Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series) (15 page)

Andrina’s face contorted and she
growled—actually growled—and shoved the table to the side. It
plowed through the rows of desks as if they were bowling pins.

Okay. It was really time to go. Janelle ran
down the hall after Gary and Mr. Deville, breath loud in her ears.
Something fell from her pocket and clattered to the floor, but she
didn't stop to see what it was. The only thing that mattered right
now was getting away from the Tempest High Leader and whatever plan
she had for her.

Mr. Deville pulled out his keys as he slammed
into the double doors, sending them flying open so hard they banged
against the building. The maroon car waited in the parking lot. It
didn’t seem so crappy anymore. It was their ride out of here.

High heels hit the floor behind her, loud and
desperate. “Janelle!”

She stole a glance back. Andrina ran after
them, teeth bared--but she was alone. She’d reach them before Mr.
Deville got the door unlocked. Unless one of them did something,
she'd reach the car before her teacher got it moving.

Janelle stopped, gaze darting around for
anything she could use to slow her down.

“What are you doing?” Gary’s voice rang in
her ears as his shoes squeaked to a stop.

“Go! Get the car started!”

He didn't. A fire extinguisher hung from the
wall nearby. She took it and pulled out the pin, aiming the nozzle
at Andrina. What was she doing? This couldn't possibly work.

But the Tempest High Leader slid to a stop
two feet away, rage melting from her face as her jaw dropped open.
Her arms flew up in front of her as Janelle pulled the trigger. A
white spray erupted from the nozzle, showering Andrina. She let out
a scream, a human scream with no trace of growling wind or crashing
waves. The sound pulled at her chest. For a moment Janelle wanted
to stop—was she hurting her? No. This was Andrina, killer of
hundreds. She was doing the right thing.

Andrina stumbled to the floor under the
spray. The foam sputtered to a stop, leaving the Tempest High
Leader covered and shivering in fizz.

Janelle dropped the empty extinguisher to the
floor. It rolled over to the wall with a metallic plink.

“Come on!” Gary shouted.

Janelle ducked out of the door he was holding
open. The headlights shined at her like a pair of eyes and the
engine rumbled, pleading with her to hurry. No arguments there. She
yanked the door open and dove into the backseat.

“Janelle! You’re betraying your people!”

Andrina stood by the exit door, the contents
of the extinguisher covering her body like a foamy parka. Baring
her teeth again, she raised both palms.

Janelle clawed at her jeans, bracing for the
storm in the parking lot. “Go. Please!”

A faint breeze whistled through the air…and
died.

Mr. Deville stared on as Andrina let loose a
cry of frustration and waved her hands again. Papers blew across
the parking lot, but they stopped after a few feet, as if too
exhausted to go on.

“I said go!” Janelle shouted.

“I agree,” Gary said, snapping on his seat
belt.

Mr. Deville switched gears—finally. “Hang on
tight!”

Andrina ran towards the car, shaking off foam
and raining clumps of it everywhere. She’d reach them in two
seconds.

Janelle pushed the lock down. “Exit!”

The Tempest High Leader reached the door and
tugged on it, face contorting with frustration, but it refused to
budge. The car sped forward with a squeal, breaking her grip and
leaving her in the middle of the parking lot.

* * * * *

“Are we done with wild car rides for now?”
Janelle sank into her seat several minutes later. Breathe, she had
to remember to breathe again. “That was the second one tonight for
me.” Immediately she felt bad for sounding so rude, but the events
of that night had destroyed that calm mask she'd worn all her life.
There was no longer a barrier between her and the rest of the
world. It was all gone, torn away, leaving any contact with it
raw.

Her teacher turned onto a freeway entrance
ramp. “I hope so. Sorry that happened back there. I had no idea
she’d show up again.”

“That wasn’t your fault,” Gary said,
massaging his neck. It was still red from the headlock.

“And thanks for getting us out of there,”
Janelle said, staring at the red around Gary's neck and hating
Andrina even more. What kind of life had he had, with Andrina as
his guardian?

