the keys dangling from the ignition as Ana jumped ship as well, racing into the house.

I managed to finally get inside where I found Eila squeezing the life out of one, shocked Mae. MJ came in from the other room, thankfully in one piece. “So, uh, can I bring anything else in for you Ms. Johnson?” he asked, a slight sweat to his brow.

Mae replied that she was fine, while Eila still hugged her tightly. I looked at MJ and he gave the smallest shake of his head. Whoever this guy was, he had somehow slipped out of the house unnoticed.

“Eila, sweetie. Are you alright?” asked Mae as Eila finally loosened her grip on the one and only mother figure she had ever known.

“Yeah. I just missed you.” Eila looked over at the three of us. “We all did. How was your trip? Did you have fun?”

I had to give Eila credit – she was terrified in the car, but she was burying her fear and trying to act normal in front of Mae. I did notice a slight shake to her hands, however, and she jammed them into her coat pockets.

“It was fabulous. I think Mr. Raines will be purchasing two of the properties I saw. California is simply spectacular.”

Eila looked in the direction of the front staircase that
lead to her room. “I, uh, just want to, uh, change real quick, and then you can show me all your pictures. You took pictures, right?” she asked Mae.

“Tons! Wait until you see these places,” said Mae, starting her coffee maker. She gave
Ana a quick hug, but then her gaze settled on me.

I knew what she was thinking and I cut her off before her imagination could wander too far, “Rules were obeyed
, Ma’am.”

It was a lie, but keeping Mae safe and secure meant a lot of lying.

I saw Eila head out of the kitchen with Ana, but then she paused, looking back at me. “I just need to borrow Raef for a second. I have some winter clothes stashed up high in my closet and he can reach them for me.”

Thank goodness for
Eila’s quick thinking. The idea of her going anywhere in the house without me made my skin crawl. While MJ believed this guy was gone, I wasn’t buying it until I searched the house as well.

Mae was about to respond, when the side door flung open and Kian and Christian came through, causing her to jump at their sudden appearance. “My goodness
, what a welcome home,” she laughed, her hand at her heart.

Christian, smooth as ever, beamed. “I heard you have much to tell me! I want every last detail of your report and let’s go over the photos and history packets.”

“Now?” asked Mae, a bit shocked that work was so pressing.

“If possible, yes. I heard there might be other buyers sniffing around the Art Deco place in Monterey.”

Mae pulled herself together and nodded. “Of course. Let’s go into the parlor and we can take a look at what I have.” She grabbed two leather messenger bags from the table, offering a quick hello to Kian as she passed him. Christian flicked his eyes upward, signaling for me to check the house. As Mae disappeared into the parlor, Kian bolted for the back staircase.

The girls followed me upstairs with MJ, a maneuver that was now easy thanks to Christian’s swift move to preoccupy Mae. As we got to the top landing and the girls’ rooms, Kian came down from the third floor. “Upper floor and Mae’s room are clear,” he whispered, his gaze settling on Ana. “And I thought I told you to stay in the car.”

Ana waved him off as she slowly opened the door to her room. Kian moved in ahead of her and glared at her as he did so, pissed she could have flung herself in the crosshairs of some nut job.

MJ tracked into the other two spare bedrooms to double check, while I pulled Eila in behind me, slowly opening her bedroom door.

She sucked in a tight breath at the sight before us.

Her room looked as though it was tossed about in the roughest of seas. The mattress was angled off the bed, her clothing had been thrown everywhere, and the pictures from her bureau now lay scattered on the floor.

It was a disaster zone, violated and torn apart.

I felt Kian, MJ, and Ana step in behind me as I watched Eila slowly walk into her room, scanning the destruction. Kian told me that the house was indeed free of the intruder.

Ana squeezed past me and started slowly picking up the random bits and pieces of Eila’s world that lay in tatters all over the floor. My heart tightened as I watched E slowly reach down and pick up a cracked picture of her and Mae. She carefully pulled the worn photo from the glass and managed to slide it into the edge of her large mirror, her movements slow and painfully sad.

MJ set a toppled chair back on its feet, returning it to its place under her desk. “Eila - I know the diary is at Christian’s, but are the things we took from Nikki still here?” he asked.

Eila got down on the floor by her bed and squeezed her way underneath. When she wiggled back out, she had the French book and the necklace in her hands. “I had cut a hole in my box spring and stuck them inside. I thought it was the safest place,” she explained as a rare, determined tear trailed down her cheek.

I pulled her close, drying her face with the edge of my sleeve, as I told her she did a good job. Our friends started righting the room so Mae would never know what happened, and I held Eila tightly, rubbing her back as I swore to her it was going to be okay. Swore to her that we would make it through anything together.

I hoped it wasn’t a lie.

The ride to Logan Airpor
t
was filled with our confusion and concerns over what had happened. It had been 48 hours since we were attacked, 24 since my room was wrecked, and 15 since Mae said “yes” to Christian’s impromptu vacation.

Selling the idea of a drop-everything-and-leave getaway to Mae seemed impossible to me, but Christian had worked his magic, no doubt using his megawatt smile and vodka-smooth charm to full effect.

He convinced poor Mae to fly out at the crack of dawn with him to Barbados to check on a turn of the century mansion. Even more amazing was his ability to get her to agree to let me and Ana fly down in his private jet to his home in the Caribbean.

