The Watchers (33 page)

“What do you want me to do?” she asked in a
carefully neutral voice.

“Track the Seekers. See if you can’t find out
where they’ve made their headquarters, but don’t engage.
Reconnaissance only. Keep in contact…I’ll come help you later.”
Daniel’s voice was just as politely calm.

She nodded and went over to her motorcycle.
With a deft move she spun around, throwing dirt and rocks behind
her, and was gone. I looked at Daniel, awed and a little
confused.

“What?” he asked.

I pursed my lips. “And what do you want me to
do?”

He stared at me for a moment. The command
melted from his face. I could see him resisting a smile. “Was I
acting all superior again?”

“Not really,” I said as I wrapped my hands
around his neck. “I was just wondering why everyone seems to defer
to you and all of a sudden you have this…It’s like you’re a general
in battle or something.”

He gave a funny little cough and said, “What
I want you to do is figure out how Amanda might be connected to
this. Maybe you and Alex can figure something out.”

“I think you’re trying to distract me, but I
accept your challenge.” I stared into his eyes. “I’m worried about
her, Daniel. You didn’t see Amanda when we came here yesterday. She
was terrified. Even more than that, she was defeated…like she had
given up on something.”

His voice was soothing. “We’ll make sure
nothing happens to her. I promise.”

I nodded, trusting his promise. We turned
back to the car knowing there was nothing else left to do here.
Daniel tapped on the steering wheel in restless thoughtfulness as
we started away from the lifeless cabin. He was silent, lending his
thoughts to the mysteries surrounding us, instead of
conversation.

Not able to handle silence, I asked, “Did you
say something to Mark today?” The flashes of Mark’s thoughts I’d
caught today had been angry, and he’d refused to talk to me.

Daniel’s hands tightened on the steering
wheel. “He thought it would be a good idea to ask me if we were
screwing around. He was looking for a fight, because he resents me
being with you. He’s been thinking a lot about luring you to the
King’s party this Friday to try to get you drunk for some very
ungentlemanly reasons. I suggested if he even thought about coming
close to you I would show him a world of pain.” Daniel saw the
rising anger on my face. Holding up his fingers and measuring out a
tiny distance, he quickly added, “Just a little. A Pluto sized
world of pain.”

I could feel waves of anger turning my face
red. “How dare he! How dare he act like I’m cheap entertainment!
How dare he assume, even drunk, I would sleep with him!”

“Maybe I shouldn’t have told you.”

“I’m glad you did!” I raged. “I think I
should have a talk with Jennifer. She’d be a little shy about
dating him if I told her he has an incurable, transmittable
disease. ”

Daniel laughed, his eyes alight with
happiness. “You wouldn’t!”

I looked at him, one eyebrow raised. Anger at
Mark had me contemplating retribution in ways Daniel would never
start to believe. Daniel touched my pursed lips, and I relaxed.
Retribution could wait. “Pluto isn’t a planet,” I told him at his
touch. “Not anymore. They downgraded it.”

“I think I said that for comedic effect.”

“I must have missed the humor,” I teased.

“Ah, well, you can’t win them all…”

I looked down the dirt road we were driving
on feeling upset for a different reason. I was back to the reason
we had come. “How could he endanger Amanda like that? How could he
drag her into their world? She’s his daughter! He has to care about
her!”

“Are we talking about Amanda’s dad or yours?”
he asked quietly.

I groaned. “Not everything is a Freudian
slip.” Daniel’s skeptical look spoke volumes. “All right, I might
relate to her just a little bit. I know how empty it can feel not
having a parent around.”

“I know.” He took my hand. “There isn’t a day
that goes by that I don’t either curse my father for never claiming
me, or curse my mother for abandoning me. But, I’ve always had this
longing to meet them…just once.”

“I can understand that only…”

“Ellen didn’t abandon you,” he finished.

“Yes.”

His eyes went distant. “You have no idea how
lucky you are to have her. Most of us are abandoned by the time we
are eight or nine.” Bitterness filled his voice. “Our mothers can’t
handle the stress of having us around. Self-preservation kicks in,
I guess.”

