Finding Sky (22 page)

Karla passed around the plate of biscuits, trying to break the tension. ‘Leave the poor girl alone, you three. No one has to sing if they don’t want to.’

But I did. Underneath the alarm, I knew that as a musician I would love to sing, use my voice as another instrument.

‘Come on, I’ll sing with you.’ Zed held out his hand.

‘We’ll all sing,’ suggested Uriel. ‘ "Joy to the World"?’

‘I’ll play my sax,’ I prevaricated. My mum had dropped it by earlier, knowing I needed music as a comfort when I was distressed.

The Benedicts then proved they not only sang but they harmonized as well as any choir I’d heard. Even Trace ventured a few bass notes without disgracing himself.

At the end, Zed gave me a hug. ‘You’ve a great touch on the sax. You know it’s the closest instrument to a human voice.’

I nodded. My tenor sax had been a way of singing without it actually being me. It might be close but I sensed it wasn’t quite enough for Zed. He wanted everything and knew I was holding back.

Zed gave up his bedroom to me that night to bunk with Xav. Despite my anxious state of mind, I was so mentally exhausted, I managed to sleep, the first really unbroken rest I’d had since my kidnapping. I woke the next morning to find my mind had been working in the night to sort itself out like a computer going through a defragging process. Having stumbled past my early memories, I remembered everything about Las Vegas. Kelly had taken me apart bit by bit. He’d made me think such terrible things about Zed and Xav, sprayed his graffiti all over my mind—I hated him for that. But now I was back in charge; I could tell truth from falsehood and that was worth celebrating at least. Desperate to share the discovery, I rushed to find Zed.

‘Hey!’ I burst into Xav’s room which was next door. Zed was still zipped up in a cocoon of a sleeping bag on the floor, Xav sprawled on the bed, mouth open, snoring. ‘Zed!’

‘W-what?’ He scrambled out and grabbed me close, assuming we had to be under attack. ‘What’s happened?’

‘I know who took me! I remember it all.’

Xav tumbled out of bed. ‘Sky? Wha’s’matter?’

I suddenly became conscious that I was standing there in nothing more than a long T-shirt and knickers. I should have stopped to put on more clothes.

‘Um, can you get Trace and Victor, Zed?’ I asked, edging back. ‘I’ve got something to tell them.’

Zed had had time to surface from sleep. He grinned and patted my butt. ‘Go put on my dressing gown. I’ll get them out of bed and meet you in the kitchen. Mom and Dad will want to hear this too.’

I told them what I remembered over a cup of tea—my English drinking habits surfacing when I felt most uncomfortable. The memories were frightening: the hotel, Daniel Kelly forcing images into my head, the son circling me like a blubbery great white shark.

Victor recorded what I said, nodding as if I was confirming things he had suspected.

‘Another family of savants outside the Net,’ mused Saul when I’d finished. ‘Ones with no soulfinders to add balance. And they had O’Halloran on the payroll. Sounds to me that there’s more out there than we thought.’

‘I know how to manipulate people’s minds,’ said Victor, tucking the recorder in his pocket, ‘but I would never think to do it to such an extent.’

‘That’s because Kelly’s evil and you’re not,’ I suggested. ‘I’m not joking when I said it was like brain mugging. He stole from me, trying to make me hate you.’ I reached for Zed’s hand under the table. ‘The pictures are still there in my head even if I know they’re false.’

‘Have you heard of a gift like the son’s before?’ Zed asked Saul, squeezing my fingers in reassurance. ‘I don’t like the way he went after Sky, making everything worse.’

Saul rubbed his chin in thought. ‘The Ute talk of people who thrive on the emotion of others. They are the parasites in the savant world.’

‘And the daughter, what can she do?’ asked Trace.

‘Maybe she has a gift with shields—at least she talked about breaking through mine but it wasn’t strong enough to stand up to Daniel Kelly. He’s very powerful. I resisted for as long as I could.’

‘Probably longer than she expected,’ commented Victor. ‘And it didn’t take properly, did it? You questioned all the time.’

‘Are you going to arrest him?’

‘Ah.’ He sipped his coffee. ‘The thing is, Sky, this isn’t evidence that I can use to apprehend Daniel Kelly. He’s a powerfulman; his money buys a lot of silence. No judge would accept your account, especially after the confused version you’ve already given to the Las Vegas police accusing others.’

‘Zed and Xav.’

‘Yeah. They dropped their investigation when I proved that they couldn’t have had anything to do with your abduction, but it discredits you as a witness.’

‘I see. So there was no point me telling you all this?’

