Indigo Awakening (The Hunted (Teen)) (24 page)

Gabriel sat alone. He didn’t move. He stared up at the ceiling that bathed him in vivid colors. When she sat next to him and slipped her hand into his, he shifted his beautiful eyes to her. In that moment, she forgot to breathe.

“Rain reminds me of my mother.”

Through the rumble of the storm, his voice captivated her as if it was the only sound in the room.

“She loved it, in all its forms. The magnificence of a dark storm, a gentle spring rain. It never scared her. My mother respected its power to cleanse and renew.” He squeezed her hand. “She shared the love of rain with me and taught me to dance in it.”

He smiled without any real joy. Something darker had a grip on him.

“My mother died in her car. It had been raining.” He heaved a sigh. “She’d run some errands and was coming to pick me up at a motel we were staying in. We were taking a break from the circus, visiting the Grand Canyon, actually. But it wasn’t the bad weather that killed her. It was my father.”

“How? What happened?” She clutched and kissed the back of his hand.

“He’d found out where we were and had sent men to take me. She knew what that would mean, that she’d never see me again. She couldn’t let that happen.” A tear ran down Gabriel’s cheek. He didn’t wipe it away. “She called me from her car. I barely had time to pack our stuff and hide. She’d been right. They came, but we had a plan to meet up later. That never happened. I had to hear about her death and see it on TV.”

“That’s awful. I’m so sorry.” Rayne knew what it felt like to lose everything. “How was your father connected to the accident?”

“It wasn’t an accident. State troopers said she’d been run off the road. Her vehicle had paint from another car on her rear bumper. They shoved her off a cliff and didn’t stop. As far as I’m concerned, she was murdered, Rayne. The investigation is still open with no suspects. My father had a convenient alibi, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t hire it done.”

Whatever rift had started with a father who didn’t understand his son now carried the bitterness of a lifetime of hate and suspicion. Gabriel stared into the flashing images over his head and breathed deeply until he could speak again.

“So rain carries memories of my mother. The way she lived, the way she died. I came here to feel her again.”

Benny’s death had touched Gabriel the way it had her, reminding them both of what they had lost, and grief took shape in countless ways. But Gabriel looked as if he had more on his mind than reopening old wounds. When he touched her cheek and kissed her under the virtual storm, she knew he would tell her.

“Lucas and Kendra have asked for a meeting with me before Benny’s funeral tomorrow. The others will be there, too.”

“What do they want? Did they say?”

“They have questions. Hell, so do I. It’s the answers I’m lacking.”

He shrugged and stared up at the clearing sky of a world washed clean. The fake storm had subsided. Gabriel had brought on the storm in the Serenity room to bring him closer to his mother. He had come for her guidance, any way he could get it.

“You’ll figure it out.” Rayne smiled, for real. “But it’s time to come clean, Gabriel. Whatever happens going forward, it doesn’t have to fall on your shoulders alone. Give them a choice and let
them
decide. Whatever comes next, you’ll do it together.”

Rayne already knew what she would do. She’d crossed Gabriel’s path because of Lucas. She’d stay and fight for the same reason. No one had the right to hunt these kids and treat them like animals.

Gabriel took a deep breath and grinned. He pulled her into his lap and held her in his arms, cradling her as if she were fragile. She breathed in the smell of his skin and stroked her fingers through his long hair.

“You’re brilliant,” he whispered.

His voice sent tingles across her skin, as it always did. When he raised her chin to kiss her, she felt and heard the distant rumble of a storm passing.

In truth, the storm was coming.

* * *

Frederick drifted through the shadowy corridors of the mansion and didn’t look back as Rafe followed him. He didn’t make his body solid, like some ghosts did. Frederick swirled like a faint mirage, nothing more than solemn vapor. He led Rafe to a room downstairs on the main floor, near the front entrance. When the butler got to the closed door to a room that looked no bigger than a closet, he turned and swept his hand toward the knob.

