Set the Sky on Fire (Fire Trilogy Book 1) (21 page)

The police officer stopped writing and tried to reassure Nevaeh as she seemed to be working herself into a frenzy.

“There's nothing to worry about.” The police officer spoke with conviction.

Once the police officer had answered her questions, he explained he would require a statement from her as well.

“Who were you staying here with?” the officer asked.

“My brother. The booking’s under his name.”

“We’re going to need to speak to him too.”

“Do you know if our gear’s still there?” Nevaeh pushed past the police officer and surveyed the room. “No, it’s all where we left it.”

She gathered up her bag and swung it out the door. The officer protested loudly, saying she was contaminating the crime scene. Nevaeh ignored him.

“And we won't be paying for the room, either,” she shot at the motel manager. “If you can't provide decent security, then there's no way we're spending a night here.”

“Miss,” the officer tried, “your statement?”

“Why? I didn't make this mess. When I left the room, it was fine. There’s nothing more I can tell you.”

“You will still have to give one.” She rolled her eyes as the officer pulled her back to the doorway and directed her inside. They moved out of Ari's hearing range, so she could only make out Nevaeh’s side of the conversation when she raised her voice.

Ari’s legs grew tired from crouching, so she found a soft, comfortable spot in the bushes and settled in. There was no telling how long Nevaeh would be. This was her first breathing space in what seemed like an eternity. Exhausted, she closed her eyes and let her body unwind, keeping her senses open, just in case.

Ari’s head rested on her knees, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. She looked up at the sound of footsteps to find Nevaeh standing in front of her, suitcase in tow. A taxi idled across the street, waiting. She must have drifted into sleep as she never heard it arrive.

Nevaeh stood over her with her free hand outstretched, jerking her head towards the taxi.

“That's our ride.”

Ari looked at the suitcase. “You still have all your stuff?”

“Yep, wasn't leaving it with Michelle. Sorry, I didn't manage to grab yours. Although, I did snaffle your purse. I assume it has the important stuff in it. Mind you, if I’d known they could track your mobile, I would have left it all behind.”

Ari gave her a nod of understanding. “So where are we going?” she asked, taking Nevaeh’s outstretched hand to pull her from the ground.

“I think Nate would like to see you.” They walked to the taxi.

“You know where he is?” Ari’s voice thickened with excitement.

“Of course. This time we came up with a contingency plan for if we got separated.”

They slid into the back seat of the cab.

“Where to, ladies?”

“Ibis Airport Hotel, please.”

As they neared the hotel, Ari could feel Nate’s warmth envelop her. As soon as the car stopped, she turned to look at Nevaeh.

Nevaeh rolled her eyes. “Way you go. I'll give you a head-start,” she said as she handed over money to the taxi driver.

The concierge looked startled as Ari came barrelling towards him, a huge smile on her face. He took some convincing, but finally he told her Nate’s room number. Too impatient to wait for the elevator, she slammed through the stairwell door and scaled the stairs two at a time.

The golden numbering below the peephole indicated she had found the right room, 203. She rapped her knuckles on the door. Footsteps inside the room became louder, then stopped. The peephole changed from light to dark. The door flew open, and Ari was lifted off her feet in an embrace that blotted out all sight and sound as he spun her around. Nate returned her feet to the ground. Then, his hands cupped her face and he leaned in and kissed her, his mouth crushing against hers. Ari melted into him. Nate’s arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her hard against him. Sheer joy flooded her. Being so close to the seether had taught her to compartmentalise her extra senses. She closed that part of her mind down. What remained was love for this extraordinary man. She kissed him fervently, knowing he was what
she
wanted.

“Get a room.” Nevaeh appeared behind them.

Nate winked at Nevaeh, lifted Ari up again and pulled her into the room.

“I meant, get your own room. I have to use that one too.”

Nevaeh followed them in, and Nate let Ari go, then groaned, as if it pained him to be separated from her.

“We planned on coming to your rescue, but you beat us to the punch.” Nate's adoring eyes fixed on Ari's. “You don't need saving at all—perhaps a warm shower and some clean clothes. But not saving,” he chuckled.

“What
are
you wearing?” It was the first time Nevaeh had seen her under lights and had only just noticed the tight, black and white attire.

“Least, she is wearing something. Last time I saw her all she had on was a belt and a ten-year-old’s tee-shirt.” Nate played with the taut button holding Ari’s shirt together over her breasts, looking hopeful that it might come apart. From his pocket, he pulled the gold stacker ring she had left at the hotel in Singapore and threaded it onto her finger.

“It took a while to work it out, but I got your message.”

For the next ten minutes, Ari kept them transfixed with the tale of her audacious escape.