‘Of course there’s a point. We have the truth now and it ties up the things we didn’t understand or couldn’t know. It is invaluable that we are aware that there are other savants out there working on the dark side.’ He curled his lip ironically at the Hollywood echo. ‘Yeah, we have a dark side too in the savant world. We could’ve walked into all manner of traps if we’d remained in ignorance. And it raises the possibility that the mole in the FBI does not even know they’re doing it. Daniel Kelly could have got to one of my colleagues and forced them to betray us. I’ll have to review who’s had contact with him.’

I felt better to know that I had been of use. Revived by this thought, I checked the clock: seven thirty.

‘You know something? I want to go to school today.’ I’d give anything to feel normal again—to be with friends who couldn’t change my thoughts, read my mind, or make things explode. It would also delay having to have the big conversation with Zed that I knew was coming.

‘What?’ Zed rubbed his rough chin. ‘You have the perfect excuse to miss class yet you want to go?’

‘I don’t like skiving. It makes me feel as if I’m sick, as if I’m letting Daniel Kelly win.’

‘Well, if you put it like that, then we have to go. I’d better get ready. Man, I didn’t bother to revise for my physics test thinking I’d be with you here today.’

Saul frowned. ‘If you’re using Sky as an excuse to duck work, Zed …’

Zed was up and away. ‘Meet you down here in twenty minutes, Sky.’

‘I’ll just let my parents know what I’m planning.’

Sally and Simon were really happy that I felt well enough to face school.

‘You were absolutely right, darling,’ bubbled Sally over the phone, ‘you needed a change of scene and the Benedicts were the best place for you to go.’

‘But I’ll come back home tonight.’ Being here was too painful as I’d made up my mind to reject the savant world.

‘Wonderful. We’re planning a treat for you—a little trip.’

‘Not Vegas?’ I groaned, remembering Simon’s new idea.

‘If you’re feeling better, then we should put the bad memories to bed—see what the city has to offer.’

‘I don’t want to move there.’

‘Nor do I, darling. But you know Simon, he has to follow this to the end and then he’ll decide our way in any case.’

I had no desire to go back to a city holding the Kellys. ‘This woman who has got in touch: who is she again?’

‘Mrs Toscana—a friend of Mr Rodenheim apparently.’

‘What hotel does she manage?’

‘I forget. Circus Circus was it? Something like that.’

It rang no bells but the coincidence was too suspicious; I decided I’d mention the approach to Victor just to be sure. ‘OK, Sally. See you later.’

 

I walked into Wrickenridge High at eight thirty flanked by Yves and Zed. It felt strange: I’d only been away for a few weeks but it could have been months. As I anticipated, I attracted guiltily intrigued stares. I didn’t need to read their minds to know what they were thinking:
There she is—the girl who was kid
napped. Cracked up, we hear. Gone crazy.

‘That’s not true, Sky,’ murmured Zed. ‘No one thinks you’re mad. They understand.’

We walked into the office to register my return. Mr Joe practically leapt the desk to give me a hug.

‘Little Sky! You’re back! We’ve all been so worried!’ He wiped a tear from his eye and sniffed, part genuine, part enjoying the drama. ‘Are you quite sure you are ready?’

‘Yes, Mr Joe.’

He gave the Benedicts an assessing look. ‘You’re going to make sure she’s all right?’

‘Yes, sir,’ promised Zed.

‘You do that.’ Mr Joe handed me a card to take to my form room. ‘Now get along with you. You don’t want to be late on your first day back.’

And that was what it proved to be like: everyone was bending over backwards to help me settle in again. Even Sheena and her Vampire Brides were nice to me as if, like a spun glass bauble, I might shatter if they said anything cruel. Weirdly it made me miss their stupid bunny comments. I had got behind on all subjects but rather than present this as a problem the teachers organized ‘catch-up’ packs for me and students offered me the use of their notes. Tina had already photocopied hers. It dawned on me that somewhere along the way I had been accepted as belonging to the school and they were looking out for me as one of their own.

At lunch, I went along with Zed to the music practice. I wasn’t expecting to do any more than watch but Mr Keneally was having none of it. He put me back on piano.

‘But the concert’s next week!’ I protested.

He produced a score from his bag with a flourish.

‘You’re right. Plenty of time to learn the piece I picked out for you.’

‘You’re expecting me to perform on my own?’

I looked round the room hoping to find some support from my fellow students but even Nelson was grinning at Mr Keneally’s tactics.

‘You were expecting not to? Why learn an instrument if you don’t want to be heard?’ asked the teacher.

I didn’t think he’d understand the pleasure I took in playing for myself so I kept quiet about that. ‘I’m not sure I’m feeling up to this.’

‘Nonsense. Best response to a hard knock like you’ve had is to fight back.’

I suppose I shared that philosophy. ‘OK. I’ll have a look at the music.’

Mr Keneally moved on to the violins, saying over his shoulder. ‘You’d better do more than look. Your name is already on the programme. I told Nelson to put it back on as soon as I heard you’d come to school this morning.’

