Whisper of Memory (Whispering Woods Book 2) (6 page)

Lacking the energy to argue, I rolled my eyes and handed him the phone. The wind blew through the trees, and I closed the gap in the front of my jacket. My teeth began to click together before I could stop them. I moved to sit near a bush that would shield me from the wind. I studied our prisoner, who hadn’t moved since he had answered Austin’s questions.

“Yeah, yeah. Can you look it up?” He paused and grimaced while holding the phone away from his ear for a moment. “Please?”

I smiled because I knew that Em was giving him heck for waking her. I also knew that she wished that she could be with us, which made her crankier. When you have a mom like Em’s, you’re lucky to leave the house in daylight hours. The house would have to be on fire to leave after 10:00 p.m.

Fifteen minutes later, Austin’s cell phone sounded with the beat of some heavy metal song that I didn’t recognize. Before Regulus had come along, my cell phone would mysteriously chime with new ringtones every few days. I never knew how Austin snuck them onto my phone, and although I acted irritated that he had done it, it always amused me.

“Yeah… Uh-huh.” Austin turned his back to me, and I rose to get closer to the conversation. “What else?” he asked.

I tugged on the back of his leather jacket. “What’s she saying?”

“Just a minute,” Austin said into the phone. He punched at the display and held it off in front of his mouth this time. “Go ahead. You’re on speaker.”

“You there, Mia?”

“Hey Em. Sorry we woke you up.”

“It’s OK. Better to be woken up by Austin than by somebody crashing through my window.”

I laughed. “It’s about the same.”

“Here’s what I found on Goliath. It’s a bump in the road down in south Arkansas. Small population. Why do you want to know about it?”

“The guy who broke into my house said he was supposed to take me there. Great to know he was going to drag me to a place even smaller than Whispering Woods.”

“Weird. He was going to kidnap you?” Em didn’t sound too surprised. My life had jumped to an entirely different level from what could be considered normal.

“I guess,” I said. “That doesn’t tell us a thing.”

“Anything else, Em?” Austin sounded as perplexed as I did.

“Let me go back to my search page.” The click of keys sounded. “Wait a minute.” Excitement came across the distance loud and clear. “Sorry, guys. I looked it up only on the maps section earlier. This is very weird.”

“What?” Austin and I said in unison.

“There’s a million results here on something called the Goliath Lights.” More clicking.

“What is the light?” Austin asked.

“They’re famous for it. Apparently there’s even been TV shows filmed about it,” Em muttered, then…more unintelligible mumbles as though she was reading.

“Can you read out loud, Em? I asked. “The suspense is killing me.”

“A mysterious light with a legend. There’s something about a murder, a man’s head being cut off, and other theories. A light will appear over some railroad tracks and some say it’s the worker who fell and was decapitated and is looking for his head and…” Em trailed off.

“And what?” Silence. I fidgeted. “Em, keep going. And what?”

“Some scientists think it’s due to some quartz crystals. That’s about it,” she said.

“I think we need to go see what’s in Goliath,” Austin said.

T
he crunching of dry
, fallen leaves alerted us to the arrival of Regulus and Arizona. Grabbing my phone and pressing the button to activate the screen, I realized that the guys had been absent for two hours. I knew from one trip with them into another dimension that it didn’t necessarily mean that they had been there for the same amount of time. Still, waiting was not my strong suit, and I glared at both of them.

Austin ignored them and continued to stare at the man we had tied to the tree. Earlier, he had played games and texted on his cell phone for entertainment. Guarding a prisoner had turned out to be a very boring gig.

“You’re back.” I got to my feet, then brushed some leaves and damp debris from the back of my jeans. My mind briefly went to the need for some stain spray at home, and I scolded myself mentally for letting my mind wander. Surely agents didn’t have to worry about laundry care, but neither did most teenagers.

“Yes, back in a meteorite moment, as they say,” Arizona said with a pleasant smile.

“Nobody says that.” Austin stood also as he commented in a deadpan tone. “Unless you are from a galaxy far, far away. Wait. That would be you, wouldn’t it?” Placing his phone back in his pocket, he came toward us with his usual swagger. Austin’s confidence coupled with his sense of humor usually drew people to him. It did the opposite in this case.

