Indigo Awakening (The Hunted (Teen)) (13 page)

“What...happened?” he asked in a raspy voice.

Such a simple question. She wanted to kiss him again, only this time on her own, without being under the control of the power he had unleashed, but she had fallen under the spell of a different influence now—one that came from her. As much as she wanted to hold him and cry—happy that he was okay—she resisted the urge. Something terrible had happened. She had to focus on getting him somewhere safe that wasn’t Griffith Park.

She had to fix what she’d done to him.

“Good question.” She smiled and kissed him quick.

“What was that for?” he asked as he tried to sit up. “Not that I’m complaining.”

Oh, my gawd.
From the look on his face, he didn’t remember that first hot kiss. At least, it was hot and unforgettable for
her.
Rayne only shrugged. How could she explain that kiss to him when she didn’t understand it herself?

Something in Gabriel—and in her—made Rayne want to protect him. Her obsession with him had grown beyond his connection to Lucas. Everything about him baffled her. She pulled the hood up on his sweatshirt and covered his head and face as much as she could.

“Can you stand? We gotta go.”

“Think so.”

On shaky legs he stood, but not without her help. He put his arm around her shoulders and she held him. They crept down the aisle strewn with books, dodging stray cats and one foul-tempered Chihuahua.

“Don’t step in pigeon poop,” she told him.

“Good call.”

Hellboy had vanished. She didn’t see or hear him anymore and Gabriel hadn’t asked about him, either. The questions she had in her mind over what had happened to his phantom dog would have to wait.

When they got to the end of the row, Rayne peeked around a bookshelf to find her sister. Mia looked stunned as she helped another woman to her feet. They both were distracted by the men who were still wrestling on the floor with their arms and legs flailing. Rayne would have only seconds to get Gabe out.

“Go. Now,” she told him.

Rayne didn’t turn her head. She held her breath, praying her sister wouldn’t see them leave out the side. She walked him to the exit door that gaped open. The door alarm had been the blaring sound she’d heard before. She rushed him through the door and into the cool night air, thankful when they finally reached the darkness beyond the lights of the municipal building. The cops had arrived. Their red-and-blue lights spiraled across the front of the building, cutting through the night sky. They had to get out of there before they were questioned.

As they approached her Harley, Gabriel slowed and stopped.

“I know I haven’t given you much reason to have faith in me, Rayne. After what happened in there, I’m not sure I can count on me, either, but I
do
want to help you find Lucas.”

She nodded and watched him struggle with more he wanted to say. She waited for him to find the words. Whatever doubts she had about him, they had vanished under the weight of her unexplained yet undeniable need to look after him. Something in this runaway boy felt important, and the fact that he had a bond with Lucas made it easy to trust him.

“Right now, the way I am, I’m a danger to me...and you, if you stay.” He stuffed his hands into his pockets. “I could even be bad for your brother. The thing is, I need answers. I need to know what’s happening to me.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I have a place I can go, but I’ve never brought anyone else. It could get tricky.”

“You don’t want me to go with you?”

“No. I didn’t say that.” He grabbed her hand. “But I’m giving you the choice.”

Before he said another word, she squeezed his hand. “Then I’m in.”

He looked worried and had trouble looking her in the eye. That should have triggered questions, but she only had one.

“Will this place have food? ’Cause I’m starving.”

“We’ll see. I think I could scrounge you a PBJ.” He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. “I feel the urge to thank you.”

“If it helps, you owe me big.” She grinned, but that faded fast when she saw the look on his face.

“I don’t know what happened in there.” Gabriel got serious. He even looked scared. “Ever since I first saw your brother in my vision, this thing I do has felt weird. I’m not sure I’m in control anymore. That’s why I want you to think twice before you come with me.”

“What do you mean?”

“This time I shotgunned without Hellboy. It all happened so fast, I never felt him and I definitely didn’t go through him.”

Rayne thought about what she’d seen of Hellboy. Gabe could’ve shut him out to protect him, and that was why the dog couldn’t break through.

“But I thought
he
was your power. Doesn’t everything happen through him?”

After Rayne thought hard, she remembered that the blue flames had consumed Gabe in the library. If he didn’t feel Hellboy and hadn’t gone through him to summon his ability, then the strange, chilling fire had always been his.

Gabe stared at her a long time until he finally shook his head.

“Whatever I connected with in there, I think your brother had something to do with it. I felt the others, the ones in my sketchbook. It’s like...they’ve become a part of me I can’t shake. I reached out this time and something grabbed me back. It wouldn’t let go.”

Rayne touched his arm.

“Did you feel Lucas? Because he wouldn’t hurt you, Gabriel. I know him.” She ran a hand through her hair. “God, listen to me. I don’t understand this. How could any of it come from Lucas?”

Rayne couldn’t move. She stood in the parking lot next to her Harley, staring up at him. All she had wanted was to find Lucas. If Gabriel was right, his bond with Luke might’ve forced him to cross a line, a point of no return. His mind link to her missing brother had triggered something in him—something dangerous.

If he couldn’t control it anymore, what did that mean?

“I don’t know what to think, either, Rayne. I can’t remember everything, but this was something major. I didn’t like it. Not even a little. It was as if all those faces in my sketchbook suddenly came alive, like I knew ’em.”

She pictured his drawings, and the faces haunted her mind, too.

“Oh, hell,” Rayne gasped. “Your sketchbook.”

“What?”

“Your backpack. Where is it?”

Gabe stared at her with his eyes wide and shook his head in stunned silence. They both knew the answer as they turned toward the museum when another police cruiser pulled into the parking lot. No way could they go back inside.