Victor was lounging against his car at the end of school, waiting for us to emerge. He had some bad but not entirely unanticipated news for me.

‘Maria Toscana—better known as Maria Toscana Kelly.’ He displayed a photo of Daniel Kelly’s daughter on his laptop as we sat in the back seat of his Prius. ‘She married an Italian Count but she dumped him two years ago and joined Daddy’s empire. Lucky escape for him, I’d say.’

So my instinct had been right. ‘They’re trying to get to me through my parents.’

‘And through you to us. The Kellys’ score with the Benedicts has grown longer since we took out two of their men at the warehouse. It might be the lead we’re looking for.’

Zed’s arm was draped around my shoulders. He now sat up straight, alerted to the dangerous situation that was brewing.

‘You can’t use Sky and her parents in this, Vick.’

Victor shut the lid of the laptop. ‘We’re beating our heads against a brick wall at the moment, not least on the whereabouts of the two escapees. The whole family should be behind bars, but we can’t even keep those we put there under lock and key. It’s frustrating to say the least.’

‘What do you think I can do?’ I asked.

‘I had in mind that you could wear a wire when you meet Maria Toscana Kelly.’

‘But she’ll be walking into a trap!’ protested Zed. ‘Vick, she’s not doing that.’

‘Not if we know about it first—then we can reverse it, catch them instead. These people won’t stop coming after us until we get them. I’m thinking of her as well as us—she’s one of us too.’

I toyed with the straps of my schoolbag. I could help the Benedicts if I did this. If nothing was done, they’d never be able to breathe freely. It was the least I could do as I had been increasingly panicking about the savant thing and was coming to the conclusion that the best thing I could do—the safest—was to run. I’d have to tell Zed that I had no intention of being anything more than his temporary girlfriend. Very soon I’d go back to England and leave the savant world behind.

‘Don’t listen to him, Sky,’ Zed said softly.

‘But I can help.’

He looked resolute. ‘I’d prefer to know you’re safe and well even if it means that the danger doesn’t go away for my family.’

‘What’s the use of that? We’ll all be in a kind of prison—one run by Daniel Kelly.’

‘Oh God, Sky, don’t do this to me.’ Zed put his forehead to mine, his distress reaching me in black waves shot through with lightning flashes of silver.

He was so quick to protect me; it was about time he allowed me to return the favour. I wasn’t the frail damsel in distress he seemed to think; I had my own power, my own agenda. If I couldn’t be the brave partner he needed, the least I wanted was to make sure he and his family would never be harmed by these people.

‘No, I won’t be doing it
to
you, I’ll be doing it
for
all of us—and because it’s the right thing. I don’t want it on my conscience that I did nothing when I had a chance to make a difference. Who else will Daniel Kelly mind-mug if I don’t help stop him?’

‘Vick!’ pleaded Zed. ‘You can’t let anything happen to her.’

Victor nodded solemnly. ‘I promise. She’s one of us, isn’t she? I wouldn’t let those creeps get us, so I won’t let them touch Sky. And she won’t be going in without protection.’

Zed was still unconvinced. In some ways he was like my parents, seeing me as too delicate to face the threats out in the world. I wanted to prove him wrong. I could handle this.

‘What kind of protection?’ I asked Victor.

Zed wasn’t having it. ‘Sky, just shut up. You’re not doing this. I’ve seen what these people can do—I’m not letting you get messed up in that.’

I thumped him in the ribs—hard. ‘You have no right to tell me to shut up, Zed Benedict. You act like I have to be kept in cotton wool. I’ve seen bad stuff too—you know I have.’

‘Not like this. I don’t want it touching you.’

‘So it’s OK for you to fill your head with these horrors, but not me?’

‘Well, yeah.’

‘That’s just stupid—and sexist.’

‘Zed, we need her,’ added his brother.

‘Keep out of this, Victor,’ I snapped.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

I glared at them both. ‘I’ve been wanting to say this to you for some time now. You need help, Zed, help coping with the stuff your family dump in your head. I know it makes you angry and frustrated and you take it out on other people, like the teachers, because you can’t reach the people who did the bad stuff …’

Zed tried to cut me off. ‘Just a moment, Sky …’

‘No, you wait a moment, I’m not finished. I happen to know rather more than most about what bad experiences can do to your head and you need time to sort yourself out without Kelly’s threat hanging over you. So to give you that, I’m going to Las Vegas to … to kick Daniel Kelly’s butt.’

‘Well said, Sky,’ Victor applauded as Zed glowered at me.

‘Now, back to business,’ I said briskly. ‘What protection did you have in mind?’

‘We’re not finished here,’ growled Zed.

‘Yes, we are. Victor, you were saying?’

