Tempest (#1 Destroyers Series) (22 page)

Gary leapt over the railing.

She started to go down with his weight, but
another hand seized her shoulder from behind, immobilizing her. Her
shoulder screamed as Gary's grip broke, pulled down by gravity.
Janelle yanked her arm back just in time to watch Gary plummet to
the water with a splash.

Janelle backpedaled from the rail, pulled by
her captor's hand. Gary would change any second now, but at least
he had escaped. Andrina wouldn’t kill him.

Another small splash sounded from the water.
Then, a cough.

Gary gripped the ladder on the side of the
yacht as bubbles foamed around him, hair plastered to his head. He
spit out some water and looked up at her. His eyes showed no trace
of storm clouds. No breeze snapped through the air, unlike the time
at the beach. But that didn’t make any sense.

“It…it’s not working!” he shouted. “I can’t
even feel anything. You have to jump in before I can change.”

“She’s not going anywhere just yet,” Andrina
clamped her hand down harder on Janelle’s shoulder before she could
move. “Now climb up here and get dried off, before I decide to
break your neck and feed you to the sharks.” She snapped her
fingers at Ivanna and the two men., who were standing at the
doorway inside. “Take him inside and keep an eye on him.”

Gary flopped down on the deck, defeated. The
ocean gathered around him in a puddle.

They had failed. She shouldn't have waited
for him. Now, Andrina and her attendants would make sure they
didn't leave their room.

Ivanna took one of his arms while one of the
men took the other. Gary stared down at the decks as they led him
away.

Sickness bloomed in her stomach. Mr. Deville
had been right. The ocean’s hurricane machine had stopped because
it was waiting for her, and no Tempest could change until she did.
She'd never imagined that it would prevent them both from
escaping.

“Come inside, Janelle.” Andrina said in that
fake sugary voice. “And don’t worry about your boyfriend. I don’t
want to waste a single Tempest’s powers when the war begins."

“Don’t talk to me.” Once inside, she broke
from her grip and burst across the carpet to the rear bedroom. Gary
was nowhere in sight.

She fell onto the bed, pulling the covers
over herself in case Andrina came after her. Her heart raced.

I should have jumped first.
But she
couldn't have risked leaving Gary.

Her breath grew hot around her. Everything
had gone wrong. Everything.

The hum of the boat slowly lulled her heart
rate down. The lights dimmed and Andrina barked an order at someone
to make sure she and Gary didn’t go above decks. Ivanna complained
that she hadn’t gotten her reward yet.

Silence fell over the yacht. Then feet
shuffled in the next room. One set grew louder and Janelle pulled
the covers tighter around her, squeezing her eyes shut. Andrina was
coming back. If that monster tried to tuck her in or anything,
she’d scream until--

“It’s me,” Gary whispered from somewhere out
in the darkness.

"Good," she said, uncovering herself. His
silhouette sat on the edge of the bed.

“Look, I’m sorry."

“It was my fault you didn’t escape,” Janelle
emerged from the soft covers with a rustling sound. “I should've
remembered what Mr. Deville said. Now we both can't get out of
here."

Gary sat on the edge of the bed, staring down
at the floor. “Don't blame yourself. A lot of things could have
gone wrong with that. We're outnumbered here."

“But now what?”

Gary got off the bed. One of his joints
popped. “You're supposed to be even stronger than Andrina is, if
she's right about what she said about you."

“I don’t know how to use any of those powers,
with the exception of breaking doors. Well, on purpose. So what
good am I until I learn?”

“You
can
learn. It’s not that hard. I
can probably show you once we’re on Alara. Do it here and we’ll
wake everyone up. And Ivanna’s keeping watch.”

Janelle tapped her fingers on the covers.
Tears started gathering at the corners of her eyes, but she forced
them back. When the time came for her to make that leap into the
ocean, she'd need to exercise all the self-control she could.

* * * * *

She closed her eyes and woke some time later
to orange sunlight filtering into the hallway and forming
rectangles on the cabinets. Someone groaned from out in the living
room—probably Ivanna. Sounds of waking and shuffling floated down
the hall. Dread blossomed in Janelle’s insides like a poisonous
flower. They had to be close to Alara.