Not now.

* * *

Dr. Haugstad drove her Mercedes down Wilshire Boulevard. In case they found the boy, she’d come with two of Alexander’s men, and one of them sat next to her in the front seat, trying to get a fix on the GPS location they’d been given. The coordinates were for Mia Darby’s cell phone, but with a complex as large as the L.A. County Museum, pinpointing the exact location would not have been easy until Fiona saw the flashing lights of several police cruisers. She didn’t bother with locating a suitable and legal parking spot. She followed an ambulance onto the property.

“This has to be it,” she said. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“Close enough.” The man nodded.

The minute she parked and saw the damage, the busted front door and the strange animals and distraught people running from the building, her heart elevated to an alarming rate. If Lucas had been cornered in the building, she had a suspicion of what might’ve happened if he felt threatened. She hoped he hadn’t been arrested. That would only complicate things.

“Quickly, we must find Mia Darby,” she ordered her men and got out of the car. “She could prove to be an invaluable asset, but not if she talks to the authorities. And you...” She pointed to one of the men. “See if there are any surveillance cameras inside. We need those recordings, at least a copy of them. Pay whatever you must.”

Fiona picked up her step and followed her men. When she got inside, she stood in silence as her eyes took in the shocking aftermath. She wanted to remember everything. She had a feeling what happened here would be of great significance.

She didn’t have to look for Mia Darby. The girl came to her with trembling hands and shaky voice.

“You should have seen it. I don’t know what happened. I can’t find my sister and Lucas....” Tears fell now. The girl looked as if she’d collapse.

“Mia, please focus.” She took the girl by the shoulders with a firm grip and looked her in the eye. “Tell me what you saw. Every detail, no matter how trivial.”

The Darby girl rambled about blue lights and animals and people fighting in the middle of an earthquake. If Fiona didn’t know any better, she could have sworn the girl had experienced a psychotic break. Shaking with adrenaline, Mia recounted her story, sounding as if she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Fiona had many questions that would have to come later.

Now they had to assess the situation quickly and mitigate damages. She’d overheard witnesses talking about it being an earthquake, and another person thought it had been an underground gas explosion because of the color of the flames. But without books being burned and no other building in the complex affected, Fiona felt satisfied the police would need time to sort things out. They may never come up with an answer, but she had her own theories. Although she had to get the Darby girl out of there to question her under a controlled setting, one question could not wait.

“I need to know more about this blue light you saw. Could you pinpoint where it came from?” Fiona had to whisper. She didn’t want anyone else to hear, especially the police, who were questioning others.

“Yes. It came from over here. The back corner.”

Mia Darby led her down two rows of shelves to a spot where books were strewn on the floor in a heap. Something had definitely happened where they stood and Fiona found a backpack on the floor. The bag was unzipped and she saw a book and a spiral notepad inside, but she didn’t have time for anything more than to grab it before the authorities did.

“Thank you, Mia. You’ve been a great help.” She embraced the girl and let her cry for as long as it took to give the illusion that she cared. “Unfortunately, my dear, we must leave now. It’s not a good idea for you to mention any of this to the police. I hope you understand.”

“Uh, y-yes.” The girl nodded and wiped her face.

“I’ve got my car, but give me your keys. One of my men will drive you home and I’ll follow. You’re in no condition to be behind a wheel. We’ll talk more while things are still fresh in your mind, but afterward I can give you something to help you sleep.”

After she got the girl’s car keys, Fiona wrapped her arms around Mia and walked her outside. By noon tomorrow, she’d have a full report for Alexander Reese and she’d have time to examine the contents of the backpack. Thanks to the Darby girl, Fiona had a pretty good idea what might’ve happened. Her mind raced with possibilities. She could barely contain her excitement.

A Crystal child could have done this. She desperately wanted that to be so and she wanted it to be Lucas, the boy she had discovered. All of her testing and experience through her studies with the church gave her the instincts to recognize these human abominations. Being a doctor, she wanted to better understand what had made them mutate, but through her beliefs, she passionately held that these children were another plague on mankind.

Only a very powerful Indigo could have accomplished this level of chaos—an evolving Crystal child of great magnitude was in the process of “becoming,” but what had triggered him? She had to know. Perhaps Mia could fill her in on more, and the backpack could also hold answers if she got lucky.

She should have been alarmed by what she had seen in the museum and heard from the Darby girl, but a peculiar adrenaline raced through her veins like ice water that made her hyperalert. Everything she and Alexander had undertaken for the sake of humanity lay ahead of her. The Darby boy. It had to be him. They were getting closer. She felt it. Soon she’d have the boy under lockdown in Ward 8 at Haven Hills—completely under her control.

Before she got into her car, she gave an order to the man who had stayed with her.

“Get a team to hack into the traffic cams for the parking lot and the surrounding streets. Unless the Darby boy and the other sister were on foot, we could find something useful.”

Fiona breathed in the night air and stared back at the museum exhibit hall with the spiraling police beacons strafing the entrance of the building. She wanted to remember this moment. It felt like a significant turning point—one that she had instigated with Lucas Darby.

* * *

Lucas struggled to open his eyes and be free of a familiar torment—the nightmare that had escalated and forced him to run away from Haven Hills. Trapped in a twilight sleep, he felt his consciousness lift from his body. He could look down and see his thrashing arms and the sweat that clung to his skin, but he remained tethered to the body that had failed him and kept him a prisoner.

It hadn’t been the fever that kept him from opening his eyes. It had been the dream.