Victor grinned at his brother. ‘The lady’s made up her mind, Zed. I’d drop it if I were you. Sky, I’ll work with you on your shields. Last time, they were pretty weak. Bedroom walls, right?’

I nodded.

‘This time it’ll be Windsor Castle thick, rings of protection, OK?’

I smiled. ‘OK.’

‘And I have a few ideas of what you can do to that scum, Sean, if he goes sniffing around your emotions.’

‘Even better.’

Victor patted my hand. ‘I like you, Sky. You’re a fighter.’

‘I am, aren’t I? Hear that, Zed? No more Bambi comparisons. I’m a Rottweiler—with a temper.’

‘A very small Rottweiler,’ said Zed, still not convinced.

The biggest issue as the weekend approached was how much my parents should know about the set up. As a mother herself, Karla was in favour of full disclosure; I was against, knowing they’d immediately ban me from going and pull the meeting, tipping off the Kellys that we were on to them. Victor agreed with me; in the end it was decided that he should have a talk with Sally and Simon about the possibility of those behind the kidnapping still being out there, without actually naming Maria Toscana Kelly.

On Friday evening, my last day before the trip, I lay curled up on the sofa at the Benedicts’ house next to Zed while he watched baseball. He had an arm around me, the other digging into the large bowl of popcorn. Everyone else in the family had made themselves scarce, knowing that Zed wanted this time alone with me before sending me off to Vegas in the morning. Less interested in the mysteries of baseball than studying him, I gazed at the curve of his neck, the line of his jaw, and the slope of his nose. How could anyone be so outrageously … well, the only word I could come up with was ‘hot’? It didn’t seem fair to the rest of us tepid mortals. I thought he was too hooked by the game to notice my study, but I was wrong. He started to laugh.

‘Sky, you’re being sappy again.’

‘Is sappy the same as the English soppy?’

‘I guess.’

‘But I like looking at you.’

‘I’m trying to watch baseball here—it’s, like, a sacred pursuit.’

I snuggled closer. How much longer would I be able to do this? ‘I’m not stopping you.’

‘You are. I can feel your eyes on my face almost as if you were touching me.’

‘You’ve got a very nice face.’

‘Why, thank you, Miss Bright.’

‘You’re welcome, Mr Benedict.’ I waited a moment, then whispered. ‘Now you’re supposed to say “And yours isn’t bad either.”’

He removed his attention from the screen to look down at my upturned face. ‘There’s a script for this? What, in “Romance 101”?’

‘Uh-huh. One compliment demands one in return.’

He wrinkled his brow in thought. ‘Well then, Miss Bright, you have a mighty fine … left ear.’

I pelted him with a handful of popcorn.

‘I blew it?’ he asked innocently.

‘Yes, you did.’

He removed the ammunition from my reach, kicked his legs up on the sofa and pulled me on top of him so I lay with my head on his chest, toes touching. I traced little circles on his chest, enjoying his shiver of pleasure. He was so different from me—strong where I had always been slight.

‘That’s better. Then let me say, Miss Bright, you have the most beautiful left ear, right ear and everything in between that I have had the privilege of seeing. I’m particularly fond of your hair, even though it does get everywhere.’ He brushed a strand off his mouth.

‘Well, if you do insist on kissing it.’

‘Yeah, I do insist. I’ll have to get it written into the constitution as my personal inalienable right. I’ll send a letter to the president tonight.’

‘Hmm.’ I turned my head to the screen. ‘What’s the score?’

‘Who cares?’

Now there was the right answer.

A few minutes of just lying together passed. I felt at peace, despite what was waiting tomorrow. Complete. But then, idiot that I am, I had to chisel at the harmony and let the first crack develop between us. ‘Zed?’

‘Hmm?’

‘Don’t you think this attempt to get me back to Vegas is, well, a bit obvious?’

I felt him tense. ‘What do you mean?’

‘The Kellys—Daniel Kelly and Maria at least—they struck me as being clever. Surely they know you would still be keeping a lookout for me? They’d expect you to be suspicious of an invitation out of the blue like this.’

His fingers stroked along my spine, sending little electrical pulses zipping throughout my body. ‘Yeah, you’ve got a point. So what does that mean?’

I shrugged, wishing I could concentrate on the lovely sensations he was provoking rather than fixate on my anxious thoughts. ‘I can’t work it out. Can you see what’s going to happen?’

He was silent for a moment. ‘No, I can’t. I see you in Vegas—a flash of a casino—but it doesn’t go any further. Like I said, I don’t control what I see and with you and my family, at this distance from the events, there are too many variables to get a clear picture.’

‘What if they’re using me to draw your family in again? They might guess Victor will be on hand to protect me. I might be leading my parents and your brother into real danger.’

‘You forget to mention yourself. You know I’m against you doing this. If you’ve got doubts, it’s not too late to back out.’