The turn signal clicked off as her teacher
merged onto the freeway, joining a river of red taillights flowing
into the darkness. “I think it’s safe to say we lost them. But
we’ve got to keep moving. I’ll go ahead and take you to the
airport. Orlando, right?” He stopped talking for a moment to let
Gary nod. “I’m sure she’s alerted every Tempest in the area that
you’re on the run, Janelle. She’ll probably even have a story about
you printed tomorrow in
Surge.”

“
Surge
?” she asked. Things were
looking better and better.

Mr. Deville turned to look at her for a
second, as if unable to believe that she didn't know what it was.
“I suppose your parents haven't told you much. That happens
sometimes." He put his attention back on the road. "It’s the
Tempest newsletter. It’s printed in a secret alphabet so humans
can’t read it if they were to get a hold of one. I’m sure your
folks will teach you how to read it soon. Want to see? I’ve got one
in the glove compartment.” He tapped Gary on the shoulder. “If you
could toss it back to her, that would be great.”

Gary opened the compartment and pulled out a
paper with a crinkling sound. Then he gagged. “Why does it have to
be last week’s issue?” He tossed it back to Janelle as if it were
swimming with slugs. “Get rid of it!”

Janelle caught it off her lap, checking the
paper over to make sure it wasn't really covered in slugs. It
wasn't. The orange of passing streetlights illuminated the cover.
Instead of letters, spheres, triangles, plus signs, and crescents
lined the paper in rows. It looked somewhat like the secret code
she and Leslie had made up back in the seventh grade to write
letters to each other.

Another orange square of light passed over
the page. A satellite photo of a hurricane approaching Florida took
up the upper half of the page. There was only one thing it could
be—Hurricane Gary.

A shudder raced over her for Gary's sake. She
folded up the
Surge
newsletter and threw it on the floor.
Gary was shifting in his seat, still recovering. It was time to
change the subject. “How did Andrina seem to lose her power back
there? She couldn’t even open my door.”

Mr. Deville rolled down a window, letting the
cool night air blast in. “That stuff on her must have been
freezing. Anything cold takes a Tempest’s power away, even if
they’re near the ocean. It’s only temporary, so don’t get
comfortable. But it might be good for you to know.”

“Why didn’t you kill her while you had the
chance?” Gary sagged in his chair, letting go of his neck.

“Kill her? I’m not like that.” Gary was
honest, but did he have to be so blunt? “I know I’m supposed to be
this natural born killer, but—”

“Her rule would have ended,” Mr. Deville
said, strangling the steering wheel. “If she dies, maybe a Tempest
with some morals could take her place. She has no heir, so I'm not
sure who the Elder Council would choose.” He let out a breath and
relaxed his grip. “My family’s got no room to talk, though. My
mother took about five hundred lives when she changed in
nineteen-fifty-nine and ripped through the Caribbean, and she
doesn’t even care. At least, I don't think she does. You’ve heard
of Hurricane Camellia, right? Before Andrina, that was the storm
everybody talked about. It's not an easy fact to live with.” His
words sounded as heavy as bricks as they came out, and seemed to
weigh down the air in the car.

“That…that’s awful.” Janelle leaned back
again and closed her eyes. Compared to that, her dad seemed human.
Ordinary.

He must have not transformed out of his own
free will, she decided. But why did he want to inflict the same on
her?

The cruel voice in her head gave no answer.
Janelle listened to the hum of the car and the clunking of the
freeway. She was at home. In her own bed. Things were normal—and
sane—again. She’d wake up late and settle down at the kitchen table
as her father made pancakes and scrambled eggs. No talk of
Tempests. No talk of fake vacations or transformations or going
into hiding, or—

“So when did you find out about Tempests?”
Mr. Deville asked.

Her teacher's voice forced her out of the
dream she'd left behind. “Today. Gary told me.”

“That’s more of a notice than what I got. I
found out what I was right after my mother sneaked up behind me and
pushed me off the boat. I thought it was a fishing trip. I was
twenty-one at the time. Though I did always wonder why she never
let me try out for wrestling.”

“I thought Tempests changed in their teenage
years.” She studied the passing lights of Laverne Medical Center
and shuddered. Only a week ago, there was no way she could
entertain talking about this. “You know, with me and Gary supposed
to go at sixteen.”

