The Children and the Blood (35 page)

She stared at him, and then shook her head when her words had no effect.

“You think your little Blood wizard means you can fight them,” she said, her hysteria fading into something darker. “You think you can use her as a weapon to get what you want. One little girl.” Melissa scoffed. “Imagine a room
filled
with wizards, each with fifty years more magical experience than she has. You think one little kid can stand up to that? You think they won’t turn her into a pillar of ash for trying? They’ll make you listen to her scream. They’ll burn her alive slowly just for you, and watch you beg them to kill her before the end.”

She reached down and rolled back the sleeve of her loose blouse. Lily’s grip on his hand clenched. Blackened burns and blood-encrusted welts covered Melissa’s arm, continuing up beneath the fabric of her sleeve.

“Or do you think I’m lying?” she asked quietly.

Cole didn’t take his eyes from the woman, but his thoughts were elsewhere. In a bedroom, listening to wizards kill his mother. And on a cliff beneath an inferno, where another girl he’d tried to save had died.

He wanted to punch something, even though it wouldn’t help. Yet.

“They demanded I tell them all I knew about you,” Melissa continued distantly, studying her arm. “But I didn’t have everything they needed. And when they weren’t satisfied…”

“What about the others?” Cole interrupted, trying to keep his voice calm.

Melissa’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“The ones who glow like her. Why are they after me?”

And Lily, he added silently.

“They want you for something too, I guess.”

“You don’t know?” At her silence, he continued. “But you’ve seen them before. People who glow, I mean?”

She hesitated. “Once. From a distance, back in Kansas City. But the council moved us that night.”

Cole remembered. He’d been eleven and out of the blue, Robert and Melissa decided they needed to move. Overnight, they’d forced him to leave everything he owned, saying it wasn’t worth keeping. He’d been furious, but as usual, they didn’t care. And by the time a few years had passed, so many instances of hurt and disregard had occurred, the move had lost all significance.

“They were there?” he asked.

“A few.”

“Who are they?”

Melissa shrugged. “I overheard one of the wizards call them the Blood. That’s why I know what the kid is. And how she’s probably setting you up for them.”

She risked a nasty look at Lily, whose eyes narrowed angrily. Melissa’s spiteful expression disappeared instantly, and she turned from the girl as though the exchange hadn’t happened.

Cole squeezed Lily’s hand, willing her not to say anything about her family.

“I think it’s time we head for the store, don’t you?” he asked the girl, not taking his eyes from Melissa.

Lily growled in agreement.

“And then what?” Melissa said. “There’s no one to protect you out there, Cole. Her kind won’t help you, whatever the girl’s said. The wizards are too strong for that.”

He said nothing.

“Just go back,” she continued, a hint of begging in her voice. “Tell them you’re sorry. Tell them anything. Who cares if they killed your mom and dad? For all you know, your parents brought it on themselves. You can’t throw everything away over that. Just do what they want so this can end.”

For a moment, Cole stared at her.

“Get the car,” he said, barely trusting himself to speak.

“Cole–”

“Now!”

She hesitated, and then rose to her feet, the picture of primness and self-control. But her hand shook as she reached for the keys on the console table.

“You’re making a mistake,” she said stiffly.

Pulling Lily after him, he didn’t answer. Gripping the keys, she crossed the foyer and opened the door.

Two black sedans stopped by the curb.

Cole’s eyes went from the cars to Melissa’s startled face, and then he was moving. With Lily’s hand in one fist and the gun in the other, he raced through the kitchen while, behind him, he heard Melissa slam the door.

As though that would stop them.

He yanked the back door open, and then jerked to a stop. Lily crashed into him.

“Put the weapon down, son,” a man said, his gun pointed at Cole’s chest.

Three men strode in from the living room and before Lily could do more than shriek, two of them ripped her away from him and the third shoved him into the doorframe.

His head cracked against the wood and stars scattered across his vision. The gun went skittering away as his arms were twisted back, and handcuffs locked around his wrists immediately. Behind him, he heard Lily scream.

The migraine from hell surged through his head.

“You don’t want the kid to see you get hurt, do you?” the wizard holding him growled into his ear. “So just stay calm and come with us, cripple boy.”