“...and that's when I grabbed Nevaeh’s arm.” Ari finished her story with her exploits in the motel room. By the end of it, they both gazed at her, an expression of awe in their eyes.

“What I would’ve given to have seen the seether’s face when he realised you had given him the slip,” Nate said.

As if summoned by talk of him, a glimpse of the seether's presence bit through Ari’s pleasure in the reunion. She wanted to scream. He was still some distance away, but he made Ari nervous, being anywhere near him made her skin crawl. The others must have noticed the change in demeanour.

“What is it? Nevaeh’s voice sounded full of concern. “You’ve lost all the colour in your face.”

“He's still looking for us, and he's nearby.”

“Again? How?” Nate was already on his feet.             

“No—wait, Michelle booked flights. Maybe he still plans to take them?”

“Either way. I think we need to get out of here,” Nate said. “I've got the rental car we took to the motel. I nicked back after the seether and Michelle had shot through and picked it up.”

“What were you doing there to start with?” Ari asked.

“We planned to get Nevaeh out of the city, so she’d be out of harm’s way. An insignificant, little motel. I was dropping her off—fat lot of good that did.”

“I told you, you shouldn't have bothered. I was fine where I was.” Nevaeh lifted her chin a little higher.

“My first choice was to get Nevaeh on a plane back to New Zealand but, after about twenty minutes of arguing, I knew
that
wasn't going to happen. Stubborn.” Nate looked at Nevaeh, frowned and shook his head. “She's a lot like you in that respect.”

“That’s sweet of you to say,” Nevaeh replied.

“I'll go downstairs and check out, while you two sort yourselves, but make it quick.” Nate moved towards the door. “I must admit it would be nice to spend more than one hour in a hotel,” he murmured to himself before calling back to Ari and Nevaeh, “Meet me in the foyer.”

“I wasn't going to leave you. I wanted to be around just in case there was anything I could do to help,” Nevaeh said. “And I can start by getting you something decent to wear. What you've got on is rubbish.”

Nevaeh whipped open her suitcase and ransacked the contents.

“Michelle is a slack-arse jailer. Once she was asleep, I could have wheeled my bag right over top of her, and I don't think she would have woken up. I really am sorry I left yours behind though. I thought you'd need your stuff when you got back.”

Ari couldn't have cared less about her clothes.

“I’m just grateful to borrow some of yours and stoked you got my handbag. How else was I going to get my passport back?”

Nevaeh continued prattling in her post-stress excitement; the familiar noise was a comfort.

“By the way, thanks for the heads-up about where Nate was staying. That made life a whole lot easier. Funny though, it wasn't until I got to the hotel that it dawned on me, I only knew Nate's first name. In the end, I had to describe him. I'm sure the concierge knew exactly who I was talking about after thirty seconds, but made me harp on for ages, just for giggles. So embarrassing,” she shook her head.

Nevaeh threw some clean clothes at Ari.

“Here try these on for size.”

Nevaeh took driving duties, and Nate offered Ari the passenger seat. They drove out of the city on the most direct route possible. They’d decided to drive north, and maybe get a flight out of Canberra to somewhere further up the country. Or perhaps, keep driving to Sydney and use the sheer size of the city as their defence. They continued to strategize as they travelled, the Hume Freeway stretching ahead of them for hours.

“Well, that seether’s very persistent, I'll give him that,” Nevaeh dropped into the conversation.

“And he’s going to get worse. He found out what I’m capable of,” Ari said, sullenly.

“What do you mean? He always knew you could find broken souls, didn’t he?” Nate asked.

“It's worse than that.”

Ari told them what had taken place at the church yard and explained how she had released a wave of anger that disseminated into the surrounding crowd.

Nate made no comment, so Ari turned and looked at him to try and gauge his reaction. The car was in darkness, and she could make out little of his expression until the headlights of a passing vehicle illuminated the interior. Then, she saw the look of shock on his face.

“That bad, is it?”

Ari turned back and slumped into her seat.

“There’ve been a few others that were able to do that. They were so rare I didn't think it even worth mentioning and to be honest, I had hoped you wouldn't be one of them. You’re the biggest prize the seether could wish for. He’ll do anything to have you now.” His voice trailed off.

“What happened to the others?” Ari asked.

“We did everything we could to hide them,” Nate replied.

“And the ones the seethers found first?” Ari wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer.

Nate looked uncomfortable and tried his best to evade her question. She had to hear the truth, so she pushed until he finally gave in.

“If they do the seethers bidding then we have to stop them.” He paused. “By any means necessary.” The savagery was implied. Nate tried to mollify Ari's fears. “Only twice, that I know of, has a seether managed to turn someone with your gift.”

