Eternal Echoes, Emblem of Eternity Trilogy Book 2 (23 page)

Once inside the house, Hannah veered off to the kitchen. She’d obviously come in for a drink instead of to keep me company. That was fine. I didn’t think we had a lot of interests in common, so coming up with conversation wouldn’t have been easy.

I pushed through the crowds again until I got to the bedroom—the one place in the house not occupied by anyone else. I started sifting through the coats on the bed trying to find mine in the rainbow of wool, cotton, and polyester. I pushed some hair out of my eyes while I moved the coats from the big communal pile on the bed, to my smaller pile on a chair in the room. It was like trying to find a puzzle piece. I felt like I’d been looking for ten minutes. Good grief. Next time I’d bring a hanger. I practically jumped for joy when I found my black wool trench coat with black buttons down both sides and a black belt. I picked it up, about to slip it on again.

“You’re not going to need that.”

I turned in the direction of the noise. It was Hannah. I hadn’t recognized her voice because, like I said, she wasn’t the most talkative. I stared at her, not knowing how to respond. I’d told her I was coming in to get my coat, but maybe she hadn’t heard me outside. “My sweater wasn’t warm enough so I came in for my coat.”

She moved toward me slowly, like a predator, her eyes holding mine. “I know, but you’re not going back outside.”

A horrible feeling settled in my stomach. The cookie and lemonade I’d had earlier were starting to stage a revolt. Paranoia or not, I’d rather pay attention to the unease I was feeling than trust everything would be fine and have it end badly. My self-defense training kicked in. I started looking for the best spot in the room to fight, and anything I might be able to fight with. Hannah noticed. “You won’t be able to fight your way out of this, either. You’re outnumbered.”

“There’s only one of you.”

A sly smile curved her lips. I heard the hinge of a door squeak behind me, and watched as Robert and Brian stepped into the room. The door had been hidden by the crusades on the wall.

“How are you enjoying the party so far, Evie?” Brian asked.

I took a minute to assess them all. I had the distinct feeling this party was an ambush, and Hutch had been used as a pawn to get me here. I started to fish my keys out of my pocket. “It was fun, but I actually need to get going.”

“Why?” Robert asked. “Is someone waiting for you?”

“Yes,” I said, not lying. If Alex and Emil came home and I wasn’t there, they’d come looking for me.

“If it’s Alex and Emil you’re worried about, don’t be. They won’t mind if you stay with us for a while, plus, from what we’ve heard, they’re quite busy with their meeting.”

I inhaled a quick breath and caught myself, trying not to betray my shock. How did they know about Alex and Emil, or the meeting? Were they Amaranthine or Daevos? I remembered Caleb saying there were unhappy Amaranthine members. People who had betrayed the Amaranthine. Could Alex be working with one of them and not even know it? “How do you know Alex and Emil?” I asked conversationally, trying not to give anything away.

Robert tilted his head, regarding me in a condescending manner. “How do you think we know them?”

“I assume you met them at school.”

Brian laughed. “We’ve known them much longer than that.”

“Actually,” Robert said, “we’ve known Emil. Alex hasn’t been around much. Too busy taking care of you. It’s too bad the Amaranthine can’t agree about how to handle the missing Trackers. They’re so concerned over fractures within their own Society, they’re not paying attention to other things going on. Right now, Daevos members can basically do whatever we want.”

Great. Another Daevos Clan. Just what I needed. I’d stopped worrying about other Daevos members as threats because the Tracker and shadow situations seemed like bigger issues. That’s the problem with focus. If you pay too much attention to one thing, you tend to miss others of equal or measurably more importance.

At this point, they knew who I was. I knew who they were. There was no point in going through the deny-it song and dance. “Why are you here?” I asked.

Robert placed his finger over his mouth for a second. “That’s an interesting question. One we couldn’t figure out at first, either. We were drawn to Gunnison. When we saw Emil, then recognized Alex, we put two-and-two together and figured out you were the Tracker they were protecting. We decided to stay in the area, watch you, and try to figure out why we’d felt the need to come here.”