“Gary?” Janelle searched back and forth.

He was lying next to her, back turned and
snoring.

She slapped him on the back. “Gary!”

He tumbled off the bed as if someone had
poured a bucket of ice cubes over him. “What?”

“We’re almost there. Got any great ideas?”
she asked, face heating up. Hand holding was one thing, but this…if
her father ever found out he’d slept in the same bed with her—let
alone the same room—he’d explode.

Footsteps approached before he could answer.
Janelle straightened up. Great. That could only be one person.

Andrina clapped her hands together as she
stopped near the foot of the bed. She’d changed into a black suit
and combed back her wet hair. “We’ll be pulling into the Alara
marina in a few minutes. Janelle, why don’t you come up front and
see the island? I’m sure you’ll love it.”

The thought of spending any more time with
that monster made shudders of revulsion race up and down her back,
but she stood. If she wanted to escape, it was a good idea to see
where she was going.

A minute later, Janelle stood in the front
cabin of the yacht, standing as far as she could from Andrina.

One of the black-haired men steered them
through sparkling blue water. Ahead, a conical island covered in
palm trees rose from the ocean. No buildings. No roads. It was as
inhabited as an ice cream shop on a cold day. Janelle scanned the
coast up and down for boats she could steal or even a stretch of
beach where she could write HELP in huge letters. No luck. On this
side of the island, at least, the shores were rocky, jagged, and
utterly forbidding.

There would be no escape.

“Where is everybody?” Janelle asked despite
herself.

Andrina smiled like a woman in a cleaning
commercial. “Oh, we can’t have people flying over and seeing our
capital, can we?”

“That’s the Tempest capital?” she asked. “All
I see is trees.”

“There’s a cave system through the whole
island. One of my pirate ancestors discovered it and used it as a
haven for a while. Lots of gold piled up here over the years. Why
do you think I’m so wealthy, Janelle? Think about it. Tempests made
excellent pirates. Have ever since our creation hundreds of years
ago.”

“Creation?” Janelle echoed. How could things
get any weirder?

“Of course,” Andrina clasped her hands behind
her back. “According to legend, when the Mayan civilization fell
about five hundred years ago, their storm god, Huracan, was no
longer having sacrifices made to him. He was forgotten and wanted
to retire. So he traveled the world to find people to take over his
duty. Whenever he found someone worthy of his power,”—she paused on
the word
worthy
—“he gave them his breath, which turned them
into Tempests. Huracan went after people who were close to the
ocean: sailors, pirates, coastal villagers. And once he’d made
enough of us, he vanished and was never seen again.”

Janelle shuddered and focused on the
approaching palm trees. Sacrifices, storm gods, pirates...it was a
bit too much. But what couldn’t she believe anymore? “Is that
actually true?”

Andrina shrugged. “Nobody knows for sure.
Everyone’s got their creation legends, you know. But I like to
believe that it is.” She stuck her nose in the air. “I’m certain my
ancestors—yours, too—accepted Huracan’s gift with pride. Some of
the first Tempests spent their lives drowning themselves in booze
because they refused to accept their new power.”

The air grew thick. She had to leave. Another
minute around Andrina and she’d scream. Janelle turned to scramble
out of the front cabin.

But Gary stood in the doorway. His face had
turned as purple as the ring around his eye. This had to do with
his mother. She was an alcoholic.

Before Janelle could open her mouth to say
anything, he stalked away.

“Gary was standing there,” she said, unable
to stop herself. “And he heard what you said.”

Andrina rested her palms on the back of the
captain’s chair. “I know. It should remind him not to go down the
same path.”

Words escaped her. Andrina was a monster in
more ways she could imagine. She destroyed the lives of everyone
she touched. No longer could she blame her father for hiding this
particular part of the truth from her. For that, she forgave him
entirely.

The yacht made a turn around a group of
jagged rocks, and a mouth in the side of the island seemed to open
up for them. A cave stretched ahead into the darkness like the
throat of a rocky giant. It looked so dark. Foreboding.

The yacht’s headlamp turned on. Stalagmites
hung down from the ceiling like teeth. That wasn’t much better.

