Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series) (27 page)

A faint ringing sounded through the air.

Janelle backed away from the window. That
meant one thing. Andrina had discovered her escape. “Okay. That
doesn’t sound good. Let’s go.”

“It’s the fire alarm,” Gary said, gaze
darting back and forth. “She must’ve pulled it when she found us
gone. What faster way to wake everyone up? She’ll have them up
hunting for us.”

A hum washed through the boat as Deon started
it. The yacht lurched and righted itself as it backed away from the
dock. Janelle gripped the windowsill for support. They were out of
here.

The dock grew smaller as the boat turned
towards the exit. Shadows danced on the walls as figures raced out
of the entry tunnel.

Andrina led them in her gray suit. She
stopped in front of her ruined yachts, two of which were sinking
into the water, and stared after them. Others gathered around her,
indistinct figures in pajamas and suits. Kevin took off his
sunglasses and dropped them to the dock.

Deon steered them through the cave, and a
rock wall blocked Andrina and her cronies from view. "I hope I
never see you again," she muttered, meaning every word of it down
the core of her being.

Gray light surrounded the boat, but it was
the most beautiful light she'd ever seen. They were out. They burst
out of the cave’s mouth, leaving a trail of foaming water behind
them. A faint orange lined the horizon to the east.

Joey sighed in relief and Leslie sagged
against a folding closet door. Mr. Deville collapsed into the
booth, chest heaving.

Gary moved over, wrapping his arm around her
as if to hold her up. “You okay?” His hazel eyes were just as
gorgeous now, maybe even more so. It seemed that some of the
darkness inside him had cleared up, leaving a glow in its place. A
horrible chapter of his life had passed.

Janelle couldn’t get her quivering knees to
stop. Had Camellia waited five more minutes to bail her out, she
never would have made it off Alara. Well, at least not in the way
she wanted. She faced the woman she’d feared and loathed yesterday.
“Thank you.”

Camellia gave her a weak smile. “No problem.
I’ll have to take you out shopping sometime. I missed a lot of
years with you. Things could have been a lot different."

Footsteps approached and her father’s warm
breath blew against the back of her neck. Gary let go and he pulled
her close. “Janelle, I’m sorry I didn’t tell you anything. Most of
this is my fault.”

It was, but now wasn't the time for a guilt
trip, and some of this had been her fault, too. He'd gotten her out
of there. “It’s okay. I’m not mad. I understand why you did it,”
she said, hoping to end the Big Awkward Conversation now. She
didn’t want to discuss Andrina or the fact that the mother from her
photo had been a lie. The pain inside her needed to heal a bit
first. “Where did you get this boat?”

“One of Deon’s human friends let us borrow
it. We made the guy think we were going to miss some fishing trip
we’d planned for years, so he felt sorry for us.” His tone dropped.
“We need to talk more about the family thing later. You see, with
Andrina being your biological mother, there’s an implication that
I've had no choice but to prepare you for since you were very
young.”

There. He’d confirmed the worst. Janelle
couldn’t stop the words. “You lied about Mom."

He gave her a pat on the arm. “Tina
was
your mother, Janelle. Not biologically, but your mother,
and the only real mother you ever had. We met when I moved you up
to Michigan and got married. She loved you and wanted to raise you
as her own. Just because Andrina gave birth to you doesn’t mean
that she’s—”

“Faster!” Joey ran up the yacht’s hallway,
glasses crooked on his face. He stopped next to Gary. “They’ve
started the fishing boat and they’re coming out of the cave right
now. Doesn’t look good.”

“How far back? How many on board?” Her father
released her and disappeared down the hall, every inch commanding
and serious.

“I don’t know. A mile? It’s too dark to see.”
Joey pressed his face against the glass in an attempt to see.

Janelle and Gary joined him. She pressed her
cheek against the glass, praying that he was wrong. She couldn't
bear to get this far, only to fall back into that monster's
hands.

“Uh, oh,” Gary said.

He wasn't wrong.

A yellow searchlight glowed near the base of
the conical island. The eye to the sleeping cave monster had
opened.