They were “drawn” to Gunnison? What the—? Were other Daevos members and supernatural things being drawn to Gunnison too? And if so, why? I wondered if that was part of the reasons for the influx of shadows. But that couldn’t be, because according to Alex, shadows were being seen all over the world. It felt like there was some sort of paranormal migration to the Gunnison mountains happening. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but it couldn’t be good. “What do you want?” I asked.

“We’ve heard things about you. Things you can do.”

I started to purse my lips, but realized what I was doing and stopped. It wasn’t smart to let my thoughts play out through my body language. But inside, I was cursing. A lot. This was bad. Really, really bad. I knew it was only a matter of time until rumors about me and my powers started to spread. I had just hoped it wouldn’t happen so soon. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Brian gave me a not-nice smile. “Oh, I think you do.”

“And we have some tricks of our own,” Robert said. “We’ve been experimenting.”

He’d said that earlier about the ice in the backyard. It dawned on me that they might have done that with their own powers. “What do you mean?”

“You know,” Robert said. “Testing our limits. The Daevos have power too. With Trackers, we can amplify it.”

I’d been thinking what a huge mistake I’d made in coming here alone. Now, I realized my effort to rebel might result in serious consequences. This Clan was looking for a Tracker. They’d just found one. I knew Daevos Clans used Trackers to help them find soul mates, but I didn’t know the Clans were aware they could use Trackers to enhance their own powers. In fact, I thought Caleb’s Clan was the only one to ever try. Word must be spreading about that somehow too, though. I wondered if Alex and Emil knew about that issue, or if using Trackers to invoke more power was a recent development.

The three of them seemed to have forgotten they had an entire college campus worth of people in their house and backyard. That’s the problem with using a party to create an ambush. “Well,” I said, fishing my keys from my pocket, “good luck with testing your limits. Let me know how it works out for you.”

I started for the door and was immediately pushed back onto the bed by a strong gust of icy wind. In the house. Where no wind should exist unless a window was open and it was gusty outside. It wasn’t gusty. The window wasn’t open. I’d been surprised, but had managed to hold onto my keys. I stared in the direction the wind had come from and found Hannah, a small but proud smile playing at her lips.

“Seems to be working out well,” Brian laughed.

Fantastic. I really hoped my powers would work because I didn’t think my self-defense skills were up to taking on three opponents at once.

“Are you forgetting about all the people outside this room and in your backyard? All I have to do is scream, and half the school will be in here.”

Brian laughed, lifting a hand to his ear. “Do you hear people in the other room? Because I don’t.”

I hadn’t noticed the difference in decibel level until now. It was eerily quiet. Not even music played. As if everyone had suddenly disappeared. “Where did everyone go?”

“Home,” Robert answered.

“They just got up and left?” I asked, dumbfounded. “Without their coats?” I pointed to the pile I was sprawled across.

“Most people respond well to suggestion,” Robert said.

I gaped at him. “You hypnotized three hundred people?”

He gave a cheshire-cat smile. “I told you, we’ve been experimenting. The Daevos are far more powerful than the Amaranthine believe.”

“Where are Vicki and Hutch?”

Robert flicked his fingernails against each other, looking bored. “They’re safe.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

He looked up at me and held my gaze. “And I told you, they’re fine. They left with everyone else we sent away. Really, Evie, there’s no point in worrying about things you can’t control.”

Yes, that was a problem for me. I liked being able to control my world. I hadn’t felt like I had any sort of grasp on it since Alex and Emil had come into my life. I hoped Vicki and Hutch had only been used to get me out of the house, away from Alex and Emil, and at the party. If so, they were probably sent safely home with everyone else.

“What do you want from me?” I asked, scooting to the edge of the bed so I could sit up—and be in a better position to fight.

“We want what everyone wants, Evie. You to be on our side. Working for our Clan.” Robert looked at me sideways. “We just want to…borrow you, for a while.”

My mouth fell open a bit. “Borrow me?” The wording seemed so strange. I wasn’t some object that could be used whenever someone wanted me—regardless of what people thought about my powers. “What do you think I am? A cup of sugar?”

“That’s actually a perfect analogy,” Robert said. “You’re the key ingredient to helping us become a stronger Daevos Clan and streamline our powers. We’re going to take you back to the rest of our Clan. We’ll return you when we’re done.”

