Fading Into Darkness: The Under Series Book 2 (27 page)

“We, who's we?” the lady asked looking around. “There's another one of you?”
“Err...” I looked sideways at Kenzie who was still smiling.
“She can't see you?” I blurted out.
“Who are you talking to? That's it I'm calling the police.”
“No don't do that. I'm leaving. Look I'm walking away.” I said stepping away from the bush.
“The next time I see you or any other of your pot head friends in my garden I'm calling the police. I
know where you come from, using these back gardens as your own personal passageway to that pit
over the back.”
I assumed she was talking about the trailer park.
“Stay out of my bush!” she said loudly as I stepped onto the street. Kenzie followed me snickering.
“Well I for one will not be going anywhere near her bush.” he said.
I burst out laughing and looked back at her. It was as if she knew I was laughing at her and she
stomped off up the drive.
“Come on,” he jogged over to the side gate.
“So you can make yourself invisible, is that a death tracker thing? When were you going to tell me
about that? She thought I was crazy. Thanks for that by the way.”
“Yes it is and it only works on humans.”
“So you can't do that in front of me?”
“No. So before you freak out. No I haven't been watching you in the shower.”
“I wasn't thinking about you. I was thinking about Cam.”
“You think about Cam in the shower?” he gasped opening the gate for me.
“No you know that's not what I meant, stop twisting my words. I thought we were on a serious
mission here?”
“We are but you bring out that side of me.”
“The childish side.”
“Yeah that one.” he smiled.
“How old are you?”
“Not that old I'm pretty young compared to everyone else.”
“Which means what exactly? I get the feeling everyone is in the three digit age bracket.”
“Well I was born in....drum roll....1912.”
“That makes you,” I tried to work it out in my head but I was no good with numbers. “Old.” I
finally replied.
“Not that old. Don't let Shasta hear you calling her old. She would totally flip out. Anyway Roman's
like nine hundred and something. Tal's around six hundred and Ryu's even older than Roman.”
I followed close by his side as we walked around the trees keeping to the edge of the wall. The lawn
was trimmed to a perfect length, weeping willow trees swayed around in the gentle breeze. The
garden had a pond with a small water feature in the middle. Large pots spilled out with flowers and
red roses covered most of the garden. It looked almost too good to be true, a perfect front. No one
would ever guess it was a gateway to the underworld.
“So how old is Cam?” I asked.
“How old is old? Age has no limit when you're immortal. Let's just say he's been running things for
a while along side his father and before him there was no one else.”
“Where is Cam's father?”
“Another story for another day.”
I snagged my trouser on a rose bush, Kenzie came to my rescue and unhooked me.
“What's with all the roses? It's the same in Under.”
“Cam's mother liked roses, so I'm told.”
“You've never met her?”
“No she'd moved away by the time I moved in. But from what I'm told she was a bitch, according to
Roman anyway. Apparently she used to boss everyone around. She was a total queen B.”
“Why did she leave?”
“No idea.”
“What was her name?”
“Rose.” he said skipping ahead of me towards the garages.
“Jeez! How many cars do you guys have stashed round her?”
I counted eleven cars all lined up in a row. Different models but they were all black.
“A lot. If the guys downstairs want to go out and about they all need transport. There's more garages
round the back as well.”
“Well if you were going for low key it isn't working. This screams look at us we're part of a drugs
cartel.”
“We're in Oregon not Mexico and Cam's no drug lord.” he laughed.
“What if someone comes out and catches us?” I said looking over at the house.
“It would only be one of the fallen and they would know to keep their mouth shut if I told them to.”
“So is there sort of an order about who listens to who around here?”
“Kind of. I listen to Cam he's the boss when his father isn't here. Then I guess it goes us then fallen.
Fallen take orders from Cam but we have a higher status to them so they do as they're told if I had
to tell them to do something.”
“So they're Cam's little minions running the underworld?”
“Yes but a few of those little minions (as you like to put it) have a slightly higher influence. He's put
Senka in charge of certain things in Under which means Senka has certain sway down there. I
would be surprised if he hasn't got the other fallen searching the manor for you right now.”
“You're joking right?”
“I dunno he was getting really agitated earlier that he couldn't find you. That boy is totally in love
with yoooooooou!” He stopped outside the last garage.
