Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series) (21 page)

Without a word, she turned and vanished into
the yacht’s polished interior.

* * * * *

My mother died fourteen years ago.

All Janelle could do was lie on the bed and
repeat the thought to herself. It was the only thing that kept her
from screaming and pounding the mattress. She had sunk into a pit
so deep she might never get out again.

That monster isn't my mother, even if she did
give birth to me.

Gary got up—he hadn’t moved from her side in
an hour—and came back with an ice pack smashed against his bruise.
“Good thing she didn’t catch me getting in the freezer. She
would’ve given me another black eye to match this one. You want to
share this? You’ve got to have a headache by now.”

“Okay.” Yes, she had a headache, though she'd
hardly noticed until now. Janelle sat up and wrapped her arms
around her knees.

Dad only lied to keep me safe from this.

Gary pressed the ice pack up against her
temple. The cold seeped in through her skin, taking the headache
away for a moment.

“Thanks,” she said, swallowing the hurt
inside. Her mantras hadn't helped much in taking it away.

Somewhere up front, Andrina yelled at whoever
was steering the yacht to pick up speed. Whoever had to take her
wrath didn’t argue.

Was
Andrina really her mother? That
might be why she'd come to her school claiming she was a relative,
and why her father had dodged her questions about it on the
plane.

“Where’s Alara?” she asked Gary to distract
herself.

“Not sure.” Gary put the ice pack to his own
head and settled next to her, making the mattress sag. He was so
close…“I know it’s far away from other islands, maybe south of the
Bahamas. When I stole one of Andrina’s boats one time, I couldn’t
find any land anywhere. Her cronies caught me in less than a day.
Now she keeps all the keys and nobody can take a boat without her
permission.” The bed creaked as he shifted weight. “Ahhh. That
feels good.”

The weight of her situation crashed down on
her, tightening her chest. “So when we get there, we’re screwed.
She'll be free to do whatever she does to make me kill more
people."

“Exactly.” He stared at her with his good
eye. “Well, you can always jump in the ocean and change before she
gets a chance to brainwash you. Sorry.”

The weight became a cinder block, then a
mountain, as she mulled the words. Out on this yacht, there might
not be any other choices. Andrina must be counting on her to be too
scared to attempt it. “I'm not sure if I can, Gary. And you need to
get out of here more than I do. What if she kills you when we get
there?” Janelle winced at her words.

He stared at the ceiling. “There’s nothing I
can do about that.”

Janelle struggled to find the right thing to
say, and found it floating in her sea of panic. “You can get away.
If you change again, there’s no way they can catch you. And you
won’t turn back until you find land. All you have to do is jump off
the boat.”

He sat up with huge eyes—well, one huge
eye—and dropped the ice pack to the bed. “No. I won’t do it again.
It was bad enough last time. I only did what I had to do. It's
against the Natural Law to change when it’s not your turn.
That
rule, I actually agree with.”

“But you can control yourself. You did it
before. Just go somewhere that’s not too inhabited.” Her throat
started to hurt. She couldn’t bear the thought of Andrina hurting
Gary. He was the only person who understood this nightmare she was
trapped in. The only person she could talk to about all this
without being told she was wrong or acting stupid.

He sank lower, towards the bedspread. “Like
where? I’m not doing it again if it means killing anyone else.” His
head listed back. "I don't need to make my 'dad' any more right
about leaving."

His words flew into her gut like a knife.
She'd said the wrong thing, but couldn't stop now.

“But you’ll die if you don’t. And you can go
somewhere like Canada, where you’ll get weak before you reach land.
You could get out of killing people.”

He leaned closer. “And what about you,
Janelle? You’ll be stuck with Andrina. I won't settle for that
after all this.”

Tears welled up in the corners of her eyes.
For her, there was no way out. None. “She won’t kill me. I’m too
valuable to her.”
A breeding project,
she nearly added. “And
I am not letting her brainwash me.”

“She’s got ways. Andrina just tried to
indoctrinate me, but she saves the real potent stuff for Tempests
with loads of power. You remember Hurricane Joey from a few years
back?”