I stared at him, wondering how dense he was. “Have you ever actually met Emil? Because he won’t be happy about this. The extra power won’t matter when he kills you for taking me.” I got the reaction I’d hoped for; Robert wrinkled his brow like he might actually be considering my point. “And Alex will be worse than Emil. He reacts first and thinks about consequences later. So what do you think will happen when he finds out you took me? It won’t matter even if you bring me back as healthy and happy as when I left. He’ll find you and rip your heads off, literally. Is taking me really worth your souls?”

Robert stared for a moment while Hannah and Brian exchanged worried glances. I felt like I might have talked my way out of another abduction when Robert said, “With your help, we could create a spell to protect us from them both, so it won’t matter. We’re taking you.”

A spell to protect them from Alex and Emil? That seemed…scary. Did I really have the power to help them do that? Did every Tracker? Or was I being targeted because Trackers are hard to find and the Daevos had posted the equivalent of a status update that I was hanging out in Gunnison with Alex and Emil? Regardless, I wasn’t happy. And I wasn’t going without a fight.

I stood slowly, looking each of them in the eye, and focused on my Tracker abilities, hoping they’d be there if I needed them. For now, I’d try to get out of this with brute force. There was no point in illustrating my powers for them when it seemed like that’s exactly what they wanted.

They moved in around me, creating a triangle. My self-defense classes instructed me about one-on-one fighting, not three-on-one. Maybe if I had someone helping, I could fight them off, but alone, I was concerned about my chances.

You can fight them, Evangeline.

The voice! I might make it through this after all. The voice always amplified my powers. Knowing they would work made me more confident. I wanted to try and get out of this with physical fighting, though, if I could.

Robert came at me first. I went down on one knee, my hands on the ground as I kicked out, knocking Robert to the floor. Brian was caught off-guard. I took advantage of the seconds he took to stare at Robert on the carpet, and spun, elbowing Brian in the face. I heard the distinct crack of bones, and Brian yelled in pain.

Hannah’s emotionless face was terrifying, and let me know exactly how angry she was. She came toward me, her expression taking on an icy blue hue, frost crystalizing on her eyelashes and eyebrows. As she touched me, I started to shake uncontrollably. Robert watched us, a smug smile on his face as he got to his feet. I’d never tried to use my powers on myself, but I closed my eyes and thought of a warm beach. Instantly, the shivering stopped. Shock flashed over Hannah’s expression long enough for me to punch her in the face with a swift upper cut, and kick her in the stomach. She bent over to catch her breath before meeting my eyes. Livid. She grabbed for my long hair, a definite hazard in a fighting situation. I reached around her and clawed at her arm, pulling it as hard as I could.

A jagged sound tore through the air as the arm of her jacket ripped. She looked at it with disgust, and threw it off, revealing a dark red, backless shirt underneath, her Daevos vowmark wrapping around her arm. She lifted her leg to kick and as she did, I noticed a dark purple mark on her back. It looked like a version of my lily, but it had undergone a transformation mine hadn’t. The three most noticeable petals looked similar to mine, like a trinity knot: one petal sticking straight up, pointing toward her neck, the other two creating a pedestal on the bottom. But Hannah’s mark was a deep, dark purple, so dark it almost looked black. At the moment, it almost seemed to be alive, pulsing with shimmering amethyst hues. The other three lily petals were a pale peach color, barely visible. I was so distracted by the knowledge that Hannah was a Daevos member and a Tracker, as well as seeing her changed lily—what I assumed my lily would look like if my abilities were ever activated—that Hannah got a solid kick in to my stomach and I fell to the ground, gasping in breaths.

You can stop them.

I wasn’t so sure. I was one person, they were three. Plus they had the benefit of Daevos immortality and quick-healing. They had the advantage, and were wearing out a lot more slowly than me. And they apparently already had a Tracker helping them. Which begged the question: what did they need me for?

Robert pulled me up from the ground, my breath ragged from the fight, and the pain. “Have you had enough? Or do you want to fight some more before we take you?”

I glared, then smiled as I kicked his knee as hard as I could. Antagonizing Robert might have been a bad idea. But at least I was being abducted with a fight this time.