Refuge (12 page)

Alex continued to crouch in the back of his
cage and watch me like I was a juicy steak whenever I passed him.
Even the nice chunks of red meat I brought him didn’t soften his
attitude toward me. Once I forgot to keep an eye on him and I
didn’t see him move closer to the bars until it was too late. My
reward was a blistering four-inch burn on my arm, which required a
dose of gunna paste and a trip to the medical ward. Mohiri medicine
was very advanced, and by the next morning, the burn was nothing
more than a patch of reddened skin that quickly faded. But I had
learned my lesson. After that, I was extra careful not to let the
wyvern catch me unaware. I still gave him his daily treat, but I
made sure to throw it from a safe distance.

I took to spending a lot of time in the main
library and accessing the stronghold’s vast database, reading up on
demons, vampires, witches, shifters, and anything else I would have
learned about if I’d had a normal Mohiri education. Remy had taught
me a lot, but I was just coming to realize how much about the
supernatural world I did not know. It was going to take months to
catch up to the other trainees in that area.

I also looked for anything I could find on
Hale witches. I knew the likelihood of me finding a way to help
Desmund was slim when the Mohiri had tried for centuries to cure
people like him. But I felt compelled to try. More than anyone, I
understood what Desmund had endured and I could not forget the feel
of the terrible sickness inside him. I searched through every
article I could find that referenced Hale witches, and I was
frustrated that there wasn’t a single mention of how their power
worked. I despaired of ever finding a way to help Desmund.

Three days after my dinner with Tristan, I
got the nerve to go visit Desmund again. I entered the library and
let out a gasp. Books were strewn all over the room and an
overturned lamp lay on the reading table with pieces of broken lamp
shade on the floor. Scattered around the chairs near the cold
fireplace were ripped pages. I picked one up and made a sound of
dismay when I saw that it was from
Daniel Deronda
, the same book I’d been
reading the last time I was here.

My eyes fell on a partially charred piece of
wood that had fallen from the fireplace, and I immediately
recognized the beautiful antique checkerboard. Tears burned my
eyes. Why would Desmund wreck the library he loved and destroy the
checkerboard and this particular book? Was he angry at me for some
reason, maybe for the way I had run away? With his illness, it was
almost impossible to know what went on in his head or what would
set him off.

The scene from the library troubled me long
into the night. When I entered the dining hall for breakfast, I was
tired and barely aware of the people around me until Olivia slid
into the chair across from me.

“How can you look so glum? I would have
thought you’d be happier than anyone else?”

I frowned at her grinning face. “Happy about
what?”

She rested her elbows on the table. “About
going to Boise. God, I haven’t been to the mall in a dog’s age.
This whole credit line is awesome, but buying clothes online is
just no fun. You know what I mean?”

“Yeah,” I replied, though I hadn’t used my
line of credit yet. But a day in the city? I felt Olivia’s
enthusiasm infecting me at the thought of getting away from here
for a day. My gaze moved around the room until I found Tristan
sitting with Celine at his usual table. He smiled at me, and I
smiled back before I looked at Olivia again. “When are we
leaving?”

Olivia laughed. “That’s more like it. You’ll
have plenty of time to finish your breakfast because we aren’t
leaving for another hour.”

At ten minutes before nine, the trainees who
wanted to go to Boise gathered in the common room closest to the
main hall. I walked over to Michael who was in his usual spot with
his laptop.

“Are you sure you don’t want to come with us,
Michael? We’re going to a movie after the mall.”

He looked up, a spark of interest in his
eyes. “What movie are you going to see?”

“Mark found a zombie marathon playing at
Overland Park Cinemas this afternoon.” I beckoned him with a
finger. “Come on, you can’t honestly tell me that your computer is
more fun than that?”

He made a face. “More fun than hanging out
with Jordan for a whole day.”

I snorted softly. “Listen, I’ll be her bosom
buddy if it gets me out of this place for a few hours.”

“Let’s not get carried away,” drawled Jordan
as she sauntered past the door. “Bus is leaving in five minutes,
with or without you losers.”