I hadn’t known it was typical for Watchers to
be abandoned. I touched his face. “I don’t see how anyone could
just leave you. You’re such a good person and to just leave you
alone at such a young age…”

“I wish you would quit saying that,” he
said.

“Saying what?”

“That I’m a good person. I’m not.”

His shoulders hunched over and tired lines
appeared on his face as forbidden memories surfaced in his brain. I
took my hand away and looked up at the sky searching for a way to
get him to believe me when I said he wasn’t bad, hating the hatred
he had for himself. Dusk was kissing the landscape with pinks and
oranges, casting a thin pallor of sleepiness over the world. Yet,
amongst that sleepy slumber there were signs of re-growth. The
world was impatient to start growing again after such a long
winter. The wind was brisk, but it reminded me of sitting outdoors
on spring days. I looked past the dusk, affected by its beauty, and
saw that the moon was starting to appear. It was a beautiful,
glowing pendant in the sky. The wind and the feeling of the moon
being so close made me realize there was always a balance. We
weren’t good or evil one, we were both. And that made us more.

“Do you ever think about what’s on the dark
side of the moon?” I asked.

“No…no I don’t.” He eyed me funny, obviously
trying to figure out where I was going with my question.

“We always look at its surface, the part that
the sun lets us see, but we never think about what’s on the other
side. It’s dark and probably riddled with ugly bits, but because of
its darkness, the side that isn’t lit, we appreciate the beauty of
her light. If we didn’t have the darkness, we couldn’t see the
light so clearly. That’s the secret everyone overlooks about the
moon. She’s always balanced between light and dark, night and day.
She accepts that balance, knowing she can be both.”

We pulled up to my house. I started to get
out thinking Daniel was considering what I had said, but he stopped
me with a hand on my arm. “Clare, you’re more than just beautiful.
You…you are the bright side of the moon I see so clearly.”

“Thanks,” I said softly, smiling.

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.” I agreed easily. Now wasn’t the time
to argue; I could see that much on his face.

“I can’t come over tonight. I’m going to help
track down the other Seekers.” He silenced my interruption with a
finger to my lip. “And no, you can’t come. It’s too dangerous. My
favor is that you call Alex to stay with you, so you’re not left
alone.”

“Okay, but…”

I wanted to experience again what we’d had
last night. We had talked about everything, arguing, and poking fun
of each other, but mostly getting lost in each other’s ideas and
personal truths. I had fallen asleep in his arms, and when I woke
up, he’d been there. It had been amazing. I definitely wanted an
encore.

Daniel touched my face. “I know.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said, as I started
to get out. “Be careful.”

He kissed me in reply. His kiss told me he
would be more than careful. “Alex will drive you to school in the
morning, so I’ll see you in gym.”

“Could…could you call me? You know later. To
let me know you’re okay?”

“Tell you what, you can have this.” Reaching
across me, he pulled a cell phone out of the glove box. “I’m the
only one who has this number, so you’ll know it’s me calling.”

“I think you’re just trying to give me a cell
phone, because it irritates you that I don’t have one.”

“Partly.” He kissed me again.
“Goodnight.”

“Night.”

I got out of the car and shouldered my bag.
As I stood with my back to the car, something in the pit of my
stomach told me his goodnight had been a goodbye. I turned back and
tapped on the window. He lowered it again and leaned towards
me.

“I love you,” I said.

Daniel looked surprised, but happy. “I love
you, too.”

I stepped back and waved at him as he pulled
away. Daniel drove away very quickly, like a ghost into twilight.
He was gone before I had caught up to the reality of his absence.
As I watched, I felt as if someone, or something, was trying to
tell me something important. The feeling told me that things would
start blowing up again if I didn’t listen. It didn’t help that the
hairs on my neck were standing on end with preternatural alertness.
The bad feelings got worse as I walked to the door. The feeling in
the pit of my stomach was so acute, I felt as if I was going to be
sick.

I went inside, hoping it was just fear for
his safety that had me feeling this way, and stopped in the foyer
to get my thoughts working straight. After a moment of struggling,
the feeling not leaving despite my best efforts, I went to the
kitchen.