“Where does Em fit into all this?” I asked still curious about him.
“He just got lucky. Cam's father gave Vivienne the Doctor job and she bought Em along with her.
He sort of leached himself onto Cam so he could do whatever he wanted around the place. But no
one really listens to him. But those two have known each other a really long time and Cam trusts
him. Ready?”
“Ready for what?” I asked looking at the green garage door.
Kenzie keyed in a code of numbers into the keypad on the wall and the door started to lift. We
walked into an empty garage and I mean empty it was completely bare except for the fluorescent
light that was hanging from the ceiling switched on. He pushed a switch and the door started to
close.
“What are we doing in here, I thought we were heading for the elevator?”
“We are.” He smiled and walked over to a different switch. He pushed it and the floor started to
move. My reflexes kicked in and my arms went out to balance myself even though I wasn't falling.
Kenzie laughed. “Don't panic it's not an earthquake.”
The light above swayed and I had the weird sensation we were moving downwards.
“Is this another elevator?” I asked.
“Yes, the back entrance so to speak. How do you think we managed to get cars down there?”
“Huh, I hadn't thought of that.”
“Anything the guys want up here they have to take down there themselves. If you've been to
Brackelburn then you've seen how behind with technology they are. I still can't believe Senka risked
taking you out the gates like that. That guy has balls.” he said looking at his cell.
“They didn't even have electric. How come the manor has electric but not the village?”
“The manor is connected to Rose Cottage.”
“Em must get some pretty hefty bills.” I joked.
“You have no idea but Cam foots the bill.”
The garage suddenly came to a clunking stop.
“We have arrived.” he said theatrically. “Now move to the side out of view, while I check no one is
around.”
He pushed another switch and the door slowly went up, he stepped outside and nodded back at me
signalling it was clear. I walked out and looked around. I was back in the manor gardens.
It was dark outside, the only light was coming from the small garden lights twinkling in the distance
and I could see a couple of the manor lights still on inside. The familiar sound of crickets and frogs
filled the night air. I had spent so long trying my best to hate this place because I thought it wasn't
normal that I hadn't realised how much I actually loved it.
“You need to get out of these clothes as soon as possible.” he said zipping my hoodie zip up higher.
“Come on I'll walk you in. If anyone asks about your clothes say they're mine. We are kind of the
same size.”
We walked along the path and I veered off to the side of the manor.
“Hey, what are you doing? Inside is this way.” he said sticking his thumb in the other direction.
“Shortcut.” I said looking up at the trellis deciding where to start.
“You're going to climb up the trellis?” he asked.
“Yeah, it's how I got in the other night with Senka. Kenzie it's fine, it's a piece of cake.”
“Well I'm going to wait down here encase you fall, then you can squash me like a piece of cake. If
you fall at least I should break your fall.”
“I'm not going to fall.”
“Whatever you say Tarzan.” he said pulling out his cigarettes.
I climbed up much quicker than before, I found my footing easily and soon made it to the top and
swung my legs over my balcony.
“Kenzie,” I whispered looking over the wall.
“Boo!” he said from behind me making me jump. I spun around to him laughing.
“I'm going to enjoy doing that to you from now on.”
“You're going to give me heart failure. Next time warn me.”
“No way that's the fun part and I can't warn you when I'm going to appear, it's not like I can send
you a postcard to let you know I'm coming.” he joked taking a drag on his cigarette looking at his
cell screen.
“You going to meet Em now?”
“Yeah just
googling
where Blue Murder is? But of course nothing is coming up because anything
on the web about Heaven's point has been wiped.”
“Why?”
“Because Cam likes to keep the town hidden as much as possible. Don't want too many people
moving to the town and getting suspicious.”
“Suspicious?”
“Ruby you're living under a town that is mainly populated with fallen. Fallen that don't age, it tends
to rise suspicion.”
“Don't you have
Sat Nav?
” I asked.
“I don't have a car.” he laughed looking at me.
“Right, no car cause you don't need one. Can't you just pop up at Blue Murder like you did on my
balcony?”