“What did you find out?” I asked, wanting to divert the conversation away from the tension brewing. I looked at Regulus.

“Nothing.” His answer was quick and even.

I couldn’t help but be suspicious, although the delivery was pretty much the standard from him. Austin nonchalantly hung an arm over my shoulder, a habit he’d developed over the past year. Before Regulus had come along, it had never been an issue.

“If you would like to keep that limb, I recommend that you make a decision to keep your body off her.” Regulus stepped forward. I thought that his shoes might even be bumping Austin’s.

Oops. I hadn’t slipped away from Austin fast enough. “Hey, no harm done. He didn’t mean anything by that.” I laid my hand lightly on Regulus’s chest.

“You don’t seem to be worried about it when you leave her in the woods with me for two hours while you play super-agent man. I can’t even tell that you guys are dating except for the fact that you are always hanging around and needing help with your IIA gig. You have no idea what we’ve been doing together while you were gone.” Austin was taunting Regulus. First he couldn’t get along with Arizona and now Regulus. I was tired of this.

“She’s mine.” Regulus said in almost a whisper. He pulled me to his side.

“Um, wait a minute. I don’t belong to anybody. You’re acting like a caveman,” I turned to Austin. “And you. You’re being a jerk.” I tried to disengage myself from Regulus. He held tighter.

“Maybe I’ve decided that you like jerks. It seems to work for this guy.” Although I didn’t think it possible, Austin got closer to Regulus’s face. “I guess it must be his pretty face because it’s not his personality.” He flicked a careless finger underneath Regulus’s chin.

Regulus let go of me, and I lost my balance. Before I even knew what had happened, he was on top of Austin, and both were on the ground. They ignored me as Regulus began punching Austin in the face. Arizona grabbed Regulus’s arm and tried to haul him off Austin.

I knelt to help break them apart. After I shoved myself between them, Regulus hit me on the arm. I cried out, and he finally stopped.

Austin was glaring at me. One eye was already starting to swell shut. Blood ran from the corner of his mouth and his nose.

Regulus extracted himself from the tangle and stood. Arizona offered a hand to help Austin, who got up on his own. Regulus turned his back on Austin, which was either stupid or arrogant in light of what had happened. I heard him taking deep breaths.

Austin wiped his mouth on his sleeve. Blood was smeared on his cheek. “I’m done here. Mia, let’s go.”

Astonished, I looked at his battered face. “Austin, you can’t drive right now. You won’t be able to see the road and you’re hurt.”

“You staying or coming with me?” Austin demanded.

“I’ll drive him, Mia.” Arizona went over to the man tied to the tree. We had all but forgotten about him. “I’ll drop this guy off at the portal first since we’ve been instructed to bring him to the Vault.” He began to unwind the rope.

The man was smiling. His lack of concern about being taken to the Vault worried me.

Regulus went to stand by his motorcycle. “I’ll take you home.”

“Thanks,” I muttered awkwardly. My anger at both him and Austin had disappeared, replaced by a flood of relief at the thought of going home to bed.

Arizona led the intruder to the Jeep without any struggle or force. I watched the man disappear into the dark backseat.

“You get in and watch our prisoner in the back while I drive,” Arizona told Austin. Austin grimaced but didn’t argue as he got into the backseat of his own vehicle.

The moon shone through the treetops enough to silhouette the three in the Jeep. I couldn’t see that Austin was looking at me, but I could feel it. The engine started, and I watched the Jeep lumber slowly away into the darkness.

I wrapped my arms around myself and waited for Regulus to mount the motorcycle. He handed me a helmet, and I put it on before seating myself onto the bike. I wound my hands around his waist. He grabbed both my hands and firmly placed them to encircle his body.

We didn’t talk and began moving. I was getting better at riding with him, but by the time we arrived at my front porch, I was too exhausted to think about all the things I wanted to say to Regulus. Sleep would be the best thing for both of us.

“We need to talk,” he said, dismounting and helping me off the bike.