His gaze went to the neighboring yard. Ethel the spy wasn’t there.

They hauled him through the living room. Melissa was nowhere to be seen. But past the front door, he spotted Lily struggling in the grip of one of the men.

“Cole!” she screamed, clawing at her captor in effort to reach him.

The man yanked open a car door and shoved her inside.

Cole’s heart hit his feet.

A wizard pushed him into the other sedan’s back seat, and instantly he twisted around, trying to see the girl past the glare of the sunset on the windshield. Two men climbed into the car with her, and he heard the engine turn over.

He’d never felt more helpless in his life.

The car doors opened ahead of him and the wizard swung into the driver’s seat, with the man from behind the house joining him on the passenger side.

Neighbors gawked at the sedans pulling away from the curb. The security guard stared when the driver flashed him a badge and spat something about being from the FBI. The gate swung open immediately. Through it all, Cole watched the other sedan, trying frantically to think how to help the girl and keep them both alive.

Taking out his cell, the driver glanced between the phone and the road, and then punched in a call.

“We have them.” The wizard waited, and then handed the phone to the man next to him. “He wants to talk to you.”

“Brogan?” the other man said. “Yeah, it’s Harris. Yeah. Both the boy and younger girl. Cole Smith.”

A pause.

“Hey,” the man called to him.

He didn’t look away from the rear window, straining to determine if Lily was still alright. The glare kept obscuring everything but vague glimpses of shadow. But the car was still behind them. If they turned off, he didn’t know what he’d do.

“Hey!” Harris repeated sharply.

Balefully, Cole glanced to him, and then blinked as the man snapped a photo with his phone.

Harris punched a few buttons, and then raised the cell to his ear again. “You get that?” He paused. “Yes… yes, I said Cole.” His brow furrowed in alarm, and he looked to Cole as though seeing him for the first time.

Suddenly even warier than before, Cole watched him between glances to the other sedan.

“Yeah,” Harris said slowly. He flinched as though startled. “No, I hear you. I will. I
will
.”

The last came out sharply, as though to convince the person on the other end.

Looking vaguely stunned, Harris lowered the phone.

“Brogan’s sending men to meet us,” he told the driver, still eyeing Cole. “He said you’d know where.”

The wizard nodded. Seeming bewildered, Harris hesitated and then turned back around.

Skin crawling, Cole returned to studying the other vehicle.

No one was glowing, though that might not mean much. Yet they weren’t with the Taliesin council, because they didn’t seem to know who he was.

Or, at least, they hadn’t. He wasn’t sure what’d just changed.

He needed a plan, and he had nothing. But there had to be a way out of this. Somehow.

Struggling to focus past the adrenaline, Cole kept watching the other sedan as they headed onto the interstate.

*****

By the clock on the dash, it had been fifty minutes. By Cole’s estimation, it had been a million years. His neck was cramped from watching the other sedan, though he still couldn’t see Lily inside. And meanwhile, he had no plan.

At least, no good ones.

The exit ramp jostled the car, and his heart hit his throat as the second sedan didn’t follow. They were leaving. They were taking her. He yanked at the handcuffs frantically.

Pulling onto the ramp, the second sedan continued after them.

He exhaled. Time was skewed. It’d only been a few seconds. And he still hadn’t come up with a plan.

Feigning a heart attack had occurred to him. Or somehow making the car crash. But the latter didn’t help Lily and the former wouldn’t be believable anyway. Drawing attention to the car by crashing didn’t mean that the men holding her would stop either. And then he’d be stuck.

The sedan climbed a small rise and pulled into a gas station. Abandoned and overgrown, the old station was decaying in privacy behind a screen of pine trees and scrub brush. Jouncing over the potholed lot, the sedan came to a stop beside the rusted pump shelter.

When the other car followed, Cole glanced ahead and then froze.

Two white vans waited on the other side of the parking lot, advertisements for handyman services painted on their sides. On the racks atop the vehicles, ladders and brooms were lashed down, and security fencing could be seen inside the rear windows.

Blood wizards leaned against the rear doors, and straightened as the sedans stopped.