Gary curled up in his seat and thudded his
head against the window.

Her teacher cleared his throat. “Not always.
It’s different for everybody, and always before the age of forty.
Andrina went six years ago, at the age of thirty-four. She couldn’t
wait for it. And of course you know she made her impact far worse
than it needed to be. If I’d drowned eight hundred people, I’d hang
myself.”

Bile rose into her throat and burned the back
of her tongue. “She’s way wrong if she thinks I’m like her.”

“I think she was saying that you’ve got the
strength to become like her. Most Tempests don’t. That must be why
she wants to use you,” Mr. Deville said. "How she'd know that, I
have no clue.

“Oh, great.” Janelle’s stomach threatened to
reject the macaroni she’d had earlier. “So now you’re saying that
if I touch the ocean I won’t just become a hurricane, but a
Category Five hurricane? Oh. My. God.” She her hand over her mouth
in case anything came out—likely, considering her day. But her
stomach calmed down, and she asked the dreaded question. “What’s
Operation Reckoning?”

After a long, tense moment, Mr. Deville
asked, “Where do you want me take you?”

“You didn’t answer my question. What is it? I
think I ought to know since I’m the one needed for it.”

He stole a look back at her. “You’ve had
enough bad news today, and you don’t need any more. I suggest you
work on staying away from Andrina so that you never have to find
out.”

Traffic thinned as they headed out of town.
“You do realize why your dad’s taking you to the Bahamas?” Mr.
Deville asked. His tone was gentle, careful. "I'm assuming that you
do."

Gary shot her a warning glance.

“Yes.” It was the truth, and it made a sick
feeling swell inside of her. Janelle decided she had better pretend
she was going along with the Natural Law. If he found out she was
running away…well, her dad would be happy to get her back.

“We’re meeting him at the airport,” Gary
said. So he was back to life, and it lifted the mood in the car a
little. “He wants to get her to the ocean before Andrina can take
her. I’m going too, because she’s not exactly happy with me.”

“Exactly.” Janelle relaxed a little. Not one
word of this was a lie, at least.

“I knew you were a Tempest when you told me
about your house not taking any damage,” Mr. Deville said. “That,
and you mentioned your Bahamas vacation when you got your homework
from me. Your name’s also on the list
Surge
published this
year, so it was pretty easy to make the connection."

“Oh,” Janelle said. She wanted to retract to
some tiny point inside herself and hide.

"Who's your Tempest parent, anyway? Or
parents, I should say? Some people have one Tempest parent and
other people both. It can work either way."

Janelle stiffened. She shouldn't tell Mr.
Deville in case her father came looking for her at the airport. Her
dad had grown up in Palm Grove, so there was a good chance her
teacher at had least heard of him.

“For me, it's my mom. Annette." Gary's voice
cast a wall up in front of her, distracting Mr. Deville. "My
dad--he was human."

"Was?" she blurted, reminding herself to
thank him later.

Gary's silence was his only response as he
twisted around in his seat and stared out the window again. Janelle
leaned forward and gave him a pat on the shoulder. He still didn’t
look up.

Her teacher glanced in the mirror at her.
"Janelle, are you scared?" It was a complete change of subject, and
she was glad for it.

"Yes." There was no point in lying about that
one. "Kind of."

Her teacher stole a glance back at her. “This
is why a lot of Tempests keep this secret from their kids until
it’s time. It saves a lot of emotional upset. For someone like you,
Janelle, the transformation sounds horrifying, but you get a whole
new perspective once you go through it. It doesn’t feel great to
know you’ve hurt people even by accident, but if you’re decent,
you’ll give back. Don’t let Andrina and her cronies fool you. There
are
humanitarians among us."

A question had been burning inside her for
some time now, stamped there by her father's desperate pleas for
her to come back. "Do you die or something if you don't change when
it's your time?" She had to know, to make sure she wasn't making
some horrible mistake by running. But if his answer was a yes,
could she really turn back and let her dad take her to the
ocean?

Even Gary looked up at her question.