“Take as long as you need, dear boy.” Frederick didn’t wait for his answer. He vanished in the blink of an eye.

Rafe knew what he’d find on the other side of the door. Before he reached for the doorknob, he shut his eyes and took a deep breath. He felt a chill through his T-shirt and jeans, a cold that hadn’t only been from the storm outside. When he opened his eyes, he flung the door open. Nothing had prepared him for what he saw.

A small coffin the color of glistening copper had its lid open with Benny inside. His body lay in folds of white and he’d been dressed in a suit.
A real suit.
Dozens of candles had been lit and cast a pale glow on his little face. He almost looked alive, as if he were sleeping.

With just him and Benny in the room, Rafe let his tears fall. He couldn’t stop.

“Hey, little man.”

He bent down and kissed the boy on the cheek. Whatever doubts he had about what he would say to the only little brother he would ever have, he’d been wrong. It had always been easy to talk to Benny.

The Next Day—Afternoon

The day of Benny’s funeral, the mansion became a quiet place. Each kid grieved for him in their own way. Gabe didn’t feel a part of them, even though they didn’t block him. He was an outsider who had explaining to do. Since the attack in the tunnels, Lucas and Kendra had time to think about what they’d seen him do.

They’d asked for a meeting before the funeral. He stood before them in the great room, under the poster of his mother. He would need her strength. Lucas and Kendra asked about how he’d found them. Whatever he told them now, they would test him until they trusted him. That wouldn’t be easy for a guy with secrets.

For the first time, he’d be accountable to someone else.

“We saw what you did,” Lucas said. “None of us are as strong as you. How did you do all that?”

“I didn’t.
We
did it.” His answer was simple. Too simple.

“What are you talking about?” Kendra stood in front of him with her arms crossed. “What you did, I’ve never seen anything like that.”

Gabe sighed. He wasn’t sure he could explain if he didn’t understand it himself, but he had to give it a shot.

“I borrowed from all of you. Your strengths became mine, only magnified. It was...amazing.” He saw by the looks on their faces that he needed to say more. “Together we’re stronger than we are alone. It’s the best I can figure. I don’t know if this ability is mine or we can all do it, but a wise man once told me that our abilities are like muscles. We need to exercise and train them.”

He pointed to Kendra and said, “You have the amazing ability to track others like us. I can’t be sure, but I think that’s why my visions became more intense. The twins can tap into a person’s worst fear or make them crave pizza. Totally awesome, guys.” The twins grinned at him. “And like me, Raphael has an epic connection to the dead.”

Gabe almost lost it when Frederick waved to Raphael. The kid only rolled his eyes.

“And you, Lucas. I felt your connection most of all. It felt like whatever I imagined, I could amp it up because of you.”

The kids were paying attention now. They looked at one another and their chatter filled his head until Kendra tested him again.

“You knew the church name. How? What’s your connection?” she asked.

He wasn’t used to answering to anyone else on stuff he considered personal. He’d have to get used to it. Like Rayne had said in the Serenity room last night, none of this had to fall on him alone, but not flying solo complicated things, too.

“They’ve been looking for me. That night in the tunnels was the first time I’d surfaced in a while. They’ll be after me again.” He looked at Rayne when he said, “I don’t regret what I did. We need to take the fight to them. The church secretly hunts us and gets away with it because we can’t report what they do. They bribe people in power. We won’t know who to trust.”

“He’s right,” Kendra said. “Reporting them to the cops will only make things worse for us. That would put us in a spotlight we don’t need or want, but we can’t let them hunt us without fighting back. We’re outnumbered and we’re losing too many of our own.”

“But they have weapons and men willing to use them,” Lucas argued.

“We have the weapons we need...in us. We can train here, but no one will be forced to. That will be up to each of you. You decide,” Gabriel said, sounding more confident than he felt. Rayne had been right. Whatever they did going forward, they had to make that decision together.