A hand took her arm—Mr. Deville’s. “Come on.
We’ve got to remove the brainwashing. This could be the last
chance. Then if Andrina gets you, you won’t do what she wants.”

He was right.

“And how?” Janelle’s voice came out higher
than usual. “I can’t exactly sleep right now. This isn’t too
relaxing.”

“She’s right,” Camellia said. “Hypnosis can’t
work when you’re all tense. Here, I’ll go see if I can slow that
other boat down. That’ll help if they’re farther behind us. Hank,
you get the tapes ready.” She yanked the sliding door open and
disappeared outside.

Her father reappeared in the hallway. “Deon!”
he shouted. “Full power on this thing! We’re maybe half a mile
ahead of them.”

Deon shouted something back. Something about
the tone of his voice made Janelle’s stomach turn. It didn’t sound
good.

“What did he say?” she asked her father.

His lips pursed together. “Nothing. Come back
to the cot here. We’ve got this under control. Just lie down and
try to relax.”

“Something’s going on. Tell me!”

Her dad wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“Janelle, please.”

“Tell me.” A smoldering anger rose up through
her chest and spilled down into her fists, clenching them into
tight balls. She wasn’t going to be lied to. Not anymore.

Her father sighed. “It was a long journey
here and we couldn’t gas up at Alara because the alarm went off.
The yacht’s almost out of fuel. They’ll overtake us within an
hour.”

Janelle’s stomach clenched. An hour? That was
it?

“I tried to tell you all we needed to fuel
up,” Mr. Deville said, pacing up and down the narrow hallway.
“We’re going to have to fight.”

“I’ll help,” Gary said. He marched over to
stand beside her, determination shining in his eyes.

His presence made her stomach loosen up a
bit. Maybe they were right. She was on a boat with several Tempests
who actually knew how to use their powers. Among them was--

A wind whistled outside, then roared.
However, the boat didn't so much as rock. Camellia was sending it
at the fishing boat. It might work for a while. But Andrina had to
be pretty capable of fighting back, so this might not last. She
wished she were up there, fighting beside her, but the look from
her father was an automatic
no.
That, he was right about.
The control of wind was something she hadn't learned how to do yet
without having ocean water splash on her, and she couldn't take
that risk right now.

Janelle sucked in a deep breath as she sat on
the cot. She had to relax. It might not be possible, but she had to
try.

Her father seemed to have read her mind. He
took Gary’s place and leaned down towards her. He popped open a
drawer, which held a silver cassette player and several
batteries.

“Dad?” So he’d known about Operation
Reckoning, too. There was no other way he would’ve prepped this on
the way here. It softened her anger towards him a bit. Maybe he had
only been doing his best for her after all. Maybe.

“What are you doing?” Gary asked. “You sure
that’s going to work?”

He shoved a cassette in with a click. “My
mother can only hold them off for so long. We’re outnumbered. We’ve
got to get this done before she catches up." He turned his gaze to
her, the grays in his eyes serious. "And then when they get here,
you jump overboard. It’s the only way.”

Jump overboard. There was no getting out of
the transformation now. She might as well not do it Andrina’s way,
then. A strange sense of peace settled over her. It would be over
soon, and might not be as bad as she'd dreaded, provided this
worked at removing the other recording from her mind.

The pillow crinkled under her head as she
settled into it. Now for the hard part: drifting off. “Okay.
Ready.”

“Close your eyes and breathe deeply,” her dad
said. His voice trembled. He wasn’t sure about this.

Janelle did, but her pulse still raced in her
ears.
Breathe, Janelle. Control yourself
. But the wind still
roared outside and Deon started cussing. Leslie asked in a squeaky
voice if she was going to die. Gary told her that he didn’t
know.

“Quiet up there!” her father yelled. “Leslie,
we’ll protect you. Gary, go tell Deon to shut up.” He let out a
breath and lowered his voice. “Think of something happy, Janelle.
The time we volunteered at the soup kitchen. Your sixteenth
birthday party. Your future as a doctor.”

Doctor. Yes. If she didn’t kill half the East
Coast first.

Darkness swam inside her eyelids. She brought
up the image of herself, Leslie, and their friends at the skating
rink. The stuffed killer whale coming out of the claw machine. Her
mother, leading her around the yard to pick up Easter eggs. The
normal life she had left behind. Her heart slowed a little. She
forced her breath to slow.