“I know. But I’m too tired right now.” I must have sounded sad, but I could barely hold my head up.

“The man. He wanted something from you, and I have to figure it out. That is the reason I lost control. I’m sorry.”

“Austin means a lot to me. You have to respect that. And I know that he was trying to get your goat.”

“Goat?”

“Make you angry.” I smiled at him. Sometimes it was easy to forget that he didn’t know all the idioms.

“Yes, he got my goat.”

I smiled even bigger. “We need to talk about us and talk about what the man told me and Austin.”

Regulus set his hands on my shoulders. He squeezed gently and then his fingertips moved across my collarbone and up the sides of my neck in a quick caress of silent apology.

“What did he say?” he asked.

He stood quite a bit taller than me and I tilted my head to meet his eyes. “Something about taking me to Goliath,” I said. At his quizzical face, I added, “A place down south a few hundred miles.”

“How did you learn this?” He seemed so amazed that I had to laugh.

“Austin asked him. And not in a subtle way.” I took the doorknob. “Can this wait until tomorrow?”

“Want me to come in?” Hands still on my shoulders, he bent his head.

“You can check the place out and that’s it. Then you have to leave.”

“Yes. Those are my intentions.”

“I mean it. My dad has laid down the law, and you can’t be in the house while he’s gone.” I made a point of sounding serious.

“I agree.” He kissed me lightly on the forehead, not on the lips as I’d anticipated, then opened the door. “Let me check that it is safe before I leave.”

Inside the house, “checking” included every closed door and possible hiding place. I followed him while stifling a half-dozen yawns. He held my hand some of the time, which was comforting. As much as I wanted to be upset with him over the fight earlier, I couldn’t hold it against him.

Regulus took one look at my broken bedroom window and said he would call for a repairman the next day. We went to the garage and found some thin plywood to cover the opening. We couldn’t tape it—the piece was a little large—so we propped it over the window. Then he pushed my tall chest of drawers in front of it.

“Everything appears secure. I would feel better if I slept on your sofa tonight,” he said.

“Definitely not.” I imagined myself trying to go to sleep with him downstairs. And then I imagined my morning routine of flying around the house at warp speed to get ready for school. “No. I’ll sleep with my cell phone in my hand if it makes you feel better.”

“I’ll call you in the morning before school,” he said.

We went outside onto the front porch. The long porch swing at the end creaked in the wind. Winter was fast approaching, and I shivered again.

“OK. Don’t you have late classes in the morning?” I envied Regulus’s college class schedule. He didn’t even get up until I was in second or even third period.

“Yes, but I’ll still call. Maybe we can talk about what the man said about Goliath.”

“There’s not anything else to tell. Honest.”

“I’ll still call in the morning.” He brushed his hand over the side of my hair and tucked a stray piece behind my ear. “When I tell you that Austin makes me… He makes me crazy. That’s what you would call it. Then, do you think I am less than in control of myself?”

“No.” I shook my head with more force than he probably expected. “Austin drives me crazy sometimes, but he means well.”

“He means well with you. But he wishes me dead.”

“That’s not true. He doesn’t understand you. It frustrates him.” My argument sounded weak.

“Go inside and sleep.” Regulus opened the door where I would go through. “And Mia.”

“Yes?”

“I do not understand the myriad of thoughts in my head when I am with you.” He rubbed his hand along the back of his neck.

“And I have no clue what that means. Myriad of thoughts?” I wondered if he realized that people my age didn’t use those terms. His training in the IIA obviously lacked a class in idiom usage and American slang.

Regulus stood silent and looked around my front porch for the answers. His eyes darted from the porch swing to the porch light and back again. “You know how you tell me that your words on a page are never in black and white but in a multitude of colors? And that the colors make it difficult for you to focus?”

I nodded. That illustration greatly simplified my condition, but the degree of my sensory awareness didn’t matter. I got the point.

“Thinking about you is like that. My focus is pushed away by your smell and touch.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing. “I should wait and talk with you tomorrow night instead of calling. I’ll practice my patience.”

“Practice away. It can wait.”