Ellen was already home. She was munching
absently on a sandwich – the only thing she could make without
burning the house down – and reading at our kitchen table. When I
saw her looking so perfect and so Ellen-like, reading her horror
novel and eating the one thing she could cook, I felt calm around
the worry. I bent down and wrapped my arms around her neck. She
hadn’t abandoned me like so many others had. I’d always felt
grateful she had stuck around when it would have been easier to
leave, but now it felt like more. She had loved me enough to stay.
She loved me enough to risk her own neck for mine. That’s what a
family was.

She was startled at my greeting but didn’t
comment. She simply set her stuff down and patted my arms, the only
part of me she could reach. She sensed I needed her touch more than
her words. I released her and walked over to the phone, so I could
call and invite Alex over as promised.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Was my conversation with Daniel showing on my
face? Was the feeling I had in my gut – that we were all teetering
on the edge of a precipice – that evident in my expression?

“I just never realized how amazing you
are.”

“Well, I’ve known!” She laughed, her bubbly
laughter filling the kitchen with sound, making my heart lift a
couple of inches. “But…did everything go okay?”

I shook my head. “Nobody was home. We think
they took off.” I took a deep breath. “Daniel met with one of the
Seekers. They’ve decided to be honest about why they’re here and
that’s definitely not a good sign. They gave Daniel an
ultimatum…back off or else.”

“Oh.” Her eyes were round with terror, but
she kept her voice calm. “That could be a good thing, though.”

“How so?”

“Their plan, whatever it is, might not be
working. If they have to resort to threats, then maybe they’re
growing desperate.”

“That’s all I need – desperate super humans.
I have a feeling their kind of desperation is a lot more
destructive then our kind.”

Ellen bit her lip. “I didn’t think of that…Is
that all that happened?”

“All that you need to know,” I said and
picked up the phone.

“Did you and Daniel get in a fight?”

“No.” I put the phone down and sank wearily
into the chair next to her.

She stared at me, trying to understand my
weirdness. “Are you going to call Alex?” she asked quietly.

“Daniel thought she might be able to help me
figure out where they could have gone or how Amanda is involved. If
Amanda was taken against her will, I’m going to do everything I can
to get her back. Even if she wasn’t taken, I’m going to make sure
she’s okay, and knows what she’s gotten herself into.”

Ellen was smiling. “Sometimes, you sound so
much like your father it’s scary. He had that same kind of
dedication to helping people.” She paused, and I could hear her
going over the reasons why talking about him didn’t hurt as
much.

“It’s because of Sam,” I told her.

“What is?” She started twisting her fingers
into knots.

“You can talk about my father, because Sam is
making it hurt less. He’s reminded you not all love is
painful.”

“Stupid mind reader,” she grumbled looking
embarrassed.

“It’s kind of funny isn’t?” I said
thoughtfully. “We go all these years managing to stay hidden. Then:
Bam!” I bashed my hands together. “Moving here was like a catalyst.
We both find friends, Daniel and Sam, and we encounter these
Seekers. Kind of weird, huh?”

“Maybe, it’s fate.”

“Or maybe, it’s random chance.”

“Or maybe, it’s fate,” she replied
stubbornly.

“Or…not.”

“I’ll take that to mean you agree it’s a
possibility.” She put her dish in the sink then grabbed her book
off the table. “I’m going to go take a bath and finish this
chapter.”

“Okay.”

“Are you good?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

She walked out, her mind funneling through
everything I had just told her. She hoped she was doing the right
thing in staying. She hoped it wasn’t selfishness keeping us here.
At the stairs, she paused.

“Your bath salts are in the shoe box at the
top of your closet,” I called as she tried to figure out where she
had put them.

“Thanks!” she called back.

She started humming, a slow, sad song about
regret that her grandmother used to sing. It was a song that always
calmed her. It was a song I associated with coming change; she had
always hummed it when contemplating a move.

I picked up the phone and called Alex,
knowing that despite having her here I would be in for a long night
of worrying. Another night of sitting on my window seat, counting
seconds.