Click
. A gentle hiss added to the
whistling of the wind outside. Her father’s soothing, soft voice
floated out of the cassette player. “Janelle, relax and listen to
me. Take a deep breath.”

She did. Her father stood and stepped away.
Would this even work? She wasn’t going to sleep, that was for sure.
And Andrina had played her message on her for hours. This one might
have to play even longer to erase that.

But they had nothing else. She’d better try
it.

“That’s it. Breathe out. Let all your tension
go out with your breath. You are calm and in control of
yourself.”

Janelle let her weight sag into the cot and
let the whistling of the wind fade into the background like it
didn’t matter. Maybe this would work after all.

“Incoming!” Mr. Deville yelled.

Janelle came to with a start and sat straight
up. The roaring stopped as if someone had choked off the wind.

A jolt ran through the boat. The tape player
flew off the counter slid down the hallway towards Gary. Everything
tilted. Her stomach dropped. Janelle toppled from the cot and
slammed against the cabinets. Pain raged through her shoulder as
she cried out. Boxes of crackers and pasta rained down to the floor
feet from her. “What is this?”

The boat righted itself. Cabinet doors
slammed back shut. Leslie broke into sobbing somewhere.

“Janelle. Get up. Andrina sent a huge wave
right at us.” Gary appeared above her and extended his hand. “I
think she’s trying to capsize us so you’ll change. Heck, we all
will if she does. She’d like that.”

“Crap.” Janelle stood and let Gary wrap an
arm around her, heart hammering. She waited for the wind to start
above decks again.

It didn’t. Only an ominous silence had taken
its place.

A cold lead seemed to spread through her
body. “My grandmother.”

She shot away from Gary and tore past Leslie,
who leaned against the wall with her arms folded. Her friend’s
whimpers faded behind her as bolted out of the cabin. Janelle
wanted to be there for her, and felt invisible ropes trying to pull
her back, but at least she knew Leslie was alive and unhurt. On the
other hand--

The sun hung over the horizon like the giant
red eye of a Cyclops, and the strongest tingle yet swept through
Janelle’s body. Something beckoned her closer to the sparkling
water. She had to release her power or she was going to go
insane…
No!
Gritting her teeth, she looked away, focusing on
a porthole as she ran down the deck. Gary’s footfalls thudded
against the deck behind her.

Her dad and uncle crouched down near the
railing. Camellia’s slippers stuck out from between them. “You’ll
be okay, Mom. Just hang in there. We’ll get this bandaged,” Mr.
Deville said.

Bandaged. Not good. Janelle pushed in between
them.

Camellia lay against the railing. A crimson
trail flowed down the left side of her face from a gash above her
temple. “Andrina’s…out of control. Now she’s hurting other
Tempests,” she said, looking up at her father with wet eyes.
“Forgive me for the arranged marriage, Lucas. I had no idea.” She
faced Janelle and blinked away the tears. “You deserve a better
mother.”

“Janelle! Get back below decks.” Her dad
pointed to the door. “You could get splashed if there’s another
wave.”

“Come on. He’s right." Gary took her arm.

The fishing boat was getting closer. Its
pulleys stuck up like the spines of some beast. A single figure
stood at the front as water parted around it.

Camellia groaned as she stood with Mr.
Deville’s help. What if she had a concussion? They couldn't leave
her here.

“We’ve gotta get her under, too,” Janelle
said.

“Then go. You bandage her and don’t come up
here again.” A faint growl crept into her father’s voice, growing
worse with each word. “I’ll hold them off. I don’t want you to see
me like this.”

The gray in her father’s eyes started to
swirl and twist around his pupils. No. She didn’t want to see him
like that. She turned away.

But not fast enough to miss the water rising
above Andrina’s fishing boat.

The breath caught in her throat as she bumped
into Gary. A mountain of water rose in front of it, blocking it
from view. Another wave. It rose and drew closer as if a giant were
rolling underwater. Thirty feet high…forty…it would drown the yacht
for sure. When that water crashed down she’d…she’d…