Harris climbed from the car and started toward the Blood, calling out questions to which Cole couldn’t make out the words. In the front seat, the driver turned around.

“Don’t fight,” he advised. “I’d hate the kid to have to watch you die.”

Winking coldly, the man rose from the car and then pulled open the back door. Grabbing Cole’s arm, he hauled him out. Tugging at his handcuffs, Cole twisted, trying to find Lily.

Growling a warning, the man shoved him toward the vans. “What’d I say?”

A few yards back, the other sedan sat. The men inside stepped out, and one reached for the handle of the rear door.

Three cars raced into the parking lot. Pain like a jet engine roared through Cole’s head. The vans crumpled as though hit by giant sledgehammers.

All hell broke loose.

Ducking, the Blood returned the favor, and suddenly, two of the cars skidded sideways and crashed into the trees. A second impact followed, shattering the windows and sending ballistic glass strafing inward upon the screaming occupants.

Cole blanched, recognizing Ethel inside the car.

Grabbing his arm, the wizard hauled Cole down beside the sedan. Pain rushed toward them and punched into the vehicle, spinning the car on its axis. The rear wheel slammed into the wizard, propelling him into Cole and knocking them both sideways. His handcuffed wrists still tangled in the other man’s grip, Cole crashed down, his head cracking painfully on the concrete.

Roaring filled his ears and red lights scattered across his vision. Dizzily, he looked up to see the wizard trying to tug him to his feet, and then agony shot through the air, blinding him for the heartbeat it took to pass by.

The man was gone. Gasping, Cole rolled to one side, trying to rise.

Dead eyes met his gaze. Lurching away, Cole stared at the wizard. Blood drenched the man’s face, originating from head wounds too deep to be survived.

Nausea hit him and he scrambled back till he bumped into the car. Blasts shook the ground and he could hear people shouting.

He forced himself to breathe. To think. His hands were bound. He needed the keys.

Inching around, he closed his eyes briefly and then fished through the dead man’s pockets till metal met his questing grasp.

Swiftly, he pulled his hand out and scooted away, scanning the area. Pinned down on either side of the parking lot by the magic slicing through the air, both the wizards and the Blood were sniping at one another from whatever cover remained. But the other sedan was still a few yards away.

And the men who’d been beside it now lay on the concrete, blood pooled beneath them and their clothes stained red.

He couldn’t see Lily anywhere.

Rising, he glanced around quickly and then darted toward the other sedan. Blasts of energy shredded the air behind him, surging by in a Doppler shift of pain.

He reached the car. Lily was inside, trapped behind the fence separating the front from the back of the vehicle and hauling on the door handle frantically.

“It won’t open!” she shouted at him.

Spinning, he fumbled for the latch and yanked the door open, cursing all child locks as he moved. The girl scrambled out.

“Here,” he said urgently, turning so she could take the keys.

The handcuffs clattered to the ground.

Metal screamed behind them. He shoved Lily to the concrete as siding from the gas station scythed over them and impaled itself on the trees nearby. The Blood shouted, and he could see the wizards trying to find a way to reach the two of them first. Several lay dead as evidence of the effort, along with all the Blood’s allies.

Except for Harris. Behind the corner of the gas station, the man crouched. Pale-faced, he was staring at the wizards, and when he caught sight of Cole, his eyes went wide.

Swiftly, Harris took aim.

“Go!” Cole yelled at Lily.

They took off. Bullets pelted the trunks beside them as they rushed into the forest.

One hand clutching Lily’s, he tugged out his phone and smashed down the redial. He pressed the cell to his ear, glancing back as he ran.

No wizards yet. And the phone just kept ringing.

“Travis?” he gasped when the ringing stopped. “We need help. How fast can you get out of town?”

“I-I’m trying to find you right now,” the boy answered, sounding distracted. “I thought maybe I could follow those guys who arrested you, but… I’m not sure where I lost them.”

Cole choked, almost tripping over his own feet. “Wait, what?”

“I thought they took an exit past this old gas station a few minutes ago, but now I can’t see the cars anywhere. I mean…” The boy seemed to refocus. “Dude, hold on. How’re you calling me?”