“They have their army,” he told them. “We’ll have ours...and we can recruit more.”

That set the room on fire with the chatter inside his head. The debate raged. There were countless voices with questions and fears. He felt an adrenaline rush being joined to the collective in such a profound way. He’d never experienced it before, but Rayne looked completely lost. To her, the room was dead silent. She looked at him as if he’d told a joke that fell flat.

He loved that she looked sympathetic. He smiled at her and shrugged.

“If the church is secret about what they’re doing, how is it that you know so much about them?” Lucas asked.

Gabe had expected his link to the church to be questioned, but not what happened next.

“You’re questioning
his
connection to the church? What about yours?” Raphael spoke up for the first time. “Your sister works for those bastards. Why haven’t you told anyone about that, golden boy?”

All eyes fixed on Lucas.

“Is that true?” Kendra asked him.

Before Lucas said anything, Rayne defended her brother.

“Mia is our older sister. She works for the church, yes, but she had Lucas committed to a mental hospital and drugged. He escaped to get away from them. Any one of you would’ve done the same. There’s no conspiracy here.”

“All I know is that we were doing fine until they came after him,” Rafe argued. “Now Benny’s dead and we got no place to live.”

“I don’t mean to intrude.” Uncle Reginald spoke up. “But you can live here. Whether you choose to train or not, you have a home.”

Raphael stared at Gabe’s uncle as if he’d spoken in a foreign language. Trust wasn’t easy for him. Gabe knew how that felt. When Rafe took a deep breath, he let it go, but Gabe knew he wasn’t done.

He felt the kid’s rage and understood it.

“When Rayne told me about her sister, I freaked, too,” Gabe admitted. “It’s normal for us to have that reaction to anyone linked to that so-called church, but not everyone knows about how they hunt us. One man, Alexander Reese, is in charge of their North American operations. He’s here in L.A. These men work for him. I’m sure of it.”

“How is it that you have a name?” Kendra asked.

“It pays to know your enemy. For those willing to fight, you’ll know him, too,” he said. The room got quiet again. When the mind buzz died, a grandfather clock in the great room chimed the top of the hour. Everyone knew what that meant.

It was time to say goodbye to Benny.

“It’s time. Please follow me,” Uncle Reginald said, and he led the way.

* * *

Rayne didn’t know what heaven would be like, but the beautiful images flashing on the dome of the Serenity room were as close as she could imagine. Uncle Reginald had dazzling lights and stunning photographs in a slow spin over a small coffin.

He put on a show for Benny and he was the first to speak.

“No foot is too small that it doesn’t leave an indelible mark on this world. I did not have the pleasure of knowing Benny, but I wish that I had. I see how he is loved by each of you. Your love for him fills this room. I feel it. Benny will be missed.”

Uncle Reginald spoke from his heart. His rich baritone voice made for a solemn start to Benny’s funeral. Others stood and said what they wanted. Some had sweet, funny stories; others shared things that brought tears.

When it came time for Raphael Santana to speak, the room got still as he walked toward Benny’s coffin. He put his hand on the lid and shut his eyes, saying goodbye in his own way. When he pulled a small leather bracelet from his pocket and laid it on the casket, Rayne knew every heart in the room reached out to him, but she wasn’t sure how much he felt. Lucas had told her that he’d shut down to everyone. He’d severed his link to the hive and no one knew how long he’d punish himself.

Raphael was a beautiful boy with a fire in him that made her sad. He was the oldest, but there was a part of him that felt like a broken child.

“I didn’t have a little brother,” he said when he turned around. “I wouldn’t have wished my father on any kid, but God hit one out of the park when he made Benny.” A tear drained down his cheek. “I don’t know why some people get to live and others don’t. What happened to Benny wasn’t right. I can’t stand here and talk nice about him, ’cause I...I just want to hit something. I want someone to pay for what they did. Maybe someday I’ll be able to think about Benny and remember only the good stuff, but not today.”