“I’m not sure we should be calling it a gift. For a start, that would suggest I could give it back. So, if that's an option, I'd like to know now.”

“You can generally tell when someone with your…capabilities, is that better?” Nate asked.

“A little.”

“Right, if someone with your capabilities is influenced by a seether, you often see large levels of destruction radiating out from a single origin. In human history, there are very dark periods when masses of people, who were usually kind and rationale, could no longer differentiate between hatred externally forced upon them and their own feelings. They became very cruel and detached. When that happens, we have no choice but to find the source and terminate it.”

Nevaeh, who had been quiet up to this point, gasped.

“You have killed innocent people? People like Ari?”

“We had no choice.” His voice was barely audible.

“What if they aren't a source? What if they have special abilities but aren’t able to turn people en masse? What if they side with the seether?”

Nevaeh was leading Nate into a trap. If he knew, he did nothing to dodge it.

“We would stop them too. The manipulation or destruction of anyone's character without their consent cannot be allowed. The number of people they can influence is not relevant.”

“Were you going to do that to Ari?”

“The others would expect it from me.”

“But you didn't. Ari pretended to be on the seether's side, and you didn't even try to stop her.”

“I never had to make that choice. Ari let me know she was pretending.” His strong hand slid over Ari’s shoulder and grasped it firmly. She laid her hand on top of his.

“I wasn't sure you'd got the message. You still felt so unhappy, even after I said it.”

“That was the point when I had to accept there was nothing I could do to help you. That felt as bad as seeing you with him.”

Ari had told Nevaeh about the vulnerability of the seethers and sentinels and she’d slowly started to piece bits together for herself.

“What happens to the sentinels when they kill people? Nevaeh asked. “The seether said something about it disabling you.”

“From what we understand, when someone dies, it sends out a pulse. The energy your body’s been holding is released.” Nate's voice changed, taking on a mature and philosophic tone as if he was a professor tutoring his students. “We don’t know why exactly, as it doesn’t happen when a sentinel or a seether dies. Whatever it is, it has a tendency to cripple us if we are within a couple of metres of the epicentre, sending us into a state of shock. It's the only time one of us can truly and easily overpower the other. When we come to kill a ‘source’, the seethers know why we're there. If they can, they get far enough away to be only minimally affected by the pulse. Then they use the effect as an opportunity to finish us off. Our numbers have dwindled because of it.”

“Can't you knock out the seether instead? You know—no death, no pulse, job done?” Nevaeh asked.

“Our brains aren't as delicate as yours. They have a better casing, shall we say. Our brains won't slap up against our skulls and make us black out. They're nicely insulated up there.” He tapped his forehead.

“What about guns? Can't you shoot them—like a sniper?”

“You don't think we’ve tried all the options? A bullet will rip through them and cause a whole lot of pain but not kill them. Anything big enough to do enough damage is too laborious to carry around. We can't move fast hauling around hulking metal.

Nevaeh’s concentration began to flag after hours of monotonous driving. They pulled into a truck stop to refuel themselves and the car, and to shake out their cramped bodies. Ari offered to take over the driving, but Nevaeh insisted the break had refreshed her.

Then the arguments began. Nate was determined Ari needed to go somewhere far away and hide. He and the other sentinels would deal with the seether. Ari listened impatiently to Nate as he made every effort to change her mind. It was a valiant attempt, but her mind was already set.

“The seether’s going back to Christchurch, isn't he?” Ari didn’t wait for an answer. “And he’s going to go after my family, isn't he?” She turned to face Nate. “How will you protect them? Where are these other sentinels? Huh?”

Nate didn’t reply. His eyes dropped.

“I’m getting the next flight home.” She turned back around, throwing herself against the seat with a thump.

“No, that's where he will want you to be,” Nate protested.

“Shouldn't be too hard to find him, then.”

“Can't you give us some time? A few days?” he pleaded with her, leaning forward to rub her shoulders.

“Why wait? He could be doing any of a hundred vicious and sadistic things to Mum and Dad, or, to anyone else who might get in his way. We shouldn't be wasting time on this road trip to nowhere. We need to get back home.”

“The seether seems to be one step ahead of us all the time. We don't know how to stop him. You would be walking into a hopeless situation. One that you can't win,” Nate pleaded.

“Are you saying that someone has to die to stop him? There's no second option?” Ari asked.

His massaging of her shoulders increased in intensity as he fought to make his point.

“Seethers are strong. Their bodies are tough. You saw us fighting. We’re too evenly matched. The worst we can do to each other is to break a nose. For centuries we’ve tried to find ways to finish them off, or to send them back to where they came from. They've tried too—and been very innovative at times. All we can do is track them and try to limit the destruction they cause. And we will keep doing it until we find a solution, or, until they find their means of taking this world.”