Janelle nodded. It had been on the news for
two weeks straight.

“I know Joey. He's from a family of powerful
Tempests, kind of like you are. Me, I'm a bit more average, so I
flew under the radar more. He swore he’d never hurt anyone when he
changed, but when his time got close Andrina made him listen to
some recordings in his sleep without realizing it. He wound up
killing over ninety people.”

A chill swept across her skin in the air
conditioning. “Recordings? That's it?"

Gary’s voice dropped as he forced his bruised
eye open. “They work, all right. Well, on Tempests, anyway, on the
part of us that…isn’t human. The part of us that can’t reason.”

Bile rose in Janelle’s throat. She wasn’t
hearing this. “I’ll find some ear plugs, okay? You should go.”

He took her arm. His grip sent little tingles
up her spine. “The only way I'm jumping off the boat is if you're
coming with me, then.”

A chill swept through her, chasing the
tingles away. No. She couldn’t. “Mr. Deville said that if I escape,
all this Tempest stuff will stop. There might still be a way.”

Gary’s hazel eyes widened, even his swollen
one. “You’re on a boat and headed to an island, Janelle. You’ll be
outnumbered. I know this is the last thing either of us want to do,
but it’s better than letting Andrina deal with you. Look, we can
dive in and change at the same time. It’s been done before, so I
know it’ll work.”

“No.” She grasped the pillow, squeezing it
tight. He made perfect sense, but she couldn’t give in. She
couldn’t become…become…“I can’t do this.”

Andrina broke out into yelling somewhere near
the front of the yacht. “Put away that magazine. I want us at Alara
by noon tomorrow. I have limited time to prepare my daughter for
the Operation. Full speed,
now.”

Janelle squeezed her eyes shut as her skin
crawled. She wished she could melt into the bed and vanish.

“Janelle, it’ll be okay. We’ll find a way to
ditch her,” Gary said, sliding his hand over hers. His fingers
nestled in between hers.

Warmth spread through her whole body. He was
holding her hand. Really, really holding her hand this time. Fresh
tingles washed over and through her. She faced him. What if—

Gary’s face slowly drifted towards hers.

And footsteps thudded closer and stopped at
the doorway.

Janelle lifted her head as Gary jerked back.
Andrina stood there, beckoning her with that fake smile. She looked
more like a shark than ever in her gray suit.

If she'd seen their near-kiss, she gave no
sign of it. “Come above decks with me, Janelle, and get some fresh
air. You’ve been in here all day,” she spoke with a voice like
satin. “I won’t push you into the water. Unlike your father, I’m
truthful.”

“Leave me alone.” Every good tingle she’d
just had vanished.

The high heels came closer, making muffled
taps on the carpet. Andrina wrapped her bony hand around her
forearm. Her skin tightened at her touch. “I insist.”

Janelle rose, eyes downcast, trying to hide
her racing pulse and her breathing that was about to go out of
control. This was it. Once above decks, she and Gary would have to
find a way to jump at the same time. She glanced at Gary, who
nodded. It was a go, then.

“I’d like to come up, too.” Gary said,
standing. “I need some fresh air.”

“You stay here,” Andrina snarled. “This has
nothing to do with you. I suggest you sit here and think about your
failure as a Tempest instead, and how you’re going to make up for
that.”

Janelle opened her mouth to say something to
Andrina, but an invisible hand of terror had seized her vocal
cords.

The honey coating returned to her captor’s
voice as she tugged on her arm. “Come on, Janelle.”

Janelle stared down at the floor as they
walked into the hallway, pretending that Andrina wasn't there. She
ran her free hand along the polished cabinets, focusing on the
patterns in the wood.

The hallway opened up into an oval-shaped
living room, where two leather couches faced each other. A glass
coffee table was littered with playing cards. Ivanna and another
woman took up one of the couches with the two black-haired men
opposite them that she'd never seen before. Andrina's crew or
attendants, she decided.

This was worse than she’d expected. Any hope
Janelle had that she and Gary could take control of the yacht
evaporated like a puddle in a desert.