Janelle looked down at the greenish water and
imagined pirate gold lying at the bottom. If there was any, it
would be difficult for any of the Tempests to go down and retrieve
it.

The black-haired man steered around a narrow
curve. Ahead, the cave opened up into a huge cavern half the size
of a football field. Electric lights and huge wires hung from the
ceiling. Three other boats—one another yacht and the other two
speedboats—rested alongside a dock. A fishing boat waited at the
end. Sparks shot up like someone was doing metalwork on it.

Janelle studied the boats. If she stole one,
it would have to be a speedboat. But she'd never driven a boat
before. Gary had, at least.

The yacht pulled in alongside the other
boats. The other black-haired man appeared above decks and jumped
to the dock to retrieve a chain. After tying it to the boat, he
waved to them. It was time to disembark.

Andrina hurried over and took her arm.
“Welcome home, Janelle.”

Janelle’s heart leapt into her throat. Gary
reappeared from one of the rooms as Janelle made her way to the
sliding door and followed Andrina outside. He took her arm but said
nothing. This time, no warmth swept through her body. Not now that
they were here.

The cool air of the cave swept over her skin.
Drips came from everywhere. They climbed onto the deck, followed by
Ivanna and the other woman. Wherever this was, it wasn't home.

“Come on, Janelle. I need to show something
to you,” Andrina said.

Janelle swallowed and watched as they neared
a round tunnel at the end of the dock. She glanced at Gary, whose
face had every warning sign written on it.

“What?” Janelle asked. Her heart hammered in
her chest and her stomach seemed to fill with air. The last
surprise had been her father’s trip to the Bahamas. One from
Andrina would be worse, guaranteed. Her gut was screaming at her to
stop before she saw whatever was at the end of the tunnel.
Something kept trying to worm into the edges of her mind. Something
about the airport. It was bothering her, and she wasn't sure
why.

Shadows spread across the tunnel walls as
they passed under a light bulb. Andrina’s heels clicked against the
concrete floor. The air smelled wet and stale as if it had never
seen the outside world. Janelle shuddered. She imagined for a
moment that they were headed to some underground bomb shelter and
that the world was ending, and that she would have to live in these
depths forever and never see the surface again. Or her father.

Andrina rounded a curve and stopped, but her
grip didn’t loosen.

Before them was a steel door with a
fingerprint sensor next to it, which glowed red as if an evil
entity were hiding inside. Andrina pressed her finger down to it.
Click
. She twisted the handle and pushed the door open.
“Welcome to Alara.”

The room beyond the doorway was full of
sunlight which spilled in through tall glass windows. A chandelier
hung from the curved ceiling, reflecting little rainbows
everywhere. A giant gray Tempest spiral decorated the floor. It was
as if someone had copied her mark and laid bricks in its pattern,
then polished it over. Plants lined the white walls. A couple of
vending machines advertised Coke and Pepsi in the corner.

Janelle’s stomach settled down a tad. Alara
wasn’t as bad as she’d expected, at least. It felt
almost…welcoming. But it was a deception. If she wanted to make it
out of here, she needed to remember that.

Gary pressed closer to her, squinting against
the bright light. It was like he was trying to brace her for
something. “What do you want to show her?” he asked, his tone every
bit defensive and…protective?

Andrina patted Janelle on the shoulder.
“Kevin should be arriving any second now. He beat us here by half
an hour.”

Kevin. The last she'd seen him--

“But he got on a flight to Flint two days
ago," she said despite herself.

“You dropped your phone back at the school,
Janelle. And you left so much information on it. Your voicemail and
your plans to catch a flight at Orlando. Your plans to go up to
Flint and stay with your friend.” Andrina spoke the last sentence
slowly, stressing every word. “And of course, your address
book.”

Janelle stiffened. Oh, god.
That’s
how
she’d known everything.

As if on cue, footsteps echoed from a
hallway, along with the sound of scuffling. A man in sunglasses
appeared, leading a gagged, redheaded girl in front of him like
some kind of prize. The same girl she'd left behind in her other
life, who had won her that stuffed killer whale out of the claw
machine on her last birthday.