Well, we’d fly part of the way at least, though Mae didn’t know that itsy-bitsy detail.

He told her that Ana and I could meet up with her at his Bahamian home, which was his own private, island named Polaris. It would have been a dream come true, if it wasn’t for the fact we were basically running for our lives.

Again.

Another small piece of info that Mae was unaware of.

Christian had also left out four critical details when talking with Mae. Those details were called Raef, Kian,
Rillin and MJ, all of whom were coming with us, along with one other dear pal: Cerberus. Christian’s plan was for us to fly from Boston to West Palm, and then grab Cerberus, sailing her the rest of the way to Polaris. Kian however, said there was no way Rillin was coming with us on Cerberus, and I had to admit that having the former knight jammed in with us on Kian’s sizable yacht was a little too weird for me.

We decided that
Rillin could fly down to West Palm with us, but then we would part company. He would continue on by plane the rest of the way to Polaris once we hit West Palm. I got the sense that Rillin actually wanted to discuss some things with Christian, and he also mentioned readying a few training rooms for us, before we arrived.

Kian, Ana, MJ, Raef and myself would take Cerberus and follow by sea, making the run in a couple of days at most. It was a chance to defuse, to island hop, and to just be the five of us, as we once had been. Of course, Mae would eventually realize the boys were also on “vacation” when she finally arrived at Christian’s home in a week or so, and no doubt flip out.

Smooth talking on Christian’s part had also convinced MJ’s mom and dad that he was looking to get a few opinions on a little gelato café on the main island of Great Abaco, and MJ could help him decide. MJ’s parents saw it as a brilliant chance to expand their ice cream empire to the Caribbean and be backed by a billionaire. MJ, however, saw it as the ultimate vacation and a chance to advance his phasing abilities, and we all gave him suggestions. I was totally rooting for something Harry Potterish, like Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Ana wanted something powerful and regal, like a lion, while Kian suggested a fat pink pony with a rainbow on its butt.

One of those ideas wasn’t taken too well.

I studied Raef as he drove us in his truck through the Ted Williams Tunnel that led to the airport. The orange lights of the tunnel splashed over him and our three friends in the cab seats behind us, as if we were at a Halloween rave. Rillin had chosen to drive to the airport in his own silver ‘69 Chevelle, following Raef’s truck closely through the streets of Boston. When Ana had seen his car, she nearly swooned at its fine lines and beastly engine.

Apparently you could take the girl out of the garage, but you couldn’t take the octane out of her heart.

I knew Rillin’s decision to follow us was both to ease the tension of Raef and Kian, and to also keep an eye-out for trouble. I believed him to be an asset, but Raef and Kian weren’t sold on him yet. Christian, however, had managed to form a strange sort of camaraderie with Rillin. I suspected that Elizabeth in some ways bound them together, though Rillin was still entirely unaware that Christian was my biological great grandfather. The secret that I was a half-breed, both Lunaterra and Mortis, was guarded just as potently as my life.

“It looks beautiful on you,” said Ana, leaning forward from her seat between Kian and MJ in the back. Neither of us had ever flown and our lack of wings told me that humans were not meant to fly. I wanted to barf. I rea
ched down and fingered the oval diamond necklace that hung from my neck.

“It does look stunning on you, but I don’t like you wearing it. It makes you a bigger target,” said Raef, glancing to me while he drove. I caught a glimpse of
Rillin’s Chevelle as he switched lanes to keep tight to our vehicle.

“I’ll put it and the two journals into Christian’s safe once we are at Polaris, but I am done leaving any of them out of my sight until then. I’m not risking having them lost or stolen,” I said quietly, though I did lift the necklace and slide the silvery pendant under my shirt. I felt the cool metal slowly warm against my skin.

Before we had left the house, Raef and I had gotten into an argument about the necklace. He wanted it stashed in the safe inside Torrent Road, but I wanted to unlock Elizabeth’s diary once and for all.

Rillin
had suggested waiting until we were far from the Cape before I unlocked the diary, just in case it did something weird – like blow the roof off my house. Apparently the metal workers from his days in the palace were quite fond of booby-traps, and the design of the necklace was obviously built by a very talented Feon from Nikki’s family tree. The gears in the necklace were so intricately laced and complex, that even NASA would be scratching their heads. It also made me certain that the gear Dalca had kept hidden in a safe was more than just a token from a dead Lunaterra.

After the scream-fest at my locker and Nikki’s revelation, I knew that the chances of a truce with her had nose-dived through the center of the earth. My kind, at one time, had forced hers to work inside the palace.
A palace where Katherine and Elizabeth had managed to form a friendship, and spark the fall of the Lunaterra Empire.

In some ways that seemed so weird to me, in other ways it made perfect sense. They say that opposites attract, and Raef and I were certainly opposite. I suspected Katherine and Elizabeth were also the most unlikely of friends, though Martians would need to land and declare that pigs could fly before Nikki would be remotely civil to me.

I also suspected Nikki had a few more talents than simply shaking her pompoms and kicking my butt during field hockey. Talents that maybe allowed her to cook my old combination lock into a block of useless metal.

And here I was thinking she
had a heart of stone, not iron.