“It doesn't work like that. I have to know beforehand where I'm going or I end up in the most
random places. Say if I wanted to go to England, I would fade there but I would appear anywhere at
random. I need a destination or an address to be more specific. But it looks like I'm going to be
hopping from one street to the next to find this place.”
“So we get WI-FI down here?” I asked looking over his shoulder.
“Yes but I didn't tell you that.”
He took one final drag on his cigarette and stubbed it out in the ashtray on the table.
“I take it smoking doesn't affect your health if you're immortal?”
“Nope. It's just a bad habit.”
“Kenzie what are we going to do? How am I meant to carry on pretending everything is fine when it
isn't?”
“I don't know but we will figure something out like I keep telling you. You're going to have to carry
on pretending everything is dandy until we come up with a plan.” he said hugging me goodbye. He
kissed me on the side of my face smiled at me then faded away.
I changed out of my clothes but didn't take them back to the sewing room. I put them in the bottom
of my chest under a blanket. I took a shower and washed away the smell of smoke and changed into
a clean nightdress. I sat in the dark with my legs pulled up in my bed, expecting Senka to burst
through at any minute. The longer I sat there the more agitated I became. The thought of seeing
Senka had me feeling like a nervous wreck. I couldn't understand why I suddenly felt like this, like I
wanted to hide from Senka. I couldn't face him. I think it had something to do with the way I felt
about Jessie. I felt as though something was eating at me from the inside out and I think it was my
feelings for Jessie.
I couldn't stay in here any longer. I didn't know what I was feeling but I knew I couldn't face Senka.
He'd probably come looking for me first thing in the morning. I grabbed my dressing gown and
slipped it on and quietly opened my bedroom door, inching it open. After I was certain it was clear I
walked as fast as I could without breaking into a run. The guard at the front door looked surprised to
see me so late but he smiled and opened the door for me anyway without saying a word to me. I
crossed the gardens, lifting my long dressing gown off the dewy grass and walked along the
shingled drive and passed the cottages. A couple of them had lights on inside but most of them were
dark. I counted the number of cottages until I came to Kenzie's. I opened the little fence and it
creaked loudly. My plan was to sit around until I saw Kenzie's bedroom light on then I would chuck
pebbles at his window. I sat down at the patio table hoping he wouldn't be too long. I would have let
myself in, except Kenzie didn't live on his own.
The front door opened and light spilled out onto the doorstep.
“What are you doing?” Shasta asked.
She was barefoot and dressed in a hot pink babydoll nightdress.
“I was waiting for Kenzie.”
“He's not here.”
“I know. That's why I'm waiting for him.”
There was a long awkward pause and I half expected her to go back inside and shut the door.
“Well you can wait inside.” she said leaving the door open for me.
I followed her inside and she sat down on the couch tucking her legs up and pulling a blanket over
herself.
“It's just me here tonight.” she said picking up the remote.
I nodded and sat on the round basket chair. The front room was painted deep red and had all sorts of
random things hanging on the walls from tribal masks to a samurai sword. She was watching
The
Vampire Diaries
on DVD. I wasn't sure how I knew what she was watching, but I somehow knew
that was what it was called. I recognised it even though I couldn't remember it.
I settled down and watched the programme but I wasn't really paying attention to any of it.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
I looked over at her. “Talk about what?”
“Kenzie told me what's happened.”
“How? I thought he hadn't been back here. He's with Em, did he phone you?”
“No. It's a twin thing.” she said reaching for the bowl of popcorn. “Want some?” she asked.
I reached over and grabbed a handful of popcorn and sat back in the chair.
“So you talk to Kenzie with your mind?” I asked.
“Yes. He's just filling me in now.”
“Is he with Em?”
“He is. Apparently Em's boring him to death and he wants to know if he can leave yet? He says hi
by the way.”
I smiled not to sure how I felt about Shasta knowing everything. But if Kenzie had told her it was
because he trusted her.
“He wants to know what you're doing here?” she asked.
“I don't want to face Senka at the moment. So I'm hiding.”
“Fair enough.” she replied.
Her cellphone started vibrating on top of the coffee table. She picked it up and flipped it open.
“Hi Tal.....just watching vampies,” she said answering her cell.
She stood up and went into the kitchen. I heard the fridge door open and close, then she popped her
head round the door.