“And I am the
means
?”

“Given what happened in the churchyard, then I’m afraid you might be. That's why you can't go back.”

“You want me to spend my life running from them?”

“Yes, that's exactly what I want you to do. You’d know when they were coming. You could do it. You could evade them.”

“But they would always be looking for me?”

“As long as they think you're alive, they will. But the world's a big place.”

The hopelessness of the situation was too much for Ari. She looked at the windscreen, but saw nothing. It may as well have been a brick wall.

“You know we couldn't be together, don't you? Because then, his first instinct would be to track you.” Ari needed Nate to feel a little of the pain she was feeling.

His hands slid from her shoulders. Ari heard the car seat groan as he slumped back

“I imagine he has already started looking for me. So no, I couldn't go with you. I might risk coming to you now and then, but I couldn't stay. Not until ...” He trailed off.

Despair grew in Ari. She was stuck in an impossible situation. How could she run for the rest of her life? Was that any life at all? Perhaps her loved ones would be safer without her there. Perhaps, if Nate never went back there, then the seether would have no reason to either. The sound of sniffing interrupted her thoughts. Tears streamed down Nevaeh’s face. The car drifted over the centre line on the road, and Nevaeh jerked it back on side.

Ari stared at Nevaeh. It took a lot to make her cry. “I'm sorry, it's been a long week, and I need to get a grip.”

Nate spoke quietly from the back seat. “Have you considered that those aren't just Nevaeh’s feelings? Ari, can you pull your feelings back in?”

Ari hadn't been aware of it until now, but she was exhausted, and her emotions were out of control. She closed her eyes and drew them back to her centre and held them there.

Nevaeh pulled the car to the side of the road and stopped, then wiped her nose on her sleeve. Wide-eyed, she swivelled in her seat to face Ari.

“Wow, that was weird. I mean, I’ve heard you talk about all of this, and it's been amazing, and I did believe you, but wow, you pulled them back so quickly I could feel them moving out of me.” A shudder rolled down her spine as Ari tucked away the last of her strayed feelings.

“You're going to have to work more on controlling them when you have heightened emotional responses.” Nate was showing a lot less enthusiasm than Nevaeh was.

“Easy for you to say,” Ari replied.

“I think we've driven far enough. Let’s stop at the next town we come to and see if we can find somewhere for the night.” Nate pointed to a cluster of glittering lights sitting off in the distance.

Nevaeh pulled back onto the road. There was a muted ringing tone from the backseat.

“Hello,” Nate answered his cell phone. “Yes, I have her with me. She's safe.” There was a pause. “I know, I know.”

Ari could hear the sharp tones of a woman on the other end but was unable to distinguish any of the words.

“Okay. Keep in touch.” He terminated the call.

“Was that the sentinel you went to see?”

“Yes.”

“Why doesn't she come out here and help.”

“She's got her own problems.”

“Well, why don't you call up all your other sentinel friends and tell them to get down here now to stop all this?” Ari was frustrated.

“I wish I could. I was lucky finding Anna. She's doing her best to get in contact with some of the others, but she's stuck where she is for now.”

“Come on, we live in a technological age. They say it’s brought the world closer, yet you can't get hold of any of them?” Nevaeh joined in.

“If it was that easy, don't you think I would have? It's not like we can start up our own Facebook page. Since we spend our lives running around after seethers, the only way to find one another is to locate areas of chaos. These days, it's hard to tell whether it's the seethers making their mark on the planet, or whether the horrible situations we see on the news are merely repercussions from the work they have already completed. In some cases, it’s only the media giving a story more hype than it deserves.” There was a bitter tone to his voice.

“How could you not have planned for this?” Nevaeh asked.

“Those who came through only ever thought it was going to be a twenty four hour job, at the most. They had agreed to meet up again in London forty-eight hours after the breach and find their way home. I wasn’t anywhere near them when they came through. I only knew the seethers had arrived because a sentinel came through Scotland a month or so later.”

“So you all took off in separate directions?” Nevaeh was doing so well with the questioning Ari sat and listened while Nate calmly answered what he could.

“Yes. Until we were scattered across the globe.”

“But you've found other sentinels since then.”

“It wasn't long ago I tracked the seether across America and I ran into Anna. She’d found someone with similar abilities to you and befriended him. David, I think his name was. He was in his late thirties. We have no idea how he evaded the seethers for so long. He didn't have much control of his emotions and projected them like crazy. And we could all sense him, so he was a relatively easy target.”