“When am I getting paid?” Ivanna chirped.

Andrina stuck her nose up, pulling Janelle
towards a sliding door. It had gone completely dark outside,
revealing all the stars overhead. The aroma of the ocean invaded
Janelle’s nostrils the second they stepped out. A breeze tousled
her hair as she stepped up onto the deck and towards the railing
that she and Gary would go over in a minute.

After closing the door, Andrina released her
arm. She
was
counting on her being too afraid to jump, after
all.

All the muscles in her body tensed as she
resisted the urge to move away from Andrina. Gary would come out
any second, if he could fight past the crew inside.

Andrina stared down at the undulating water
below. The light from the windows illuminated her gray business
suit. “You hate what you are. I was afraid this would happen.”

Foam and bubbles floated and whispered past
the boat. The Tempest High Leader gripped the railing so hard that
her knuckles stuck out.

The words poured from Janelle’s mouth and she
couldn’t stop them. “You’re not my mother. Even if you gave birth
to me. All you care about is killing people.”

The ocean continued to whisper below. When
she jumped, would she kill hundreds even without being forced to
listen to those recordings or whatever was waiting for her at
Alara? But she'd have a better chance of not doing so if she went
now. Her father and uncle hadn't been that bad when they'd
transformed, despite being the sons of Camellia.

"I care about the safety of my people.”
Andrina raised her head to stare into the expanse of darkness. “I
know firsthand what can happen if we're discovered. My human mother
stabbed my Tempest father to death while he was taking a nap. And
then, she tried to kill me. She learned what we were and she hated
us.” Andrina faced her, the grays of her eyes deepening in the
yellow light. The railing started to warp—actually warp—in her
grip. “To this day, I remember the blood dripping from the knife
she was holding. I was seven years old. Seven.”

Janelle squirmed in discomfort under her
gaze. Was she telling the truth? When was Gary going to get out
here?

Andrina turned to Janelle with a swishing
sound. Her eyes blazed. “I’ll never forget what she said. ‘You’re a
monster and I can’t let you live.’” A pause. "Even at that age, I
knew I had to defend myself. I had to hurl my dresser at my mother
as she raised the knife. Needless to say, she didn’t get back up.
My question is, would your human
stepmother
have accepted
you and your father had she known the truth?”

“Yes, she would have," Janelle said without
hesitation as a dull pain filled her chest. Was that true? She
couldn't imagine her mother--her
real
one, always smiling
until the night she didn't come home--trying to murder her.

Andrina shot her a look of doubt that made
the pain squeeze tighter inside her. “After that, my Tempest
grandfather took me and raised me. I took over as Tempest High
Leader when he died twenty years ago. Now, I can do something about
the growing threat to our existence. You might call it murder,
Janelle, but do you think the world won’t want to kill us? It's the
reason that we can't wait any longer to act."

A chill swept through the air. Another tingle
stole over Janelle as the boat rocked, but she shook her head to
chase it away. “But…but not all people are like your mother. Some
people are, but not all of them. I know this. I have human friends.
I grew up around them.”

“Ah, but did they know what you are? And what
do you think they’d do if they did? I'm very concerned about your
safety, Janelle. I have your best interests at heart, and I'll have
to show you what I mean tomorrow."

Sweat gathered on the nape of Janelle’s neck.
Something didn’t sound right about this, as if there was a snake
crawling around inside Andrina's words, not quite visible.

Thumps and shouting erupted from inside the
yacht.

Her heart leapt into her throat. That meant
one thing. Gary was fighting his way through the other Tempests and
coming outside.

It was time.

The door slid open with a bang. Gary plowed
through the exit with Ivanna and the two men thudding up the stairs
behind him. “Now, Janelle!” He reached for her arm and seized
it.

An explosion of panic filled her chest, but
she ran, trying not to think about what was about to happen, or
what she was about to become, only that it was better than
this.

The railing drew closer and the dark ocean
lapped up and down, expecting them. Andrina’s heels clicked
somewhere. The salty breeze blew right into Janelle’s face, sending
the strongest tingle yet through her body.