I pulled on my jacket. “Last chance.”

Michael went back to his laptop. “I’m good
here. You have fun.”

I shook my head. If ever there was a boy who
needed to get out and have some fun, it was Michael. “Who are you
always talking to on that thing anyway?”

“No one,” he said almost defensively. “I play
World of
Warcraft
with a bunch of guys online. We like to talk
strategy.”

“Ah.” I had never been one for gaming. There
was enough craziness in this world already without having to go
look for it in a game. But to each his own.

The bus was actually a large black SUV with
tinted windows. As I walked toward it, the front passenger window
rolled down, and I groaned when I saw the red-headed warrior
grinning at me. Seriously? There wasn’t a single other warrior they
could send to chaperone us besides the two of them?
Tristan, we are so having a talk
when I get back.

Olivia and Mark were in the back seats so I
took the middle row with Jordan who promptly popped in a pair of
ear buds and ignored me. That was fine by me. I settled back
against the headrest, too excited to be going somewhere, anywhere,
to let her bother me.

An hour later, Niall pulled up in front of
the Boise Town Square mall and Seamus turned in his seat to smile
at us. “Okay, kiddies, here is the drill. You have two hours to
shop or browse or whatever it is you kids do in these places. Just
remember that whatever you buy has to fit in here on the way back
and I’m not sharing my leg room. If you behave yourselves and don’t
go wandering off ” – his eyes met mine – “then you get to enjoy a
movie and dinner. Any questions?”

Jordan opened her door and slid out.
“Nope.”

The four of us entered the mall together, but
the other three immediately split off, going in their own
directions. This obviously wasn’t their first time here. I fingered
the Visa card in my back pocket and thought about what I needed: a
heavier coat, warmer boots, and some new gloves. Idaho was
definitely a lot colder than Maine, and there was no way I was
going to stay cooped up inside all winter.

It took me a little over an hour to get
everything I was looking for, and I spent the rest of the time
wandering around while I waited for the others. It didn’t take me
long to spot one of the twins following me at a discreet distance,
and I gritted my teeth, doing my best to ignore him. I was pretty
sure the others didn’t have a personal bodyguard tailing them. With
my track record, I guess I wasn’t surprised they were worried I
might give them the slip, but they really had nothing to worry
about. I’d promised Nate I would try to lay low and stay out of
trouble, and I meant to stay true to my word after what I’d put him
through.

I was walking past a jewelry store when an
item in the window caught my eye. It was an antique chessboard that
looked strikingly similar to the one Desmund and I had played on.
The middle-aged salesman eyed me dubiously when I asked to see it,
and he watched me like a hawk as I opened the box and examined the
playing pieces. It contained a set of checkers and a full chess
set.

I reached for my credit card. “I’ll take
it.”

“It’s four hundred dollars,” he said in a
haughty tone.

“Yes, I know.” I handed him the Visa card,
and his eyes narrowed a little when he saw the name on the
card.

“What is the Westhorne Institute?” he asked,
peering at me over his glasses.

I tapped my fingers on the glass counter and
met his gaze squarely. “It’s a special school where they send rich
kids with anger management issues and problems with authority.”

“Excuse me?”

I stifled a sigh and pointed over my shoulder
to the large warrior I knew was visible through the window. “See
that red-haired guy out there? He’s my chaperone. You want to talk
to him instead?”

He glanced behind me and swallowed nervously.
“That won’t be necessary. Would you like this wrapped?”

I was still smiling when I met the others at
the exit. The three of them were lugging multiple shopping bags
each, and they eyed my two bags in disbelief.

“I don’t need much,” I said, earning a scoff
from Jordan.

“When you have unlimited credit, you don’t
buy things you need.” She shook her head. “What a waste.”

Olivia walked through the door ahead of us.
“Don’t mind her.”

“I don’t.” I was not going to let Jordan
spoil my day out.

The twins dropped us off in front of the
movie theater. “You should be able to get enough zombie gore in
four hours,” said Niall dryly. “We’ll pick you up here at five.
Decide where you want to go for dinner and remember, we like big
juicy steaks.”

“You mean you’re going to trust us to be on
our own that long?” I asked in feigned shock.

“Even you couldn’t get into much trouble in a
movie theater in the middle of the day,” Seamus replied with a
snicker. “And we’ll be out here waiting for you.”

We loaded up on popcorn, candy, and drinks at
the concession stand and found four seats in the back row just in
time for the start of
28 Days Later
. I’d watched it at Roland’s with him
and Peter two years ago, but it was way creepier on the big screen
in a dark theater. I even jumped once or twice when Olivia did, and
we laughed at each other. It felt so good to do something as normal
as going to a movie.

It got to the scene where the car breaks down
and the girl gets under the car to fix it and you want to yell at
her to not be so freaking stupid. All of a sudden there are rats
and zombies all over them. Down in one of the front rows a girl
shrieked and people twittered. I shook my head.
Please, like you didn’t see that
coming.

A man screamed and people laughed even
harder. A second man cried out. The laughter died. I leaned forward
in my seat to try to see what was going on down front, but it was
too dark. People started to stand, and there were more screams.

A few seconds later, pandemonium broke out
and people began screaming and shoving and climbing over each other
to get to the exits.

“What the fuck?” Mark uttered as the four of
us jumped to our feet.

Olivia moved closer to him. “Guys, this
doesn’t look good.”

“No shit, Sherlock,” Jordan growled, her eyes
wide and glowing with excitement while everyone else screamed in
fear. She nudged Mark who was next to her. “Move it! We’re sitting
ducks here for whatever is down there. We need to get to the aisle
where we can fight.”

“Fight?” Mark shoved me and Olivia toward the
stairs. “We don’t even know what it is. And in case you haven’t
noticed, we didn’t exactly come dressed for battle.”

“Fucking amateurs.” Jordan pulled off her
leather jacket to reveal a short thin sword strapped to her back.
From her boot she pulled a long silver knife, which she handed to
Mark. “Always come prepared,” she said with a wicked grin when she
saw me trying to figure out how she had hidden that sword under her
coat without cutting off something vital.

Even more surprising was the silver-tipped
whip that Olivia pulled from her purse and uncoiled with a snap and
a practiced flip of her wrist. I watched her move to a spot a few
feet from Jordan with her feet apart and the whip in front of her.
Mark gripped the knife and stood on Jordan’s other side. The three
of them were suddenly transformed from teenagers enjoying a day out
to young Mohiri warriors prepared to do battle.

I stared helplessly at my empty hands and
kicked myself mentally for getting caught without a weapon. It
wasn’t so long ago that I wouldn’t leave home without a knife
inside my jacket, a knife that had saved my ass on more than one
occasion.

“Stay behind us, Sara,” Jordan ordered
sharply. “We’ll try to get to the exit on this side. Keep your eyes
peeled everyone.”

None of us questioned her orders and, as one,
we moved down the stairs. Below us it was utter chaos, but I was
less frightened by the screams than I was by whatever was causing
them. What the hell attacks people in a crowded movie theater in
the middle of the afternoon? Most supes, even the dangerous ones,
hide from humans and don’t show themselves in crowded public places
like this. Even Eli had pulled me into a dark alley before
revealing his true nature to me.

Whatever it was, it was apparently going
after anything that moved, so we tried to go as quietly as possible
down the stairs. By the time we hit the middle landing, we were the
only people on our side of the theater except for two teenage boys
who were crouched behind some seats. I motioned for them to come
with us, but they just shook their heads and huddled closer to the
wall. All I could do was hope they would be safe there until we
dealt with the threat or someone came to help.

In a matter of minutes, the theater had all
but emptied except for our small group, the two boys, and a few
stragglers limping for the door. People yelled outside, but inside
the theater the only sounds were the zombie moans from the movie,
which in our current situation didn’t seem quite so entertaining
anymore.

The movie hit a quiet scene, and silence fell
over the dark theater.